News::Clearing 'Trials of the Blood Dragon' demo unlocks full PC game

Game demos typically are little more than a bullet point in a publisher's marketing plan designed to give folks an early taste of what a game might end up being while simultaneously driving pre-order numbers northward. But for Trials of the Blood Dragon, Ubisoft is trying something different. If you download the, err, trial version of the game on PC and complete the available challenges within a certain threshold of perfection, you'll unlock the full version of the game. Of course, you'll have to suffer through using Ubisoft's Uplay interface to do so, but that's probably a lot less work than getting 15 faults or fewer across the some 30 available stages.

Source: Ubiblog

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News::Nintendo looks into making VR safe for kids

Nintendo's shareholder meeting didn't just hint at possible smartphone controllers. Company veteran Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that Nintendo's tentative research into virtual reality has included investigations into making VR kid-friendly. As he explains, the gaming pioneer wants to ensure that "a parent doesn't need to worry" when a little one dons a VR headset. Just what that entails isn't clear, although there could easily be a few factors: protecting eyesight, maintaining a manageable weight and preventing children from smacking into objects.

Source: Nintendo

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News::Australian police urge 'Pokémon Go' players to pay more attention

Zealous new Pokémon Go trainers around the world are out catching 'em all, but a police station in Australia is warning against actually walking into the station just to nab the items that could be lurking there.

Via: The Verge

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News::GAME is building an 'eSports zone' inside one of its stores

When GAME acquired Multiplay, we knew it was because the retailer wanted to get into eSports. With such a large number of stores, and growing competition from online businesses like Amazon, it seemed an obvious way for the company to earn more money. Now, we're finally seeing that idea come to life. The company has announced an "eSports zone" that will sit inside one of its stores in Manchester. It's a dedicated, permanent fixture with 10 PCs and a virtual reality "pod" that can host both GAME and developer-affiliated events. GAME says it'll cater for titles such as Hearthstone, Minecraft and Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

Source: GAME

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News::'Persona 5' and other Atlus games are coming to Europe

If you're a fan of the Persona series and its stylised take on the JRPG formula, good news -- Persona 5 is coming to Europe. The region was notably absent when the game was announced for the US last month. Now we know why -- Atlus and Sega are relying on Deep Silver, the publisher of Homefront: The Revolution, to distribute the title across the continent. It's an unusual move given that Sega is a publisher in its own right, and perhaps indicative of a wider business decision. Aside from the occasional Sonic game, there's little for the company to get behind these days.

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News::Manchester City signs its first FIFA eSports player

At this rate the Premier League will need its own dedicated eSports division. Following West Ham United, which signed Sean "Dragonn" Allen back in May, Manchester City has recruited its own FIFA star. Kieran "Kez" Brown is the club's first eSports signing and will represent the team at both major tournaments and fan events. He's not the biggest name -- his YouTube channel has less than 12,000 subscribers -- but he is a competent player. Prolific YouTuber Spencer Owen held a competition earlier this year to recruit a FIFA fanatic into his professional "Hashtag United" team; Brown narrowly missed out, losing to Harry Hesketh in the final.

Source: Manchester City

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News::Nintendo hints at smartphone controller plans

Nintendo executives have dropped an unsubtle hint that it is working on a peripheral to enable people to play its action games on smartphones. At the firm's annual shareholders meeting, Shinya Takahashi said that his team have looked at third-party controllers on the market and "may develop something new by ourselves." Takahashi was responding to the question that playing Nintendo's more famous titles (i.e. Mario) is difficult using the virtual controls that are available with touchscreen devices. After all, it's clear that more than a few people would be happy to lay down money to play a classic Mario title on their smartphone.

Via: Polygon

Source: Nintendo

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