At the conference All Things Digital,Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer presented on Windows Seven, the new operating system, the successor of Windows Vista, incorporating a lot of features implemented in Surface.
The interface is touch-sensitive, multi-points (Multi-touch technology), which will provide new opportunities for interaction between man and machine, and offer new opportunities for developers.
It was greatly stressed that compatibility with Windows Vista has been a priority, not panic about your legacy applications, they should turn on Windows Seven smoothly!
This system should be available in the year 2010. Here is a short video, which shows you the potential of the beast!
As I indicated in the title, I'll give you a quick summary of the Microsoft conference held yesterday at the Game Developer Conference.
An announcement that will please many of the players is that we can soon download from the Xbox Live games developed by amateurs, via XNA. 7 of them are already on the Marketplace. This is interesting for both players, which will see new talent, but also play the new creations for free for 17 days, and programmers may have a potential audience of 10 million people.
First, an announcement that will please the owners of the Zune media player: via software XNA 3.0, which should emerge in the spring to the preview, and during the summer for the final version, developers can create games specifically for Zune. Therefore, the Zune will become a new platform game!
The new build of the Unreal Engine 3 has been made, and we can say that it is worth it!
Finally, Gears of War 2 has been formalized, planned for release in November 2008. Youtube video below.
In little bonus, here is the complete recording of the conference by Larry Hryb.
Here is a short article that my friend Dave Weller found on the Net. It is for people who know a little programming, build a game from A to Z using the XNA Game Studio Express, and the XSI Mod Tool!
The tutorial is present in the form of video, and everything is free, absolutely free.
So, the Imagine Cup conference held at the Sorbonne is over for a little over 24 hours. It is time to take stock of this event. We need to clarify that the Imagine Cup is organized in France. We must show that we receive, but also win.
Various speakers presented the conference, a relatively sustained pace.
Marc Jalabert we first introduced the Imagine Cup, whose theme this year is the environment. Very good choice, since news!
This was then followed a presentation by Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systems. This year we explained how 3D could improve the production cycle objects, and we do save time, but also how technology could help us create a world entirely virtual and more realistic, he called "First Life." And the guy is well positioned to say that, since his company develops software Catia, and Virtools, but also 3ds!
Then a very comical person emerged: Ora Ito. Marseille is this other than a famous designer today, and it multiplies contracts. It may well wonder what a designer is doing. Quite simply, when a simplified interface, you become more productive. That is why when developing a game, software, or otherwise, it is often necessary to use these people to help us develop things more ergonomic for the end user.
The third person is Andrew Herbert, director of research center in Cambridge. Then it was interesting how computers operate on matching their chemistry, and biology, but particularly difficult for an economist like me! However, we can see the place that Microsoft awarded the research and development, the latter being one of the driving forces of business of this company.
Finally, after a question and answer session, Bill Gates made his appearance, greeted by more than 1,200 students! Very excited, we are part of a review of the past 30 years, or the key was the pure power. Now, according to him, he should know stop, and proceed to ergonomics. You should know better manage and develop interfaces between man and machine. Hence a small presentation of Surface, revolutionary computer, you can see a video HERE. Ok, the system was not fully developed, but will be available for its official release. Then he talks about the environment. There he becomes urgent to develop ways to produce energy for a cleaner.
Then, after a brief question and answer session, the conference ended.
You can find more pictures on an album of my Flickr HERE.
Looks like the XNA team is moving a little. The service manager, Dave Mitchell, spent a call on the blog dedicated to XNA so that the creators of these games using development tools to send a message to show him their work. The best games will be shown to the community, and programmers will be able to private beta test the latest technologies XNA.
You may have heard that EA Chicago will close its doors here shortly, with some personnel replacements, but a lot of redundancies.
Some of you know that Infinity Wards, which studio is behind the license Call of Duty, was founded by former home of EA, who had worked on the series of Medal of Honor.
With the success of Call of Duty 4, the studio decided to hire, and they began to recruit ... directly from their game, and particularly targeting former employees of EA Chicago! Here is the message that could be read by launching Call of Duty 4:
EA Chicago Infinity Ward is now hiring Jobs@infinityward.com
Clearly, the game Manhunt 2 has no chance. This horror game uses the gameplay of the Nintendo Wii to immerse the player in a fairly unhealthy. So unhealthy that he had been banned in several countries. Then Take 2 Interactive asked developers to fix their game, to be validated by various agencies such as the ESRB.
After a few weeks, the game has been validated by the ERSB, with a nice logo 'M' for Mature. However, the British Board of Film Classification has once again refused Thursday
What do you think: too much violence, institutions that are too harsh ...? Express yourself!
Here's an interesting article published on the site Gamasutra: it appear that 46% of games published on Xbox 360 have been rejected at least once during the Microsoft certification. This certification is a quality control of a game, Microsoft technicians checking if the game is in line with their requirements, if the game does not have too many bugs, if the Xbox Live service is properly used ... One of the new requirements Microsoft is obliged to check if the game works well in full HD, ie 1080p. However, the XDK (SDK for the Xbox 360) for August 2007 includes a utility to check if the game is in order. But it does not do everything!
Then he yal'évaluation ESRB: developers must not allow a violent game for less than 3 years! All these 'constraints' which may delay the sale of a title, and thus reap additional costs, which can weigh on the budget of a modest studio ...
