1.
EA Sports
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EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. The best selling EA Sports series is the FIFA series with over 100 million units sold, the main rival to EA Sports is 2K Sports. Notably, both compete over the realm of NBA games. EA Sports inherits its motto Its in the game from the parent company and it was voiced by journalist Andrew Anthony. Madden NFL08 also had Xbox and Nintendo GameCube releases in 2007, additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2, but for the original PlayStation as well. EA Sports brand name is used to sponsor English Football League One team Swindon Town F. C. from the 2009–10 season onwards, most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. In 2002, EA purchased the license to NASCAR for six years, ending competition from Papyrus, on December 13,2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League and its Players Union for five years. On February 12,2008, EA Sports announced the extension of its exclusive deal until the 2012 NFL season, less than a month after the NFL Exclusive deal, EA Sports signed a four-year exclusive deal with the Arena Football League. On April 11,2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, EA lost the rights for Major League Baseball games to 2K Sports in 2005, ending EAs MVP series, however, EA made NCAA Baseball games in 2006 and 2007 after losing the MLB license. In January 2008, EA Sports decided not to renew their NCAA College Baseball license while they evaluate the status of their MVP game engine. In 2005, EA Sports and ESPN signed a massive 15-year deal for ESPN to be integrated into EA Sports video games from 2K Sports, EAs use of the ESPN license has steadily increased over the early life of the deal. EAs early usage of the ESPN license began with ESPN Radio and a sports ticker in titles like Madden NFL, NBA Live, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, the ESPN integration now includes streaming podcasts, text articles, and ESPN Motion video. In 2012, EA signs a multi-year, multi-product partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, taking over from THQ. In June 2009, EA Sports announced that for 2010, the games Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, NHL, NBA Live, the NHL series last PC game was NHL09. Likewise, NBA Live 08 was the final PC version for NBA Live, EA Sports released FIFA World as a free-to-play massively multi-player game which is exclusive to the PC on the 12th November 2013. The company noted that the FIFA and FIFA Manager series would still be released for the PC platform, on April 23,2009, EA Sports released the long-awaited EA Sports Complex space for the PlayStation 3s online community-based service, PlayStation Home in the European and North American versions. In the Complex, users can play a series of mini-games, including poker, kart racing, golf, there are also a number of advertisements for upcoming EA Sports games. Each mini-game that the Complex features has a reward or rewards, heavy Water, a company dedicated to developing for Home, developed the EA Sports Complex for EA Sports
2.
Electronic Arts
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Electronic Arts Inc. is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Currently, EA develops and publishes games under several labels including EA Sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, and SSX. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios, EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Canada in Burnaby, BioWare in Edmonton as well as Montreal, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers, by the early 2000s, EA had become one of the worlds largest third-party publishers. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this an important milestone for the company. EA began to move toward direct distribution of games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo. com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish, and in June 2011, EA launched Origin, there is also a On The House feature in Origin that lets you download full versions of EA games for free, it is updated regularly. In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games, in February 1982, Trip Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple Inc. in which Hawkins served as Director of Product Marketing, on May 28,1982, Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000. The company was not named Amazin Software, but instead Electronic Arts, seven months later in December 1982, Hawkins secured US$2 million of venture capital from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Sevin Rosen Funds. For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts business plan, with aid from his first employee, Rich Melmon, the original plan was written, mostly by Hawkins, on an Apple II in Sequoia Capitals office in August 1982. The business plan was refined in September and reissued on October 8,1982. By November, employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon, David Maynard, having outgrown the office space provided by Sequoia Capital, the company relocated to a San Mateo office that overlooked the San Francisco Airport landing path. Headcount rose rapidly in 1983, including Don Daglow, Richard Hilleman, Stewart Bonn, David Gardner and he recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins was determined to sell directly to buyers, combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners, after more flyers were handed out, former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped the company sustain growth into US$18 million in its third full year. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, in December 1986, David Gardner and Mark Lewkaspais moved to the UK to open a European headquarters. Up until that point publishing of Electronic Arts Games, and the conversion of many of their games to compact cassette versions in Europe was handled by Ariolasoft
3.
PGA Tour (video game series)
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In 1998, EA began publishing their golf games with the endorsement of Tiger Woods. Following the Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf release, subsequent titles were named Tiger Woods PGA Tour, IOMO also produced versions of the game for mobile phones for the 2002,2004, and 2005 editions. In October 2013, EA announced that it would end its relationship with Woods, and be replaced by a new golfer on the next installment. On March 16,2015, it was announced that Rory McIlroy—the current top golfer in the world, would become the new title athlete of the franchise, the series was responsible for several innovations in the genre, such as the now standard three-click swing method. In 1995 a critic stated in GamePro that The PGA series flies high above the rest for two reasons, You can completely control a shot, and you play on the best courses around. However, unlike other games in the EA Sports label, the series was often shadowed by other such as the Jack Nicklaus series, Links series. This first game in the series was released in 1990 for DOS computers,1991 for Sega Genesis, Macintosh, SNES, and Commodore Amiga. The Genesis/Mega Drive version features 6 professional golfers as playable or as CPU opponents, Fred Couples, Mark McCumber, Larry Mize, Joey Sindelar, Craig Stadler, Bruce Lietzke. MegaTech awarded the game 93%, and Mega placed it at number 10 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time, the Game Gear version features 4 professional golfers as playable or as CPU opponents, Paul Azinger, Craig Stadler, Fuzzy Zoeller, and Fred Couples. The Genesis version features an additional 6 professional golfers, Tommy Armour III, Bruce Lietzke, Mark McCumber, Mark OMeara, Larry Mize, the Mega Drive version knocked Ecco the Dolphin from the top of the charts in the UK. MegaTech gave the game 94% and a Hyper Game award, praising the amount of features, reviewing the Game Gear version, GamePro praised the screen layout, controls, and detailed graphics, but criticized the long loading times, weak sound effects, and music. Lee Janzen, Tom Kite, Bruce Lietzke, Davis Love III, Mark O’Meara, Jeff Sluman, Craig Stadler, and Fuzzy Zoeller. The featured courses are TPC at River Highlands, TPC at The Woodlands, TPC at Avenel, TPC at Summerlin, TPC at Sawgrass, TPC at Las Colinas, TPC at Southwind, and TPC of Scottsdale. GamePros review stated that Beautifully polished graphics and game-play refinements enhance the action that has put PGA Tour at the top of the leaderboard. They particularly praised the detailed digitized backgrounds and the new Ball Lie window, a reviewer for Next Generation lauded the games realistic digitization of the players and backgrounds, selection of courses, new features, and addition of an arc meter to help control backspin. He summarized that Other Genesis golf games have looked better, and he gave it four out of five stars. Developed by Hitmen Productions and released by Electronic Arts in 1995 for the PlayStation, Game Boy, Genesis, 3DO, Game Gear and it has fewer courses and golfers than previous installments. The featured courses are Spyglass Hill, TPC at Sawgrass, TPC at River Highlands, the game has four modes, stroke play, match play, tournament mode, and practice mode
4.
Game engine
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A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. Developers use them to games for consoles, mobile devices. The process of development is often economized, in large part, by reusing/adapting the same game engine to create different games. In many cases game engines provide a suite of development tools in addition to reusable software components. These tools are provided in an integrated development environment to enable simplified. Game engine developers attempt to pre-invent the wheel by developing robust software suites which include many elements a game developer may need to build a game, most game engine suites provide facilities that ease development, such as graphics, sound, physics and AI functions. Gamebryo, JMonkey Engine and RenderWare are such widely used middleware programs, however extensibility is achieved, it remains a high priority for game engines due to the wide variety of uses for which they are applied. Some game engines only provide real-time 3D rendering capabilities instead of the range of functionality needed by games. These engines rely upon the developer to implement the rest of this functionality or assemble it from other game middleware components. These types of engines are referred to as a graphics engine, rendering engine. This terminology is used as many full-featured 3D game engines are referred to simply as 3D engines. A few examples of engines are, Crystal Space, Genesis3D, Irrlicht, OGRE, RealmForge, Truevision3D. As technology ages, the components of an engine may become outdated or insufficient for the requirements of a given project. Since the complexity of programming a new engine may result in unwanted delays. Such a framework is composed of a multitude of different components. The actual game logic has to be implemented by some algorithms and it is distinct from any rendering, sound or input work. The rendering engine generates 3D animated graphics by the chosen method, before hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, software renderers had been used. Game engines can be written in any programming language like C++, C or Java, though language is structurally different
5.
Computing platform
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Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs can run. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware, platforms may also include, Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS, this is referred to as running on bare metal, a browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser. An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in a scripting language. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform, software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. Cloud computing and Platform as a Service, the social networking sites Twitter and facebook are also considered development platforms. A virtual machine such as the Java virtual machine, applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM. A virtualized version of a system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac, some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it, however, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS
6.
PlayStation 2
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The PlayStation 2 is a home video game console that was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the successor to the PlayStation, and is the installment in the PlayStation lineup of consoles. It was released on March 4,2000 in Japan, October 26,2000 in North America, November 24,2000 in Europe and it competed with Segas Dreamcast, Microsofts Xbox, and Nintendos GameCube in the sixth generation of video game consoles. Announced in 1999, the PlayStation 2 was the first PlayStation console to offer backwards compatibility for its predecessors DualShock controller, the PlayStation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all time, selling over 155 million units, with 150 million confirmed by Sony in 2011. More than 3,874 game titles have been released for the PS2 since launch, Sony later manufactured several smaller, lighter revisions of the console known as Slimline models in 2004 and well on, and in 2006, announced and launched its successor, the PlayStation 3. Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4 console the following month on February 20,2013, Sony announced the PlayStation 2 on March 1,1999. The Dreamcast itself launched very successfully in North America later that year, soon after the Dreamcasts North American launch, Sony unveiled the PlayStation 2 at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20,1999. Sony showed fully playable demos of upcoming PlayStation 2 games including Gran Turismo 2000 and Tekken Tag Tournament – which showed the consoles graphic abilities, the PS2 was launched in March 2000 in Japan, October in North America and November in Europe. Sales of the console, games and accessories pulled in $250 million on the first day, directly after its release, it was difficult to find PS2 units on retailer shelves due to manufacturing delays. Another option was purchasing the console online through websites such as eBay. This allowed the PS2 to tap the large install base established by the PlayStation – another major selling point over the competition, later, Sony added new development kits for game developers and more PS2 units for consumers. The PS2s built-in functionality also expanded its audience beyond the gamer and this made the console a low cost entry into the home theater market. The PS2 remained as the only active sixth generation console for over 6 months, before it would face competition from rivals, Nintendos GameCube and Microsofts Xbox. While the PlayStation 2 theoretically had the weakest specification of the three, it had a start due to its installed base plus strong developer commitment. Sony also countered the Xbox by temporarily securing PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Metal Gear Solid 2, Sons of Liberty. Sony cut the price of the console in May 2002 from US$299 to $199 in North America, making it the price as the GameCube. It also planned to cut the price in Japan around that time and it cut the price twice in Japan in 2003. In 2006, Sony cut the cost of the console in anticipation of the release of the PlayStation 3, Sony, unlike Sega with its Dreamcast, originally placed little emphasis on online gaming during its first few years, although that changed upon the launch of the online-capable Xbox
7.
GameCube
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The GameCube is a home video game console released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14,2001, in North America on November 18,2001, in Europe on May 3,2002, and in Australia on May 17,2002. The sixth-generation console is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and competed with Sony Computer Entertainments PlayStation 2, the GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium. The discs are similar to the format, as a result of their smaller size and the consoles small disc compartment. Contemporary reception of the GameCube was generally positive, the console was praised for its controller, extensive software library and high-quality games, but was criticized for its exterior design and lack of features. Nintendo sold 21.74 million GameCube units worldwide before it was discontinued in 2007 and its successor, the Wii, which is backwards-compatible with most GameCube software, was released in November 2006. In 1997, a hardware design company called ArtX was launched, staffed by twenty engineers who had previously worked at SGI on the design of the Nintendo 64s graphics hardware. The team was led by Dr. Wei Yen, who had been SGIs head of Nintendo Operations, at Nintendos press conference in May 1999, the console was first publicly announced as Project Dolphin, the successor to the Nintendo 64. At the conference, Nintendos Howard Lincoln said of ArtX, This company is headed up by Dr. Wei Yen, Dr. Yen has assembled at ArtX one of the best teams of 3D graphics engineers on the planet. Subsequently, Nintendo began providing development kits to game developers, Nintendo also formed a strategic partnership with IBM for the production of Dolphins CPU, code-named Gekko. ArtX was acquired by ATI in April 2000, whereupon the Flipper graphics processor design had already mostly completed by ArtX and was not overtly influenced by ATI. In total, ArtX team cofounder Greg Buchner recalled that their portion of the hardware design timeline had arced from inception in 1998 to completion in 2000. Of ATIs acquisition of ArtX, an ATI spokesperson said, ATI now becomes a major supplier to the console market via Nintendo. The Dolphin platform is reputed to be king of the hill in terms of graphics, the console was announced as the Nintendo GameCube at a press conference in Japan on August 24,2000, abbreviated as NGC in Japan and GCN in North America. Nintendo unveiled its software lineup for the console at E32001, focusing on fifteen launch titles, including Luigis Mansion and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. Several titles that were scheduled to launch with the console were delayed. It is also the first console in the history not to accompany a Mario platform title at launch. Long prior to the launch, Nintendo had developed and patented an early prototype of motion controls for the GameCube. These motion control concepts would not be deployed to consumers for several years, prior to the Nintendo GameCubes release, Nintendo focused resources on the launch of the Game Boy Advance, a handheld game console and successor to the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color
8.
Xbox (console)
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The Xbox is a home video game console and the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15,2001, in North America, followed by Australia, Europe and it was Microsofts first foray into the gaming console market. The sixth-generation console competed with Sonys PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo GameCube and it was also the first console produced by an American company since the Atari Jaguar ceased production in 1996. Announced in 2000, The Xbox, graphically powerful compared to its rivals and it was also noted for its PC-like size and weight, and was the first console to feature a built-in hard disk. In November 2002, Microsoft launched Xbox Live, an online gaming service that enabled subscribers to download new content. Unlike other online services from Sega and Sony, Xbox Live had support in the console design through an integrated Ethernet port. The service gave Microsoft an early foothold in online gaming and would help the Xbox become a relevant competitor to other sixth-generation consoles, the popularity of blockbuster titles such as Halo 2 contributed to the popularity of online console gaming, and in particular first-person shooters. Despite this and being in position, ahead of Nintendos GameCube. Xboxs successor, the Xbox 360, was launched in November 2005, the Xbox was soon discontinued beginning with Microsofts worst-performing market, Japan, in 2005. Other countries would follow suit in 2006, the last Xbox game in Europe was Xiaolin Showdown released in June 2007, and the last game in North America was Madden NFL09 released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2,2009, support for Xbox Live on the console ended on April 15,2010. The team hoped to create a console to compete with Sonys upcoming PlayStation 2, the team approached Ed Fries, the leader of Microsofts game publishing business at the time, and pitched their DirectX Box console based on the DirectX graphics technology developed by Berkes team. Fries decided to support the idea of creating a Windows DirectX based console. During development, the original DirectXbox name was shortened to Xbox, Microsofts marketing department did not like the Xbox name, and suggested many alternatives. During focus testing, the Xbox name was left on the list of names to demonstrate how unpopular the Xbox name would be with consumers. However, consumer testing revealed that Xbox was preferred by far over the suggested names. It was Microsofts first video game console after collaborating with Sega to port Windows CE to the Dreamcast console, Microsoft repeatedly delayed the console, which was first mentioned publicly in late 1999 during interviews with Microsofts then-CEO Bill Gates. Gates stated that “we want Xbox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world. ”The Xbox was officially announced at the Game Developers Conference on March 10,2000, audiences were impressed by the consoles technology
9.
Game Boy Advance
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The Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21,2001, in North America on June 11,2001, in Australia and Europe on June 22,2001, and in the Peoples Republic of China on June 8,2004. Nintendos competitors in the market at the time were the Neo Geo Pocket Color, WonderSwan, GP32, Tapwave Zodiac. Despite the competitors best efforts, Nintendo maintained a majority market share with the Game Boy Advance, as of June 30,2010, the Game Boy Advance series has sold 81.51 million units worldwide. Its successor, the Nintendo DS, was released in November 2004 and is compatible with Game Boy Advance software. The Game Boy Advance was designed by the French designer Gwénaël Nicolas, in 1996, magazines including Electronic Gaming Monthly, issues 53 and 54 of Total. and the July 1996 issue of Game Informer featured reports of a new Game Boy, codenamed Project Atlantis. It also may have referred to the unnamed, unreleased Game Boy Color successor prototype that was revealed at 2009s Game Developers Conference and it was announced that Nintendo Co. Ltd. was working on a game for the system called Marios Castle. When playing Game Boy or Game Boy Color games on the Game Boy Advance, Game Boy games can be played using the same selectable color palettes as on the Game Boy Color. Every Nintendo handheld system following the release of the Game Boy Advance SP has included a built-in light and rechargeable battery. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS 2D graphics hardware have scaling and rotation for traditional tiled backgrounds in its modes 1 and 2 and scaling, more complex effects such as fuzz are possible by using other equations for the position, scaling, and rotation of each line. The character mode supports up to 4 tile map background layers per frame, with each tile being 8x8 pixels in size and having 16 or 256 colors. The character mode supports up to 128 hardware sprites per frame, with any sprite size from 8x8 to 64x64 pixels. With hardware comparable to the Super NES, the Game Boy Advance represents progress for sprite-based technology, the Game Boy Advance has platformers, SNES-style role-playing video games, and classic games ported from various 8-bit and 16-bit systems of the previous generations. This includes the Super Mario Advance series, as well as the backward compatibility with all earlier Game Boy titles. Final Fantasy VI Advance was the final licensed Japanese GBA game release, Released November 2006, it was the final Nintendo-published game for the system. The Legend of Spyro, The Eternal Night was the final European GBA game, samurai Deeper Kyo was the final North American GBA game, released in February 2008. The last Nintendo-developed game released for the system was the Japan-only rhythm game Rhythm Tengoku, an accessory for the GameCube, known as the Game Boy Player, was released in 2003 as the successor to the Super Game Boy peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The accessory allows Game Boy Advance games, as well as Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, however, some games may have compatibility issues due to certain features
10.
N-Gage (device)
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The N-Gage is a smartphone and handheld game system from Nokia, announced on 4 November 2002 and released on 7 October 2003. It runs the original Series 60 platform on Symbian OS v6.1 and its original development codename was Starship. N-Gage attempted to lure away from the Game Boy Advance by including mobile phone functionality. Nokia introduced the N-Gage QD in 2004 as a redesign of the original Classic N-Gage, fixing widely criticized issues, the N-Gage was discontinued in November 2005, with Nokia moving its gaming capabilities onto selected Series 60 smartphones. This was announced as the N-Gage platform or N-Gage 2.0 in 2007, around 2000, gamers increasingly carried both mobile phones and handheld game consoles. Nokia spotted an opportunity to combine these devices into one unit, Nokia announced in November 2002 that they would develop the N-Gage, a device that integrated these two devices. Instead of using cables, multiplayer gaming was accomplished with Bluetooth or the Internet, the N-Gage also included MP3 and Real Audio/Video playback and PDA-like features into the system. With a launch price of US$299, the N-Gage was not commercially popular, in its first weeks of availability in the United States, it was outsold by the Game Boy Advance 100 to 1. Within 17 days of the release, popular retailers GameStop. Besides its gaming capabilities, the N-Gage was a Series 60 smartphone, running Symbian OS6.1 and it was able to run all Series 60 software, and Java MIDP applications as well. Its main CPU was an ARM Integrated compatible chip running at 104 MHz, as of August 2007, it was estimated that Nokia had shipped more than two million N-Gage game decks. Many gamers were unaware of the later QD redesign, Nokia had more than 50 games available for the system. While the N-Gage did not have any significant financial successes, it did have a handful of critical successes, pocket Kingdom, Own the World received a handful of glowing reviews when it was released, and Pathway to Glory was Nokias first self-published success. These games came perhaps too late to have effect in improving the perception of the N-Gage hardware itself in the eyes of consumers or press. In February 2004, with the N-Gage failing to make a major impact four months on, in January 2005, UK sales-tracking firm ChartTrack dropped the N-Gage from its regular ELSPA chart, commenting that The N-Gage chart, though still produced, is of little interest to anyone. Sales of the machine and its software have failed to make any impact on the market at all, although only directly reflective of the UK market, this was interpreted by some as a serious blow to the N-Gage as a viable gaming platform. Despite this, Nokia reaffirmed their commitment to the N-Gage as a platform, February 2005 saw Nokia appoint Gerard Wiener, formerly of Sega Europe, to the post of Director and General Manager for Games at Nokia. Wiener steered Nokia away from looking at the N-Gage as primarily being a console to this is a mobile phone that is great for playing games on
11.
Microsoft Windows
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Microsoft Windows is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with IBM PC compatible architecture. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone, defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows 10 Mobile is an active product, unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20,1985, Microsoft Windows came to dominate the worlds personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. Apple came to see Windows as an encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa. On PCs, Windows is still the most popular operating system, however, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones. In 2014, the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25% that of Android devices sold and this comparison however may not be fully relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms. As of September 2016, the most recent version of Windows for PCs, tablets, smartphones, the most recent versions for server computers is Windows Server 2016. A specialized version of Windows runs on the Xbox One game console, Microsoft, the developer of Windows, has registered several trademarks each of which denote a family of Windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry. It now consists of three operating system subfamilies that are released almost at the time and share the same kernel. Windows, The operating system for personal computers, tablets. The latest version is Windows 10, the main competitor of this family is macOS by Apple Inc. for personal computers and Android for mobile devices. Windows Server, The operating system for server computers, the latest version is Windows Server 2016. Unlike its clients sibling, it has adopted a strong naming scheme, the main competitor of this family is Linux. Windows PE, A lightweight version of its Windows sibling meant to operate as an operating system, used for installing Windows on bare-metal computers. The latest version is Windows PE10.0.10586.0, Windows Embedded, Initially, Microsoft developed Windows CE as a general-purpose operating system for every device that was too resource-limited to be called a full-fledged computer. The following Windows families are no longer being developed, Windows 9x, Microsoft now caters to the consumers market with Windows NT. Windows Mobile, The predecessor to Windows Phone, it was a mobile operating system
12.
Mobile game
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A mobile game is a video game played on a feature phone, smartphone, smartwatch, PDA, tablet computer, portable media player or calculator. The earliest known game on a phone was a Tetris variant on the Hagenuk MT-2000 device from 1994. In 1997, Nokia launched the very successful Snake, Snake, that was preinstalled in most mobile devices manufactured by Nokia, has since become one of the most played video games and is found on more than 350 million devices worldwide. A variant of the Snake game for the Nokia 6110, using the port, was also the first two-player game for mobile phones. However, mobile games distributed by mobile operators and third party portals remained a form of gaming until Apples iOS App Store was launched in 2008. As a result of explosion, technological advancement by handset manufacturers became rapid. Preloaded games on mobile phones were usually limited to crude monochrome dot matrix graphics. Commands would be input via the devices keypad buttons, with the advent of feature phones more hardware power became available even in bottom-of-the-range devices. Colour screens, multi-channel sound and most importantly the ability to download, some early companies utilized the camera phone technology for mobile games such as Namco and Panasonic. That same year Panasonic released a virtual pet game in which the pet is fed by photos of foods taken with the camera phone, in the early 2000s, mobile games gained popularity in Japans mobile phone culture, years before the United States or Europe. Older arcade-style games became popular on mobile phones, which were an ideal platform for arcade-style games designed for shorter play sessions. In the present day, Japan is the worlds largest market by revenue for mobile games, the Japanese gaming market today is becoming increasingly dominated by mobile games, which generated $5.1 billion in 2013, more than traditional console games in the country. The N-Gage brand was retained for a few years as a service included on Nokias general-purpose phones. In Europe, downloadable games were introduced by the “Les Games” portal from Orange France, run by In-fusio. Whereas before mobile games were commissioned directly by handset manufacturers. The launch of Apples App Store in 2008 radically changed the market, the Apple users, however, can only use the Apple App Store, since Apple forbids the distribution of apps via any other distribution channel. Thirdly, the integration of the App Store with the device itself led many consumers to try out apps. Consequently, the number of highly successful mobile games proliferated soon after the launch of the App Store
13.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
14.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
15.
Sports game
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A sports game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including sports, track and field, extreme sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been throughout the history of video games and is competitive. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, Sports games involve physical and tactical challenges, and test the players precision and accuracy. Most sports games attempt to model the athletic characteristics required by that sport, including speed, strength, acceleration, accuracy, as with their respective sports, these games take place in a stadium or arena with clear boundaries. Sports games often provide play-by-play and color commentary through the use of recorded audio, Sports games sometimes make use of different modes for different parts of the game. This is especially true in games about American football such as the Madden NFL series, sometimes, other sports games offer a menu where players may select a strategy while play is temporarily suspended. Some sports games also require players to shift roles between the athletes and the coach or manager and these mode switches are more intuitive than other game genres because they reflect actual sports. Older 2D sports games sometimes used a graphical scale, where athletes appeared to be quite large in order to be visible to the player. As sports games have evolved, players have come to expect a realistic graphical scale with a degree of verisimilitude. Sports games often simplify the game physics for ease of play, Games typically take place with a highly accurate time-scale, although they usually allow players to play quick sessions with shorter game quarters or periods. Sports games sometimes treat button-pushes as continuous signals rather than discrete moves, in order to initiate, for example, football games may distinguish between short and the long passes based on how long the player holds a button. Golf games often initiate the backswing with one button-push, and the swing itself is initiated by a subsequent push. ″also can customize person and can make own team″ In 1958, William Higinbotham created a game called Tennis for Two, the players would select the angle at which to put their racket, and pressed a button to return it. Although this game was simple, it demonstrated how an action game could be played on a computer. Video games prior to the late 1970s were primarily played on university mainframe computers under timesharing systems that supported multiple computer terminals on school campuses, the two dominant systems in this era were Digital Equipment Corporations PDP-10 and Control Data Corporations PLATO
16.
Mobile phone
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A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies
17.
Personal computer
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A personal computer is a multi-purpose electronic computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. PCs are intended to be operated directly by a end-user, rather than by an expert or technician. In the 2010s, PCs are typically connected to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web, personal computers may be connected to a local area network, either by a cable or a wireless connection. In the 2010s, a PC may be, a multi-component desktop computer, designed for use in a location a laptop computer, designed for easy portability or a tablet computer. In the 2010s, PCs run using a system, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux. The very earliest microcomputers, equipped with a front panel, required hand-loading of a program to load programs from external storage. Before long, automatic booting from permanent read-only memory became universal, in the 2010s, users have access to a wide range of commercial software, free software and free and open-source software, which are provided in ready-to-run or ready-to-compile form. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems and Intel hardware have dominated much of the computer market, first with MS-DOS. Alternatives to Microsofts Windows operating systems occupy a minority share of the industry and these include Apples OS X and free open-source Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Berkeley Software Distribution. Advanced Micro Devices provides the alternative to Intels processors. PC is an initialism for personal computer, some PCs, including the OLPC XOs, are equipped with x86 or x64 processors but not designed to run Microsoft Windows. PC is used in contrast with Mac, an Apple Macintosh computer and this sense of the word is used in the Get a Mac advertisement campaign that ran between 2006 and 2009, as well as its rival, Im a PC campaign, that appeared in 2008. Since Apples transition to Intel processors starting 2005, all Macintosh computers are now PCs, the “brain” may one day come down to our level and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this is speculation and there is no sign of it so far, in the history of computing there were many examples of computers designed to be used by one person, as opposed to terminals connected to mainframe computers. Using the narrow definition of operated by one person, the first personal computer was the ENIAC which became operational in 1946 and it did not meet further definitions of affordable or easy to use. An example of an early single-user computer was the LGP-30, created in 1956 by Stan Frankel and used for science and it came with a retail price of $47, 000—equivalent to about $414,000 today. Introduced at the 1965 New York Worlds Fair, the Programma 101 was a programmable calculator described in advertisements as a desktop computer. It was manufactured by the Italian company Olivetti and invented by the Italian engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto, the Soviet MIR series of computers was developed from 1965 to 1969 in a group headed by Victor Glushkov
18.
All Media Network
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AllGame was a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers. The AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com, All Media Network includes of the original founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. The AllGame section of the site was shut down on December 12,2014, AllMusic AllMovie SideReel All Media Network MobyGames, another online database of video games and developers
19.
Electronic Gaming Monthly
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Electronic Gaming Monthly was a monthly American video game magazine. It offered video game news, coverage of events, interviews with gaming figureheads, editorial content. The magazine was founded in 1988 as U. S. National Video Game Teams Electronic Gaming Monthly under Sendai Publications, in 1994, EGM spun off EGM², which focused on expanded cheats and tricks. It eventually became Expert Gamer and finally the defunct GameNOW, after 83 issues, EGM switched from Sendai Publishing to Ziff Davis publisher. Until January 2009, EGM only covered gaming on console hardware and software, in 2002, the magazines subscription increased by more than 25 percent. The magazine was discontinued by Ziff Davis in January 2009, following the sale of 1UP. com to UGO Networks, the magazines February 2009 issue was already completed, but was not published. In May 2009, EGM founder Steve Harris purchased the magazine, the magazine was relaunched in April 2010 by Harris new company EGM Media, LLC, widening its coverage to the PC and mobile gaming markets. k. a. Writers who also served stints as editor-in chief include Ed Semrad, Joe Funk, John Davison, the magazine is known for making April Fools jokes. Its April 1992 issue was the source of the Sheng Long hoax in Street Fighter II, games are reviewed by one member, except for the big games, which were reviewed by one of a pool of editors known as The Review Crew. They each assign a grade to the game and write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game, the magazine makes a strong stance that a grade of C is average. The current letter grade system replaced a long-standing 0–10 scale in the April 2008 issue. In that system, Silver went to a game with a rating from 8 to 9, Gold to a game reviewed at 9 to 10. Until 1998, as a matter of policy, the reviewers rarely gave scores of 10. That policy changed when the reviewers gave Metal Gear Solid four 10 ratings in 1998, in addition, they gave the game with the highest average score for that issue a Game of the Month award. In 2002, EGM has also begun giving games that earned unanimously bad scores a Shame of the Month award, as there is not always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies. Originally, a team of four editors reviewed all the games and this process was eventually dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to the staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month. Though the scores ranged from 0–10 on the numerical scale, the score of zero was almost never utilized, with notable exceptions being Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game. EGM en Español was released in Mexico in November 2002 and it was published by Editorial Televisa and is edited by a different staff
20.
Eurogamer
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Eurogamer is a website and YouTube channel focused on video game news, reviews and other features. It is operated by Gamer Network Ltd. with headquarters in Brighton, East Sussex, the site primarily caters to a UK/Ireland audience, Gamer Network operates other sites using the Eurogamer brand that caters to other European countries. Most of its reviews are of European or PAL releases of the games, eurogamers current editor is Oli Welsh, who took over the role from Tom Bramwell in September 2014. The editor prior to Bramwell was Kristan Reed. biz editor Rob Fahey, Eurogamer founder Rupert Loman was interviewed in February 2007 by MCV magazine. He was also featured in the Sunday Telegraph on 19 August 2007, at the Games Media Awards, Eurogamer won the categories of Best Games Website – News, and Best Games Website – Reviews & Features in 2007. Deputy Editor Tom Bramwell won Best Writer in Specialist Digital Media, News editor Wesley Yin-Poole won Best News Writer in 2014. Rupert Loman was winner of Entrepreneur of the Year 2003 at the Sussex Business Awards and he was also selected as one of 30 Young Guns by Growing Business magazine in October 2008. At the Leipzig Games Convention in August 2006, Eurogamer launched their first non-English language site of the franchise, in April 2011, Eurogamer Netherlands and Eurogamer Belgium merged to form Eurogamer Benelux. Eurogamer Romania closed down in 2011, in November 2012, Eurogamer launched their first non-European site, Brasilgamer, and 2012–2013 also saw the launch of USgamer, Gamer Networks US flagship multi-format games website. Eurogamer has a site, GamesIndustry. biz, which reports on the global video games industry. In May 2008 the site launched the GamesIndustry. biz Network for industry professionals, Eurogamer has hosted the Digital Foundry channel since 2007. Digital Foundry evaluates video game hardware and software from a technical level, often comparing performances of the same game across different platforms
21.
Game Informer
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Game Informer is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, the publication is owned and published by GameStop Corp. the parent company of the video game retailer of the same name, who bought FuncoLand in 2000. Due to this, an amount of promotion is done in-store, which has been attributed to the success of the magazine. Game Informer has since become an important part of GameStops customer loyalty program, Power Up Rewards, Game Informer debuted in August 1991 as a six-page magazine. It was published two months until November 1994, when the magazine began to be released monthly. Since 2001 Game Informer has been published by Cathy Preston, who has working as part of the production team since 2000. It was under her that the publication became a part of GameStops customer loyalty program. In 2010, Game Informer became the 5th largest magazine in the US with 5 million copies sold, ahead of popular publications like Times, Sports Illustrated, by 2011, Game Informer had become the 3rd largest magazine in the US topping 8 million copies circulated. However, in 2014 it had fallen to 4th place with 6.9 million copies sold, recent figures still place the magazine at 4th place with over 7 million copies sold. The success of Game Informer has been attributed to its relationship with publishers. In each years April edition, Game Informer includes Game Infarcer, on the cover is Worlds #1 Pretend Magazine where it would ordinarily say Worlds #1 Video Game Magazine, and the word Parody is written on the bottom of each page. Game Infarcer articles are accredited to the fictional editor-in-chief Darth Clark, the heated responses to parody articles are often featured in later Game Informer issues. Game Informer has included four Sacred Cow Barbecues, similar in style to a celebrity roast, the occasion is meant to knock some of gamings most revered icons off their high and mighty pedestals. The first Sacred Cow Barbecues featured in issue 158, other issues featuring Sacred Cow Barbecues are,183,211, and 261. Sacred Cow Barbecues articles are considered controversial among those gamers who arent amused with their games being mocked, Game Informer Online was originally launched in August 1996, and featured daily news updates as well as articles. Justin Leeper and Matthew Kato were hired on in November 1999 as full-time web editors, as part of the GameStop purchase of the magazine, the site was closed around January 2001. Both Leeper and Kato were eventually placed on the staff of the magazine. GI Online was revived in September 2003, with a redesign and many additional features, such as a review database, frequent news updates
22.
GamePro
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GamePro was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various game consoles, PC computers. Gamepro Media properties included GamePro magazine and their website, the company was also a part subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group, a media, events and research technology group. Originally published in 1989, GamePro magazine provided feature articles, news, previews and reviews on various games, video game hardware. The magazine was published monthly with October 2011 being its last issue, gamePros February 2010 issue introduced a redesigned layout and a new editorial direction focused on the people and culture of its gaming. GamePro. com was launched in 1998. Updated daily, the content included feature articles, news, previews, reviews, screenshots and videos covering video games, video game hardware. The website also included content such as forums, reviews. In January 2010, the website was redesigned to reflect the new editorial changes being made in the print magazine. The website was based at Gamepros headquarters in San Francisco from 1998–2002 and then in Oakland, Gamepro. com also had international variants that have now outlasted their parent publication in countries such as Germany, and France. Gamepro was first established in Redwood City, California in late 1988 by Patrick Ferrell, his sister-in-law Leeanne McDermott, and the husband-wife design team of Michael and Lynne Kavish. The later addition of John Rousseau as publisher and editor-in-chief Wes Nihei, as well as renowned artist Francis Mao, established Gamepro as a large, profitable magazine worldwide publication. Francis Mao, acting in his role as art director for the nascent GamePro, over the years, the Gamepro offices have moved from Redwood City to San Mateo to San Francisco and lastly Oakland, their current and latest location. In 1993, the company was renamed from Gamepro Inc. to Infotainment World in reflection to its growing, the magazine was known for its editors using comic book-like avatars and monikers when reviewing games. As of January 2004, however, Gamepro has ceased to use the due to a change in the overall design. Meanwhile, editorial voices carry over to the redesigned and highly active community on its online sister publication. Gamepro was also most widely famous for its ProTips, small pieces of gameplay tips and it also features a special corner section known as Code Vault, where secret codes are all posted. These particular features have since gradually vanished, Code Vault was also published in print format and sold as a quarterly cheats and strategy magazine on newsstands
23.
Game Revolution
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Game Revolution or GR is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots. Their features pages include articles satirizing Jack Thompson, E³, the surrounding the next-generation consoles. Cameo writing appearances include Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theatre and Scott Ramsoomair of VG Cats, the website has also participated in marketing campaigns for video games, including Gauntlet, Seven Sorrows. To date, it is one of the oldest remaining video game review, net Revolution, Inc. a California corporation was founded in April 1996 by Duke Ferris as a holding company and as publisher of the Game Revolution website. Ferris served as president of the company until it was acquired in 2005 stock purchase by Bolt Media, founded in 1996, GameRevolution claims hundreds of thousands of daily visitors to its site. The staff of Game Revolution are annual judges at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Duke Ferris is a returning Judge for the 2010 show. Perhaps the most influential year for Game Revolution at E3 was in 2000 and they also bestowed Black & White the Best of E3 award. Following the bankruptcy of Bolt Media, Inc and it has since been integrated as part of the CraveOnline community while continuing to stand alone as a popular site. The purchase was announced February 25,2008, the feature section commonly includes articles about important gaming events as the Nintendo Summit and other developers personal and public congregations and displays. For a number of years it has contained the GR Awards for Best. There are also a number of bizarre and unique articles describing phenomena in the community, or simply. Sometime in August 2005, Jack Thompson contacted the Lou Kerner of Game Revolution, Kerner complied and had the offending icon removed immediately. However, Thompson saw the removal as an admission of guilt, however, no such action was taken. Duke Ferris, another employee of the site, wrote an article on the matter, to drive home this point, he even chose to present a primitively drawn image which had Thompson being devoured by a crocodile, and then challenged Thompson to go ahead and have him arrested. It is unknown if Thompson responded to the article
24.
GameSpot
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GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1,1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and it was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which purchased CNET Networks in 2008, is the current owner of GameSpot, in addition to the information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the sites forums. In 2004, GameSpot won Best Gaming Website as chosen by the viewers in Spike TVs second Video Game Award Show, the domain gamespot. com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete. com study. GameSpot was founded by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein in San Francisco, CA, initially, GameSpot focused exclusively on PC games. Its sister site, VideoGameSpot. com, was launched in December 1996 to cover console games, in 1997, VideoGameSpot. com became VideoGames. com for a short period, and by 1998, the PC and console sections were united at GameSpot. com. On October 3,2005, GameSpot adopted a new design similar to that of TV. com, a new layout change was adopted on October 2013. GameSpot UK was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, during this period, GameSpot UK won the 1999 PPAi award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. Following the purchase of ZDNet by CNET, GameSpot UK was merged with the main US site, on April 24,2006, GameSpot UK was relaunched. In a similar fashion, GameSpot AU existed on a scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET. com. au was launched in 2003, the site was fully re-launched mid-2006, with a specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in A$, Australian release dates, and more local news. GameSpot Japan in its current form launched in 2007 and it provides Japanese video game industry news, previews, reviews, features, and videos as well as translated articles from the other GameSpot sites. Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director of the site, was fired on November 28,2007, Gerstmann had previously given Kane & Lynch a fair or undesirable rating along with critique. Both GameSpot and parent company CNET stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review, a month after Gerstmanns termination, freelance reviewer Frank Provo left GameSpot after eight years stating that I believe CNET management let Jeff go for all the wrong reasons. I believe CNET intends to soften the tone and push for higher scores to make advertisers happy. GameSpot staffers Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, Davis co-founded Gerstmanns subsequent project, Giant Bomb, and was later joined by Shoemaker and Caravella. Navarro later returned to Giant Bomb, where he works as a Senior Editor. On March 15,2012, it was announced that CBS Interactive, as part of the deal, the non-disparagement agreement between Gerstmann and CNET was nullified, allowing him to finally speak publicly about his termination over four years prior
25.
GameSpy
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GameSpy was a provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games. com. GameSpy merged with IGN in 2004, by 2014, its services had used by over 800 video game publishers and developers since its launch. In August 2012, the GameSpy Industries division was acquired by video game developer Glu Mobile. IGN retained ownership of the GameSpy. com website, in February 2013, IGNs new owner, Ziff Davis, shut down IGNs secondary sites, including GameSpys network. This was followed by the announcement in April 2014 that GameSpys service platform would be shut down on May 31,2014, Mark Surfas saw the need for hosting and distribution of these mods and created PlanetQuake, a Quake-related hosting and news site. The massive success of mods catapulted PlanetQuake to huge traffic and a position in the burgeoning game website scene. Quake also marked the beginning of the Internet multiplayer real-time action game scene, however, finding a Quake server on the Internet proved difficult, as players could only share IP addresses of known servers between themselves or post them on websites. To solve this problem, a team of three programmers formed Spy Software and created QSpy and this allowed the listing and searching of Quake servers available across the Internet. Surfas licensed QSpy and became the distributor and marketer while retaining the original programming team. QSpy became QuakeSpy and went on to be bundled with ids QuakeWorld update - an unprecedented move by a top tier developer, with the release of the Quake Engine-based game Hexen II, QuakeSpy added this game to its capabilities and was renamed GameSpy3D. In 1997 Mark Surfas licensed GameSpy 3D from Spy Software, in 1999, GameSpy received angel investment funding from entrepreneur David Berkus. The company released MP3Spy. com, a software browser allowing people to browse and connect to online radio feeds, the expanding of the companys websites included the games portal, GameSpy. It also included platform-specific sites, but these were consolidated into GameSpy. com, forumPlanet and FilePlanet were services offered by GameSpy, and were not part of the Planet Network. In 2000, GameSpy received additional investment funding from the Ziff Davis publishing division ZDNet. com and from Guillemot Corporation, GameSpy shut down its RadioSpy division, backing away from the online music market which was dominated by peer-to-peer applications such as Napster and Gnutella. In 2001, GameSpys corporate technology business grew to include software development kits and middleware for video game consoles, such as Sonys PlayStation 2, Segas Dreamcast and Microsofts Xbox. In March 2004, IGN and GameSpy Industries merged, and was known as IGN/GameSpy before formalizing their corporate name as IGN Entertainment. GameSpy Arcade was the companys flagship matchmaking software, allowing users to servers for different online video games. This software rivaled the other major voice chat software Ventrilo and Teamspeak, the companys Powered by GameSpy technology enabled online functionality in over 300 PC and console games
26.
IGN
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The website was the brainchild of media entrepreneur Chris Anderson and launched on September 29,1996. It focuses on games, films, television, comics, technology, the company is located in San Franciscos SOMA district in California, United States. Originally a network of websites, IGN is now distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on the Xbox and PlayStation, FireTV, Roku, and via YouTube, Twitch, Hulu. IGN was sold to publishing company Ziff Davis in February 2013 and now operates as a J2 Global subsidiary. com, PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation. com and Ultra Game Players Online. Imagine expanded on its owned-and-operated websites by creating a network that included a number of independent fansites such as PSX Nation. com, Sega-Saturn. com, Game Sages. In 1998, the network launched a new homepage that consolidated the individual sites as system channels under the IGN brand, the homepage exposed content from more than 30 different channels. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation, dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put on hold when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand. In February 1999, Imagine Media incorporated a spin-off that included IGN and its channels as Affiliation Networks. In September, the newly spun-out standalone internet media company, changed its name to Snowball. com, at the same time, small entertainment website The Den merged into IGN and added non-gaming content to the growing network. Snowball held an IPO in 2000, but shed most of its properties during the dot-com bubble. In June 2005, IGN reported having 24,000,000 unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departments of the site, IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa. In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdochs multi-media business empire, News Corporation, IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12,2008. IGN was headquartered in the Marina Point Parkway office park in Brisbane, California, on May 25,2011, IGN sold its Direct2Drive division to Gamefly for an undisclosed amount. In 2011, IGN Entertainment acquired its rival UGO Entertainment from Hearst Corporation, ultimately, News Corp. planned to spin off IGN Entertainment as a publicly traded company, continuing a string of divestitures for digital properties it had previously acquired. Financial details regarding the purchase were not revealed, prior to its acquisition by UGO, 1UP. com had previously been owned by Ziff Davis. Soon after the acquisition, IGN announced that it would be laying off staff and closing GameSpy, 1UP. com, the role-playing video game interest website Vault Network was acquired by IGN in 1999. GameStats, a review website, was founded by IGN in 2004. GameStats includes a GPM rating system incorporates an average press score and average gamer score
27.
Nintendo Power
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Nintendo Power is a discontinued news and strategy magazine which was initially published in-house monthly by Nintendo of America, and later independently. In December 2007, Nintendo contracted publishing to Future US, the American subsidiary of British publisher Future and it was one of the longest running video game magazines in the United States and Canada, and was Nintendos official magazine in North America. On August 21,2012, Nintendo announced that it would not be renewing its agreement with Future Publishing. The final issue, volume 285, was released on December 11,2012, predating Nintendo Power is the several-page long Nintendo Fun Club News, which was sent to club members for free. However, in mid-1988 Nintendo Fun Club News was discontinued after seven issues in favor of Nintendo Power, the first issue, dated July/August 1988, spotlighted the NES game Super Mario Bros.2. 3.6 million copies were published, with member of the Nintendo Fun Club receiving a free one. From the beginning, Nintendo Power focused heavily on providing game strategy, tips and tricks, reviews, in mid-1998, Nintendo Power first allowed outside advertising in the magazine, formerly reserved for Nintendo-based products only. In its early years, ads appeared in the first and last few pages of the magazine. In July 2005, Nintendo Power created a new design to appeal to a limited gaming audience, including a new logo and article format. Nintendo introduced a new incentive promotional offer that involved the registration of three Nintendo products through Nintendo. com to receive a three issue trial subscription to Nintendo Power. Later, the changed its focus from game strategies and cheat codes to mainly news, previews. The magazine was edited at first by Fun Club President Howard Philips, Nintendo Powers mascot in the late 1980s and early 1990s was Nester, a comic character created by Philips. After Philips left the company, Nester became the sole mascot. Early issues of the featured a two-page Howard and Nester comic, which was later replaced with the two-page Nesters Adventures, later reduced to one page. Subsequently, Mario replaced Nester as the mascot of the magazine, later, during the early 2000s, the magazine made another mascot out of its Senior Writer, Alan Averill. Apparently very camera-shy, Averill himself never appeared in any photos, rather, fans often clamored to see what Averill actually looked like, but the magazine continued to substitute with photos of the toy, and even claimed that Alan was, in fact, a Blue Slime. Eventually, Averill retired from Nintendo Power, joining Nintendo of Americas localization department, to this day, most fans have never seen a real image of Averill. The inclusion of a photo of Mr. T in the Players Pulse section became a gag in the early half of 2005
28.
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine
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Official U. S. PlayStation Magazine is a now-defunct monthly video game magazine, published by Ziff Davis Media. It was a publication of Electronic Gaming Monthly. The magazine focused exclusively on PlayStation hardware, software, and culture, covering the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, perhaps the most famous aspect of the magazine was the inclusion each month of a disc that contained playable demos and videos of PlayStation games. The magazine was produced for ten years, from October 1997 to the final issue in January 2007. Beginning with issue one, each came with a disc containing playable PlayStation game demos. Later, interviews, industry event coverage, and video walkthroughs of games would also be included on the discs, beginning with issue 49, the magazine came with a PlayStation 2 demo disc, though for a time it would still be alternated with original PlayStation demo discs. Issues 50,52, and 54 were the last issues to include discs for the original PlayStation. All of the discs were developed by LifeLike Productions, Inc. OPM had released one PlayStation Portable demo, Killzone Liberation and it was available only with the purchase of retail copies rather than subscription issues. The magazine was discontinued before making the transition to PlayStation 3 demo discs. Similar international editions of the magazine exist in Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Belgian edition is also published in the Netherlands. The Australian edition was published by Next Media bi-monthly. APC published the magazine after issue 18 and it is currently published by Derwent Howard and is edited by Narayan Pattison
29.
Official Xbox Magazine
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Official Xbox Magazine is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E32001, with another issue in November 2001. The magazine was bundled with a disc that included demos, preview videos and trailers. The discs also provided the software for the Xbox 360 for backward compatibility of original Xbox games for those without broadband, as of January 2012, OXM no longer includes a demo disc. In February 2015, OXM and all of Futures websites were redirected into GamesRadar, the magazine itself continues to be published in the UK, US and Australia. On the Disc Each issue originally contained a disc with both Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade games. However, beginning in January 2012, OXM stopped including demo discs, saying Youve told us you dont want the DVD anymore, Each demo contained unlockable content like gamer pics and hidden demos. There was also a game called OXM Universe. Gamers played the games on disc and viewed the videos on the disc to gain points, the points had another use in which gamers used their points to research and build equipment for the in-game game OXM Universe. OXMU was discontinued in OXMs 100th issue and we Heart Xbox In this section, new games which were not yet shown to the mainstream public or user-modified hardware such as consoles or faceplates were shown here. Message Center Besides showing readers mail, the OXM crew revealed their Top 5 things on their mind at the moment. The Top 5 tradition was broken in Issue #85 of July 2008, Xbox Next In this section, upcoming games were highlighted and previewed. Features In this section, games may get prolonged previews, or OXM may have an exclusive 6-10 page review for a certain game, there may also be special featured content like Issue #77s HDTV Buyers Guide. Xbox Now This was the section where every Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox Live Arcade game, and downloadable content is reviewed. Live Space (a section which showed gamers Xbox Live gamertags, Ask Dr. Gamer, the column The Business of Xbox was written by Geoff Keighley through the May 2007 issue, but until 2015, the column was written, on a less frequent basis, by Chris Morris. As of Issue #71, the end page rotated columnists, with guests including game creators Tim Schafer, Denis Dyack, the games that received at least a 9.0 were given an Editors Choice award. Beginning with issue #53, the US OXM switched to a 20-point scoring system, the UK edition though switched to a 10-point scoring system, scoring games out of 10. This ratings scale was detailed on the page to every issues review section
30.
PC Gamer
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PC Gamer is a magazine founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries. PC Gamer reviews are written by the editors and freelance writers. In the UK edition, no game has yet been awarded more than 96%, in the US edition, no game has yet received a rating higher than 98%. In the UK edition, the lowest numerical score was 2%, the sequel, Big Brother 2, was given an even lower score of N/A%, the review explaining that put as much effort into reviewing it as they did in making the game. In issue 255, August 2013, the score of 2% was matched by the review of the re-released Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude, originally given 3% when it first launched. In the US edition, the lowest score awarded was 4%, given to Mad Dog McCree, unseating the previously lowest-rated game, there are two main editions of PC Gamer, a British version and an American version, both are published by Future plc. Founded in the United Kingdom in November 1993, the American sister version was launched a year later in June 1994, there are also numerous local editions that mainly use the materials of one of the two editions, typically the British one, including a Malaysian and Russian edition. An Australian edition was published monthly by Perth-based Conspiracy Publishing since August 1998, a Spanish edition titled PC Juegos y Jugadores also exists. Both American and British magazines are published thirteen times per year, the British edition of PC Gamer has been in constant monthly publication since 1993. Subscribers get an edition of the magazine with no headlines on the front cover. Almost exclusively devoted to PC games, the magazine has a reputation for giving in-depth reviews, the magazine originally shipped with an accompanying 3. 5-inch floppy disc. A CD demo disc was released alongside the floppy disk edition from issue 11 onwards with the first CD Gamer containing all the content from the previous 10 issues floppy discs, the single CD was later expanded to two CDs. An edition with a 9 GB DVD known as DVD Gamer ran alongside the 2CD edition for a couple of years, the UK Edition then only came with a single double-sided DVD. In August 2011, the UK magazine announced it was to be discontinuing the disk as of issue 232, the magazine has many regular features which make up each edition of the magazine. There is also a section, which reviews and recommends hardware such as video cards. The back page of the magazine is entitled ´Its All Over´, the PC Gamer blog was started to coincide with the transfer of the PC Gamer UK site to become part of the Computer and Video Games network which incorporates all of Future plcs gaming magazines. The move brought some controversy, with long standing members of the forum leaving due to the new forums cramped spacing, advertising
31.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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The Cincinnati Enquirer is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The Enquirer has the highest circulation of any print publication in the Cincinnati metropolitan area, a daily local edition for Northern Kentucky is published as The Kentucky Enquirer. The Enquirer is available online at the Cincinnati. com website, the Enquirer is regarded as a conservative, Republican-leaning newspaper, in contrast to The Cincinnati Post, a former competing daily. From 1920 to 2012, the board endorsed every Republican candidate for United States president. By contrast, the current editorial board claims to take a pragmatic editorial stance, according to editor Peter Bhatia, It is made up of pragmatic, solution-driven members who, frankly, don’t have much use for extreme ideologies from the right or the left. The board’s mantra in our editorials has been about problem-solving and improving the quality of life for everyone in greater Cincinnati, on September 24,2016, the Enquirer endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, the first endorsement of a Democrat for president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The Kentucky Enquirer consists of an additional section wrapped around the Cincinnati Enquirer, the front page is remade from the Ohio edition, although it may contain similar elements. Since September 2015, the Enquirer and local Fox affiliate WXIX-TV have partnered on news gathering and have shared news coverage and video among the paper, broadcasts, the Enquirers predecessor was the Phoenix, edited by Moses Dawson as early as 1828. It later became the Commercial Advertiser and in 1838 the Cincinnati Advertiser, by the time John and Charles Brough purchased it and renamed it the Daily Cincinnati Enquirer, it was considered a newspaper of record for the city. The Enquirers first issue, on April 10,1841, consisted of just four pages of squint-inducing text that was, at times and it declared its staunch support for the Democratic Party, in contrast to the three Whig papers and two ostensibly independent papers then in circulation. A weekly digest edition for regional farmers, the Weekly Cincinnati Enquirer, began publishing on April 14 and would continue until November 25,1843, in November 1843, the Enquirer merged with the Daily Morning Message to become the Enquirer and Message. In January 1845, the dropped the Message name, becoming The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer. Finally, in May 1849, the paper became The Cincinnati Enquirer, on April 20,1848, the Enquirer became one of the first newspapers in the United States to publish a Sunday edition. In 1844, James J. Faran took an interest in the Enquirer, in 1848, Washington McLean and his brother S. B. Wiley McLean acquired an interest in the Enquirer. On March 22,1866, a gas leak caused Pikes Opera House to explode, a competitor, the Cincinnati Daily Times, allowed the Enquirer to print on its presses in the wake of the disaster. As a result, the Enquirer missed only one day of publication, however, archives of the papers first 25 years were lost. Washington McLean was a leading Copperhead whose editorial policies led to the suppression of the paper by the United States government during the Civil War, after the war, McLean pursued an anti-Republican stance. One of his star writers was Lafcadio Hearn, who wrote for the paper from 1872 to 1875, James W. Faulkner served as the papers political correspondent, covering the Ohio State Legislature and Statehouse, from 1887 until his death in 1923
32.
GameRankings
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GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games, GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive. Similar websites include GameStats, Metacritic, MobyGames, and TopTenReviews, GameRankings collects and links to reviews from other websites and magazines and averages specific ones. While hundreds of reviews may get listed, only the ones that GameRankings deems notable are used for the average, Scores are culled from numerous American and European sources. The site uses a grade for all reviews in order to be able to calculate an average. However, because not all use the same scoring system. When a game has accumulated 20 total reviews, it is given a ranking compared to all games in the database. The current highest rated game is Super Mario Galaxy, with 97. 64%, there are specific rules that GameRankings follows to determine which review sites are used in calculating a games overall score. From the GameRankings Help page, they are, Sites must have at least 300 archived reviews for a multi-system/multi-genre sites, Sites must publish a minimum of 15 reviews a month. Sites must be visually appealing and look professional, Sites must review a variety of titles. Sites must have a domain name with professional hosting. Site reviews must be well written, Sites must conduct themselves in a professional manner. However, some sites that follow these rules are not included and these are the top 20 games with best scores on the site. GameRankings High Scores Matter To Game Makers, Too, The Wall Street Journal, things that suck about video game reviews, That Videogame Blog, April 2,2008
33.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
34.
Edge (magazine)
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Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom, which publishes 13 issues of the magazine per year. It is known for its contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards. The magazine was launched in October 1993 by Steve Jarratt, a video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future. The artwork for the cover of the magazines 100th issue was provided by Shigeru Miyamoto. The 200th issue was released in March 2009 with 200 different covers, each commemorating a single game,199 variants were in general circulation, only 200 magazines were printed with each cover, sufficient to more than satisfy Edges circulation of 28,898. In October 2003, the then-editor of Edge, João Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy, after the walkout, the editorship of Edge passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor, in May 2007, Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott, taking over as editor for the third time. Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of Edge was published in the United States as Next Generation, in July 2008, the whole site was rebranded under the Edge title, as that was the senior of the two brands. Edge has been redesigned three times since the magazine launched, the first redesign occurred in 1999, the second in 2004, and the third in 2011. The first redesign altered the dimensions to be wider than the original shape. The latest design changes the physical dimensions for the second time. Each issue includes a Making-of article on a game, usually including an interview with one of the original developers. Issue 143 introduced the Time Extend series of retrospective articles, like the making-of series, each focuses on a single game and, with the benefit of hindsight, gives an in-depth examination of its most interesting or innovative attributes. Since 2014, some contributed features are credited with a byline, the magazines regular columnists have been consistently credited throughout the magazines run. The current columnists are James Leach, Clint Hocking and Tadhg Kelly, in addition, several columnists appear toward the beginning of the magazine to talk about the game industry as a whole, rather than focusing on specific game design topics. They are Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, Leigh Alexander, and Brian Howe, previous columnists have included Paul Rose, Toshihiro Nagoshi of Segas Amusement Vision, author Tim Guest, NGai Croal, and game developer Jeff Minter. In addition, numerous columns were published anonymously under the pseudonym RedEye, James Hutchinsons comic strip Crashlander was featured in Edge between issues 143 and 193. Edge scores games on a ten-point scale, from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 10, and so on, a tongue-in-cheek reference to people who read too much into review scores
35.
Video game content rating system
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A video game content rating system is a system used for the classification of video games into suitability-related groups. Most of these systems are associated with and/or sponsored by a government, Video game content rating systems can be used as the basis for laws that cover the sales of video games to minors, such as in Australia. Rating checking and approval is part of the game localization when they are being prepared for their distribution in countries or locales. A comparison of current video game rating systems, showing age on the horizontal axis, note however that the specific criteria used in assigning a classification can vary widely from one country to another. Thus a color code or age range cannot be compared from one country to another. Key, White, Aimed at young audiences / All ages may play / Exempt / Not rated / No applicable rating, purple, Not recommended for a younger audience but not restricted. Red, Restricted to an older audience unless accompanied by an adult, black, Restricted exclusively to an older audience / Banned. In the above table, Italics indicate an international rather than a single country. Similar to other forms of media, video games have been the subject of argument between leading professionals and restriction and prohibition, Video games have also been studied for links to addiction and aggression. There have been a multitude of studies concretely linking violent video game play with increased aggression, a meta analysis of studies from both eastern and western countries yielded evidence that. As is evidenced by meta analyses such as the one cited above, researchers have also proposed potential positive effects of video games on aspects of social and cognitive development and psychological well-being. The Argentine Game Developer Association was critical of the law, the Classification Board was originally incorporated in the Office of Film and Literature Classification which was dissolved in 2006. The Attorney-Generals Department now provides support to the Board. Decisions made by the Board may be reviewed by the Australian Classification Review Board, the Department of Justice, Rating, Titles and Qualification rates films, games and television programs in Brazil. It is controlled by the Ministry of Justice, pan European Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games with logos on games boxes. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe and came into use in April 2003, it replaced many national age rating systems with a single European system. The PEGI system is now used in more than countries and is based on a code of conduct. PEGI self-regulation is composed by five age categories and eight content descriptors that advise the suitability, the age rating does not indicate the difficulty of the game or the skill required to play it
36.
Next Generation (magazine)
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Next Generation was a video game magazine that was made by Imagine Media publishing company. It was affiliated to and shared editorial with the UKs Edge magazine, Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West, other editors included Chris Charla, Tom Russo, and Blake Fischer. Next Generation initially covered the 32-bit consoles, 3DO, Atari Jaguar, unlike competitors GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly, the magazine was directed towards a different readership by focusing on the industry itself rather than individual games. The magazine was first published by GP Publications up until May 1995 when the publisher was acquired by Imagine Media, in September 1999, Next Generation was redesigned, its cover name shortened to simply NextGen. This would start what was known as Lifecycle 2 of the magazine, a year later, in September 2000, the magazines width was increased from its standard 8 inches to 9 inches, however this wider format lasted less than a year. Subscribers of Next-Gen Magazine received issues of PlayStation Magazine when the magazines life-cycle was terminated, the brand was resurrected in 2005 by Future Publishing USA as an industry-led website, Next-Gen. biz. It carries much the same articles and editorial as the print magazine, and in fact reprints many articles from Edge, in July 2008, Next-Gen. biz was rebranded as Edge-Online. com. Next Generations content didnt focus on screenshots, walkthroughs, and cheat codes, instead the content was more focused on game development from an artistic perspective. Interviews with people in the industry often featured questions about gaming in general rather than about the details of the latest game or game system they were working on. Next Generation was first published prior to the North American launch of the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, the review ranking system was based on a number of stars that ranked games based on their merits overall compared to what games were already out there. Next Generation had a few editorial sections like The Way Games Ought To Be that would attempt to provide constructive criticism on standard practices in the game industry. The magazines construction and design was simple and clean, its back cover having no advertising on it initially. The first several years of Next Generation had a matte finish cover stock. The magazine moved away from this style in early 1999. Complete collection of 85 front-cover images Next Generation Wayback link for Next Generation Online Wayback link for Imagine Publishing
37.
Gamasutra
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Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on all aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb, a division of Unite Business Media, the articles can be filtered by either topic or category. Gamasutra encourages professionals to publish blogs in order to share their expertise with other developers, analysis articles are popular reads as writers spark discussions on game design and the various trends of the industry. Many postmortems have been published, ranging from independent games such as Okabu and The Path to major studio projects such as Okamiden, there are currently over 150 collected post-mortems dating back as far as 1997. Learning from Past Post-Mortems” that details the most common mistakes that developers make as admitted in the articles, Gamasutra requires users who wish to publish articles on the website to work with the features director Christian Nutt, whether they have fleshed-out drafts, an outline, or a concept. The editorial staff offers help in shaping, polishing, and editing articles before publication, a broad range of topics can be selected given the audience, which consists of businesspeople, educators, and developers, both professional and aspiring. The articles are required to contain at least 1500 words, though the length tends to be 2500 to 3500 words. Gamasutra also requires a thirty-day exclusivity period from the date of publication, after which the writer is free to take the article elsewhere, users are also allowed to comment on articles, but there is a strict set of rules. Users are encouraged to post only constructive thoughts that add to the conversation, GameSetWatch is an alternative video game weblog and sister site of Gamasutra. com. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and often ignored games from consoles old and new, as well as from the download, iOS. GameSetWatch was founded by Simon Carless in November 2005, GameSetWatch has remained up for readers but no new content has been posted since. The editors at the time Eric Caoili and Danny Cowan have taken different steps to help out at their sister sites, Cowan has gone to blog over at IndieGames. com and Caoili is at Gamasutra. IndieGames. com is Gamasutras sister site dedicated to reporting on indie games and it became the UBM TechWebs main method to deliver news about independent games after GameSetWatch closed. The IndieGames. com Podcast was started by Michael Rose and Tim in September 2010 and it is available to listen to online or download on the website or iTunes store. An episode is released every week with a guest indie developer hosting the podcast in addition to the two creators of the show, Tim was the independent owner and operator of the Independent Gaming Weblog which was shut down and sold to IndieGames. com in December 2007. Michael Rose is an editor and writer at IndieGames. com, the show has taken a hiatus since July 2012 and has no news of restarting as of yet. The interviews section of the site features interviews with indie game creators and developers, the interviewees answer a set of questions posed by the interviewer including questions regarding their inspirations and hardships. The page is split into three categories, desktop, console and mobile to organize the interviews by platform interests
38.
MobyGames
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MobyGames is a commercial website which catalogs video games both past and present. As of October 2016, this includes over 200 gaming platforms and over 114,000 games, the site is supported by banner ads and by users paying to become patrons. The MobyGames database contains information on games and the people. Some individual developer profiles have biographical information, content is added on a volunteer crowdsourced basis, with all items tracked to a non-anonymous user account. The most commonly used sources are game packaging and manual or the game itself, registered users can rate and review any game entry, and the scores are aggregated into a single value. Users can create game have lists and want lists, which may be made public. This can generate another list of available for trade with other users. The site has an integrated forum, each listed game can have its own subforum. MobyGames was founded on March 1,1999, by Jim Leonard, Brian Hirt, Leonard had the idea of sharing information about electronic games with a larger audience. The database began with entries for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows games, on its second birthday, MobyGames started supporting other platforms, initially the leading consoles of the time such as the PlayStation, with older systems added later. MobyGames was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website by the International Academy of Digital Arts, in mid-2010, MobyGames was sold by its founders to GameFly for an undisclosed amount. As this was announced to the community post factum, a few major contributors left in protest. On December 18,2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs, upon assuming control of the site, Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel. Support for arcade coin-operated games was added in January 2014
39.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 is a 2002 golf video game released by EA Sports. Among the features in the game is the Tiger Challenge, in which the player is matched against real or fantasy golfers one at a time, there is also a scenario mode with 50 scenarios, challenging the players skills in a variety of realistic settings. The game also includes a tournament mode that simulates a season on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 at MobyGames
40.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 is a golf video game in the PGA Tour series available for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Mobile phones, and PC. The game features several types of play, including the development of golfers in a simulated PGA Tour environment, among other things, the game also features a set of famous courses and players. Also it includes the Stroke Play, Match Play, and Skins Play among other methods of play. It also includes the Four Ball, Best Ball, and Stableford modes of play, by being able to customize golfers and advancing that character through several stages the game allows a high level of identification with the character. The virtual ego can be equipped with various pieces of equipment, the custom outfits are licensed and include several brands which are commonly present in professional golf, among others, Nike, Adidas, Callaway, Ping, Taylormade etc. The game was met with positive to average reception, IGN gave the Mobile version a score of 8.4 out of 10 and said it was nothing short of a rock-solid mobile edition of EAs famous golf franchise. In Japan, Famitsu gave the PSP version a score of 29 out of 40, tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 at MobyGames
41.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 is the ninth golfing video game in the PGA Tour series from EA Sports. It was released in 2006 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows, the game includes updated graphics, new courses, and other new features. It is also the entry into the series to be compatible with the Xbox console. However, many items are locked at the start of the game, the Game Setup in the options menu has been changed vastly, to allow the player to choose their swing style. Another new feature allows players to choose the classic control settings or a swing style. There is also the new Speed Golf setting, which players to skip to the next shot after the ball has been struck without watching where the ball lands. Seven new game modes have been added and this has replaced the classic Scenario Mode but there is now a Real Time Event for every day of the year. Two new types of game mode have been added this year. In greensome, two teams of two golfers both hit their golf balls from the tee, but after that, only one of the balls is played, players will then alternate shots with the chosen ball until it is holed. The game of bloodsome has similar rules, with the exception that the team chooses which ball is played. The scoring system uses match play rules, with each victory, the player is allowed more golfers to be added to their team. The golfers that are available are the golfers that they have just beaten, Team Tour is the quickest way to gain experience. Stroke play is in the Traditional Game Modes section, Stroke Play allows up to 4 players to compete on a round of 9 or 18 holes on any chosen course with variable difficulty settings. All golfers use their own ball, the player numbers determine who tees off first on the first hole, but after the first hole, the player with the lowest score tees off first, then the second lowest score and so on. After the initial tee shot, the player furthest from the hole takes their shot next, however many shots or strokes the player takes is recorded on the scorecard after each hole. A modified version of play with the exception that the winner of each hole goes 1UP depending on their current score. For example, on the first hole, the score will be AS, but the player wins the hole will then score 1 hole. The game continues until either player wins enough holes that the player cannot win
42.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 is the fourth-to-latest Tiger Woods golfing video game in the PGA Tour series from Electronic Arts. It was released in North America on August 28,2007 for multiple platforms except the Mac version, as of the North American launch, the game has been plagued with many bugs and technical problems. Known bugs include system freezing and crashing, the PSP version also has a quite interesting glitch. In PGA tour mode, during a season, certain challenges become impossible to complete due to program errors. Most notably, during a challenge in which a golfer must master challenging shots from the rough, the avatar tees off from the top of a tree and the entire course is upside down. Regardless of how hard or straight the ball is hit, the result of any swing is an out of bounds shot, there are also reported problems with the uploading of pictures to the EA servers for the Photo Game Face feature. There seem to be problems mainly when the attempts to browse for pictures on their computer. One supposed glitch that allows you to take shots from the water prompted EA to make a video proclaiming that Tiger can actually walk on water, the game was met with positive to mixed reception upon release. Games for Windows gave the PC version 7.5 out of 10. com
43.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 is a golfing video game in the PGA Tour series from Electronic Arts. It was released in North America on August 26,2008 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, the PS3 version takes advantage of the Sixaxis controller. While retaining many influences from the games in the series, it also adds new game play. The Wii version is called Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii versions received favorable reviews, while the PlayStation 2 and PSP versions received mixed reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. PS3 Tiger Woods PGA09 site Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 at MobyGames Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 at MobyGames
44.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is a golfing simulation video game in the PGA Tour series developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in North America on June 8,2009 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii and it is also the final entry into the series to be compatible with the PS2. The servers that supported the online mode for this game, users who attempt to log on see a message that says The EA servers are not available at this time. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 features the U. S. Open, the USGA Championship, the Weather Channel provides dynamic weather data for the game. The new Tournament Challenge mode allows players to replicate famous shots and moments from the PGA Tours history, there are also many golfers featured in the game that are listed below. There are also fictitious golfers who are present in the game, the Wii version of the game features support for the Wii MotionPlus, allowing for a more authentic sports motion to the golf swing, including the ability to draw and fade. In Europe and North America, the Wii version was available in a bundle with a Wii MotionPlus accessory for limited time at launch. Along with the use of the Wii MotionPlus there is a Disc Golf option in the game as well that adds a new mode to the game, the game was met with positive to very mixed reception upon release. Many critics praised the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions for impressive graphics, the experience and upgrade system, however, led Tycho of Penny Arcade to say Tournaments that dont normalize player statistics arent skill competitions. Theyre time competitions, measuring not the quality of your leisure hours but the volume, the game did not make the top 10 positions for other platforms according to NPD June sales
45.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is a golfing simulation video game in the PGA Tour series developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, the game is the first in the series to support the PlayStation Move controller for the Sony PlayStation 3. As with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, the Wii version utilizes Wii MotionPlus and this edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour is the first to feature someone on the cover other than Tiger himself. The privilege was given to the Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, McIlroy would later become the namesake of the PGA tour games. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011 features the Ryder Cup tournament for the first time in the franchises history. It is suggested that in this mode, you place a golf ball on the ground so you may see a point of reference while playing. The version also adds 36 miniature golf holes and a disc golf mode. The game was met with positive reception upon release
46.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 is a golfing simulation video game in the PGA Tour series developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 2011 for the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, and iOS, and on September 6,2011 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, but didnt receive a port from the latter consoles. The PC version of the game closely resembles that of the free online version Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012 featured for the first time, The Masters tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and it also features the debut of commentary by Jim Nantz and the return of David Feherty. Professional golfers Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Zach Johnson made their debuts in the game, the console versions and mobile versions of the game were met with positive reception. The PC version of the game received negative reception
