Turtle Beach Announces Its New Audio Presets Community Micro Site
For Sharing PX5, XP500 And Delta Presets

Sydney, Australia, March 7, 2012 – Turtle Beach, the market leading pioneers of the console gaming headset category, are pleased to announce the launch of their highly anticipated Audio Presets Community micro site.  This community has been designed to allow owners of the PX5, XP500 and Delta headsets to share user-generated presets, as well as Turtle Beach and official game developer created presets.

This Audio Presets Community micro site is an all-in-one destination for custom audio, giving registered users the ability to download Advanced Sound Editor (ASE) software for the Ear Force PX5, XP500, and DELTA which lets you connect your PX5, XP500 or Delta headset to a PC and live-tweak in-game audio for amazing results. This micro site will let users upload and share their custom presets for the PX5, XP500 and Delta with the community quickly and easily, with an interface that features details for each preset and user ratings.

Titles for which presets are currently available on the site include The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3, amongst many more.

The new community can be found at www.turtlebeach.com/presets and already features a variety of custom presets created by Turtle Beach audio designers and community members for a wide range of titles on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Please visit the new Audio Presets Community micro site now and download the updated tools so you can start uploading and sharing your presets today.

Start Sharing Presets now!

www.turtlebeach.com/presets

Attack the All-Out Galactic War from Multiple Fronts with the Four Player Co-Op Campaign and iOS-Exclusive App, Mass Effect Infiltrator

SYDNEY, Australia  – March 7, 2012 – The first blockbuster game of 2012 has arrived! Mass Effect™ 3 from BioWare, a Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), is now available at retail stores in North America and will be launching in Australia on March 8,  and in New Zealand and Europe on March 9.

We wanted let you know about a major and exciting upcoming change to the World of Warcraft Scroll of Resurrection, a feature that lets existing players invite old friends back to the game… and receive epic rewards in the process.

Soon, for a limited time, anyone who accepts a Scroll will receive the following benefits:

• A single character immediately boosted all the way to level 80 — DING!
• A FREE upgrade to Cataclysm — someone who hasn’t played since the original release would receive all of the game’s content for free, including the Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions
• An optional FREE character move and faction change — to the inviter’s realm and faction, making it easy to join old friends in the adventure 
• 7 FREE days of game time — available immediately upon accepting

Existing players can earn a gorgeous new faction mount when they use a Scroll of Resurrection to bring a friend or former guildmate back to World of Warcraft.  Once a resurrected friend renews and pays for at least 30 days of game, the Scroll of Resurrection sender will unlock one of the following epic rewards:

• A Free Spectral Gryphon for an Alliance character
• A Free Spectral Wind Rider for a Horde character

This is a great opportunity for players who haven’t experienced World of Warcraft recently. For more information, check out our blog post and FAQ. We look forward to reading your coverage, so please send through your links.

METAL GEAR SOLID: SNAKE EATER 3D is a reworked update of the best-selling PlayStation®2 title, and brings that game’s immersive jungle setting to life using the handheld’s glasses-free 3D imaging system. KONAMI has also confirmed that the new game will also make use of the new Nintendo 3DS Circle Pad Pro accessory, and has revealed the packshot for the first time.

METAL GEAR SOLID: SNAKE EATER 3D is set during the Cold War of the 60s, and sees series hero Snake infiltrating the Soviet jungle to bring back a scientist being held against his will. Starting on the outskirts of a military base, the player must use Snake’s stealth skills along with the foliage and shade that the jungle offers as cover to infiltrate unseen. As the game progresses, old faces make unwelcome appearances and a series of terrifying boss characters must be defeated before leading up to a dramatic twist that brings Snake face to face with a key figure from his past…

The new game springs to life in 3D, with the jungle’s dense foliage and craggy outcrops acting as truly immersive cover as the player works their way through the lush setting. The game also takes full advantage of the split-screen format, enabling easier access to Snake’s inventory, which is now located below the main action. The game also supports gyro synchronisation, for special actions like balancing on narrow ledges that will draw players further into the world of MGS. Similarly, targeting enemies is now made simpler with the addition of Circle Pad Pro-compatibility, with the second Circle Pad allowing users to target distant foes with ease.

Concealing one’s self and sneaking up on guards is central to METAL GEAR SOLID: SNAKE EATER 3D, but the 3D elements make key boss battles and exploration all the more incredible. The Nintendo 3DS title utilises a first-person view in which the foliage can be seen brushing past as Snake moves through it, and the many creatures that inhabit the locale will attack if Snake disturbs them. However, these can also be killed and stored as rations, highlighting how Snake must also overcome his surroundings while undercover on his mission…

Another addition exclusive to METAL GEAR SOLID: SNAKE EATER 3D is an all-new camouflage photography system. Within the game, Snake can alter his ensemble to match and blend in with his immediate environment and the possibilities can range from brick-coloured fatigues within buildings, to the classic camouflage khakis of the jungle. Users can now take a picture of real-life items and create a camo suit based on them – although the extent of its effectiveness will vary depending on how well your pictures blend with Snake’s environment!

SYDNEY, Australia March 7, 2012 – The franchise that laid the foundations of the city building simulation genre is back, empowering players to create the world of their imagination! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) today announced that SimCity™ is breaking new ground in 2013. SimCity for PC, a brand new entry in the franchise is currently in development at Maxis Emeryville, and was revealed today during Game Changers @ GDC, a symposium that featured inspirational speeches from Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and charity: water CEO and founder Scott Harrison. “We’d like to thank the millions of fans who have helped make SimCity synonymous with the city-building genre. This is a franchise that means the world to us at Maxis and we’re happy to be bringing it back home where we are reimagining it for an entirely new generation of players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President of EA’s Maxis Label.

“Using our proprietary GlassBox Engine, SimCity for PC will equip players with the tools to play the most sophisticated simulation of its kind. We are dedicated to making sure the experience – no matter the platform – has the fun, flavor and playability that has been intrinsic to the franchise since its birth.” SimCity, slated for release in calendar year 2013 for PC, is a true rebirth of the franchise that brings the depth of simulation that has been the series hallmark for more than two decades and marries it with next generation accessibility and a robust multiplayer mode, giving players the power to change a world together. Fans can catch their first glimpse of the rebirth of SimCity by viewing the extended trailer at www.SimCity.com and can pre-order SimCity today on Origin™ to receive SimCity Heroes &Villains content* featuring a battle between Maxis Man and his longtime nemesis Evil Dr. Vu. For more than two decades, the king of city-building simulators has sworn in millions of virtual mayors from around the world. With its return in 2013, SimCity will engage an entirely new generation of PC gamers as they take charge of their own customized cities and build a world that co-exists alongside friends. For the first time in SimCity franchise history, players’ decisions will have long-lasting repercussions that will extend beyond their city limits. Together, players will address real global challenges such as climate change, the search for renewable resources and natural disasters.  It’s up to the players to decide whether to compete or collaborate to shape the world of tomorrow – for better or for worse.
Powered by the GlassBox Engine, Maxis’ proprietary engine, the simulation comes to life in a way never before possible. Everything you see in the world we sim – Sims in each city will have jobs or can lose them, buy homes, be prosperous or be an economic drain on the city. SimCity is the city builder in which every choice powers real change that affects the character of your city, the state of your region and fellow players within the entire SimCity world. Original fans and newcomers alike will relish the opportunity to build visually and functionally unique cities that take on the character of their choices. Combining fun, addictive gameplay elements with an interface that encourages anyone to jump in and begin playing, SimCity will usher forth a new era of city-building simulation as players work to change a world together.
With its first release in 1989, SimCity is the premier city-building franchise that has captivated more than 30 million players worldwide. Since then, several award-winning entries such as SimCity 2000™, SimCity 3000™ and SimCity 4 have been produced by the critically acclaimed Maxis studio. Players step into the role of a mayor as they break ground on the foundations of the next big city. The franchise gives players the means to create highly detailed recreations that are populated with real-world issues and real-world problems. With a powerful toolset at their fingertips, players have the ability to create uniquely specialized cities, everything from a bustling financial haven to an oil-guzzling industrial complex; SimCity compels players to create the world of their imagination.
SimCity for PCis in development at the world-renowned Maxis studio in Emeryville, California and has not yet been rated by the ESRB. To stay up-to-date on the latest regarding SimCity please visit www.SimCity.com.  To pre-order and secure the SimCity Heroes & Villains Pack please visit http://store.origin.com/SimCity.Press assets for SimCity are available at www.ea-anz-press.com

• Conditions and restrictions apply. See http://store.origin.com/SimCity for details.

GRAPEVINE, Texas – GameStop (NYSE: GME), the world’s largest multichannel video game retailer, is giving Max Payne followers everywhere the chance to be immortalized in Max Payne 3’s Cemetery Multiplayer Map, GameStop’s exclusive pre-order bonus. From now until March 11, 2012, there will be three ways for lucky fans to get their names featured on one of three tombstones in the cemetery.

Mission 1 (Feb. 29, 2012 through March 2, 2012)

Visit GameStop’s Twitter page at www.twitter.com/GameStop and RT the  designated message for the chance to get your name on a tombstone.

Mission 2 (March 2, 2012 through March 6, 2012)

Visit GameStop’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/GameStop and enter for the chance to be featured on a tombstone.

Mission 3 (March 6, 2012 through March 11, 2012)

Visit GameStop’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/GameStop to watch the Max Payne 3 trailer and answer a trivia question to be entered for the chance to be featured on a tombstone.

Rockstar Games will launch Max Payne 3 on May 15 for the Xbox 360(r) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation(r)3 computer entertainment system, and on May 29 for the PC. Customers who pre-order Max Payne 3 at GameStop will get free early access to the Cemetery Multiplayer Map before it is made available for purchase to the public. Pre-order the Max Payne 3 Special Edition by April 2. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/GameStop.

Rockstar Games is a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

“PlayStation” is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment  America Inc.

Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft.

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

About GameStop Corp.

GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, is the world’s largest multichannel video game retailer. GameStop’s retail network and family of brands include 6,627 company-operated stores in 17 countries worldwide and online at www.GameStop.com. The network also includes: www.Kongregate.com, a leading browser-based game site; Game Informer(R) magazine, the leading multi-platform video game publication; Spawn Labs, a streaming technology company; and a digital PC game distribution platform available at http://www.GameStop.com/PC.

By Chris Tyler

For people of a certain age, Star Wars was once everything; even if you’ve gone off it since the prequels. There will always be a special place in your heart for the original trilogy. There are several reasons for this, the sound design was memorable as was the music but being a movie you can’t minimize the importance of the visuals and the man who designed those visuals was Ralph McQuarrie.

When George Lucas lumped into Allan Ladds office on the 20^th century Fox lot he wasn’t particularly hopeful, he’d been shopping his script, a sprawling space sage around for the last few months. No one, it seemed was interested. His pitch was pretty similar to many film makers that walked into offices. He had a breakdown of the script, a spec script and a pitch on how much money it could make.  However, George had one ace up his sleeve. George had some Ralph McQuarrie prints. McQuarrie was as little known as Lucas was but he had produced some lush, exciting, almost fully formed scenes from the film. George often said “this is how it’s going to look”. Later, when the film was in production, when Georges words failed him he would point to the prints and say, “make it look like this”.  And it looked amazing.

I said on my blog today that Ralph Macquarie designed my childhood and really it’s not far from the truth. Along with Chris Foss, Moebius, Syd Mead and Ron Cobb, Ralph McQuarrie’s designs wormed their way into my head and certainly had an impact on the way I view design today and probably how I think visually.

The Star Wars films owe almost everything to his vision and ability with a brush. If you go back to the original concept prints, the seeds for all we know and love are there, Darth Vader, C3P0, Chewbacca, The Millennium Falcon, the Death Star. The very idea of a used future. It’s all there. Of course at this time Han solo was still a fish alien so he looked a little different. And so too with the films so goes the toys, and the toys were a huge part of my childhood too. He also worked on the original Battle Star Galactica and that was a huge part of my childhood as well and if you notice that in the 2004 reboot the thing they did bring back were the ships and the Cylons. Yup, McQuarrie again.

Goodbye Ralph the world would have been a dull, uninteresting place without you.

SYDNEY, Australia—6 March, 2012—Apple® today announced that more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store™ by the users of the more than 315 million iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch® devices worldwide. The 25 billionth app downloaded, Where’s My Water? Free, was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. As the winner of the App Store Countdown to 25 Billion Apps, Chunli Fu will receive a USD$10,000 iTunes® Gift Card.

“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

The revolutionary App Store offers more than 550,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 123 countries around the world, with more than 170,000 native iPad apps available. App Store customers can choose from an incredible range of apps in 21 categories, including Newsstand, games, business, news, sports, health & fitness and travel. The App Store has paid out more than four billion US dollars to developers.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Razer and Sixense launch full motion gaming support for Valve game titles and software integration with Steam

Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, United States and Sydney, Australia – 6^th March, 2012 – Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, together with Sixense Entertainment, the leader in precision motion technology, announce fully integrated motion gaming support for Valve’s game titles including Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life 2, and Team Fortress 2 using the Razer Hydra motion sensing controller. Future Valve titles Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will also support full motion play with the Razer Hydra.

Additionally, Sixense and Valve have now integrated Sixense MotionCreator^TM 2.0 software with Valve’s Steam gaming platform, enabling backward compatibility for motion gaming with the Razer Hydra for over 250 of the most popular titles on Steam. Now, Steam users will receive automatic motion control updates for current and future game titles, and a new in-game overlay allows gamers to view control maps for the Razer Hydra as they play.

“The Razer Hydra’s magnetic motion-sensing technology is the fastest and most precise to deliver a level of gaming immersion other motion-sensing tech in the industry right now can only dream of. Gamers are going to experience Valve’s new and legacy games in an amazing and fun way”, said Robert ‘RazerGuy’ Krakoff, President, Razer USA.

“Sixense is excited to bring the Razer Hydra motion gaming experience to the Steam community,” said Amir Rubin, CEO and Co-Founder, Sixense. “By wrapping Sixense MotionCreator inside Steam, the PC and Mac gaming platform of choice for both gamers and developers, we are able to provide plug-and-play functionality for the Razer Hydra to showcase our innovative motion gaming modes across game genres.”

The Razer Hydra is the world’s first PC gaming-grade motion-sensing peripheral to use an electromagnetic field to track your hand movements as you hold two ultra-precise motion sensing controllers. Because the Razer Hydra tracks the position of your hands down to a millimeter and degree, saving the world in Half-Life 2, cutting down zombies in Left 4 Dead 2, and pushing the cart in Team Fortress 2 will be a highly intuitive and immersive affair.

In response to significant demand from developers, Sixense has created Mac OS and Linux versions of the Sixense SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Razer Hydra. The Mac, Linux and Windows versions are now available for download from Steam. The Sixense SDK allows developers to quickly and easily create immersive gaming experiences that take advantage of the Razer Hydra’s full six degrees of motion freedom.

Game developers and independent software vendors who are interested in porting their current games or developing future games based on the Razer Hydra and Sixense motion sensing platform are invited to write to dev@sixense.com.

About the Razer Hydra Motion Sensing Controllers

The Razer Hydra is the first gaming-grade motion-sensing controller to bring a whole new dimension of gameplay and immersion to the PC and Mac. With compatibility for over 250 games out of the box and future support for gamers to self-configure controls for any PC or Mac game, the entertainment possibilities are virtually endless. Built to deliver ultra-low latency and location-orientation tracking exact to the millimeter and degree, the precision and speed of the Razer Hydra make it unrivalled amongst its kind.

Price:

Razer Hydra standalone (via RazerStore): US$99.99
Razer Hydra + Portal 2 : Available at Razerzone.com

Availability:

Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life 2 and Sixense MotionCreatorTM 2.0 – Available March, 2012

Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – Available at title release

Product features:

(Per controller)

• Thumb-ergonomic analog stick for fluid control
• 4 Hyperesponse action buttons
• Rapid-fire trigger and bumper for faster in-game response
• Non-slip satin grip surface
• True six degree-of-freedom magnetic motion tracking
• Lightweight, anti-tangle braided cable

(Base station)

• Low-power magnetic field, low power consumption
• Ultra precise sensor for 1mm and 1 degree tracks
• No line of sight to controllers required
• Low latency feedback

For more really interesting information about the Razer Hydra, please visit www.razerzone.com/hydra

Razer Hydra images

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About the Razer Group:

Razer™ is the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware. Founded in 1998, with its headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif., the company has offices in nine cities around the globe. Used by the most demanding professional gamers who compete in global tournaments, Razer provides gamers with the unfair advantage of cutting-edge technology and award-winning design. We live by our motto: For Gamers. By Gamers.

Learn more at www.razerzone.com

About Sixense™ Entertainment:
Sixense Entertainment is a Los Gatos, Calif. based company founded in 2007 with the goal of bringing high precision motion tracking technologies to gaming and other mass markets. Founded by a team of experts in the visual simulation and entertainment industries, Sixense recognised that the full potential of motion gaming could only be achieved when the computer could recognise the player’s every movement. The fundamental high performance of its magnetic tracking technology along with its easy to use software development platform has allowed Sixense to partner with hardware and software companies to commercialise superior gaming and digital media solutions.

For more information, please visit www.sixense.com