Monthly Archives: February 2015
NASA Deep Space Climate Mission Launching Soon
A satellite mission formed by a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and the US Air Force will launch next week at 6:10 pm on February 8.
Called the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), the satellite's intended use is to go into space to "maintain the nation's solar wind observations capability" and help with the accuracy and lead time on weather alerts, forecasts, and "space weather events."
According to NASA, collecting data on these events is essential to keep public infrastructure systems running smoothly. Disruptions and different events such as these can impact systems such as power and telecommunications.
Rockstar Has Shipped 45 Million Copies of GTA V
Over 45 million copies of Grand Theft Auto V have been sold-in on consoles.
Publisher Take-Two shared the numbers today during an investor call. 10 million copies of Rockstar's open-world game were shipped for PS4 and Xbox One alone, despite being released only two-and-a-half months ago.
GTA V was originally released in September 2013 for Xbox 360 and PS3. The PC version will be released on March 24.
Brian is an associate editor at IGN. You can follow him @albinoalbert on Twitter.
Final Fantasy Creator to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award
This year's Game Developers Choice Awards will honor Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
"Final Fantasy helped pave the way for game stories that dealt with death, regret and character development in a mature and significant way, and we're proud to honor Sakaguchi-san as a true leader in the space, and an inspired game developer," said Meggan Scavio, general manager of GDC events.
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Sakaguchi is being honored for his various contributions to iconic RPGs, including Final Fantasy, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, and Kingdom Hearts. He served as President of Square USA in 1995, and directed the movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He later left Square and founded Mistwalker, the studio behind Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.
GTA 5, Borderlands Drive Take-Two Interactive Earnings
Take-Two Interactive Announced better than expected earnings for the third quarter of its fiscal year. As a result of the strong Q3, which ended December 31, the company has increased its financial outlook for the fiscal year, which ends March 31.
Driven in part by sales of Grand Theft Auto V for PS4 and Xbox One, the company reported GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net revenue of $531.1 million USD for the quarter. This number is down from the year previous, in which the company reported net revenue of $1.86 billion for the same period.
Non-GAAP income increased to $211.6 million, driven largely by Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K15, WWE 2K15, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
Ouya Is Entering China’s Console Market With $10 Million Deal
Ouya has officially confirmed its $10 million investment from the Alibaba Group, as well as a partnership that will help bring the Ouya library of games to Alibaba's YunOS platform.
There's been great interest in bringing gaming to televisions in China, following the country's 2014 decision to lift its 13-year ban on gaming consoles. China has an especially large market in downloadable and free-to-play games, so this Ouya deal makes sense; the $99 console launched with a requirement that all its games have some sort of free aspect, such as a demo.
Humble Bundle Features Key Star Wars Games
Several key Star Wars video games are currently available in a pay-what-you-want collection of games from Humble Bundle.
The standard bundle available for whatever price the buyer chooses includes Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Star Wars: Dark Forces.
Those who pay the average selling price of $10.23 or above will access the basic bundle and a few extras, including Star Wars Battlefront II, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and Star Wars Republic Commando.
People who pay $12 or more will gain access to all of the previously-listed games in addition to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, and Star Wars: Empire at War: Gold Pack.
Wrestling Wrap Up: Will Bryan Take Reigns’ Mania Spot?
Man, another hectic, crazy week for the WWE. And things were just beginning to pick up when I wrote the post-Rumble Wrap Up last week. That week's RAW had been cancelled, moved to WWE HQ and turned into a Rumble recap show. News sites were still covering the fan outrage. In fact, the only thing that sort of quieted everything down was the Super Bowl, but that still wouldn't come until the weekend.
And hell, let's be honest, even team-wise the Super Bowl pitted The Authority vs. Daniel Bryan. It was inescapable.
First Look: The Frozen Sequel Short
Today Disney released the first images from their upcoming short "Frozen Fever," which of course is a continuation of the the studio's ultra-popular film Frozen.
The new images, which feature Elsa, Anna, and Olaf, can be seen in the slideshow below:
Here's the official synopsis for "Frozen Fever": "In Frozen Fever, it's Anna's birthday and Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but Elsa's icy powers may put more than just the party at risk."
Directed by Frozen helmers Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the short will debut in front of Kenneth Branagh's live-action Cinderella when that hits theaters March 13.
Arrow: See Brandon Routh as The Atom
Ray Palmer's been tinkering on his suit for The Atom for awhile on Arrow now, but the time has come for him to actually don the costume of the DC superhero.
The CW and Warner Bros. have just debuted the first image of Ray (Brandon Routh) in the Atom costume, which you can see below.
Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer / The Atom in Arrow. (Photo: Cate Cameron/The CW)
McDonald’s Auctioning Big Mac Special Sauce Bottle for $23,000
McDonald's is producing a limited 200 bottle run of its special Big Mac sauce. Bottle number one is being auctioned off on eBay, where its current bid is over $23,000 AUD (about $18,000 USD).
"For too long, Big Mac Special Sauce has been trapped in a beautiful, delicious burger -- now we've set it free!" reads the Big Mac sauce action page. "This bottle is #1 of only 200 being produced worldwide, and they won't be sold in restaurants."