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The annual PAX exhibition in Melbourne has become one of the greatest boons for the local game development community. At this year’s PAX (held November 4-6) dozens of indie developers occupied a massive slice of the Melbourne Convention Centre and the crowds responded in kind. Every time I walked past an indie booth I saw crowds around every game. It was
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In a few days Sony will release its PlayStation VR virtual reality headset. PSVR is, in the eyes of many, the best chance for virtual reality to find its way into mainstream homes. Priced at $550, it’s far less expensive than the other serious headsets, such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, which will set you back
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One of the highlights of the Rio Olympics was the closing ceremony’s sneak-peek of Tokyo 2020’s opening event. In a few short minutes we were provided with something startlingly Japanese in every way imaginable. There was Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, decked out as Nintendo’s Mario, and a projection of Pac-Man running the sprint (surely a competitor
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In just one week since launching, Pokemon Go has become an absolute phenomenon. Soft launched in just a few countries (Australia, New Zealand, United States), it has been so downloaded and played that it has collapsed the servers of developer, Niantic. Launches in further countries are now postponed until the developer can get the servers
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Late last month a fairly obscure game from Japan was “Refused Classification” in Australia by the Australian Government Classification Board. The game, MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death was to be released on the PlayStation Vita – a gaming console with a tiny install base. Few people would have known this game existed, much less played it.
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Virtual Reality (VR), is one of the hot new technologies in the consumer entertainment space, and it’s easy to see why; slap on a pair of goggles and be placed in the middle of a virtual world and interact with it as though you are there. But VR is increasingly looking like a stepping stone towards something far
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One day after an horrific act of terror occurred in a LGBTI nightclub in Florida, the video game industry kicked off its most significant event of the year, E3 in Los Angeles. For many, many years now E3 has been a mix of industry conference and a consumer event. Business leaders meet to nut out
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This week, the Greens announced an arts policy that would help provide artists with living wages – a minimal guaranteed income that would allow them to work on their art, unburdened by the pressures of finding the money to pay for rent and food. This is a remarkably positive and progressive initiative – one that other parties with
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Whether it be through ideology or simply a reflection of the Dunning Krueger effect, the arts in Australia has been so savagely attacked that reversing the Australia Council cuts brought on by the LNP government will not be enough. The cuts initiated by former arts minister Senator George Brandis will mean that skills and experience will either move
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A little game called Liyla and the Shadows of War became unexpectedly controversial thanks to Apple deciding to block it from release on the Apple App store. The game isn’t sexist or overly violent. It’s not pornographic. It’s not promoting racism or other social nasties. The game’s great crime was that it was developed
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