Minimap
0 CommentsMinimap E3 2015: The news outside of press conferences
Welcome to Polygon Minimap, a podcast about the biggest news of the day.
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Minimap is your daily audio tour through the world of video games, related technologies and pop culture like comics, movies and TV. Here's what we're covering today:
THE NEWS OUTSIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCES
Kerbal Space Program is coming to PS4, highlights Sony's strength in Latin America
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 arriving in September for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
PlayStation still not considering backward compatibility for PS4
DICE has a third mystery game that it's not showing at E3
Starbreeze's Walking Dead VR experience is a stand-alone game and will support SteamVR
Reggie Fils-Aime: Iwata didn't...
News
5 CommentsJoe Montana Football 16 coming to mobile devices, see the first footage
Joe Montana Football 16, the Unreal Engine 4-based football video game that Montana began teasing last year, is in development for mobile devices, developer Superstar Games announced today.
Damon Grow of San Francisco-area developer Superstar Games said in an E3 interview with Epic Games that the studio plans to launch Joe Montana Football 16 in "phases." The studio is focusing on iOS first, and will then bring the game to Android. Operation Sports reports that if the mobile versions do well, Superstar will release the game on PC.
Must Read
Joe Montana Football 16 in development in Unreal Engine 4, says Joe Montana
The video interview, which you can watch above, contains the first gameplay footage of Joe Montana Football 16. It is a full 11-on-11 football video...
Cover Story
Issue
07
June 8, 2015
The race for VR
Exclusive coverage of some of the most exciting game studios working in virtual reality.
Read moreNews
0 CommentsMinimap E3 2015 Day 1: Bethesda, Xbox, EA, Ubisoft and PlayStation announce everything
Welcome to Polygon Minimap, a podcast about the biggest news of the day.
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe to the podcast (RSS)
Download this episode directly as an MP3
Minimap is your daily audio tour through the world of video games, related technologies and pop culture like comics, movies and TV. Here's what we're covering today:
THE BIG STORIES
Bethesda at E3 2015: All the news and announcements
Xbox at E3 2015: All the news, all the video, all the announcements
EA at E3 2015: Battlefront, Mirror's Edge, Need for Speed and more
Ubisoft's E3 presser: Get all the news and video right here.
PlayStation at E3 2015: All the news, all the video, all the announcements
News
3 CommentsKingdom Hearts Unchained Key is coming to Android and iOS in North America
Kingdom Hearts Unchained Key is coming to North American Android and iOS devices, Square Enix revealed during its E3 2015 press conference today.
The story links to Kingdom Hearts 3, and its visuals use a flat, 2D style that looks appropriate for the Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck that populate the role-playing game series alongside Final Fantasy characters.
Kingdom Hearts Unchained Key was previously announced for release outside of North America. Square Enix did not provide a release date.
Press play below to see Kingdom Hearts Unchained Key in motion. You can learn more about Square Enix's E3 announcements in Polygon's StoryStream and follow along with all of our coverage in our E3 hub.
News
28 CommentsFinal Fantasy 7 coming to iOS, PC to PS4 port delayed
Square Enix will release Final Fantasy 7 on iOS devices, executive producer Shinji Hashimoto announced at Square Enix's E3 2015 press conference today.
Final Fantasy 7 for iOS will be released this summer, Hashimoto said.
Square Enix also delayed the PC port of Final Fantasy 7 for PlayStation 4, which the publisher announced at PlayStation Experience in December. Originally, that version of the game was due to hit PS4 this spring. It's now expected sometime this winter.
Earlier this week, Square Enix also announced the highly anticipated remake of Final Fantasy 7. That game is expected to hit PlayStation 4 first.
E3 2015
12 CommentsSquare Enix expands mobile offerings with Lara Croft Go
The Go franchise of Square Enix's mobile division expands with Lara Croft Go, a stylized, cel-shaded mobile take on Lara Croft and her adventures.
The game is coming to phones and tablets, though a specific date was not announced. Lara Croft Go "will be a turn-based experience, set in a long-forgotten world," Square Enix said.
Hitman Go, which launched last year, has been a critical and commercial success for Square Enix.
Report
11 CommentsGuitar Hero Live wants to immerse you in music with always-on Guitar Hero TV
To hear Activision and FreeStyleGames tell it, everything in Guitar Hero Live — which launches Oct. 20 on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, as well as unspecified mobile devices — is designed with an eye toward the present and the future.Guitar Hero Live is built to take advantage of modern internet-connected gaming hardware; built to capitalize on new monetization methods; built for the way people consume music in 2015, as opposed to when the series debuted a decade ago. During a pre-E3 demo of the game in New York earlier this month, it became clear that that's a double-edged sword.
This demo focused on Guitar Hero TV, the half of Guitar Hero Live that isn't the standard campaign. GHTV is a live service with a full schedule of music "programming," and...
News
2 CommentsEA's next Star Wars title is a collectible card game for mobile
Electronic Arts has another Star Wars project in the works: It's a collectible card game meets role-playing game titled Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and it's coming to Android and iOS mobile devices later this year.
EA Capital Games, the developer behind mobile game Heroes of Dragon Age, says Galaxy of Heroes "tap[s] into the fantasy of collecting characters and starfighters and [letting] people enjoy the fun of playing with them creatively." Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes will feature characters and vehicles from throughout the Star Wars universe, including the original and prequel trilogies, and animated series like Star Wars Rebels and The Clone Wars.
In addition to Galaxy of Heroes, EA has Star Wars Battlefront, a new expansion for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and an unnamed...
News
2 CommentsThe Walking Dead: Michonne coming from Telltale Games this fall
Kicking off YouTube's E3 live coverage was a reveal for the newest project in Telltale Game's Walking Dead series, a three-episode miniseries titled The Walking Dead: Michonne. Telltale says that this story follows series favorite Michonne and "explores her untold journey during the time between issues #126 and #139 and "players will discover what took Michonne away from Rick, Ezekiel, and the rest of her trusted group... and what brought her back."
"In many ways, Michonne herself is a reflection of the world of The Walking Dead. She is brutal and cold on the outside, but deep beneath what is broken, she remains hopeful, trying to claw her way out of the darkness that surrounds her," said Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead. "In our effort to bring the world of the comic and...
News
62 CommentsFallout Shelter base-building game coming to iOS tonight (update: it's live now!)
Bethesda Game Studios is working on a mobile Fallout game called Fallout Shelter, the company announced today during Bethesda Softworks' pre-E3 showcase.
The game makes you the overseer of your very own vault. You build out rooms from an anthill side view, à la XCOM. You'll control the residents of the vault, and can expand their number as well as the structure itself — by sending two of them into a room to procreate, of course.
Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard noted that Fallout Shelter will be free-to-play, but promised that it won't contain paywall timers or require an internet connection. Loot comes in the form of lunchboxes, and you can buy additional ones in the game.
Fallout Shelter will be available on iOS tonight; Howard made no mention of an Android version. You can check...
The Pip-Boy is fabulous in Fallout 4 — and it's real. (Update: Here's how you get one)
Fallout 4's Pip-Boy is unlike anything you've seen before — in a game or in real life. The collector's edition of Fallout 4 includes an elaborate Pip-Boy cell phone case for the wrist. And yes, it will have an app.
"As far as stupid gimmicks go, this is the best fucking one I've ever seen," said Todd Howard, the game's director.
The Pip-Boy edition will come with the replica Pip-Boy, and stand and Capsule Case. The Pip-Boy edition will cost $119.99 US, £99.99 UK and €129.99.
Here's it's description.
This wearable device faithfully replicates the in-game model and comes complete with RobCo Industries stand, custom-printed capsule, adjustable foam cuff, rotating knobs and lights. Designed to accommodate a variety of smartphone devices with customizable foam inserts, the...
Minimap
0 CommentsMinimap June 13: YouTube gaming, Tarantino, PS Mobile's last game, Bloodstained, Dota 2, Ryu in Smash Bros.
Welcome to Polygon Minimap, a podcast about the biggest news of the day.
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe to the podcast (RSS)
Download this episode directly as an MP3
Minimap is your daily audio tour through the world of video games, related technologies and pop culture like comics, movies and TV. Here's what we're covering today:
THE BIG STORIES
YouTube launching its own dedicated gaming app and website, YouTube Gaming
Double Dragon and other Technos brands acquired by Arc System Works (update)
Scalebound and Crackdown for Xbox One skipping E3, will show up at Gamescom
Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight will hit theaters this Christmas
Oh Deer!, the last PlayStation Mobile game, will have a weird, short life
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter closes with...
E3 2015
48 CommentsThe big games of E3 2015
E3 2015 is just days away. Officially, it runs from June 16–18, although developers and publishers don't have to wait for then to start making news. But with so much expected to be announced, how do you keep it all straight? We're here to help.
What follows is a list of the biggest games likely to become even bigger next week.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Call of Duty is returning to its most successful sub-franchise this year with developer Treyarch's Black Ops 3. Originally announced for a Nov. 11 release on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, it's also coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, thanks to developers Beenox and Mercenary Technology. Following in the footsteps of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3 is set in the future, where cybernetics change war.
D...
News
33 CommentsYouTube launching its own dedicated gaming app and website, YouTube Gaming
YouTube is getting more serious about gaming. This summer, the video streaming service will launch YouTube Gaming, a new app and website dedicated to video game content: Let's Plays, livestreams, speedruns and more.
"YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else," YouTube Gaming product manager Alan Joyce said in an announcement. "From 'Asteroids' to 'Zelda,' more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You'll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators."
At an event from the company's LA studio today, YouTube's global head of gaming partnerships, Ryan Wyatt, talked about the growing importance of gaming for...
News
19 CommentsBastion successor Transistor available now on iOS
Transistor, last year's spiritual successor to Supergiant Games' isometric action game Bastion, was stealth-launched today on the iOS App Store. The game, which casts you as a lounge singer with a talking sword in the middle of a computerized city, has been revamped for the new platform, featuring a touch interface for the game's unique turn-based battles as well as optional gamepad support.
Transistor costs $9.99 on the iOS App Store, and will only function on iPhone 5, iPad 4, iPad mini 2 and all of their respective newer models. For more on Transistor, check out our review from last year, and the Overview posted below.
News
31 CommentsWhy it took a year to release a 'free' version of Threes!
There is now a free version of Threes! released for iOS and Android devices. But the designer of the game, Asher Vollmer, wanted to be careful about how the ads were delivered. They had spent a year perfecting the game's mechanics, only to have the game cloned and a free-to-play version become just as, if not more, popular than the original.
"I was pretty set on banner ads for a long time. Thanks to analytics, I could see that people would have the app open for twenty minutes per session on average," Vollmer told Polygon.
"It seemed pretty straightforward to slap a banner ad at the bottom of the game. This all changed, however, when I opened Drop7 for the first time in a year and found out that Zynga had slapped some atrocious 'tap the duck to win big!'-style banner ads at the bottom...
News
15 CommentsHearthstone's Tavern Brawl mode adds rotating weekly challenges
Two days ago, Blizzard teased a new mode for its popular free-to-play card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Today the developer has spilled the beans on what this addition actually is: tavern brawl, a new mode that will mix up the regular gameplay and decks currently available in the game.
Tavern brawl mode will pit players against each other using special challenges, new rulesets or custom decks. Sometimes a tavern brawl will force players to use a specific preset deck, while other times it will task players with putting together a new deck based on unusual guidelines.
There will be a new tavern brawl offered every week, but the events will only run Wednesday through Sunday. Players will not be able to select the mode on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the next event is being spun...
Minimap
0 CommentsMinimap June 10: Halo 5, Black Ops 3, NBA Live 16, Dark Souls 3, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Mirror's Edge
Welcome to Polygon Minimap, a daily audio podcast tour though the latest news about video games, related technologies and culture.
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe to the podcast (RSS)
Download this episode directly as an MP3
Here's what we're covering today:
THE BIG STORIES
Halo 5's campaign stars multiple Spartans, and one ODST, in both single-player and co-op
All Halo 5: Guardians maps free, Xbox Live Gold not needed for co-op
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 to launch on Xbox 360, PS3 as well
NBA Live 16 announced, has a cover star but not a launch date
Report: Dark Souls 3 hits ‘early 2016'
Ubisoft wants the public to help playtest Assassin's Creed Syndicate, give feedback
Obsidian chief creative officer and co-founder departs studio (update)
Apple Design Awards 2015...
News
3 CommentsApple Design Awards 2015 honor seven games, including Crossy Road and Vainglory
Video games made up more than half the winners of the Apple Design Awards 2015, with the honorees including the Frogger-esque title Crossy Road and the MOBA Vainglory, Apple announced yesterday.
The Apple Design Awards are given annually in June during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). They are meant to "honor the remarkable developers who used their ingenuity, smarts, and savvy to build the year's best apps for iOS and OS X," according to the WWDC website. Five out of the 10 main winners this year were video games, as were both of the student winners. Here's the list of games:
Crossy Road by Hipster Whale
Does Not Commute by Mediocre
Elementary Minute by Klemens Strasser (student winner)
Jump-O by Gabriel Mathias Rocha and Victor Lappas Giménez (student winner)
...
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