Five months ago, Technical Illusions gained over a million dollars in funding thanks to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign for castAR, a projected augmented reality project that company founders Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson brought over from Valve when they were laid off almost two years ago. Ever since the campaign's success, the company has been ramping up prototyping on a rapid scale so that the final unit can be sent off for mass production. Along the way, the company has grown from two employees to 11, and Ellsworth has since moved from Portland to Seattle to be with the team (dragging her collection of 80-plus pinball machines along with her). Ellsworth has also just hired the services of a Japanese company (she won't name which) to provide her with improved optics and thinner circuitry, which she admits is better than the homemade solutions she and her partners have cobbled together so far. This all means, sadly, that castAR is still very much in progress, which is why even though Technical Illusions is here at GDC 2014, we were unable to look at the final castAR hardware. We were, however, able to take a look at castAR's latest prototype that has never before been seen outside of Technical Illusion's office until this week.castAR prototypes
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Saturday, March 22, 2014
castAR's vision of immersive gaming gets closer to final production
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Gaming deals of the week: 3.12.14
Sometimes you just have to wait until a retailer tosses together a bunch of tech that you're eying before you make the leap. In terms of new gaming consoles, today could very well be the day. There are tempting bundles for both Xbox One and PS4 on the other side of the jump, alongside two other entertainment-minded gadgets to help boost those high scores.
If there are other gaming devices you're after that we haven't included here -- join us and add them to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut in the future, you'll get an email alert!
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Digital Storm's Vanquish II makes the 'Ultimate' gaming PC affordable
Digital Storm took the wraps off of its new Vanquish II PC today, a desktop gaming rig with a hurricane of features designed to give you a custom-built feel without actually having to assemble your own computer. Prices start at $699 for the"Good" version, which comes with a Core i3 4330 processor, 8GB of RAM and GTX 750 graphics card with 1GB of memory. The $1,189 "Ultimate" build keeps the same RAM, and comes packing a Core i5 4570 processor and GTX 770 graphics card with 2GB of memory. All rigs are completely upgradable as well, so you'll be able to game on the cutting edge for years to come. Unlike many other systems out there, Digital Storm says the Vanquish II ships within 72 hours of you placing the order. During those precious hours you're away from your new PC the company says it's going through rigorous stress testing and benchmarking -- so when it gets to you it's ready to 'vanquish' your enemies no matter what game you're playing.
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Tags: digital storm, PC, vanquish II, Windows Next: This list is brought to you by 25 years of the world wide webView the Original article
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Gaming Veterans Start Midverse To Bolster App Marketing, Engagement on Android
Riz Virk and Mitch Liu have been through pretty much every wave of the shift to free-to-play mobile and social gaming.
They had an early mobile gaming hit called Tap Fish (which even had its own silly moment on The Daily Show). They sold their company Gameview Studios to Japanese gaming giant DeNA. Virk was also an early investor in Tapjoy, which became one of the better-known players in app distribution.
Now they’re back at it again with Midverse Studios, a new company focused on acquiring and engaging users in Android apps. Virk calls this company the “next evolution” in app marketing and user retention.
What Midverse is doing is reminiscent of “offer walls” that were popular a couple years back on iOS where users would download apps in exchange for virtual currency.
But this is a more sophisticated solution.
In Midverse’s new network, Virk and Liu are focused on a metric called “Cost Per Quality Engagement.” Users get more game rewards if they successfully finish a number of tasks across games in the network.
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Sunday, January 26, 2014
Yahoo Acquires Virtual World Gaming Startup Cloud Party, Will Shut It Down
Yahoo is doing more than just throwing shade at Google on Twitter today and then taking it back – the company has acquired Cloud Party, a browser-based game creation engine. In a blog post today, the Cloud Party team shared that they will be joining Yahoo after two years of operation, and that the service will shut down on February 21, 2014.
Cloud Party is the work of a founding team of MMO and console game industry vets, including Sam Thompson (formerly of Cryptic and Pandemic), Jimb Esser (also ex-Cryptic), Conor Dickinson (ex-Facebook, Tomb Raider dev and Cryptic alum) and Jered Windsheimer (Cryptic, natch). They built Cloud Party as a sort of free-form virtual world experience, similar to Second Life, but with an updated view of what an online virtual world might look like with more emphasis on user-generated 3D content.
It’s not exactly clear what the team will be working on at Yahoo, but it will definitely be games related, as Thompson notes in his farewell blog post that the Cloud Party squad is “excited to bring
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Sunday, January 12, 2014
Steambox debuts, offers a new path to living room PC gaming
LAS VEGAS -- After revolutionizing the distribution of PC games through its online Steam game store and app, Valve is jumping into gaming hardware with its new Steambox platform. First announced in 2013, the platform combines console-like hardware that runs Steam-based PC games and works with a Valve-designed custom controller.
At its CES 2014 press conference, Valve for the first time announced partnerships with the PC makers that will actually produce and sell Steambox hardware, and it showed off early hardware prototypes from companies including Dell, Maingear, Falcon Northwest, and Origin PC. Valve has previously produced a small number of its own Steambox machines, seeded to developers and beta testers, but the company says it remains undecided on whether it will be making its own commercially available box. The Steambox controller, however, will be available to buy separately at an unspecified time in the future.
Related storiesOzobot: Tiny autonomous gaming robots for tablets and beyondSee the Nvidia K1 in action at CES 2014CES 2014 gadgets offer new ways to track your lifeValve CEO Gabe Newell says that about 250 games have been ported to the Steam OS so far, and will play natively on Steambox hardware. Other games, which may include many popular mainstream PC titles, will be playable, if you stream the gameplay from a Windows gaming PC on your home network. A complicated workaround (similar to how the Nvidia Shield plays PC games), but at the very least it will let you get PC games from your current gaming rig onto your big-screen TV without having to physically connect them.
Among the Steamboxes announced at the Valve press conference were the Alienware Steam Machine from Dell, the Origin PC Chronos, and the Maingear Spark, which was a last-minute addition for which prototype hardware was not yet available. Maingear's variants are dual-boot machines that offer mainstream gaming PC components and can run both Windows 7 or 8, as well as Steam OS.
The first commercially available Steambox systems are expected in the second half of 2014 and should cost about the same as a current-gen video game console, around $400 to $500, with the more expansive dual-boot systems, such as the Origin PC Chronos, costing as much as a comparable gaming PC.
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Valve's Steam Machine lineup poses massive threat to gaming status quo
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Ozobot: Tiny autonomous gaming robots for tablets and beyond
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Tuesday, January 7, 2014
In Depth: Alienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living room
TrendingCES 2014Xbox OnePlayStation 4iPad AiriPad mini 2Nokia Lumia 1520Nexus 5Windows 8.1HomeNews by technologyAlienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living roomAlienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living roomIn Depth Smaller than the Xbox One and PS4'By Michelle Fitzsimmons 7th Jan 2014 | 04:33Comments Tweet
Several signature Alienware design elements are making it to its Steam MachineRelated storiesCyberpowerPC and Origin PC bring their Steam Machines to CESFirst look: Valve SteamOSValve Steam Machine shipping to testers Friday, SteamOS available to us all thenAlienware was a last-minute addition to the Steam Machine partner parade, so much so that its name didn't make it on the official welcome party banner.
That doesn't mean the company hadn't been in talks with Valve for some time about joining the other 12 manufactures that are building their on Steam Machines.
Now, the company is ready to reveal that its just-in-time console will launch in the second half of 2014.
Though there was only a mock-up device to show at a CES 2014 Valve event, Bryan De Zayas, global marketing direct at Alienware, told us that along with the release time frame, the design of the device is set.
"We designed it to fit next to a Blu-ray player on a shelf next to something else in your living room," he told us. "It is smaller than the Xbox One and PS4."
The Alienware Steam Machine is about the size of a book, though appropriately thick. De Zayas told us it's 8in x 8in x 3in. It's internals will include an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU, but other than that, spec details are sparse.
Alienware through and throughAlienware brought several signature elements to its Steam Machine design, De Zayas said.
The company's cooling system, which sucks cold air through the bottom and expels it out the back end made its way to the machine.
A crisscross cut across the top is reminiscent of Alienware's desktops, and users will be able to press the console's alien head button to change the color of it and the Steam logo, a signature company watermark.
The Machine uses Valve's Controller as well as the SteamOS, creating a marriage between Valve's input and software and Alienware's hardware.
Valve involvedRon Darwish, desktop product manager at Alienware, explained that the company and Valve have had an ongoing partnership, one that made it "an easy transition for us to support this new ecosystem."
"It's all about PC gaming, and what Valve is trying to do ties into seamlessly into the brand of Alienware and what we're all about," he continued. "It really enables PC gaming to [go to] the next frontier of the living room. For the first time, this kind of marries the controller, the software, and OS that is designed to be friendly in the living room with the SteamOS, all with the hardware to compliment it, all designed to live in that type of environment."
Whereas most PC gaming happens in users' bedrooms or away from the main home hang-out areas, Darwish pointed out that Steam Machines make PC gaming a more shareable experience that anyone partake in.
"The controller is a big part of that," he said.
Not meant to replace PCs, Darwish called the Steam Machine "part of the portfolio."
"It's more a compliment to a new segment that's now being created with the help of Valve and what they're pushing for, and obviously us as a hardware manufacturer, looking at that solution and putting something together that's meaningful for the end users."
Competition is Alien-OKWe asked Darwish what it felt like to have 12 competitors already lined up without a product even on the market, and whether it is something that makes the company skittish about success.
"We think competition is great," he responded. "That's the area we live in. We're always competing, we're always pushing ourselves to produce better products for the user."
"For us, it's great to see so many different hardware manufacturers actually attaching to this, because it solidifies that this is a real and an attractive area for hardware manufactures to start actually developing or designs stuff," he went on.
Alienware has no plans to stop with this version of its Steam Machine, prompted by competition or not. Darwish called this the first iteration of a product in a new, exciting segment "that hasn't existed."
"There's a lot of excitement in this because it really does bring something new to the living room environment for PC gaming," he explained. "It's not the same ol', same ol'. It's something that really attracts a new user base, people that are looking to have that big PC gaming experience to the couch."
Just how much will this experience cost? Look for something competitive, Darwish teased.
Smart. That's what Intel wants to make all your devices. Join TechRadar and get our weekly newsletterGet the week's hottest news stories, our most popular reviews, and fantastic competitions straight to your inbox with our free weekly newsletter.
Tell me moreLearn moreTagsSteam MachineAlienwareValvedesktopPCXbox OnePS4CES 2014CESSee more gaming newsCommentsTweet Add your commentType your comment here.You need to log in or join to add comments.Hello, you are logged in as Not you, eh? Log out, log in as another user or joinBy submitting this form you agree to our Terms of Use and so are legally responsible for anything you submit. DO NOT submit anything which may violate the Terms of Use or another person\'s rights including copyrighted or offensive materials. 0 commentsAdd comment AdvertisementPopular in gaming right nowLatestTop storiesMost discussedAlienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living roomValve reveals 13 Steam Machine partners, leaves door open to build its ownCyberpowerPC and Origin PC bring their Steam Machines to CESMicrosoft's mind is blown by Xbox One demand with 3 million sold in 2013Digital Storm's Bolt II is a Steam Machine/Windows hybrid to splash the cash onFirst wireless controller for iPad and iPhone unveiled, on sale nowUpdated Oculus Rift will be playable at CES, may eliminate motion sickness90 best free Android games 2014Top 50 best free games you should play todayXbox One reviewPS4 vs Xbox One: which is better?Updated Oculus Rift will be playable at CES, may eliminate motion sicknessGabe Newell talks Half-Life 3, DayZ explodes, PS4 looks forward to the pastAlienware Steam Machine joins revolution to bring PC gaming to the living roomValve reveals 13 Steam Machine partners, leaves door open to build its ownCyberpowerPC and Origin PC bring their Steam Machines to CESMicrosoft's mind is blown by Xbox One demand with 3 million sold in 2013Digital Storm's Bolt II is a Steam Machine/Windows hybrid to splash the cash onFirst wireless controller for iPad and iPhone unveiled, on sale nowUpdated Oculus Rift will be playable at CES, may eliminate motion sicknessLenovo takes a swing at MacBook Pro Retina with 4K Ultra HD Y50Gabe Newell talks Half-Life 3, DayZ explodes, PS4 looks forward to the pastMicrosoft considered making Xbox One download-only as late as June 2013Can a Mac be a gaming PC? How the world is changing for Mac gamersTobii and SteelSeries team up to make eye-tracking game peripheralsZX Spectrum is coming back as a Bluetooth keyboardSony: Smartphone gaming may actually help boost the PS4, not kill itGear of the year: TechRadar's top tech from 2013In the pursuit of FPS: how AMD and Nvidia are tackling PC gaming optimizationUbisoft: There'll be less waiting around for game updates with PS4 and Xbox OneNo love for next-gen? Revisit Atari glory days with The Console LibraryWere festive 3DS and Wii U sales that good? Ninty eShop falls over under strainHow to build the perfect Steam PCYou might also like... Sony PS4 review
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Friday, January 3, 2014
Razer moves beyond gaming with its new Adaro range of premium headphones
Razer is best known for its video game-related hardware and accessories, but today it’s expanding into the broader personal entertainment space with a new range of Adaro headphones.
While these can be used for gaming when you need to keep the noise down, it’s worth emphasizing that these aren’t supposed to replace a purpose-built gaming headset. Instead, Razer is targeting the larger headphone market
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Tuesday, December 17, 2013
ARM buys graphics company Geomerics to improve gaming on its mobile chips
ARM has just purchased a gaming graphics technology outfit called Geomerics -- a name which may not ring a bell unless you're a particularly inquisitive gamer. Geomerics' so-called global illumination engine, Enlighten, has been used to create real-time, photo-realistic lighting for triple-A games like Battlefield 4 and Need for Speed: The Run. ARM hasn't specified exactly how the tech will be used, but did say that "it'll help bring the next generation of graphics experiences to mobile platforms." That could mean the acquisition will eventually improve gaming realism on its in-house Mali GPUs, or even help fine-tune the chips themselves for better gaming performance. Regardless, ARM has also said that it'll let Geomerics run independently and continue to service existing customers like EA, which gave the deal a hearty seal of approval.
0 Comments ShareGeomerics Next: NSA overhaul could see an end to PRISM-style surveillance .fyre .fyre-comment-dividerView the Original article
Monday, December 16, 2013
Endemol Bets On Real-Money Gaming, Leads $13 Million Round In Social Casino Startup Plumbee
Endemol, the Netherlands-based TV production house known for game shows like Fear Factor and Deal Or No Deal, is now making a bet on online gambling. The company today announced that it has made a strategic investment of $13 million in social casino startup Plumbee, as it plans to raise its digital profile by investing in online gambling and going beyond the traditional video production business.
Founded by former Playfish executives, Raf Keustermans, Gerald Tan and Jodi Moran, Plumbee started in 2011, and has more than one million monthly active users. Prior to this, Plumbee had raised $2.8 million in funding.
As part of the strategic investment, Endemol will be working with Plumbee to build on its existing digital gaming projects, according to chairman Lucas Church.
“Social casino gaming is a fast emerging market and Plumbee is one of the most innovative and dynamic operators in this space. This new partnership will allow us to accelerate the growth of Endemol’s digital gaming business around the world, whilst capturing more of the value created by our entertainment brands,” Church said in a statement.
The investment comes at a time when we have seen mixed fortunes both for social gaming companies and real-money gaming ventures. Zynga had high hopes for it, but earlier this year, after much lobbying, decided to drop its pursuit for a real-money gaming license in the U.S.
Zynga, of course, hasn’t had the most stellar record of late in social gaming, either. But others like Supercell continue to bring in the punters in droves.
Plumbee, with its Playfish heritage and new focus on a mix of free-to-play and real-money games, wants to tap into both areas. And now Endemol is hoping to cash in on that, too.
Keustermans, the CEO of Plumbee adds: “Endemol will become a strategic shareholder and this will enable us to leverage the company’s international network and globally recognised brands. This will significantly boost the growth of our worldwide user base as we create gaming experiences that stand out from the competition.”
So far, Endemol has been building its digital gaming business internally, mostly by launching gaming apps based on popular shows such as “Pointless” and “Deal Or No Deal”. And it is making other inroads into pure-play online content. In November, it announced a $40 million investment in Endemol Beyond, a new online video network.
Endemol’s recent digital gaming projects include The Money Drop second screen game, which has so far had over 30 million games played worldwide and The Million Pound Drop app in the UK, which has had over 2.5 million downloads to date.
Idinvest Partners, the existing investors in Plumbee, also participated in this round of funding.
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Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Why the UK's Department of Health is spending millions of pounds on mobile gaming
Today sees the release of The Walk, an iOS and Android game backed by the UK's Department of Health. It's the second release in a collection of apps funded as part of the UK's Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI). The first -- StepJockey, an app that lets you map, locate, rate and log the calorific expenditure of staircases around your city -- came out on Monday. All five apps in the program encourage you to move more, or change negative habits. Can an app improve your life? At the very least, we're guessing the Department of Health -- having just spent £2 million on this round of investment -- thinks so. This is part of a growing trend, that could see government agencies in the UK taking a leaf out of Silicon Valley's book when it comes to solving (health) problems. Read past the break to find out why it's putting so much money on third-party digital initiatives.
Your mission is simple, ensure safe transit of a package from Inverness, to Edinburgh -- and in the process save the world. Only one problem: a terrorist attack has rendered all motorised transport unusable -- you'll have to go on foot. That's the premise behind The Walk. The concept isn't complicated -- encourage players to preambulate in the real world as part of an apocalyptic game narrative. Your phone's accelerometer tracks your movements, unlocking levels and hours of story-telling audio which drive the plot along. Simple, fun, effective. The game's predecessor (Zombies, Run!) uses similar mechanics, and currently encourages over 750,000 would-be Shauns (or Eds) to escape pursuing Zombies whenever they go for a jog. By lowering the requirement to walking, it's hoped almost everyone can benefit this time. The focus is on increasing general daily movement, rather than dedicated, prescribed and sometimes prohibitive training routines.
There's no question the theory is simple: apps that encourage activity, or responsible drinking, could cut down on healthcare requirements through prevention, negating the need for cure. In turn, it could also take a bite out of the estimated £8 billion that obesity and alcohol related diseases cost the UK's health service each year. More interesting, is that the Department of Health is funding external mobile start-ups and indie developers at all. We asked it why, and were told it's just as much about nurturing innovative ideas (where they can compete with more conventional fitness apps such as Nike
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