Yesterday EA announced that, in an effort to become more environmentally friendly, it will no longer include printer manuals in game packages. According to EA, this move will reduce printed materials in its packaged goods by 40%.

Now before the fans of printed manuals start to freak out, EA has stated that all future manuals will be released in a digital format. In fact, you will now be able to access the manual while in game via the main menu and pause screens. If you’re like me and prefer read manuals when you’re not playing a game, EA will also make full digital versions available in multiple languages in the game manuals section on EA’s support site. Read more… »

You can buy food and water with money. Food and water are good things because they keep you alive. Or, you can buy video games. Video games are a good thing, too, in our opinion.

Although, when you’ve popped that disc in, it’s close to heartbreak and hand wringing when you find your $60 have been wasted on unbearable gameplay, horrendous graphics and a wet-paper-thin storyline. It has become common practice to take the game back to GameStop (or now Best Buy) to get your money back. What’s even more aggravating, however, is the knowledge that you’re only getting a fraction of what you paid, yet they’re going to turn around and sell it at near-new prices.

Gamestaq feels your pain. Instead of sticking it to you, they only charge a $1-2 stipend, letting you pocket the money made on the sale (a good thing, we’ve established). All is well until you dig a little deeper to find that there is a perpetual dark cloud hovering over this re-sale oasis.

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Exactly one week ago I wrote up a little news story about how Rebellion Games was opening up a new social games division. At the end of the article I asked you guys if you thought more game developers were going to follow in Rebellion’s footsteps. Well, those of you who said yes were correct.

Today, developer Insomniac (best known for Resistance and Ratchet & Clank) announced that it has opened up a new social gaming division. Dubbed Insomniac Click, the new development studio will focus on creating games for the web and mobile devices. Read more… »

The free handouts, the big reveals, the hands-on demos — none of these should be the reason why you’re kicking yourself for not attending PAX East this year. She is the reason. She is the reason many times over.

This woman’s smart, PhD from UC Berkeley smart. She understands + 1 relates to skill or gil or rupees, not some abstract and meaningless mathematical equation. Her name is Jane McGonigal, and it won’t be too hard to pick her out of the crowd in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. She’ll be the one on stage giving the keynote speech. Do you need more credentials? Here they are.

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Today UK developer Rebellion Games, best known for their Aliens vs. Predator games, announced that it has opened up a new social division. This new branch of Rebellion will be responsible for creating games for Facebook and other social media outlets.

When asked about this new division, Co-founder Jason Kingsley said, “One thing that has become increasingly clear over the last few years is that gamers can’t be defined as just people who own consoles. People who use social media like Facebook or use smart phones all play games and this is an exciting opportunity that we want to explore.” Read more… »

As some of you may know, the website GJAIF has posted an article regarding a piece we put up in the last twenty four hours, that some felt…was unseemly…to say the least. I want to clarify Gamer Limit’s stance on these types of articles.  Some time ago, I released an article titled “Resident Evil is Racist” – it contained a number of jokes that were racially sensitive (including Caucasians). Sadly, I had to put a disclaimer on it, because I knew that some people would take it seriously, and rage into the depths of Brinstar. Ever since I took over for the site, myself, and my subsequent Editors, have made it clear that it Gamer Limit is not a venue for pure offensive content for the sake of being offensive – there are plenty of other outlets for that. It is our general policy to state “this is a parody”, to prevent new users from being turned off from our great community.

I can vouch for Kyle’s character, and safely say that he is a good guy, who clearly didn’t mean any harm. Gamer Limit, as an entity, is never out “just for hits”, or “to shock people” – the article was a parody. However, parody as it may be, it was posted to the front page without proper review, and for that, I apologize – as a general rule we do not allow lists on the site, and this one slipped by (as a cynic, I would find that hard to believe, but hey, this is coming from a cynic!). For the past few years, I believe myself and my cohorts have ran a pretty tight ship, but you can’t stop everything, especially for a smaller, independent site such as ourselves. We do have a proper procedure for “OKing” these types of articles through our staff forums, where a number of staffers are able to look at a particular topic, to see if it’s something that fits our mission statement. However, Kyle should not have to apologize for the actual content of the article, as it clearly was a parody, which our site’s history will reflect (as will this commenter – Thanks Anonymous!).

Watchdogs as a whole are great for the industry, but our contact information is directly posted on the site, and fairly easy to access. It would have been really easy to reach out to me for a comment before grabbing your pitchfork, and walking off into the sunset. I’m always available for comment via email if you have any questions regarding our content in the future. I also read GJAIF on a weekly basis, so imagine my surprise when we were plastered all over it!

Edit: I should also probably take the time to thank GJAIF for holding people accountable for their actions. While the methodology is sometimes rudimentary (as in this case), the fact that it is happening at all is a sign of good times for the gaming industry as a whole. The methodology itself is just about as developed as the industry is – which is to say, GJAIF are brave souls for venturing out into this unknown territory.

Edit 2: The comments were getting out of hand, to the point of cruelty, so I closed off the comment section. However, some took this as a sign of shutting out criticism, so I’m unlocking them. Please refrain from personally insulting Kyle, and the comments will stay open. I rolled the post back, so some comments late last night are lost in the abyss – feel free to write back if you had something – nothing was hand deleted.

-Chris Carter
EIC

[correction: After some Twitter back and forth with Brenda Brathwaite herself, it was made clear that the engine for Ravenwood Fair was indeed NOT developed by the folks who worked on Wizardry. In actuality, it was coded by a one Sean Cooper, who, according to Moby Games, is behind many EA titles like Populous, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper Gold. One must note that Brenda Brathwaite herself is behind Wizardry, the title noted in this feature.]

The first SF Game Developer’s Workshop (SFGDW) of 2011 gave us a tremendous surprise as legend John Romero, designer of such highly regarded titles as Doom and Quake, took the podium to give a post mortem of his latest title Ravenwood Fair. Now, here’s the surprise: it’s a Facebook social game.

Several hundred people gathered in a hot room at the San Francisco Art Institute Tuesday to learn how Romero and Lolapps creative director Brenda Brathwaite (just as legendary) created a game that has earned more than 10 million monthly average users (MAU) since its release in October. Ultimately, they came to learn how the game changes the way we view the social space, as it essentially marries AAA qualities with that of the viral.

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Yesterday Activision announced some news that has some pretty major effects on the gaming industry. First off, the publisher has canceled the open-world action title True Crime: Hong Kong.

While this may be upsetting to some gamers, the real heavy hitting news is that Activision has eliminated its Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises “due to continued declines in the music genre.” Both teams working on the GH and DJH franchises have been hit with “severe layoffs.” Read more… »

Quite a claim, isn’t it?  Microsoft chief financial officer Peter Klein made a statement during a conference call that the company’s own Kinect is the “fastest selling consumer electronic in history”.  That would make Kinect a faster seller than every other game console of this generation.

Klein also said during the call that that Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division has grown 55% in the past year. The division, which generated $3.7 billion in revenue in Q4 of 2010, encompasses Xbox 360 and PC gaming, the Zune, and the recently released Windows Phone 7.  Growth has been attributed to the sale of 6.3 million Xbox 360 consoles during the holiday season, an increase of 21% from last year, as well as the sale of 8 million Kinect sensors in the first 60 days of launch.

What do you think, readers?

Source: Venture Beat

Now, it can’t be shiny if it hasn’t been launched yet. With that context, this article’s title is a misnomer. There are several reasons why, however, when amazon.com’s Appstore is launched, it will make Apple’s squint — if not from the shine, then from the sheer affront of invading its personal space to convert iPhone owners into Android enthusiasts. More after the jump.

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Remember when my good buddy Curtis Takaichi wrote up a news post about Ubisoft and their terrible plans for PC DRM? You know what I’m talking about, the DRM that requires your PC to maintain a constant Internet connection in order for you to play your game. Well after almost a year, the publisher has started to loosen up.

Now Ubisoft games (Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction in particular) will no longer pause instantly if a connection drops out. It is important to note that you still need to be connected to the Internet when launching the game so that Ubisoft can validate the install. Read more… »

There are several lucky people out there who didn’t have to get up and go to work on Monday, January 3rd — 2011′s first official business day. Those much envied few instead had the luxury of staying in bed, sleeping off the extra two days of partying that the rest of us didn’t get to enjoy. Perhaps they used Monday as yet another day of getting down.

Nevertheless, the hangover may have just set it. The world is spinning. The stomach has now begun on its long and arduous journey back to normalcy. For those of you who missed it (no matter if you were dozing at work or if you just drank your last martini like the guy above) 2011′s first Monday was an eventful day in the gaming world. Part hangover cure and part video game, Gamer Limit brings you the New Years News Mashup designed to ease you back into the gaming world one step at a time.

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