Author: Sean Patterson

EA‘s third quarter financial results were a disappointment for the game publisher. The company announced a net loss of $45 million on a reduced revenue of $921 million.

During the EA earnings call, Medal of Honor: Warfighter was consistently blamed for the poor revenue. As a result, EA is writing off the entire Medal of Honor Franchise, and apparently won’t be making any more of the games for the foreseeable future. From EA’s prepared comments:

Medal of Honor was an obvious miss. The game was solid but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers. Critics were polarized and gave the game scores which were, frankly, lower than it deserved. This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of the rotation, and have a plan to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings.

A few things here. First, critics were not polarized on their feelings toward Warfighter – the game was met with almost universal distaste. Also, who are they kidding with the phrase “combat authenticity?” The ARMA series is combat authenticity; Warfighter is a Call of Duty clone. As for the yearly shooter offerings EA just promised, expect to see a spinoff Battlefield series announced in the near future.

The failure of Medal of Honor: Warfighter shouldn’t have come as any surprise to EA executives. The game was a textbook example of a terrible publishing strategy. Warfighter was a cynical attempt to capture some of the Call of Duty franchise’s fans by releasing a game that was similar, but featured even more of the “macho” military bravado seen in Activision’s titles. Furthermore, the game was clearly shipped unfinished to meet EA’s release date, which was scheduled for one month before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Gamers who did buy Warfighter were greeted by massive day-one patch that fixed dozens of bugs and glitches that should never have made it onto the final game disc.

The National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products (ANSM) in France this week suspended sales of an acne drug linked to the deaths of several women.

The drug, Diane-35, is a hormonal acne treatment, but was begin prescribed as contraceptives to hundreds of thousands of women in France. The medication was found to have played a role in at least four deaths. Blood clots in other women have also been linked to the medication.

The suspension will roll out over the course of months, allowing women enough time to find alternate contraceptive methods.

The director of the ANSM, Dominique Maraninchi, told the AFP that the drug is not licensed for use as a contraceptive. He emphasized that there are many other contraceptives available to French women.

The AFP report states that the ANSM has requested a change in prescription guidelines for third and fourth generation oral contraceptives (such as Diane-35), which have higher blood clot risks.

This suspension is similar to one ANSM issued in November 2009. At that time, at drug marketed as “Mediator” (benfluorex) was pulled from pharmacy shelves after it was linked to hundreds of deaths in France. The drug was approved for the treatment of diabetes, but was often prescribed as an appetite suppressant for overweight patients.

Nearly every detail of BlackBerry’s (RIM has changed its name to just “BlackBerry”) new BlackBerry 10 operating system and smartphones were painstakingly covered in the company’s big launch event earlier today. The one very noticeable thing that wasn’t covered, however, was when the new devices would actually launch in the U.S.

Canada got a clear release date of February 5, but U.S. BlackBerry fans will have to wait until sometime in March. The specific launch date will probably vary by carrier, but each of the major U.S. carriers has at least confirmed that it will carry at least one of the two new BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

AT&T and Verizon, the two largest U.S. wireless carriers, have both confirmed that they will be carrying the BlackBerry Z10 (the one that resembles an iPhone) and the BlackBerry Q10 (the one with the traditional BlackBerry physical keyboard). The white version of the Z10 will be a Verizon exclusive handset. Verizon is also the only carrier that has so far announced a price for either of the new BlackBerry devices. The Z10 (both black and white) will retail for $200 plus a two-year Verizon service contract.

Neither T-Mobile nor Sprint will be selling both the Z10 and the Q10. They seem to have some sort of split deal with BlackBerry, where T-Mobile will be selling the Z10 and Sprint will be selling the keyboard-laden Q10.

None of the carriers are taking pre-orders for the BlackBerry smartphones yet, though all of them but Sprint are allowing customers to sign up for email notifications regarding the devices.

NASA and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel Space Telescope has spotted a planet-forming star that wasn’t thought to be possible.

The star, named TW Hydrae, is estimated to be 10 million years old – older than the age at which stars are thought to be able to produce planets. However, the star still has an accretion disc massive enough to possiblly produce planets. The new findings appear in a paper published recently in the journal Nature.

“We didn’t expect to see so much gas around this star,” said Edwin Bergin, lead on the new research and an astronomer at the University of Michigan. “Typically stars of this age have cleared out their surrounding material, but this star still has enough mass to make the equivalent of 50 Jupiters,”

The new TW Hydrae data comes out of a new technique for estimating the mass of planet-forming discs. Researchers used the Herschel telescope to analyze the light coming from the star and pick out hydrogen deuteride gas, which emits light at the longer infrared wavelengths that Herschel can detect. The measurements have provided the most precise measurement of the disc’s mass to date.

“Before, we had to use a proxy to guess the gas quantity in the planet-forming disks,” said Paul Goldsmith, project scientist for Herschel at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL). “This is another example of Herschel’s versatility and sensitivity yielding important new results about star and planet formation.”

The researchers stated that knowing the mass of a star’s gas disc is “crucial” to understanding how planets may form around it. Though they don’t know what TW Hydrae’s massive disc will mean for the system’s future, the astronomers stated that the new data has helped define “a range” of possible future planet configurations.

“The new results are another important step in understanding the diversity of planetary systems in our universe,” said Bergin. “We are now observing systems with massive Jupiters, super-Earths, and many Neptune-like worlds. By weighing systems at their birth, we gain insight into how our own solar system formed with just one of many possible planetary configurations.”

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The producers of the reality show The Ultimate Fighter are bringing a new reality series to TV called Top Hooker.

It’s not what you may be thinking – reality TV hasn’t quite stooped that low. Yet.

The producers have gathered “America’s best and boldest fishermen to take on Animal Planet’s extreme fishing competition.” The show will air on the Animal Planet channel. From last year’s casting call:

On this brand new TV show, you and a handful of daring fishing enthusiasts will tackle exciting and intense challenges on America’s rivers, lakes, streams and even the open ocean. Are you ready for adventure?

We are looking for competitive, outgoing, and skilled anglers, spear fishermen, game fishermen, fly fishermen, trawlers and trappers from all walks of life. It doesn’t matter if your experience is commercial, sport or recreational. As long as you’re skilled, adaptable, and confident enough to take on anything we throw at you, you could win a big grand prize and the title of Animal Planet’s first Top Hooker.

So, the real Top Hooker isn’t likely to be as interesting as a different sort of Top Hooker might be. However, the world is probably better off with the reality TV show America’s Next Top Hooker remaining only a dark parody from the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

TwitchTV, the popular video gaming streaming website, today announced that players will soon be able to stream their Call of Duty: Black Ops II gameplay directly to their Twitch channel using the in-game streaming option. The feature is available today on the Xbox 360 version of the game, and is “coming soon” to the PlayStation 3 and PC).

Black Ops II was the first Call of Duty game to launch with a live-streaming feature. The game previously allowed players to stream their gameplay directly to YouTube.

The new Twitch streaming options will include a webcam feature that uses the Xbox Kinect to provide a picture-in-picture view of players. Gamers can also automatically share their live stream via Facebook or Twitter posts.

TwitchTV is the gaming subsidiary of JustinTV. The website has grown steadily over the past year, and received $15 million in venture capital funding in September 2012. The site has become one of the most popular broadcasters of eSports programming.

GungHo Online Entertainment (GOE), a Japanese publisher, today announced that it has acquired the video game development studio Grasshopper Manufacture. GOE stated that Grasshopper Manufacture will continue to operate under that name, and that games currently under development will not be affected.

Grasshopper is headed by Goichi Suda, also well-known as “Suda51.” The studio is responsible for some of the most interesting and unapologetically juvenile video games in recent memory. Its titles include Killer7, No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, and Lollipop Chainsaw.

“By joining GungHo Online Entertainment, we are aligning ourselves with a strong, established publishing force that will support our vision to further create inspired new games that appeal players across the world,” said Suda, founder and CEO of Grasshopper. “The Grashopper team and I have many new ideas to share with our fans as we move forward so this union with GOE will help us realize our future plans.”

GOE is most well-known as the publisher of the Ragnarok Online games, as well as the mobile game Puzzle & Dragons.

“We believe the strength of a publisher lies in its creative talent so with the addition of Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51 we are adding some of the most innovative talent in today’s gaming world to our stellar family of independently-operated studios,” said Kazuki Morishita, CEO of GungHo. “SUDA51 projects are known to put a unique spin on every game so coupled with our proven ability to support development with AAA resources including a tailored online experience, we believe gamers will benefit from this collaboration.”

Grasshopper just this month released a teaser trailer for its upcoming Killer is Dead. The game features a James Bond-type assassin who operates in a dark noir-styled underworld.

Today’s announcement by BlackBerry (which included changing its name from RIM to BlackBerry) was expected to be a simple announcement of its new phones and a rundown of all the features of the new BlackBerry 10 OS. It was all of that, but CEO Thorsten Heins channeled Steve Jobs by saving one last big announcement for the end of the presentation.

Heins announced that the position of “Global Createive Director” has been created at BlackBerry, and that singer/songwriter Alicia Keys will be filling the role. It seems that Keys and BlackBerry will be reaching out to creative people in an effort to brand BlackBerry 10 as more than a secure business platform.

Judging from some of the new ads BlackBerry has uploaded to its YouTube account, Keys is effectively the new face of BlackBerry. Joining Heins on stage, she pitched for BlackBerry 10 and stated she will be working app designers and content creators.

Keys will also be heading-up the “Keep Moving Project,” which is working with artists on “a series of unique projects.” The video below, which was shown during the BlackBerry presentation, shows that both director Robert Rodriguez and author Neil Gaiman are a part of the project. Rodriguez will be “collaborating with BlackBerry and people from all around the world on a very unique filmmaking project.” Gaiman states he will use his project to “connect people from all over the world and, together, to tell some amazing stories, and to make some fantastic art.”

While Apple and Google can brag of hundreds of thousands of apps in their respective app stores, BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM) is only just now launching its BlackBerry 10 app store. Along with the announcements of the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones, the Z10 and the Q10, BlackBerry today announced that it now has 70,000 apps in its BlackBerry World app store.

The company claims it will launch with over 1000 of the “top applications” on smartphones. It name-dropped several big-name apps, including Skype, Amazon’s Kindle app, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The app store will also have a limited selection of games highlighted by Fruit Ninja and the Angry Birds games, including Angry Birds Star Wars. The app store has a fairly solid launch line-up of apps, and includes most of the major social and news apps.

Though 70,000 apps is a testament to BlackBerry’s developer outreach and its efforts at making BlackBerry 10 ports simple to create, that number is still less than one one-hundredth of the number of apps that can be found in the Apple App Store or Google Play. If BlackBerry 10 is to be the product that turns around RIM’s BlackBerry’s fortunes, the company will have continue to lure compelling software to its platform.

During its big BlackBerry launch event, the newly renamed BlackBerry company officially unveiled its new BlackBerry 10 phones. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins took the stage this morning to show off the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10.

The BlackBerry Q10 stays true to classic BlackBerry devices by having a physical keyboard. The Z10 is more of a standard modern smartphone, and heavily resembles an iPhone.

Where the phones really differentiate themselvesHeins and BlackBerry executives heavily emphasized the multitasking available using the BlackBerry 10 operating system. Many of the mobile OS’ features, such as the calendar and other updates, are heavily integrated into its interface through the “BlackBerry Hub.”

The company also claims to have the “best typing experience” on any smartphone device, even on the Z10. The touch keyboard in the BlackBerry operating system features a system where most-used words can be placed into a text box by flicking the first letter of the words.

The devices also feature quick account switching that moves between “Work” and “Personal” modes. Certain apps can be designated as work-only or personal, supposedly maintaining a user’s privacy while also allowing IT to control the work portion of the device.

The company formerly known as RIM has designed its new operating system to entice business to move back onto BlackBerry’s famously secure device ecosystem. The upcoming months will tell whether businesses are still loyal to BlackBerry, or whether BlackBerry 10 is too little, too late.

NASA announced this week that it will launch an instrument called the ISS-RapidScat to the International Space Station (ISS) next year to measure ocean winds. The instrument, originally built to test NASA;s QuikScat satellite, will measure the Earth’s ocean surface wind speed and direction. The data will improve weather forecasts and hurricane monitoring.

“The ability for NASA to quickly reuse this hardware and launch it to the space station is a great example of a low-cost approach that will have high benefits to science and life here on Earth,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s International Space Station program manager.

Scatterometers measure the scattering effect produced when scanning the Earth’s surface using a microwave radar sensor. The previous wind data instrument, the QuikScat, stopped collecting ocean wind data in 2009 after operating for 10 years. No replacement will be available soon, which is why NASA adapted existing QuikScat hardware.

“ISS-RapidScat represents a low-cost approach to acquiring valuable wind vector data for improving global monitoring of hurricanes and other high-intensity storms,” said Howard Eisen, ISS-RapidScat project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “By leveraging the capabilities of the International Space Station and recycling leftover hardware, we will acquire good science data at a fraction of the investment needed to launch a new satellite.”

The ISS-RapidScat will be launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon cargo mission. It will be installed on the end of the ISS’s Columbus laboratory and have measurement accuracy “similar” to QuikScat. The instrument is expected operate for two years.

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/JSC)

While Ubisoft is busy integrating a new Montreal studio into its operations, the existing Ubisoft Montreal studio is still operating as one of the publisher’s most successful developers. The studio was responsible for classics such as the Prince of Persia series, the Assassin’s Creed series, and last year’s Far Cry 3.

It’s known that Ubisoft Montreal is currently working on Watch Dogs, one of the most exciting reveals of last year’s E3. Now, a new leaked trailer has revealed the game Osiris.

The game is set in ancient Egypt, and appears to be a new IP, though it’s not inconceivable that it could be related to the Assassin’s Creed series in some way. The unfinished trailer depicts some early motion capture work being done on the title.

As promised last week, EA and Crytek today released the multiplayer beta for Crysis 3. The beta is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The beta includes two different team-based multiplayer modes – Hunter and Crash-Site. Hunter mode sees two players don a nanosuit and team up to hunt down the other players using stealth tactics. Players killed by the hunters become hunters themselves, similar to the “zombie” modes seen in other shooters. Crash-Site sees players working in teams to attack and defend control points on a map. Both modes support up to 12 players on consoles and 16 on the PC.

Both modes are introduced in a new trailer for the beta test that was released today. The beta lasts for two weeks, ending on February 12, just one week before the launch of Crysis 3 in the U.S.

Samsung Electronics America this week announced that it has agreed to acquire NeuroLogica, a medical imaging equipment company. The company is most well-known for developing portable CT scanners.

The price Samsung is paying for the company is unknown, as no details of the sale were disclosed. Samsung did state, however, that the acquisition is a part of the company’s expansion of its medical imaging business. The company has dedicated itself to the nebulous goal of exploring “new avenues of growth in the healthcare business by enhancing medical imaging diagnosis” by the year 2020. From the Samsung statement:

The acquisition of NeuroLogica is another important step in the expansion of Samsung’s medical imaging business. Samsung will continue to strengthen its capabilities and product portfolio to establish itself as a trusted leader in the health and medical equipment industry. The company plans to leverage its global brand awareness and world-leading technology in consumer electronics, IT and communications with NeuroLogica in order to expand medical imaging business.

NeuroLogica was founded in 2004 and is based in the Boston, Massachusetts metro area. It designs and manufacturers medical imaging equipment for hospitals and private health practices. Its products include the CereTom and BodyTom portable computed tomography (CT) scanners.

(Image courtesy NeuroLogica)

New observations of Venus have shown that the planet’s ionosphere on its night side resembles a comet’s tail. The observations were made by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express satellite.

The ionosphere is the region of electrically charged gas high in a planet’s atmosphere. The shape and density of an ionosphere are determined, in part, by the internal magnetic field of its planet. Earth has a strong internal magnetic field, which makes its ionosphere stable. Venus, on the other hand, does not have an internal magnetic field. Its ionosphere has now been found to be shaped by interactions with solar wind.

The new data was obtained in August 2010, when solar wind density dropped to only 0.1 particles per cubic centimeter for around 18 hours. Researchers were able to use this window to observe Venus’ ionosphere balloon out towards its nightside.

“The teardrop-shaped ionosphere began forming within 30–60 minutes after the normal high pressure solar wind diminished. Over two Earth days, it had stretched to at least two Venus radii into space,” said Yong Wei, lead author of a paper on the new research and a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.

Before now, researchers had debated how solar wind could affect the way ionospheric plasma moves from one side of Venus to the other. The plasma normally flows from the dayside to the nightside of Venus in a thin channel in the ionosphere. Until now, it was unknown whether in low solar wind conditions the flow would increase due to reduced pressure or decrease due to reduced force pushing plasma through the channel.

“We now finally know that the first effect outweighs the second, and that the ionosphere expands significantly during low solar wind density conditions,” said Markus Fraenz, co-author of the paper.

(Image courtesy ESA)

DitiTimes, a Taiwanese publication that covers the tech manufacturing industry in Taiwan, is reporting that the next version of Google’s Nexus 7 tablet could be coming as soon as May of 2013. Citing “sources from the upstream supply chain,” the report claims that Google is once again working with Asus on the tablet.

The device is rumored to feature a “Full HD resolution” display and a thinner bezel around the screen. These statements are similar to the rumors surrounding a retina display version of the iPad Mini and a new, much thinner full-sized iPad. Of course, the next nexus tablet would also come with the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, and would sell for the same price as current models of the Nexus 7.

By DigiTimes’ shipping estimates, over six million Nexus 7 devices will have been shipped by the end of this month, with the $249 32GB Wi-Fi-only version being the best-seller. DigiTimes’ sources estimated that, including the rumored next-generation Nexus 7 tablet, Google is expected to ship around 10 million of the tablets in 2013.

(via BGR)

Last week, analyst predictions asserted that tablet shipments could reach 145 million in 2013. The market for tablets is only swelling, and now research firm ABI Research is predicting that an additional 1 billion tablets will be shipped over the next five years.

Even more interesting, though, is ABI’s research into how much consumers are spending through their devices. According to the firm’s survey, 22% of U.S. tablet owners are spending $50 or more per month through their tablets. 9% of U.S. tablet owners are spending $100 or more per month. ABI points out that these spending levels are far higher than those seen for smartphones.

“Tablets are quickly becoming the go-to transaction screen within the home,” said Jeff Orr, mobile devices senior practice director at ABI.

ABI stated that tablet spending hasn’t yet impacted physical retailers, who are concerned about “showroom” shoppers who use physical stores to shop, ask questions, and compare features before leaving to make their purchase online. The research showed that over half of consumers who shop on tablets had done price checking, used a coupon, and made a location-based search in the past three months.

“The opportunity to keep consumers buying in-store squarely remains with the retailer,” said Orr. “So far, the presence of a media tablet during the shopping experience has not altered the sales channel where consumers finally buy products,”

Epic Games this week announced that some players who pre-order Gears of War: Judgment will get three days of early access to the game’s new “OverRun” multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, the deal only applies to gamers who order Judgment from GameStop, either online or in-store.

Those who do pre-order with GameStop will be able to start playing “OverRun” at 3 am EST Saturday, March 16. The early access will run until the launch of the game on March 19. During that time, players can earn XP that will carry over to the full game. The pre-order also comes with a “Young Marcus” character skin and a Lambent weapon skin.

For those who don’t want to order from GameStop, or aren’t sure if they want to buy another Gears title, a demo for the “OverRun” mode will be available through Xbox LIVE on March 19 when Judgment launches. “OverRun” is a new class-based multiplayer mode that pits COG players (soldiers, medics, engineers, and scouts) against Locust players who can take on the role of wretches, tickers, grenadiers, ragers, kantus, giant serapedes, and maulers.

For over one month now, Mars rover Curiosity has been preparing to use its hammering drill for the first time. It now appears that the rover’s first drill test is now imminent.

Researchers announced that they have placed the drill onto a series of locations and pressed down on it with Curiosity’s arm. This “pre-load testing allowed engineers to check the force applied to the drill and cross-check it with their predictions. The next step is a pre-load test at night, to make sure that temperature changes do not add to the stress on the rover‘s arm. Temperatures at Curiosity’s location can range from 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) to to 65 degrees Celsius (85 degrees Fehrenheit).

“We don’t plan on leaving the drill in a rock overnight once we start drilling, but in case that happens, it is important to know what to expect in terms of stress on the hardware,” said Daniel Limonadi, the lead systems engineer for Curiosity’s surface sampling and science system at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “This test is done at lower pre-load values than we plan to use during drilling, to let us learn about the temperature effects without putting the hardware at risk.”

The rest of the week will be filled with hardware checks and an evaluation of the rock that has been selected as the first drilling site. Two weeks ago a flat, veined rock named “John Klein” was chosen for the honor.

“We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity’s first drilling,” said Limonadi. “This is challenging. It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.”

Though Tina Fey is, perhaps, most well-known for hosting the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live and playing Liz Lemon on 30 Rock, one turning point in her career can be traced to the movie Mean Girls.

Mean Girls was written by Fey, and even starred the comedian herself as a disrespected high school math teacher. Though the movie was marketed as a teen comedy about backstabbing popular girls, the smart humor in the flick managed to make it a cult-classic and a hit with critics. Mean Girls was also one of the last movies to feature a pre-meltdown Lindsay Lohan, and is Amanda Seyfried’s first movie.

Now, it appears that even more Mean Girls could be on the way.

In an interview with E! on the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, Fey revealed that the rumored Mean Girls musical is actually in the works.

“I would love to,” said Fey when asked about the project. “I’m trying to develop it, actually, with my husband, who does all the music for 30 Rock and I think Paramount’s on-board.”