It’ll be release on iOS and Android devices, as well as Amazon Kindle and Windows Mobile devices.

Press release:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Mobile Coming this December

Before GTAV took us to the sun-bleached sidewalks and humming concrete freeways of present-day Los Santos and beyond, there was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the biggest GTA of the PS2 era. Now, head back to the early 90s with CJ and the Grove Street Families when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes to mobile devices next month.

Encompassing Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas and everything in between, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been upgraded for its mobile release. Newly remastered graphics including dynamic and detailed shadows, greater draw distance, an enriched color palette, plus enhanced character and car models make this the best-looking version of San Andreas yet.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also features brand new touch controls including contextual control options to display buttons only when you need them and three different control schemes for driving and maneuvering, as well as a reworked checkpoint system for easier progression. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for mobile also comes equipped with full controller support, including Made for iOS controller capability on iOS7. It will be available for select iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle and Windows Mobile devices. Stay tuned for more details in the weeks ahead.

Via Rockstar.

Blizzard’s free-to-play card game based on the Warcraft universe, HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft, will go completely open for everyone in December.

Chiec creative officer Rob Pardo announced the news in today’s BlizzCon, and added the possibility of a delay is there, and December may mean January “in Blizzard speak”.
iPhone and Android versions of the game are also being developed, and are slated to go wild in the second half of 2014.

Sony revealed that the iOS and Android application “PlayStation App” will be released in North America on November 13 and Europe on November22.

What the app will do, in short, is: provide second screen functionality for applicable PS4 titles, let you access your PSN profile, check friends and trophies, send messages to people (App, PS3, PS4 and Vita users), make purchases remotely and download them, use the smartphone/tablet to turn on/off your console, and finally, double it as a keyboard to ease up typing.

Will you be using the app alongside the PS4 once it releases in November?

Do you ever get enough Final Fantasy? If not, one of the best entries is being remade for mobiles. Final Fantasy VI will come to iOS and Android devices this winter, director and producer Takashi Tokita revealed to Kotaku.

“It is basically like a remake of the original VI. But there have been some enhancements.

The battle systems have been altered for the other [mobile remakes] for Final Fantasy and VI will be the same. For instance grinding was an issue and people had to spend a lot of time leveling up. Now on the mobile devices the battle systems have been adjusted so you don’t have to fight as much and can enjoy the game for what it is.”

The graphics will be 2D but sharper, much like the previous entry that reached mobiles, Final Fantasy V. Part of the Legacy project is also the re-release of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, remade in full 3D for mobiles. After that, a bomb was dropped.

“We are aware that we have tons of VII fans. We have VII fans in our own company. If this Legacy project works out well, we would like to one day be able to work with VII.”

And, just like that, a Square Enix that releases great games recently but stumbles two steps back for every forward one, might turn its luck around. Let’s see, will the world finally get the much-wanted Final Fantasy VII remake? I just hope it’s not for mobiles.

Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that the PlayStation App will be free for iOS and Android, and will feature functions like buying games and starting a download on the console remotely, to have it ready when you’re back home.

It will also allow you to send messages in both voice and text forms to people playing on the PlayStation 4, as well as multiplayer invitations. Activity feeds in the vein of Facebook, stat display, videos and more are coming to the PlayStation App, and high-profile games are willing to take advantage of it; namely, Watch_Dogs, DriveClub and Knack will make use of it.

Will you give it a go? After all, it’s free, so no harm in trying!

According to Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD offers “a complete graphical overhaul, re- mastered music and sound effects, a revamped gameplay experience, and new missions that dive deeper into Aveline’s story.”

The HD version of Liberation features the same story as the PS Vita version, although some cutscenes were added to clear up the story somewhat.

Liberation HD is in development at Ubisoft Sofia, and will see a release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2014.

The other title, Assassin’s Creed Pirates, is being developed by Ubisoft Paris for high-end tablets and smartphones. Ubisoft says players will be able to manage their crew and search for treasures, and ships will be customizable, with players given the freedom to buy upgrades such as “more cannons for your deck, a new rudder or better sails.”

AC Pirates tells the story of Alonzo Batilla “as he rises through the ranks of the fearful pirates of the golden age.” Ubisoft promises “an adventure that will reveal the truth about La Buse’s mysterious treasure” as well as interactions with “the Templars and the Assassins as they struggle for supremacy and meet the famed figures of the era: Blackbeard, Bellamy and Hornigold.” Pirates will offer “dozens of side missions, treasures quests, perks and achievements” and “groundbreaking 3D visuals.”

Ubisoft also stressed that Assassin’s Creed Pirates is a standalone title, in that it isn’t tied to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag in any way, shape or form.

Talking on the PlayStation Blog, Revolution Software Co-founder Charles Cecil said:

“The PS Vita is an ideal device for an adventure game — the combination of the front and rear touch screen, as well as the analog stick and shoulder buttons, gives us so much scope to create a really great user interface.”

This fifth entry in the series will take protagonists George Stobbard and Nico Collard all the way back to conspiracies originating in the World War II era. A stolen painting, though visually not worth much, is said to have been cursed by the Devil, and the trusty duo are back to solve another supernatural mystery.

The latest from Quantic Dream, Beyond: Two Souls for the PlayStation 3, can utilize iOS and Android devices for a different, touch-to-move control scheme.  The game will be able to be played through an app, which will be free for tablets and smartphones, allowing the device to connect to your Playstation 3 via wi-fi.

David Cage also revealed the “Duo mode”, which will allow a second player to jump in as Aiden and use his powers to solve puzzles. You can combine touch screen devices and controllers to play the game as you want, with any combination being viable. Cage said that this mode was for people not “born with a Dualshock in their hands”.

I wasn’t born with a DualShock in my hands; back in the day, the regular Playstation controller lacked any analog sticks whatsoever. Good to know people will get more options though, not to mention it’s free! You can never go wrong with free.

EA Capital Games is heading development, formerly known as The KlickNation, responsible for hit games Superhero City and Age of Champions.

Executive Producer Jeferson Valadares spoke to IGN about the game.

“We all like CCGs, RPGs, and squad-based tactics games, but they can be a little niche. The idea for Heroes of Dragon Age was to take those ideas and make them more strategic. We set out to make an accessible strategy RPG that takes full advantage of the Dragon Age universe’s cool characters and locations.”

HoDA will not tell any new stories, but will instead focus on “What If?” scenarios that will keep the action going. Every quest is self-contained and will allow players to relive significant moments from the Dragon Age timeline, be it games or books. You can have Alistair and Morrigan fighting alongside Darkspawn, for example.

HoDA will launch with more than 100 unique characters, each with four potential variations and evolutions. After the game’s launch, the character count will increase, adding characters from Dragon Age: Inquisition, among other, unexplored bits and pieces from the series’ lore.

Valadares added:

“Characters are sorted into four different factions and have rock/paper/scissor-style pros and cons. Players construct their team and pick their placement ahead of time and the battles then play out automatically. The planning stage still keeps everything strategic. You might want to keep multiple squads on hand that are optimized to take down specific types of opponents, for example.”

“Everything is available just through playing – nothing is locked off. Players that spend money can just increase their odds of getting rare characters. Fairness is very important to us,” said Valadares, regarding potential pay-to-win issues.

In AGB’s words:

According to those we spoke with who have knowledge of the in-development hardware, Amazon will be leveraging the titles already available on its platform. Each day, the company offers one productivity or game app for free and stocks a healthy library for its own devices, like the Kindle Fire. The console will also have its own, dedicated controller.

At this point, and following reports of Google choosing the same path, I think there’s a trend with Android-based consoles. What’s your take?

1. Monster Hunter Fronter G for PS3
2. Monster Hunter Fronter G for WiiU
3. Monster Hunter Frontier G for Taiwan
4. Onimusha Soul for ‘consumer game platform’
5. Euro Historia for browsers
6. Monster Hunter Mezapolta Reclaimation for Browsers
7. Street Fighter Battle Combination for iOS/Android
8. Street Fighter x All Capcom for iOS/Android
9. Monhun Everyday Airu Life for iOS
10. Frontier of Discovery for iOS/Android
11. Codename: Rio for iOS/Android
12. Breath of Fire 6 for Browsers/iOS/Android
13. Monster Hunter: Big Hunting Quest for iOS/Android

At this moment, no European or North American localization has been mentioned anywhere, so don’t hold your breath for any of these.

With the top-selling games for the platform having only sold a few thousands at best, Uhrman still says it’s encouraging and successful.

“Monetization on Ouya is so far better than we expected. It takes time to build what traditional consoles have had decades to build. “

She also said it was “too early” to draw conclusions from early stats, that suggest many gamers are taking full advantage of the game’s library of free-to-play demos, and are not upgrading to full versions. A very discouraging figure is that 27% of owners have paid for a game on Ouya, adding that 13 of Ouya’s 20 top grossing games have managed an average rate of 8% of gamers upgrading from the free to paid versions. Matt Thorson, developer of the best-selling Ouya game, has made around 21.000$ since the console’s launch last month.

“There are a lot of social and mobile app developers that would kill for an eight percent attach rate on a platform that’s 30 days old. These numbers will grow as more gamers pick up consoles, and as we attract more developers, and I believe that by the end of the year, we’ll see a few developers telling us they’ve made more than a million dollars on Ouya. To say developers can’t make money on Ouya, I take offense to that. The console has only been out for a month, and developers have only had access to the hardware for about six months. We really like what we see so far, and so do developers and gamers.”

Tiny Thief

Tiny Thief is an addictive puzzle-solving, hidden-objects adventure. Set in a medieval fantasy world full of surprises, the game brings back the magic of point-and-click games with a distinctive visual style and oodles of humor.

Game Features

• Six big adventures: Snreak and steal your way through six epic quest, featuring an awesome pirate ahip and daring castle siege!

• Use cunning and skill: out-smart your tricky opponents using the elements of surprise and some downright saneakiness!

• Unexpected surprises: explore fully interactive levels and uncover hidden treasures and other surprises at every turn!

Press Release:

Prince of Persia Wii be Back on Mobile on July 25th

Today, Ubisoft announced that the legendary Prince of Persia series will come back on mobile devices with Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame on July 25th on iOS and Android devices, through Google Play and Amazon, at a price of $2.99.

Rebirth of the legendary action-platformer, with brand-new visuals and redesigned controls, Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame is set after the events of Prince of Persia Classic, continuing the saga of the wanderer who was born a Prince. Now he must embark on an epic journey in search of his past to redefine his future.

Following the storyline of the original game released 10 years ago, it will allow players to explore various levels in visually-stunning 3D with intuitive controls designed for touchscreens. Among plenty of new features, players will now be able to choose between gesture-based touch controls or the classic virtual joystick. The combat system has also been improved with multiple enemies, tactical challenges and a brand new combo system.

The game’s experience can still be extended through social connectivity, allowing to unlock achievements and ascend the leaderboards or to share scores with Facebook integration.

 

This news comes to us courtesy Wall Street Journal, a very reputable source that’s almost always correct with its leaks.

Here are some important quotes from the article:

Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and digital wrist watch powered by its Android operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet company seeks to spread the software’s domination beyond smartphones and tablets and cement build the company ‘s reputation as a hardware maker.

With the watch and game console, Google is hoping to combat similar devices that Apple Inc. may release in the future, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Google is also preparing to release a second version of a Web-connected, Android-powered media-playing device, called Nexus Q, that was unveiled last year but not sold to the public, these people said.

The Internet giant hopes to design and market the devices itself and release at least one of them this fall, they added.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

The hardware plans are the latest sign of Google’s determination to build on the success of Android, the software it launched in 2008 that powered 75% of all smartphones and 56.5% of tablets shipped globally in the first quarter, according to the research firm IDC.

Games that run on Android software have proved particularly popular, and they are growing much more quickly than games made for the big-name consoles supplied by Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. The appeal of such games has prompted the development of new devices aimed specifically for Android by other hardware companies.

The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Google has also been watching the efforts of Ouya Inc., a startup that this week began selling a $99 Android-based console and game controller, one of these people said.

So how do you guys feel about this? Will Google and Apple’s products hinder the success of PS4 and Xbox One? We have a few interesting months ahead of us, folks.