Back to Mobile View
| Mail |
You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more
PS3
XBOX
Wii
3DS
PSP
PC
Mobile
Move
Kinect

Surgeon Simulator 2013 adds support for Oculus Rift, Razer Hydra

by Danny Cowan Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Surgeon Simulator 2013 adds support for Oculus Rift, Razer Hydra
Surgeon Simulator 2013 will soon support the Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra peripherals, adding a new layer of immersion to Bossa Studios' PC medical malpractice sim.

In Surgeon Simulator 2013, players attempt vital organ transplants from a first-person perspective using an intentionally awkward control scheme. It suffices to say that if you're squeamish, head-tracking and motion-sensing peripherals won't make the experience any less nauseating.

The peripheral-enhanced version of Surgeon Simulator 2013 will be playable at Rezzed 2013 in Birmingham on June 22 and 23. An update adding official support for the Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra will be released to the public "soon."
Show full PR text
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE YOUR EYES. BE NIGEL, ON OCULUS RIFT!

Bossa Studios puts meat on the bones: Surgeon Simulator 2013TM now supports cutting-edge peripherals, playable at Rezzed show this weekend

London, 17 June 2013 - Bossa Studios announced today that Surgeon Simulator 2013 will soon support the hotly anticipated Oculus Rift™ and the Razer Hydra®, taking surgery to the next level of mayhem and creating the most immersive operating theatre experience ever. In addition, the game will be playable with the hardware at the Rezzed Show at the NEC in Birmingham on June 22 and 23 2013.

Released on Steam in April 2013 at £6.99 (or equivalent), Surgeon Simulator 2013 has quickly become nothing short of a phenomenon. The original prototype – developed in just 48 hours at the 2013 Global Game Jam in January 13 – challenged players to complete a heart transplant using a combination of keyboard and mouse actions, armed only with an arsenal of clumsy and inappropriate tools and a hapless hand that was diabolical to control.

Set to release soon and with development kits already with Kickstarter backers, the Oculus Rift allows players to step into game. It was one of the big hits at this year's E3 show in Los Angeles, impressing the audience with its stereoscopic 3D experience and a huge field of view.

For additional information on the game, please visit the following links:

Official game site: www.surgeonsimulator2013.com
Twitter: @surgeonsim2013
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OfficialSurgeonSimulator2013
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com//app/233720

About Bossa Studios

London-based Bossa Studios is led by a team of veterans from the worlds of gaming and entertainment. Proud creators of BAFTA-winning Monstermind, and the BAFTA-nominated Merlin: The Game, Bossa Studios has revolutionised the social gaming market. Its achievements of developing and publishing innovative games resulted in it being awarded the Develop Excellence Award for best 'New Studio' in 2012. As part of Shine Group, the Studio is also developing new transmedia experiences.
www.bossastudios.com
News

May NPD: 3DS steals top console spot

by Mike Schramm Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
May NPD 3DS steals top console spot in a slow month
The Nintendo 3DS finally edged out the Xbox 360 in May 2013 as the best selling console across hardware and portables, according to the NPD's monthly report on the retail sector.

In what the NPD claims was a slow month overall, the 3DS landed three different games on the top 10 (including Donkey Kong Country Returns at number three, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon at number five, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes at number 10), and saw a sixty percent growth in software sales overall since last May. 3DS hardware sales were only even year-over-year, but that was enough to finally supplant the Xbox 360 as the top-selling platform.

The other consoles didn't fare quite so well, with Injustice: Gods Among Us keeping the top spot for video game sales. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 jumped back up into the number two spot, and Battlefield 3 reappeared at number nine. Metro: Last Light had a relatively successful showing in the number six spot, while Trion's Defiance MMO fell right off the list, after starting off at number five in April.

Accessories saw a six-percent drop to $115.3 million, according to the NPD, with most of that money coming from Skylanders.

Continue Reading

Breaking News Business

The Cave drops in on iOS this summer

by Jessica Conditt Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
The Cave drops in on iOS this summer
The Cave, Double Fine's latest adventure game, is heading to iOS, Touchgen reports, citing a hands-on preview at E3 last week. Sega published The Cave on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U in January, but clearly that's not enough, and the game is due out this summer on iOS.

The Cave on iOS doesn't have virtual analog sticks or buttons, but allows the player to tap and drag characters around the map, and choose characters with a poke on their respective icons along the bottom of the screen, the hands-on report notes.

The Cave features seven characters with murky morals and, at times, even murkier gameplay, we found. There's no word on how much the iOS version will cost, but the price shouldn't be any steeper than the walls of that deep, dark, sentient cave.
News

Brad Muir on building trust with Double Fine's Massive Chalice

by Ludwig Kietzmann Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0

Double Fine is using a second (and already successful) Kickstarter to produce "Massive Chalice," an ambitious turn-based strategy game that hinges on the lineage of your kingdom. Project lead Brad Muir is candid about the early delta between the game's promises – allowing you to produce and raise multiple generations of heroes in a war against demons – and the reality anticipated by those committed to its crowdfunding drive, which exists independently of that for Broken Age.

"We're gonna mess up in public, and that's a little bit scary, but it's also like – I think it helps build trust too," Muir told me during E3 last week. "We're totally fallible, and we're gonna trip up, but we'll figure it out and we're gonna make the game the best game it can be."

Muir also responded to fears from backers who have yet to see the fruition of Double Fine's previous Kickstarter project, Broken Age, and expressed enthusiasm over developing a game with "the doors wide open on the studio."
Featured Interview Video

New CD Projekt Red studio to focus on 'smaller' games

by Danny Cowan Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
New CD Projekt Red studio to focus on 'smaller' games
The Witcher series developer CD Projekt Red is opening a new office in Kraków, Poland, according to a recent job posting at the company's website.

Managing director Adam Badowski confirmed with Gamasutra that the new 20-person studio will head up a smaller project while CD Projekt Red's core Warsaw-based team develops The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077.

"This July we are opening an office in Krakow," Badowski said. "As we informed in our strategy outlook some time ago, aside from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, the studio aims to develop two smaller (approximately 20h of gameplay) premium quality titles. Consisting of 20 people, the core team in Kraków will be responsible for developing one of these games."

CD Projekt Red previously announced plans to expand its catalog with a variety of smaller-budget multiplatform games through 2015. Further details regarding these projects are not yet known.
News

Now Playing: June 17-23, 2013

by Steven Wong Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Now Playing June 1723, 2013
Jump into the ultimate retro-style meta RPG experience this week with The Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition...

Choose your platform to jump to a specific release list:

Continue Reading

Featured

State of Decay MMO sequel, Class4, in limbo at Microsoft

by Jessica Conditt Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
State of Decay MMO followup in limbo at Microsoft
State of Decay developer Undead Labs can't begin working on its follow-up game, an MMO called Class4, until it agrees with Microsoft on a series of terms about future technology, support and goals, Undead's community director Sanya Weathers told Eurogamer.

Microsoft owns the IP for Class4, following a deal that funded and developed State of Decay, Weathers said: "We cannot begin working on Class4 without a greenlight from Microsoft ... and a mutually agreeable contract." Undead is still talking with Microsoft about the specifics of Class4.

State of Decay was originally called Class3, and Undead viewed it as the first step toward that larger MMO project, Undead founder Jeff Strain told us in 2011. "The minute-by-minute core of the game will all be there in Class3," Strain said. "The only thing it won't have is the massive player participation the sequel will have."

Today, Weathers explained the negotiations with Microsoft regarding Class4. "We have to agree on where we think the technology is going to be in a few years (since the game will take a few years to develop); we have to agree that we have the same goals; and we have to agree on how we'll collectively run and support the final game," Weathers said.

State of Decay is doing well – since its launch on June 5, it's been crowned the fastest-selling original game on Xbox Live Arcade, ever, with 500,000 sales. We found State of Decay's premise and vibe to be tense (in a mostly good way), but we ran into some technical issues that Undead is currently having problems patching.
News Business

Dota 2 to launch before August 7, ahead of The International

by Jessica Conditt Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Dota 2 launches this summer, before International
Dota 2 is due to launch this summer in its full form throughout North America and Europe, Valve's VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi tells Gamespot. It will hit before this year's The International championship, which runs August 7 - 11 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington. This is the third installment of Dota 2's The International tournament, which offers a prize of $1 million for the Dota 2 team that proves it's the best in the world.

Dota 2 entered beta in 2011, and nearly anyone can now purchase an early access key and start playing immediately. The early access key costs $30 and adds some downloadable goodies, though Dota 2 is a free-to-play game and it should live up to that descriptor when it goes live sometime before August.
News

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 hosts a party of one

by Bob Mackey Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Lightning Returns piqued my morbid curiosity
No development process has been as interesting to watch than the multi-game pile-up known as Final Fantasy 13. It's not that these RPGs have been of poor quality, per se; they just represent the totality of Square Enix's resource mismanagement during the first HD generation of consoles. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Lightning Returns wasn't the only Final Fantasy 13-related product on the show floor during E3 2013, as Square unveiled the long-awaited Versus 13 under an entirely new (though slightly predictable) name: Final Fantasy 15.

This rebranding – combined with the Final Fantasy 13 name getting second billing to its lead character – provides some compelling evidence that the developer might be a little ashamed of that "lucky" number these days.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (E3 2013)

Continue Reading

Featured Preview

PS Plus freebies this week: Saints Row: The Third, Gods Eater Burst

by David Hinkle Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
When the PlayStation Store updates tomorrow, both Saints Row: The Third and Gods Eater Burst will be available as free downloads. Saints Row is a PS3 game, while Gods Eater Burst initially launched on PSP but is also compatible with PS Vita.

Last week at E3, Sony detailed plans for PlayStation Plus moving forward. While it's required for online multiplayer on PS4, it won't be necessary for video services or certain free-to-play games, and won't see a price increase during its transition to next-gen.
News

PS4 PlanetSide 2, DC Universe Online will not require PlayStation Plus

by Danny Cowan Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
PS4 PlanetSide 2, DC Universe Online will not require PlayStation Plus
The free-to-play MMOs DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2 will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to play when they hit the PS4 later this year, publisher Sony Online Entertainment confirmed with Polygon during E3 last week.

Sony announced during E3 that a PlayStation Plus membership is required for online multiplayer in PS4 games, leading some to question whether free-to-play games would be exempt from the platform's subscription requirements.

"As far as free-to-play games are concerned, it's a publisher's decision whether they put it inside or outside of the PlayStation Plus requirements," Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said.

Yoshida additionally confirmed that the PS4 versions of Zombie Studios' Blacklight: Retribution and Digital Extremes' Warframe will be free-to-play, and will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to play.
News

State of Decay sells over half a million copies, update being re-patched

by Alexander Sliwinski Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
State of Decay issue
State of Decay has sold over half a million copies since launching on Xbox Live Arcade on June 5. This makes the Undead Labs developed game the fastest selling original title ever on Xbox Live Arcade, according to Microsoft.

But everything isn't headshots and restful nights with State of Decay, as the game's first title update did experience some hiccups. XBLA Fans reports the patch on Friday night didn't do everything as intended. Undead Labs' founder Jeff Strain went to the company forums and said, "Reports started coming in that other bugs we had verified internally as fixed were apparently not fixed on the live version of the game." No word yet when that patch will be patched.

The game is currently in development for a PC release on Steam. Strain says Undead Labs "just need to integrate with the Steam platform and add native support for keyboard and mouse control."
News Business

Xbox boss says $500 Xbox One is 'over-delivering on value,' name-drops Halo 5

by Richard Mitchell Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
The $500 price tag for the Xbox One elicited audible gasps during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Speaking to Bloomberg, Xbox head Don Mattrick defended the hefty price, saying that Microsoft is "over-delivering on value" with the Xbox One.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said. "We're over-delivering value against other choices, I think, consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they're going to love it when they use it."

What will convince consumers to opt for Xbox One, he said, is the breadth of services the console will have available. Specifically, he mentioned Twitch streaming, Skype and SmartGlass.

During the same interview, Mattrick also referred to the next Halo game as Halo 5. At Microsoft's E3 press briefing, a reveal trailer referred to the game simply as "Halo."
News Business

Co-opinion: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (E3 2013)

by David Hinkle Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0

This is Co-Opinion, where two Joystiq editors play a game and discuss their experience.

Coopinion Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze E3 2013
Coopinion Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze E3 2013Dave Hinkle: As far as piggy back rides go, I think I've had the best one of my life in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Wii U. You made me feel safe during our E3 demo, Jordan. You protected me.
Coopinion Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze E3 2013Jordan Mallory: Well it's Donkey Kong's responsibility to protect the well-being of his little nephew Diddy, Dave. There are a lot of dangerous viking walruses and perilous pits around this tropical paradise.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (E3 2013)

Continue Reading

Featured Preview

Microsoft: Xbox One games are $60

by David Hinkle Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Xbox One will not see an increase in games pricing. New Xbox One games will cost $60 each, Microsoft has told GameSpot, continuing the pricing model established with the Xbox 360.

As for the competition, Sony's Jack Tretton has stated that pricing on PS4 games will range between $.99 and $60. Wii U games are also priced at $60, a $10 increase over the suggested price of games on the Wii.
News Movies

Hometown Story hopes to recapture that Harvest Moon magic

by Bob Mackey Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0

The Natsume booth feels more than a little out of place amid the murder and mayhem that defines the E3 show floor experience. For those weary of the pulsing music, constant explosions and gruff voice-overs blasting from every ear-level speaker in sight, Natsume's display of gentle, colorful games about farming and fishing can feel like an oasis from sensory overload.

While they've dabbled in just abut every genre known to man, an unexpected game called Harvest Moon – which hit the SNES long after it withered on the vine – has since become Natsume's strongest brand, with 19 prime series games to date. There's no end in sight for this strangely compelling series, though its creator Yasuhiro Wada has moved on to a new IP called Hometown Story, which he hopes will have the same longevity as the series that introduced the curious addictiveness of simulating mundane tasks years before The Sims.

Hometown Story (E3 2013)

Continue Reading

Featured Interview Preview

Report: IO Interactive cancels projects, loses half of staff to layoffs

by Danny Cowan Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Report IO Interactive cancels projects, loses half of staff to layoffs
Hitman series developer IO Interactive has cut its staff by almost 50 percent after a recent round of layoffs, the studio announced in a statement released to Develop.

Speaking to Develop, a spokesperson for IO Interactive confirmed that the company has canceled many of its current projects in order to focus its efforts on a new Hitman game, which is currently in pre-production.

Previously, the Square Enix-owned studio had developed games such as Mini Ninjas and Kane & Lynch. Its most recent release, Hitman: Absolution, launched last year for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms.

"We are making significant changes at IO Interactive as we align our business against a changing and challenging market," the statement reads.

"Hannes Seifert, formerly Production Director for 3 years at the studio, will take over the position of Studio Head at IO. The studio will focus resolutely on the future vision for the Hitman franchise and is in pre-production on a new triple-A Hitman project.

"However we have taken the difficult decision to cancel other studio projects and initiatives at IO and reduce the workforce in this studio, which will impact almost half of the employees currently at IO, as we make internal adjustments to face the challenges of today's market."

"For those affected, we are extremely grateful for the hard work which they have contributed, and where it's possible and appropriate to relocate staff to open positions at other studios within the group, we will try to do so. We are also reaching out to other companies for outplacement opportunities. We sincerely wish them well in their future careers."
News

Awesomenauts boxed collector's edition headed to UK

by Richard Mitchell Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Awesomenauts boxed collector's edition headed to UK
Awesomenauts is getting physical in the UK. Merge Games is giving the PC version the collector's edition treatment, tossing in a handful of goodies with a boxed version of Ronimo's excellent 2D MOBA. The collector's edition includes the Awesomenauts soundtrack, the Costume Party DLC pack, a sticker and a an extra gift key to share the game with a friend.

The Awesomenauts Collector's Edition is set to be released on June 28 for £19.95. It's available for pre-order now from Amazon UK and directly from Merge Games. Merge is currently offering a £2 discount and, incidentally, will ship the game worldwide.

Continue Reading

News

Beyonce settles lawsuit with Gate Five over Starpower: Beyonce

by David Hinkle Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Pop star Beyonce Knowles and development studio Gate Five have settled a years-long legal battle over a proposed game called Starpower: Beyonce. Gate Five's lawyer Peter Gallagher told the New York Post the two sides settled "amicably," though he added "I can't discuss the terms of the settlement, but it was resolved."

The dispute started in 2011, when Beyonce was sued by Gate Five for an alleged "extortionate demand" for greater financial compensation (see: cash money) during a "crucial moment" in the production of Starpower: Beyonce. Beyonce tried to appeal the lawsuit several times over the past few years.
News

EA: Dead Space team working on something new, series not dead

by David Hinkle Writer RSS (1 day ago)

0
Despite being "an important IP to EA," there is no new Dead Space game in development; instead, Visceral Games is working on something else right now. "Is that team working on a Dead Space game today? No they're not," EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund told Eurogamer at E3 last week.

"They're working on something else very exciting. You have to think of it from that perspective. Is it better to put them on the fourth version of a game they've done three previous versions of before? Or is it better to put them on something new that they want to build, that they have passion for?" This isn't the end for Dead Space, however, as Söderlund reiterates that it's "a brand that is close to Electronic Arts' heart."

"I am of the utmost opinion that we have to put the best possible games in the hands of our fans," Söderlund added. "How you get to a great game, the first thing you need is a great development team that have a passion for building what they're building. That's a simple parameter. Everything else follows. Money, time, everything else follows. It's less relevant. That's ultimately how you get success. It's as simple as that."

Dead Space 3, which launched earlier this year, failed to meet EA's sales expectations at launch and has had fewer sales than Dead Space 2.
News

Joystiq App

Available for iPhone/iPod + Android

iPhone App Android App

Featured Stories

Engadget

Engadget

TUAW

TUAW

Massively

Massively

WoW

WoW