NPD Group is stating that during all-important December last year, one in five customers was going online for their purchase. This is up from one in ten (10%) for the same period in 2012. The majority of such online purchases were for items under AUD$50, with a significant drop-off occuring …
Read More »Hackers target online games firms
A hacking group has been targeting game companies for years in order to steal source code, an antivirus report has found. Thereport, by Kaspersky Lab, has found that a China-based group known as Winnti has been stealing source code and legitimate digital certificates for software using a trojan. The antivirus …
Read More »Nintendo shutting down several online Wii services
Wii owners will lose access to a number of the machine’s online functions this summer. CVG reports that the Nintendo, News, Weather, Everybody Votes and Mii Contest Channels will be switched off for good on June 28th. Also going is the ability to send messages on the Wii Message Board …
Read More »[Update] Dota 2 becomes the most played PC game in the West
However, Riot Games challenges DFC with its own usage stats
Read More »Zynga loosens Facebook ties with site relaunch
New users can log in to Zynga.com and play games without a Facebook account
Read More »UPDATED: Xbox Entertainment Awards blighted by security breach
Microsoft has this morning been hit by a security breach of its Xbox Entertainment Awards 2013 service. MCV was contacted by a reader with a link to a page that appeared to list all those who had voted and therefore been entered into the prize draw. The data included names, …
Read More »Bradshaw’s "straight answers" challenged by SimCity modder
Maxis GM Lucy Bradshaw has tried to diffuse some of the anger being thrown at SimCity, but fresh claims from the modding community have cast doubt on the studio’s defence. I’d like to offer some straight answers on the topic: Always-Connected and why SimCity is not an offline experience, Bradshaw …
Read More »Reports contest Maxis’ claims that SimCity cannot work offline
Despite the fact that SimCity is now working, the online games community continues to target it. Accusations of all sorts are being flung online, ranging from broken AI pathfinding to critical services bugs, but perhaps the most significant is the claim that EA has lied about the game’s dependency on …
Read More »Miyamoto on Wii U sales: "I’m not at the point where I’m concerned yet"
Nintendo’s design boss Shigeru Miyamoto insists that he remains confident about the Wii U’s long-term prospects. He does concede, however, that he had hoped for a better performance than the machine has achieved to date. I think that the Wii U still has a long future,” Miyamoto told The New …
Read More »Lots of online functionality missing from Ouya at launch
Ouya consoles will be shipped out to Kickstarter backers later this month, but key online functions will not be enabled until the end of the year. The Verge reports that online chat, friends lists and achievements won’t be ready, even for the retail release in June. The site had originally …
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