For us here at LZ, the Japanese games industry is hugely important to us so when the pricing for the Xbox One was suspiciously absent from the conference it was easy to chalk it up to simply being left out till a later date, however when Justin linked us to Microsoft’s own Xbox One pre-order page the list of supported countries for game activation also lacks (completely) any mention of Japan or Asia, instead opting only for countries which the Xbox 360 fared best in.

Obviously until we hear direct world from Microsoft themselves to confirm or deny this we’ve only online documentation to go off of, but for now it would seem as though Microsoft are still burned about the poor performance of the Xbox 360 in Japan and have no current plans to bring the Xbox One here.

Today at Sony’s E3 press conference, the physical console was revealed, as well as the surprising price. The PlayStation 4 will come out this holiday season for $ 399, € 399, and £ 349 with a DualShock 4 controller, mono headset, HDMI cable, and finally the console itself. The PlayStation Camera is not bundled with the console as originally promised.

Check past the break for the images of the new console.

Read More

Microsoft’s annual E3 press conference just concluded earlier, revealing a ton of exclusive titles that are coming to the Xbox One. As promised it was all about the games this time around. Probably the biggest piece of news comes in the form of a set of numbers – $499. That’s the amount of money you’ll have to put down if you want to pick up a Xbox One this November.

In terms of games, a lot was shown off in the 90 minute period of the conference – both new takes on classics as well as brand new IPs.

Read More

If you have been following the Oculus Rift development lately you would realize while the product is the first step in the right direction for fully immersive gameplay, there’s something missing. What the Oculus Rift lacks, the Omni provides. While using the Oculus Rift players have full range of motion with their head, but the rest of their body remains motionless with a controller in their hands. The Omni hopes to bring the rest of your body into the virtual reality space with its 360 degree movement platform.

Simply known as Omni, the device holds a player upright in a bowl-like platform. The player is able to, with the help of specially-designed shoes, to move in any direction while remaining in the same physical spot. It uses absolutely zero motors in its construction, allowing for a relatively small footprint unlike current 360-degree treadmill platforms.

In order to track a players movement, a Kinect is also required for the setup. The Omni is currently way-past its Kickstarter goal with still 44 days left. If you wish to back the project and receive a working Omni, you’d have to shell out at least $429.

Check past the break for the full Kickstarter video.

Read More

Following the disastrous Xbox One reveal a few weeks ago, many questions remained surrounding how the Xbox One will handle used games, as well as how often it will have to be connected to the internet to function. Today, Microsoft’s new news-focused website, Xbox Wire, has finally offered us some concrete answers to all of our questions.

Used Games

Probably the point of most contentions since the Xbox One’s reveal – how will used games work? Early reports suggested that gamers would have to pay a full-price fee to activate a used-game on their system, but that has since been retracted and reworked with the new policy.

According to the new policy, gamers will only be able to sell a game if the “publisher allows it” and only at participating retailers. You may also, if you choose, give your friend your game at no charge, so long as they have been on your friend’s list for at least 30 days. It also says that a game can only be “given once.”

You will also be able to sign-in on another Xbox One and play your games that are associated with your account, presumably after you have downloaded and installed it however.

Always-On State

The Xbox One will be nearly always-online. According to Microsoft, the Xbox One will have to phone home once every 24 hours to check for updates and game authentication. You can still however watch DVD’s and Bluray on your Xbox One without maintaining a connection.

Kinect’s “Always On”

Gamers will be guided through the Kinect set-up process, so there’s complete transparency when it comes to what data is and is not collected by Kinect. Your living room conversations will not be collected by Kinect and will not be uploaded to Microsoft to use. Also, when in stand-by mode the Kinect will only listen for the “Xbox on” command, although consumers can choose to disable that option as well.

Leaked this morning on a Game Informer cover page, Titanfall will be Respawn Entertainment’s first title since forming over two years ago. Respawn is mostly comprised of ex-Infinity Ward developers, the guys that brought us Call of Duty, who formed the studio after co-founders West and Zampella were fired from Activision.

Their new title is apparently being positioned as a Xbox One / Xbox 360 console exclusive, while it will also make an appearance on the PC. There’s no love for the next generation PlayStation 4 here. Rumors also have it that the game will heavily utilize the cloud, requiring an internet connection to play.

Respawn is set to officially reveal the game next week during E3 where we should be able to get a lot more details. Check past the break for the full cover image.

Read More

Guerrilla Games, developers of the PlayStation exclusive franchise, Killzone, have released details on their recent demo of Killzone: Shadow Fall at the PS4 reveal event. In the 103-page document, Michal Valient of Guerrilla Games, takes us through the studio’s work on bringing Killzone to the next generation.

One of the highlights of the document includes the teams goal and achievement of a 1080p, 30fps demo. This will be a welcomed improvement from the common 720p resolutions found today’s “HD” games. The entire demo was also using just under 5gb of the PlayStation 4′s GDDR5 memory, of which Valient referred to as having “awesome” bandwidth – something that the Xbox One won’t have with its DDR3 memory.

Check past the break for a comparison between the polygon count on PS4 vs PS3 with in-game models.

Read More

First emerging as a rumor earlier, and later confirmed by Shuhei Yoshida of Sony Computer Entertainment, all PS4 titles must support remote play on the PlayStation Vita. There is one caveat though where a game does not need to include support – if the game utilizes the new the PlayStation Eye camera.

This is great news for those who have purchased a Vita and are still wondering what they can do with it. I’ve recently loaned mine to a friend in the hospital where he is finding more enjoyment playing Final Fantasy IX than any of the Vita games I have. The Vita needs more support from Sony and its developers and this is just one more step in the right direction for the handheld system.

Thanks to the recent reveal of the Xbox One, a lot of discussion regarding ‘Cloud processing’ has reared it’s head, with developers discussing possible uses for it in a discussion panel with Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) shortly after the initial reveal. Excitedly sharing their lofty ideals for the prospects of being able to use the mystical powers of “the cloud” to essentially make the Xbox One progressively more powerful over time.

Read More

According to a report over at MCV, a portion of used game sales from the Xbox One could go to publishers of the game. Traditionally used game profits have only benefited the retailer, but since Microsoft’s announcement on Tuesday it looks like they too want a piece of the pie.

If the rumor pans out to be true, a consumer can still sell their game to a retailer, something that has been unclear since the first rumors appeared on Tuesday. However that retailer must have agreed to Microsoft’s terms and conditions for buying back Xbox One titles, as well as have Microsoft’s pre-owned sales system in place. The retailer can then revoke a player’s account authentication with the game they are selling and allow it to be re-activated on another account/console.

In turn, Microsoft and the publisher will receive a portion of the profit earned from the resale of the game. Major Nelson has since come out with a statement saying that they are still working on the details but this policy sounds a lot better than the originally rumored full-price reactivation costs.