Episodic series promises plenty of Bruce to go with your Bats At a panel at SxSW Gaming today, Telltale Games discussed its work on the upcoming Batman series titled, simply, Batman: A Telltale Games Series. Most notably, Telltale’s Job Stauffer revealed the rough release window for the game. “We’ll be premiering this summer," Stauffer said. But because of the way that Telltale makes its games, "There’s not a lot we can show you until we’re really close to premiering," Stauffer said.
Developing …

GDC talk looks at the complexity of games based on historical events History is the chaos of human events, formed into narrative upon a sloppy potter’s wheel. This is what makes it so compelling.
The myths and certainties tilt between facts of things that actually happened and interpretations, re-orderings, designed to serve us in the here and now. Bombs were dropped on London in the early 1940s. Fact. The Brits thumbed their noses at the outrage. Story.
“History is full of really bad decisions. It’s a process."
Video game designers must take this ill-formed mess and render it into highly predictable systems that always do what the player expects them to do. The only way this can realistically be accomplished is by pretending that certain facts are malleable, and that certain stories are immutable.
On Thursday at Game Developers Conference, Chris King, a game designer at Paradox, sought to make sense of this … well … paradox. The studio where he works specializes in game franchises about the past, like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis and Victoria.
"Computer games rely on logic," he said. "But history is not logical. History is full of really bad decisions. It’s a process." But there have been philosophers who believed that history is a process with an actual point, who believed that, like a line of computer code, it consisted of things that inevitably leads to other things. Karl Marx was one such. But for now, we should follow King’s logic. He gets to Marx in a while.

Even the best historical games take severe liberties with the source material. Sid Meier’s Civilization games allow you to take charge of the American empire and the city of Washington in the year 4,000 BC, a time when George Washington’s ancestors were painting themselves with woad and dancing around trees on a foggy island in the North Sea.
King gave examples of how Paradox sought to deal with history’s complexity. In Europa Universalis 4, players take over an Age of Discovery nation state and seek to build an empire. This opens up tricky problems. Cortes was a chancer who rode his luck. Was it inevitable that Spain would conquer Mexico, the most powerful empire in the Americas?
Spain was the superpower of that era. Should Spain be given Mexico at the start of the game, or does that overpower one nation? But if Mexico is a prize available to any European nation, that might trigger weird situations where the Spanish are defending the Aztecs.
The final game gives the Spanish a slight advantage in conquering Mexico, but not so much that it’s a gimme. "You can end up with English Mexico or French Mexico," said King. The designers wanted to give players the opportunity to conquer Mexico, while placing the reasonable possibility that it would fall to Spain as part of the game.
"Players enjoy painting the map with their color," he said. "You always want to let players do the things they enjoy, and not do the things they don’t enjoy."

A similar trick was pulled in Hearts of Iron 4, set during World War II. The game requires that German players trigger global warfare by seeking to annex neighbors. But, as we all know, this was a disastrous move, most especially for Germany.
So the game is designed to ensure that a war begins, even if it’s not instigated by Germany. With that in mind, German players are more likely to launch the war, in order to gain first-mover advantage. However, in the real period, it’s not at all likely that Britain or the Soviet Union would have launched a war, without the provocation of German expansion.
Perhaps the most interesting example (and this is when we get to Marx) is from Victoria 2, which is set during 19th Century European colonialism in Africa. Awkwardly for the game’s desire to be realistic, the fact is that African colonies did not pay their conquerors. They tended to lose vast sums of money, not to mention lives. How does that fit into a strategy game, which relies on the concept or rewards for victories?

Some have suggested that European countries pursued colonization in order to gain prestige against their rivals. Undoubtedly, jingoistic invasions were prompted by a desire to distract the public from domestic concerns, like inequality and mass exploitation of workers. But none of this helps the game designer.
The answer comes from political philosopher Karl Marx, who argued that the foreign adventures of capitalist states are driven primarily by a desire to secure raw materials and by a wish to create captive markets of new consumers for exports. Indians, under the British Empire, were sold clothes that had been manufactured in Manchester.
The gross immorality of European expansion and wars of conquest (then, as now) is rarely a part of these games. The problem of creating systems out of moral considerations is a long way from being resolved, and certainly a long way behind systems based on avarice and power. Whether it is immoral for us to enjoy fantasies based on historical exploitation is a separate, but compelling question.
Moral considerations do not fit in with "coloring the map" which is the kick players enjoy. Marx believed that colonization and international exploitation was a deterministic process, that would inevitably usher in revolt, the fall of capitalism and the rise of global communism. Although the revolt came, and the Empires went, he hasn’t been proved correct in his ultimate conclusions. But as King pointed out, Marx’s historical system, which posits inevitabilities, looks a lot like computer programming. If X happens then Y follows.
The pursuit of raw materials, and the deprivations of same from rivals, offers up a compelling drive for rapacious countries and for strategy gamers, many decades later, looking for a rewarding challenge.
"History is complicated," said King. "It’s difficult to balance. It’s intricacies are hard to express. History is hard."

Time to upgrade to an Xbox One ESPN and Microsoft are retiring the Xbox 360’s ESPN app on March 23, according to a notice posted in the app.
Microsoft confirmed the ESPN app’s shutdown to Polygon in a statement that is essentially identical to the message in the app, which was first reported by Deadspin. The app debuted in November 2010, offering content such as live sporting events and personalized scores and highlights. Two years later, Microsoft and ESPN added live programming from all ESPN networks, including shows such as SportsCenter.
The shutdown applies only to the Xbox 360; the Xbox One’s ESPN app will continue to operate, and Microsoft noted as much in its statement, directing users to “check out ESPN on Xbox One for everything you love about ESPN on Xbox 360."

Asked for additional details on the closure of the Xbox 360 app, an ESPN spokesperson declined further comment. But an ESPN source indicated to Polygon that usage of the ESPN app on Xbox 360 has been dropping since the launch of the Xbox One in November 2013. The Xbox 360 itself is well over 11 years old, having debuted in November 2005.
ESPN remains accessible on external devices including computers, tablets and streaming set-top boxes through the WatchESPN app. However, the Xbox One is now the only video game console that offers an ESPN app.

Open source software can save games, whether Nintendo likes it or not Frank Cifaldi, head of restoration at developer Digital Eclipse, took to the stage at this week’s Game Developers Conference for an hour-long talk about game preservation. Emulation — a software process by which programmers are able to make one computer pretend to be an entirely different kind of computer — is the best solution for keeping games in print, Cifaldi said.
But the clock is ticking. Games are being lost right now, and something needs to be done about it if the video game industry is to avoid the same fate as the film industry.
“According to the Film Foundation, over half the films made before 1950 are gone," Cifaldi said. "I don’t mean that you can’t buy these on DVD. I mean they’re gone. They don’t exist anymore." For films produced before 1920, Cifaldi said, that number jumps to 80 percent.

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"That terrified me. I wasn’t particularly a film buff, but the idea of these works just disappearing forever and never being recoverable scared the crap out of me. So I started wondering is anyone doing this for games. Is anyone making sure that video games aren’t doing the same stupid shit that film did to make their heritage disappear?
"And yeah, there were people doing this. We didn’t call them archivists. We didn’t call them digital archeologists or anything. We called them software pirates."
It’s emulation’s long association with piracy, Cifaldi said, that has given it a bad name. Nintendo in particular seems to have a particular aversion towards it, he noted, pointing to their official statement on the issue which has been available at their corporate website for the last 16 years.

How Come Nintendo Does Not Take Steps Towards Legitimizing Nintendo Emulators?
Emulators developed to play illegally copied Nintendo software promote piracy. That’s like asking why doesn’t Nintendo legitimize piracy. It doesn’t make any business sense. It’s that simple and not open to debate.

But this language, Cifaldi claims, is disingenuous because the Wii U’s Virtual Console is nothing more than an emulator.
More damning, Cifaldi claims to have found a piece of hexadecimal code from a freely available Nintendo Entertainment System emulator — a kind of watermark from a Nintendo emulator known as iNES — embedded within the code of the version of Super Mario Bros. for sale on the Virtual Console right now.
"I would posit," Cifaldi said, "that Nintendo downloaded Super Mario Bros. from the internet and sold it to you."

Polygon reached out to Nintendo for comment on that accusation, to which they responded emphatically; "Nintendo is not using ROMs downloaded from the internet."
Regardless of Nintendo’s stance on emulation, Cifaldi said that the easiest, the most accurate and the most non-destructive way forward for digital games preservation was to use emulators such as Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and Multi Emulator Super System, colloquially known as MAME and MESS respectively.
Cifaldi argued that if GOG.com can use a modified version of DOSBox to sell classic PC games, why can’t some company use MAME and MESS to package and sell classic arcade and console games? It’s easier now than ever since, on March 4 of this year, MAME and MESS went open source under the same license as DOXBox, meaning that for the first time those emulators can be used commercially for free.
"I’m not saying MAME and MESS are perfect," Cifaldi said, but since the code is open source volunteers can easily contribute to making it better. His own company, which recently ported Mega Man to modern platforms, is playing with the technology, and may use it in a commercial release before long, but the code is out there for anyone.
"We’re just a single studio," Cifaldi said. "I can imagine someone like an Amazon forking MAME, bringing it in house, bringing it up to snuff and bringing games back."

“I know we disappointed many people" A Microsoft Xbox-hosted party during the 2016 Game Developers Conference last night featured women dancing on platforms, rightfully angering many attendees — both men and women — and reminding many in the industry that even an often progressive company like Microsoft can contribute to the video game industry’s long history of sexual objectification of women at professional events.
What makes this situation all the more jarring is that it took place the very same day as Microsoft’s well-received 16th annual (!) Women in Gaming Luncheon. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, sent an email to the entire Xbox team, and published it on the Xbox Wire blog, taking responsibility for the event and calling it "unequivocally wrong." Here’s Spencer’s letter in full:

How we show up as an organization is incredibly important to me. We want to build and reflect the culture of team Xbox – internally and externally – a culture that each one of us can represent with pride. An inclusive culture has a direct impact on the products and services we deliver and the perception consumers have of the Xbox brand and our company, as a whole.
It has come to my attention that at Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was absolutely not consistent or aligned to our values. That was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated. This matter is being handled internally, but let me be very clear – how we represent ourselves as individuals, who we hire and partner with and how we engage with others is a direct reflection of our brand and what we stand for. When we do the opposite, and create an environment that alienates or offends any group, we justly deserve the criticism.
It’s unfortunate that such events could take place in a week where we worked so hard to engage the many different gaming communities in the exact opposite way. I am personally committed to ensuring that diversity and inclusion is central to our everyday business and our core values as a team – inside and outside the company. We need to hold ourselves to higher standards and we will do better in the future.

In a separate comment emailed to Polygon, Spencer repeated some of this message, and acknowledged, "I know we disappointed many people."

At Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was not consistent or aligned to our values. It was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated. I know we disappointed many people and I’m personally committed to holding ourselves to higher standards. We must ensure that diversity and inclusion are central to our everyday business and core values. We will do better in the future.

Aaron Greenberg, head of games marketing for Xbox, said on Twitter that he was "very disappointed" to see images of the dancers.

@ZenMobius @XboxP3 @Xbox @Microsoft @Spacekatgal @GDC Very disappointed to see this, going to follow up with team.
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) March 18, 2016

The event — clearly branded as a Microsoft-hosted party in the invitation obtained by Polygon below — took place at 1015 Folsom, a nightclub located about a half mile from GDC, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. PT. Attendees picked up their passes from Microsoft’s Business Suite in the Moscone Center complex where GDC takes place, leaving little question as to the official sanction of the software and gaming giant in the proceedings.

The image below from an attendee offers a glimpse of the party’s atmosphere, and of the scantily clad dancers performing there.

Great fun at the Microsoft Xbox party with a million geeks! #gamedev #gdc #gdcplay #sanfrancisco
A photo posted by Henning Ludvigsen (@henningludvigsen) on Mar 17, 2016 at 11:29pm PDT

Three years ago, the International Game Developers Association found itself in a similar situation in which scantily clad female dancers were hired to perform at a GDC party. The event prompted members, including designer Brenda Romero — then co-chair of the IGDA Women in Games special interest group — to resign from the organization.

Console life cycles could be getting shorter Sony is working on a “PlayStation 4.5," a more powerful version of the PlayStation 4 that will be able to play games at 4K resolution, according to a report from Kotaku.
Kotaku cited multiple "developers who have spoken with Sony" about the purported console. Those sources indicated that the "PS4.5" — no word on whether that’s the official name — will include improved graphics hardware to power 4K games, and additional processing power for PlayStation VR, the virtual reality headset that Sony is releasing in October.
There are no indications of a release window or price for the "PS4.5," although one of Kotaku’s sources told the publication that such a device might not be released this year. Sony currently sells the PS4 for $349.99, having dropped the price of the console in October from $399.99, which is what it cost when it launched in November 2013. PlayStation VR will cost $399, although that does not cover the required PlayStation Camera accessory.
The PS4 cannot currently output 4K content, and its optical drive cannot read 4K Blu-ray discs. Masayasu Ito, executive vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment, said in an interview with 4Gamer in October (via Siliconera) that Sony was considering an enhanced PS4 that could support 4K Blu-ray discs. Neil Hunt, Netflix’s chief product officer, told Huffington Post UK in January that Sony had "promised" Netflix that a new revision of the PS4 hardware with 4K support was coming. And Netflix told Forbes in February that it expected hardware refreshes this fall from both Sony and Microsoft with 4K video playback for the PS4 and Xbox One, respectively.

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If Sony is indeed considering a mid-cycle hardware upgrade, the company may not be alone. During a presentation to the media last month, Xbox head Phil Spencer posited a future in which Microsoft will "come out with new hardware capability during a generation."
Spencer contrasted the typical console life cycle with that of computers, smartphones and tablets, telling Polygon that the latter category of hardware offers "a very continuous evolution cycle in hardware, whereas between console generations most of the evolution is making it cheaper and potentially making it smaller." He also noted that PCs and mobile devices gradually get more and more powerful without locking out existing software like new gaming platforms usually do.
In particular, Spencer highlighted PlayStation VR as an example of Sony adding a new feature to the PS4 — virtual reality — without "changing what the core console is about," suggesting that Microsoft would want to do something similar, but in a way that would deliver better-playing games. Spencer later noted in an appearance on Major Nelson’s podcast that he wasn’t saying Microsoft would allow Xbox owners to open up their console and upgrade the parts. Instead, said Spencer, his comments were meant as a "longer-term vision statement."
We’ve reached out to Sony for comment, and will update this article with any information we receive.