In-Flight VR Coming to Australian Airline

Australian airline Qantas has announced a partnership with Samsung to bring the technology company's Gear VR headsets to the cabin, beginning with a trial run for first-class fliers starting next month.

As part of the test run, Gear VR headsets will be available to Qantas fliers in the Sydney and Melbourne International Airport first-class lounges, and also in first-class on select A380 flights from Australia to Los Angeles.

Qantas points out that it is the only airline anywhere to offer in-flight VR.

This trial run will span three months, and Qantas will seek fliers' feedback to see if offering VR to customers is something the company wants to take on in a larger, more official capacity.

"This technology gives us a completely new way to connect with our customers," Qantas marketing executive Olivia Wirth said.

Some of the Qantas VR experiences will include virtual tours of the company's new first-class lounges at Los Angeles Airport, as well as a VR simulation of landing. Other in-flight entertainment options will include movies and audio experiences.

Qantas will also use the Gear VR headset to let passengers take virtual trips to one of the airline's other destinations, which they say should inspire travel and promote tourism.

It's already happening. Qantas points out that Australian company Tourism NT has already partnered with the airline to create a 3D VR experience for Kakadu National Park that will be shown to fliers.

The Gear VR headsets will be available on select Qantas flights for first-class passengers beginning in mid-February, with another rollout in March for trips between Australia and Los Angeles.

For long-haul flights such as the trip between Australia and LA, it's not hard to see the appeal of being able to totally block out other passengers and virtually escape for a while. And for Qantas, letting travelers virtually experience other destinations instead of just looking at a tourism brochure seems like it could have some upside for ticket sales.

Samsung's Gear VR headset launched in December, and is available now for $200 through an "Innovator Edition." The device requires a Note 4 to function as the screen.

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Battlefield Hardline Beta Stats Don't Carry Over To Full Game

Following the announcement Thursday that the Battlefield Hardline open beta will begin on February 3 across all platforms, developer Visceral Games has now confirmed that progress in the pre-release trial will not carry forward to the full version of the game. The detail was confirmed in a new Hardline beta FAQ.

"Progression doesn't carry over, but your expertise surely will," Visceral wrote.

Visceral also confirmed that the Hardline beta file size on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 will be between 10-11 GB. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 download size is around 4 GB.

The FAQ also touches on pre-loading details, with Visceral confirming that PC players can pre-load the beta through Origin beginning Monday, February 2 at 10 AM PDT. Pre-loading details for the console versions were not announced.

Finally, Visceral confirmed that the Hardline beta will not feature any kind of level cap. "You can experience the game's full progression system during the 6 days the beta is live," it wrote.

For more on the upcoming Hardline open beta, which will be available across all platforms on February 3, check out GameSpot's previous written coverage and the video above.

The Battlefield Hardline release date is March 17 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.

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Microsoft Talking Xbox One, Cross-Platform, Windows 10, Fable, And More At GDC

Microsoft has announced its plans for the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC), a developer-focused industry event that will be held in early March 2015 in San Francisco.

Microsoft has more than 16 planned sessions, with featured speakers including Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Microsoft technical evangelist Amanda Lange, and various other engineers and developers.

Among other things, Microsoft will talk about developing games for Windows 10, the unique features of DirectX12, cross-platform matchmaking and gameplay for Xbox One and PC, and how Fable Legends manages its cross-device gameplay. Microsoft will even hold a presentation titled "Beyond: Binary Choices: How Players Engage with Morality" at GDC this year.

The full list of Microsoft GDC presentations is available at the company's website.

GDC 2015 takes place March 2-6 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Microsoft isn't the only company with a lot planned for the show, as Valve also intends to make its line of Steam Machines "front and center" at the event, and may also reveal the final iteration of the Steam Controller during the show.

GameSpot will be on the ground at GDC 2015 bringing you all the news as it happens.

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Game Dev Bets Big With This Super Bowl Ad

As it turns out, Bud Light's Pac-Man commercial won't be the only video game-related ad shown during this weekend's Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.

Boutique game developer uCool has announced that it will air a 15-second commercial for its mobile card game Heroes Charge during the big game. You can watch the ad above.

uCool apparently submitted its ad to Super Bowl broadcaster NBC late in the game, so the network has not yet said during which quarter the ad will air.

This year's Super Bowl is expected to draw more than 100 million views. uCool's marketing officer Tony Cerrato said the opportunity to showcase the game on such a wide scale was too big a chance to pass up, even if ad rates are $4.5 million for 30 seconds.

"Players seem to love our game," Cerrato told AdWeek. "We're getting good responses from that, and we figured that by going on to a bigger venue like the Super Bowl, it should be successful."

uCool's other properties include PC games such as Tynon, Evony, and Commanders of Evony. Heroes Charge, released in October 2014, is the company's first mobile game.

For more Super Bowl-related gaming content, check out the stories below.

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Free Evolve Companion App Transfers Experience to Main Game

2K Games today announced the release of Evolve: Hunters Quest, the companion app to its upcoming shooter Evolve. The app is available for free download on iOS, Android, Windows, and Amazon Fire devices.

Evolve: Hunters Quest is a puzzle combat game that requires players to match three tokens of the same colour in order to unleash attacks on enemies, fill up energy bars to activate special Hunter abilities, and earn mastery points to level up. Mastery points earned in-app can then be applied to characters in the main Evolve game on any platform. Players who download the app can also unlock unique game art and watch replays of online matches from a top-down view.

Devices running iOS which are compatible with the app include iPad 2, iPad mini, iPhone 4s, iPod 5 and up. Earlier generations of these devices will not be able to run the game.

Several paid DLC packs have already been announced for Evolve, a decision which developer Turtle Rock has defended against backlash. The recently concluded beta testing phase for Xbox One saw 2.2 million games played. Evolve will be released on February 10 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

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Watch Sid Meier Demo His New Game, Starships

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Watch Out! NBA 2K15 Hiding Major Game of Thrones Spoiler

One NBA 2K15 player recently logged into the professional basketball game to find something he most definitely didn't expect: a major spoiler about HBO's Game of Thrones.

Writing on Reddit, a user going by the name "Mister_Big" explains that he encountered the huge season four spoiler (see the spoiler-y image below) inside the game's MyGM mode.

"Definitely didn't expect to see a major GoT spoiler while playing NBA 2K15...," he says.

The spoilers didn't stop there, however, as Mister_Big also claims that not long after he encountered the Game of Thrones spoiler, he came across another one, this one about Fox's 24.

"I had a similar situation right after this where the player made a reference to Jack Bauer from 24," he said.

That NBA 2K15 developer 2K Sports would weave pop culture references into its game isn't all that surprising. After all, players probably do talk about Game of Thrones and 24 in their daily lives, something 2K may want to replicate to create an even more true-to-life video game.

However, if you haven't seen Game of Thrones or 24, you may want to be extra careful the next time you play NBA 2K15. We've followed up with 2K Sports, asking for more information about the spoilers.

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Smash Bros Wii U Update Offers 15 New Stages for 8-Player Mode

A new update to Super Smash Bros for Wii U has expanded the game's 8-person multiplayer mode with 15 new stages to play on.

These levels, which are enlarged and tweaked versions of the standard levels, have been balanced to accommodate for the heightened intensity of eight combatants playing at the same time. For example, hazards such as Shy Guys racing past in the Mario Kart level are not present in the 8-player version.

Smash Bros Wii U's 1.0.2 update also delivers a few minor gameplay balance and tweaks, none of which were outlined by Nintendo, suggesting that they are fairly subtle changes.

The 15 new levels are split between nine in their "Normal" form and six "Omega" stages.

Standard

• Mario Circuit (Brawl)
• Pyrosphere
• Norfair
• Luigi's Mansion
• Lylat Cruise
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Town and City
• Smashville
• Wii Fit Studio

Omega

• Mario Galaxy
• Mario Circuit (Brawl)
• The Great Cave Offensive
• Lylat Cruise
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Animal Crossing: Town and City

Meanwhile, the game's director Masahiro Sakurai has once again hinted that the combined project of Smash Bros for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS has been such an exertion that he is unsure if he'll make another.

Masahiro Sakurai has directed all Smash games, including the 1999 original on N64.

In his bi-weekly Famitsu column (translated by Kotaku staff), Sakurai was quoted as saying:"It was very tough this time around... I doubt I'll be able to go on making games if it continues like this. But, I consider myself lucky that so many people seem to enjoy [Smash Bros.]"

These comments closely follow an interview published in December where Sakurai again stated that he was unsure about developing the next Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros for Wii U has sold more than 3.4 million units since its release, meaning that about a third of all Wii U owners have purchased the title.

GameSpot's Super Smash Bros for Wii U review was glowing, summarizing: "With the Wii U release, Smash Bros. has fully realized its goals. There's something here for nearly everyone--from young to old, from novice to expert--presented almost without compromise. Super Smash Bros. Wii U invites everyone to join in its undiluted, joyous celebration of the broad community that Nintendo has built over the past forty years."

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Wii U Sales Climb Slowly Despite Key Releases

Nintendo managed to sell 3 million Wii U consoles worldwide during the final nine months of 2014, marking only a slight increase from the 2.4 million sold in the same period of 2013.

The new figures bring the Wii U's total lifetime sales to 9.2 million, an indication that, despite key releases such as Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Nintendo is still struggling to push forward with its troubled system.

By comparison, the original Wii had surpassed 44 million sales worldwide after its third Christmas on the market. Sony's PlayStation 4 passed 18.5 million by its second Christmas, and although Microsoft hasn't recently revealed detailed sales numbers, it had shipped 10 million Xbox Ones worldwide before December.

More than half of Wii U owners have bought Mario Kart 8

However, the tie-ratios for key Wii U games are strong. Mario Kart 8 has sold 4.8 million units, meaning more than half of Wii U owners have purchased the game. Meanwhile, Super Smash Bros for Wii U managed to sell 3.4 million units.

Nintendo 3DS sales fell significantly during the nine-month period, due in part to gamers in Europe and North America awaiting the release of the New Nintendo 3DS model. In total, some 7 million 3DS units shipped worldwide during the three quarters, down from the 11.6 million sold during the same period last year.

Of that number, sales of the New Nintendo 3DS in Japan--which launched in October--accounted for 1.8 million (0.6m for the smaller model, 1.2 for the XL). Despite slower sales, the handheld nevertheless passed a key lifetime sales milestone of 50 million units.

Key 3DS software performed handsomely, with Pokémon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire selling 9.35 million units, and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS hitting 6.19 million.

The combined performance of the 3DS and Wii U, along with its software, is expected to pull Nintendo out of an annual loss for the first time since 2010. Total sales for the year are revised down slightly, by 7 percent, to $4.7 billion, while profit expected to reach $505 million, compared to the $200 million loss last year.

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3DS Browser Exploit Allows Users to Play Game Boy Color ROMs

A Nintendo 3DS loophole is allowing customers to play Game Boy Color ROMs on Nintendo's new hardware.

To activate the loophole, users need to purchase a legitimate Game Boy Color game via the eShop, and then suspend the software and open up the handheld's internet browser. At this point, if users then download a Game Boy Color ROM it can be played on the handheld. However, in most countries this action likely violates copyright law.

According to Nintendo Life, the workaround works right up to the current firmware version (9.0-9.4), but those who own a New Nintendo 3DS will not be able to create the same exploit.

In all likelihood the loophole will be closed with a future system software update.

A 3DS software update, released in December, managed to block a backdoor hack that allowed users to play unlicensed games on the handheld.

Further Reading: Why You Should Buy a 3DS in 2015

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