Chinese Video Game Giant Tencent Forms New “Nintendo Cooperation Department”
In April, Tencent was given the approval by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province to start selling the New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Switch bundle in mainland China. The news saw Nintendo’s shares surge by more than 13%, which was the highest they’ve been since October 2018.
The latest update is courtesy of the Chinese tech specialist website, TechNode. On 1st July, Tencent posted two Shenzhen-based positions on its website. It’s looking to recruit personnel for a new “Nintendo cooperation department” and the two positions cover business analyst (responsible for analytics and insights) and web front-end developer.
As TechNode explains, the company previously posted positions for platform community operations professionals in June – which suggests it is speeding up preparation for the launch of the Switch in the mainland.
Tencent also made headlines not long ago, when news surfaced about it reportedly giving up on Arena of Valor here in the west, just months after the release of the game on the Switch eShop. You can read more about this in our previous article.
Build and expand your repair service empire in this incredibly detailed and highly realistic simulation game, where attention to car detail is astonishing. Find classic, unique cars in the new Barn Find module and Junkyard module. Car Mechanic Simulator also includes car auctions where old cars are available for your collection.
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts or Chicago, Illinois
Disbelief is a game development studio focusing on contracting and consulting services. We’ve worked with both AAA and independent studios to help their projects ship. Notable projects we’ve worked on include Gears of War 4, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, and Perception.
At Disbelief we value work-life balance, and want to create an alternative to the crunch-culture prevalent in game development. We also believe strongly in investing in our talent and our team. Disbelief is a place to puzzle out the solutions to cutting-edge problems in graphics and engine programming, but also a place where people can grow their careers and skill sets as valued members of a stable and close knit team.
Currently, we’re looking for a senior programmer. This opportunity is for a full-time position in Cambridge, MA or Chicago, IL. Senior programmers at Disbelief are leaders and developers in their project. You should be comfortable working independently and with a team to develop, test and integrate software into a larger codebase. A key responsibility is mentoring and guiding fellow programmers to improve.
We believe a diverse team is a stronger team, and we encourage marginalized programmers to apply.
Key Responsibilities
Clearly communicate your work to others
Mentor fellow programmers in and out of your team
Communicate with clients on team progress and problems as they arise
Debug code with precision
Estimate your and others work
Assess impact of issues on schedule
Diagnose and solve performance issues
Document your code
Study version histories and code documentation to solve present problems
Implement features in innovative ways
Skills and Requirements
BA/BS or MS Degree in Computer Science, or equivalent experience
Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
3-5 years of experience in writing software in C++
5+ years in game development, or 10+ in a related industry
Experience working on a large code base
Experience with version control with P4, git, or equivalent
Experience with multi-threaded systems
Remote: No, but we do enjoy working from home up to two days a week, when project constraints allow.
Visa Sponsorship: No
Technologies:
Most of our work is C++ of varying standards with a sprinkling of other languages as needed for tooling. We do a lot of graphics programming work, using shader languages and platform graphics APIs. Since we often are debugging the lower levels of systems, being able to read x64 or ARM assembly is useful. Primarily we work with Unreal Engine 4, but we also work with Unity and custom game engines. Our work uses rendering, physics, audio, VR, AR, and other APIs frequently. Our primary platforms are PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and VR/AR devices.
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
Miyamoto: Costs and dwindling appeal make new adventure games a hard sell
“Regarding adventure games, I have also helped develop many of them beginning with Shin Onigashima, but it’s very hard to make one in the current environment.”
-Shiigeru Miyamoto weighs in on the current landscape for adventure games.
The official English translation of Nintendo’s most recent investor Q&A isn’t up quite yet, but Siliconera has translated some interesting parts of that session, including comments from longtime Nintendo developer and current creative fellow Shigeru Miyamoto on why Ninitendo isn’t exactly racing to launch adventure game after adventure game.
Specifically, Miiyamoto calls out the fact that modern games are localized in over 10 languages, and handling this for both voice and text in text-heavy adventure games can lead to massive costs. He notes that declining interest for the genre from younger players is also a factor, but he recognizes the promise of the genre.
“However, designing adventure game mechanics is fun, and are used well in Capcom’s Ace Attorney and Level-5’s Professor Layton series, so while we can still have hope for the genre, please understand that actively making one is hard in the current mainstream.”
His comments follow a question from an investor on the topic of adventure games, something asked out of that investor’s own positive experience with the genre years and years prior, specifically Famicom Detective Club 30 years back.
“Thank you for this question that can also be taken as encouragement. We also want to make games that we won’t be embarrassed about 10 years later,” Miyamoto offered in response. “We’re told sometimes that we only keep making sequels, but we have many brands that have continued for 30 years. We also keep working hard on releasing games in new series.”
Welcome to Etherborn, a Game Where the Entire World is at Your Feet
Hello, Xbox Wire fans! My name is Samuel, and I’m one of the members of Altered Matter – a small studio that’s located in sunny Barcelona, Spain. I want to tell you a little bit about our game Etherborn, a project that we’ve worked on for the last four years of our lives.
Etherborn is an exploration-platformer in which you explore a gravity-shifting world. Here, gravity works in a totally different way to what we are used to. It’s not static – it moves with you, changing the environment around you. Imagine yourself standing next to a wall. You take a few steps forward and suddenly that wall becomes the floor, and the whole world around you has changed position entirely. Because of this ever-shifting gravity, you will find yourself walking across a bridge while glued to its side, circling around the side of a column, and running under a waterfall whose stream is going up towards the sky.
The environmental puzzles that we prepared are a backdrop to a story that we want to tell. In Etherborn, you are a voiceless being that has just been born into a world where a bodiless voice is waiting for you. You don’t know who or what this voice is, but you feel that the two of you are meant to meet. And as you take your first steps, the journey begins and the world around you starts to flip. You will come across bridges suspended in air, ever-changing structures in the clouds, and lands filled with mysteries.
Etherborn is coming to Xbox One on July 18. Seeing our game so close to release sends slight shivers of excitement down our spines. We’ve been playing games our entire lives, and now with Etherborn, we’ve tried our best to create something unique and new.
We hope that this post gave you a decent glimpse into the world of Etherborn. We will be sharing more news as we get closer to release, so if you want to see more, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
CODE VEIN is Now Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam!
In the not too distant future, a mysterious disaster has brought collapse to the world as we know it. Towering skyscrapers, once symbols of prosperity, are now lifeless graves of humanity’s past pierced by the Thorns of Judgment. At the center of the destruction lies a hidden society of Revenants called Vein. This final stronghold is where the remaining few fight to survive, blessed with Gifts of power in exchange for their memories and a thirst for blood. Give into the bloodlust fully and risk becoming one of the Lost, fiendish ghouls devoid of any remaining humanity. Wandering aimlessly in search of blood, the Lost will stop at nothing to satisfy their hunger. Team up and embark on a journey to the ends of hell to unlock your past and escape your living nightmare in CODE VEIN.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-03-2019, 10:51 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Madden NFL 20 Player Ratings Revealed For Rookies
One of the most exciting parts of each new Madden release is the announcement of player ratings, and that began this week, ahead of the game's release on August 2. While you'll have to wait a bit longer to see the ratings for Madden NFL 20's best players, EA Sports has now published ratings for rookies.
DT Quinnen Williams of the New York Jets is the highest-rated rookie overall, with a rating of 80 OVR. Rounding out the top five are Buffalo Bills DT Ed Oliver Jr (79 OVR), San Francisco Giants RE Nick Bosa (78 OVR), Jacksonville Jaguars LE Josh Allen (77 OVR) and Baltimore Ravens WR Marquise Brown (77 OVR). You can see the full list of rookie ratings here on EA's website, while a silly video below shows some of the rookies reacting to their ratings.
As usual, these are the "launch" ratings for Madden NFL 20's rookies. Ratings change throughout the season depending on how players perform on the field.
In other ratings news, the highest-rated Madden NFL 20 rookie QB is Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals with a 73 OVR. The highest rated WR rookie is Brown of the Ravens (77 OVR), while Josh Jacobs of the Oakland Raiders is the highest-rated HB rookie at 74 OVR.
The rest of Madden 20's ratings will be revealed throughout July leading up to the game's release at the end of the month. Keep check in back with GameSpot for more.
Nintendo has set up a new Twitter account to provide support information about its products and services to Japanese followers.
This one is a bit different to its existing accounts, and far less social, as it won’t reply to any comments, questions or direct messages from followers. It’s simply there to notify users about any technical changes and network issues.
Users in need of proper support will still have to visit the official Nintendo website for any inquiries. Click here to take a look. Before making an inquiry, it’s advised you look through the frequently asked questions section.
The Pokémon Company Is Releasing An Official Line Of Bubble Teas This Summer
Pikachu Bubble Mango Smoothie Bubble Tea – 756 yen
There’s nothing better than an ice cold drink on a hot day, that’s why The Pokémon Company is releasing a special range of Pokémon bubble teas in Sweet Dynasty Bubble Tea Drink Bars across Japan this summer.
There will be a total of six different teas to select from and prices range from 540 yen (US$4.98) to 756 yen.
Eevee Milk Bubble Tea, Plenty of Pikachu Melon Soda Bubble Tea, Bulbasaur Matcha Bubble Tea, Pikachu Bubble Mango Smoothie Bubble Tea, Plenty of Pikachu Rainbow Soda Bubble Tea and a Mew Watermelon Smoothie Bubble Tea.
Eevee Milk Bubble Tea – 540 yen Plenty of Pikachu Melon Soda Bubble Tea – 648 yen Bulbasaur Matcha Bubble Tea – 648 yen Plenty of Pikachu Rainbow Soda Bubble Tea – 756 yen Mew Watermelon Smoothie Bubble Tea – 756 yen
If you live in Japan, you’ll be able to quench your thirst from 17th July until the end of September. There’ll also be a special pop-up store selling these teas opposite Tokyo’s Pokémon Cafe.
Which of these drinks would you like to try? Do you enjoy bubble tea from time to time? Tell us below.
