World of Warcraft, the MMO that defined the genre for at least half a decade, is continuing its steady decline, with another large number of players leaving in the past few months. In the last quarter, as many as 1.3 million players closed their subscriptions, ending their time in Azeroth. …
Read More »Humble Double Fine Bundle is going well
I should have done a news story when this launched, but they always come at such unsociable hours for us Brits. Yes, a new Humble Bundle is out there for you to pay what you want for and it's all based around Double Fine, that Tim Schafer helmed ship of …
Read More »Dotcom’s Mega is developing a secure messaging protocol
Kim Dotcom's Mega has been a big news item for us tech journos in the past year. We've got to bring up his legal issues and the relaunching of a cloud platform backed by the internet mogul, speculating whether it would last with his extradition still up in the air. …
Read More »Syria is offline again
Syria is one of those few countries that's presence on the internet isn't massively felt and this isn't helped by the fact that every few months it seems, someone gets the bright idea to turn off its connectivity to the outside world. Unfortunately for the average Syrian, that seems to have happened …
Read More »EA Games is dropping all gun licensing deals
We hear about game licensing quite often with certain titles. The Fifa games have the license to use real player names, the Gran Turismo games (among others) can use the real names and likenesses of cars and so on. One you don't often think about though, is the licensing deals FPS developers …
Read More »GAME had to pay OpCapita monitoring fees and interest
Highstreet video game retailer GAME was in deep trouble last year. It was circling the drain and it looked like the long-standing chain would come to an end. However, OpCapita, the owners of twice defunct Comet, swooped in and saved the day. However, in the latest accounting reports from the …
Read More »Assassin’s Creed creative lead fired from Ubisoft
Patrice Désilets, the creative lead on some of the best 3D platforming titles of the past ten years – Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Assassin's Creed 1 + 2 + Brotherhood – has been fired from Ubisoft, just two months after returning from a three year stint at rival publisher …
Read More »Kim Dotcom publishes white paper on Megaupload case
Kim Dotcom, the internet mogul behind Megaupload, Mega and the ongoing extradition trial between himself and several government authorities, has today published a white paper on his official site, explaining everything that led up to this point and how authorities conspired against him and his company. Written by Dotcom‘s lawyers …
Read More »Facebook is getting video adverts
If you guys weren't annoyed enough at the incessant inclusion of video based adverts on sites like Youtube, then get ready, because your favourite social network is about to get them too. That's right, this summer, Facebook will be displaying 15 second video adverts within news feeds. But what could …
Read More »How do you fix illegal government spying? Make it legal of course
This is apparently how politics works if you ask the foreign intelligence agency of New Zealand, the GCSB, or the country's prime minister, John Key. Both the organisation and the man have taken real flak over the past few months for being involved with illegal surveillance of NZ citizen, Kim …
Read More »Windows 8 successor coming this year
Remember Windows ME? Windows Vista? Windows 8? Microsoft would rather you didn't and to help brush your memory of the last one further under the mat, it's already planning the release of the sequel. It's called Windows Blue and it's coming later this year. It's not a complete overhaul like you might …
Read More »EA just got the Star Wars video game license
Disney, the new owners of the Star Wars franchise, has already farmed out the license for video game development to a new company and guess who it is? Everyone's favourite always-on publisher, Electronic Arts! Hurray… right? This license is pretty all encompassing too, giving EA the right to develop games across …
Read More »PS4 sharing can be turned off by developers
One of the biggest features showcased by Sony during its PS4 unveiling earlier this year, was the share button. It's on the controllers themselves and lets you instantly share footage of your gameplay with the world. This could be pre-recorded action, live let's-plays, or just a simple linkup with friends …
Read More »Samsung shows off new Galaxy Core budget handset
Just when you thought there wasn't any more room in the Smartphone universe for another Galaxy, Samsung comes along and shows off another. This one known as the Core, is a budget version, designed to offer a functional contemporary handset for a smaller fee than it's bigger brothers. Thanks to the TechRadar …
Read More »Faulty apps, games, movies will soon be refundable
Ever downloaded an app that didn't work? Paid for a streaming movie that kept getting stuck? Couldn't get a new song to play on your phone? Well soon you'll be legally entitled to a refund thanks to an update of the consumer bill of rights. As it stands, there are …
Read More »Dutch cyber police could be the most dangerous in the world
While the Netherlands is known for a lot of things: waterways, windmills, clogs and some sort of plant material, it's not often that it makes a splash in the realm of internet security. However the Dutch government is keen to rectify that, with the potential implementation of a law that …
Read More »Rumour: Youtube may start charging for some videos
According to some hints floating around several different sites this morning, Youtube could be set to begin charging for certain channel subscriptions, marking the first time that its content has been restricted to a specific user base. According to the Mashable report and its sources, this payment model could be …
Read More »Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators are suing Warner Bros
Warner Bros is one of the biggest copyright enforcers in the world, going after individuals with lawsuits, Google with DMCA takedown requests and websites like The Pirate Bay with blocks – through sponsored groups like the BPI – and yes apparently, when it comes to internet cat memes, it's more than happy to steal …
Read More »Galaxy S4 security approved for US government use
US government officials could be the next poster boys and girls for the Samsung Galaxy S4, after the Pentagon gave the nod of approval for its Knox security software – meaning the S4 handset will soon be getting access to some of the world's most secretive information. Approval from the …
Read More »Now everyone is selling the Wii U for £149
Yesterday we reported on how once again, ASDA was leading the way in Wii U price cuts,bringing it down to an impressively low £149.99 for the basic pack and £199.99 for the premium pack. Now everyone else has followed suit, with other big retailers dropping their prices in line with …
Read More »Is Google Glass too dorky to succeed?
Google Glass has been getting a lot of heat lately. Whether it's discussions on its abilities, or even just that people have already found a way to gain root on it, Glass is making headlines. But not everyone thinks this is the smartphone trend of the future, but more the …
Read More »LucasArts veteran hired by Google for games design
Google has hired a veteran of the videogame industry, Noah Falstein, to head up its Game Design division, presumably to work on a new Android title/platform/series – maybe even something that will run on Google Glass headwear. Falstein has been in games design since the 80s, becoming one of the …
Read More »Kim Dotcom’s Mega appoints new CFO, launches devkit
Kim Dotcom's sequel file locker website, Mega, has announced the hiring of a new Chief Financial Officer, Stephen Hall. Having worked at other big tech firms as President, CEO and CFO before, Mega higher ups are hailing him as just what the company needs. MEGA CEO Vikram Kumar said, “MEGA …
Read More »Facebook profits are up, thanks to mobile ads
Facebook has announced a significant boost in earnings over the past quarter, after it saw a big jump in revenue from mobile advertising and perhaps more impressively, an increase in user numbers, seeing active users on the site reach 1.1 billion throughout the quarter. While Facebook has been the world's …
Read More »ASDA drops Wii U pricing to £149/£199
ASDA has announced new price cuts for Wii U hardware and accessories, bringing the basic and premium packs down to £149.99 and £199.99 respectively. Controllers are also slashed by a third, bringing them to just over £26 and several games have been reduced too. This price drop makes ASDA the cheapest place …
Read More »Curiosity cube reaches last few layers, end in sight
Remember Peter Molyneux's high concept social game? Curosity? You know the one with all the cubes? Well when it was launched, there was a big furore over what was at the centre of the cube. Molyneux said it would be life changing and for a while, a lot of sites …
Read More »ESEA is now blaming unnamed employee for bitcoin mining
Yesterday we reported on how the anti-cheat, esports organisation, ESEA, had somehow managed to setup GPU bitcoin mining processes alongside its server software. Initially they blamed a server restart for implementing what they claimed was an “April fools” gag, but now they're pointing the finger at an unnamed employee. The …
Read More »KitGuru writer writes book, plugs it on front-page
That's right folks. A KitGuru writer, going by the obviously ridiculous pen name of “Jon Martindale,” has written a book and he's looking to plug it on the homepage of our favourite tech site. Can you believe the balls on this guy? He's not written some sort of in-depth tech manual, …
Read More »Lovefilm revamps PS3 app with version 2.0
LoveFilm, a former Amazon company was bought up by the retail giant once again after it started doing very well in the DVD rental game. Today though it's all about online streaming, and in that department (especially on the PS3) LoveFilm just wasn't as fancy as its main competitor, Netflix. …
Read More »Star Citizen clears nine million dollars
Star Citizen, the biggest gaming crowd funding success story, has now tipped the scales at over $9 million (£5.8 million). However only a small portion of that came from Kickstarter, the rest has slowly ticked up on the official site, half making you wonder if Kickstarter is even necessary any …
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