The Standard Edition of the game will drop from $59.99 to $41.99, and the Deluxe Edition from $99.99 to $69.99. Also, you’ll get a discount on Bits, the in-game currency of Defiance.

Trion is also running a 72-hour free trial on Steam, so you can try it out without any commitment.

The promotion ties in with the crossover TV show. Syfy’s putting up the series’ first six episodes for free on-demand viewing on its website all weekend long. On Memorial Day, May 27, the network will marathon those episodes from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Defiance is an interesting experiment in content crossing over between a persistent online game and the scripted world of a television show. This could be the wave of the future. Microsoft announced similar crossover projects in their Xbox One reveal.

This is a great opportunity to try out one of the most exciting new franchises for free! I’m not much of an MMO gamer but I think I’ll be giving Defiance a spin this weekend. I’m a fan of the show and I’ve heard good things about the tie in-game. Also, the price is right. Keep those great deals coming, Steam!

[Via: Steam]

Microsoft Interactive Entertainment head, Don Mattrick gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal today where he dismissed the idea of backwards compatibility outright.

“If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards,” he said.

Mr. Mattrick, them’s fightin’ words!

One of the most disappointing things about both the Xbox One and the PS4 is their lack of backwards compatibility. Gamers who’ve spent this generation amassing huge libraries of games are getting the shaft, and it they’ll be much less likely to be early adopters of the new hardware.

However, both consoles will be powered by x86 chips, a completely different architecture than the Power PC based consoles of the current generation. So backwards compatibility isn’t really an option.

But Don Mattrick’s comments don’t reflect this. According to the WSJ, he “says he doesn’t think compatibility is really a problem. He said only 5% of customers play older games on a new video game system anyway, so spending time and money to develop technology to allow them to play older games isn’t worth it.”

It’s one thing to say, “Ok guys, we appreciate all the money you’ve spent on our hardware and games this past generation. We can’t offer backwards compatibility but we’ll be working on an emulation solution.” Or even, “sorry”.

But Mattrick’s flippant comments show little concern for the hardcore gamers that made the 360 such a colossal success. That attitude was echoed in yesterday’s reveal, with its focus on everything but the games.

[Via: Wall Street Journal]

After 15 minutes or so of some seriously epic pump up music and a countdown clock, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb briefly appeared to welcome us.  Next Bill Gates started out a montage of developers and creatives touting the new system. Interestingly, it was rounded out with J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg (more on him later).

The montage left us with the quote, “For the first time you and your TV are going to have a relationship.” Which, however squicky sounding, was pretty much the crux of the presentation. This new Xbox aims to be your one and only living room destination and the tech Microsoft came up with in this gambit is impressive.

Let me first get the burning questions out of the way:

The Specs:

So it looks like the Xbox One is essentially on par with the PlayStation 4 as far as its horsepower. It’s based off an x64 architecture, has an 8-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, slot-loading Blu-ray drive, and 802.11n and Wi-Fi Direct. It also has an HDMI in/out and USB 3.0 ports.

The controller is similar in design to its 360 forebear, but features an improved (read: usable) D pad, and programmable triggers with their own feedback, among some other refinements. I’m shocked (SHOCKED!) that there’s no “share” button.

All those powerful guts do seem to make for a fat box. It sort of looks like a shiny VCR to me, especially watching the presentation on my slim Xbox 360 S! But the original Xbox was a big, ugly behemoth and that didn’t stop millions of gamers from loving it. The box has nice lines, and the aforementioned shiny-ness. I doubt Sony will be able to do much better with its similar, bulky hardware (its original, fat PS3 was certainly no beauty contest winner).

Either way, the consoles are basically matched evenly so the exclusive games, extra features, and other factors will determine the winner this time around.

Improved Kinect and Voice Recognition:

One of those factors is certainly Microsoft’s Kinect Sensor, and it’s getting a major upgrade for the Xbox One. The new Kinect recognizes both the user and the controller and features a 1080P RGB camera, 30FPS sensing and ‘time of flight’ measurement that takes into account how long it takes for light to get from the Kinect to the user and back. It can also measure things like heartbeat rate, which is huge for fitness titles if it works. It will have an increased angle of view as well  since most people’s living rooms aren’t the size of concert halls.

Also very impressive was the improved voice recognition. In his part of the presentation Microsoft CVP of Marketing & Strategy, Yusef Mehdi was talking to his Xbox One about as easily and conversationally as anything I’ve seen, including Google’s impressive voice functionality shown at I/O. He began by simply saying “Xbox On”, which powered on the Xbox and logged him in automatically. He went on to chat with his Xbox, navigating between games, live TV, Internet explorer  and other features quickly, and with no hiccups whatsoever.

All In One System

As rumored, the Xbox One aims to usurp all of your entertainment streams and present them in one unified (and beautiful) package. There was segment after segment about these features. The new Xbox One will take over as your cable box as well as Guide. It’s all voice controlled and you can switch between a movie, game, live TV, etc. on. Mehdi showed off this “Instant Switching” live and it’s practically instantaneous. Also, gestural controls allowed you to “grab” whatever content you were watching and minimize it to the Home screen. 

There’s a picture in picture mode that allows you to do two things at once, called Snap Mode. Mehdi popped open an Explorer window while watching Star Trek and looked up times and trailers for Into Darkness. He then opened a Skype window and chatted with is friend while watching a live game.

All of this switching is enabled by 3 separate systems running concurrently: Xbox OS, Windows Kernel, and a special system that allows for switching between the two.

Spielberg…..what?

The final piece of Microsoft’s entertainment domination puzzle is exclusive content. First it showed a new IP that spans both a game and TV show that will inform each other’s content, Quantum Break. Sounds like it could be cool, and will hopefully have more crossover than Defiance.

Then it announced a new, live action Halo TV series to be produced by none other than Steven Spielberg! Spielberg had a short pre-recorded blurb “For me, the ‘Halo’ universe is an amazing opportunity to be at the intersection where technology and storytelling meet,” he said. I’m not a Halo fan, but I’ll admit this is pretty exciting.

Final Thoughts

As far as an all in one entertainment box, the Xbox One is impressive. The functionality is great and it seems to be wholly capable of unifying your living room experience into one machine. But I’m quite happy using the few boxes I have in my living room and I’m not about to spring for anything new. What will sell me on a console, is the games.

EA sports and Infinity Ward stopped in to declare partnerships with Microsoft. They showed off some lovely gameplay footage of EA Sports titles and Call of Duty: Ghosts. There are some screen grabs in the gallery below, but unfortunately they don’t really do the graphics  justice. But there was little other focus on the games. The head of Microsoft Studios showed off the new Forza and promised 15 more titles but left it at that.  Instead that can was kicked down the road to E3, where part 2 of its presentation takes place. 

I haven’t focused much on the games here, because there wasn’t much focus on them at the event.

Also, there was no mention of a release date or a price point. Xbox Chief Don Mattrick simply said it would be available, “later this year.”

Unfortunately, all we’ll get to see is a blurry black box until Sony’s big reveal at E3, 6pm Pacific time on June 10th. I know I’ll be watching, will you?

Check out the video below:

[Via: Playstation Blog]

The first game to be published under this program will be Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage by Nitrome Ltd., followed by Tiny Thief by 5 Ants. The former follows the adventure of a lone Viking, combining a unique ice slicing mechanic with an offbeat humor; while the latter is a medieval adventure featuring stealth-based puzzles.

According to Rovio’s Director of Development Kalle Kaivola, the idea is to help select indie game developers get more exposure on the market. In that sense, we shouldn’t expect Rovio Stars to mimic major publishers, launching a bunch of games all the time. Instead, the program will focus on a small, select number of games, with each Rovio Stars launch being an event of its own.

We’ve no doubts these guys know what quality means and are looking forward to try out many of the games they have in the pipeline…

And that’s why it was a bitter sweet experience watching this month’s Nintendo Direct. Along with some great content for the 3Ds, Nintendo showed us some exciting stuff for the Wii U. But it might just be too late.

The whole thing starts familiarly enough, with Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, and ends with good ol’ Reggie (Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America President). But in between they drop some pretty exciting stuff. In my book, the 2 most important things announced were the new Wii U and 3DS exclusive Sonic title, and the Pikmin release date. Here’s a not at all exhaustive list of the announcements:

Partnership with Sega:

Iwata announced a new partnership with Sega in his segment that will bring some exclusive games to the Wii U and 3DS. As expected, a new Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics is coming to both systems, and the Wii U footage is quite lovely. But the most exciting news was the announcement of a new, exclusive Sonic game coming to Nintendo machines. Sadly all Sonic in the Lost World got was a concept screen and a promise of more to come. But, as I confessed yesterday, any Sonic news is good news to me!

Gameplay footage and a release date for Pikman 3

Finally, Nintendo! Pikmin fans have been clamoring for a new outing in their favorite plant minion strategy series and Nintendo’s been mostly quiet about it until now. The new Pikmin 3 footage looked great, and showed off what the Wii U can do with beautiful water effects and bright, colorful environments. It looks like the biggest and best Pikmin to date. Most importantly, July 26th European and August 4th North American release dates were announced.

Rounding out its Wii U announcements was a HD Wii U overhaul of 3DS game, Resident Evil: Revelations, that looked great and adds tons of bonus content, a major Luigi DLC pack for New Super Mario Bros. U, a new Warioware sequel called Game and Wario, and the announcement of a new game, Wonderful 101 coming in September.

Compared to recent Nintendo Directs presentation, they spent a lot of time on the Wii U. It seems Iwata et. al are finally bringing some Nintendo magic to the Wii U. Let’s just hope it’s not too late.

The 3DS got some love too

• Two new Zelda games in the eShop, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. When played together, the games unlock extra content between each other.
• Donkey Kong Country Returns out May 24th,
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf out June 9th, will have added social features for the western release.
• The aforementioned Sega games, Sonic in the Lost World, and Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics will have 3DS versions too.

Check out the whole video and gallery of screenshots below!

[Via Nintendo]

The in depth report can be found here but the jist of it’s pretty clear:

“For the Portable Gaming Report Q1 2013, there are three important takeways:

• iOS and Google Play both saw growth in game downloads and consumer spending.

• iOS is now the leader in consumer spending on games, with Google Play likely to surpass gaming-optimized handhelds in 2Q13.
• Gaming-optimized handhelds experienced significant decreases in consumer spending and packaged game shipments due to seasonality.”

[Via: App Annie] [Img: What Up Nintendo]

“Microsoft is preparing to update its Xbox 360 with another dashboard update. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s Xbox plans have revealed to The Verge that the dashboard update will enter into a public beta in late June or early July, with changes and updates in preparation for the next-generation Xbox. We’re told that the user interface will be refreshed alongside smaller Live Tiles, similar to what Microsoft is preparing for Windows 8.1. Microsoft is also said to be tweaking the look of the Xbox dashboard, with the possibility of darker or lighter themes.

We understand Microsoft is aiming to ensure Xbox 360 users can transition over to the next-generation console and interact with existing Xbox 360 users using messaging, beacons, and achievements. Microsoft will also phase out the use of its Points system with this dashboard update, replacing it with currency and gift card options. We’re told that the final update will be made available, providing the public beta testing goes to plan, in August.”

Microsoft is being tight lipped for now, but we should get an official word soon. The big reveal of the next version of Microsoft’s is coming up this Tuesday, the 21st. It’s probably a safe bet they’ll be giving the twilight years of the 360 a mention, as well as Games for Windows. Count on Intomobile to give you all the details as soon as we have them!

[Via: The Verge]

This certainly bodes well for the company. The Shield a rather niche product, but it’s a product that not only bridges the gap between mobile and console gaming, but a product that people want to spend their money. We don’t blame them, either. The $349 price point also may not be easy to swallow for some, but it certainly won’t stop the real gamers from throwing down the greenbacks. That’s one of the best things about the Shield, and NVIDIA. The Shield is for gamers, by gamers, and there’s something great about that.

If you’re already sold on the NVIDIA Shield, you can now get your pre-order on now and not have to wait until next monday, and you better do so fast. The device is getting more and more buzz, so pre-ordering the device is a good option if you want to be the first to get the device.

Be sure to hit up NVIDIA’s blog post below for more details!

Who is pre-ordering the Shield today?

[Via: NVIDIA Blog]

Sega announced the release today on its blog:

“We are happy to announce that the original Sonic the Hedgehog has been remastered and is now available on Android and iOS! Android users have long waited for this classic to appear and today is the day. iOS users who bought the original will be treated to a free update with new features, updates, and more. Following in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Sonic CD in 2011, the original Sonic The Hedgehog game has received an equally robust overhaul! Sonic fans on iOS and Android will see the game better than ever with new widescreen support and can to zoom through Zones at a smooth 60 frames per second. The all-new update allows gamers to unlock Tails and Knuckles as playable characters for the very first time! That’s not all – Sonic enthusiasts will also enjoy a remastered original soundtrack, new leaderboards, achievements, and an all-new Time Attack mode.”

I have a confession to make. I own this game and it’s sequel at least 10 times over. I’ve got at least 2 genesis carts somewhere, it’s on every Sega anthology collection (of which I have several) and I’ve paid to download it on every system that it was available. I’ve probably played Sonic at least every week since I was a little Sega fanboy, only to be eclipsed by Sonic 2.

The Google play store released a remastered version of the excellent Sonic CD awhile back, and Sonic 4 episode 1 and 2 are available (if you must). It’s great to see this classic finally hitting Android. Now, Sega, let’s get Sonic 2!

[Via: Sega Blog]

CULVER CITY, Calif., May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Sony Pictures Entertainment has won the exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the eagerly anticipated Angry Birds animated film, making it one of the most high-profile deals of the year. The 3D film is being developed, produced, and financed by Rovio Entertainment and will be released worldwide by Sony Pictures on July 1, 2016. Several major studios pursued the global film rights in recent weeks, with Sony Pictures Entertainment emerging as the winner.

Michael Lynton , Chairman & CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Amy Pascal , Co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Mikael Hed , CEO of Rovio Entertainment jointly announced their partnership today. John Cohen and David Maisel – producer of Despicable Me and executive producer of Iron Man, respectively – are both on board for the new Angry Birds feature film. Cohen will serve as producer and Maisel is executive producer.

The titular birds and their green pig nemeses got their start on iOS devices back in 2009. But soon the simple yet challenging gameplay and fun cartoon characters had made the game hugely popular and it soon moved to other devices. At this point, there are a myriad of sequels and spin offs on just about any platform you can imagine, and the Birds themed merchandise is flying off the shelf. I guess it was only a matter of time before a movie deal was inked.

Still, the timeline seems a little poorly thought out. Angry Birds might very well remain mega popular into 2016, but it’s a lot to bank on. A film (no matter how terrible -kids will watch anything) this year would be a guaranteed slam dunk at the box office.

[Via: Polygon]