By Joe Robinson 16 Oct 2018

Hulu has started to work towards slimming down its “skinny” bundle of live TV channels in an effort to reprioritize sales on bread-and-butter on-demand content.

Hulu CEO Randy Freer in an interview with The Information said he “wants to drop some live entertainment channels to be able to create smaller bundles of live sports, news, and on-demand entertainment in ways to appeal to more viewers and reduce costs.”

The streaming firm launched the “Hulu with Live TV” package less than two years ago in an ambitious attempt to compete with the likes of Sling, Dish and Google. The live TV package has been successful, garnering over a million subscribers to date, but is still a far cry from the 20 million people paying for its on-demand package.

Part of the strategy involves offering programs as on-demand content instead of live feeds. For Hulu, licensing costs make up the bulk of its expenses. Dropping certain channels to create skinnier bundles with new on-demand channels won’t necessarily curb those costs, but it does allow the company to save on the expensive equipment required to stream live content.

“The bundles are broken, and their channels are losing carriage,” Freer said, adding that programmers like Fox, Discovery, Viacom and NBCU are now promoting select channels instead of marketing all available channels en-masse. “Some of these brands won’t be strong enough […] You won’t need a live feed for all of them.”

Live content has attracted a healthy number of subscribers, but is still a loss leader for streaming purveyors. Hulu’s losses climbed to $423 million in the June quarter, up 135 percent year over year. Google has had similar issues with its YouTube TV service. It costs the search giant $49 per subscriber per month for its skinny bundle, which is $9 more than it currently charges customers.

Currently, media companies sell all their channels to a distributor bundled together. Hulu is interested in changing that to improve its flexibility and offer new, smaller bundles for sports, news and more.

Original content is also set to substantially increase going into next year for Hulu, though not nearly to the same degree as Netflix. Unlike Netflix, which hopes to primarily stream content they create themselves, Hulu looks to be an aggregation hub for other media companies, sprinkling in its own productions.

Live TV has been a differentiator for Hulu, where competitors such as Amazon and Netflix only offer on-demand options. New entrants Apple, WarnerMedia and Disney are all also expected rely mainly on on-demand content.

Apple is widely rumored to launch a streaming video service next year, potentially bundling Apple Music and an upcoming news service with a slate of original video content. How the company intends to monetize the product is unclear. A report last week suggested Apple plans to make its own shows free to view via the TV app on iPhone, iPad and the Apple TV, while at the same time offering subscriptions for outside online services.

Materialize was just released for free.  What exactly is Materialize?  In the creators own words:

Materialize is a stand alone tool for creating materials for use in games from images. You can create an entire material from a single image or import the textures you have and generate the textures you need.

Materialize is production tested, having been used to generate metallic, smoothness and occlusion textures for the Uncharted collection.  It is very similar in scope and functionality to Substance’s B2M or the free ModLab.

Essentially you start by feeding it a diffuse map, which you can then edit as you desire, then create a height map, normal map, edge map, smoothness map, AO map and metallic map automatically.

Each step of the way you have fine tune control over how each individual map is created.  For example, here are the controls governing the creation of the normal map.

You also have the ability to provide your own maps from file if you have them, simply use Materialize to generate the maps that you are missing.  There are also features in place for creating tiled maps.  Of course to go along with all of it, there is a real-time preview of the map you are creating, including multiple skyboxes and control over the post processing effects show in the preview.

When you are done you are able to export your generated maps to a variety of different texture formats.  Just an all around amazing application and one that should be added to every texture makers toolkit!  Watch the video below to learn more and see Materialize in action!  There are also some tutorials available here if you wish to learn more.

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Art GameDev News Applications

For any readers who are archiving the successful games of 2018, it’s worth paying attention to the story of CrossCode. It’s an RPG Maker-inspired game that rallied a successful Indiegogo campaign and ventured through the waters of Steam Early Access before finally releasing back in September.

Its success is surprising in part because single-player RPGs have not known much success in the Early Access waters, and in a sea of similar 2D games, it’s managed to stand out with solid mechanics and a charismatic sense of charm. 

So today on the Gamasutra Twitch channel, we took the time to stream CrossCode with two of the game’s developers: Felix Klein, who’s been working on the game in some form for seven years, and Deniz Akbulut, who composed the music and claims to have suggested the game’s “stupidest” ideas. 

If you want to know more about succeeding with single-player RPGs on Early Access, you should click on the video above to watch our full conversation. And while you’re at it, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel for more developer interviews and editor roundtables. 

Building a massively-multiplayer online RPG became a very different, very competitive business after Blizzard’s World of Warcraft took the industry by storm in the mid-2000s.

BioWare was one of the few companies to debut a competiting MMORPG and keep it online, launching its own Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2011 and keeping it going (while navigating the transition to free-to-play) through to the present day.

At GDC 2012, MMO veterans and BioWare Austin leads Richard Vogel and Dallas Dickinson discussed how Star Wars: The Old Republic positioned itself to break into the World of Warcraft-dominated MMO market. Throughout the talk, the pair explained in-depth the various strategies the team used to prepare the game for a strong debut.

The whole thing was fascinating, so if you missed it back then (or just want to refresh yoursef) you should know that Vogel and Dickinson’s talk is now freely available on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.

Starting at 2:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omega Rings will begin receiving the latest 1810 Xbox One system update (181004-2027). Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1810 system update.

Fixes:

Game Pass Twist

• Fixes to the Game Pass twist to ensure install dialog boxes are accurately shown for all titles.

My Games and Apps

• Additional fixes to navigation issues in My Games and Apps that caused some users not able to select certain tiles in their collection and erratic behavior trying to select filters.

Known Issues:

Avatars

• It can take up to 10 seconds to view an Avatar on the profile screen after creating a new Avatar.

My Games & Apps

• We are aware that some users are experiencing crashing of a game or the Youtube app when you are either launching or resuming the Youtube app.
• If you are in the Youtube app and then Resume to a Game the app/game and console may hang or crash.
• We are aware that some users are experiencing challenges navigating the Ready to Install Filter options in My Games and Apps. Some users are unable to select the filter options at all and we are investigating.

Power

• We are tracking an issue in which the console is fully powering off when it is placed into Instant On mode.

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

The Switch is arguably Nintendo’s most premium-feeling handheld console ever released, with its smart and sleek design making earlier systems feel a little clunkier (and more able to take a battering) as a result. Thanks to this, as well as the fact that it comes with a whole range of extras that you wouldn’t usually need for a handheld (extra controllers, cables, the dock, etc.), it’s also the console most in need of some extra protection and storage space when out and about.

Whereas your 3DS can likely slide right into your pocket, protected by its own flip design, the Switch is too big to simply carry around and has a large, beautiful display just waiting to be scratched up by the keys and other bits and bobs inside your bag of choice. Luckily, tomtoc has released a new range of cases for the console that appear to suit every need and, even more luckily, they just so happen to be pretty great.

Each case is waterproof, made of strong, sturdy material (which tomtoc tells us has passed the latest military standard drop test), and has its own advantages and disadvantages over the other options. We’ve gathered our thoughts on each design below.

The Slim

The smallest of the bunch, and the best for quick trips or your daily commute, is the slim variant (which comes in black, red, grey, or camouflage colourings). Even with your Switch inside, the width of this case only measures in at around 4cm, easily slotting into your backpack for that extra layer of protection. Actually, this is where we found this case to be most useful; it only holds your Switch (with Joy-Con attached) and eight games, with no room for any extras, but it does serve as excellent protection when you just need to slot the console into a bag of some sort and avoid any scratches.

The case actually moulds around the design of the Switch, with the Joy-Con triggers sitting inside small indents on the bottom of the case and the control sticks and face buttons being protected by the raised parts seen on the front. This is a fantastic feature; applying pressure to these raised points has no impact on the Joy-Con’s delicate control sticks, and some of our official Nintendo-branded cases fail to offer that same level of protection. Having said that, we wish the part of the case sitting on top of the screen had a similarly robust design – pressing hard on the middle of the case, or dropping something heavy on it, does seem to press onto the Switch’s screen just a tad.

Speaking of Nintendo’s official releases, this small case from tomtoc retails at a considerably cheaper price point while actually giving you a greater amount of protection. A small pouch is included with the case, too, and while we didn’t feel was completely necessary, it does provide a nice way of carrying some small extra bits like an AC adaptor.

The Frequent Traveller

This one sees a significant step up in features, but a much smaller jump in price. This medium-range case holds your Switch (with Joy-Con attached), 18 game cards (six of which are hidden away), and has space for a Joy-Con grip and your AC adaptor, too. It features the same indents on the bottom of the case for your Joy-Con’s ZL/ZR buttons for a snug fit, and a centrefold rests on top of your screen. The same raised sections also appear on the front of the case, but these are purely aesthetic as the case is considerably wider this time around, and there’s a small handle on the top to help you carry it around.

The big selling point of this one, though, is that it doubles up as a way to play your console in tabletop mode. The centrefold we just mentioned has two straps on either side, which strap your Switch’s tablet section down nicely; the weight of the console keeps the folded material rigid – as long as you don’t wobble the case around too much as you play.

We wouldn’t recommend playing this outdoors under the sun for too long, for fear of the console burning up the fabric behind it, but the Switch’s fans are allowed to breathe at the top of the system and we haven’t experienced any overheating issues while playing inside. The best part about this is the fact that you can still charge your console while playing in tabletop mode – again doing something which Nintendo hasn’t allowed with its own kickstand.

The Professional Storage Case

Easily our favourite of the bunch, but also naturally the most expensive, is the professional storage option. This one features a large, suitcase-like section on the bottom with a chunk of foam padding nestling inside; almost everything you could possibly need fits in here thanks to the perfectly cut shapes. You can carry your Switch, two extra Joy-Con on your Joy-Con grip, your dock, the AC adaptor, a Pro Controller, and four wrist straps in this section, and there’s another mesh-type pocket on the opposite side for the HDMI cable, Pro Controller charging cables, game cases, and more.

In between the two sections is a flap of material which can hold 32 game cards – which should be more than enough to hold of your favourite titles – although you could theoretically throw more in that back pocket, too. Every item fits into its designated spot securely and neatly, with no wiggle room being given for things to slip out during travels, and you can even attach a shoulder strap if you prefer to carry it that way.

To test out its practicality, we took this case out on a weekend trip to see some loved ones and play lots of games in the process. Having everything neatly tucked away was perfect; previous trips had seen the dock, cables, and extra controllers simply thrown into a plastic bag for travels – constantly scaring us with thoughts of scratches or damage – but this almost fixed the issue completely. We still had to find somewhere to put extra Pro Controllers, but the case was more than enough to transport everything else securely.

The idea behind this one is for professional gamers who might attend championships or other events, and while we’re sure it would be great for that, too, we’d actually recommend this for anyone who finds themselves taking their entire Switch setup to friends or family homes. It’s a little more on the pricey side compared to the other options, but it’s absolutely worth it.

If you’re interested in buying any of the cases shown above, you can find the designs on Amazon UK for £13.99, £18.99 and £37.99 respectively, or Amazon US for $16.99, $19.99, and $42.99.

Thanks to tomtoc for supplying the cases featured in this review.