Polynauts Central: (10/7 Archived)

Posted by Shaun McIlroy on July 10, 2012 06:53 am 1168

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Todays Polynauts lead image is brought to you by PaddyStardust in honour of the Telstar satellite which was launched into orbit on this day in 1962.

Welcome to Polynauts Central, your daily discussion and roundup thread right here at Polygon on The Verge. It's Tuesday July 10th, which means we're 2/5 of the way through the working week, and I for one can't wait to welcome our weekend overlords. Let's kick off todays news with a look at what's hot right here on Polygon.

Five Must-Read Polygon Articles:

1: Arthur Gies and Justin McElroy both bring bonus additions to the Polygon State of Games feature, with Justin discussing the "state of the current generation" and Gies, the "state of the next generation."

"We all know the next generation is coming, but Sony and Microsoft continue to play a game of silent chicken, each waiting for the other to flinch and announce its next system."

"Regardless of which engine is running it, the next generation will usher in a new set of problems and solutions for developers and publishers alike."

2: Rockstar is expanding its reach by opening a new "custom-built facility in Oakville, Ontario" for the Rockstar Toronto team. To do so they'll be closing their Vancouver branch with the staff within transferring over the next six months.

"We believe a single Canadian team will make for a powerful creative force for future projects. We plan to add more than 50 new positions to our combined Canadian team, and are pleased to be entering into this strategic partnership with the Ontario government."

3: Steam have announced the next stage in their plan to become the most loved games company in the world. From August onwards the Steam community will be able to vote on titles they wish to see distributed on the service. You can read more here.

4: Samit Sarkar discusses Madden NFL '13's 'Connected Careers' mode, and the difficulty of marketing direct to the consumer when that message isn't as clear as it could be.

"Perhaps the most significant change this year is Connected Careers, a mode with so much breadth and depth that even EA is having trouble explaining its scope."

5: Brian Crecente has a very interesting piece up about how 'Iran sees video games as central to a secret war against their culture'. Be sure to read through the comments sections for a ton of conversation after the article folks.

"The Iranian government is helping to make a game about the life and, most probably, violent death of Salman Rushdie. That this game is in development, a creation meant to teach new generations of Iranians about the 23-year-old fatwa against the author, is interesting, but its impetus is even more so."

And now from The Verge:

Adi Robertson brings you yesterdays biggest tech news in 90 Seconds on The Verge which covers;

Gaming across the Internet:

1: Via Eurogamer, Square-Enix forget their manners and say that Sony and Microsoft havefocussed too long in this generation. Clearly the minimum of six years that has passed in the development of Final Fantasy Versus XIII isn' long enough apparently...

"We have Sony and Microsoft talking about this generation lasting seven, eight, nine or even 10 years and it's the biggest mistake they've ever made," Square Enix's worldwide technology director Julien Merceron told GamesIndustry."

2: From CVG, Square Enix have announced (via Kotaku) that the Character Booster in the upcoming Final Fantasy VII PC re-release will be 'free to use'.

3: The head of Namco Bandai's Tekken series, Katsuhiro Harada has stated that he would quit before allowing paid character DLC for the franchise. You should really read this one.

"If I was given the choice to include paid DLC or quit Namco, I would maybe quit... Or maybe I would just say 'get someone else to deal with this'," he adds, popping another mint into his mouth."

From Polynauts Central 9/7:

  • As a Californian LulzJager is thrilled about the development updates regarding the Los Angeles to San Francisco high-speed rail service.
  • PaddyStardust returns with another episode of 'Not Helping!' this time his long suffering girlfriend Laura plays Terraria.
  • Revolurt pins all his hopes and dreams for the future of Polygon, Polynauts and The Verge on the amazing community that's sprung up over the past few months. Apparently it's all nice and civil here, like a 'gentleman utopia', which to be fair I've seen a few ladies walking around wearing fake beards just like this.
  • DocSeuss zings Hideo Kojima and the Naughty Dog studio when the former was visiting the latter with a classic line, regardless of whether you like the games or not (which I do).

And in non-gaming news:

1: "Can spending less time sitting down add years to life?" asks Michelle Roberts, Health editor at the BBC.

"Limiting the time we spend sitting to just three hours a day could add an extra two years to our life expectancy, scientists calculate."

2: Ex-CIA agent claims that the Roswell incident really happened, and that "it was a craft that did not come from this planet".

3: Kit Harrington, otherwise known as Jon Snow in HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones has had to bow out of appearing at the San Diego Comic Con this week due to a broken ankle. Apparently it won't affect filming on the third season which resumed filming yesterday in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Be warned there are spoilers at the site linked. (via WinterisComing.net)

And we're done with another daily catchup.

A serious question though folks if you could oblige me, how much of this do you actually read as it takes me around an hour to collate news, comments and add my own little bits here and there. This might sound long for what you see here (it is) but it takes time to read and find interesting bits and pieces. But, if you all enjoy reading it then I'll continue to write it otherwise let me know what doesn't work and I'll tweak to adapt as well.

Have a happy Tuesday guys and gals, I'll see you below in the comments throughout the day.