Assassin's Creed Victory confirmed for fall 2015

2015's Assassin's Creed game has leaked, and it takes place in 19th century London during the Victorian era, Kotaku reports.

According to "a person familiar with the game," it's called (either officially or internally) Assassin's Creed Victory, and it's coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in fall 2015.

Kotaku also reports seeing seven minutes of "target gameplay footage," which they say was produced in Assassin's Creed's engine, and thus was not pre-rendered.

In the video, the assassin climbs a tower to get a view of the city, descends, enters a carriage, and accepts a contract to kill a man. When the carriage is attacked, the assassin battles on top of the moving vehicle. The fight makes its way to a train station where the assassin ascends to the high ground, swings across the station using a grappling hook -- a new item for the series -- and takes out the target.

Ubisoft has responded with the following comment: (Via IGN)


"It is always unfortunate when internal assets, not intended for public consumption, are leaked. And, while we certainly welcome anticipation for all of our upcoming titles, we're disappointed for our fans, and our development team, that this conceptual asset is now public. The team in our Quebec studio has been hard at work on the particular game in question for the past few years, and we're excited to officially unveil what the studio has been working on at a later date. In the meantime, our number one priority is enhancing the experience of Assassin's Creed Unity for players."

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine

Johnnemann Nordhagen worked as a programmer at the Fullbright Company when the studio created Gone Home. But now, at the helm of his own new studio, he's announced Where the Water Tastes Like Wine.

The San Francisco-based developer has yet to release any specifics about the gameplay of its new project, but the concept art showcases a hand drawn art style, with possible supernatural elements  one piece shows a man in a top hat playing cards with a humanoid wolf, and another portrays a giant, bird-like creature.

"The art suggests that there's more going on in the world than what we necessarily see," Nordhagen told IGN. "Every once in a while we see through the cracks in the world and get a peek at other realities. It's recognizably America, though - poker and trains, the Southwestern desert mesas, and something that suggests the colorful and idyllic farm produce labels of the beginning of the 20th century. It's the sort of America that might live in tall tales, in blues, folk, and bluegrass songs, and travelers' stories."

Philips has allegedly filed a complaint against Nintendo.

Technology company Philips has allegedly filed a complaint against Nintendo stating that the latter has infringed on two Philips patents in the U.S., according to a document on Scribd.

According to the alleged complaint, which was posted on a Neogaf forum, the patents claim "protection for an interactive system for which a user can remotely control devices in an intuitive manner." These patents supposedly prevent the production, use, sale or import of "human-computer interaction systems" in the judicial district of Delaware.

Philips' complaint states that the Wii, Wii U and related equipment make use of technology protected under these patents. Section 16 of the complaint states that Nintendo possibly infringed on one of the patents, patent '379, deliberately. The Japanese company was aware of the infringement no later than Dec. 16, 2011, according to the document.

Philips is supposedly asking for compensation of up to three time the damages caused by Nintendo's alleged infringements, in accordance with 35 U.S. Code, which states that the court may allow up to that amount.

Source IGN

BY MIKE MAHARDY

Trion Worlds Closing Defiance's San Diego Development Studio

By way of IGN.com Trion Worlds has confirmed the closure of its San Diego development studio. "The day to day operations of Defiance will be moved to our Redwood City studio where it can be managed alongside Rift and our other in development titles including ArcheAge and End of Nations," a representative told IGN. Some employees, however, will remain with Trion. "As part of this transition, we are working hard to ensure that a number of great people will be making the move from San Diego to the Bay Area and continue their work at Trion." Also today, Scott Hartsman returned to Trion as CEO after his departure in January. Trion San Diego suffered layoffs earlier this year, as well. IGN wishes the best of luck to anyone affected by today’s news.

300GB disc?!

Right now, a dual layer Blu-ray disc is capable of holding about 50GB of data. And while the next generation of video game consoles will both feature Blu-ray compatibility, it seems Sony isn't satisfied with the current technology's limitations. As mentioned by CNET, Sony has teamed up with Panasonic to create a new optical disc capable of storing up to 300GB of information.

Image Source: It's All Tech

Panasonic released a statement on the collaboration, with the tech companies working jointly to create a new disc standard by the end of 2015. The 300GB optical discs are geared toward professional use (obviously), with the new storage capacity offering unique advantages to archivists and video editors, for example. Both Sony and Panasonic have previously released storage options which combine multiple optical discs into one cohesive drive.

So, how could this new technology appeal to gamers? Well, that's not immediately clear. Sony could very well release the new discs under a Blu-ray moniker, or attempt to make the discs compatible with the PlayStation 4. Realistically, the discs would likely prove cost prohibitive and unnecessary for storing game data. But whereas today's triple-A games may only require around 15GB of information, advancements in technology could mean significantly larger file sizes in just a matter of years.

And when internet service providers are capping your bandwidth, you just might need a trusty old optical disc after all.

- Matt Clark, is a freelance writer covering the world of videogames, tech, and popular culture. Follow him on Twitter @ClarkMatt