You'll finally be able to buy games and add-ons for your Xbox when you're away from the console. Mobile purchasing via SmartGlass or Xbox.com is one of the features coming to the Xbox ecosystem in a future update, which will roll out next week in early-access form to select XB1 owners.
The main event for The International starts today, with ViCi Gaming facing NewBee in the first upper bracket match, followed by Evil Geniuses versus Team DK. You can watch it all go down here.
Today's gaming highlights: Casually landing a plane on a boat in a warzone, jumping over buildings like Superman, an incredible sniper shot, and more!
Behold Studios' Chroma Squad is about managing a brand new sentai television series and, being an in-depth parody, it of course draws inspiration from real-life shows, including -- but far from limited to -- Power Rangers. In an update sent to Kickstarter backers, the studio said that Saban, the rights holder for Power Rangers, has been in contact over the game.
It seems Saban wants royalties for Chroma Squad, or else it'll go to court to prevent the title's release. The two companies are trying to reach a deal for the former option, as "going into court would be painful for both sides," according to Behold.
"You all know that our game is inspired by something much broader than Power Rangers," continued the studio. "We're talking about an amazing sentai culture that is mostly Japanese, but got even bigger with fans from around the world. We're talking about tokusatsu in general, Japanese super heroes, animes, kamen riders, everything that inspired us very much in our childhood and continue to inspire us now."
From the sound of it, they'll be able to resolve this situation. "We're talking to them right now and we hope that everything goes well, and we can stay indie as we want, and as the game needs to be: heartful, inspiring, amazing, and with a lot of jokes, quirky stories, and every bit of the meta layer that we love. Don't worry, we'll do everything to make the game come out!"
I'd sure hope so -- Chroma Squad is one of my favorite games to come out of Kickstarter. Here's hoping Behold doesn't have to give up too much.
[Thanks, Velv V, Alex, and Luan]
The Wii U GamePad has a really cool feature built into it in the form of an NFC reader, but it hardly ever really uses it. In Japan however, Nintendo has worked with the company who distributes Suica cards to make it possible to swipe payments for the Wii U eShop simply by waving it over the GamePad.
These cards are used for public transportation in Japan, so it's very reasonable to reload them consistently and use them for eShop purchases every now and then. I really hope this concept is localized at some point, even if it was just to read eShop points cards -- I've gotten to the point where I'm used to the Xbox One and iPhone's functionality of reading cards via camera.
家庭用ゲーム機「Wii U」でSuicaがご利用いただけるようになります [Nintendo via Nintendo Life]
Jerks continue to waste everyone's time—and risk people's lives—by getting the cops to raid the homes of unsuspecting, innocent gamers. We and other outlets have covered "swatting" incidents. Now Phoenix, Arizona station 12 News is on the case, too.
The only thing better than digitally tripping people with goats is tripping real people with real goats, but at least you can do the former for under $6 today. [Goat Simulator]
Yesterday Nintendo premiered the Cat Mario Show on the eShop in Europe. It's an edutainment show aimed at kids who want to learn facts about Nintendo properties. It's also mildly terrifying for reasons I can't quite explain.
The Asiimov skin for the AWP sniper rifle in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can be a pricey one, $30 or a lot more if you're not lucky. So buying one might not be the best idea. But modifying a generic paintball marker to match the one in CS:GO? That's much better.
