Gaming - Page 1975

The PS4 launched in the United States today, but it looks like it is already having issues with some customers. Not only that, but some media are having issues, with Kotaku's PS4 review stating that the first retail unit it received from Sony "didn't work", and Kotaku even said that editors also used "one pre-release PS4 and three retail PS4s with no problems".

Customers who had received the borked PS4s reported that the next-gen console didn't boot, with Reddit user 'arogon' winning a PS4 through Taco Bell, receiving a DOA PS4. Another user, 'yearsoflove' claimed to also receive a dead on arrival PS4, but a replacement was currently being shipped from Sony. But all is not lost, because Sony has your back.

President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, tweeted earlier today: "Be assured we are investigating reported PS4 issues. The number is very small compared to shipped, we believe they are isolated incidents".

The AMD APU13 conference is continuing on, with some new details about AMD's Mantle API. DICE's front man for the Frostbite engine, Johan Andersson, took the stage at the APU13 conference to talk about Mantle, and how it is going to be used extensively in Frostbite.

Andersson said that there would be a Mantle-powered version of Battlefield 4 released soon, something I'm excited to start testing on, and that there will be a bunch more games released under the Frostbite engine, that would be powered by Mantle. The biggest benefit to take away here is that Mantle has a lot less of an overhead to it, when compared to DirectX.

Jorjen Katsman, from Nixxes, the developer who is working on porting Thief to the PC, said that DirectX 11 has an overhead of around 40%, while Mantle has an overhead of just 8%. Katsman said that it's "not unrealistic that you'd get 20% additional GPU performance" with a Mantle-powered GPU.

Sony's PlayStation network has always been a free service to all PlayStation users. Sony's head of global marketing and vice president of Sony Network Entertainment, Eric Lempel explains to GamesIndustry.biz why they had to make the change and that it would be too difficult to keep the PlayStation Network free. Although the PlayStation Network's app services will still be free, Lempel says the PlayStation 4 will still have an edge over Xbox One due to Xbox Live's requirement to use many of its services. Lempel also explains that you get a good value and that it is worth paying for.

Eric Lempel mentioning it's difficult to keep PSN free: "There's a ton of value in the network. We've built up the network over the years and made a significant investment... and it's quite honestly hard to keep everything free"

Lempel continues: "The network's gotten so much better and it's completely redesigned on PS4. And the investment in Plus gives the user a ton of value, so putting multiplayer in there will continue to help us build the network up for our users. It's a massive infrastructure to run this thing, and now with some of these social features there's a lot going on."

The next generation of consoles are just right around the corner. Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot comments that the PlayStation 4 is doing better in pre-orders than the Xbox One. Guillemot is not worried though, and says the Xbox One is improving in pre-orders. Guillemot was asked if he was worried about a lack in demand for The Xbox One's pre-orders.

Guillemot comments: "What we see is that there is a good pre-order list on that machine. Even if the PS4 is in front in terms of pre-orders, we see lots of improvement in the pre-orders that are coming on Xbox One. So no, we are not worried at all. We think it will be a big seller as well."

Guillemot is also not worried about the short term transition the consoles bring. Guillemot says, "The PS4 and Xbox One will be released in a few days' time and will be a new driving force for the industry,"

Its no secret that I am one of the biggest fans of Valves Steam platform in the world, and to back that claim up, I have almost 200 games in my Steam Library. One of my biggest gripes about Steam has always been that it will not allow users to download games while they are playing other games, but today Valve has changed that.

Earlier today, Valve began releasing an update to Steam that now enables background downloading. This means that Steam customers can now download and install games while they play other games. This feature can be turned off and back on at any time by the user too, which will be good for games that require high-bandwidth for online play. A full list of the new features and fixes that this latest update brings is listed below.

For those who play Diablo 3 on PC, which is most Diablo 3 players, the mouse and keyboard combination is something that shouldn't be messed with - right? Well, Blizzard has considered building in gamepad support, to bring it in line with the consoles, but this won't be happening.

Senior Level Designer, Matthew Berger, has said: "The rhythm on PC is tactactactactactac - you're clicking the mouse, you're telling your character where to go. On console, the rhythm is very different. It flows more, because you're constantly repositioning your character with the thumbstick; you're really never stationary on console, whereas on PC you're a lot more stationary ... When you're playing on the PC, you're not really looking at your character as much, you're kind of focusing on the cursor. Whereas on console it's the exact opposite, you're drawn in."

Berger continued: "[I]f I let you use the controller on the PC, then I have to let you use the user interface that goes with it, and if I give you the roll and I haven't throttled the number of enemies attacking you because the mouse-and-keyboard players can handle all those enemies, but with a controller you have too many guys ... The games have really been structured to take advantage of their environment and their ecosystem, so in the same way it would not be a good fit to put a mouse and keyboard on the console."

We are hours away from the next-gen consoles launching, and an interesting statistic has hit my inbox from Amazon. An Amazon spokesperson has said that if you were to combine the pre-order sales of the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, "it would make up the largest product release in Amazon history for all categories worldwide".

This is a seriously strong statement, and goes to show the kind of money that is rolling around with these next-gen consoles launching right now. Amazon is one of the biggest retailers shipping and selling the PS4 and Xbox One, but those numbers above are just gigantic. The company with the biggest smile on their face? AMD. AMD have APUs in the PS4 and Xbox One, and they must be laughing all the way to the bank, or at least to the Kaveri APU.

Sony mentioned a just a couple weeks in their FAQ that the PlayStation 4 will not play MP3 or CDs, which was a huge disappointment from fans. Most people where thinking it was a way to push out their Music Unlimited service. Sony says that was never their intention. So they have decided they will push out a update after the PlayStation 4 launches.

Sony's Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida comments on an episode of Giant Bomb's Interview Dumptruck: "The biggest surprise for us all internally at Sony was there are so many people who passionately reacted to our announcement that there's no MP3 support or CD support on day one," he says. "It's not like we actively decided 'let's not do this feature so people will have to subscribe to Music Unlimited."

Yoshida continues: "The focus has been more on the game features. Some of the features we wanted but we couldn't get in on day one. We didn't really think about MP3 or CD. We thought 'we're going to do that eventually.'... It caught us off-guard. People don't really talk about these features, right? Some people get really mad and [say] 'I'll cancel my pre-order!' So as we speak, people in Japan - the system guys - are discussing when we can put these features in."

The PlayStation 4 is pushing all controller-based gameplay, as you'd expect from a console, but there will be one mouse and keyboard driven title. War Thunder is currently on the PC, with over 5 million gamers in the open beta.

The PS4 version of War Thunder will let you play like you do on the PC, as it supports mouse and keyboard gameplay. Oh, and flight sticks. Better yet, War Thunder will also pit PS4 gamers against PC gamers, which is something we should see more of. War Thunder will also support the PlayStation Eye camera, which will feature head-tracking, letting you change the viewpoint in the game by just turning your face.

War Thunder is coming, soon, with the game launching across Europe on the 29th of this month.

The minutes are counting down until the next-gen consoles launch from Microsoft and Sony, with the latter updating its PlayStation 4 Software Usage Terms today, stating that it may monitor and record PSN activity, including content of voice and text communications.

Sony has said that is cannot monitor "all PSN activity" and that it makes "no commitment to do so." But, Sony's statement does say: "However, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to monitor and record any or all of your PSN activity and to remove any of your UGM at our sole discretion, without further notice to you." It goes on to state: