EPIC Games and Unreal Engine 3

EPIC Games is a studio that to me epitomizes a singular studio that has the power to define a console. With their unreal engine tech, its usability and how so many developers license it to make their games on the list of Unreal Engine 3 games clearly show the sheer amount of developers working with the engine and the nature of the games that it is used to develop. With EPIC Games designing their engine for certain hardware it leaves the systems that they do not do this for with the choice, the development studio could try to shoehorn the engine or older versions onto the system that provides a less than ideal result and initiates what could be a costly exercise, or find some other engine. Finding another engine to develop a game on is mostly a non-choice because when its a multi-platform game it seldom works out the best, leaving then the systems without UE compatibility out of a multi-platform IP.

iPlayer Stats 19-03-2010 (1 day late :p)

Well due to having absolutely no time what so ever yesterday I had to resort to doing the iPlayer stats for 4 months and 1 day.

Following my own logic for this data from last time. There are:
(807,028 / 6.68)

120813 (rounded) users reporting data on the BBC iPlayer channel. Each one viewing the channel for 6+ hours on average, this is almost double the amount of users and average usage time increasing by approximately 60% (401{mins} / 250{mins}). Each user has again increased the amount of times they’ve used the iPlayer from 3.75 times to 5.51 times (with the first month’s usages being 2.92 times).

My own personal usage of the channel has slowed this past couple of months in my own opinion but the tally for 4 months usage is a total of 54Hr(s) 52Min(s), and it has been booted 19 times, with much more content being added each week Rugby 6 Nations being hosted for a week after games have been played and with Formula 1 starting the season again I can see the iPlayer regional usage continuing to climb.

Again it seems that when I goto post my usage stats I’m beatin to it with even more in depth source data (from the BBC) so with news from MCVUK after the jump.

So the new DS wasn’t announced, yet!

Sorry about my hiatus from my usual commentary on events and the likes, but things have been a bit busy here in the “real world”. But onwards and upwards!

So GDC or other events didn’t bring the announcement of the new DS, but it did bring rumours from developers who are already developing on the system. Gamecube+ graphic capabilities (Tegra 2 confirmed), seamless dual screens, motion sensors and ease of development.

Other things did happen, one of which would be the announcement of the Playstation Move. I had a quick back and forth with a BBC correspondent, Maggie Shiels, over twitter.

In Danger of ‘Over-hyping’ myself!

Well as the title says, I’m seriously in danger of over-hyping myself about the possible revelations coming this month from Nintendo. If you think back to E3 and last years conferences they stated very little about the coming year and their plans, they chose to concentrate on the rest of the current financial year. Well what does that leave after that? We can only but guess, but guessing leads to anticipation, anticipation leads to excitement, and that is a cruel circle until you are officially over-hyped…

My List of what to expect;
More 3rd party involvement
Metroid OtherM
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Discussion of Zelda Wii
DS successor hardware showcase + software
Vitality Sensor + Software

If some of these are not shown at the briefing, well expect them at GDC in March.
I would love to add “Retro’s secret project” to the list, but I don’t think we will hear about that until 2011.

This has to be included in all next-gen consoles!

Well to me its simple that this should be a basic feature in ALL next generation consoles. I actually contacted Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hyrb to tell him about it, he found it interesting and passed it onto the “relevant” departments for consideration. But enough of that onto the idea…

Gamer profile/Online identities should be able to be brought with us. Now I don’t know the full situation on the PS3, but how many of us have had to sit through the damn Microsoft XBL retrieve gamertag? Like especially on a bad connection where you only want to play local multi but still want to register points. So, your identity should be (and this was inspired by the built in memory to the Wiimote for Mii transfer) transferable to friends homes by simply bringing your own controller with you. Before you leave home you transfer an up-to-date ‘image’ of your profile to your controller and when you arrive transfer it automatically to the friends console when syncing controller and it can do a simple quick verification if it wanted to through the connection if ones available. To me this is a necessity for the next gen, yeah everyone talks about how you play online these days, but local is still important to me! AND I want to be able to go online with one or more friends from the same console! MW2 would be a blast if I could go online with my friend right beside me!

How should Nintendo Advertise Netflix?

Well taking a page out of NoE’s online capabilities advertisements, it should go as the following;

*camera pans in on family watching Netflix through the Wii*

Father figure speaks up: I was browsing my instant cue online then noticed on the Netflix an advertisement about the Wii.
I checked it out and discovered that I can now watch Netflix through my Wii, so I ordered the free activation disk.

*camera feed shows father inserting disk into Wii and activating the channel from the menu*

Father: After a quick 2 minute setup it was ready to start watching anything from my netflix subscription on my TV. What a better way to enjoy my shows on my home TV!

*camera feed shows family all laughing and enjoying family centred content from Netflix*

Screen goes white and starts the PSA from the soft voiced female refreshing the information on where to go and how to order.

BBC iPlayer 2 Months in

Well the BBC iPlayer is officially 2 months old today, so lets see how things have shaped up since my last usage stats update a month ago!

Following my own logic for this data from last time. There are:
(263,536 / 4.16)

63350 (rounded) users reporting data on the BBC iPlayer channel. Each one viewing the channel for 4+ hours on average, this is a MAJOR jump in users and average usage time. With each user increasing the amount of times they’ve used the iPlayer from 2.92 times to 3.75 times.

My own personal usage of the channel has massively increased to a total of 22Hr(s) 17Min(s), and it has been booted 11 times, this is due to the fact that even more great content keeps getting added and has the convenience of I get to watch the television I want whenever I want (before it expires :p)

After the jump some record breaking news from the BBC about the iPlayer

Have you completed your Sega Trinity?

So has everyone finally got their Sega Trinity?

What Tech could we find inside the Vitality Sensor?

Well the Vitality Sensor came out of nowhere at last years E3, no one expected an announcement like it nor expected Nintendo to delve any further into health related gaming/monitoring. A lot of speculation about the Vitality Sensor started with plain jane horror games designed to scare you when your relaxed etc by just monitoring your heart rate/pulse. But what more could this device be? Well, the only way in which we can gain some sort if idea is to actually look at what the health industry does with finger monitors. This is all speculation as to what the Vitality Sensor can do as, as far as we know no one has ever had a hands on with the device therefore we cannot attain what the device can do or does when attached to a finger.

BBC iPlayer usage stats – so far

If my understanding of this information is correct. There are:
(79205 / 3)

26402 (rounded) users reporting data on the BBC iPlayer channel.  Each one viewing the channel for 3+ hours on average, to me this speaks of a good but slow start, if I remember in January I will report the new details then.

My own personal usage of the channel tallies between the 8 and 9 hours mark and I find the channel very useful and intuitive.