Xbox Boss Still Wants More First-Party Exclusives in Future
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has explained that while the company wants to continue good relations with third-party developers, the future of its latest console is in the first-party arena.
Speaking to Chinese site Gamecores at China Joy, Spencer made it clear that while deals like the one with Square that secured Rise of the Tomb Raider for a period of timed exclusivity are certainly good, that's not his vision for the future.
“My strategy is more around our own first-party franchises, and investing in franchises that we own and probably fewer deals for exclusive third-party content," said Spencer. "I want to have strong third party relations, but paying for many third-party exclusives isn’t our long term strategy.
Nominees for the Gamescom Awards 2015 Announced
The nominees for the Gamescom Awards 2015 have been revealed.
This year there are 174 entries across 17 categories. Though most of the winners are selected by a jury, the public are invited to vote in the "Most Wanted Consumer" category - you can do so via the official Gamescom app from today onwards.
The results will be revealed at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT on August 7 at the show itself - IGN will be there to bring you the winners as they're announced.
In the meantime, check out the list of nominees below:
Best Console Game Sony Playstation
- Final Fantasy XV
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
An Effective Ebola Vaccine Has Been Developed
The World Health Organisation has said that the experimental Ebola vaccine is 100-percent effective so far.
The vaccine has been propelled through a process that normally takes a decade in just 12 months. So far it has been 100-percent successful in preventing Ebola based on trials in Guinea, however WHO expects the final success rate to be somewhere between 75 and 100-percent.
Over 11,000 people have died since the initial outbreak of Ebola last year. It is hoped that this new vaccine will be the "silver bullet" against new outbreaks, however more testing is underway.
Earlier this year, Blizzard announced that it had raised nearly $2 million in support of the Red Cross' fight against Ebola. Plague Inc. also allowed players to donate money to Ebola relief.
New Article About Konami Suggests Grim Situation at Company
An article in Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei paints a grim picture of the situation at Konami, suggesting employee morale is at an all-time low.
The article itself is in Japanese and behind a pay wall, but freelance localiser Thomas James has translated the salient information into a summary that's unlikely to prove happy reading for fans of the company.
The article claims Konami spent more than $80 million on the development of Metal Gear Solid V. While it's unclear whether the ballooning budget was a factor in the highly-publicised fallout between series creator Hideo Kojima and Konami, CEO of a Tokyo-based game industry consultancy Serkan Toto has claimed Kojima's fall from grace occurred because MGS V was delayed.
World’s First Smartwatch for the Blind Unveiled
Dot, a start-up South Korean tech company, has announced a smartwatch for the blind.
Dot's CEO, Eric Ju Yoon Kim, said "until now, if you got a message on iOS from your girlfriend, for example, you had to listen to Siri read it to you in that voice, which is impersonal," to Tech in Asia.
Kim wants to make braille smart technology more affordable, aiming to release the Dot Braille Smartwatch for less than $300.
The braille display works using four depressed cells which rise and refresh to reveal new characters. The speed can be altered based on how fast the user can read.
IGN’s UK Daily Deals: Batman Arkham Knight £29.86
We hand-pick the very best gaming deals for you, every day, so you can get more of the things you want without crippling your bank balance. But don't hang around, because these bargain prices won't last forever...
Batman Arkham Knight rated 9.2 "Amazing", is the cheapest it's been at £29.86 on Amazon.
FIFA 16 is £33.24 at CDKeys for Xbox One.
Watch How Philae Landed on a Comet
The European Space Agency has released a GIF of the Philae Comet Lander's descent.
The pictures show the Rosetta lander on its way to Agilkia, the first landing site, on 12 November 2014. A number of images were taken at 10 second intervals between distances of 3km and 9m from the surface.
Final Fantasy 12 HD Remaster or Remake in the Works
Update: Following intense speculation caused by his words, conductor Arnie Roth has now issued a statement via the Distant Worlds Facebook page.
"In response to comments posted by fans, I want to rectify a statement made from the stage Saturday night at our Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY concert in Pittsburgh," it reads. "Following conversations with composer Hitoshi Sakimoto regarding new concert arrangements of music from FINAL FANTASY XII, regrettably, the term ‘remake’ was used in error during one of the announcements that took place from the stage during the concert. We sincerely regret any confusion this has caused."
Hitchbot Ends US Tour after Meeting Its Demise in Philadelphia
hitchBOT won’t be reaching its west coast destination as the hitchhiking robot was vandalized beyond repair somewhere in Philadelphia over the weekend.
The robot left Marblehead, Massachusetts, mid-July in a quest to reach San Francisco before it met its demise in Philadelphia. The Canadian researchers behind the social experiment unfortunately don’t know its exact location because its battery is dead.
A statement from the hitchBOT team reads:
hitchBOT’s trip came to an end last night in Philadelphia after having spent a little over two weeks hitchhiking and visiting sites in Boston, Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead, and New York City. Unfortunately, hitchBOT was vandalized overnight in Philadelphia; sometimes bad things happen to good robots. We know that many of hitchBOT’s fans will be disappointed, but we want them to be assured that this great experiment is not over. For now we will focus on the question “what can be learned from this?” and explore future adventures for robots and humans.
Debris From Columbia and Challenger On Display
The Kennedy Space Center has opened an exhibit honoring the astronauts from the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle missions.
The exhibit is called Forever Remembered, and is a collaboration between the families of the crews and NASA.
14 lives were lost in the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters in 1986 and 2003. This exhibit is designed to be an emotional experience about remembering them and learning from the past.
Real pieces of the ships are being displayed for the first time. A section of Challenger's fuselage and the flight deck windows of Columbia are placed in a gallery at the end of the first hall of the exhibit, each bearing scars of the explosions.