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The Daily GameDev.net
Posted by: Oli Wilkinson at November 18, 2009 3:29:37 PM

Modern Wealth: Modern Warfare 2 has been good for Activision, Grossing over $550million in 5 days. It's also been good for Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who's been exercising his stock options to rake in $20million on launch day and a further $17million recently. Go on, treat yourself to that new speedboat.

Modern Morefare: Hardly suprising, but after Modern Warfare 2's success, Activision are reported to have charged a third studio, working alongside Infinity Ward and Treyarch to work on another Call of Duty game. There's also rumors of a Call of Duty MMO. Hmm, ok.

Australia Game Dev Layoffs: Australia's Game Development industry has had a rough time as of late and I'm saddened to hear that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed developer Krome Studios has announced an undisclosed number of layoffs.

Europe PS3 Movie Rental: From tomorrow (Thursday) PS3 owners in Europe can access PSN's Video Store, allowing them to rent movies from e1.99 and buy from e7.99 per title. The service, which works in a similar way to XBox LIVE's video service, allows you to watch the video for 48 hours after you press play. A nice feature lets you transfer your films to your PSP for watching on the move. The services launches with around 2000 titles available

UK Temp Worker Ruling: Game studios in the UK may no longer enjoy the benefits of hiring temporary workers as the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 bill aims to grant similar rights as permanent staff to temp workers. Tiga are warning that this move could adversely affect game developers as it would reduce flexibility and ultimately competitiveness of UK studios overseas.

Un-Fun-Q3-Com: Norweigian MMO developers FunCom have announced a $9.59million loss for Q3 of 2009, blaming market conditions and releases from competitors such as Aion and Champions Online stealing people away from Age Of Conan. The company are looking to the future with the Q2 2010 release of their next MMO, The Secret World.

Square Enix announce Supreme Commander 2: Square Enix have announced Supreme Commander 2 for a spring release on the XBox 360 and PC. The game is being developed by Chris Taylor's Gas Powered Games. I'm looking forward to waging large scale war with giant robots and nuclear weapons again.

iPhone Piracy: Seems to be a regular feature in my posts, but Gamasutra have posted a feature detailing the findings of Pinch Media's Greg Yardley. In his report, he details that over 60% of iPhone applications have been pirated and fears that the figures could be even higher. I find it disturbing that even the low-cost games of the app store are subject to such systemic theft by unscrupulous pirates.

Zynga VC Funding: Social Networking games studio Zynga have seen a $15million cash injection from an unnamed venture capital source. The company has courted controvesy over the past few weeks over its in-game advertising models and allegations of hidden scams and confusing offers.


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 "The Daily GameDev.net" Discussion
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Lord Crc     Member since: 2/13/2008
 Posted - 11/18/2009 5:04:44 PM
May I ask what the point is in using short url's for a non-twitter post such as this? Having surfed the internet for quite a while, I'll never click on an obfuscated link.

That said... CoD MMO o.O Just think of all the fun once it's populated with cheerful lads like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rqLUDfl26Y :D

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message swiftcoder     Member since: 7/3/2003  From: Boston, MA
 Posted - 11/18/2009 5:38:23 PM
Quote:
Original post by Lord Crc
May I ask what the point is in using short url's for a non-twitter post such as this? Having surfed the internet for quite a while, I'll never click on an obfuscated link.
Statistics - tr.im provides detailed reports of traffic to each shortened URL. As to the safety, I doubt that evolutional is going to rick-roll you, or send you to goatse...*


*except on April fool's

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message phantom  Moderator   Member since: 12/15/2001  From: Ipswich, Suffolk
 Posted - 11/18/2009 5:42:38 PM
Another branch of CoD makes sense for Activision given how they use their IP. I wonder if that will mean one stuck in WW2, one in modern times and one in the future!

Personally, I'd like to see a 3rd modern warfare game, I think given how the 2nd finished they could take it in an intresting direction. That said, I won't moan if there isn't a third.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Lord Crc     Member since: 2/13/2008
 Posted - 11/18/2009 9:45:10 PM
Quote:
Original post by swiftcoder
Statistics - tr.im provides detailed reports of traffic to each shortened URL. As to the safety, I doubt that evolutional is going to rick-roll you, or send you to goatse...*


If only it was as mundane as goatse... In any case, thanks for the reply, at least there's a reason behind the madness.



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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Hodgman     Member since: 2/14/2007  From: Melbourne, Victoria
 Posted - 11/19/2009 1:23:30 AM
Quote:
I find it disturbing that even the low-cost games of the app store are subject to such systemic theft by unscrupulous pirates.
Tell me about it, those thieving bastards are even stealing zero-cost content from the Murdoch empire!

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message ZeRaW     Member since: 6/30/2005  From: Redmond, WA
 Posted - 11/19/2009 2:38:37 AM
Quote:
Original post by Hodgman
Quote:
I find it disturbing that even the low-cost games of the app store are subject to such systemic theft by unscrupulous pirates.
Tell me about it, those thieving bastards are even stealing zero-cost content from the Murdoch empire!


you need internet to download an app from the appstore, yet not many iphone app use their own security measures to make sure they don;t get pirated. i.e login checks via server authentication...
The standard security protection used by apple has been cracked for ages now, apps should use their own methods to combat piracy. . .

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message swiftcoder     Member since: 7/3/2003  From: Boston, MA
 Posted - 11/19/2009 7:25:39 AM
Quote:
Original post by ZeRaW
The standard security protection used by apple has been cracked for ages now, apps should use their own methods to combat piracy. . .
What bothers me is how these statistics demonstrate a widespread high-tech level among iPhone users. This isn't the torrent+install of the PC world - you need a jail-broken iPhone, etc.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message evolutional  Moderator - Alternative Game Libraries   Member since: 1/25/2002  From: Leeds, West Yorkshire
 Posted - 11/19/2009 8:10:45 AM
Quote:
Original post by Lord Crc
May I ask what the point is in using short url's for a non-twitter post such as this? Having surfed the internet for quite a while, I'll never click on an obfuscated link.


Drew suggested we try the tr.im URLs to collect some useful stats on what people click on from the dailies - it'll help us focus the content to the stories that you guys read more. I did forget to add the alt text as the original link, so apologies for that.

I'll pass your feedback to the news team.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message evolutional  Moderator - Alternative Game Libraries   Member since: 1/25/2002  From: Leeds, West Yorkshire
 Posted - 11/19/2009 8:14:08 AM
Quote:
Original post by swiftcoder
Quote:
Original post by ZeRaW
The standard security protection used by apple has been cracked for ages now, apps should use their own methods to combat piracy. . .
What bothers me is how these statistics demonstrate a widespread high-tech level among iPhone users. This isn't the torrent+install of the PC world - you need a jail-broken iPhone, etc.


Yeah, same. It's like "casual piracy" isn't even an excuse, these guys have deliberately gone out of their way to get their iPhone hacked to let them pirate the games.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Moe     Member since: 1/24/2000  From: Calgary, Alberta
 Posted - 11/19/2009 10:40:58 AM
Quote:
Original post by Lord Crc
May I ask what the point is in using short url's for a non-twitter post such as this? Having surfed the internet for quite a while, I'll never click on an obfuscated link.

That said... CoD MMO o.O Just think of all the fun once it's populated with cheerful lads like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rqLUDfl26Y :D

Huh, so MW2 PC fans have already managed to create some sort of dedicated server? That didn't take them long...



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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message cdoty     Member since: 7/14/2000  From: Sugar Land, TX
 Posted - 11/19/2009 11:35:29 AM
Quote:
Original post by swiftcoder
What bothers me is how these statistics demonstrate a widespread high-tech level among iPhone users. This isn't the torrent+install of the PC world - you need a jail-broken iPhone, etc.


It's an automated process, from what I understand; all you have to do is find the software, and run it. Apple could be proactive by creating some FUD about the ease at which the process could go wrong, and break your iPhone. Or, they need to make the App store, or some other service, essential (similar to Xbox Live).



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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message swiftcoder     Member since: 7/3/2003  From: Boston, MA
 Posted - 11/19/2009 12:38:40 PM
Quote:
Original post by cdoty
It's an automated process, from what I understand; all you have to do is find the software, and run it. Apple could be proactive by creating some FUD about the ease at which the process could go wrong, and break your iPhone. Or, they need to make the App store, or some other service, essential (similar to Xbox Live).
Apple has consistently bricked jailbroken iPhones with new OS releases, and the app store has had issues on several versions of the jailbreak software. It also voids your warranty, and makes you no longer eligible for Genius Bar support. I don't think everyone and their grandma is jailbreaking their phone. Despite everyone around here carrying one, I only know (personally) two people who have jailbroken their iPhone.

It would be interesting to see a break down by geographic region - my friends in the Caribbean and Latin America tell me you can buy unlocked iPhones for cents on the dollar at the ubiquitous imported tech stores. Many (maybe even most) of those may come pre-jailbroken, as part of the unlocking process...

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message BLiTZWiNG     Member since: 4/10/2006  From: Brisbane, Queensland
 Posted - 11/19/2009 5:13:33 PM
Sad new about Krome. Just round the corner from me. I applied for a job with them, but was too late for the job I was after and over qualified for the remaining position. In a way, I'm glad I'm not there now, the job I have has some future at least and isn't subject to game sales.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Lord Crc     Member since: 2/13/2008
 Posted - 11/19/2009 5:27:25 PM
Quote:
Original post by evolutional
Drew suggested we try the tr.im URLs to collect some useful stats on what people click on from the dailies - it'll help us focus the content to the stories that you guys read more. I did forget to add the alt text as the original link, so apologies for that.


As a regular lurker I appreciate the effort you guys put into the dailies, and I see the advantage. Just never used such services so didn't know :) With alt text it would be much better tho.

Quote:
Original post by Moe
Huh, so MW2 PC fans have already managed to create some sort of dedicated server? That didn't take them long...


Yeah, and get the console back. First hack was out in less than 12 hrs after launch so yeah, I'm expecting proper dedicated server support in a week or two :P


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