Joystiq

Ascend: New Gods renamed to Ascend: Hand of Kul

Jordan Mallory — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:00:00 EST

Signal Studios' free-to-play asynchronous multiplayer XBLA strategy game Ascend: New Gods has had its name changed to Ascend: Hand of Kul. "A year has passed since our big unveil at E3 2012, and the New Gods are no longer 'new,'" as Signal Studios representative explains in a lighthearted update on PlayXBLA. "It was a tough decision, but during their board meeting in The Sanctum a couple of weeks ago, the New Gods decided to step down from power."

Aside from the fact that Hand of Kul is a "more story-centric name," no further explanation was given for the change. Well, no further real explanation. At any rate, please adjust your complicated, all-encompassing video game databases accordingly. Y'all have those too, right? It's not just us?

Ascend: New Gods renamed to Ascend: Hand of Kul originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 11 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ascend: New Gods is XBLA's next F2P game, Happy Wars out in September

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:20:00 EST

Ascend: New Gods, from Toy Soldiers developer Signal Studios, is the second confirmed free-to-play game coming to XBLA, following Happy Wars' launch in September, Microsoft tells OXM. Ascend: New Gods is scheduled to ship "in several months."

XBLA's free-to-play games require an Xbox Live Gold subscription, "as many of the games planned will be multiplayer games by nature (an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription is required for multiplayer gaming)," Microsoft says. The free-to-play games will "leverage the Microsoft Points system," which we assume means they will "use Microsoft Points to offer players pretty, but useless items. And tons of people will buy them."

Ascend: New Gods is XBLA's next F2P game, Happy Wars out in September originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Expect SmartGlass support in every Microsoft Studios game going forward

Ludwig Kietzmann — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST

Microsoft's SmartGlass initiative aims to enrich the entertainment offerings on Xbox with an informative, context-sensitive "surface," spread across compatible tablets and smartphones. Phil Spencer, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, tells me you can expect SmartGlass support from all of the company's games after the feature becomes available this fall.

"It just makes so much sense for a developer who wants to supply, maybe not time-critical information, like 'that enemy is getting ready to shoot you,' but information that augments what's happening on screen," Spencer says. He used last year's Halo Waypoint Atlas app, which offered multiplayer GPS tracking, as an example of how SmartGlass features could share additional game information without hampering the moment-to-moment gameplay. "And then you're even going to see situations like with Ascend, where there's actually gameplay that happens on the phone, even when you're away from your television and that interacts back with the online game that's happening. So I think you'll see information sharing, context sharing while you're in the room, with video and with games, as well as gameplay happening in more distributed environments."

SmartGlass will be encapsulated in a single app that syncs with your Gamertag and enables features based on what you're playing or watching (provided they support SmartGlass). "You don't have to log in and out of each app - you know, 'I'm gonna start the Mass Effect app, and now I'm gonna start the Game of Thrones app.' So you have this surface, this smart surface," Spencer says, "that sits on any device that you already own that's always in sync with what's happening on the television, and it knows where to go and grab the right content to display at the right time, to make sure that if you're playing Halo, then the Halo surface is available on SmartGlass."

During its E3 2012 press conference, Microsoft showed a concept of what might become Halo 4's SmartGlass functionality. The app, as shown, allows players to track stats and send game invites via tablet or smartphone. Microsoft has said that it supports the "device you already own," but hasn't directly addressed SmartGlass variations between iOS, Android and Windows 8.

Continue reading Expect SmartGlass support in every Microsoft Studios game going forward

Expect SmartGlass support in every Microsoft Studios game going forward originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'Ascend: New Gods' coming from Toy Soldiers dev Signal Studios [update: trailer]

JC Fletcher — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:31:00 EST

Signal Studios, best known for the Toy Soldiers series on XBLA, just revealed its next project, Ascend: New Gods, during the Microsoft press conference. It's a turn-based strategy game with asynchronous multiplayer (like Draw Something, you know?) that works across Xbox and Windows Phone.

'Ascend: New Gods' coming from Toy Soldiers dev Signal Studios [update: trailer] originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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