Month: June 2011

PERFORMANCE DESIGNED PRODUCTS (PDP) ANNOUNCES E3 2011 PRODUCT LINEUP

New hardware on display includes precision controllers for fighting game fans, wireless Afterglow controllers and headsets and licensed products.

LOS ANGELES, CA ­ JUNE 3, 2011 ­ Performance Designed Products LLC (³PDP²), a worldwide leader in the video game accessory market, announced its line-up of new video game controllers and accessories being shown during the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. New hardware on display includes precision controllers for fighting game fans, wireless Afterglow controllers and headsets and licensed products featuring Cars 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Nerf, Energizer and Transformers 3.

³Our goal is to create high quality controllers and accessories that suit the needs of everyone,² Tom Roberts, chief technical officer of Performance Designed Products. ³From competitive fighting gamers to young players just starting out, we¹ve created products to reach from hard core to casual audiences and back.²

PDP will be showing the following items during this year¹s E3:

• New versions of the highly-rated Mortal Kombat Klassic Fightstick for
both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, including a re-skin that reflects the color scheme of the original Mortal Kombat arcade game cabinet. GameStop will exclusively be offering a limited run of Mortal Kombat Klassic Fight Sticks bundled with the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kompilation, a digital release containing Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
• The Versus Fight Pad, the high quality pad designed for six button
fighting games, available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and now the Nintendo Wii and are officially licensed for all three systems.
• The first rechargeable, wireless light-up Afterglow controller for the PlayStation 3
• The Afterglow Communicator, coming for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and Wii Chat headset enhance online multiplayer chatting experiences.
• Keep Earth from going dark with the limited Collector¹s Edition
Transformers: Dark of the Moon Wireless Controller and Bluetooth Headset for PlayStation 3. Designed after the loveable and courageous Bumblebee, this wireless controller and Bluetooth headset (which can be stored in the controller) feature authentic Transformers details, light-up logo and official artwork.
• My First Remote, a micro-sized, kid-friendly remote designed for Wii
players with smaller hands that also features interchangeable Disney artwork.
• The Wii Blaster, a unique lightgun-style controller for the Wii that comes with a download coupon for the WiiWare shoot-Œem-up game, Big Town Shootout.
• New licensed controllers and accessories featuring Transformers 3, Nightmare Before Christmas, Cars 2, Nerf and Energizer.
• Microsoft Kinect mounting solutions and extension cords and PlayStation Move accessories to help keep gamer¹s living spaces organized.

OS X Lion Available in July From Mac App Store

The eighth major release of the operating system will be available to customers in July as a download for $29.99.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Apple® today announced that Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps. All Mac notebooks ship with Multi-Touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Full screen apps take advantage of the entire display and are perfect for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos, especially on a MacBook Air® or MacBook® Pro. With a single click your app fills the display and you can swipe from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to your Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces® without ever leaving full screen. iWork® and iLife® apps, as well as Safari®, iTunes®, Mail, FaceTime® and others, all take advantage of Lion’s system-wide support for full screen apps.

Mission Control combines Exposé®, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into one unified experience for a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.

The Mac App Store is built into Lion and is the best place to discover great new Mac apps, buy them with your iTunes account, download and install them. Apps automatically install directly to Launchpad, and with Lion’s release, the Mac App Store will be able to deliver smaller “delta” app updates and new apps that can take advantage of features like In-App Purchase and Push Notifications.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single Multi-Touch gesture, all your Mac apps are displayed in a stunning full screen layout. You can organize apps in any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes a completely redesigned Mail app with an elegant widescreen layout. The new Conversations feature groups related messages into an easily scrollable timeline, intelligently hiding repeated text so the conversation is easy to follow, and retaining graphics and attachments as they were originally sent. An incredibly powerful new search feature allows you to refine your search and suggests matches by person, subject and label as you type. Mail includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Additional new features in Lion include:
• Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
• Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work;
• Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions; and
• AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.

Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X Lion will be available in July as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US). Lion will be the easiest OS X upgrade and at about 4GB, it is the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and will be available in July from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorized personal Macs.
The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

New Galaga Titles Arrive This Summer to Commemorate 30th Anniversary

Released for North America in 1981, Galaga left an indelible mark across arcades throughout the 80’s.


PRESS RELEASE

SANTA CLARA, Calif., (June 6, 2011) – NAMCO BANDAI Games is proud to announce that 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of its celebrated space arcade shooter, Galaga(r). Released for North America in 1981, Galaga left an indelible mark across arcades throughout the 80’s and has been loved by gamers ever since. To commemorate this historic milestone, a number of exciting new Galaga games are planned to be released this summer for Xbox(tm) 360 video game entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation(r)3 computer entertainment system, the Nintendo 3DS(tm) system, iOS devices from Apple(r) and feature phones.

NAMCO BANDAI Games’ exciting Galaga product lineup for 2011 includes:

* Galaga(r) Legions DX (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) – Get ready for the anticipated follow-up title from the team behind PAC-MAN(r) Championship Edition DX. The Namco Generations team will make you rethink everything you know about Galaga with Galaga Legions DX.
Fast-paced gameplay along with fantastic new features, modes, and graphics await those ready to embark on the most destructive and chaotic space war ever encountered.

* PAC-MAN(r) & Galaga(r) DIMENSIONS (Nintendo 3DS) – Featuring Galaga 3D IMPACT, experience the invading Galaga alien armada like never before. Players will use the gyro sensor in the Nintendo 3DS system to take the role of a space ship pilot. Maneuver the Nintendo 3DS system in real-time to blast away the Galaga threat. PAC-MAN & Galaga DIMENSIONS also features PAC-MAN Tilt, a brand new side-scrolling PAC-MAN adventure. Players use the 3DS system’s motion sensor to tilt PAC-MAN’s world and use the surrounding environment to help him escape puzzles and defeat enemies.

* Galaga(r) 30th Collection (iOS) – The Galaga 30th Collection universal app will act as a hub for the Galaga universe across all iOS devices. iPhone(r), iPod(r) touch and iPad(r) owners will be able to experience the celebrated Galaga franchise at the tips of their fingers. Galaga 30th Collection will be available June 9 for free bundled with a copy of Galaxian(r). Future in-app purchases will be available through the year.

* Galaga(r) Special Edition (Java/BREW/Blackberry) – Galaga shoots its way to feature phones this year with a remixed version of the classic space shooter.

OPTOMA GT750 PROJECTOR COMPATIBLE WITH ALL GAMING AND ENTERTAINMENT FORMATS

The GT750, the first portable projector that is compatible with all gaming formats and standards, including Blu-ray 3D.

PRESS RELEASE

FREMONT, Calif. | June 6, 2011 | Optoma, the best-selling brand of DLP projectors in the USA, and the only projector maker with its eyes focused directly on the gaming market, has introduced

The projector will be unveiled June 7-9 at the Electronic Entertainment Industry (E3) Expo in Los Angeles (South Hall, booth 3054), with availability scheduled for August at a price of $799.

“This is a milestone product for Optoma and a direct response to 3D gaming enthusiasts who want to take advantage of the newest technologies,” said Jon Grodem, Optoma’s senior director of product & marketing. “And as more 3D content becomes available, both for games and general entertainment, the GT750 becomes a natural choice.”

The GT750 becomes the fourth member of Optoma’s award-winning GameTime line and includes features that create an immersive and exhilarating gaming experience. Its 2500 lumens of brightness and short throw lens combine to deliver bright, larger-than-life images, even in small rooms that might not easily accommodate other projectors.

And its powerful 10-Watt stereo speaker system delivers in-the-action sound without external speakers.

The GT750 offers a native widescreen 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) resolution, and is designed to maximize the widescreen attributes of major gaming platforms, including those running 3D content on Blu-ray disks. Optoma’s unique circuitry accepts Blu-ray’s HDMI 1.4a 3D signal and converts it for display in 720p resolution 3D.

It also is PC and MAC compatible, supports computer resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels (HD), and accepts common global video inputs and video formats up to 1080p (HDTV, EDTV, SDTV, NTSC, PAL, SECAM). The GT750 comes packaged with a custom backpack to accommodate the on-the-go gamer, and a remote control is also included as standard equipment.

Unity Technologies Celebrates Six Years of Indie Game Development Goodness

The leading Indie game engine celebrates its sixth birthday.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – June 06, 2011) – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for awesome games and interactive 3D on the web, iOS, Android, consoles and beyond, today celebrated Unity’s sixth anniversary.

Unity, launched onstage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in 2005, is commemorating six years of steadfast leadership and relentless innovation in democratizing game development and making it possible for everyone to create rich interactive 3D content.

“We bet on broad democratization of game development and have been aggressively coding and innovating to realize that vision,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. “We just surpassed the 500,000 user milestone, our customers continue to amaze us with their creations, and we are expanding our team at a rapid rate. It’s exciting to be both an instigator and a participant in this revolution.”

A few of the things that have happened in the last 12 months:

Unity was named the #1 Game Engine by Game Developer Magazine readers, received Develop Magazine’s coveted Grand Prix Award and won the prestigious Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award Unity became the platform of choice for teaching students how to design and develop games

The company’s registered user base surpassed 500,000 users; 150,000 of these users are active monthly users representing well over a million hours of game development every month

The free Unity browser plugin for playing web games exceeded 60 million installs

Unity and the Unity Web Player were certified by the US Army and Air Force so they can be installed on their secure networks

The third generation of Unity, with dozens of major new features, 100+ additional enhancements and up to 10x performance improvements, and support for Android were released

The company teamed with Qualcomm to bring Augmented Reality (AR) to Android The number of Unity games in the Apple iOS App Store exceeded 1500 — “best of” and “top selling” games include Battleheart, Gears, Samurai II, Skee-Ball and Snuggle Truck

The company rocked Game Developers Conference (GDC) in a big way and won Best of Show The company announced a deep partnership Electronic Arts (EA)

The company launched the Unity Asset Store, a digital marketplace where developers can share and sell assets to accelerate development, and it’s quickly become the #1 marketplace for Unity developers

The company introduced Union, a business unit dedicated to distributing high quality 3D games on mobile phones, tablets, set-top boxes, connected TVs and other new platforms — Union announced a partnership with Sony Ericsson to enable rapid development and porting of Unity-based games to the new Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY smartphone and a partnership with RIM to bring dozens of Unity-based games to the PlayBook

For the full list of awards and accolades, simply visit:
http://unity3d.com/company/fast-facts.

Moshi Monsters Hits 50 Million Registered Users Worldwide

Publisher claims Moshi Monsters is one of the fastest growing kids entertainment brands in the world with 50 million registered users worldwide.

PRESS RELEASE

New York – June 6, 2011 – Two years ago, London-based startup Mind Candy launched Moshi Monsters (www.moshimonsters.com), with the goal of giving 6-12 year old kids a fun, social and safe online experience. Today, Moshi Monsters is a new form of children’s entertainment. The website forms the heart of the experience, which combines adoptable pet monsters, safe social networking, games, stories, missions and educational puzzles.

The site has become hugely successful over the last year growing at the rate of one new sign up every second, with the fastest growth being seen across North America.
Following its online popularity the brand has made a successful transition into the offline world with the launch of best-selling toys, books, video games, trading cards and a Moshi magazine within the UK and Australia.

Spin Master is onboard as U.S. toy partner and Moshi Monsters toys will launch in North America this summer via an exclusive partnership with a major retail partner – to be announced imminently. Books from Scholastic and trading cards from Topps are on shelf in the U.S. currently and many other categories including the magazine and video games will roll out in the coming months.

Hot on the heels of its retail success, Mind Candy is also now working on music, live tours, a revolutionary TV platform and a Moshi film.
From near bankruptcy in late 2008, Mind Candy is on course to generate over $100 million in gross retail sales across all Moshi Monsters related product during 2011.
“North America is a huge growth area for us right now,” said Michael Acton Smith, CEO and creator of Moshi Monsters.
He continued, “We’re delighted to hit 50 million registered users and have even more ambitious plans ahead. Our vision is to build the largest entertainment brand in the world for this new digital generation of kids.”

For those who don’t know … what is Moshi Monsters?

Players choose from one of six virtual pet monsters – Furi, Poppet, Diavlo, Zommer, Luvli and Katsuma – that they can create, name and nurture. Once their pet has been customized, players can navigate their way around Monstro City, taking the daily puzzle challenge to earn ‘Rox’
(virtual currency), playing games, solving Super Moshi Missions, personalizing their room, showing off their artwork, reading stories and communicating with friends in a safe environment. Now kids can enjoy Moshi Monsters in a variety of forms whether it be online, via books, a magazine or playing with their favorite toy.

About Mind Candy

Online gaming and entertainment company, Mind Candy was founded by internet entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith (CEO) in 2004. The company created Moshi Monsters, which has 50m players around the world and is now expanding rapidly offline into books, toys, trading cards, TV and film.