As part of Late Night's "Video Game Week," Jimmy Fallon has had the opportunity to play with both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. But while Monday night's Xbox One demo ran through the console's multimedia features and showed off Killer Instinct and Forza, Sony Tuesday night also took the...
Sony is winning the PR war
The latest software update for Sony’s PlayStation 3 appears to be locking up some people’s systems, leaving them unusable. Polygon reports that Version 4.45 of the PS3 firmware was just released on Tuesday, but already, 23 pages of responses...
Nintendo will launch its first game with a free-to-play business model later this year. Speaking to IGN, veteran designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that the title could be shown off "relatively soon," and would be based on the 3DS game Steel Diver.
From trash-talking companies and the return of the Blue Bomber to legendary filmmakers talking about the challenges of storytelling in gaming and the future of sports games, it’s been one wild week here in Los Angeles at the annual E3 conference. After years of teases and glimpses, we’re finally getting a serious look at the next generation of consoles and games. Here are all the games, news, and developers that will matter most in the year to come.
For all things E3 Top Shelf 013: Heart, Mind, and Console
"I have a boss now, I guess," says Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe. "The board." On Monday, the virtual reality headset company announced that it had finished raising $16 million in Series A venture capital led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, adding a new level of management in the process. Both Spark and Matrix will have seats on the Oculus board of directors, guiding the company from here...
"We don't need to take any shortcuts to get there." Brendan Iribe, Oculus CEO
Kotaku has obtained an image of what it claims is the first "Made For iPhone" controller. Purportedly made by Logitech, the controller looks similar to the guidance images Apple released when it detailed the new iOS 7 controller API. It features what appears to be a circular D-pad, four action buttons, and a pause key. The guidance images also called for either two or four shoulder buttons to...
Sony's $399 price point for the PlayStation 4 was one of several advantages it touted over Microsoft at E3. But Microsoft's Don Mattrick argues the Xbox One's $499 cost is, if anything, on the low side. "It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecast," Mattrick told Bloomberg TV. "We're over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it: $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, and I think they're going to love it when they use it."
Discussing the Xbox One's...
Microsoft has confirmed that the games it releases for the Xbox One will sell for $59.99, just like those for the Xbox 360, and Sony has previously suggested that it will also be sticking to the old price point. A spokesperson told Polygon that Microsoft Studios games will have a standard price of $59.99, meaning that we won't be seeing a premium for the extra work of making next-gen titles, despite what developers have said about the increased complexity of building for the new console.
It's been a long time since the last generation of Microsoft and Sony consoles was released; that jump in specs came with a price hike of $10, bringing...
Earlier this week I stood in line outside a food bank in downtown Los Angeles. People chattered in my ears, but those in front of me didn’t move. I walked several steps down the line, leaning into the face of a stoic woman.
Behind me I heard the sound of commotion. A large man had fallen down, in the throes of a seizure. He was diabetic, and his blood sugar had dropped past a critical threshold.
I wanted to reach out to help. But I...
An entirely different kind of virtual experience
There are plenty of big shooters coming to the PlayStation 4, from Destiny to Killzone: Shadow Fall. These games emphasize massive, open worlds, social connectivity, and incredibly detailed high-definition graphics. Mercenary Kings, an upcoming PS4 and Steam title from Tribute Games, goes a...
Nothing says “welcome to the most important trade show in the world” like a horde of zombies screaming and attacking you from behind a chain-link fence only to get bored and go back to gnawing on a blown-apart torso. If you survive this living diorama from Dead Rising 3 at...
Even as the Oculus Rift has gotten tremendous attention from the gaming world (among other things, Epic announced a partnership with it for Unreal Engine 4), designing a good game for it has proved difficult. Virtual reality throws a wrench in well-established genres like the first-person...
While Microsoft's controversial Xbox One policies regarding used games and online authentication are a known quantity at this point, the implications of these restrictions are not yet fully clear. A disclaimer posted on the Xbox.com website for the benefit of pre-order customers, for example, has raised the issue of region-locking — not just for games, but for the console itself.
Unlike the Ouya, the Gamepop, the GameStick, the Wikipad, the Nvidia Shield, and practically every other Android gaming device that's coming out of the woodwork these days, Mad Catz has an incredibly simple pitch.The company's Project Mojo is a...
I'm an unabashed Sparkaholic. I'm sorry if you clicked on this link looking for a critical, nuanced preview of Microsoft's new game that makes...
Plants vs. Zombies was wildly successful in large part due to its accessibility: The strategy game was easy to understand, and had an irreverent...
I pressed A to pass the ball from Messi to Neymar, but I didn’t expect what happened next. Messi tapped the ball lightly with the outside of his foot, shifting it past the defender just-so. And Neymar didn’t wait for the ball to come to his feet — he instinctively took off running, let the ball skip under his feet, and in one fluid motion...
With titles like Quantum Break and the upcoming Halo series, the convergence of gaming and narrative storytelling has become an intense focal point — but the men behind Indiana Jones and Star...
For a short time after Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out, I was a weird Deus Ex completionist. I finished the game in eight-hour stints without showering, then went back and started it again. Did you know there was a Human Revolution comic? I read it. So when I heard about Deus Ex: The Fall, a mobile game set in the Human Revolution world, I went to Square Enix's booth at E3 to check it out. The Fall is probably as close as you can get to a straight mobile port of a major, recent AAA shooter: You can access most of the same upgrades, modify your weapons, and run through dialogue trees, all in a world that looks like Human Revolution...
Fez, the celebrated indie PC and Xbox (Mac soon, supposedly) puzzle adventure game that features a 2D character exploring a 3D world, is getting a sequel. Fez developer Polytron just announced at E3 that it is working on Fez 2, Polygon reports. No release date has been given yet, let alone any other details about the story or game mechanics. But the lack of details at this stage is probably wise given the original Fez's messy development history (the game was first announced in 2007 and...
In the upcoming video game Watch Dogs, you play Aiden Pierce, a rogue hacker in a seemingly dystopian future Chicago — a city where every piece of technology is controlled by a supercomputer, where every citizen is monitored by a citywide...
"Absolutely nothing compares to the sheer scale and scope of Battlefield 4," touts the game's official website. "Your actions physically change the battlefield in real-time, providing interactive game environments that react to your every move."...
One of Nintendo's strongest traditional partners has said that it won't create exclusive titles for the Wii U as long as the system's poor sales continue. Speaking to Kotaku at this week's E3 conference, CEO Yves Guillemot said, "We need more sold." Ubisoft is one of the few publishers to release a bona fide Wii U exclusive — horror action game ZombiU launched with the system last year — and Nintendo has historically enjoyed solid...
"Do you have any 'PlayStation Eye' games upstairs?"
"PlayStation what?"
"PlayStation Eye."
"The camera?"
"Yeah, the camera."
"I think there's a tech demo."
