Studying for finals is probably one of the most grueling tasks ever invented by man — but the alternative? One yawningly barren bank account due to the siren song of Steam's new sale scheme.
News Blips:
To the dismay of wallets everywhere, Valve announces daily deals for Steam. The 24-hour sales offer games at astoundingly cut prices every single day of the year; today's deal, for example, is the Russian real-time strategy title Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim at 66 percent off. Customers can keep abreast of all the juicy price-slashing action by following Steam's official Twitter or Facebook accounts, but be warned: If you have even the slightest tendency of impulsive shopping, throw your wallet into a dragon-guarded labyrinth and stay far, far away.
Advocacy group Free Software Foundation launches an anti-DRM (digital rights management) campaign against the Nintendo 3DS. In a blog post, campaign manager Joshua Gay claimed that the handheld "comes with TOS (terms of service) that should not be accepted" and called the device "dubious, devious, and defective." As part of the group's complaints, Gay exposed a section of the contract that reportedly "makes a threat that Nintendo will brick your device if you use your 3DS in a way that they do not approve." The organization also stated that Nintendo collects and monitors personal information and "User Content," defined as "comments, messages, images, photos, movies, information, data and other content" by the company. But how does one change Nintendo's dastardly deeds? By sending them mountains of cardboard bricks, apparently.
Minecraft developer Mojang Specifications is interested in co-publishing indie games. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Business Development Director Daniel Kaplan believes that the company is perfectly poised to jump into publishing. "We are in a great spot right now; we can basically do whatever we want to," he said. "The hardest thing for us right now is to say 'no' to all the deals we're being offered. There are tons of opportunities out there for us right now. But we have to wait it out and figure out what's the best thing for us to do. We hope to have something out this fall at least, some co-published games."
A new, free content update for Chair Entertainment's action role-playing game Infinity Blade is available this Thursday. Named Infinity Blade: Arena, the pack bestows the iOS title with a slew of new items and two new game modes. "Arena" pits players against each other in (wait for it) arena matches, and "Survivor" sends a gauntlet of monsters after your armored hide while you fight for survival. No official word yet on whether the game's name derives itself from a cheesy anime attack move.
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