Gaikai’s David Perry has told GamesIndustry.biz that streaming of full games – not just demos – via the cloud gaming service is ready to go live within months.
The immediate priority is to put cloud gaming on Facebook as revealed last week, but following that, users will be able to play entire games across a network of sites that includes YouTube, Best Buy and games publishers such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.
“If you give me your game today I can put your game in front of more than 100 million people, easily. Quite honestly if we put you on the homepage of YouTube right now on it’s own, you’re already hitting that number,” said Perry in an interview published today.
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia believes that Zynga is losing $ 150 on every new paying customer it acquires.
Bhatia’s estimate is based on the company’s confirmed $ 120 million marketing budget for the first nine months of 2011.
“Almost all of that is for acquiring customers,” he said in an interview with Benzinga. “We also know that they had 3.4 million unique payers in the September quarter, which is up from 3 million at the end of December 2010.”
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
Blizzard’s Diablo III director Jay Wilson has shared his thoughts on Diablo III’s release date in a blog post on the game’s official site.
“No one will remember if the game is late, only if it’s great,” he argued in response to suggestions Blizzard should speed up the game’s release.
“While working on Diablo III we’ve been called out for messing around with systems too much, that the game is good as-is and we should just release it. I think that’s a fair argument to make, but I also think it’s incorrect. Our job isn’t just to put out a game, it’s to release the next Diablo game.”
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
The US Senate has delayed the vote to decide on the future of the PIPA, which had originally been scheduled for Tuesday.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has not set a new date for the vote, but issued a brief statement which made clear that the bill has not been abandoned completely.
“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote,” said Reid. “There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
Square Enix has appointed the independent game designer Ben Cusack as the new head of its mobile division.
Cusack is the creator of the award-winning puzzle game KooZac, which has been played more than 15 million times online. In addition to hiring Cusack, Square Enix also purchased the KooZac license.
“Since its original online launch the game has enjoyed huge recognition from the media, the industry and its fans,” said Square Enix digital sales director Antony Douglas in a statement.
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
Image Metrics, whose facial animation technology has been used in games from developers like Rockstar and SEGA, has created a a new spin off company, Faceware Technologies.
“FTI is perfectly poised to deliver Faceware and our supporting products and services to our customers and certified partners,” said CFO and COO Ron Ryder.
“There will be no interruption to the pace of innovation in the product line during 2012 and beyond.”
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
MMO publisher Nexon Korea Corporation has signed a deal with Unity Technologies to use its game development platform.
“We couldn’t be more excited that Nexon is making Unity a core tool in their pipeline,” said Unity CEO David Helgason.
“Having a global game publishing powerhouse like Nexon seek to expand their use of Unity across their developers is a great testament to how it can fulfil the needs of everyone from the tiniest indie to the world’s most demanding studios.”
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
Chinese developer Tencent will use Crytek’s CryEngine 3 for its next online PC title.
“It’s a very exciting experience for us to have Tencent as our 8th CryEngine licensee in China,” said Crytek’s Carl Jones.
“We’re delighted that Tencent have chosen CryEngine for what promises to be a very interesting title. Our experienced support team has been working with Tencent for a while now and we’re all really impressed with the work from Tencent’s developers, who are looking to achieve an ambitious vision!”
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Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News
