Blackley, with his partner Van Burnham, aim to create a new company whose focus is to use the talent from the “golden age” of Atari to create a modern arcade for iOS.

Speaking to VentureBeat, Blackley laid out his idea on what he calls the “new arcade.” He believes that 99 cents is the new quarter on iOS.

The dream team of Atari creators include Ed Rotberg, creator of Battlezone; Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and Space Duel; Rich Adam, creator of Gravitar and co-developer of Missile Command; Ed Logg, co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede; Dennis Koble, creator of Touch Me and Shooting Gallery; Tim Skelly, creator of Rip-Off; and Bruce Merrit, creator of Black Widow.

The team at Innovative Leisure is comprise of the aforementioned 11 arcade game creators alongside interns in their 20s who will help create the apps. To finance the company, Blackley is investing his own money into the project alongside the help of THQ.

The team will present on their new project next week at the DICE Summit.

Burnham and Blackley met the Atari men while Burnham was writing “Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984.”

During that same time, they began building their own arcade called Supercade in a Los Angeles warehouse. It features machines that Blackley has repaired and refurbished himself. When Blackley left his previous job last summer, Supercade fit in with his future plans.

“We had that big collection of games, and we love the history of game design,” Blackley said. “I’m lucky because I love games and following that love has always done me well. Once we figured out the iPhone is the new arcade, that games from the old days fit this new audience and their on-the-go lifestyle, we knew what to do. There is already a group of people who know how to operate and innovate in this space. They had the longest string of hit games in history. And they wanted to get back together again.”

The Atari men all came back together under one roof because they felt that their times at Atari were the most rewarding. The interns are likewise excited to be working with the “inventors of gameplay.”

The team came up with 30 ideas initially. These ideas were brought down to 10 games and were presented to THQ. The publisher wanted all of them. Seven of those titles are in the works now.

Blackley believes in making original games, instead of the current iOS market which is full of copycats and derivatives.

The team works in the arcade warehouse so they can be constantly inspired by the games that came before them. They all work in separate teams, but they critique each other’s work as progress is made.

Blackley says that the games will start coming out this summer on the iPhone and iPad. They will market the games themselves with a bit of help from THQ. He believes that the games will take off though because of their “awesome gameplay.”

“They’re all playable and awesome,” he said. “More ideas are coming up from the old guys and the new guys. We want to have a string of really innovative games.”

The line consists of three controllers – two assault rifles and a sniper rifle – and a range of peripherals. The two assault rifles are designed to work just like the PS3’s DualShock controllers, with buttons positioned in such a way as to be comfortable for both right and left-handed players. The sniper rifle is only compatible with PlayStation Move and its corresponding games. Other accessories include a universal gaming backpack designed to accommodate any of the three major consoles – Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii – with a padded main compartment and multiple pockets. The line also includes three headsets: a Universal Gaming Headset with 3D Effect that appears to be compatible with pretty much anything with a 3.5 mm headphone jack (including Xbox 360, most computers, and even iOS devices), a bluetooth Throat Mic Headset compatible with the PS3 and any bluetooth-equipped computer, and a wired Throad Mic Headset with a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

CTA’s announcement does not give any pricing or release date information on any of these items, saying only that they “will soon be available at major retailers.” Given the criticism that has been leveled at violent video games in the past, it will be interesting to see what kind of reception these accessories receive. Rest assured that there will be at least a few accusations of the Army using these controllers to try and sway impressionable young gamers into enlisting. Personally, all I really want to know is whether that bluetooth throat mic will work with my iPhone.

What do you think of these controllers? Will you buy them? Should the Army be in the business of making video game controllers? Sound off in the comments.

[Source: CTA Digital]

Institutions, for example, are using Kinect to help prevent falls among the elderly. “Falls lead to functional issues and other health problems, and can be a precursor to mortality. My mom was a pretty classic case,” said Marilyn Rantz, a University of Missouri nursing professor – one of the examples Microsoft is highlighting today. “It’s an age-old problem of aging. So much spins on this particular issue.”

Rantz, along with her colleagues are researching how they can use Kinect to measure and monitor changes in how seniors move to help prevent falls.

“With Kinect, we can gather finely grained, gait data – walking speed, stride length, step time, and we can see detailed trends over time to determine subtle changes and determine very early whether there is functional decline and fall risk,” said Marjorie Skubic, a professor in the college’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department.

“We’ve also tried to make it really passive. For the most part people don’t think about them being there. That’s what we’re going for,” she adds, referring to Kinect sensors in seniors’ apartments.

Medical professionals are also experimenting with the Kinect in other ways, trying to help stroke patients regain movement, access info from operating rooms, and are using it physical therapy and work with children with developmental disabilities, Microsoft says.

“Honestly, what we know about here at Microsoft is but a tiny fraction of what is actually going on,” said Microsoft’s Bill Crounse. He is a medical doctor and the company’s senior director of worldwide health. “Everywhere I go in the world – every hospital, college or public health organization, people are already doing something with Kinect or they plan to.”

At Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, England, doctors are assigning stroke patients to play different Kinect games (including Kinectimals).

“The patient thought it was marvelous and we could actually see an improvement occurring, rather than the normal stretching and pulling a physiotherapist would do to the patient,” said Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at the hospital, referring to a patient who had lost their arm movement.

Another patient who had problems with full-body movement and standing up has been playing Bowling. “He was able to work on coordination between the twisting of his body and the movement of his hands, plus his eyes had to look at the screen rather than where his hands are. It’s been enormously beneficial to him,” said Sperrin.

Microsoft shared the following infographic looking at the “Kinect Effect”:

In June, the company released a software development kit for academics and enthusiasts to go wild with Kinect, and next year, it will release one for commercial use.

Microsoft is also donating hundreds of Xbox Kinect Bundles to soldiers.

I think it goes without saying that having YouTube on Xbox is going to be pretty big for driving video views on the console.

Nielsen says streaming video on game consoles is up over last year. The firm just put out results from an October survey on the topic. Here’s a look at that:

“Streaming now represents a reported 14 percent of Xbox 360 time, 15 percent of PS3 time and 33 percent of Wii time. This growth is fueled by the availability of services like Netflix, Hulu, MLB Network and ESPN3,” it says.

How do you think the YouTube app will affect that on Xbox?

Here’s a particularly timely infographic about YouTube facts from social-media-training.co.uk:

by thedesignoven via

The $2.99 app is a companion to the title of the same name on the company’s Xbox 360 console. In fact, those who already own Kinectimals for their Xbox can use the new app to unlock five new cubs to play with on the console version.

The news was broken this morning by Larry Hryb (@majornelson) on Twitter:

Reactions on Twitter tended toward the sardonic:

Here are some screen shots from the app:

What do you think of Microsoft developing games for the Apple App Store? Let us know in the comments.

Oh that Microsoft.

First things first, one small but head scratching change looks to be a switch in controls for looking up game details and ejecting a disc. What was once “X” to eject and “Y” to look at details is now switched in the latest update. One upset 360 user couldn’t have summed it up any better.

While the change above is something noticeable and will affect a large amount of people, the second change is something which will go unnoticed by many but is actually pretty scary. In order to download the update, you must accept a new Terms of Service (ToS) agreement. Usually, ToS’s are ignored by everyone because who wants to read through a bunch of law jargon, when they just want to play Gears of War?

However, in the latest ToS, Microsoft added this nifty little clause which is very eye-opening. If you don’t want to read all of it, I’ll summarize afterwards:

IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES, YOU AND MICROSOFT AGREE THAT IF YOU AND MICROSOFT DO NOT RESOLVE ANY DISPUTE BY INFORMAL NEGOTIATION UNDER SECTION 18.1.2 ABOVE, ANY EFFORT TO RESOLVE THE DISPUTE WILL BE CONDUCTED EXCLUSIVELY BY BINDING ARBITRATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ARBITRATION PROCEDURES IN SECTION 18.1.7 BELOW. YOU UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT BY AGREEING TO BINDING ARBITRATION, YOU ARE GIVING UP THE RIGHT TO LITIGATE (OR PARTICIPATE IN AS A PARTY OR CLASS MEMBER) ALL DISPUTES IN COURT BEFORE A JUDGE OR JURY. INSTEAD, YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ALL DISPUTES WILL BE RESOLVED BEFORE A NEUTRAL ARBITRATOR, WHOSE AWARD (DECISION) WILL BE BINDING AND FINAL, EXCEPT FOR A LIMITED RIGHT OF APPEAL UNDER THE FEDERAL ARBITRATION ACT. ANY COURT WITH JURISDICTION OVER THE PARTIES MAY ENFORCE THE ARBITRATOR’S AWARD.

THE ONLY DISPUTES NOT COVERED BY THE AGREEMENT IN SECTION 18.1 TO NEGOTIATE INFORMALLY AND ARBITRATE ARE DISPUTES ENFORCING, PROTECTING, OR CONCERNING THE VALIDITY OF ANY OF YOUR OR MICROSOFT’S (OR ANY OF YOUR OR MICROSOFT’S LICENSORS’) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.

and…

18.1.6. CLASS ACTION WAIVER. YOU AND MICROSOFT AGREE THAT ANY PROCEED­INGS TO RESOLVE OR LITIGATE ANY DISPUTE, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION, IN COURT, OR OTHERWISE, WILL BE CONDUCTED SOLELY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND THAT NEITHER YOU NOR MICROSOFT WILL SEEK TO HAVE ANY DISPUTE HEARD AS A CLASS ACTION, A REPRESENTATIVE ACTION, A COLLECTIVE ACTION, A PRIVATE ATTORNEY-GENERAL ACTION, OR IN ANY PROCEEDING IN WHICH YOU OR MICROSOFT ACTS OR PROPOSES TO ACT IN A REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY. YOU AND MICROSOFT FURTHER AGREE THAT NO ARBITRATION OR PROCEEDING WILL BE JOINED, CONSOLIDATED, OR COMBINED WITH ANOTHER ARBITRATION OR PROCEEDING WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF YOU, MICROSOFT, AND ALL PARTIES TO ANY SUCH ARBITRATION OR PROECCEDING.

Basically, both of those clauses protect Microsoft from being sued should you desire to take them to court over Xbox Live or your Xbox 360 console. Instead of going to court, any dispute will be handled by private arbitration. These arbitrations keep these disputes out of the public eye, which really only benefits Microsoft.

There are many states which provide citizens’ rights to always be allowed legal action, so you might want to check your state before accepting Microsoft’s ToS.

This is certainly not what you wanted to hear before starting your Xbox 360 dashboard download. Just don’t shoot the messenger.

This week, Microsoft announced the launch of its new Xbox platform and apps, with the goal of bringing about “the evolution of TV and entertainment”. Here’s a list of the apps and their scheduled release dates.

The company has apparently run into some unexpected issues with the launch, however. There isn’t much in the way of details, but there has been at least a slight delay.

Larry Hryb (aka: MajorNelson) of the Xbox team has been tweeting throughout the day:

Bing and Kinect play a big role in the update. You can read a bit more about that here. And here’s some info about ads that are on the way.

The Xbox 360 console experienced record Black Friday sales this year.

Microsoft’s Shawn McMichael talks about this on the company’s advertising blog. He says the launch “represents a new era of interactive TV advertising and a couple of firsts for advertising on Xbox Live.”

These would be standard TV ad spots within traditional TV content on Xbox Live, and Kinect-enabled branded destination experiences on Xbox Live.

“This makes Xbox LIVE the largest next generation TV platform to offer advertisers the ability to purchase 30 second TV spots within entertainment content. It also makes Xbox the only place on TV where advertisers can use the power of gesture to engage with audiences!” he says.

“From the moment Kinect launched, a little over a year ago, the industry has been asking us, what does this mean for advertisers?” he continues. “There has been a lot of talk about how Kinect voice and gesture controls have the power to transform TV and, in truth, the creative possibilities are endless. But we needed to develop formats to help advertisers take advantage of those possibilities and today I’m pleased to announce that we’ve delivered on that promise. At launch, we now more than 100 unique campaigns running with Kinect-enhanced BDEs, reaching the highly engaged audience of 35 million active Xbox LIVE subscribers around the globe.”

Content providers (like The Today Show, for example) are also partnering with Microsoft to sell standard 30-second ad spots within their content on Xbox Live.

The launch of all of the new apps will certainly make the Xbox a much more accessible to a wider audience, and that definitely means more ad appeal.

Actually, this is just one of many new features coming to Xbox. The company made a huge “future of TV” announcement for the Xbox 360. This includes a group of new apps aimed at boosting the entertainment potential of the console. It includes a lot of television and video related content. More on that here.

“Bing on Xbox opens up living room entertainment the same way search engines opened up the web,” says Bing GM Mike Nichols. “When you think about the state of entertainment, there isn’t a lack of selection, the challenge is finding what you want in a timely manner. Now when you say “Xbox, Bing, Star Trek,” Bing will show you all the available options for the movies, music, games, on-demand TV and apps that match that title.”

“Our goal with features like Bing on Xbox is to make Bing available in convenient and intuitive ways that take advantage of the capabilities of your device,” adds Nichols. “You can see this today with features like: voice search on Bing for Mobile, implicit search such as Local Scout on Windows Phone, the ability to search using your phone’s camera with Bing Vision, and touch/contextual search through the Lasso feature on the Bing for iPad. With Bing on Xbox, we are introducing a more natural way to search on the TV. And as a result, you can spend more time enjoying your entertainment, and far less time hunting for it.”

I was just saying the other day how it was surprising that Microsoft doesn’t utilize its Xbox platform more to Bing’s advantage. Frankly, they could still go further if you ask me.

Reports have Google’s deal with Mozilla dead, with a huge window of opportunity for Bing to slip in and boost its search market share there. It remains to be seen if that will happen, but with a Mozilla deal and more of a web focus on Xbox, Bing could potentially make some pretty substantial inroads in its competition with Google.

Bing for Xbox voice search will be available in English in the U.S., Canda and the U.K. for Zune video, Xbox Live Marketplace and select content partners at first. For those who don’t have Kinect, text search will be available in Xbox Live markets.

The Xbox 360 is enormously popular, already, and consistently performs very well for the company, come earnings report day. Now, they’re set to launch a slew of TV/video entertainment-related apps that should go a long way in solidifying Xbox as the premier way to connect to online video content for many users.

And they’re doing it with Kinect and voice search as a nice bonus.

“A new era in entertainment begins where all your entertainment is together in one place — your games, movies, TV shows, music and sports,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “With this update, Xbox 360 system owners will experience Kinect voice control integrated with Bing search, making your TV and entertainment experiences more social and personal than ever.”

The company put out this infographic with its announcement:

Here’s the schedule of the apps that will be rolling out:

Dec. 6:

Later in December:

Early 2012:

With Xbox obviously being much more than a gaming console now, this can’t hurt holiday sales either.