Gaming

We've pulled together the very best minds at Joystiq Tech to analyse the all-important changes between the old Xbox logo (left), originally on the Xbox.com site, and a new logo (right) that's appeared today. After hours of heated discussion, they came to a consensus. The font's a different color. The sphere doesn't have the same sheen. The X on the sphere is darker, and a bit wider, maybe When asked what this all means, if anything, our hive-mind melted into a puddle before quickly evaporating into a steam cloud that drifted out of the window. Maybe we'll find out more in a few hours time.Xbox logo undergoes subtle change on site ahead of next-gen reveal originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 May 2013 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rare is the MMO that continues to thrive alongside its direct successor – or, for that matter, get a direct successor at all. By all accounts, the original Guild Wars lived a good, long life. It loved, it lost, it learned violin, it saw the ocean one last time. Also, I don’t know why I’m talking about it in the past tense, because it’s not dead yet. True, ArenaNet’s already itsy bitsy GW1 live team is moving on to bigger, less eight-year-old things, but unlike NCsoft stablemate City of Heroes, these guilds will war on. How? Robots. Find out more about your imminent ice-cold oppression after the break. (more…)

Unity Technologies, creators of the multi-platform Unity engine and its tools, is making its mobile tools free to indies and small studios starting today, taking tools that cost around $800 and making them free. Unity currently supports Apple's iOS and Google's Android, with support for BlackBerry and Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 to be added at no additional cost in the future. "Mobile games development is possibly the most dynamic and exciting industry in the world, and it's an honor to be able to help so many developers be so successful in fulfilling their visions and in building their businesses," said Unity CEO David Helgason. "We were able to make Unity free for the web and for desktop computers a while ago, but have been dreaming of doing the same for mobile for what seems like forever." To contextualize this, Unity is already a beast in the mobile field in terms of market share and developer relations. The company just opened the flood gates further.Continue reading Unity mobile tools go free for indies and small studios Unity mobile tools go free for indies and small studios originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 May 2013 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments More...

The Music Room is a new auditory-arts focused "interactive show" exclusive to Xbox. Beginning May 29, the The Music Room will showcase "the most exciting live bands around," with each episode featuring three acts. The first episode will be live on Live at 8.30PM UK time next Wednesday. The first episode will feature Carl Barat, Everything Everything, Don Broco and Swim Deep. The interactive portion of the show will display three options asking what the audience wants to see next. Sadly, playing 1 vs. 100 doesn't appear to be an option.Xbox launching interactive TV show 'The Music Room' in EU originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 May 2013 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments More...

Need one good reason the Wii U won't be put out to pasture before its time? How about three? Joost Rietveld argues that Nintendo's console is on firmer footing than many suggest. ... More...

Watch the main event today at 1p ET/10a PT/17:00 GMT via the live global stream that will be available on [...] More...

The next Xbox is about to be unveiled in Microsoft's Redmond campus, and Joystiq will be there to scrutinize and document the whole presentation. It starts at 1PM EDT (10AM PDT, 6PM GMT), so get your glib reactionary .gifs ready before then. Once the event starts, we'll switch this post over to liveblog mode and unleash the flood of quotes, observations and ill-advised jokes about computer chips. (Note: The presence of chips in the new Xbox is a rumor until Microsoft says otherwise.) "Xbox, reveal!"Xbox Reveal liveblog on Joystiq originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 May 2013 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments More...

Gamasutra will be providing breaking news and expert analysis of Microsoft's next generation Xbox. And you can watch today's event unravel in real-time here in this livestream. ... More...

Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley has confirmed that the original PlanetSide, first released in 2003, will soon switch over to the free-to-play model. ... More...

Gabe: Time for another episode of the number one webcomic reality show on Penny Arcade, Strip Search! I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but I will say that the elimination you will see this Friday was epic. -Gabe out