Joystiq older than one year ago

Tomita Technologies has filed a patent suit against Nintendo, alleging that the 3DS's stereoscopic display infringes upon Tomita's patent for "technology relating to displaying stereoscopic images on-screen for viewing with the naked eye, i.e., without utilizing glasses or other devices.," filed in 2003 and granted in 2008.

Nintendo is no stranger to these patent suits, with previous complaints claiming Nintendo infringed upon others' patents with Wii Fit, the GameCube and Classic Controllers, controller ports, and motion controls (Nintendo settled in that case).

We don't claim to be legal experts, but something seems off about this particular case from the outset: the screens are made by Sharp, not Nintendo.

If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, would a space-babe by any other face... uhm, be as spacey? Or something? Forget it.

In a recent interview with CVG, Mass Effect 3 Art Director Derek Watts admitted that his team tends to avoid discussing the visage behind Tali'Zorah's lavender visor, primarily because they still have no idea what's in there.

"That's something we're going to have to decide." says Derek. "We've had a lot of debate over Tali's face, but that's the one we kind of dread a lot." While it hasn't been confirmed that Tali will be unmasked at some point during BioWare's upcoming space odyssey, Derek laments that "Obviously people are going to be pissed off either way." Hit the source link to check out the rest of the interview, unless you want to go into Mass Effect 3 completely in the dark

Riot Games made the decision this week to split up its European server into two separate platforms in order to help out with lag and other issues. The company is now running both "EU West" and "EU Nordic and East" servers on the Old Continent, each offering League of Legends matches and services to their various regions.

Feedback on the official forums is mostly positive (and the split should provide faster games to those on either of the new servers), though a lot of players seem concerned that there's another division between the two regions. You can read the full press release after the jump -- Riot says each server is designed to support "hundreds of thousands of concurrent players." Just between us, though, if they could send a little extra lag to Evelyn players, there'd be no problems with that.

On Sunday, Nintendo of America's Facebook page promised "more updates soon" regarding the status of Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, the three Wii games that are the focus of the ongoing grassroots campaign for localization, called "Operation Rainfall."

On Monday, it posted a Super Mario 64 trivia question.

Then, today, it provided the response that fans were waiting for -- but not the one they wanted. "We never say 'never,'" the company stated, "but we can confirm that there are no plans to bring these three games to the Americas at this time." A brief response on Twitter thanked Operation Rainfall-ers for being "such incredible fans," but reiterated that "there continues to be no plans for NOA to release these 3 games right now."

Not that we want to give false hope regarding the actions of a company who is always pragmatic to the point of angering dedicated fans, but "no plans right now" is far from a death knell, especially for Nintendo. Some things that there were "no plans" for in America: the black Wii, the Classic Controller Pro, the Wii Sports Resort hardware bundle. Basically, there are "no plans" until the company decides to tell people its plans.

So even that denial leaves the door wide open for one of these games to be announced at a "Media Summit" or similar event in the fall. We're just mentioning that possibility, to be perfectly honest, so that we can say we totally called it should that happen.

You already read a mess of information about Uncharted 3's upcoming multiplayer beta back before E3, but now developer Naughty Dog wants to show it off in a slurry of walkthrough videos (which we've dropped after the break). The studio also revealed a variety of details about the beta, breaking down which gametypes and maps will be paired across the beta's three weeks, as well as noting it'll take up approximately 1.7GB of your precious HDD space.

Additionally, ND says that the beta will allow for stereoscopic 3D, as well as split-screen co-op (though not both simultaneously, of course). As the beta goes live tomorrow for PlayStation Plus subscribers and inFamous 2 owners, you may be wondering when you'll be murdering Drake with ... uh ... other Drakes -- unfortunately, the studio isn't sure just yet, but suggests keeping an eye on the official Naughty Dog Twitter account for up-to-the-minute info. Studio head Evan Wells also notes on his Twitter feed that the beta "should be on PSN around 2PM PDT tomorrow," so there's that.

Evil Controllers, a company that augments controllers by adding LED lights, d-pad upgrades, auto-fire and other extra capabilities, has announced a plan that we can't find evil no matter how much we look. It's working with the AbleGamers Foundation to design accessible peripherals for disabled gamers.

The "Adroit" line of controllers is intended to enhance accessibility at an affordable cost. "The problem with equipment currently available to help the disabled community get into videogames is that it often costs way more than someone on disability can afford," AbleGamers.com EIC Steve Spohn said in the announcement. "These controllers will be higher quality with lower cost. What's not to love?"

AbleGamers and Evil Controllers haven't released specifics about the Adroit line yet, mentioning only that it " will include all of the fan favorite features available on Evil Controllers mods". More information about the first releases will be divulged "within the next few weeks," according to the press release. In the meantime, feel free to be thoroughly teased by the video after the break.

Continuing his week of video game-themed coverage, Jimmy Fallon played host to Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime last night. Check out the video below to see The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in action, and to hear Reggie talk up the Wii U, which will apparently launch "in 2012, after April."

The flurry of trailers reminding you of your long-time love for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time wasn't enough to get you excited for the 3DS remake? The latest TV ad, starring Robin Williams, his daughter (named Zelda, after the 1987 NES game), and his incredible grey mane should do it!

If you've heard that the new 3DS Shinobi game feels exactly like the original -- or any Shinobi game to date -- you've heard wrong. Even though it's published by Sega and it's about a ninja, Griptonite's new Shinobi is definitely a modern action game. It does take some inspiration from the series, which makes it recognizable as a descendant of those games, but it's more reimagining than remake.

You can buy an Xbox 360 for the low price of $99.99 at GameStop right now ... but be warned, it's a bit of a gamble.

For one thing, you're not buying one of the new Xbox 360 S models, but the old, notoriously unreliable, RROD-prone original models (with a 20GB hard drive). And it's refurbished. And ... it comes with a 90 day warranty.

Basically, what we're saying is don't get too attached to this $100 Xbox, because it could be out of your life at any time. Think of it as a rental for an unknown period.

Nintendo's regular Iwata Asks features are typically capable of dredging up some fairly magical feelings of nostalgia, but none have tapped into our happiness centers quite like the latest installment, which details the development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Not only does it talk about the game's early prototypes (including that ill-advised, short-lived FPS version), it talks about the inspiration for some of the major revelations that made the game possible. For instance, Z-Targeting? That was inspired by actual ninjas. Seriously!

Check out the full interview for more details, like the developmental relationship between OoT and Super Mario 64, as well as a long-overdue admission that, yes, Link is running around Hyrule in long, white underwear.

Do you remember that crazy Super Mario Bros. 3 fan remake we posted about late last year? Well, creator SKJmin has finished a sizeable update to his ambitious remake, one you'll be able to download on June 16. If you plan on doing so, we'd suggest making sure you actually own New Super Mario Bros. DS -- you know, for legal reasons.

The update adds enhanced graphics to each level, including new block sets and backgrounds, plus 84 bonus rooms, a new final castle and over 30 different cameos. For now, we must be content with 14 minutes of footage, which we've gone and tucked just past the break.

Hacker group LulzSec, the same group that's attacked Sony and Nintendo in the past, has tweeted that it's committed three distributed denial of service attacks against gaming companies today, bringing down EVE Online's Tranquility server, Minecraft's multiplayer services, and the Escapist Magazine's website. EVE Online's CCP has confirmed both the outage and the attack, the Escapist is unreachable at the moment, and Minecraft creator Notch says that things were down, but supposedly service has been restored.

LulzSec hasn't shared a reason for the attacks just yet, but we can only guess it's, as they say, "for teh lulz."

Riot Games' League of Legends is one of the biggest free-to-play titles around -- it started off as a spiritual successor to the old Defense of the Ancients mod, but has since grown, strictly by word of mouth and organic growth, up into its own industry. Riot hasn't actually announced player numbers for the title yet, but this is a huge game online, persistently landing in the top spots on Steam and Xfire's most-played lists.

If you've never played (and why not? It's free!), the basic structure of the game has you controlling a champion on a real-time strategy-style battleground, and Riot has been releasing one of these new champions every few weeks for quite a while now. In the game's booth at E3 last week, we got to hear about three of the upcoming new champions, as well as brand new feature to the game designed to get even more players involved: A spectator mode.

The 3DS, despite being a higher-end piece of hardware than the DS -- and, yes, bearing a much higher-end price -- still bears the same resistive touchscreen technology as its seven-year-old forebear. Why would Nintendo opt for older touchscreen technology, eliminating the possibility of multitouch and forcing the use of a stylus?

3DS hardware producer Hideki Konno told Joystiq it's because of that seven-year-old DS screen. "Really, it's all about the backwards compatibility," he said during an E3 interview. "We have to play DS games on this and we want to make sure they work."

Konno said that Nintendo didn't think there was currently sufficient technology to both enable a more feature-rich touchscreen and accurately emulate the touch interface of the legacy DS. "Now that technology may come out sometime in the future, but when we were making our decision on what kind of touchscreen to implement," he said, "that was one of the deciding factors."

That, of course, doesn't explain at all why the Wii U uses the same vintage touchscreen technology. Unless the Wii U is secretly capable of emulating DS games! We're totally onto you, Nintendo.*

*We're probably not actually onto you.

Majesco had a timeline at its E3 booth showing all of Mama's jobs over the past five years. The poster stated that the franchise had reached 12 million sales globally, with a rep telling us that the sales in North America represented 8.5 million of the total.

Mama is currently planning a return to the kitchen and the series that gave the gal her big break, after she does a little camping in September, in Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic this October.

Surprisingly, Nintendo wasn't the one to answer the question that's been at the forefront of our minds since John Riccitiello talked up the Wii U's online capabilities: Ubisoft recently told MTV Multiplayer that the system will get rid of the maligned Friend Codes system in favor of a single online identity (think: Gamertag). Players will also be able to build friends lists without the laborious process of swapping serial numbers.

The publisher reiterated the system's new, streamlined online network during a Nintendo developer roundtable, explaining that the studio is aiming for the Wii U to be Ghost Recon Online's backbone. The title will apparently play host to leaderboards, parties and a live activity feed of your Wii U friends which appears on the WiiPad. We'll press Nintendo for more info!

During the annual Nintendo developer roundtable, Shigeru Miyamoto casually let it drop that Metroid Prime/Donkey Kong Country Returns developer Retro Studio is helping Nintendo out with the 3DS Mario Kart game -- which, incidentally, runs at 60 frames per second.

Nintendo has announced that once Masahiro Sakurai is finished with Kid Icarus: Uprising that he'll be working on a new Smash Bros title. The game will be for Wii U and 3DS and work together "in some fashion." Details pending.

While Nintendo was blowing minds this morning with the announcement of its new console, the Wii U, the company's Japanese press site was quietly releasing all the juicy specs of the upcoming machine that we hunger for. As mentioned during the presser, the console will output high definition, now revealed as ranging from 480i to 1080p. Moreover, the Wii U will output HD by employing HDMI.

As far as internal storage goes, it's still unclear whether or not the Wii U will come packed with an HDD, but the specs sheet does amorphously detail "internal flash storage," as well as an SD slot and the ability to use USB storage. Notably, the list points out that the USB storage will allow for external HDDs. And while the disc slot gives us the impression that Wii U games will be disc-based, Nintendo has yet to reveal its medium of choice.

Here it is, folks -- the Wii's successor, the Wii U. It kinda looks like a Wii and an Xbox 360 had an adorably round baby. We'll have better shots of the Wii U as soon as we can, but for now, here you are!

THQ released the first images of the PS3 and Xbox 360 iterations of the uDraw Game Tablet, due this fall, and revealed details that make the new thing sound more impressive than its Wii contemporary.

The HD consoles' tablets both feature "high definition" input at 2000x1600 revolution, multitouch surfaces for "pinch-and-stretch and rotation features," and built-in tilt sensors (which the Wii uDraw has because it has a Wiimote all up in). Both tablets will include copies of a new version of uDraw Studio, called uDraw Studio: Instant Artist, with new tutorials and a new interface. There's also a version of Pictionary planned for the new device.

In honor of its 7th anniversary, Telltale Games has decided to drive itself to bankruptcy. That's the only plausible explanation for the 75% off sale it's now instituted on its online store, running now through June 25 (even though the website says it starts June 6.)

The sale covers everything from games to t-shirts to, say, these awesome Homestar Runner figures (which are now $2!) The only things not included are Back to the Future and Puzzle Agent 2. If you'd like a few suggestions, we noticed The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition for $2.50, the Sam & Max book for $5, and the full season of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People for $7.50. We noticed that last one as we were buying it. We suspect we're going to interact with this sale episodically, by which we mean we're going to return and buy more stuff a few times.

More stylish than ridiculous, the CG trailer for Saints Row: The Third has plenty of gunfire, but not enough beatings with giant, purple adult toys.

Sonic Generations is coming to the 3DS, as revealed in the last issue of Nintendo Power. A press release issued by Sega reveals that the handheld version won't be exactly the same as its PS3/Xbox counterpart -- a concept that should be comfortable to people anticipating a game about two different versions of the same character.

According to the announcement, the 3DS game has new levels designed specifically for that version, along with an unlockable 3DS-exclusive 'special stage.' Generations also uses the 3DS's StreetPass communication feature to unlock "bonus material" when two players' 3DSes come within communication range.

Both the console and 3DS Sonic Generations won't be out until November. Following standard Sonic protocol, we're not going to get our hopes up for either yet.

Rocksteady has been dropping hints about The Penguin's involvement in Batman: Arkham City for a while now -- the most blatant of which being the appearance of the nemesis' Iceberg Club in the game's first teaser trailer. According to ArkhamCity.co.uk, Rocksteady marketing manager Dax Ginn recently spilled the beans about the portly foe's role in the upcoming crimefighting sequel to the Australian Sunday Herald, revealing the very first image of his in-game visage, seen above.

According to the site's transcription of the interview, Ginn explained, "The way that penguin has always been portrayed is as quite an aristocratic, well-spoken gentleman who's got these twisted delusions of grandeur." He added, "So we've made him a really horrible, nasty piece of work - but still with the delusion of grandeur. He dresses well, but in a poor taste, and we've made him this brutish, brutal guy but also key into collection fascination that he's had through out the years."

We've contacted Rocksteady to confirm the report, as well as Danny DeVito to see if he's collecting any royalties on the title.

Torn between your love of the original Cave Story's beautifully pixel-drawn sprites and your excitement for Cave Story 3D's complete reinvention of the game's hovering island-world? You can now have your cave and eat it too: NIS America recently announced the game's 2D sprite mode, which takes the original, flat characters and enemies and places them in remodeled 3D environments, Paper Mario-style.

Destructoid managed to get its hands on a pair of images of this double-dimensioned mode, one of which is posted above. Personally, we think it looks pretty gosh darn neat, though now we're going to have to worry about poor little Quote slipping through crevices in the cave floor. Guess it still beats getting squished by the wizard-king of Hell, but ... um, not by much.

Admittedly, it'd be more so "news" if a Fallout update actually worked out of the gate ... But here we are, again, with this week's stuttering launch of the "Honest Hearts" add-on for New Vegas. The issue appears to be connected to the bug laden "ED-E, My Love" side quest, according to a comment left by a Bethesda representative on the company's blog post announcing the DLC's release on Xbox Live and Steam this week.

While Bethesda says it's working on a fix, there is a catch: "If you already have a save game where the bug is occurring, the fix will not apply and you'll need to revert to an earlier save prior to ED-E leaving in order to play through Honest Hearts." We've contacted the company to find out if this issue affects all platforms and for an ETA on the patch.

New Vegas developer Obsidian has taken its share of criticism for the game's continued bugginess, insisting that it's improved its internal QA process for Dungeon Siege 3, the studio's next release. However, it's only fair to note that the Bethesda-developed Fallout 3 also had notoriously buggy DLC releases -- hopefully things will go smoother with Skyrim, which is built on a new game engine.

To celebrate the launch of Amnesia: The Dark Descent on OnLive today, the cloud-gaming service is offering a scary good deal until midnight ET tonight: Simply enter "THANKYOU" (all one word) in the "Redeem Promo Code" field in the checkout window and you'll be granted a full PlayPass for the game at no charge. In other words: Free game!

The catch? Actually playing Amensia could end up costing you your sanity.

[Thanks, Barney]