Mionix unveils Zibal 60 backlit mechanical gaming keyboard

Mionix has officially entered the mechanical keyboard market today, unveiling its gaming-oriented "Zibal 60." The 'board is outfitted with Cherry MX Black switches, which have a linear (non-tactile) travel, require about 60 grams of force to actuate and are typically favored among FPS gamers.

Considering that demographic, the company humorously says that the Zibal 60 has "rage-proof durability," pointing to its 1.6mm-thick steel frame. We assume the "frame" bit is referring to the use of a plate-mounted switch, and not the keyboard's exterior body, which is presumably plastic.

Plate-mounted switches are secured by a sheet of metal as opposed to being mounted solely to the PCB. Naturally, this is more durable, but you probably don't want to challenge Mionix's rage-proof claim as the company's warranty only covers manufacturing defects and not user-sustained damage.

The Zibal 60 features green multi-level backlighting that can illuminate the entire board or just the WASD gaming cluster. It's worth noting that the image above has been enhanced a bit by the company, so the backlighting might not be entirely accurate. The lighting looks too clean if you ask us.

The spec sheet mentions support for up to six simultaneous key presses (6KRO) via USB, but it doesn't say anything about NKRO via PS/2. Nonetheless, 6KRO should be sufficient for FPS players. The top right side sports an I/O hub with two full-speed USB 2.0 ports along with audio and mic jacks.

You'll also find media keys which are operated by a modifier that has replaced the left Windows key, a removable wrist rest, and it looks like the company might throw in a plastic keycap remover. Pricing starts at $150/€150 and although preorders open today, the board won't ship until June.

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Garry's Mod developer exposes pirates with fake error

If you're among the many Garry's Mod users experiencing the startup error "Unable to shade polygon normals," you should probably keep that information to yourself. According to GMod creator Garry Newman, he introduced the error this week and it's designed to only appear on illegal copies of the game as a means of flushing out pirates.

Upon receiving the error, unsuspecting pirates posted on the Steam forum looking for assistance. Those individuals are being banned from the message board. Making the situation even more interesting, the polygon error message is followed by a number in parenthesis that most folks would associate with an error code. See the example below:

"Engine Error:Unable to shade polygon normals(#################)"

The kicker is, that's actually a SteamID, so pirates are unknowingly revealing their Steam identity. Speaking with Bit-Gamer, the developer claimed that 2,500 pirates were identified 15 hours after rolling out the error. Newman doesn't have the power to ban Steam IDs and it's unclear if any accounts have been banned outside of the forum.


Instead, he wants this to serves as a point of humiliation for people running illegitimate copies of the game. "I did this for the people that did buy Garry’s Mod. They get to point and laugh at pirates. If we leave it easy for people to pirate we're betraying the people that paid," Newman said. "I'm just having fun at the pirates expense."

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Kinect hack turns tourists into 3D souvenirs

As souvenirs go, a miniature replica of yourself -- striking a pose of your choosing on Barcelona's La Rambla street -- is a far sight more original than a bullfights-and-senoritas snow globe. This past January, the hilariously titled BlablabLAB enlisted three Kinects and a RepRap machine to snap passersby and render them into personalized tchotchkes, in a project called Be Your Own Souvenir. Subjects stood atop a small platform, mimicking the human statues on La Rambla, as the Kinects captured their likeness in full 360-degree glory. The resulting images were then processed as a mesh reconstruction, saved as a G-code file, and then fed through a 3D printer -- and voila, out popped the tiny statuettes. If you're a fan of flashy editing and Kinect-based street experiments, check out the video after the break.

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Gameloft looks to app stores, TV for growth: CEO

Gameloft SA (GLFT.PA), a French video game publisher, sees its growth coming from the just-launched Amazon AppStore and from games played on televisions without consoles, the top executive told Reuters.

After riding the wave of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) products by making games for iPhones and iPads, Gameloft is now turning to Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) new store to boost sales on Google's Android software platform.

Gameloft Chief Executive Michel Guillemot said Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, where consumers are comfortable using their credit cards to pay for everything from toasters to online movies, provides the perfect platform for mobile games.

"The Amazon ecosystem is controlled where we don't find too many pirated version of our games or malware games, so for the consumers, it will be a safer place to come and get applications," Guillemot said in an interview.

Games for mobile phones that are cheaper to make and purchase, such as Rovio's Angry Birds, are one of the few bright spots in the beaten down global video game business and has started to eat into the profits of companies such as Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O).

The market for mobile games is expected to grow to $11.4 billion by 2014, according to research firm Gartner.

Gameloft, founded in 2000, is one of the few publicly traded companies that makes most of its revenue from the fast growing mobile market. Some 95 percent of its revenue comes from mobile games, the company said. The company generated revenue of $199 million last year.

TV GAMES

Cheaper games designed for non-hardcore gamers to be played on home TV sets are also seen as a major growth contributor for Gameloft.

Gameloft Chief Financial Officer Alexandre de Rochefort said in an interview that these TV games will be important to revenue growth starting in 2012.

Panasonic Corp (6752.T) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) have featured the company's games on their new connected TVs.

"Connected TVs and a consolidated Android store should be a significant benefit to Gameloft's growth story," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Ed Williams.

Gameloft shares have gained 40 percent over the past 12 months. Twenty-two percent of its revenue in 2010 was from Apple products, but CFO de Rochefort said sales on the Android platform could one day match revenue from Apple devices. He declined to give a time frame.

Gameloft said many of its games will also be carried in Nintendo's upcoming 3DS e-shop, a new digital store Nintendo is launching for users to download content for its 3D capable handheld device.

While it focuses on mobile games, the company is trying to expand into social games, with "Green Farm," a game similar to Zynga's FarmVille, which it said was profitable.

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EA drops paper game manuals

Following Ubisoft's example, Electronics Arts has announced plans to stop including paper instruction booklets with its games. The publisher initially launched the initiative in January with the PlayStation 3 version of Mass Effect 2 and the change went into full effect earlier this month with Fight Night Champion.

The decision will extend to all EA titles worldwide and games will ship with on-disc manuals that are easily accessible from the main menu and pause screen. Gamers can also download digital pamphlets in multiple languages through a dedicated section on EA's support site, though only for certain titles.


EA expects to reduce the printed materials in packaged games by about 40%. The company will undoubtedly save money too, but it hasn't shared any figures and has decided to focus on the environmental angle. "EA is committed to a healthy and sustainable environment," said EA COO John Schappert.

We're not sure how these numbers translate to EA's operations, but when Ubisoft made the shift last year it claimed that producing one ton of paper for its game manuals consumed around two tons of wood from 13 trees with a net energy of 28 million BTUs -- the average heating and energy for one home per year.

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Valve considering Steam for iOS, Android

A user on the Steam Powered forums who calls himself Political Gamer recently had a chance to check out Valve's headquarters as part of an interview. He took notes; here are his main points (although we'd like to point out that the whole story is definitely worth reading):

• They use very high end computers when a game is in development (i7, 6GB DDR3 Ram, 128GB SSD, Nvidia 580) but they still test on lower end comps
• Steam will get video recording "soon"
• Steam might come to iOS/Android
• Source Film Maker will be made public "soon"
• Meet the Medic is badass
• Portal 2: GOTY hands down

Here's a quote from the most interesting part of the story:

After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes it turned out Gabe was in the office and wanted to say hi. To my great delight he was playing DOTA 2 when we walked in and from what I can see the game already looks very promising. After a little "sneak peek" we sat down to talk about Steam and other goings on in Valve. During this chat he confirmed that Steam will get a video recorder very soon, also he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam. He also said that the Source film maker is in the pipeline for a public release. After the chat was over he happily signed my copy of the Orange box and sent me on my way to Robin Walker.

We're particularly excited about the fourth point. Valve is the only company that appears to understand what gamers want, and the next frontier for the gaming industry is undoubtedly mobile.

Android looks much more likely than iOS, mainly because of Apple's many App Store restrictions. Regardless of what mobile platform Steam arrives on though, one dedicated app for all our mobile games would simply be awesome.

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Red Bull Augmented Racing game lets you build tracks with Red Bull cans

Sure, it may all just be an elaborate scheme to get you to buy more Red Bull, but it is a fairly ingenious scheme. In addition to a plethora of in-game advertising, the new Red Bull racing game for iOS devices also has an augmented reality component that lets you build tracks simply by lining up actual cans of Red Bull on the floor -- at least twelve of them for a complete track, and only Red Bull will do, apparently. Not surprisingly, the game itself is free, and you can grab it in the App Store right now to try it out for yourself. Or you can just head on past the break for a video demonstration if you'd prefer to leave the Red Bull on the shelf.

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Ubisoft caught selling 'pirated' Assassin's Creed soundtrack?

Ubisoft has been accused of selling a torrented soundtrack of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Customers who preordered the "digital deluxe" edition of the title received various extras including the game's soundtrack. According to one customer, the music files that Ubisoft included with his game came from the popular BitTorrent tracker Demonoid.

The AC: Brotherhood soundtrack was uploaded to Demonoid more than four months ago by a member named "arsa13". The same user is credited for encoding the official soundtrack's MP3s (see the screenshots below). "Apple Chamber" is the only song that doesn't mention arsa13, but that track was also excluded from the original torrent file.




This, of course, is ironic given the developer's stance against piracy and torrent sites. Last year the company introduced a new DRM scheme in the name of piracy that requires users to remain online while playing. To the dismay of fans, the mechanism has been used in Assassin's Creed II, The Settlers VII, Splinter Cell: Conviction and other titles.

This is the second time Ubisoft has been caught using torrented content. In 2008, customers who bought a digital copy of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 couldn't launch the game after installing an official update. Ubisoft resolved the issue with a second patch, which was eventually discovered to be a torrented No-CD crack from warez group RELOADED.

We should note that this story first surfaced on Wednesday and Ubisoft hasn't released a public statement besides telling Eurogamer that it's investigating the matter. It shouldn't take more than 48 hours to determine if Brotherhood's retail soundtrack is from a legitimate internal source, so we're not sure what to make of the company's silence.

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Judge lets Sony access GeoHot's PayPal account in PS3 hacking lawsuit

Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero has awarded Sony a subpoena that grants the company access to the PayPal account of PlayStation 3 jailbreaker George Hotz, also known as GeoHot, for the last two years. Spero ruled that the Japanese console maker may acquire "documents sufficient to identify the source of funds (PDF via Wired) in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009, to February 1, 2011."

The information sought is part of a jurisdictional argument over whether Sony must sue GeoHot in his home state of New Jersey rather than in San Francisco, where Sony would prefer. Sony argues that if GeoHot accepted monetary donations for the PS3 hack from people residing in Northern California, San Francisco would be a proper venue for the litigation. GeoHot denies he accepted donations, though he did ask for them.

Spero's decision follows sidings with Sony from earlier this month. The judge allowed Sony to obtain the IP addresses of everyone who visited GeoHot's personal website for the past 26 months (since January 2009) as well as the account names of anyone who has accessed a PS3 jailbreak video on the 21-year-old's YouTube account, his tweets relating to the hacking on Twitter, information on people who posted comments to his blog on Blogspot, and information about his account on the PSX-Scene website.

Last month, Sony demanded that Google hand over the identities of those who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video posted on YouTube. GeoHot posted the video on January 7, later made it private, and then pulled it on a judge's orders.

Sony's legal attacks against the hackers that released the PS3 root key and custom firmware began two months ago. The group known as fail0verflow is accused of posting a rudimentary hack in December 2010 after finding security codes for the PS3. It was refined by GeoHot weeks later when he independently found and published the PS3 root key. The resulting hacks allow homebrew apps and pirated software to run on unmodified consoles. Sony is still threatening to sue anybody posting or distributing PS3 jailbreak code, despite the fact that the company accidentally tweeted the PlayStation 3 security key.

Sony's official stance is if you crack your PS3, you'll get banned. GeoHot meanwhile says "beating them in court is just a start."

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Sony Xperia Play hits the UK on March 31st, thumbsticks coming never

Readers in the British Empire get ready for Sony Ericsson's biggest UK marketing campaign ever. That's in the lead-up to the release of the Xperia Play, a phone that we've been hearing about for so long that we'd need some pretty shocking commercials to get us all excited again. You may feel differently, though, so mark your calendars for March 31st. That's the end of the month and falls in nicely with the "late March" word we'd heard for elsewhere in the world, though that is awfully late. As to where you can buy it, it's said that "all the mobile operators and retailers" will have it, so you shouldn't have to wander too far. And, with six games pre-installed, you should even be reasonably well equipped to kill the rest of that Thursday.

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Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models

The news got a bit overshadowed by some augmented reality demos and a little game called Uncharted, but Sony also talked a bit about the NGP's location-aware capabilities at GDC this past week, which we now know will rely on Skyhook's Core Engine system. What's more, that functionality will apparently be included on WiFi-only models in addition to those with 3G, which means that all NGP users will be able to play location-aware games and take advantage of other various social applications. As explained by Sony at GDC, that could include things like the ability to find nearby NGP users and see what they're playing, and even more elaborate things like real-life treasure hunts -- all of which can presumably be switched off if you prefer to keep your mobile gaming habits to yourself.

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NVIDIA's faulty GPU class action settlement challenged, but time's running out

Remember when NVIDIA was caught selling defective mobile graphics chips, and agreed to provide bargain-basement replacement laptops to make a class-action lawsuit go away? At least one gentleman wasn't happy with how that went down, and is suing to see that affected customers get a fair shake. Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action Fairness says that NVIDIA has no business passing off cheap laptops, and we think he might have a case -- after all, the judge ordered that NVIDIA provide "a replacement computer of like or similar kind and equal or similar value," and it doesn't take a lawyer to see that the $400 Compaq Presario CQ56-115DX that the company's offering doesn't come close to compensating owners of faulty machines. We joked that you might be better off selling your old laptop for parts on eBay, and that might not be far from the truth.

The thing is, whether Ted Frank and company win or lose in court, defective laptop owners have only two weeks remaining to sign up for whatever NVIDIA ends up handing out, as March 14th is the final deadline to have settlement claims postmarked. Read the arguments at our more coverage link, and decide for yourself.

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Study: One in three mobile phone owners is a regular mobile gamer

new survey from casual gaming company PopCap shows that an incredibly high percentage of adults in the UK and U.S. is into mobile gaming.
This stat may be due in part to the uptick in smartphone adoption. According to a separate Nielsen survey, 31% of U.S. mobile users now own smartphones, and a Pew survey shows nearly half of cellphone users download and use mobile apps, too.
In PopCap's research, more than half (52%) of 2,425 respondents said they had played a game on a mobile device, whether their own device or someone else's, at some time in the past. The percentage for UK respondents was significantly higher (73%) than the rate for U.S. respondents (44%).
Around one-third of all respondents had played a game on their own mobile phones within the past month, and one out of four respondents said they played games on a weekly basis. Still, some respondents admitted to only having played a mobile game once.
The biggest gaming group was smartphone users. A full 83% of smartphone-owning respondents said they had played at least one mobile game in the past week, putting them solidly in the "avid mobile gamer" category.
Interestingly, the male-to-female ratio in mobile gaming doesn't show the pronounced gender gap seen in console and PC gaming. Men play slightly more than women by a slim margin of 2-10%. This fits pretty well with the current picture we have of the social gaming scene as a predominantly female market.
And mobile gamers aren't just biding their time on mass transit; they're also contributing to the bottom line of game manufacturers across the major mobile platforms.
Around half of all mobile gamers in this survey said they had upgraded a free trial game to the full or paid version in the past year. And one out of four mobile gamers, or one out of three smartphone gamers, said they had bought "additional content" for a game within the past year.
Also, smartphone users are more likely to buy games than their feature phone-owning counterparts, for obvious reasons. The average smartphone-using mobile gamer bought 5.4 games in 2010, versus the 2.9 games bought by non-smartphone-owning gamers.
Also, the smartphone crowd said they spent more money on games -- $25.57 per user for the year, compared to $15.70 from feature phone owners.

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Are Facebook games making more money than traditional games?

Facebook games aren't tracked in terms of sales, so it's difficult to find accurate revenue estimates. Nevertheless, since more game companies are going social, IGN decided to put together a graphic to see how much revenue social titles are bringing in.

While social game companies don't share their numbers, an NPD study last year found that 10 percent of the people who play Facebook games pay real money to buy in-game items or currency and a SocialGold study found that the average player who actually pays real money spends about $55. Putting the two together, it's possible to estimate how Facebook games stack up to the top 10 games of 2010 in terms of paying players and revenue generated. Players were rounded to the nearest half million and revenues were rounded to the nearest $50 million:

It looks like Call of Duty: Black Ops was the only game that had more players and made more money than any Facebook game. It's no wonder that Zynga is valued higher than Electronic Arts. This may not be the most accurate estimate, but it's interesting to see ballpark figures nonetheless.

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WP7 Game Boy Pocket emulator now named Wario's Jewels

The Windows Phone 7 Game Boy Pocket emulator that we first saw last month has been christened Wario's Jewels. The emulator is still nowhere near completion, but it has received a few notable improvements, according to its French creator, Samuel Blanchard.

The new version now includes save states, which means you can quit the application without losing your game progress. The aspect ratio issue has been corrected, though this means that the games are no longer full screen. To deal with the wasted space, Blanchard has added a background image he found on an iPhone emulator, though he is welcoming anyone with a little artistic talent to send him their custom backgrounds. Last but not least, the emulator now reads custom XML files to show a description of the game ROMs and their corresponding cover art; Blanchard is currently writing a little application that will make it easier to generate these XML files.



As you can see by the black-and-white limitations of the game colors, Wario's Jewels is still a Game Boy Pocket emulator. Blanchard says that he may one day, however, turn the project into a Game Boy Color emulator.

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Steam generated $1 billion in 2010

Many have cast doubt on the future of PC gaming, calling the industry a pale shadow of what it used to be. We can't help but disagree with that, especially when you look at the stellar lineup prepared for 2011. Research firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) has further confirmed the PC industry's continuing vigor by releasing sales stats for Valve's digital distribution platform, Steam.

Although Valve generally keeps Steam's performance figures under wraps, FADE estimates that the service raked in just shy of $1 billion last year. Revenue supposedly reached $970 million in 2010 and unsurprisingly, December was the service's best month with $213 million in sales. FADE reports that over 180 games cracked the $1 million sales mark with the Call of Duty franchise being the top seller.


COD: Black Ops was the highest grossing title with $98.2m, while 2009's Modern Warfare 2 pulled in $39.4m. Valve's own Left 2 Dead 2 was the third bestselling game with $36m in revenue, while Bad Company 2 and Civilization V hit $25.4 and $21.9m, respectively. Portal, Fallout: New Vegas, Metro 2033, Mafia II, and Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising occupied the bottom five slots, selling $10 to $20m.

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Battlefield 1943, Bad Company 2 Onslaught cancelled for PC

Break out the tissues. DICE has just announced the cancellation of two anticipated PC projects: Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Onslaught. The former is a complete game that launched on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in July 2009, while the latter is a new game mode for Bad Company 2 released as downloadable content for consoles in June 2010.

Both were supposed to be available on PC in the near future but DICE has decided to halt development on the projects to focus its energy on a completely new title. "There comes a time when we as a studio have to choose where to best put our efforts," explained general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson. "This is one of those cross roads where I need to make a hard decision."


Although the developer will continue supporting Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and previous games, much of DICE's manpower will be allocated to the creation of Battlefield 3. The upcoming installment is being developed with a new version of the Frostbite engine and will be unveiled at a press event before this year's Game Developers Conference (February 28 through March 4).

"Our goal is crystal clear: we're going to build the best Battlefield game ever, and we'll do whatever it takes to make this the biggest launch in DICE's history," Troedsson said. Little is known about Battlefield 3, but Frostbite 2.0 supposedly takes "full advantage" of DirectX 11 and 64-bit processors. Building hype, Troedsson told fans to keep their eyes peeled for some exciting news.

Update: Game Informer has revealed its March cover featuring none other than Battlefield 3.

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Minimum PC system requirements revealed for Crysis 2

Crytek has revealed the minimum PC system requirements for their highly anticipated shooter Crysis 2. The original title managed to score highly with critics, but was notorious for the steep hardware requirements needed to run the game at acceptable frame rates. Many gamers stayed away from it for this reason and consequently Crysis was perhaps more known as the prime benchmark for high-end graphics cards rather than a blockbuster hit.

The developer seemed to learn its lesson with Crysis Warhead and now it's promising to take graphics to new levels with an optimized CryEngine. Here are the minimum requirements for Crysis 2 according to the game's Facebook page:

• Internet connection required for activation


• OS: XP/Vista/Windows 7


• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 x2 2Ghz or better


• 2 GB RAM


• HDD: 9 GB


• DVD ROM: 8x


• GPU: NVIDIA 8800 GT 512MB RAM, ATI 3850HD 512Mb RAM or better


• Keyboard, mouse, or Microsoft Xbox 360 controller for Windows

Note that these are just the minimum hardware requirements to play the game but Crytek isn't mentioning frame rates or quality settings. To play Crysis 2 in all its visual glory you'll still need a much more powerful rig and probably a last generation graphics card, although so far no recommended system specs have been published. We expect to hear more soon now that a multiplayer demo for PC is expected to land ahead of the game's release on March 22.

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ZMP's City Simulator Experiment

ZMP has done some great things in the past -- well, except maybe Miuro, the roving iPod dock that ensured your PMP would always be just out of reach. Lately the company has been focusing on self-driving cars like the RoboCar MEV, and while this little one most certainly does have a driver, that driver is not actually in the car. It's a potential roadway revolution. Just imagine being able to partake in your morning commute from the safety of your own home! Right now it's just a little RC car (not unlike Malte Jehmlich's telepresence Wipeout from last year) being steered by what looks like a Logitech Driving Force GT, making us hope that the next Gran Turismo offers a mode just like this -- minus the headgear.

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PlayStation Move headed to PCs under official 'Move Server' project

Oops. Looks like Sony's plans to make its PlayStation Move controller an official PC accessory have been unceremoniously revealed in a description of a Sony Computer Entertainment America talk scheduled for Game Developers Conference 2011. According to the synopsis, John McCutchan, SCEA's lead for Game Systems and Developer Support, will be on hand to discuss the "Move Server project that will make it possible for academics and hobbyists to develop software using the PlayStation Move controller on their own PCs." Hmm, sounds like somebody feels left out by all of the unofficial Kinect hackery which could be treated to official Microsoft support sometime this summer. Now go hit up the source link below to read the description for yourselves.

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