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2023-10-03 16:06:02
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed in an interview with Nikkei that the company will continue to support the Switch with software during the next fiscal year, ending March 31, 25. This means that the console, which is already on the market for six and a half years, will continue to receive new games for at least another year. Furukawa said Nintendo would continue to focus on the Switch through the end of the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, and would continue to support the console with software in the following fiscal year. “We are still working on software for the Switch for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025,” Furukawa said.
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#Nintendo #promises #Switch #software #support #March

2023-09-06 11:16:43
We have now understood: the strength of a platform is given by its ecosystem, read its applications. Users do not buy a product if there are no applications, and developers do not create applications if they do not believe in a project, that is, if it does not is not adopted by users. This Tao of the technological world has taken on the importance of a principle of thermodynamics which has claimed many illustrious victims. And Apple knows it well, that’s why when it presented its new Vision Pro headset, the first representative of the visionOS platform, it assured that it might take advantage of the very wide catalog of applications in the App Store . Apple has announced that developers will soon be able to start testing their apps on the visionOS platform, which is currently in beta, as an update will arrive this fall that will include the App Store. Until now, in fact, Apple distributed some hardware kits to a series of developers and carried out in-person tests in its Apple Stores, but above all released Xcode with the visionOS simulator, but none of them offered ‘ App Store and so it was not possible to see how individual apps would perform on the platform. However, this situation will soon change and individual developers will be able to test their creation and check if any changes need to be made. In most cases, this will not be necessary.

In fact, Apple said that by default apps will be automatically published on the App Store for Vision Pro and almost all of them will work without issue. If an app “requires a feature that is not available on Apple Vision Pro, App Store Connect will indicate that it is not compatible and will not be available”. At this point, the developer will need to provide alternative functionality or update the application’s UIRequireDeviceCapabilities. In any case, the visionOS simulator in Xcode 15 will allow everyone to test their applications and check that there are no incompatibilities. There is, however, an important aspect. Vision Pro will have its own fleet of apps when it launches, but what kind of experience will they offer? As they are translated from iPhone and iPad, they will not offer a very different experience from that with a screen, and they will certainly be non-immersive solutions that will not give users particular satisfaction. Just like with the iPad (and as Android is only just beginning to learn this), optimizations will need to be created to bring added value to users. For this reason, Apple provides the visionOS SDK, which will allow apps to adopt the standard look and feel of the visionOS system and allow you to add elements, such as 3D content optimized for visual and manual input. For this, however, it will be necessary to work heavily on the code, and we imagine that not everyone will have the desire (or the incentive) to do so. Which will slow platform adoption if Apple doesn’t create an incentive.

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#Apple #Vision #Pro #App #Store #good #news #developers

2023-09-05 16:23:38
A few days ago, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the increase in the price of PlayStation Plus, with a large part of the users who did not take this news well at all, sharing online their disappointment with this decision of the Japanese giant. . For those who missed this news, last week the Japanese company announced the price increases of Essential, Extra and Premium, with annuals reaching the following prices:

– 12-month PlayStation Plus Essential subscription, previously €59.99 per year, now costs €71.99
– 12-month PlayStation Plus Extra subscription, previously €99.99 per year, now costs €125.99 |
– The 12-month PlayStation Plus Premium subscription was previously 119.99 per year, but now costs 151.99 euros

As you may have noticed, the annual price of the three levels of PlayStation Plus has seen an increase of up to 35%, with many users who have linked this novelty to the not really positive results obtained by other Japanese sectors. . giant, especially that of cinema and photography. Stealthoptional said Sony’s move was primarily to offset losses for the entire company. And this assumption has caused even more discontent among fans, perceiving the price increase as a real injustice that will not bring any benefit to the three levels of the subscription service.

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#PlayStation #price #hike #sparks #fan #discontent

2023-09-01 00:05:39
A misunderstood but redundant fairy tale.
Neko Journey is one of those video games born from the hands of independent developers that we can find in the various online stores for a few euros, those video games that we sometimes buy with the rest of the currency that the we spent on more iconic productions. The result is a plot that is not very innovative, with a wizard who attacks our village with the sole aim of kidnapping our sister, and gameplay that aims for simplicity by offering an old-fashioned platformer but in 2.5D. There’s Neko Journey, ‘nothing new on the horizon’, but let’s get into the details (not even that much) even if with a game that only lasts a few hours, we don’t have much to wear under the tooth. The first thing we need to look at is gameplay, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Let’s admit that the music that “dominates” the main menu and the respective dance of our protagonist had given us hope, especially since it was possible to customize our little playmate. We noticed that it was possible to leave it in a bra. Yes, and there is no censorship, except for the minimal, low-detail graphics. Running around with our character (Neko Journey is a side-scrolling platformer) jumping here and there breasts in the wind didn’t amuse us as much as we hoped. That said, it certainly wouldn’t have been better for the protagonist to be a man, God forbid, but it’s a gameplay choice that we didn’t really understand.

The rest of the game is also diversified, or rather tries to be, by inserting moments similar to quick events where we have to avoid obstacles or moments where we have to “fly” over obstacles (and dragons, yes because they never fail in fairy tales). Some enemies can be tackled by jumping on their heads, while later in the game you’ll be equipped with boxing gloves to punch them in the face. We also have the presence of end of level bosses which must be faced in the good old arcade style, waiting to have the right window of time to hit them properly, and since it will not always be intuitive to face them right before each boss fight we will have a nice NPC who will sell us clues. It is a pity that the enemies often strike us despite everything, even if we try to be careful or take the “right measures”. The flick to lower our vitality by a few points is assured, the enemies will not have a wide variety of attacks and as soon as we are close enough to activate them, they will be triggered obsessively and compulsively.

What regarding the technical aspect?
Neko Journey is a purely English title (or Russian if you prefer), but this has no impact on the video game, given the lackluster storyline and the lack of depth that surrounds it. Jump, punch and repeat. The whole thing represents regarding three hours of play, which, given the ridiculous price, is quite acceptable. The problem lies largely in the technical aspect of Neko Journey; the PlayStation version doesn’t really shine in this regard. Graphically a barely sufficient title, even what should be our character’s “hitboxes” seems to have been done a bit in a hurry since we sometimes died following being simply touched. Neko Journey’s environments are well-characterized, and even the backing music might be enjoyable if it wasn’t badly equalized and didn’t tend to have an annoying croaking effect. Yes the audio croaks, it overlaps, more than once we preferred to play muted rather than hear this disaster, and it’s a shame because we repeat it, the music that accompanies the levels of the game is pleasant and catchy.

Another stylistic choice that we didn’t quite understand is the fact that when the characters speak they make guttural noises (also never equalized) and to figure out which character is speaking their head does a ‘subwoofer’ effect, it zooms in and out. In our opinion, it would have been better not to make any sound at all and to diversify the subtitles (in English) in different colors depending on the character speaking. In short, on a technical level, Neko Journey leaves something to be desired. And before you ask us for the reasons for a rating close to sufficient, it is better to be clear: it is not a bad game. The game itself is fun and reminds us of the old platformers that we loved so much in arcades, both in terms of gameplay and level of difficulty. Unfortunately, Neko Journey remains an independent video game that might have been worked on better, made a little more graphically pleasing, better looked following in terms of audio, and perhaps a little longer and with more content. Changing the character’s clothes or hair or tackling the adventure in roguelike mode certainly doesn’t help.

VERDICT
What can I say except that it’s a shame that more care has not been taken in the release of Neko Journey on consoles. Unfortunately, the title does not take off and is cut off by technical flaws that cannot be forgiven even by independent developers, such as distorted and problematic in-game sound. If we put aside the fact that Neko Journey is a title that lasts only a handful of hours, and that we see in it a desire from the developers to reconnect with the old glories of the past, so fashionable in the 90s, there remains a glaring lack of ideas. A redundant and already seen plot, a story that does not take off (and which does not even exist to be honest), the pursuit of a wizard between different game levels until the final fight.

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#Neko #Journey #PlayStation