Just as Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) CEO Brian Krzanich opens the regular staff meetings before a dramatically reduced IDF2015 Shenzhen conference, it is a good time to review how government and enterprises don’t see eye to eye when it comes to strategic business.

China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer is world’s fastest supercomputer, at 33 PFLOPS demonstrated and 55 PFLOPS theoretical performance.

Remember the Tianhe-2 machine at Guangzhou Supercomputer Center, the current World’s number one according to Top 500 Supercomputer list? Unlike some other China supercomputers – Tianhe-2 is fully Intel based machine,  the world’s largest assembly of Intel Xeon CPUs and Xeon Phi accelerators.

Even after Intel ‘opened the kimono’ and gave a nearly 70%  discount on its processors and accelerators, it has given Intel, and therefore US technology sector a major foothold in China and Asian region as such. Over the course of past two years, we were involved in a lot of discussions with Intel staff who were not privy to see the financial impact of the deal — and even argued our undoubtedly solid information. We’re not here to report how things should be, or are in marketing and investor presentations to its numerous staff, but how things really are.

During 2015, the Tianhe-2 supercomputer was supposed to be doubled in its size, up to 110 PFLOPs peak, again using the very same Intel processors and accelerators. Since now these are mature products with lower real manufacturing cost for Intel, they could finally make some real money.

Well, it was not to be: our tweety bird from the window chirped to us that Uncle Sam has put this supercomputer centre, together with National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, the system’s creators, and Tianjin centre, among others, on so a so-called “Denial List”, which prevents any high technology from the USA to be sold to these sites. Our sources used even harsher words.

Knowing that these several sites alone are expected to order some 250+ PFLOPS of compute in the next few years (around 500,000 top-end Broadwell-EP Xeon E5v4 processors, or  approximately $1 billion high margin list price) and they were THE Intel friendly ones, this is quite a loss to Intel, thanks to Uncle Sam.

But, what’s worse strategic loss in time is that, based on this decision as an excuse, indigenous China high end processor architectures can now push the government to gradually remove any dependence on US. This means just one thing: an AMD or Intel x86 processor technology is increasingly becoming errata non grata. Should the Chinese government react in force, it will give the Chinese vendors the blank check support to go all the way a developing their Alpha, POWER and MIPS processors for both the government and the mainstream commercial use.

You may think they are not up to the mark, but remember how fast British ARM architecture became the dominant processing architecture in the world. And this group doesn’t need to worry about the antiquated x86 ISA, worry about satisfying the dumbed down shareholder masses, or overpaying their marketing and sales staff, as well as the fat check, golden parachute-protected CxOs.

They have taken the best that the USA has developed (some of key Alpha, GPGPU and MIPS architects left US over the course of past four years, a lot of them due to non-renewed visas) and discarded due to corporate shenanigans, and the continued developing it much farther than anyone expected both on hardware and software side.

Five years ago, ShenWei showed a CPU that performed faster than the fastest GPUs of the time. Now, fifth generation is approaching, slotting between Tesla and FirePro GPGPUs and next-gen Xeon Phi accelerators. However, this is not an accelerator or a GPGPU – this is a CPU.

So, thanks to Uncle Sam, China might not have a 110 PFLOPS Intel based supercomputer but it definitely will launch a 100 PFLOPS system based on upcoming 64-core, TFLOPS-class ShenWei Alpha, with true blue CPUs possibly faster per socket then even the next generation Xeon Phi or Volta/Pascal-based Teslas.  Next, of course 100 PFLOPS Chinese POWER8 or 9 — (thank you IBM) and then possibly even Loongson MIPS – -it may come back into the high end field with renewed government support because of this Uncle Sam move. All are clean, elegant, scalable high end RISC architectures.

So who are the winners and losers from this?

NUDT and Tianhe may be the losers for now, but only short term. They will simply speed up their HPC ARM plan.

Intel comes out the big loser from this and a lot: who will want to do a phased deployment large x86 machine in China now, and worry about future phases? Then comes Uncle Sam himself: they lost even that little bit of influence on the high end China HPC. How is that for “cutting your nose to spite your face?”.

VR WORLD’s  Analysis: US government moves accelerate the Chinese CPU roadmap while curtailing juiciest sales for Intel and other US vendors.

The post Uncle Sam Shocks Intel With a Ban on Xeon Supercomputers in China appeared first on VR World.

The 2015 Shenzhen Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Developer Forum kicks off Tuesday, the second event Intel is hosting in the city.

Like its San Francisco counterpart, IDF Shenzhen was a very mobile-centric event. At last year’s event, Brian Krzanich, the company’s CEO, made some very aggressive promises.

But one year later, where is Intel on these promises?

40 Million Intel Tablets in 2014

Without a doubt the most aggressive promise Intel made at IDF Shenzhen 2014 was shipping 40 million Intel powered tablets in 2014.

The tablet SoC market is dominated by ARM’s (LON: ARM) silicon. To grow that much in one year would be a herculean task for any company, and many analysts thought it would be an impossible task. But in January 2015 Intel announced that it had met, and even beaten, its goal: 46 million.

But to get to that goal Intel paid a handsome cost that would be impossible for any of its competitors even consider undertaking. In its yearly earnings call in January Intel said that is mobile and communications division posted a loss of $4.21 billion for the 2014 fiscal year. Income for the division for the year was razor thin, only coming in at $202 million.

However for Intel this was total war. Posting this kind of loss was an acceptable cost for achieving victory.

This goal was intended to establish Intel Architecture in the marketplace,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said during the company’s earnings call. “We don’t need to go out and outpace the market for this year,” he continued. “A key goal for mobility is to improve profitability.”

This strategy pushed Intel’s x86 competitor out of the market entirely. Although AMD never really was a contender in the tablet space, the company decided to concede the market entirely once it realized the lengths Intel was willing to go to achieve dominance in the market.

“We’re evaluating [tablets] closely. It’s not our priority,” Kevin Lensing, senior director for mobility solutions at AMD, said in a November interview. Lensing explained that the margins just were not there for AMD to justify its attempts at entering the market, on top of Intel’s aggressive behavior.

Now that Intel has hit its goal, the question is: can it make a profit?

Intel’s $100 Million China Bet

The other big announcement from Intel at IDF Shenzhen 2014 was the establishment of a $100 million “China Smart Device Innovation Fund” and innovation center to help Chinese vendors jumpstart their mobile ambitions with Intel cash and know-how.

Tracking the deliverables surrounding this promise has been a bit tricky, as Intel’s bigger China-themed announcements this year such as the $1.5 billion investment in Tsinghua Unigroup have pushed it to the sidelines.

To date Intel has disbursed $28 million from the $100 million pot. The list of companies that have received the funds, and what projects they have used them for, has not been widely publicized.

It’s also understood that the company’s innovation center is not going as planned. Sources said Kirk Skaugen’s platform development center in Shenzhen was supposed to have 600 engineers, and to date it’s understood that there are only 150. In addition key high-level R&D personnel have returned to the United States.

What’s in store for this year?

This year’s IDF event is a much shorter affair than last year. With Intel no longer as hungry for market wins as it was last year, it’s doubtful that it will be as high profile as the year prior.

The conference’s first keynote kicks off Wednesday morning.

The post IDF Shenzhen 2015: Did Intel Keep Its Promises From Last Year? appeared first on VR World.

The shadowy merchant Xur is back again with a fresh batch of exotic wares to peddle in Destiny‘s Tower of Guardians, and he really doesn’t have anything too exciting this time around.

Notable selections from the Agent of the Nine’s weekly inventory include a decent Defender Titan helm, a body armor exotic engram that could drop a Heart of the Praxic Fire for your Sunsinger, and a fantastic Achlyophage Symbiote upgrade with 127 max Discipline.

Xur’s inventory selection for Week 30 lasting from April 3 – 4, 2015.

Other goodies include a decent Crest of Alpha Lupi Titan variant, as well as a ton of weapon upgrade repeats like impressive combo Bad Juju pulse rifle and the Arc-infused Thunderlord machine gun.

As far as location, for Week 30 the interstellar tradesman can be found in one of his usual haunts outside of the Speaker’s quarter.

This week Xur is in the western quadrant of the Tower, outside of the Speaker’s quarters next to the railing.

It looks like Heavy Ammo Synthesis are here to stay, priced at their usual exchange rate of 1SC per stack of five. As far as Telemetry models go, Xur has Pulse Rifle, Fusion Rifle and Rocket Launcher EXP boosters up for grabs for 1SC per five-stack.

Without further adieu let’s jump right into our analysis of Xur’s exotic wares for April 3 (Week 30) and find out if his wares are worth your hard-earned strange coins or not.

“Everything is luminous.”

The Glasshouse – 13 Strange Coins

• Class: Titan (Defender)
• Upgrade Mats: Helium Fragments, Exotic shard (last tier)
• Min Level: 20
• Type: Helmet
• Defense: 407/447
• Intellect: 110/118
• Rain Blows: Increases melee attack speed
• Quintessence Transfer: Replenish Super energy when you kill an enemy with a grenade.
• Bathed in light: Blessing of Light and Weapons of Light last longer.

Should You Buy It?

Yes, if you’re a Defender Titan.

The Glasshouse is a very useful utility-grade exotic that serves a very specific purpose: to boost your Weapons of Light for extra damage. This is particularly useful during raids like the Vault of Glass Aetheron battle or high-level Strikes where high-output damage is key.

The Quintessence Transfer mod is pretty useful too especially if you have the Magnetic Grenade equipped. Basically you’ll get something extra out of kills you’d already be getting thanks to the grenade, and get to use your shield more often.

It’s something that every Defender Titan should have in their arsenal, but it doesn’t replace the Helm of Saint-14 for everyday use. The higher-end Intellect roll is also a nice touch that further boosts your bubble shield recharge.

“Amputated from a creature that stumbled out of a Vex gate. A vestigial defensive reflex still remains.”

Don’t Touch Me – 13 Strange Coins

• Class: Hunter (Any)
• Upgrade Mats: Spinmetal, Exotic shard (last tier)
• Min Level: 20
• Type: Gauntlets
• Defense: 333/366
• Discipline: 77/83
• Special Weapon Loader: Increases reload speed of all Special Weapons.
• Inverse Shadow: Cooldown for Super Ability is reduced by 2.5 seconds per kill of minions of the Darkness.
• Defensive Reflex: Taking damage from a melee attack makes you briefly invisible.

Should You Buy It?

Maybe.

These pair of gauntlets are strictly PVE, so it depends on what kind of character your Hunter is. That being said, this particular exotic is incredibly useful during the first segment of the Crota’s End raid where you’re running blind for the lamps.

Basically every time you get smacked by a Thrall you turn invisible, which pretty much allows you to keep gaining ground without taking too much damage. And considering how many thralls there are to hit you, the part becomes pretty easy to just sneak past.

But Don’t Touch Me aren’t useful as a main item–they’re not going to replace your Mask of the Third Man or Golden Gun-adding Achlyophage Symbiote.

“When one can wield the fire of stars, what use is flesh and bone?”

Sunbreakers – 13 Strange Coins

• Class: Warlock (Sunsinger)
• Upgrade Mats: Helium Filaments Exotic shard (last tier)
• Min Level: 20
• Type: Gauntlets
• Defense: 333/366
• Intellect: 79/85
• Special Weapon Loader: Increases the reload speed of all Special Weapons.
• Serpent’s Tail: Causing damage with a melee reduces your grenade cooldown.
• Helium Cycle: Increase the duration of your Solar Grenade.

Should You Buy It?

Maybe, but there are better Sunsinger class exotics.

The Sunbreakers are good gauntlets for the Sunsinger class, but you have better options like the Heart of The Praxic Fire which makes Radiance incredibly potent. Another better option is the Claws of Dire Ahamkara gauntlets which grant you an extra Scorch charge, meaning you’ll get two opportunities to trigger your Flame Shield.

The Sunbreakers are pretty much a tier three item, and they’re okay, plus the stat roll is in the middle so if you don’t have anything else, go for it. Otherwise keep on the look out for those other items and stick with what you have for now.

“Burn the world. Burn it all.”

Dragon’s Breath – 17 Strange Coins

• Upgrade Mats: Spirit Bloom, Exotic shard (last tier)
• Min Level: 20
• Type: Rocket Launcher
• Damage: 302 (Solar Elemental Damage)
• • Smart Drift Control: Predictable and controllable recoil. Penalty to Velocity.
    • Linear Compensator: More predictable recoil. Slight boost to Velocity and Blast Radius. More recoil.
    • Confined Launch: Greatly reduced recoil. Significant penalty to Velocity.
  • Tripod: This launcher’s tube can hold three shells.
  • Upgrade Damage: Increases Attack Power, allowing this weapon to cause more damage.
  • Quickdraw: This weapon can be drawn unbelievably fast.
    • Javelin: Increases warhead velocity.
    • Heavy Payload: Increases warhead blast radius.
  • Pyromancer :Rounds fired from this weapon leave a Solar Flare upon detonation.

Should You Buy It?

No, save your coin.

The real downside with Dragon’s Breath is that it takes up your exotic weapon slot for a very conditional type of weapon. This rocket launcher is primarily used as a “area denial” solution by leaving a Solar Flare (just like the Warlock’s ability) which delivers damage over time in a specific area.

In PVP you can use it to shoot at an area you want enemies to stay away from, as the explosion leaves behind that damage-dealing flare, pretty much cutting off that particular pathway.

This rocket launcher is curious, and is more for strategic use rather than total annihilation, but it does have a huge blast radius.

Exotic Shard – 7 Strange Coins

Body Armor Exotic Item Engram – 23 Motes of Light

Armor Upgrades

Achlyophage Symbiote (Helmet)

Stellar upgrade here, buy this one if you’re in the market for an upgrade. Achlyophage Symbiote is amazing for all Gunslingers, as that extra Golden Gun shot helps in every single game mode, from PVP to PVE. The extra shot is a constant source of recurring value.

• Cost: 7177 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Class: Hunter (Gunslinger)
• Light: 30/36
• Discipline: 119/127
• Defense: 407/447

Lucky Raspberry (Chestpiece)

Lower Intellect stat roll, so pass it up. The Lucky Raspberry is a very useful tool that arms you with more rocket and fusion rifle ammo (works with Vex Mythoclast) for PVE raids. Plus you instantly spawn with full grenade energy in PVP. And your Arc-infused grenade’s chain lightning effect stretches further outward, making it a good PVP finisher.

• Cost: 7393 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Class: Hunter (Bladedancer)
• Light: 30/36
• Intellect: 121/130
• Defense: 444/488

Crest of Alpha Lupi (Chestpiece)

Proper high Intellect stat roll, so upgrade it if you have the extra shard laying around. The item’s worth is conditional, but spawning extra orbs can help out in boss fights as well as taking down Crota on Hard difficulty.

• Cost: 7547 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Class: Titan (Any)
• Light: 30/36
• Intellect: 148/159
• Defense: 444/488

No Backup Plans (Gauntlets)

Middle tier Strength roll here, so pass it up for now. You don’t want to invest the Exotic Shard and Glimmer cost until you see a fantastic Strength buff. No Backup Plans are pretty useful for Defender Titans, and stack with defense melee skills to make the Force Barrier overshield a powerful extra line of defense.

• Cost: 7759 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Class: Titan (Defender)
• Light: 30/36
• Strength: 80/86
• Defense: 333/366

Apotheosis Veil (Helmet)

The stat roll here is decent, but with a registered max of 128 Discipline, this particular RNG helmet isn’t anything amazing. The Apotheosis Veil is another conditionally useful item that is best equipped during Raids or other high-stakes activities. It allows the wearer to regenerate health from various triggers.

• Cost: 7013 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Class: Warlock (Any)
• Light: 30/36
• Discipline: 93/100
• Defense: 407/447

Sunbreakers (Gauntlets)

Another “meh” roll here, so save your Glimmer and shards. We’ve already weighed the value of the Sunbreakers above, and the extra defense boost isn’t worth the cost.

• Cost: 7549 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Class: Warlock (Sunsinger)
• Light: 30/36
• Intellect: 80/86
• Defense: 333/366

Weapon Upgrades

Bad Juju (Pulse Rifle)

Bungie has just buffed up Pulse Rifles quite a bit in 1.1.1 so now’s a good time as any to upgrade. Bad Juju on its own is pretty damn effective and is a great go-to weapon for Voidwalker Warlocks when used in tandem with the Obsidian Mind helmet. With this combo you’ll get instant reloads and build up your super after kills, and gain more energy from killing Hive enemies thanks to the Obsidian Mind.

You can also use Bad Juju effectively with the Skull of Dire Ahamkara to build some serious super energy.

• Cost: 7019 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Attack: 302/331 (Kinetic damage)
• Magazine: 24

MIDA Multi-Tool (Scout Rifle)

Upgrade this one. The MIDA Multi-Tool is already amazing, and with extra damage it becomes even more amazing. Essentially it’s a fast-shooting, fast-reloading mid to long-range rifle that empowers you with extra speed when equipped. And the best part is that it gives you a Third Eye that lets you see your radar when you’re scoping down the sights.

• Cost: 7459 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Attack: 302/331 (Kinetic damage)
• Magazine: 21

Thorn (Handcanon)

Pick this upgrade up. Even when it’s not upgraded Thorn is a very powerful weapon. Sure it’s not as good as the all-star Hawkmoon, but it does the job quite well thanks to its lingering damage and Send It perks. The extra damage is well worth restarting all over again.

Plus there’s even word that Thorn might somehow combo with the Hunter’s Tripmine-boosting Young Ahamkara’s Spine gauntlets

• Cost: 7673 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Attack: 302/331 (Kinetic damage)
• Magazine: 9

Patience and Time (Sniper Rifle)

Upgrading this one depends on how much you like it. That extra damage boost will come in handy to be sure, and thanks to the active camoflage, the gun is pretty flexible in a variety of situations. Basically it’s the ultimate sniper rifle for stealthy assassins.

• Cost: 7561 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Attack: 302 / 331 (Arc damage)
• Magazine: 4

Thunderlord (Machine Gun)

Great opportunity to get that extra damage buff on an already amazing machine gun. The Thunderlord is a great go-to weapon in PvP or during Weeklies when Arc Burn is up, and is one of the best heavy machine guns in the game because it packs a powerful punch as well as retains accuracy.

Essentially it combines everything you’d want to see in this type of weapon: power, speedy reloads, and amazing stability. Plus the Lightning Rounds perk makes the gun become more accurate the longer you fire it. Win-win.

• Cost: 7681G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Attack: 302 / 331 (Arc damage)
• Magazine: 38

Super Good Advice (Machine Gun)

Apart from the Arc-infused Thunderlord, Super Good Advice is Destiny‘s other badass machine gun. It returns missed shots to its clip with the Super Good Advice perk, deals bonus damage every time you kill an enemy, packs a Solar-powered wallop, and can reload amazingly fast.

• Cost: 7817 G, 1 Exotic Shard
• Attack: 302 / 331 (Solar damage)
• Magazine: 58

Curios

• Pulse Rifle Telemetry - Stack of 5x per 1 Strange Coin

• Fusion Rifle Telemetry - Stack of 5x per 1 Strange Coin

• Rocket Launcher Telemetry - Stack of 5x per 1 Strange Coin

• Heavy Ammo Synthesis - Stack of 5x per 1 Strange Coin

• Plasma Drive Vehicle Upgrade - 23 Strange Coins

• “Emerald Coil” Vehicle Upgrade - 23 Strange Coins

The post Destiny: Analysis Of Xur’s Exotic Wares For April 3 (Week 30) appeared first on VR World.

April 1st’s new Nintendo Direct is pretty hefty, and Nintendo has made some pretty sizable announcements throughout the showcase.

Join us as we take a look at the most exciting reveals and highlights from the coverage, including Nintendo 64 and DS games coming to Wii U’s Virtual Console (finally!) along with new Amiibo waves, a standalone NFC scanner for 3DS and 2DS handhelds, a brand new Animal Crossing and footage from the Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover.

Other goodies include a confirmed Mario Maker release date, a poll for future Super Smash Bros. characters, a Splatoon Amiibo three-pack, new portable “Amiibo cards”, an amazing new trailer for the 3DS Fire Emblem game, and more.

Without further adieu, let’s jump right in starting with the Wii U Virtual Console news.

The Wii U’s Virtual Console presence is getting a much needed expansion with N64 and Nintendo DS games.

Wii U Virtual Console News

One of the biggest announcements during the showcase was that Nintnedo 64 and DS games are officially coming to the Wii U Virtual Console.

This represents a huge opportunity for the company to expand its beleaguered cross-platform digital service, which is actually quite underwhelming in its current state.

The Wii U will have a variety of different layout options for both N64 and DS games.

But how will Nintendo 64 and DS emulation work with the Wii U Gamepad?

Nintendo will provide a host of dual-screen options for both platforms, so the same screen is mirrored across both the TV and Gamepad. But some games will be different and use your TV as the main screen, allowing the Gamepad or Pro controller to be used as the controller.

Other games will use “both screens as one connected screen”, meaning the Gamepad will be an accessory screen rather than simply mirrored.  As for Nintendo DS emulation, users can flip the Wii U Gamepad vertically to simulate the handheld’s dual-screen layout.

Custom button mapping is supported across N64 Virtual Console games.

Also Nintendo 64 games on the Virtual Console will let you map your own buttons for customized control schemes, which is a great option considering how different the Gamepad is from the original N64 controller.

The first Virtual Console games will be Super Mario 64 and Yoshi’s Island DS both priced at $10 and are available now on the Wii U’s Virtual Console shop.

Nintendo 64 games will be priced at $10-12 whereas Nintendo DS games will cost $7-10. But if you already own the games on the Wii’s Virtual Console and transfer them over to your Wii U, each game will be reduced to $2.

Other Wii U VC games include:

• Yoshi Touch & Go (DS) - April 9 – $9.99

• WarioWare Touched! (DS)- April 9 – $9.9

• Donkey Kong 64 (N64) - April 16 – $9.99

• Mario Kart DS (DS) - April 23 – $9.99

• Paper Mario (DS) - April 30 – $9.99

The post Nintendo Direct Wii U And 3DS Announcement Wrap-Up appeared first on VR World.

It’s not uncommon for big AAA games to have enormous budgets that are often bigger than blockbuster movies. Consider the budgets for Destiny, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Grand Theft Auto V. Respectively these games have budgets of $500 million, $275 million and $268 million.

With budgets like this these games have to be big hits that appeal to mass audiences. They need to be flashy, action-packed adventures that appeal to anyone. In essence, they need to be the summer blockbuster material.

But games like this do not appeal to everyone. Just as some have tired of the endless supply of Marvel Comics movies that dominate summer release schedules, many want games that appeal that take risks with both the narrative and gameplay. Convincing a big studio to take a risk and fund a game like this isn’t the easiest of tasks — impossible if you don’t already have the right connections — which has given rise to the Kickstarter gaming economy.

Rise of the indies

The perception that big studios are drowning out creativity and leaving the industry with a creative deficit has led to a strong Kickstarter-backed gaming community pushing out indie games. These are games that aren’t pushing to have the cutting-edge graphics, or multi-platform releases. These are games that push the envelope of narrative and interaction creativity.

“Working in independent games right now, it feels like there’s infinite potential in any direction,” indie game designer Robin Arnott is quoted as saying in the trailer to new video game documentary GameLoading: Rise of the Indies.

Kickstarter developers are not constrained by the need for their projects to become massive commercial successes. While some games utilize cutting-edge engines such as the Unreal Engine 4 or the CryTek engine (made possible by the indie-friendly license fees both have), others take a step back and incorporate retro-style 8-bit graphics.

Big studios taking notice

The rise of indie gaming has not gone unnoticed by big game studios. While initially some indie developers were ‘refugees’ from creativity-starved studios, now studios are developing publishing brands to give indies a wider release. In many ways this is like how major studios such as Fox (NASDAQ: FOX) have developed spin-off brands for indie films like Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Consider the case of Valiant Hearts, a 2D-side scroller set in the trenches of the First World War with a strong anti-war message. Neither the First World War nor side scrollers are very marketable when compared to Call of Duty style first-person shooters, but the game’s developers, who work at Ubisoft (EPA: UBI), got the publishing giant to greenlight the game and release it earlier this year.

Yoan Fanise, the game’s Content Director, explained to Kotaku, explained he got the game approved by Ubisoft’s CEO after a successful pitch meeting.

“Our luck was that Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft himself, was emotionally touched by the story. He was a constant support for us,” Fanise explained to Kotaku. “The First World War itself is not a theme with a very wide appeal. It’s even less appealing in 2D, and even less again with no gun in your hands, so we had to constantly be knocking on doors to even exist alongside Ubisoft’s blockbusters.”

Fansie believes that eventually the game industry will evolve to incorporate more challenging, indie title as gamers’ tastes mature.

“The movie industry has the exact same problem, but is more mature and is often willing to take bigger risks. I think it’s time for our industry to grew up and be less scary about original ideas, or trying new things,” he explained.

The future of the industry

While examples like Valiant Hearts show that big studios are taking note of the rise of indie games, in many ways the indie game industry is fine without them. It used to be that big publishers played a key role in game development: you needed access to their capital to develop the game, and without their distribution network you couldn’t get your product to customers.

But Kickstarter and digital distribution platforms such as Steam have changed that; they have democratized the industry and leveled the playing field so that merit — not connections — matter when getting an idea for an indie game off the ground.

There will always be cases such a Valiant Hearts where a big studio steps in, but there are too many cases of successful game developers doing just fine without them to say that big studios play a pivotal role in the future of indie gaming. Now, it’s all about artists and developers.

The post The Rise and Rise of Kickstarter Indie Games appeared first on VR World.

2015 is shaping up to be a pretty substantial year for console gaming, with each of the three leading consoles–Wii U, Xbox One and PlayStation 4–receiving a nice variety of titles.

While most games on the list are cross-platform, there are a few timed exclusives as well as console exclusives to boot, and we weigh which games look to be solid hits that gamers are anticipating.

Since the gaming industry is in a sort of creative standstill as far as original content goes, most of the hotly anticipated games are sequels and continuations of popular franchises. To start things off, though, we do have an a rather distinctive indie that’s captured our collective imaginations to redefine what a sci-fi game can be.

No Man’s Sky is one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, bringing a true sense of sci-fi and fantasy with a completely randomized universe.

1. No Man’s Sky

Release Date: TBD (2015)
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Hello Games
Platform: PS4 (timed exclusive), PC, Xbox One?
Genre: Space Sim, Procedural Universe

No Man’s Sky is one of the most impressive looking games in recent memory, taking a huge leap forward in sci-fi space sims.

Developed by indie studio Hello Games, No Man’s Sky soon took the gaming world by storm when it was revealed at Spike’s VGX 2013 showcase. The indie itself is a beyond-massive game that maintains randomized, procedurally-generated universes that are so big gamers could spend months at time exploring them.

“It’s a real place, a real planet. You can walk for days and days, or depending on the size of the planet, weeks and weeks. Players can play for months on end and still never meet,” Hello Games founder Sean Murray said.

Every planet, star system, and galaxy are unique, complete with exotic flora, fauna and bizarre sci-fi secrets hidden deep within every asteroid, sun or moon. Explore regions to snag precious materials and build up your ship, or scrap

To keep things action-packed, gamers can engage in interstellar ship-to-ship dogfights throughout the cosmos. There might even be alliances and warring factions throughout the universe, and enemies will likely be just as randomized as the environments.

The Witcher 3 is the last chapter in CD Projekt RED’s open-world RPG saga, infused with dark fantasy, magic, and medieval swordplay.

2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Release Date: May 19, 2015
Publisher: WB Games
Developer: CD Projekt RED
Platform:  PS4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: RPG

The Witcher series has always been the premiere dark fantasy RPG, and CD Projekt RED concludes its epic saga with The Wild Hunt.

Few games of this generation tap the raw power and potential of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, showcasing a new era of console performance in all areas: graphics, smooth and steady frame-rate performance, sound quality, and everything else.

The Witcher 3 harkens back to what made the previous Witcher RPG games successful while also streamlining combat to a tee, adding in a wealth of new features and content that promises to keep even the die-hard Geralt fans busy for weeks on end.

Boasting over 200 hours of content, players will traverse multiple landmasses and explore regions that are rife with beauty–from rolling plains to frosty mountain ranges–and tackle a huge array of sidequests to build nobility and foster alliances that shape the world around you.

With the Witcher 3 there’s a true sense of epic magic throughout every turn, but the game makes it clear right from the get-go that this isn’t your fairtale world where princes ride off into the sunset: this is a gritty, dark and bloody world filled with murder, death and chaos, and you’re doing what you can to save it.

CD Projekt RED also wants to turn exploitative DLC on its head, and that’s why they’ve decided to pack every game with 16 packs of free add-on content. Plus they’ve done what they can to equalize performance on all systems, trying to put an end to the “console fanboy wars”, assuring that The Witcher 3 is the “same build” across PS4, Xbox One and PC.

The next in the Xenoblade line, the upcoming Wii U exclusive blends classic RPG and sci-fi sentiments for a truly unique JPRG experience.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles X

Release Date: TBD
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Monolith Soft
Platform: Wii U (exclusive)
Genre: Open-World RPG

Xenoblade Chronicles X represents the preeminent JRPG experience. It’s the ultimate foray into massive open-world content and stylish, innovative battle mechanics, and marries the worlds of epic fantasy with sci-fi majesty.

Monolith Soft’s indirect sequel remains one of the most anticipated and strong titles the Wii U has to offer this year, culminating in a remarkably vivid experience that’s filled with unique combat, a dazzling array of distinct worlds filled with alien flora and fauna, and a compelling story arc that absorbs players into a new frontier world.

The Wii U exclusive has so much to offer that playtesters have clocked in 300 hours of time with their playthroughs, showing just how huge the game really is.

From extremely dynamic battle sequences to deep character customizations and skill sets, XCX whisks you away to a unique world called Mira where humanity has crash-landed and must begin anew.

It’s up to you as a special BLADE operative to recover lost life force energy for the survivors at New Los Angeles, exploring and charting the strange alien planet and tackling juggernaut enemies along the way. You’re in charge in protecting the last vestige of humanity within this new bizarre frontier world, and when the menacing alien threat returns to finish the species off, it’s your duty to rise up and meet them head on.

Everything about the game looks absolutely enchanting, and it’ll assuredly be one of the strongest JRPG’s released in recent memory.

Halo 5 continues Master Chief’s legendary journey, but splinters off into a cryptic arc that delves into the mystery of the iconic hero.

4. Halo 5

Release Date: October 27, 2015
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: 343 Industries
Platform: Xbox One (exclusive)
Genre: Shooter

Halo 5 represents a bold new direction for the landmark shooter. Developer 343 Industries has spun a new story arc that weaves in a new protagonist, the ONI Spartan operative Agent Locke, who’s conscripted to search out and find Master Chief.

Set in a more cryptic tone shrouded with mystery and possible treachery, the ONI spy searches across the galaxy for the legendary warrior, who’s become a shadow throughout the years. And when Locke finally catches up to Spartan-117, things get even more confusing, as you can see in the dual trailers below.

As far as mechanics go, 343i has totally rebuilt Halo’s framework to make competitive multiplayer feel decidedly more “next-gen”.

The team has added in 7 new Spartan abilities that every player has access to that range from simple sprinting to dodge-thrusts straight out of CoD: Advanced Warfare and even a lethal, but tricky, ground-pound maneuver.

After playing the Halo 5 beta in January, I have to say that the new changes feel decidedly stylish and intuitive. These mechanics add a whole new layer of depth and strategy to the game, allowing players to tactically plan out maneuvers on-the-fly.

Not much is known about the campaign in terms of mechanics though. While the new trailers certainly sparked our interest in terms of the story, we haven’t seen any actual gameplay footage of the singleplayer mode in action, but we’ll likely see it at E3 2015.

Gamers are still dubious about trusting 343i after the travesty that is The Master Chief Collection, but for now they’ve piqued our interest and managed to build hype, and the game certainly does have its own unique and elusive flair.

Be sure to drop by Halo 5‘s new ARG #HuntTheTruth campaign for tidbits on the game’s story arc, as they’ll likely fall into place as time goes by.

The post Top 10 Most Anticipated Console Games of 2015 appeared first on VR World.

Uber has been no friend of authorities since its launch. The ride-sharing company has always billed itself as a technology or information company, not a Taxi firm, in order to bypass regulations regarding commercial driver licensing. But according to a report from German language publication Wirtschafts Woche, this will soon be changing.

According to the report, Uber will be providing its drivers in Europe with commercial driver licenses and will be going through the proper steps to license itself as a taxi and chauffeur service.

“We will also pay the €150 to €200 it would cost our partners to have the Chamber of Commerce license them as taxi companies,” Fabien Nestmann, Uber’s chief in Germany is quoted as saying.

It’s not clear if the costs will be passed on to riders.

Uber’s new strategy

For a company of its valuation (which is said to be near $40 billion), Uber’s compliance with local laws regarding taxis and chauffeur services is practically non-existent. One would be hard-pressed to find a company of similar, or any size, that takes the same approach with regulators.  Uber’s libertarian approach to ride sharing and taxi services has its fans, but will ultimately fall on deaf ears with authorities. Though the law may be imperfect, Uber needs to comply with it — it can then lobby lawmakers to perfect it.

No doubt Uber is under pressure from its investors to become compliant with local laws. Investors don’t want to see their $40 billion company become outlawed in major markets around the world, and Uber’s lack of compliance is hindering it from raising its next $40 billion.

While the company will ultimately lose face given its disruptive nature, throughout the year it’s expected that it will take steps to be compliant in the markets where it operates around the world. Uber drivers — the little guys — are the ones that are under the most pressure. They are the ones given the tickets for operating an unlawful taxi service. If Uber wants to keep its personnel and hire new ones it will have to take steps to work with authorities to become compliant.

The post A Whole New Uber? Company Says It Will Comply With Taxi Laws in Germany appeared first on VR World.

While 4K certainly has its uses and benefits on larger displays, the potential use cases on such a small smartphone screen are negligible at best. On an average smartphone screen, which is usually around 5.5-6 inches, the resolution of QHD — let alone 4K — is too great for the eye to appreciate. Apple’s Retina display has a pixel-per inch density of 326. A QHD display on a smartphone would equal something in the range of 538.

A PPI of 538 is far beyond the maximum resolution that the human eye can recognize. There is a bit of controversy as to what the highest practical PPI is for a 5.5 inch screen held 12-18 inches away from the eye, but the consensus holds that it’s 477 PPI at 12 inches and 318 PPI at 18 inches. Of course, holding it closer than 12 inches away from your face would make it difficult to properly focus.

So this means that the iPhone’s Retina resolution introduced in 2010 is the highest practical resolution for a smartphone sized screen. Of course with bigger screens found on phablets and full-on tablets this figure jumps.

QHD and 4K smartphones are impractical

The other issue with QHD and 4K displays on smartphones is the substantial battery drain that comes as a result. Battery technology has reached a ceiling, yet the demands keep on increasing. A QHD or 4K screen requires substantially more push from the SoC to drive a screen of that resolution, which means the SoC will require more battery power for all tasks.

Before the 2015 Mobile World Congress kicked off, Huawei (SHE:002502) announced that it would not be producing 4K smartphones because it simply is not worth the battery drain.

“4K needs a lot of power, so if you use it you have to make compromises. A 4K display on a smartphone may give you half a day of battery life but a 2K display can give you maybe one day or more,” President of the Handset Product Line Kevin Ho is quoted as saying. “4K has four times the pixels of Full HD so the power consumption is maybe 4 or 8 times as much as Full HD so the smartphone has to have compromises with battery life.”

All about competition

Pushing up the resolution of smartphone displays  is not the only way to improve the quality of the screen. There’s much to be done to improve color depth, backlight quality, and the ability for the screen to display in bright conditions.

But the resolution race is a way for vendors to compete with each other. The screen resolution of a device is an easy and digestible metric to understand. But for consumers this resolution race isn’t, in the end, a value add as it does little to increase productivity or performance.   

The post Resolution Overkill: Why QHD and 4K are Too Much for Smartphones appeared first on VR World.

With the recent news of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Jaws of Hakkon DLC being timed exclusive for Xbox One and PC, gamers are once again at the mercy of the strategic business tactic.

And it’s seriously aggravating the community whose paid good money for their games only to be denied content because they don’t own the competitor’s console.

If you play Dragon Age: Inquisition on PS4, then you’ll have to wait an undetermined amount of time before you get the DLC. EA’s (NASDAQ: EA) signed agreement prevents them from even delivering a timeframe, showing just how far these exclusivity deals can go.

We can not discuss when Jaws of Hakkon will be coming on other platforms

— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) March 23, 2015

Instead of creating their own exclusive games for their respective systems, gaming titans like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) have taken to a new game: buying out the rights to have multi-platform games and content come to their consoles first.

The unfortunate future of gaming

Timed exclusivity first manifested itself with Bungie’s huge multi-platform hit Destiny. Sony signed a major deal with Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI) that ensured specific content would be exclusive to PlayStation platforms up until a certain timeframe, punishing Xbox gamers to no end.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a Xbox One timed exclusive, and no one’s sure when it’ll come to PS4.

Microsoft did the same thing with Rise of the Tomb Raider, snagging a deal with Square Enix (TYO: 9684) and Crystal Dynamics that ensured the game would release first on Xbox consoles. We still don’t know when Rise of the Tomb Raider will release on PlayStation 4.

Sony even went so far as to snag a timed-exclusivity deal over No Man’s Sky once it realized how popular the game is in the gaming community.

Then there’s Titanfall 2, which is coming to the PS4 now that Respawn Entertianment is free of the exclusivity deal it signed with Microsoft for the original Titanfall.

It’s a bad and confusing business tactic in terms of consumer relations, as timed exclusivity ultimately alienates your constituency while also building shaky brand loyalty.

So why do it at all?

No Man’s Sky has gained incredible momentum, and remains one of the most anticipated Sony timed exclusives.

Why embrace timed exclusivity?

Console game exclusives don’t have the big payoff they once did. Back in the days of the original Xbox and PlayStation 2, Microsoft and Sony were both able to fire off a ton of first-party exclusives that helped define their brands. And since the games couldn’t be played anywhere else, it worked.

But in today’s industry, multi-platform games reign supreme and exclusives have taken a backseat. The big AAA hits are more accessible than ever, and you often don’t have to have any one system to play them.

Now that multi-platform is a secure bet, publishers are less-inclined to take the risk of developing a game on a single platform, considering they’d be missing out on the revenue streams from sales across all systems.

Sony and Microsoft’s first-party publishers are reticent as well, as they recognize the dynamic shift for cross-platform consumption as a clear threat to their respective regimes.

Every new exclusive is a gamble, and sometimes they can be multi-million dollar bets that don’t pay off, leading to crumbling sales and over-extending projections.

The post Timed Exclusives Are The Future of Gaming appeared first on VR World.

On March 23 Pegatron (TPE: 4938) reported its yearly earnings which were double-digit gains over last year.

Pegatron, which shared responsibility for assembling the iPhone 6 with Hon Hai Precision Industry (TPE:2317), reported a 53.4% jump in profit year-over-year to $466.8 million. An earnings guidance recently released by Hon Hai shows that the company also expects a double-digit profit increase (it will report its earnings when the market closes on March 30).

But both Pegatron and Hon Hai (the parent company of Foxconn) — which compete in some sense — have an underlying problem: the double-digit growth that they have become accustomed to is based on the success of Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) products. Both companies have other lucrative contracts with other vendors, but no other vendor orders the sheer volume that Apple does.

Pegatron’s CEO acknowledges this. When Pegatron reported its earnings earlier this week it acknowledged that nearly 60% of its revenue came from Apple.

“It’s definitely not a good thing to be too concentrated on just a few clients. But you can’t avoid the fact that mobile phones have been fast sellers,” Chief Executive Jason Cheng is quoted as saying. “When good business comes your way, how can you not take it?”

Lessons from Hon Hai

Hon Hai was in a similar situation until last year, and has taken some steps to reduce its dependence on Apple. In 2012, 40% of Hon Hai’s revenue came from Apple as it had the sole responsibility to manufacture the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5s.

Since then Hon Hai has acquired controlling shares in Taiwan’s Asia Pacific Telecom (TPE: 3682) and has made plays to expand into automotive. In late December it had publicly announced it had taken a 10.5% in China Harmony (HKG:3836), a major luxury car dealer in China. Recently it announced that it was partnering with Tencent (HKG:0700) to build electric vehicles that were connected to the Internet of Things. It says it can build electric vehicles for under $15,000 — a significant discount when compared to current models from major manufacturers.

Hon Hai hasn’t publicly stated how much of its overall revenue Apple accounted for, but it’s believed to be in the 25-30% range.

What can Pegatron do?

Hon Hai’s plans to diversify into electric vehicles is very ambitious, and comes at exactly the right time. Choked by smog, China is incentivizing the research and development and production of electric vehicles. Hon Hai already has considerable manufacturing infrastructure in China’s Guangdong province and in Taiwan, and the governments of both countries would be happy to provide subsidies to incentivize scaling up production and creating a supply chain.

But Pegatron lacks the scale of Hon Hai and cannot as easily scale and shift its manufacturing capacity. Instead, Pegatron should adopt just one of Hon Hai’s strategies and invest in allied firms in the same industry. Pegatron could make investments into mobile telecoms, and even finance companies: these are two things that would assist it in becoming a major IoT player. There are also dozens of wearables firms in Taiwan that Pegatron could take a stake in.

Apple will always make up a considerable amount of Hon Hai’s and Pegatron’s revenue. But both companies can become less dependent on Apple through a few smart investments.

The post How Can Taiwan Manufacturers Reduce Their Dependence on Apple? appeared first on VR World.

After a rocky start, the wearable market is finally hitting its stride. The 900-pound gorilla of the Apple Watch is set to launch next month, and the incredible success of the Pebble Time’s crowdsourcing campaign proves there is a demand for wearables.

But what happened between the initial launch of the wearable form factor and today? App stores have matured. Initially the bulk of the apps on the app stores for many wearables were limited to basic sports and health functionalities. This may have appealed to a small, loyal market but the mainstream consumer wants something more. The powers that be have listened, and app stores expanded.

With the broadening of app stores, wearables suddenly came a hot commodity and the market took off.

“Wearable devices have exploded into the consumer consciousness in the last two years and, when use cases become established, they will be the ‘next big thing’ in consumer electronics,” Juniper Research noted in a recent white paper. “Exactly what that ‘thing’ is varies considerably depending on the market segment and purpose of the devices.”

Gartner Research is equally as bullish, predicting that the market will grow to 26 million units in 2016. This is up from a mere 100,000 in 2014.

Considering the chart below from Business Intelligence, there’s a direct correlation between correlation between the strength of the app store and the demand for the specific wearable.

The Pebble’s app store leads the way with approximately 1000 apps. Contrast that to the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, with a paltry 70 apps, and its easy to see the connection.

The next generation of wearables will likely have an even stronger emphasis on apps, as when the market gets more mature it’s bound to get more competitive. Consumers will want their wearables to become more and more independent from their smartphones, and app designers will have to take note and build apps accordingly.

Vendors that fail to nurture the development of robust app stores will be faced with their devices failing to gain altitude. Consumers will simply not be interested in them and will instead pick up something with more app offerings.

The post Want a Successful Wearable? Build It A Solid App Store appeared first on VR World.

The launch of Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) Watch, scheduled in approximately a month, will be a pivotal moment for the company. The Apple Watch will be an entirely new product line for Apple, the first for the notoriously cautious and conservative (when compared with its competition) company since the passing of Steve Jobs in April 2011.

Compared to the competition Apple is late to the game in the smartwatch field. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Samsung’s (KRX:005930) first smartwatch was launched nearly a year and a half ahead of the Apple Watch. Apple has had plenty of opportunity to learn from its failures, and also the success of the Pebble Smartwatch and demand for the Pebble Time.

There will be two factors that drive consumers to buy the Apple Watch: pure aesthetics, and its practicality to enhance productivity.

The Apple Watch comes in a huge variety of flavors and styles, with customizable faces.

There will be a large subset of consumers that buy the smartwatch simply because of its aesthetic. Apple is considered to be a fashionable brand, and there are many consumers who will simply line up to purchase it because of the brand and style. This holds particularly true in China, as demand for Apple’s iPhone 6 was record breaking leading to an underground economy of re-sales from Hong Kong (where it launched well it advance).

But many consumers will be unconvinced that the Apple Watch is a worthwhile purchase unless the device’s App store can prove to be viable, and full of useful, sustainable apps. Consumers that purchase the Apple Watch based on the strength of the app library will make up a larger subset of consumers that purchase the device beyond the initial hype phase.

Apple has already shown off a compelling library of apps at the device’s launch event in early March. At launch there will be apps that let the watch double as a boarding pass, a hotel room key, and even an Uber-hailing device. This is a good start, as when the iPhone launched in 2007 users had to wait months for the corresponding app store to launch.

Given the limitations of the Apple Watch, the majority of the apps that launch on the platform will simply be extensions of existing iPhone apps. For now that’s acceptable, as the Apple Watch is essentially tethered to the iPhone but as the platform matures developers will figure out use cases that are less dependent on the iPhone.

Success is already written, just add the apps

Many naysayers have pointed to Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Glass as reason that the wearable market as a whole is doomed. But, pardon the pun, this is comparing apples to oranges.

Google’s Glass was cursed from the get-go because of privacy concerns and the lack of practicality. At the end of the day, the Apple Watch is still a watch — a tried and true product line. It will still sell partially because of that alone. In contrast, Google’s Glass was something nobody could figure out how to practically use: the idea of strapping a computer to your face didn’t resonate with many.

The Apple Watch just needs a sustainable and in-depth app store. This alone will ensure that different waves of consumers buy the device, guaranteeing its success, not just those looking for a fashionable wrist piece.

The post The Strength of the Apple Watch App Store Will Determine Its Success appeared first on VR World.

Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) cost saving measures continue as it has decided to forgo its own brick and mortar stores and will be closing down the remainder of its stand alone Sony Store as their leases expire. Sony will be mitigating its costs and risks with physical retail locations by moving exclusively to an in-store Sony Experience similar to what Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Samsung (KRX:005935) already do with retail partners. However, this cost saving move may show Sony to be in worst financial straits than anyone with the company’s cares to admit to investors.

Over the last year, Sony has begun exiting shrinking margin technologies in the hopes to recapture market share in its remaining divisions. When the global PC market slowed down, Sony spun off its VAIO PC division to stem the tides of losses as PC sales gave way to Mobile Computing sales as Smart Phones and Tablets became the new kings of daily computing life for the global masses.

Recently, rumors continue to surround Sony selling off its Sony Mobile division as the duopoly in Smart Phone and Tablets continue with Apple and Samsung with anyone else needing to be able to survive multiple years of losses in order to leech market share away.

Shifting focus, but at a cost

At this rate, Sony may even be reconsidering its television hardware division as it continues to lose global market shares and the market continues to be flooded by sets from Samsung, LG, Visio, as well as up and coming manufacturers from China. Over the last few years, Sony has been plagued from a lack of innovation in its product line — as well as a struggle to remain cost-competitive — and it seems that Sony now only cares about its camera line and Playstation hardware segments which are Sony’s last high margin hardware product divisions.

Sony’s focus seems to have switched into entertainment based high margin industries but these are not without its own tribulations. The third-quarter losses were due to its Sony Picture Entertainment division surrounding the high profile cyber attack related to the movie, The Interview. The hack and subsequent leak of multiple movies and corporate documents have caused a shake up with the company ousting from management executive Amy Pascal after 12 years.

Additionally, Sony Pictures deal with Marvel over the Spiderman franchise rights shows its unwillingness to take additional risks at this time and would rather alleviate any possible points for loss with partnership agreement with Marvel to ensure as much of a good outcome as possible for the company.

Sony’s strenghs

Sony’s primary bright spot is with its Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary and its Playstation being the current market leader over Microsoft’s Xbox One and Nintendo’s (TYO: 7974) Wii U. Sony continues to leverage its library of games from its past four generations of gaming consoles in order to continue to break into new markets such as streaming.

Its Playstation Vue may become a real rival with time but in a market dominated by Netflix and Hulu with the likes of Apple and HBO trying to break in, Sony leverage lies in its movies, music, and video games which the company is trying to fully leverage. Sony is doing what critics have been trying to get Nintendo to do for years, be willing to license its library and characters properties in order to better grow their ecosystem, introduce a new generation to its properties, and profit.

Sony over the last few years has enacted multiple restructures across in subsidiaries in order to cut laggard divisions and move into newer high margin area in increase profits and ensure the longevity of the company.

What does the future hold?

Yet, these spin offs have not strengthened the company’s fundamental, but have just mitigated Sony’s exposure to volatile industries at a time of global economic uncertainty. These new high margin streaming service division for television/movies, music and video games come at a time where other large players are entering the field with larger warchests than Sony.

The company is some ways is losing its identify and becoming similar to the fall which Apple and Kodak (NYSE: KODK) experienced.

While the renaissance which Apple experienced under Steve Job’s return and its increase in innovation and R&D helped to make it the corporate giant today; Kodak could not find its purpose in the modern word and it took a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in order for the company to shed laggards and institute a strategic shift in corporate philosophy. Only time will tell what the fate of Sony will be. For now, investors should simply hold the stock and wait and see what the results of Sony’s corporate strategy will be.

The post Is Sony Imploding: Time to Call for a Hold? appeared first on VR World.

2015 will mark the 30th anniversary of Windows, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) iconic operating system first launched in November 1985. 2015 will also mark the year that Windows 10 will be released, the follow-up to the critically panned Windows 8.

Over the last decade customer’s computing needs have shifted. The computing landscape is dramatically different in 2015 than in 2001, when Microsoft launched Windows XP its most popular operating system and considered to be the company’s best. People compute in different ways, and Microsoft now has to compete with new operating systems that have appeared in the last decade like Android in addition to longtime rival Mac OS from Apple (NASDAQ: APPL).

Microsoft now is at a critical juncture.The success or failure of Windows 10 will be turning point for Microsoft. The exact nature of Windows 11 will depend on whether the market embraces or rejects Windows 10. If the market embraces Windows 10, it’s very likely that the follow-up will be more of the same. A failure of Windows 10 — a repeat of Windows 8 — will force Microsoft back to the drawing board with the OS, re-imagining it from the ground up.

Back to the beginning: DOS

A history of Windows needs to begin with what preceded it: DOS. DOS, later known as MS-DOS, was Microsoft’s first operating system and until Windows ME the foundation of what Windows ran on.

The birth of MS-DOS began in 1981 when Microsoft met with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to discuss making an operating system for its upcoming personal computer.

Microsoft already had a relationship with IBM, as it was licensing the BASIC language to IBM. The scope and complexity of creating an entire operating system was beyond Microsoft’s resources available at the time, but that didn’t stop Bill Gates: he bought the full rights to DOS from a small firm based in Washington called Seattle Computer Products for $50,000.

The meeting that started this deal is dramatized in the film Pirates of the Silicon Valley:

Seattle Computer Products’ owner Rod Brock was unaware of the exact nature of the deal between Microsoft and IBM. However, when he discovered the profits Microsoft was making selling DOS to IBM he tried to sell the company and all of its intellectual property to one of IBM’s rivals. This led to a lawsuit between Brock and Microsoft and the two parties settled out of court for $925,000, and Microsoft confirmed its rights and license to DOS.

The first Windows

Microsoft announced Windows, first called Windows for DOS and known by its code name of, in 1983. It was finally released in 1985. However, it was not the first operating system with a graphical user interface. That honor goes to Apple’s Macintosh.

Windows shipped with several simple programs, such as MS‑DOS file management, Paint, Windows Writer, Notepad, Calculator, and a calendar, card file, and clock.

While Windows was praised for helping change the paradigm of how people interact with computers, this first version of the world’s most important operating system largely stood in the shadow of Macintosh. Apple, however felt threatened and sued Microsoft in 1988 for copyright infringement, claiming that Microsoft copied the “look and feel” of its operating system.

However Apple itself did not invent the GUI. That honor goes to Xerox, which effectively gave it away to Apple.

Support for Windows 1.0 ended in December 2001.

The post The History of Windows appeared first on VR World.

Earlier, an Airbus A320 carrying at least 144 passengers and 6 crew crashed Tuesday in Southern France, fueling a mainstream media frenzied debate over plane safety as well as airline protocols and training procedures. The Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 was on its way from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it unfortunately crashed in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, France, specifically near the town of Méolans-Revel, probably killing all its passengers and crew. Germanwings is a subsidiary of Lufthansa Group, one of the largest airlines in the world. The flight was a routine flight that was taking one of the most popular passenger aircraft in the world, alongside a route that these planes traverse on a daily basis – all without incident.

The state of emergency was declared by Air Traffic Control (ATC) 09:47AM GMT when the plane disappeared from the radar. According to scattered information, it seems that the plane made a rapid descent from 38,000 feet to 6,000 feet in mere 8 minutes. This is an eerie pattern similar to the one witnessed on fatal Air Asia Indonesia 8501 flight, which crashed on December 28, 2014 while en route from Jakarta to Singapore.

A question thus arises: how well are pilots and crew trained for the fly-by-wire systems? The Airbus A320 family consists of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners. The A320 family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems, a rather important advancement in civilian aviation in that time. These jets also use side-stick controls, a first in commercial aircraft as well. For many pilots, utilizing the fly-by-wire technology was a peculiar experience and many struggled with such controls, specially the older, more experienced pilots that didn’t have much experience with new technology and wanted a more hands on approach to controlling the aircraft. However, this also brought many improvements to safety, as more people are flying in the air than ever with fewer accidents than ever.

According to several sources, the behavior of the full flight envelope protection was the source of these issues, making for several specific situations where both the Airbus and Boeing jets didn’t perform as designed.

These include the recent Air Asia Indonesia 8501, China Airlines Flight 006, FedEx Flight 705, American Airlines Flight 587 and the most prominent, the US Airways Flight 1549 where the airplane experienced a dual engine failure after a bird strike and subsequently landed safely in the Hudson River. Thanks to the zeal and experience of the pilot, the catastrophic scenario was averted. The NTSB accident report mentions the effect of flight envelope protection: “The airplane’s airspeed in the last 150 feet of the descent was low enough to activate the alpha-protection mode of the airplane’s fly-by-wire envelope protection features… Because of these features, the airplane could not reach the maximum AOA attainable in pitch normal law for the airplane weight and configuration; however, the airplane did provide maximum performance for the weight and configuration at that time… The flight envelope protections allowed the captain to pull full aft on the sidestick without the risk of stalling the airplane.”

What exactly happened with the Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 is yet unknown. The exact specifics, nature and conditions of the flight have not yet been revealed. The A320-211 was a 24 years old airplane. The jet has made its first flight in 1990, delivered to Lufthansa in 1991 and passed on to Germanwings in 2014. Airbus says there are currently 6,191 A320 aircraft in operation across the world.

On the other hand, Lufthansa has an impeccable maintenance record. Aviation expert Michael Boyd, chairman of The Boyd Group consultancy, told CNBC there were no known issues with Germanwings. “Anything involved with Lufthansa is going to be clean as a whistle as far as maintenance and operations goes,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “There hasn’t been anything untoward with the A320 series. … It’s a very reliable airplane.” We can only hope that this situation gets resolved and our prayers are with the passengers, crew on the plane, but also their families.

Image: Mark Harkin

The post Germanwings Crash: Are Low-Cost Carriers Safe? appeared first on VR World.

It may come as a surprise to many that the way computers handle numbers is not very accurate. Indeed, it can be said that error is built into the very foundation of digital computers, and while the end user often does not see the result of these errors, they can be very problematic for programmers, scientists, engineers, and calculation intense industries such as money management and military operations.

At the recent Supercomputing Frontiers 2015 conference in Singapore, computer scientist John Gustafson outlined the problems with floating points in his keynote and later in an interview. Given the complexity — and severity — of the problem, it’s worth taking a second in-depth look at the issue.

The Problem

Developer Richard Harris, who wrote a series of articles on the dangers of floating point, said in one post, “The dragon of numerical error is not often roused from his slumber, but if incautiously approached he will occasionally inflict catastrophic damage upon the unwary programmer’s calculations. So much so that some programmers, having chanced upon him in the forests of IEEE 754 floating point arithmetic, advise their fellows against travelling in that fair land.”

Because computers – which are machines of precision and exactness – are often made to deal with unprecise and inexact numbers (such as pi, and irrationals), methods must be devised to compensate for computational error, and to make the end result as close to the correct answer as possible. One solution has been devised that is still in use today: floating point. Floating point is a method similar to scientific notation, which uses a decimal point, sign bit, and a number of exact digits to represent a number.

Since The IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic was published in 1985, this standard has come to dominate the mathematical methods used by hardware and software engineers for the basic operations computers perform whenever running an application. Ideally, a one-size-fits-all standard such as this one would minimize error and promote uniformity of results across a broad spectrum of hardware.

Unfortunately, this has not been the practical result. Different processors and software packages, designed to handle floating point operations, often result in slightly different answers, due to rounding errors, and differing orders of operation.

One way that programmers often compensate is to use as many digits as possible to represent a number. In modern computers, this means that 32 – 64 bits of data are almost always used to represent a single floating point number. While modern computers are also very fast at calculations, this many bits must be stored and retrieved from memory, causing significant latency in calculations.

Furthermore, due to compounding error, traditional properties of algebra – such as the commutative and associative property – do not necessarily apply to floating point operations. In other words, (a + b) + c =/= a + (b + c), nor does c * (a + b) = c*a + c*b.

In the case of floating point, using these differing approaches often yields dissimilar results.

The post The Evils of Floating Point, and the Joys of Unum appeared first on VR World.

The Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae demo is here, bringing a small taste of what’s to come in Square Enix’s hugely anticipated and long-awaited open-world RPG.

For the first time in nearly a decade we get to experience the action-oriented combat that the game has to offer, set in an amazing-looking backdrop filled with whimsy and wonder.

We’ve played a good portion of demo itself and chronicled our adventures within Duscae. detailing the basics while underlining the toils and troubles we had along the way. So without further adieu, let’s jump right in! Campfires, male bonding, and epic battles await!

The four main characters of FFXV, from right to left: Prompto Argentum, Gladiolus Amicitia, Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum, and Ignis Stupeo Scientia.

Final Fantasy XV Combat:  Targeting, weapons, MP and more

The fighting sequences in Final Fantasy XV are seamless within the open-world itself, so there’s no battle transitions that lock players into smaller environments like the old-school games. Combat is action-oriented, but it’s not as fluid as, say, Devil May Cry games where you can get away with button-mashing.

That being said you can auto-attack by holding down Square, but you’re going to have to pay attention go what’s going on around you in order to keep out of danger.

The combos in Episode Duscae aren’t your traditional button sequences. Although you do have different moves, they’re not really strung together so much as separately sequenced out. And the game doesn’t really explain how to execute the various types of attacks.

There’s also a Defensive stance that’s activated by holding L1. You can dodge attacks as well as parry while in this stance, and if you hit Square after parrying, you’ll deliver a devastating counterattack.

You can even cross-parry and cross-counter against two enemies at once.

Essentially you get a number of different attacks like Ravage, Vanquish, Crush, Counter and Descend, but you have to experiment to see how to actually do them in battle.

• Ravage - Melee barrage, executed by holding Square for constant attacks

• Crush - Initial assault, activated as the first attack when you press Square

• Vanquish - Lethal Force Strike, executed as the final killing blow on an enemy

• Blood Sword - Counter, activated when you attack after dodging

• Descend - Crushing blow from on high, executed when you attack in air

Once you enact a specific attack like Counter, which is activated when you subsequently land a blow after dodging, the battle status menu will briefly show the attack you just executed.

Players can customize which weapons they want assigned to various attacks, providing tactical strategy against different enemies.

Weapons and attack slots

Noctis has a nice array of weapons that can be mixed and matched in various ways to provide some impressive customized strategic advantage.

Remember those different attack types? Well they’re actually sort of “slots” that weapons can be assigned to. The way it works is that you can, at any time, assign any of the five weapons listed below to the battle stances.

Let’s say you have the Zweihander set in your Descent slot. This means every time you jump attack, you’ll slam down the heavy two-hander that negates defense and has quite a decent range. Also personally I like having my Blood Sword set in my Counter slot so I regain mana every time I dodge-slash.

This setup is quite tactically sound, making for an impressive array of strategem for every single battle, and you can change your loadout at any time and adapt to different enemies.

Plus every weapon has its own unique Technique attack that acts like a sort of special ability, but they tend to drain MP so you’ll want to use them sparingly.

Noctis’ weapons include:

• Avenger – Default blade with no special attacks or abilities, short to mid-range blade

• Wyvern Lance (Dragoon Jump) - MP recovery attack, long reach

• Partisan (Full Thrust) - Critical x3, MP recovery attack, longer reach

• Blood Sword (Drain Blade) - MP recovery attack x 3, Regeneration x2, mid-range blade

• Zweihander (Tempest) - Negates enemy defense, long range, slow wielding

Setting up your weapons to your attack slots is only half of the battle, and the actual combat proper is actually rather…awkward. It’s very much unlike anything we’ve seen in the series to date, despite the fact that it’s action-based like Final Fantasy Type-0.

Targeting and MP system

Final Fantasy XV‘s combat requires a steep learning curve, and to get it just right you’ll have to practice a bit. The real problem is the game’s awkward targeting system which gets kind of crazy when you’re fighting a big group of baddies.

At one point I was fighting a pack of sabertusks when all of a sudden a sortie of magitek troopers dropped in from the night sky. That’s when things started to get out of hand.

The game’s combat system seems like it was built upon 1vs1 style fights, as Noctis can only target one enemy at a time. The key to taking on groups, though, is to switch targets and whittle away HP here and there while trying to focus taking out baddies one at a time.

When you’re fighting a group you’ll need to pay attention to what’s going on around you. You can’t have tunnel vision and fight only one target, you’re going to have to switch targets quite often, dodge, and even warp to higher ground or hide to regenerate MP.

Warping to higher ground is a great way to regenerate MP, which is a significant resource in FF15.

MP is extremely important in Final Fantasy XV, and if you run out, you go into a sort of “staggered” state called Stasis. While in Stasis you can’t use your warp ability, you can’t dodge, nor can you cast techniques.

Dodging is one of the most important things you can do in the game, and you’ll be doing it a lot, but you can’t do it too much, because dodging actually takes MP. That’s right, you need MP in order to dodge.

The only ways to regenerate your MP in battle is to use Noctis’ warp ability to zap to a metal tower, hang there, and replenish your magical energy, or you can hide behind rocks, trees and other outcroppings.

This hinders that fluid, action-packed feel quite a bit, but it also does something quite important and forces players to pay attention and carefully weigh their choices in battle. You can’t just spam Dragoon Jumps or dodge every attack, and like or not you’re going to take a few hits here and there.

So what happens when you get overrun and wiped out?

The neat thing about FF15 is that you don’t “die” when your HP runs out. When you’re knocked out you can still move around–you go into a “Danger” state that’s akin to the Stagger state–and there’s a secondary health bar that can be depleted before you’re K.O.’ed.

When you’re in the Danger state one of your teammates can jump in and Rescue you, and you can always do the same for them, basically adding another level of depth to combat.

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Whether you like it or not, the B-2 bomber is probably the only stealth bomber that will stay that way for a long, long time.

Even though we’re seeing plenty of stealth technology being implemented, the sheer scale and size of the B-2 is overwhelming. It has the capacity to carry close to 40,000 lbs of ordnance. This includes the B61 and B83 nuclear bombs; the AGM-129 ACM cruise missile was also intended for use on the B-2 platform. Some people may argue that newer Russian bomber designs will have similar capabilities, I wouldn’t agree. Not for the fact that Russian bombers wont be able to provide the same (or greater) amount of stealth or carry the similar ordnance packages, the deployment of stand-off weapons like cruise missiles is what Russian air-force is putting a big emphasis on these days.

The B-2 is capable of all-altitude attack missions up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m), with a range of more than 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km) on internal fuel and over 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) with one midair refueling. The last part is the main theme of this video, ensuring the public stays rather profoundly interested in these air-planes, somebody at U.S. DoD released a rather interesting showcase of the bomber’s capabilities.

As stealth is the main aspect of this airplanes, the retractable fuel cover that seemingly vanishes into pin-point precision alignment with the rest of the bomber’s exterior skin is simply staggering. It seems like the bomber is alive and the part once open to receive a bunch of fuel – simply joins with its exterior shell almost without a single line being seen. To see how this thing works, please take a look at the video shown below.

Images: First B-2 Image by U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III, second B-2 image by USAF

The post Stealth Is Non-Negotiable With the B-2 Bomber appeared first on VR World.

As the Russian Airforce is deploying its TU-22M3 ‘Backfire’ aircraft into the recently incorporated area that is Crimea, there are several things changing for the NATO and other military forces in the region. While the political situation has everything to do with these being added to the might of the Russian air and sea fleet over there, the relevance to the whole situation is not that important at all. The idea behind this is to show how the Russian military, albeit strapped for cash in more ways than one since the Soviet Union took a nose dive, does have more than capable military hardware to mess up plans for United States Navy, let alone some other, smaller forces around the world that are part of NATO for example.

What the TU-22M deployment means

The TU-22M was part of Russia’s quest for a strategic bomber, capable of carrying more than enough firepower to make any military or navy cringe. This swept-wing strategic bomber might look rugged and rather simplistic in shape (compared to modern day western bombers), but this supersonic beast has all the firepower to mess up any navy captain’s day in a hurry.

The Tupolev Tu-22M (Russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau. Significant numbers remain in service with the Russian Air Force, and as of 2014 more than 100 Tu-22M are in use. Several are now modernized into the TU-22M3 version, allowing for all sorts of goodies like upgraded avionics, Shompol side looking airborne radar and other ELINT (electronic intelligence) equipment. Just what the doctor ordered, specially in today’s naval warfare: ELINT

Stick to the skies

The title says it all: the Russian airforce and navy never really bothered with countering United States Navy in carrier might. Simply, there was no reason to do that. On the other hand, they had more than enough firepower to protect themselves from any and every carrier strike group out there: land based TU-22M airplanes, SLAVA class missile cruisers and other, preferably missile equipped vessels (above and beyond the surface) like the Kirov class battlecruiser or the Akula class submarines. The main idea behind this was to use their supersonic and hypersonic missiles, but also cruise missiles, all in the idea to destroy a U.S. naval carrier and eventually (after the carrier destruction, when the air power is defeated) the rest of the support group as well.

The TU-22M was well countered by the usage of the F-14 Tomcat air wings, found on the aircraft carriers for the duration of the cold war, providing air cover for the fleet ships overall. These, with enough range and the Phoenix missile, could engage the Mach 1.6 capable strike groups of the said plane with a great deal of effect at distance that allowed to carrier group to stay safe entirely. The Tomcat is (sadly) long gone from the carriers. Replaced by the capable (albeit not in the same way realistically) F/A 18 Hornet for the defense and attack capabilities.

This means that the carrier groups, even though shielded by the AEGIS on board navy ships, still lacks the stand-off defense capability, offered by the F-14 Tomcat and the above mentioned Phoenix missile. Anything carried by the F/A 18 Hornet, in terms of air-to-air missiles, cannot combat these air squadrons before they launch their deadly contents on the groups. This, when the carrier attack group discovered the incoming bogies of any type, could engage these at distance, thanks to the missile available, projected range and overall, with greater efficiency as well.

The logic stands, where the TU-22M would dash along the Russian borders, achieve its top speed, launch its BVR missiles at the carriers, then scoot back to safety of the Russian airforce’s anti-air and other protection capabilities that would grant it safety after the attack happened. While the carrier or any other navy cluster of vessels does have anti-aircraft capabilities, deploying a swarm of either one of the anti-ship stuff found in Russian inventory would be a tough pill to swallow for any CIWS or other means of defense within the ships present.

Flight of the Phoenix

There’s one lethal counter to the TU-22M: the AIM-54 Phoenix. The AIM-54 Phoenix is a radar-guided, long-range air-to-air missile (AAM), carried in clusters of up to six missiles on the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, its only launch platform. With several guidance modes, the Phoenix is a worthy opponent and a classy match for Russia’s strategic bomber force – primarily the TU-22M and TU-160 airplanes then. The Phoenix achieves its longest range by using mid-course updates from the F-14A/B AWG-9 radar (APG-71 radar in the F-14D) as it climbs to cruise between 80,000 ft (24,000 m) and 100,000 ft (30,000 m) at close to Mach 5. The Phoenix uses this high altitude to gain gravitational potential energy, which is later converted into kinetic energy as the missile dives at high velocity towards its target. At around 11 miles (18 km) from the target, the missile activates its own radar to provide terminal guidance.

The minimum engagement range (the minimal distance for the missile to hit the target efficiently) for the Phoenix is around 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) and active homing would initiate upon launch. With an operational range of up to 190 kilometers, this would prove to be a better fit to target combat aircraft coming in from Crimean air bases.

Denial of the seas

How is this possible? The Russians, as stated earlier, always liked to counter the US Navy and its carrier forces with anti ship missiles. With the TU-22M, there are two significant aircraft based anti-ship missiles used.

These are the fastest anti-ship missile in service today, the Kh-15, NATO name ‘Kickback’ which can plow in to an altitude of about 40,000 m (130,000 ft) and then dives in on the target, accelerating to a speed of about Mach 5, which makes it the fastest aircraft-launched missile to date. Some believe that even without it’s high-explosive contents it would still do a lot of damage to the ships with kinetic energy alone. With a 300 kilometer operational range, there isn’t anything the current air wing airplanes found on the US Navy carriers can throw at them, before they launch their missiles – when you count in the distance to target seen there.

The second one is the The Raduga Kh-22, NATO name ‘Kitchen’ that is a cruise missile, a ship destroying thingie that flies in at mach 4.6 to its target.

The Kh-22 uses an Isayev liquid-fuel rocket engine, fueled with TG-02 (Tonka-250) and IRFNA (inhibited red fuming nitric acid), giving it a maximum speed of Mach 4.6 and a range of up to 600 km (320 nmi). It can be launched in either high-altitude or low-altitude mode. Both modes can be used in a swarm type of an event, allowing several TU-22M bombers to launch their missiles in various modes and overwhelming a possible target. In high-altitude mode, it climbs to an altitude of 27,000 m (89,000 ft) and makes a high-speed dive into the target, with a terminal speed of about Mach 4.6. In low-altitude mode, it climbs to 12,000 m (39,000 ft) and makes a shallow dive at about Mach 3.5, making the final approach at an altitude under 500 m (1,600 ft).

The missile is guided by a gyro-stabilized autopilot in conjunction with a radio altimeter. With, let’s say six of the TU-22M’s attacking the particular navy group, this would mean that each carries four of these, totaling 24 missiles headed in various configurations, probably overwhelming any CIWS it encounters. if both the high-altitude and low-altitude modes are used, the ships and their defenses might prove to be overmatched for the swarm of missiles headed into their hulls that way.

This means that, with swarms of TU-22M’s hurdling at 1.6 mach, unleashing either the long range or short range anti-ship missiles, any and every carrier battlegroup would be pressed to combat these attacks. In other words regarding this, that the current Black Sea deployment from NATO, consisting of the Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNGM2) vessels the flagship USS Vicksburg (CG 69), HMCS Fredericton (FFH 337), TCG Turgutreis (F 241), FGS Spessart (A 1442), ITS Aliseo (F 574) and ROS Regina Maria (F 222), might be too little too late to combat Russia’s power over there. With the probable Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines lurking around, all armed with similar destructive means, the overall firepower the Soviets Russians are capable of launching at any NATO task group – is impressive.

In a way, the Black Sea security situation changed quite a bit with the introduction of these weapon systems, entirely changing the possibilities of any country, even the United States to engage Russian targets in that area. With the geographical situation making the Black Sea Russia’s own little pond, these airplanes, together with the naval might of the Black Sea fleet together with these weapon impacting the strategic relations, might provide the naysayers with the final shut up about the Russian military power alltogether. At least in this aspect.

The post Why The TU-22M Deployment To Crimea Changes Everything appeared first on VR World.

Over the last few months, the world of gaming has become a heavily polarized maelstrom of emotion, leading to a massive industry-wide rift that’s pretty much torn the community as a whole.

Sexism in gaming has become a controversial, hot-button topic for good reason: it’s something everyone feels strongly about, and thanks to a number of heavily-biased, badly-researched sensationalized articles, the term “gamer” now has a weighty stigma attached to it.

Without a doubt there is sexism in online gaming. You only have to check out the recent posts on Fat, Ugly or Slutty, a site where female gamers report and post their latest instances of harassment.

One documentary wants to shed some light on the subject, and it was created well before the consumer GamerGate movement signaled a change in the industry. It’s called GTFO.

GTFO is a doc film created by Shannon Sun-Higginson that explores how women are treated in the realm of online gaming. Funded on Kickstarter back in May 2013 for a tune of $30,000, the final version of GTFO was recently showcased at this year’s SXSW event.

Women are treated differently than men in the online gaming space, and often the abuse is frightening, obscene and completely volatile–and there’s not much anyone can say to refute it.

It does happen, as bad things happen to good people, but unlike the circumstance of the cosmos, a lot of this is in our power to help stop.

The Path to Changing the Online Space

We’ve seen women come forward and share their stories in droves, but the media has depicted their interactions in a way that’s dramatized to drive home a singular point: women are treated horribly in video games, and it has to stop.

But how do we make it stop? Can we just keep recycling outrage opinion pieces with clickbait articles over and over, stirring things up, and hope eventually harassers will just give up on their own free will?

It’s an age-old question, really, that’s plagued humanity from the get-go: how do we make people treat one another without discrimination, sexism and hate?

The answer isn’t found in the kind of stories I’m talking about.

These articles, these bits of “coverage” have been decidedly one-sided, and as a result, gaming itself has become demonized and synonymous with unsavory keywords like “misogyny” and other terms that have, unfortunately, stuck.

In an effort to steal headlines, earn clicks and improve page rankings rather than actually report information in a clear and fair way, the media has stigmatized its own constituency and self-destructed a hefty portion of interactive entertainment.

Rather than revealing a seedy dark underbelly of the anonymous online space that is online gaming, it became more about perpetuating a sort of popular socio-political agenda. The road to progressive change has been mired and muddled with soapbox-style shock-drama reports that are designed to elicit emotional responses out of the reader.

Over the course of the rift, we’ve seen a ton of articles, op-eds, videos and everything else that’s called for a reformation of games culture.

But instead of focusing on how we can change all of this, it’s focused on the threats and harassment themselves, which seems to be the major point.

As far as GTFO goes, it just chronicles the strife that some women face in everyday gaming sessions. It’s not an even playing field, and the anonymous ether of the internet ensures some people get away with the things they say and do. But that might come to an end soon enough.

I haven’t seen the full documentary, but based on the trailer, GTFO seems to follow the same kind of shocking dramatization wherein female gamers share the horrible things that were said to them online. This is an important mechanism for education, as viewers and gamers alike should know about this kind of thing, but there’s more to the story–and more to the world of gaming.

The documentary is something that should be explored. But how it’s portrayed is also important; docs like these need to examine how female gamers are treated on a whole, as the good is just as relevant as the bad.

Through online gaming, people have fallen in love and married one another–many people have met as a result of their time spent in, say, World of Warcraft.

Surveying the Playing Field

Traditionally online first-person shooters are hyper competitive realms that are dominated by male gamers, and as such, there’s tons of trash talking and online interactions that borderline on abuse on an everyday basis. And when women in gaming jump into the fray, they’re often met with unsavory and startling displays that show how much freedom the internet gives harassers.

But is that to say that every gamer is like that? Is that to say that everyone who plays Call of Duty is a terrible person? No, of course not. But then again anyone–whether it’s a woman or man–should be able to play a game without getting trash-talked and demoralized.

And does every girl gamer have these kinds of interactions in every game? Can she play, say, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn without having to worry about someone treating her badly?

Are there any games where female gamers are safe?

Perhaps not, and in reality it feels like no one is safe in an online game–pure and total safety is something we apparently waive when we connect to the digital world–but I think that documentaries like GTFO are trying to make people question why these online spaces can’t be safe, especially for female gamers

Shannon Sun-Higginson has been working as a documentary producer and director since graduating from Wesleyan University in 2010.

Restoring the Human Element

Sadly, it seems like a lot of the time people make serious money or build fame off of the discussion rather than trying to honestly make things better–they profit from the misery of the very community they’re trying to help, which is a bizarre sort of symbiosis.

But Sun-Higginson, GTFO‘s creator, has no personal stake against GamerGate or even the gaming community. She’s not out for revenge, and she doesn’t even appear to be a gamer.

She just wants girls to be able to play games and be treated well. The reality is, though, the online gaming space isn’t savory: it’s a realm where our darker sides can run rampant without any real-life repercussions, and that kind of freedom often brings out the inner-beast within us.

The way to making online interactions more desirable for everyone isn’t going to happen by demonizing gaming, or even demonizing male gamers. Doing this only ensures you’re playing on the harasser’s playing field, which is quite dangerous.

It must be done by showing these harassers that the online avatars they’re attacking are actually people–which is something we often forget when playing online.

The human element must be restored to online gaming, and the responsibility lies in all of us–not just the game companies that create the games, or the ones that host the services.

The human element must be restored throughout gaming as a whole. It can’t come from outside, it has to come from within the community.

I think that documentaries like GTFO might be able to act as a catalyst to kickstart this, but only if they’re worried less about propelling their own fame and pushing their own agendas and worried more about actually positively helping the spaces they claim to care about.

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