No one was hurt in yesterday's SpaceX explosion, but among the items lost were a pair of Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality headsets.
The two headsets were loaded onto the intergalactic vessel alongside food and other supplies, ultimately headed to the International Space Station--but they never made it.
The ship blew up just minutes into the trip, with the HoloLens units and other supplies burning up upon re-entry into earth's atmosphere.
Why were HoloLens headsets headed to the ISS in the first place? It's not because the astronauts heard about Microsoft's Halo HoloLens demo and wanted to try it. Rather, Microsoft and NASA are teaming up for a new project called Sidekick, in which astronauts use commercial technology to aid them on their missions.
Presumably, Microsoft will provide more HoloLens headsets for SpaceX's next attempt.
Space is hard... @NASA we're with you and ready to try again!
According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the Falcon 9 ship failed due to an "overpressure event in the upper-stage liquid oxygen tank." Unfortunately for SpaceX, after "several thousand" engineering hours of review, the company has yet to pinpoint a reason for the explosion.
For more on Microsoft's Sidekick program with NASA, check out this blog post and the video below.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's free DLC campaign continues this week with a new sidequest, developer CD Projekt Red announced on Monday.
Here's the official description for the quest, which is called "Where the Cat and the Wolf Play...":
"Explore a forgotten village and discover its terrifying secret. Find out who or what slaughtered its inhabitants and use all your witcher skills to confront this mysterious force."
After you apply the latest Witcher 3 game update, you'll find a new witcher contract in Oreton village. Inhabitants of the nearby city of Honorton are struggling against a monster known as a "spook." It's your job, as usual, to save the day.
This quest is free DLC number 15 of 16 planned add-ons. The final free content will be released next week.
But that won't be the end of The Witcher 3's DLC offerings. The first of two major, paid add-ons, Hearts of Stone, will launch in October. This will be followed by Blood and Wine in early 2016. You can buy them together for $25, though individual pricing has not been announced.
The Pokemon Company on Monday announced that its Candy Crush-style puzzle game Pokemon Shuffle is coming to iOS and Android. The game will launch later this year as a free-to-play title supported by microtransactions, just like the previously released Nintendo 3DS version.
Pokemon Shuffle is similar in presentation to Bejeweled and Candy Crush, but it replaces the gems with faces of popular Pokemon such as Bulbasaur and Charmander, among others.
Players must line these up in rows of three for them to disappear. The twist on the match-three format is that a player will have a limited number of moves available to create a certain number of matches, meaning that in some cases thinking ahead is required to chain combos together..
Pokemon Shuffle is not The Pokemon Company's first mobile game. It follows other apps, including Pokemon TV, Pokedex, Camp Pokemon, and Pokemon TCG Online, among others.
Are you going to try Pokemon Shuffle? Let us know in the comments below!
Walmart is selling the Halo Master Chief Collection Xbox One bundle with a free second controller $349. You also get a free copy of Watch Dogs or Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, or you can pay a bit more to replace it with Need for Speed: Rivals - Complete Edition ($5), Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare ($20), or Batman: Arkham Knight ($30).
Microsoft's latest Deals With Gold promotion is on, discounting a handful of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, such as Evolve for $30, The Crew for $30, and Dishonored for $6.79. You can check out all the deals here.
The first episode of Telltale's Game of Thrones series is free on Xbox Live.
The new Humble Weekly Bundle is the latest in the Eye Candy series, featuring games like Where Is My Heart, Back to Bed, and The Dream Machine for just a few dollars.
Target is offering a buy one, get one 50 percent off deal on several 3DS games: Mario Kart 7 ($30), New Super Mario Bros. 2 ($29.49), Super Mario 3D Land ($30), and Super Smash Bros ($40).
HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset for PC & PS4 -- $99 (Amazon)
Amazon prices are accurate as of publishing, but can fluctuate occasionally throughout the day.
GameSpot's gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site.
Less than a month after the release of The Elder Scrolls Online for console, creative director Paul Sage has left the game's developer, Zenimax Online Studios. Game director Matt Firor remains on-board for the project, while Sage's position of creative director is being filled by Rich Lambert.
He previously worked as lead content designer for The Elder Scrolls Online. He also worked on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
"We can confirm that Paul left Zenimax Online Studios after the launch of The Elder Scrolls Online on console," a representative said in the game's forums. "He, along with rest of the team, are very happy with how the game is doing and we wish him the best in his future endeavors."
The Elder Scrolls Online was originally released in April 2014 as a subscription-based MMORPG. In January 2015, the game transitioned to a pay-once model and was renamed Tamriel Unlimited.
DICE's upcoming shooter Star Wars: Battlefront will not include a map set on the Death Star, the iconic fictional spacecraft from the sci-fi series. A DICE community manager shared the news in a post on Reddit, where a fan asked if there would be an infantry-focused map set on the ship itself.
"We will not offer a Death Star-based map," the manager said. "But stay tuned for details around the maps we will offer."
We already knew that Battlefront will not include space battles, but the DICE manager teased that if the studio gets to work on a sequel, "I think it's a safe bet to say we will look into it."
Check out the two images below; the remastered version is on the left, while the original is on the right. Be sure to use the slider to compare the two images and note the differences and improvements.
The Darksiders II Death-initive edition runs at an improved 1080p resolution, but there are also character model changes and new lighting effects.
"When we thought about what we wanted to do for the Deathinitive edition of Darksiders II, obviously we wanted to run in native 1080p and increase the resolution of the textures," design director John Pearl said in a statement. "Additionally, we decided to rewrite the renderer to be physically based like a lot of other current generation game engines."
"What this means visually is metal, leather, stone, and skin look and respond to light as you would expect them to in the real world. This new rendering method meant we revisited every texture and surface in the game, reworking and re-authoring them for the new renderer. To take full advantage of these texture changes, we've also gone back and relit the entire game."
Outside of the visual upgrade, the new version of Darksiders II comes with refinements to the game's balancing and loot distribution systems. Also included is all previously released downloadable content.
Leading development on Darksiders II Death-initive edition is Gunfire Games. This studio is staffed almost entirely by people who worked on the Darksiders franchise at creator Vigil Games before its closure. The game launches this winter for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End developer Naughty Dog has offered new insight into the frame rate for the upcoming action-adventure game.
Speaking with GameSpot, lead designer Kurt Margenau said Naughty Dog is targeting 60fps for the game's multiplayer mode, though he wouldn't commit to a figure for the single-player campaign.
Naughty Dog said previously that getting Uncharted 4 to run at 60fps has been "really f**king hard." That doesn't mean it won't happen, and with the game now scheduled to launch in 2016 instead of 2015, Naughty Dog would conceivably have more time to perform additional optimizations.
But one thing is for sure: Naughty Dog wants to do what's best for Uncharted 4, even if that means a frame rate below 60fps.
"We want Uncharted to look like the best game we can possibly make," Margenau said. "Solid frame rate is the most important thing; that it's consistent. But in multiplayer, we are targeting 60fps still. So we know how it feels on the stick to have [60fps] for a multiplayer game, to have that responsiveness."
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End lost eight months of work when series writer Amy Hennig left developer Naughty Dog.
Speaking during a panel held at Metrocon, voice actor Nolan North indicated that the project was reworked when The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley took over.
According to North, the development team had "shot eight months of her story and it was all thrown away."
"Amy is still a very dear friend of mine and she's brilliant," North continued. "But the Last of Us guys were the next team there, so they took over and they just wanted their own flavour. They got rid of some of the other people that were involved and just redid their thing."
Discussing the changes, North said Uncharted 4 will "be fun," but added "the tone is going to be slightly different" from Hennig's original vision.
"It has to be, you know," he said. "You can't have a Robert Ludlum novel that's going to be the same as Stephen King. It's just that they're different styles. But it's true to the story."
Elaborating on the direction the project went following Hennig's departure, North said the story is still "going to be along the same lines," but he didn't know anything beyond that.
"I don't how it'll affect the [game] and to be honest, I am just as curious as everyone to see what the final product will look like."
"I do know there's trust with the Naughty Dog designers and programmers. That place is still top notch and from the things I've seen, all the stuff they've done, it's amazing."
Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog in March 2014. Though it was not confirmed, reports indicated she was allegedly "forced out" by Druckmann and Straley.
According to its director, the PS4 exclusive will close the curtain on the story of Nathan Drake. Read GameSpot's full Uncharted 4 interview with Neil Druckmann for more on the game.
Perception, a new horror game developed by a team of former BioShock designers where you play as a blind woman, has reached its funding target. Boston-based start-up developer The Deep End Games asked for $150,000, but ended up receiving $168,041 when the campaign ended just a couple days ago.
Though Perception's Kickstarter campaign has ended, The Deep End Games will continue to accept pledges through its website.
Extra funds will go towards achieving some of the game's stretch goals, which includes virtual reality support ($340,000), and PlayStation 4 ($350,000) and Xbox One ($350,000) versions. The game is currently confirmed only for PC, and is scheduled to launch in June 2016.
"We are completely overwhelmed, overjoyed, and humbled at the reception our game has received," The Deep End Games said in a statement. "This has been the most exciting, exhilarating month and we have you to thank.
"We are so proud to be able to make this game thanks to you. Words cannot express the level of gratitude and sheer joy this has brought us, and we can't wait to make this game and put it in your hands!"
The Deep End Games has also released a new gameplay trailer (above), as well as another video (below) that highlights Perception's new "Mode 7," which is a retro-inspired mode. You can also watch another video here that covers a "Silent Night Mode," in which the protagonist only speaks for plot-critical lines.
For lots more on Perception, check out GameSpot's interview with The Deep End Games founder Bill Gardner. He worked at Irrational Games for more than a decade, recently serving as design director for BioShock Infinite.
Following its showing at E3 2015 earlier this month, Capcom is taking Street Fighter V back on the road in July to San Diego Comic-Con. According to the show's online schedule, Capcom will host a Street Fighter V panel on the morning of Thursday, July 9, where new details and more are expected to be divulged.
Capcom's Francis Mao will moderate the panel, which will be made up of "Street Fighter experts," including executive producer Yoshinori Ono.
"Who knows what exclusives, surprises, and hijinks are in store?" reads a line from the event's official description."
The Street Fighter V presentation will also bring news about the Capcom Pro Tour competitive gaming event, as well as a first look at some new Street Fighter licensed products.
Capcom has held Street Fighter panels at Comic-Con for the past few years.
Visceral Games' mysterious Star Wars project will bear similarities to Star Wars: 1313, the ill-fated third-person action game from LucasArts, and Sony's Uncharted series, according to voice actor Nolan North.
Speaking at a panel held at Metrocon, which was recorded and posted online, North--known for playing Nathan Drake--discussed the departure of Uncharted writer Amy Hennig from Naughty Dog, and her current project co-writing a new Star Wars game for EA.
According to North, EA and Visceral's game is modelled after Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.
"If you're a big fan of Amy Hennig and her style of story, she's gone to EA and is going to reboot a brand new Star Wars franchise in the style of Uncharted," he said. "I happen to know a lot about it and it's going to be awesome."
Asked if Hennig's Star Wars project was 1313, North said "it's different," but "along the same lines."
Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog in March 2014. At the time, reports indicated she was allegedly "forced out" by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, creative director and game director respectively on The Last of Us. This was not confirmed, however.
Shortly before the announcement, Hennig tweeted a picture of herself having breakfast with her co-writer Todd Stashwick, as well as North and Lord of the Rings actor Dominic Monaghan, who was wearing a Star Wars-themed t-shirt.
Visceral Games' Star Wars title is rumored to be an open-world game, though EA has yet to provide any concrete details on the game.
Star Wars 1313 was originally announced at E3 2012 as a third-person action adventure game from LucasArts. Early footage of the game, which was set to feature Boba Fett as its protagonist, was very reminiscent of Uncharted.
Star War 1313 was cancelled in April 2013 when Disney closed LucasArts. Following this, Disney abandoned its trademark for Star Wars 1313 and the game's creative director, Dominic Robilliard, joined the PlayStation team, all but confirming the project had been scrapped enitrely.
It's a big change for one of the biggest franchises in gaming. To dive deeper into the subject, we spoke with Adam Boyes, the PlayStation VP of Publisher & Developer Relations.
As you might expect, Boyes shied away from discussions specifics about the business terms of the deal, but he did offer some general insight into how the partnership came to be and what it means.
"Well, I think the first thing was we've had a great relationship with Activision around Destiny," Boyes said. "And I'm a huge fan of that."
Sony's partnership with Activision for Destiny has been a deep one, with PlayStation fans getting all manner of Destiny content before Xbox players. Sony has even said that it is treating Destiny like a first-party game in some ways.
Boyes went on to say that Activision invited Boyes and his team on a trip to see Black Ops III in person. It didn't take long for Sony to be convinced that this was a game worth getting involved with.
"We fell in love instantly," Boyes said about Black Ops III, going on to describe the game as "transformative" for its various new features.
"As soon as I started playing it, I said, 'This feels incredible! You can wallride!' It's just so smooth; it's almost like poetic. And so obviously, we just continued talking with our partners at Activision and worked something out. And now we've got I think a great benefit to all the gamers."
Not only will all Black Ops III DLC launch first on PlayStation platforms, but the game's multiplayer beta will also premiere on PlayStation before coming to Xbox and PC.
Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and many other iconic Nintendo franchises, has revealed he is not contributing to the development of the company's next gaming console.
Speaking in an interview with Forbes, Miyamoto said he is focusing his efforts on developing games, instead of participating to hardware development, as he has done in the past.
"I've pulled myself back out of some of the hardware section and I'm really focused on some of the software I'm involved in--for example, the new Starfox game," he said.
"Of course, I am observing and looking at the hardware, but I am not actively participating and making decisions."
According to Forbes, however, Nintendo was discussing the console with third-parties at E3 2015 and insiders say the reception was "positive."
Shinya Takashi, who oversees Nintendo's software planning and development division with Miyamoto, said the duo are now focused on catching "the attention of a large number of players again and [getting] them excited."
"We're constantly thinking about this idea from the perspective of the players and the needs of the players in terms of what can we can do with our ability and our technology to capture that excitement and passion," he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Miyamoto reflected on the performance of the Wii U, saying he feels "people never really understood the concept behind the Wii U and what [Nintendo] was trying to do."
'I think the assumption is we were trying to create a game machine and a tablet and really what we were trying to do was create a game system that gave you tablet-like functionality for controlling that system and give you two screens that would allow different people in the living room to play in different ways," he explained.
"Unfortunately, because tablets, at the time, were adding more and more functionality and becoming more and more prominent, this system and this approach didn't mesh well with the period in which we released it."
The video will be available through Twitch, starting at 11 AM PDT / 2 PM EDT; we'll have the feed available to watch here on GameSpot come Wednesday.
Uncharted 4 is the latest project from Naughty Dog, which also created The Last of Us. The game was originally scheduled to launch in 2015, but was later delayed to early 2016.
Sony is feeling "extra pressure" to deliver an uncompromised version of The Last Guardian, executive Shuhei Yoshida has said.
Speaking in a new interview with GamesIndustry International, Yoshida said it was a relief to finally re-announce the long-in-development adventure game for PlayStation 4 during E3, but "now the reality settles in."
"We have to deliver, we have extra pressure, and the team has too," Yoshida explained. "But it's a good pressure. The team is super happy."
Yoshida also frankly acknowledged some of the issues with the first version of The Last Guardian, which was announced at E3 2009 as a PlayStation 3 game.
"The trailer we showed [at E3 2009] was running on the engine but not at the performance; the game had a much lower frame rate so we sped it up to look like it was running at 30 frames-per-second for the video," Yoshida recalled. "But the team has really really struggled to get the game running at the performance it needed and some features went missing so there are lots of technical challenges that they were going through."
In 2012, with the knowledge that the PS4 was due to release just a year later, Yoshida said Sony realized that it had to make an important decision regarding the fate of The Last Guardian.
"With the [PS4 development] system available it became apparent for us that we just cannot continue like this in terms of the pace of development," Yoshida said. "We knew that we had to compromise on the design or the scope or the number of characters if we stayed on PS3. So in order to realize the vision we said, 'Let's do PS4.'"
If this decision was made in 2012, why is the game still not out? Yoshida said the engineering team still had a lot of work to do to optimize The Last Guardian for PS4.
"They spent a lot of time optimizing to PS3 but that's a really unique architecture, so everything had to be kind of redone for PS4," Yoshida said. "So that took until last year, when there was huge progress. The fundamentals of the game architecture were done so the actual game was playable and being implemented on PS4."
Back in December 2014, Mojang and Telltale Games announced a surprise partnership for a new project called Minecraft: Story Mode. The story-driven series is due for release in 2015, but neither Mojang nor Telltale has talked much about it. But that's about to change--and soon.
Telltale teased on Twitter this morning that it will make some kind of an announcement about Story Mode this weekend at Minecon, the annual celebration of all things Minecraft.
Minecon 2015 will be held in London, July 4-5. We'll have all the news from the show as it's announced.
Story Mode will tell an original story that's "driven by player choice." Story Mode is not a Minecraft expansion, but instead a standalone game.
"Telltale's series will mix new characters with familiar themes, in an entirely original Minecraft experience, inspired by the Minecraft community and the game that continues to inspire a generation," Telltale said as part of the game's original announcement last year.
In terms of visuals, Story Mode won't "won't look exactly like Minecraft," Mojang said in an interactive press release, "but it will feel authentic in its own special way."
Warner Bros. Montreal, the studio behind Batman: Arkham Origins, is hiring developers to work on an open-world game based on a new intellectual property.
The studio's job page features listings for numerous roles, some of which make vague references to its next project.
The job description for a game designer states the studio is looking for someone "responsible for designing and driving development of specific features or systems for an open-world action game."
The technical director spec, meanwhile, states the successful candidate will join the development team "working on a new IP project for next generation platforms."
Digging deeper into the technical director role, using the "scripting languages and design tools of the Unreal Engine" is listed as one of the job responsibilities, suggesting the unannounced game will be powered by Epic's game engine.
WB Montreal was tasked with developing a prequel title in the Arkham series, while Arkham Asylum and Arkham City developer, Rocksteady Studios, worked on Arkham Knight.
Many speculated the founding of a second studio working on Batman games was indicative of Warner's intention to annualise the series. This, however, may suggest otherwise.
The initial $1.5 million grant was part of a larger $63 million initiative promised to WB Games Montreal for the company to add 100 jobs and buy new equipment by 2018.
In addition to Batman: Arkham Origins, WB Montreal has also worked on Batman: Arkham City Armoured Edition for Wii U and Lego Legends of Chima Online. It may be that the studio is working on multiple projects.
It is worth noting that domain registrations are relatively easy to fake. The ones attached to Mafia 3 include servers located at RockstarGames.com, in addition to Take2Games.com, which is somewhat unusual.
Additionally, this may also be a case of a publisher securing domains for one of its intellectual properties for future-proofing purposes.
Previous rumours, however, have suggested Mafia 3 is in production.
"Might have some Mafia news very soon," he said to one fan. To another, who bluntly said, "make Mafia 3," Pasqualone replied: "Might have some exciting news very soon."
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has said the company will not abandon the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U audiences to focus on its next console, codenamed the NX.
Speaking in an investor meeting, which was reported on by Japanese Twitter user NStyles and translated by Cheesemeister, Iwata said it wouldn't be efficient for the company to cut loose its existing audiences.
"The NX is new hardware, and will start from zero," he said. "However, the 3DS and Wii U have install bases. Immediately cutting off software for previous hardware upon the release of a new machine is inefficient."
The exec went on to reaffirm Nintendo's dedication to the Wii U: "We will continue making 3DS and Wii U software while preparing for the NX," he added. "We are prioritising satisfying customers who purchased the Wii U.
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto--famed for being the father of Mario--previously discussed the Wii U's lacklustre performance, suggesting that its high price point may have been a contributing factor.
"Unfortunately with our latest system, the Wii U, the price point was one that ended up getting a little higher than we wanted," he said.
Continuing, Miyamoto said the rapidly evolving tablet market may have leapfrogged Nintendo, taking the shine off its vision for the Wii U and its tablet-like GamePad.
"I think unfortunately what ended up happening was that tablets themselves appeared in the marketplace and evolved very, very rapidly," Miyamoto explained.
"The uniqueness of [the Wii U's tablet] features were perhaps not as strong as they were when we had first begun developing them."
When asked for specifics on the NX, Iwata said Nintendo does not plan to fully reveal NX until 2016. He did, however, say the company is "calling it a 'new concept' ... not thinking of [it] as a 'simple replacement' for the 3DS or the Wii U."
Batman: Arkham Knight's first week sales have surpassed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's, making it the fastest selling game of the year so far, according to UK sales monitor Chart-Track.
Developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Arkham Knight is the third--and supposedly final--entry in the Arkham series.
In its debut week on the UK chart, Batman: Arkham Knight dethroned Lego Jurassic World--another Warner Bros. published title--to take the No.1 spot on the week ending June 27.
Lego Jurassic World finished the week at No.2, followed by The Elder Scrolls Online at No.3, Yoshi's Woolly World at No.4, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at No.5.
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has discussed the company's policy of not discounting digital content and discussed plans to increase the value of these full-price digital releases in the future.
One of the commonly cited benefits of distributing content digitally is that it allows savings to be passed on to consumers. Nintendo, however, rarely makes the necessary discounts to deliver this to its players.
Speaking in an investor meeting, which was translated by Twitter user Cheesmeister, Iwata said the company believes in maintaining the perceived value of its products.
"We believe download versions have the same value and should be priced the same," he said.
"Some companies price [downloads] cheaper due to there being no used sales or store price reductions," he continued. "We stress the value of Nintendo software, so we price the same."
He added: "Purchases can be made through the eShop or with download cards bought at stores. We typically don't discount, but stores may."
Iwata admitted that digital distribution reduced the inherent risks involved with physically packaging a game and distributing them, before suggesting Nintendo's new online membership service may offer additional benefits to increase the value of digital purchases.
"We know some aren't satisfied without a difference [between physical and digital versions]," Iwata said. "We plan to provide some benefit with the new membership service starting in the fall."
According to Iwata, the new membership service will "encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, the new hardware system with a brand-new concept, NX, and smart devices and PCs."
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