Notch's New Game Provoking Another "Scrolls" Fiasco

So, Notch has a new game in the works - this time it's set in space. No word yet on if it's space made up of like, 2x2 blocks. The interesting part is the name: Mars Effect. Apparently, Notch has learned nothing from his legal tussle with Bethesda over his previous title, Scrolls. 

Alternatively, he's learned that messing with corporate publishers is fun, albeit a little risky. But if I had to choose to meet Bethesda or EA in court, I think I'd pick Bethesda. 

Details on Mass Effect Mine Effect Mars Effect after the jump...

[READ] Jaime Lannister vs. Cthulhu

Winds of Winter, the latest novel in critically acclaimed author George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, must not keep the ol' boy too busy - he apparently has time to pit the love-to-hate Jaime Lannister against arcane demigods from beyond the brink of madness in a one-off battle scene.

But that's exactly what Martin's done, in repsonse to Suvudu's Cage Match Series, which pits fictional characters against each other, crossover deathmatch-style. io9 dug up one of Martin's LiveJournal entries from 2010 and apparently, he wasn't pleased with the ancient Cthulhu of Ry'leh besting his pretty-boy Kingslayer.

Excerpt from Martin's version of the battle after the break...

MW3 Players Stage April 20 Blackout

The Call of Duty community is not happy. Gamers fed up with the lack of post-launch support for the blockbuster FPS have organized a blackout on April 20, 2012. The dissidents released a YouTube video with a storied list of complaints that Infinity Ward must appease.

Hit the jump for the full list demands and aforementioned video.

Sony Shutters Zipper Interactive

Confirming rumors heard late last week, Sony has decided to close Zipper Interactive, the studio responsible for the PS2's SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals and the PS3's MAG.

In a statement released to Game Informer today, Sony stated that the closing was "a result of a normal cycle of resource re-alignment within SCE WWS."

SOCOM, MAG, and Zipper's Vita offering, Unit 13, will continue to enjoy PSN support - Unit 13's Daily Challenges will also be updated.

At closing, Game Informer reports Zipper had around 80 employees.

VIA: Joystiq
SOURCE: Game Informer

[RUMOR] PS4 Snubs Used Games, Backwards Compatibility

A trusted source has tipped Kotaku that the next iteration of Sony's PlayStation will lock out used titles - a feature that seems to be catching on as of late. Kotaku says the source is "reliable" but "not authorized to talk publicly about next-gen hardware..."

Oh, and there's a name: "Orbis."

Read on for a bevy of unconfirmed details...

[WATCH] The "Heavy Hitters" of Bioshock Infinite in action

The last installment of Bioshock Infinite's "heavy hitters" dev diary made its debut yesterday, featuring the fourth enemy in a line of vintage badassery. OMNIpixel has compiled all four parts in this post. Hit the jump for a glimpse of the enemies you'll tangle with in Infinite's Columbia on October 16.

Xfinity for Xbox: A glimpse of net neutrality dangers

Cable provider Comcast is raising net neutrality ire over its statement on Monday that data streamed over Xbox Live's Xfinity on-demand service won't count towards customers' data caps, whereas all other services coming through their Comcast line will.

It sounds like Comcast is breaking off a piece for the consumer, but net neutrality experts who spoke to Ars Technica are saying this kind of favoritism is risky behavior.

Call of Duty Creative Strategist Robert Bowling steps down

The face of Activision's thoroughly successful Call of Duty franchise, Creative Strategist Robert Bowling, announced today that he is leaving Infinity Ward and Activision. The resignation came via Twitter.

Facebook threatening to sue employers who require passwords

It was only a matter of time before the regent of the social realm got involved in this employers-wanting-Facebook-passwords business.

Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan issued a statement on Friday regarding Facebook's stance on their users' privacy in the job search.

Read on to see what they had to say...

[WATCH] A man trapped in a dog's body cry rage

From the annals of YouTube: this is Cody, a cute pup with an uncanny and chilling howl.

[WATCH] The MLG Winter Championships live

The MLG Winter Championships booted up in Columbus, Ohio on Friday evening - what better way to spend a rainy Saturday than taking in some god-tier competitive gaming action?

Battles will rage in the worlds of Starcraft 2, Halo: Reach, King of Fighters XIII, Mortal Kombat and Soulcalibur V through Sunday evening.

[RUMOR] SOCOM creator Zipper to close its doors

Kotaku caught wind that Sony's first-party champion Zipper Interactive will be shutting down, in light of recent talk of layoffs and project cancellation.

Kotaku says the scope of the layoffs suggest that this is the end of the line for the SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals dev.

SOCOM (and Zipper) created a multiplayer sensation for Sony during the last console era at a time when Sony struggled to find an online identity next to the fluent/affluent Xbox.

Sony declined to talk to Kotaku, citing the catch-all of canned publisher responses: no commenting on rumors.

Ohhh man, Jared's going to be upset.


SOURCE: Kotaku

Beleaguered auto town tweets the crime beat

The GM-built Michigan town of Flint has seen better days. As Flint is fettered by an unemployment rate described as "so high that it cannot be properly measured," their debilitated police department is struggling  to keep up with rising crime.

Enter the Flint Police Operations social group, who have designed a Neighborhood Watch for the digital millennium.

Play Baldur's Gate on your iPad this summer

Everyone squawked and wailed when Beamdog hyped their new Baldur's Gate project with cryptic comment lines and tantalizing tweets. After much to-do, Beamdog and developer Overhaul Games have finally spilled details on their Baldur's Gate revamp, coming this summer to an iOS device near you.

The AMIGA gets a beastly reboot

Commodore's dropped the specs for its latest retro reboot rig - this time, it takes the AMIGA namesake.

Crusty old fogies like Mr. OMNIpixel may remember their first gaming experiences on one of Commodore's beige and brown textured boxes - perhaps Frogger, Pitfall! or the like. But the AMIGA mini is not your granddad's PC.

Read more to see a gallery of the new line and learn just what kind of firepower is packed in these sexy, minimalist cases.

WoW: Mists of Pandaria beta sign-up begins

Jack Black brings to life the bombastic Po to life in Dreamworks' anim--er... this is WoW. Sorry.

Fresh off the Diablo 3 beta, Blizzard is rolling out signups for the new, new World of Warcraft expansion: Kung-Fu Panda Mists of Pandaria.

Details and signup links inside.

Bioware to expand ME3 ending

Here's a new one - I've been playing the vidya game tapes for 20+ years but I've never seen a video game ending get a rewrite.

Ok, not an actual rewrite per sé, but let's call it an "expanded epilogue."

Recently, Bioware acknowledged the hobbled and unsatisfying ending that capped the Mass Effect 3 experience and today, GM Ray Muzyka announced a set of "content initiatives" that will revamp the current ME3 endings.

KONY 2012's Jason Russell busted for public masturbation

Here's an imaginative way to derail a viral campaign to stop a Ugandan "child terrorist" - take off your pants and freak out in a suburban area of San Diego.

That's exactly what 33-year old Jason Russell of Invisible Children and "KONY 2012" fame did on Thursday. SDPD said they received calls at around 11:30 a.m. of a stripped-down dude running through traffic and screaming.

Some claimed he was wearing "speedo-like" underwear, others said he later got rid of those and started masturbating.

Cellphone video of Russell's meltdown is inside (NSFW, obviously)...

[WHOA] The new iPad's battery is 70% larger

2012's slightly-beefier iPad has been expectedly turning heads in the industry - at midnight tonight, it'll start turning wallets. 

The most surprising new feature was an even higher-res screen that breaks the 1080p ceiling. Other than that, not much has changed - except for the size of the battery, which, according to Gizmodo, is about 70% larger than the iPad 2's. 

Whoa.

TED-Ed: Ideas worth streaming in classrooms

TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) is teaming up with YouTube's educational channels to publish talks for classroom consumption.

Called "TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing," the initiative is currently "a dozen short videos created for high school students and life-long learners," according to curator Chris Anderson. They hope to expand the library to 100 videos by the one-year mark.

[WATCH] What makes Ralph Baer tick?

He's the creator of the Magnavox Odyssey and widely regarded as the patriarch of the video game industry.

90-year old Ralph Baer couldn't have predicted in 1968 that his "Brown Box" prototype would ignite a sensation and spawn a brand new artistic medium as well as a $25 billion dollar entertainment industry some 30 years later.

And yet, here we are.

Photographer David Friedman has lined up intimate interviews with several people whose influence on culture and industry may go largely unnoticed.

His meeting with Ralph Baer is preserved for posterity inside. It's touching - a look past his statuesque presence in the industry and into a man who considers himself an artist.

Diablo 3 won't have PVP at launch

OK, everyone. Calm down. That headline is... ... I know... I know.

'Tis true, I fear. An official message on the Diablo 3 dev blog confirms it. Read on to see what these infernal whelps have to say for themselves.

[RUMOR] Next Xbox has no disc drive

We've already learned that something about the Xbox 720 would undermine the used game market. It was initially speculated that there would be some sort of rights management that could detect a used disc in the machine.

Now, following information from a heavily-NDA'd source, British gaming pub MCV is reporting that Microsoft's next-gen console might shun disc media entirely.

New screens of XBLA Minecraft

Here's some console Minecraft screenshots to wet your automated obsidian whistle, courtesy of Microsoft's Spring Showcase.

The latest undertaking from 4J Studios and indie dev darling Mojang is set to hit Xbox Live Arcade sometime this year.

Peter Molyneux leaves Lionhead for startup company

Geez, you take off one day during GDC and all hell breaks loose.

Peter Molyneux, of Black & White and Fable fame, has decided to leave Lionhead Studios in favor of a creative director position at mysterious startup 22 Cans, founded by former Lionhead CTO Tim Rance.

"It is with mixed emotions that I made the decision to leave Microsoft and Lionhead Studios, the company that I co-founded in 1997, at the conclusion of development of Fable: The Journey," Molyneux said in a statement released to Kotaku.

Sci-Fi in the Valley Con is moving out of the Valley

Johnstown’s first ever science-fiction convention will now become Ebensburg’s first ever science-fiction convention.

Little white plug-in strips your network in seconds

The PWN Plug, from PwnieExpress.com

It's called the "Pwn Plug" and it is quickly becoming the new weapon of choice for Infosec specialists. This small, pearly box connects directly to a local network and - through a pre-installed suite of hacker tools - attempts to quickly compromise the network for remote access.

This little baby is virtually indistinguishable from other simple plug-in devices - air fresheners, power cords and the like - especially with "camouflaged" models.

Pwnie Express CEO Dave Porcello says this is the next evolution of a hacker dropbox.

I say, "Hack the Planet."

[WATCH] thatgamecompany talk Journey

Journey is looking to be one of the most unique game experiences of 2012.

Developer thatgamecompany hopes so, at least.

With little in the way of exposition, players are simply dropped in a vast, arid landscape - a bright beacon forever in the distance hints at a final destination. But as the cliché goes, it's not about the destination...

Hit the jump to see the video - thatgamecompany talks about their design philosophy and what makes their jobs memorable, on an emotional scale.