Blizzard has released a statement following widespread server issues affecting Diablo III since its launch on Tuesday. Some players have seen pre-release error messages, connection issues, and even lag spikes during single player games. Now Blizzard are saying sorry.

The statement admits that “despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough.” As a result, Blizzard have moved the launch of its real-money auction house “beyond our original estimated date of May 22,” though they don’t specify exactly when.
Blizzard also thanked the game’s enthusiastic fans, and believe they have addressed most of the core issues. They will continue to monitor the servers, which we can only assume are still rammed with enthusiastic clickers.

The post follows days of problems with the game’s servers, which are believed to have caused the game’s Metacritic user review average to drop to a meagre 3.6. Read on for all the info, direct from Blizzard. For more, read Tom’s Diablo 3 review as it happens, or check out our complete launch guide.

Diablo Players:

We’d like to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone who joined the global Diablo III launch celebrations this week, as well as to everyone who was ready to jump into Sanctuary the moment the game went live.

To that end, we’d also like to say that we’ve been humbled by your enthusiasm – and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure. As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game’s launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough.

We’ve been monitoring the game 24/7 and have applied several optimizations to help our systems better weather the global rush. As of late last night, specifically 11:50 PM PDT on May 15, all systems have been online and running relatively smoothly. We’re continuing to monitor performance globally and will be taking further measures as needed to ensure a positive experience for everyone. This includes some maintenance to implement additional improvements for each region.

In order to make sure everything is continuing to run as it should, we’ve decided to move out our target launch for the real-money auction house beyond our original estimated date of May 22. We’ll post further updates on that in the near future.

Aside from the tremendous number of players simultaneously logging in to the game, one of the launch-day service issues was linked to the achievement system. Some players began to notice early on that achievements were either not being earned properly, or not being saved between multiple logins. We’re investigating this issue and will provide a specific update as soon as possible.

We greatly appreciate everyone’s support, and we want to sincerely apologize for the difficulties many of you encountered on day one. Please visit the Battle.net Support site or Support forums for the latest service-related updates or for help in troubleshooting any technical issues you may be having downloading, installing, or while playing the game.

Thank you again for your patience while we reinforce the gates of Sanctuary and further strengthen it for your onslaught.

Respectfully,

Blizzard Entertainment.

[Source:PCGamer]

Keith Ramsdale, who’s only EA’s Northern European boss talked about the future of EA’s online gaming love affair. He said that games in EA’s stable will now be part of an “online universe.” They plan to anyway. Now, most of the games from the company, if not all, are already connected to that infinite space of possibilities called the World Wide Web. Even Mass Effect, which was once purely single player, added a multiplayer aspect to the third iteration. There was even a mobile game that connected to the story and affected your play through. EA wants to take all of that and push it a step further.

See that iPhone you have? Well pretend you have one. Then pretend you also have a Sony Vita, a PS3 and a gaming laptop. Then imagine all of them connected by, say, Battlefield 3. After you’re done killing virtual soldiers for the night. Maybe you decide to mess with your phone for a bit before bed, and play a Battlefield training course. Then the next day, you’re bored in the bus to school, you take out your Vita and make pew pew noises while continuing the level you were at the night before. Sometime during the day, you decide to take a break from your studies and play a little multiplayer deathmatch on your Alienware. Now all the gaming you did in each device, all of it is connected. The trophy you earned in the Vita can add up to what you already got in the PS3. The weapon you unlocked in the laptop carries over to your next mobile session where the very same weapon, with the very same upgrades and tweaks can be used. It sounds ambitious, and it sounds very interesting and fun. You know how it also sounds? Dangerous.

It’s all fine and dandy when every single piece to the puzzle works like a Hogwarts charm. But what if one piece turns into a cursed steaming pile? What if say, the Facebook social game is glitchy as all hell, then to make matters worse, you have to sit through a few hours of it to get past a level in your console. In their infinite wisdom, EA actually decides to make this particular piece a REQUIREMENT for your quest ascension. I can imagine a fair number of screens making a hasty trip to the pavement. This may also reflect badly in reviews. That’s probably just a worst case scenario though. Right?
Something a little more realistic would be, you amass a great number of “friends” on Facebook, and trade a bunch of stuff with them. By doing so, you unlock a decent amount of firepower for your multiplayer deathmatch later on. Then the guy that spend hours actually PLAYING the game hears about this then decides to hunt you down for real. Oh, that’s another worst case scenario that probably won’t happen. Because gamers have never been petty like that. Mmhm.

Maybe the level of connectedness doesn’t need to be maxed out for all games EA? I doubt flicking a few balls into the net on your iPhone adds any actual skill when you use a gamepad for Fifa. It seems unfair for the people that only want to play the game on one device, or only have one device. Suddenly no skill is required to be decent, just time spent collecting friends, flicking through a mini game on your mobile and collecting “trophies” on a Vita. Sure, seems like you could make a decent amount of money by fooling people into buying into the whole Online Universe concept. But then, maybe you’d just be solidifying your title as the worst company in America. Of course that’s far from true. But EA, you play this wrong like you do so many things, and my opinion may change. Maybe you should read this again while listening to the Imperial March from Empire.

[Tukkolabs]

A few years ago, in 2006, Erin Catto created some code called Box 2D. It was a simple, free physics system the “math-obsessed PhD gamer” came up with in his spare time and gave away for free.

A year later, the iPhone was released. And suddenly his convenient, effective little code for implementing realistic physics in games was in big demand, and was being used by hit titles like Crayon Physics.

It was also used by Angry Birds. Now Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, has sold so many copies of the game that it’s worth over one billion dollars.

While Box 2D was released for free, and Rovio have no obligation to compensate Catto, you’d think that, as a gesture – especially considering Angry Birds’ gameplay is built on physics – they would have properly thanked him. Maybe sent him a cheque or something.

But no. Catto says all he ever got was a hoodie.

“I have the sweatshirt but actually I have never worn it because it’s red”, he told NPR. “I generally don’t wear red. That’s a silly reason. If they would send me a blue one I would wear it!”

While you’d think all this would be grounds for him to be the world’s grumpiest programmer, he’s actually taken the whole thing rather well. Not only did Box 2D lead to jobs in the games industry (he now works at Blizzard, as a Principal Software Engineer!), but Catto takes pleasure just from other people’s…pleasure.

“Almost everyone says ‘Jeez, Erin, you could have your own island now if you just charged for Box 2D!’ The ironic thing about that is then I wonder what if Angry Birds used something else because I was gonna charge for it? Well, maybe if they used something else that wasn’t as good, maybe Angry Birds wouldn’t have succeeded. And I’m just happy that everyone is enjoying the games.”

The physics and physicist behind the hit game Angry Birds [KPCC, via G4]

[Source:Kotaku]

Quick. Nasty. Dangerous. Chickens. What? Well, I could use cocks, but chickens will suffice for my purposes. Yes! Chickens. These fowl beings (pun number two quite intended ser) have been invading games since my grandmother still considered me cute.  Why am I writing about them now? What could possibly enter my addled brain that would compel me to breach the fields of video game chicken lore? Well, I had a particularly scrumptious fried chicken dinner and then that reminded me of my current quest to conquer Hyrule. Big bang theory, here we are.

People have been playing Zelda since the time Atari forgot, but I’m new to the bag. The first time that nasty hoard of cuccos do you in, it’s a memorable moment, mostly for the number of times you say holy S#!t. Attack one of these chickens enough and the feathered army from hell descend on you like the KFC apocalypse. It makes the games quite unique and unforgettable. It’s just a theory, but I think it’s because of these creatures that another RPG incorporates some fowl behavior. Oh, wait Google. Oh, Peter Molyneux hates chickens? There is something wrong with that guy. But thanks for that, ‘cause kicking those chickens around in Fable makes for a great time wasting mini game. It’s one of those things that doesn’t distract from the feel of the main game while being somewhat engrossing enough to merit some attention. That and you earn that much sought-after title of “Chicken Kicker.” Ah, if mother could see you now.

Of course, I consider myself such a genius that I theorize that it is because of the success of these fowl elements (if I could kill you with puns) that a game like Rocketbirds was developed. Obviously, after Zelda and Fable, one gets the idea that a chicken is a nasty thing, hence all the abuse. Being such a nasty thing, it can take on the form of the Hardboiled Chicken and kick ass like a vengeful roided feathery ramburkey (turkeys aren’t chickens but that sounds better than Rambicken or Chickbo). This time the chickens fight back. Against penguins! If you loved Happy Feet, turn away now. These penguins get blown to pieces by Mr. Hardboiled in such comborrific fashion that you’d faint. You could even control the penguins and make them shoot themselves. Graphics are sweet too and you could say Rocketbirds has got some of the best music in a video game this year. But the best part? It’s really only around 10 bucks a pop. So A, you get to play as an 80’s action hero in feathers, and B, you get to do it without breaking your wallet.

But if you really want a chicken game that’ll make your wallet sing, check out Ninja Chicken  on your mobile. It’s free!  A chicken gets bonked on the head and suddenly it thinks it’s ninja time! Seriously, these feathered freaks are highly unstable mental creatures. No wonder they cut off chicken heads first before killing them. You don’t want to risk giving one a concussion and turning it into a medieval assassin before you get a chance to turn it into dinner!

Man, that was a seriously good chicken dinner. Thought writing an article about chickens would purge my desire for another drumstick. Major backfire. Now I’m craving for buffalo wings… nasty nasty creatures.

[Tukkolabs]

After the recent leak of Valve’s employee handbook to the public, many in the business world have become curious about the ins and outs of the developer’s practices. Bloomberg Businessweek sat down with co-founder Gabe Newell to ask him, among other things, why he chose to organize Valve Corporation in such an unorthodox manner.

Newell told the publication that Valve categorizes employees by “individual” and “group” contributors, rather than by the traditional hierarchy of supervisors and subordinates.

“A group contributor’s job is to help other people be more productive, and in doing that you sacrifice some of your own productivity,” he explained. “It’s a higher stress job and you get interrupted a lot more… [but] some of the highest compensated people at the company are relatively pure individual contributors.”

Newell also pointed out that a given employee may be managing a group project one day and be contributing as an individual the next. He even went as far as to say that it’s “pretty rare” for any one person to take the helm on more than one consecutive project.

When asked what the reasoning behind this structure was, Newell suggested that it was the industry itself that guided the decision.

“When we started Valve, we thought about what the company needed to be good at. We realized that here, our job was to create things that hadn’t existed before,” he said. “Managers are good at institutionalizing procedures, but in our line of work that’s not always good. Sometimes the skills in one generation of product are irrelevant to the skills in another generation.”

While Valve’s practices may make certain traditional businesspeople’s heads spin, the continuing success of Steam, which still holds a commanding share of the digital game distribution market, certainly validates Gabe’s ideas. Could Valve usher in an age without bosses?

[Source:PCGamer]

Angry Birds Space has been downloaded more than 50 million times in its first 35 days on the market, according to publisher Rovio.

That makes it the fastest-growing mobile game in history. And it means that Rovio hasn’t exhausted its franchise yet, even though it has had more than 750 million downloads in the series so far.

“This has been simply amazing, and the whole Rovio team is thrilled to see such a fantastic reception for the game,” the company said in a blog post. “We extend our deepest gratitude to all fans of Angry Birds everywhere. While numbers like this certainly say something about the popularity of Angry Birds, for us the main goal is to keep creating fun new experiences that everybody can enjoy! We just launched the first free update for Angry Birds Space, with plenty more surprises in stock.”

Angry Birds Space is available on iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad), Android, PC, and the Mac. Rovio just released 10 new levels for iOS and Android.

Cryptically, Rovio added, “There’s only one conclusion to draw: something even bigger is on its way! Stay tuned and keep flinging those Birds!” Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer and Might Eagle at Rovio, is one of our speakers at the upcoming GamesBeat 2012 conference.

[Source:VentureBeat]

Diablo 3 is almost here! And if the above trailer’s words and sounds are anything to go by, it’s going to be super evil! Hooray for everyone!

Click here to pre-order Diablo 3. If you’re still on the fence, our Diablo 3 news might help you decide.

[Source:PCGamer]

Sometimes, simple is better, and this is no more apparent in Imangi Studios’ hit app, Temple Run. It has a simple but compelling objective – survive, and it is more than enough to make this game a winner.

You take control of an Indiana Jones-esque character (although you can unlock others later on) and, after stealing an idol from an ancient temple, must run away from a horde of demonic monkeys while navigating through the temple’s various hazards.

To do this, the player uses simple commands, such as swiping their finger across to turn, upward to jump, or downward to slide. Hitting, falling, or otherwise failing to overcome any obstacle is an immediate game over. Overall the controls are simple, intuitive, and work very well.

This might not sound like it’s all that difficult, but the farther the distance you are able to run, the faster the game starts throwing obstacles at you, and the faster your character runs. So while you might start off slow, by the time you hit 1000m you’ll be moving your fingers quickly just trying to keep up.

As you run, you’ll also be able to collect coins, which allow you to purchase various power-ups. You can also purchase coins using RMT, but it’s absolutely not necessary to enjoy the game, and you can earn everything on your own with enough patience. This is again very refreshing as most games will only allow you to purchase certain things with real money. Not the case here.

The game also has objectives which you can attempt to accomplish – similar to Xbox Live achievements. These are fun and interesting, and more often than not I found myself playing in such a way simply to achieve these goals. They aren’t merely for bragging rights either – The more achievements you have under your belt, the higher your score multiplier is. It’s actually a great way to implement achievements as there is now a good reason for player’s to attempt them.

There is no real end to Temple Run. You could run for days (if you were so skilled) and still never see the end. And that’s just fine, as this is a game that doesn’t require an end goal. Ultimately, you are just trying to beat yourself.

And that’s what makes Temple Run so great though; in that it’s really a game where your biggest challenge is your own reaction time. While other games pit you up against zombies, other player characters and whatnot. It’s refreshing to see that in the masses of social and multiplayer games popping up, Imangi Studios decided to take the opposite route and create a primarily single player experience.

Overall, Temple Run comes highly recommended.

Google Play | AppStore

[Download the file here Tukko Rating | Temple Run]

[Tukkolabs]

In a move that’s sure to decimate the productivity of a million offices worldwide, Google have programmed a mini-game into their search engine. Head over to Google and type in the words “zerg rush” to find out what happens. I won’t spoil it for you, but it involves a lot of clicking, and will award you a high score at the end that you can share with friends and colleagues on Google+. Let the procrastinating begin!

[Source:PCGamer]

It’s not just the 3DS that’s getting full-scale digital downloads this year. Nintendo’s new Wii U console will be getting the feature as well.

This means that new games released at retail on the system, at least those published by Nintendo, will also be available day-and-date to download.

Interestingly, games will be downloaded through the eShop, but consumers will be buying download codes either from a retail store or an online vendor. Nintendo says prices will be determined by those third-party vendors, which in theory at least should lead to competition and – at least occasionally – lower prices.

In theory.

UPDATE - We pinged Nintendo for a little more info on this whole downloadable business. Here’s Nintendo of America’s explanation:

Nintendo is aiming to significantly expand its digital business. In August, New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo 3DS system will launch both as a packaged game at retail stores and as a digital download in the Nintendo eShop. The majority of future Nintendo-published Nintendo 3DS games will have the same dual-distribution strategy. Likewise, the majority of Nintendo-published Wii U games will be available both as packaged products and as digital downloads starting on launch day.

These downloadable games will be available for purchase at participating retail stores and on retailers’ websites. Our customers can visit retail outlets or their online shopping sites, look for the products they want and pay for the product there. The retailers will then provide shoppers with a 16-digit code that can be exchanged in the Nintendo eShop for the game. This will give shoppers more options to find and purchase their favorite games.

Financial Results Briefing [Nintendo]

[Source:Kotaku]