EA says its online services should now be back online
Electronic Arts was battling against network downtime late on Thursday night, with many of its games’ online services failing to connect.
Writing on the EA Support Twitter page, the publisher said that EA games and services had returned, though internal tests at GameSpot’s UK office suggest that connections are still patchy.
Meanwhile, due to the abundance of support requests following the blackout, EA’s help network has become overwhelmed, resulting in longer waiting times.
The explanation for the blackout was not made clear.
EA is currently experiencing an outage. EA games, services & support may be impacted. We’re working to resolve as fast as possible.
Ubisoft has revealed Grow Home, an idiosyncratic adventure game staring a Botanical Utility Droid (BUD to its friends) on a mission to save to its home planet.
Grow Home’s fish-out-of-water story depicts BUD navigating through an angular, cel-shaded island. The utility droid’s mission is “to search the galaxy for a new species of plant that can oxygenate his home world”, Ubisoft said in a statement.
The publisher described the new game as “quirky and experimental,” and confirmed it is being developed by a small team at Ubisoft Reflections, the UK studio responsible for games such as the acclaimed racer Driver: San Francisco.
Outlining the game’s objective, Ubisoft wrote: “By growing and directing the giant Star Plant into a towering organic sculpture, players reshape the planet and create a magnificent landscape that lets them climb to new heights. The game’s unique climbing controls and abilities challenge players to continually reach for higher ground, but one wrong move and it’s a long way down.”
The Entertainment Software Association, the group that represents the interests of the United States video game industry on Capitol Hill and the organization that puts together E3 every year, has released a statement praising US President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address. The ESA specifically commended Obama for calling out cybersecurity as an issue of utmost importance.
“We applaud President Obama’s inclusion of cybersecurity as a national concern,” ESA president Michael Gallagher said. “Illegal hacking and denial of service attacks threaten the U.S. economy.”
“Millions of Americans enjoy video games and understand the emphasis and sense of urgency the president and Congress have placed on implementing strong and effective cybersecurity policies,” he added.” The U.S. video game industry employs more than 150,000 workers across the U.S. and engages billions of gamers around the globe. We stand ready and willing to work with the White House and congressional leaders to ensure that any legislation will address the harm caused by attacks.”
“No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids,” Obama said during the address this week. “We are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyber threats, just as we have done to combat terrorism.”
“And tonight, I urge this Congress to finally pass the legislation we need to better meet the evolving threat of cyber-attacks, combat identity theft, and protect our children’s information–that should be a bi-partisan effort,” he added. “If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable. If we do, we can continue to protect the technologies that have unleashed untold opportunities for people around the globe.”
In the wake of the Christmas Day gaming network outages, authorities have launched an international investigation, which has led to at least one arrest. The group that claimed responsibility for the attacks, Lizard Squad, has itself since reportedly been hacked.
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Sony will launch a pair of limited-edition PlayStation 4 consoles in Japan later this year themed around Dark Souls developer From Software’s role-playing game Bloodborne. Both feature an epic-looking engraving of the game’s hero, and come with the collector’s edition of the game itself.
As spotted by IGN and detailed on Japan’s Sony Store, the special-edition consoles will come in black and white variations, and also include a controller and headset. They will sell for ¥47,480 (about $400).
There’s no word on whether or not these consoles will come to the West, but history suggests they may not. Previously revealed custom PS4s for Japan, including consoles featuring Frozen and Yakuza artwork, remain exclusive to that country.
A Destiny Fireteam of six players, five of which belong to the clan One and Done, have been named as the first group to defeat the new Crota’s End Hard Mode mission.
Developer Bungie revealed that the Crota’s End HArd Mode had been defeated around an hour after it went live on Wednesday. The victorious group, which consisted of four level 32 Guardians and two level 31 Guardians, were named and congratulated on Bungie’s Twitter feed. A video of their heroics can be found above.
Bungie User Research has confirmed the World First finishers for the Hard Mode version of Crota’s End. One and Done. pic.twitter.com/jRxFsUcPxN
The footage shows how One and Done managed to finish off the final boss, Crota himself, in 27 minutes and two seconds. Hard mode locks all enemies at level 33 which, due to the existing level 32 cap, puts players at a disadvantage throughout.
Rewards for finishing Hard Mode can include some of the game’s most sought-after exotic weapons.
Crota’s End is the final boss that shipped with Destiny’s first major expansion, the Dark Below.
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Existing virtual reality technology such as Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus are “truly exciting,” but they aren’t direct competitors to Microsoft’s new HoloLens technology, according to a company representative.
Asked if Microsoft viewed Rift and Morpheus as competitors to HoloLens, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “Today’s efforts in VR and AR are truly exciting. What we are talking about is something different.”
The Microsoft rep went on to explain what the company thinks will set HoloLens apart from other virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.
“Holographic experiences on Windows are about delivering a mixed reality of both your digital world and your real world,” the spokesperson said. “We are integrating holograms into the world around you–transforming the ways you create, connect, and explore. We hope holographic experiences on Windows 10 will help drive continued innovation in this category.”
These comments tally with those from HoloLens designer Alex Kipman, who suggested yesterday during the Windows 10 event that Microsoft wasn’t intending to compete directly with established VR companies such as Oculus.
“Oculus, Magic Leap, Glass developers and everyone else, we humbly invite you–come create holograms with us,” Kipman said.
For more on HoloLens, check out the video above and the image gallery below. And check back later for GameSpot’s impressions of the HoloLens technology.
The four separate games systems that make up Star Citizen will be individually showcased during a six-part launch schedule, the game’s creator Chris Roberts has revealed.
Speaking during a BAFTA-hosted event on Tuesday, Roberts explained that Star Citizen would incorporate distinct gameplay systems: a space combat sim, a first-person shooter, a single-player campaign, and a persistent online universe to explore.
This quartet of gameplay systems will be showcased across a range of six separate releases, culminating with the Star Citizen commercial launch in 2016. Roberts’s schedule for these builds, revealed during a Twitch stream and captured on Polygon, shows that they will arrive on a quarterly basis.
In spring (northern hemisphere) 2015, a beta for the FPS mode will be released, along with “planetside”, which is the base game that bridges all the modes and social components. Then in the summer, a major update to the multiplayer mode Arena Commander will go live, allowing pilots to fight and race one another.
By fall 2015, the first episode of Star Citizen’s single-player campaign, Squadron 42, will launch. Then at the closing stages of 2015, the game’s “persistent universe” will roll out to backers.
The game’s “Hangar” mode, which allows players to admire and tinker with their ships, is already available to backers, as is the first edition of Arena Commander.
Star Citizen is believed to have accumulated the biggest draw in the history of crowdfunding, having surpassed $69 million at the turn of the year.
“We’re now close to $70 million, and it’s likely the carry-on will probably be over $100 by the time the game is close to public release,” Roberts said during his BAFTA talk.
“But the crowdfunding isn’t really about the money. Yes, the money is nice. Yes the money enables you to do some of these things you do, but it’s really about bringing people in to create this community and have them sort of share that experience with you as you’re building it.”
On Wednesday during a Windows 10 event, Microsoft announced that Xbox One role-playing game Fable Legends is coming to PC and will support cross-platform play. But the Lionhead Studios-developed game may not be the last major Microsoft franchise to be released for Windows 10.
In a statement on the Xbox Wire, Xbox boss Phil Spencer teases: “Fable Legends is just the first of the major game franchises from Microsoft Studios coming to Windows 10 and we will have more to share in the coming months.”
Microsoft Studios is the company’s game development division, comprising internal studios such as Lionhead (Fable), Rare (Kinect Sports), Twisted Pixel (Splosion Man), Turn 10 (Forza), 343 Industries (Halo), Mojang (Minecraft), and Black Tusk Studios (Gears of War), among others.
Spencer went on to say that Microsoft plans to talk more about its plans for gaming on Windows 10 during March’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
What Microsoft Studios franchises would you like to see come to PC? Let us know in the comments below.
Worlds 2015, the tournament final of the fifth League of Legends international championship season, will be held in Europe this October.
The event brings together the best League of Legends players from around the world to face off in front of a live audience. Europe was the continent that developer Riot Games chose for the inaugural 2011 event, and in a newly published blog post the studio said “it feels great to bring the 2015 Championship back to players and fans who have played such a big part in our story.”
Like with last year’s finals, Worlds 2015 will be a multi-city, multi-country event. “Our Group Stage, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Final showdown held in different cities within Europe,” Riot said, with millions of fans expected to watch the tournament live over the internet.
The 2014 finals attracted 27 million online viewers from around the world, though this gigantic number nevertheless represented a small decline on 2013’s viewership.
“Our goal is to bring live eSports action to a broad base of fans across Europe and to provide an exciting and diverse backdrop for fans watching at home,” Riot Games added.
“Last year’s multi-city journey to Worlds was a fast-paced and exhilarating ride – we learned a ton about the kind of experience we want to offer to competing pros, fans in the stadiums, and viewers at home. We’re ready for an action-packed month in Europe.”
Riot added that it’s “too early to share exact details”, adding that the company is currently confirming venues, timing, and the event format. More details will arrive in the coming months.
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Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has announced that the PC space sim’s Public Test Universe (PTU) is now available to everyone. Among other things, that means that all players can now try out the in-development version of Star Citizen’s first-person shooter module, Arena Commander.
Previously, the PTU was available only to a small number of Star Citizen backers. The PTU is similar to World of Warcraft‘s Public Test Realm, in that it represents a version of the game that includes features not yet available publicly for the purposes of testing.
Cloud Imperium Games warns that Star Citizen’s PTU “is not for the faint of heart,” noting that players could encounter non-functional or unstable features. Players who want to help improve the overall Star Citizen experience can provide bug reports here or leave general feedback about the PTU itself here.
Star Citizen’s PTU is not a permanent feature, Cloud Imperium Games says. It will be available only on occasions where the studio needs help testing a patch, and will be deactivated after an update is pushed out publicly.
Cloumd Imperium Games has also provided a set of instructions regarding how players can access the Star Citizen PTU. Via Cloud Imperium Games, these instructions are listed below.
Step One: Copy your RSI account to the PTU. Go to your My RSI area, select settings and then access Public Test Universe to begin this process. This will copy all of your account settings, pledges and configuration data to the PTUversion of the RSI environment. You will then receive an email with a new password and additional instructions.
Step Two: Open the Star Citizen launcher, log in with your existing RSI account.
Step Three: Access the Settings area of the Star Citizen launcher (the cog at the top) and locate the Game Channel list.
Step Four: Select ‘Public Test Universe’ in the Game Channel list and then close the settings page.
Step Five: Log out of the Launcher, then log back in using the new password in the email generated by Step One. Reverse this process to switch back to the standard release channel.
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