Homebrew has always been a thorn in Nintendo’s side from their perspective, but a lot of people use the “hack”– including myself at one point– to run goofy indie games, fun applications, and to expand the functionality of their console. One of the lesser-used features of homebrew is open game development. A lot of people can’t get 3DS dev kits for various reasons, so they resort to hacking the console, making “homebrew” games, and releasing them to the homebrew community. The inevitable consequence of this is that people mis-use the hacks and pirate games that people worked hard on.

Goodbye Galaxy Games is working on a potential fix, however, that lets you create and test your homebrew games with nothing more than free PC software and a small 3DS app– all without having to hack the console, and they say that the games can exist without the piracy.

We had all these talks about piracy and homebrew the last few weeks. And the problems with homebrew is that most of these hacks later get abused for piracy means. Now imagine you can just use your retail 3DS to make games, and you don’t need to hack it! No need for a R4 card! No need for weird custom hardware or tools! No need for piracy!

– Goodbye Galaxy Games lead Hugo Smits

The real question for them is whether Nintendo would allow them to release this piracy-free development software on the eShop like they’d like to. I would doubt it, but maybe the Big N is feeling humbled considering the sales of Wii U lately!

Via Goodbye Galaxy Games Blog

G4 to become ‘Esquire Network’ on April 22nd

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

We’ve reported on this before, but now we finally have an official date: Starting April 22nd, anyone who currently gets G4TV via their cable or satellite provider will awaken to a brand new channel to replace to dying-brand that was G4. The new name will be the “Esquire Network” and will feature programming similar to ‘Bravo’ but “for men”. It is, as they say, for “the modern man, what being a man today is all about”.

Which mostly sounds like a bunch of vaguely sexist baloney to me, but I guess they think people will watch it! With any luck this will be the last that you hear of the network, since they will feature no gaming related programming whatsoever.

Via Gamespot

Former Microsoft employee says the company almost bought SEGA, instead came out with Xbox to combat Sony

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Well here’s something I didn’t know: Back in the early 2000s, Microsoft was strongly considering purchasing SEGA and using them to make a game console to combat Sony! I guess it makes sense if you think about it, and it would have been significantly cheaper to buy SEGA and use their resources for game console development as opposed to starting from scratch on your own. So why didn’t the deal work out?

“There were three companies at that point in time, I think this was [Sony,] SEGA and Nintendo. There was always talk maybe we buy SEGA or something like that; that never materialised, but we were actually able to license them what they call Windows CE, the younger brother of Windows, to run on their system and make that their platform.
“But for Bill [Gates] this wasn’t enough, he didn’t think that SEGA had enough muscle to eventually stop Sony so we did our own Xbox thing.”

– Former Microsoft Employee Joachim Kempin

Man, wouldn’t it be weird if SEGA was still in the business of making consoles!? Especially if they were owned by Microsoft! I’m not sure that things would have gone better for both companies in the long run though, considering how successful the Xbox brand has been worldwide.

Via IGN

Crytek likely won’t continue the ‘Darksiders’ franchise after hiring core Vigil staffers

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

When THQ was forced to sell all of their assets, one of the teams that didn’t sell in their entirety was Darksiders developer ‘Vigil Games’. The folks over at Crytek ended up hiring a good group of the core members of Vigil and forming a brand new branch of Crytek in Austin, Texas, but apparently the new team won’t be continuing on with Darksiders 3:

“We had chosen Austin as the destination for [our U.S. branch], and we needed a lean and core team of experts to run the studio. At the same time, we didn’t want to continue with Darksiders 3, since that doesn’t fit with our strategy. So when I heard that [THQ laid off everyone at Vigil], I decided on Saturday morning to fly out to meet with them to see if the team would be interested to join our mission, which is significantly different than what this team has done before.” – Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli

Apparently Crytek is giving the new studio plenty of breathing room as far as the exact type of game they want to create, so long as they follow the main internal Crytek goal.

“The team identifies as what they want to do. Right now, they just know what the strategy of Crytek is and the framework we need to satisfy, but none of that drives what the game is about.” – Cervat Yerli

Via CVG

Square Enix says the world-wide console market is growing increasingly difficult to thrive in

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

Ah yes, more financial briefing news from various companies’ third quarter meetings. Today’s quotes? From Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider publisher Square Enix, who says that they had to operate at a loss this past quarter due to how hard it is to make money in an “increasingly difficult” console market:

“During the nine-month period ended December 31, 2012, the Company has not recovered the operating loss posted in the six-month period ended September 30, 2012, primarily due to the increasingly difficult condition of the world-wide console game market, under which the Group is struggling to achieve a fair expected return on its investment.” – Square Enix statement

Well, I see many developers and publishers making quite a bit of money on this industry. I think the real problem here is that Square Enix is putting out games that are good, but not quite up the alley of most consumers in most regions right now. You’ve gotta read the markets, and the markets aren’t asking for mediocre Final Fantasy games, Square!

Via Gamespot

Axl Rose is set to lose his lawsuit against Activision

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

A few years ago, Axl Rose (frontman of Guns N’ Roses) sued Activision for apparently breaching contract and using “Welcome to the Jungle” fraudulently in Guitar Hero 3. He also said that the game shouldn’t have been allowed to use the Slash character model, because Activision supposedly said there would be no in-game references to Slash or his band “Velvet Revolver”.

I can’t comment on the validity of any of these claims, but the judge in the case dismissed it pretty early on– setting a court date for this month– and apparently things aren’t looking that much better for the former GNR frontman this time around.

Via NME

Atari approved for bankruptcy financing, should continue to operate

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

I don’t know much about the technical talk going on here, but from what I understand Atari has secured “debtor-in-possession” financing, which will allow it to continue operating through its recently filed bankruptcy. The total amount they obtained was $5 million, with stipulations of the funds being that they would be under advisement by a firm who would help them decide how and where to sell their assets.

Well… I guess we’ll see how long it takes before someone else takes over the Atari name and tries to revive it!

Via Polygon

Masahiro Sakurai dealing with bad RSI, says he should use his hands less

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

RSI– also known as “repetitive strain injury”– is a painful muscle/joint/bone/something condition that can be brought on by extensive and strenuous use of a particular muscle in the human body. The latest victim of this relatively common condition is Smash Bros. director and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakura, who says many years of programming and testing has left his hands in pain too often to do excessive work:

“Using a mouse, keyboard or gamepad make my arm tired, so I can’t use them in a continual manner. The only device I can use for an extended period of time is a joystick. It’s posing problems when I’m test-playing something in progress.”

“I figure that if I cut down on writing emails and other things, try not to type in so much data myself, and start giving more verbal directions, that’ll reduce the amount of keyboard-oriented work I have to do. But if I’m going to be supervising other people’s work, there’s no way to cut down the amount of mouse usage I need to perform. I’m trying to work it with my left hand in order to give the right one some rest, but that definitely cuts down on my work efficiency…”

So what’s a prolific game designer to do!? Sakurai says he’s going to try using a trackball mouse instead of a traditional one. Best of luck to him! I hope it helps him regain the efficiency he desires.

Via Polygon

Gungho Online Entertainment acquires Grasshopper Manufacturer

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Everyone’s favorite (and only!) No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacturer has been purchased by Ragnorak Online publisher “Gungho Online Entertainment”, but how this affects Suda51 and his team’s development process remains to be seen. Word on the street is that the developer will be operating as normal, and has teamed up purely to give them more resources to realize their vision.

“By joining GungHo Online Entertainment, we are aligning ourselves with a strong, established publishing force that will support our vision to further create inspired new games that appeal players across the world. The Grasshopper team and I have many new ideas to share with our fans as we move forward so this union with GOE will help us realize our future plans.” – Grasshopper Manufacturer Founder Goichi Suda

Via Eurogamer

Disney says they’re going to look into violence in their video games, decide if anything needs to be done about it

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

“At Disney there’s very little [violent content], but I still want to make sure we’re asking ourselves the right questions in terms of that standard and also [ensure] we’re willing to be a part of a dialogue in today’s world that I think is pretty necessary in terms of what our role is and what our role should be.” – Disney CEO Robert Iger

A respectable point of view, if I do say so myself. Even though there isn’t a definitive link between violence in games and violent behavior, all of us– developers and gamers alike– need to be open to at least discussion and objectively examining our hobby just in case it plays any role in stuff like this. And if it doesn’t, the self-examination can only serve to increase our awareness about how much tasteless violence there is in video games, which is something we should strive to cut back on for the sake of the art.

Develop Online Via MCVUK