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Google has lofty ambitions for its coming cloud-based game platform Stadia, many of which include giving game developers and players alike the ability to approach video games in a different way.

Speaking during the GamesBeat Summit earlier today, Google VP and GM Phil Harrison said that one of the key goals of Stadia is to “change the perceived value of games” and make games as a whole a more discoverable medium.

Discoverability is an important topic for any storefront, and one that many platforms struggle to deal with as the number of games they support increases. To solve this issue for Stadia, Google wants to step away from traditional storefronts and the discoverability issues that come with both physical retailers and digital catalogs.

For Stadia, the only storefront is the internet. He said the Chrome-driven platform “gets rid of some of the artificial barriers that have previously been put in front of players,” making it possible for players to pick up a game they’re interested in, or recommend one to a friend, without needing to go to retailer or wait hours for a game to install.

“If you find a game you think I’ll love, I can send you a link and you can play it,” he said, calling back to the fact that one of Stadia’s flagship features is the ability to jump right into a game with no download or install required. He notes later on that it’s a feature that has resonated with publishers in particular, since it offers them a way to close the marketing loop and connect directly with players, no middleman required.

“We’re asking gamers to buy the game, not the platform.”

Much of what Harrison had to say will sound familiar to those that have kept up with Google’s previous Stadia announcements. His talking points, like being able to access games “with no download, no patch, no update, and no install” haven’t changed much in the past month.

Many of the topics he addressed during the short talk were missing important context regarding Stadia’s business model, which would’ve helped flesh out otherwise interesting features. Harrison did note that Google has “architected the platform to support a variety of business models,” but specific information on that topic won’t be announced until this summer at the earliest. To date, there’s no public word on pricing tiers, or revenue share for game devs.

While vague on many things developers want to know about Stadia, Harrison did say that Google is taking care to make sure that devs are armed with the tools they need to focus less on the technical side of running games on Stadia and more on the creative possibilities that the platform opens up.

Part of this comes from the fact that one code base is all that’s needed to run a game on Stadia’s many supported screen types, be it on a TV, tablet, phone, or computer. Devs will have the ability to tweak certain aspects of each as needed, however, like adjusting certain UI elements when a game is being played on mobile to best suit that experience

He also called out Stadia’s “state share” feature, the ability for players to share a link at any point in a game that allows other players to load into that exact moment of the game, as something he thinks will inspire game developers to create new and interesting moments and narrative.

It’s one of the features he says is unique to datacenter-powered game platforms, and one that offers a lot of room for developers to be creative with game worlds and multiplayer.

“That is something that you can only do when games are running on the data center.”

Today, Turn 10 Studios is proud to announce Forza Street, an all-new Forza experience designed to be played anytime, anywhere, and excite anyone who loves cars.

Available today for free on Windows 10 devices, and rolling out to iOS and Android starting this year, Forza Street was designed for racing on the go with streamlined controls that focus on timing of gas, brake, and boost as the keys to victory.

In Forza Street, new Forza fans and seasoned drivers alike can collect and assemble a legendary lineup of cars to compete in intense, cinematic races. Whether players want to squeeze in a quick one-minute race or get immersed in a story campaign, every race is a chance to earn a performance icon from an ever-growing list of incredible cars, turning your garage into a trophy case.

With the game available today on Windows 10 devices, we will continue to add features and actively engage with and listen to our community to make Forza Street the game our fans will want to take with them everywhere.

To stay up to date with Forza Street news, hit “Follow” on our Facebook page here.

See you on the streets!

This week at Bungie, Saladin joins the Revelry.

The Power-enabled combat of Iron Banner is live, and Guardians are mixing things up a bit. Wolf’s Favors, Iron Burdens, and the Reveler’s Tonic have all combined for a lively event. Whether you’re skipping grenades or hunting Iron Banner rewards, this is a week to break the rules and experiment with your loadouts. Double Valor is currently available, with Triple Valor beginning tomorrow at 10 AM PDT.

Balance the Bite

At the release of Destiny 2: Forsaken, two pinnacle weapons became available for players to earn in the Competitive playlist in the Crucible. Each weapon has a unique quest, requiring mastery of Hand Cannons to complete. There has been a lot of feedback on how the pinnacle Crucible Hand Cannons stand above most other weapons in the sandbox. Today, we’ll be going through some balance changes planned for Season of Opulence. We wanted to start this conversation early, to ensure players understood that change was coming, even if they were still on the path to acquiring these rewards. Here’s the Destiny Dev Team to walk us through the planned changes:

Dev Team: We wanted to give you a preview of some plans we have to balance Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten in Season of Opulence. After significant amounts of feedback, internal discussion, and playtesting, we’ve decided to adjust how these Hand Cannons work. For some players, these weapons can represent a significant investment of time and the personal improvement needed to acquire them. When tuning, we attempt to take into account the time commitment players make to acquire weapons and balance that against how those weapons affect the different game modes.

Magnificent Howl (the unique perk on these weapons) is too effective. It works in a neutral setting and rewards players for getting precision shots—something they would have done naturally. As a result, the time to kill of the game shifts to meet this new benchmark, and players feel that the majority of primary weapons in Destiny 2 cannot compete with these pinnacle weapons.

Our current plan is to make Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten the only 150 RPM precision Hand Cannons. They will maintain some aspects of their current behavior while taking on the firing speed and damage of the 150 RPM Hand Cannons. Magnificent Howl will also be adjusted so that it increases only body-shot damage, resulting in a two headshot/one body-shot kill. Magnificent Howl will still give an advantage due to requiring less precision hits for optimal time to kill.

Revelry: Verdant Light

Last week, Revelry Orbs were disabled in Gambit, Gambit Prime, raids, and Competitive Crucible due to an increase in GUITAR errors and activity disconnections. As multiple sources of progress for the “Verdant Light: Competitive” Triumph are no longer available, the team has been investigating a change to the requirements for completion.

As the above listed activities no longer provide progress, players are required to create 200 orbs by defeating other Guardians with precision kills in Quickplay, Rumble, and the featured Crucible playlist. This week, that playlist is Iron Banner, for example.

At this time, our current plan is to reduce this requirement to 20 orbs.

This change will be deployed after the Revelry ends, in Destiny 2 Update 2.2.2. Players who meet the requirement of 20 orbs will have the Triumph auto-complete after downloading the patch, which will also unlock the “Party Harder” Triumph and “Stimulant Spring” Emblem reward if all other Revelry Triumphs have been completed.

Exploring the Curse

Last month, we featured a string of three Bungie Bounties to celebrate Season of the Drifter and Gambit Prime. A few of you have been asking when we’d be jumping back on stream with a Ride Along. With the curse in full effect this week, it’s the perfect time to engage in some developer commentary in a live-fire environment.

Shattered Throne Ride Along

Monday, April 29

2:30 PM Pacific

We’ll have Bungie developers in the hot seats to speak to their inspirations, share some behind the scenes stories of development, and answer a few questions. Get ready for a fun ride. We’ll see you in chat.

At the Ready

With Season of the Drifter, new activities and weekly rituals became available to owners of the Annual Pass. Destiny Player Support has been investigating reports of various issues, and this week brings vital information regarding the Invitations of the Nine.

This is their report.

Denial of the Nine

Tomorrow, the seventh Invitation of the Nine will become available from Xûr. Before this pursuit goes live, we’d like to make players aware of a blocking issue, which we are currently working on.

Tomorrow’s invitation, titled “The Tower,” will require players to complete the Hollowed Lair strike and defeat Hive, Scorn, and Vex on the Tangled Shore. Currently, this invitation cannot be completed, since Vex are not available as enemies at any location on the Tangled Shore. This issue does not impact previous Invitations of the Nine, only “The Tower” invitation is currently blocked. We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

For more information as soon as it is available, please follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net.

Spring Fever

On Tuesday, the Revelry kicked off its second week in Destiny 2.

Whether you’re plundering the depths of the Verdant Forest or you’re bringing a good mood to your favorite activity, there’s still another full week ahead of us before the Revelry ends at the weekly reset on May 7, 2019.

As a reminder, each new week brings a refresh of weekly bounties to Eva Levante. Players can complete these bounties to earn powerful Inaugural Revelry gear, as well as earn progress toward the “A Bountiful Spring” Triumph. Once the Revelry concludes, all unearned and unclaimed Triumphs will be hidden, so players are encouraged to party hard while they still can.

Additionally, we’d like to remind players that we’re tracking the following known issues in the Revelry:

Demolish Your Foes

The Revelry is all about breaking rules, and a few of you are having a field day. Brew your tonic and drink up, because the following videos may inspire you to throw more grenades.

Movie of the Week: Tripping over mines

Runner Up: Verdant Forest Solo : 5 Bosses Defeated

Runner Up: Perfect Grenades Don’t Exist

We’re almost to the weekend, and I’m feeling heavy as death. Not in a bad way—truly! I’m on the grind toward the reward for 2,500 Iron Burden kills in the Iron Banner. I don’t know about you, but this is my favorite emblem in Destiny 2, with a badass name to boot.

I admit, the challenge is difficult. Tasking myself to fight against enemies at a 100 Power deficit is a wild ride. I’ve had to change the way I approach most engagements, but I’m getting closer and closer to my prize with each game.

Maybe I’ll see you out there. Apologies if you’re in the sights of my Arbalest.

Cheers,

Dmg04

Click Here!

Virtua Racing has arguably been one of the most anticipated Sega Ages games since it was announced. The title includes 8-player split-screen, online multiplayer and a built-in replay mode not included in the original arcade release.

While there’s still no word on a launch date here in the west, the game is now available in Japan for 999 Yen (roughly $9.00 / £7.00). To celebrate this release, Sega’s Japanese YouTube channel has uploaded a new gameplay trailer, highlighting all of the above-mentioned features and more. See what all the fuss is about in the video below:

Virtua Racing began as an arcade release in 1992 and was developed by Sega AM2. It is considered to be one of the most influential games of all-time for popularising 3D polygonal graphics.

Will you be downloading this game from the Japanese eShop, or do you plan to hold out until the local release? Tell us in the comments.

Baking accessibility into game development

Key features to provide a more accessible experience

Accessible FPS Controller Convey object descriptions within the player’s frame of view via audio cues and adjust the viewing frustum length and arc

Annotate Game Objects Tag and manage objects with descriptive text—tag once and descriptions appear everywhere the object does

Vantage Point Objects Add and manage vantage points, or invisible doorframe-like points of interests that convey a whole view (as opposed to objects within the viewing frustum). Present different descriptions based on the direction the player is facing

Accessible Navigation Aid player navigation with a suite of interaction tools including:

One step closer to seamless, accessible development

“The idea that I can drag and drop this into a game, with very little work to implement it, is a game changer for the industry.”

Try It Out