Sony plays up PlayStation exclusives, rides nostalgia wave at video game conference

That's what Alex Evans, co-founder of game studio Media Molecule, said onstage at Sony's PlayStation 4 press conference when talking up his company's newest drawing game, Dreams.

In the age of never-ending sequels, remakes and reboots, Sony wore that theme on its sleeve here Monday evening to finish off the first day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game industry's biggest confab and marketing extravaganza.

The Japanese game company reiterated its theme of "best on PlayStation," promising players that its video game console will offer the most for their money, even if it doesn't have the most original of gaming experiences. The event contrasted with Microsoft's Xbox One press conference this morning, when the standout announcements were centered on using Internet services to tie together the PC and the Xbox and letting players access old games on new hardware.

Sony may not have an iconic franchise as popular as Nintendo's Super Mario or Microsoft's Halo. But the PlayStation 4 has become the most popular choice among console gamers who were initially frustrated by Microsoft's attempts to change the way games are played, bought and sold, requiring players to often connect to the Internet, and restricting game resales in exchange for creating an equivalent to the app stores made for smartphones and tablets. Sony's promise of consistency, and its $399 price tag coming in $100 less than the Xbox One at launch, forced Microsoft to change course.

While Microsoft has been rebuilding its image, Sony has attempted to cement its position as the leading game console for so-called multi-platform games, or titles available for many different types of hardware, but typically only played on a single device. The company says it's sold more than 20 million units of the PlayStation 4 and has gone to great lengths to hammer out exclusive deals with game makers to attract consumers to its platform instead of competitors' for the year's biggest games.

For instance, Bungie, which created the original Halo space-age shooting games, released game add-ons including weapons and game maps for the space shooter Destiny accessible only for PlayStation players -- a strategy that will continue when Destiny's newest expansion arrives in September, Sony said at E3 on Monday. Sony struck new exclusive deals to give PlayStation owners early access to Square Enix's next installment in the Hitman assassination series, the next Street Fighter fighting game and the next version of military shooter Call of Duty.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Syndicate stealth game will offer PlayStation players missions unavailable on Xbox and the next Disney Infinity game will come with an exclusive Star Wars figure in a PlayStation-only bundle.

In an announcement that received thunderous applause from the crowd, Square Enix is remaking one of the most influential and loved games in history, role-playing classic Final Fantasy VII, and will release the title for the PlayStation 4 before it arrives on other platforms. In another throwback, Sony gave screen time to Yu Suzuki, the creator of classic games for publisher Sega, to announce a third game in his historic Shenmue series, which strangely is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter to launch on the PlayStation 4 and PC. Within the hour, the game has raised more than $600,000 toward its $2 million goal.

But perhaps most dramatic differentiator for Sony is its plans to leap ahead of Microsoft with a device called Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset it has been developing since 2011. The device has become part of a wider industry movement toward virtual reality, with companies like Facebook's Oculus VR and Valve, as well as smartphone makers Samsung and HTC, creating various types of headsets planned for release throughout the next year. Those devices are being created to work with PC machines, and not game consoles.

"Morpheus is real, evolving and continues to capture the imagination of the game community, from small teams to the big developers," said Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Sony's advantage against the competition is its PlayStation, for which the company has built teams of game developers creating specialized titles, including a Morpheus-exclusive first-person shooter called Rigs. Microsoft, meanwhile, has said it will team with Oculus to wirelessly stream video games from the Xbox One to its Rift headset, instantly giving the nascent virtual reality device access to a library of hundreds of games. It will bundle its Xbox One controller with the device as well. On Monday, Microsoft announced a separate partnership with Valve, further establishing the Xbox One platform as a bridge between the VR-ready PC and the living room game console.

Microsoft is also working on its own headset, called Hololens, which overlays computer images on transparent glasses looking out at the real world. Instead of creating virtual worlds to inhabit, as the Oculus headset does, Microsoft wants to meld the virtual with the real. Imagine a virtual television that can be placed on any wall in your home or software that turns your coffee table into a the setting for a video game.

The virtual reality race aside, Sony made it clear Monday that it wasn't necessarily interested in peddling visions of the future or trying to facilitate a distinct type of game playing. Instead, the company is reaching back into its past, to classic storylines and near-forgotten projects revived seemingly from the dead, and embracing an "old is new again" mentality.

Facebook highlights the rising power of Europe’s game industry

Since Facebook first opened its platform to developers in 2006, games have been one of the most critical and successful category of apps on the social network.

But a lot has changed in nine years, both for Facebook and the gaming industry. And two of the latest trends were at the core of the fourth annual CEO Gaming Summit in London last week.

Held at the Ugly Duck meetup space, the event gathered CEOs from more than 150 of the top gaming companies in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. And that number, while still smaller than a companion event that Facebook held in the U.S, represents one of those big themes: the growing might and influence of European gaming companies.

“In terms of revenue from Facebook games, EMEA is disproportionately part of that,” said Bob Slinn, Facebook’s head of games partnerships for EMEA, in an interview with VentureBeat.

Facebook is engaged in a fierce battle with rivals to win the hearts and minds of developers. But so far, the company has maintained a competitive edge by creating a range of tools for developers while also cultivating their loyalty at events such as the CEO Summit, where Facebook can offer advice and community.

To understand just how important gaming is to Facebook, consider just a few stats:

More than 445 million people play Facebook-connected games on desktop and mobile every month.

Facebook drives 441 million referrals to games every day.

Developers launched more than 130,000 new Facebook-connected games last year.

Within those numbers, Europe looms increasingly large. The invite list for the London event included King, Supercell, Ketchapp, InnoGames, Miniclip, Pretty Simple, NaturalMotion, Wargaming, Space Ape, and Goodgame Studios.

The first year Facebook held the event, 30 companies attended. Last year, 100 did. “Each year, the scope has only gotten bigger,” Slinn said.

At the event, Facebook held panels on how to raise money and how to build a brand. The latter is increasingly important as developers try to move from being one-hit wonders to creating long-term companies. In addition, developers are finding it tougher and tougher to stand out and be discovered by users. User acquisition was a big topic at the summit, Slinn said.

“That is arguably the big challenge,” he said.

The CEO Summit this year highlighted another big trend: the shift to mobile. Facebook initially had big success getting developers to build for the desktop using its Canvas tool, which let them embed games within Facebook.

These days, though, it’s all about mobile gaming. In some cases, Facebook is trying to help some of those Canvas users make the transition to mobile. But Facebook is also aggressively looking for new, mobile-first (or mobile-only in some cases) developers.

“In the past year or so, we’ve really focused on people who are only focused on mobile,” Slinn said.

A prime example of this new breed of mobile-focused, European gaming company is Scimob, based in Montpellier, France. Founded in 2008 to build apps for other companies, Scimob shifted in 2012 to being a studio that built its own mobile games, according to Gaël Bonnafous, Scimob’s founder.

The first game was called 94 Seconds and was No. 1 on Apple’s App Store in France for several weeks and even topped the U.S. charts for a week. Since then, Scimob has released four games that mix trivia, word play, and puzzles.

Scimob is small, with just nine employees, and entirely self-funded, pulling in $12 million in revenue so far. But it has big plans. It is hiring new teams to build for iOS and Android simultaneously. And perhaps next year, it may go in search of venture capital to expand even faster.

“We are scaling this year, because now we have the experience and we have the knowledge,” Bonnafous said.

While Scimob’s games are on iOS, Android, and Amazon, Bonnafous said the company still relies the most heavily on Facebook. He said Facebook’s mobile analytics tools are still superior to Google’s. And Scimob uses Facebook’s Parse mobile-development platform to build and host its games. The company gets the bulk of its players via Facebook app-install ads.

“When you have a player coming from Facebook, they are really engaged,” Bonnafous said. “They are going to really play your game.”

That’s just the kind of feedback Facebook wants. Maintaining that kind of goodwill will only become more essential for Facebook as Europe’s gaming industry rolls on.

“A lot of these companies in EMEA are global leaders,” Slinn said. “We think we have a lot of the global hotspots for gaming here in Europe now. And the diversity of games is incredible, and we only 

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expect that to increase.”

EXCLUSIVE Spy agencies target mobile phones, app stores to implant spyware

Canada and its spying partners exploited weaknesses in one of the world's most popular mobile browsers and planned to hack into smartphones via links to Google and Samsung app stores, a top secret document obtained by CBC News shows.

C-51: Crowdsourced report aims to stop Canada's slide into 'surveillance society'

Electronic intelligence agencies began targeting UC Browser — a massively popular app in China and India with growing use in North America — in late 2011 after discovering it leaked revealing details about its half-billion users.

Their goal, in tapping into UC Browser and also looking for larger app store vulnerabilities, was to collect data on suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets — and, in some cases, implant spyware on targeted smartphones.

The 2012 document shows that the surveillance agencies exploited the weaknesses in certain mobile apps in pursuit of their national security interests, but it appears they didn't alert the companies or the public to these weaknesses. That potentially put millions of users in danger of their data being accessed by other governments' agencies, hackers or criminals.

"All of this is being done in the name of providing safety and yet … Canadians or people around the world are put at risk," says the University of Ottawa's Michael Geist, one of Canada's foremost experts on internet law. 

CBC News analysed the top secret document in collaboration with U.S. news site The Intercept, a website that is devoted in part to reporting on the classified documents leaked by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

CBC News analysed the top secret document in collaboration with U.S. news site The Intercept, a website that is devoted in part to reporting on the classified documents leaked by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

CBC's coverage of Canada's Snowden files

CBC News Investigates: Stories, videos, photos and more

The Intercept story on mobile phone hacking

The so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance — the spy group comprising Canada, the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand — specifically sought ways to find and hijack data links to servers used by Google and Samsung's mobile app stores, according to the document obtained by Snowden.

Over the course of several workshops held in Canada and Australia in late 2011 and early 2012, a joint Five Eyes tradecraft team tried to find ways to implant spyware on smartphones by intercepting the transmissions sent when downloading or updating apps.

Privy to huge amounts of data

The Five Eyes alliance targeted servers where smartphones get directed whenever users download or update an app from Google and Samsung stores.

Samsung and Google declined to comment. 

The servers provide key access points to massive amounts of data flowing from millions of smartphones around the world.

"What they are clearly looking for are common points, points where thousands, millions of internet users actively engage in, knowing that if they can find ways to exploit those servers, they will be privy to huge amounts of data about people's internet use, and perhaps use bits and pieces of that to make correlations," says Geist.

Ultimately, the spy agencies wanted to implant spyware on certain smartphones to take control of a person's device or extract data from it, the document suggests.

The spy agencies also sought to match their targets' smartphone devices to their online activities, using databases of emails, chats and browsing histories kept in the Five Eyes' powerful XKeyScore tool to help build profiles on the people they were tracking.

Making that connection was a much desired goal of the agencies because of the growing use of smartphones and the wealth of data they contain.

Respecting agreements not to spy on each others' citizens, the spying partners focused their attention on servers in non-Five Eyes countries, the document suggests. The agencies targeted mobile app servers in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Cuba, Morocco, the Bahamas and Russia.

Canada's electronic surveillance agency, the Communications Security Establishment, refused to comment on its capabilities, saying that would constitute a breach of the Security of Information Act.

"CSE is mandated to collect foreign signals intelligence to protect Canada and Canadians from a variety of threats to our national security, including terrorism," the agency said in a written statement. "CSE does not direct its foreign signals intelligence activities at Canadians or anywhere in Canada."

Britain's counterpart, GCHQ, said all its work "is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework." The U.S. National Security Agency and New Zealand surveillance agency did not respond to CBC News. Australia's signals intelligence agency refused to comment.

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Nokia Lumia 840: Will It Be a Replacement to Nokia Lumia 830?

It has been announced that in some countries, such as India, the Nokia Lumia 830 will soon be phased out as they will no longer restock once the model is already sold out. However, there will be a replacement for this model. It is none other than the Nokia Lumia 840.

The Nokia Lumia 840 is anticipated to come with Windows 8.1 GDR3 pre-installed. It might be “surprise news” for others as it has recently been announced that Windows 10 for phones is anticipated to be released on the Nokia Lumia 940.

An unknown employee of Microsoft company said that the prototype for a mid-range device that the company will be releasing will come with better features. Some of these features are 13 to 14MP back camera, 5MP front camera, dual-SIM capabilities, 5-inch screen and a slightly modified design of Nokia Lumia 830. Another unidentified source said that though there is still no official announcement regarding what this product is, there is a chance that it will be labeled as Nokia Lumia 840.

As of the moment, there is still no news on when this Nokia Lumia 840 will be officially announced and launched. Aside from the Nokia Lumia 840, there is also a rumor that there will be another mid-range Lumia model to come. It is said that this model would sport a bigger screen than the Nokia Lumia 840.

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Acer unveils smartphone with huge battery and new line of wearables

After it got done announcing a small army of inexpensive Windows convertibles and laptops today, Acer turned its focus to smartphones. The company unveiled a brand new Android phablet, the Liquid X2, and it contains one of the largest batteries we've yet seen in a phone. Rated at 4000 mAh, the Liquid X2's battery is larger than the Droid Turbo's. It's bigger than the Note 4's battery, as well. Even when it's powering a 5.5-inch display (Acer hasn't specified the resolution), the enormous capacity of this battery should allow you to skip the charger and keep running through another day or two of use. Lenovo recently announced its own smartphone with a 4000 mAh battery for the Russian market, and we don't yet know whether the Liquid X2 is US bound.

ACER LIQUID X2 HANDS-ON PHOTOS

The phone includes a 64-bit octa-core processor, according to Acer. And it supports three SIM cards; while that's not a new thing for Acer, it's still rare to see among the company's competitors and should make this phablet ideal for travelers and people who have to clearly separate work from their personal lives and some other, third thing. Acer's also following HTC's lead and putting the same camera on both the front and back of this phone; a 13-megapixel f/1.8 sensor will handle rear camera and selfie duties. And finally, the company showed off a Quick Touch flip case — the same sort of thing you see on Samsung phones — that offers fast access to music controls, the weather, time, and other features without fully flipping the case open.

ACER LIQUID LEAP HANDS-ON PHOTOS

Acer is also releasing a trio of new fitness trackers, and each represents a step up in design compared to the Leap wearable that it produced last year. The Liquid Leap Fit features a 1-inch touchscreen, waterproof design, optical heart rate sensor, and gold-plated sensors that can read galvanic skin response — just like Jawbone's Up3 wristband. Using a combination of all those, the Leap Fit will provide users with a "stress index." 

The bands are also interchangeable. Acer's new flagship wearable is called the Liquid Leap Curve and, as the name implies, includes a curved touchscreen plus all the same hardware as the Fit. It basically looks like a Samsung Gear Fit clone, but you can swap the bands out to give it a more unique style. The most basic of the new wearables, the Liquid Leap Active, is essentially a refresh of last year's hardware. All three are compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows. Like the Liquid X2, pricing and availability details here remain an open question.

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What you need to know about Wi-Fi calling

Although apps like Skype, Google Hangouts and WhatsApp make it easier for smartphone users to place calls over the Internet and forgo mobile networks altogether, carriers have shown increasing interest in adopting Wi-Fi calling themselves. Whether it's because they want to bolster their network coverage or improve user experience, some US carriers already provide the service, and EE, a carrier in the UK, announced earlier this month that it will offer it as well.

To help you make sense of what Wi-Fi calling is, why it's important, and what you can use it for, CNET put together a handy guide to walk you through everything you need to know.

What is Wi-Fi calling?

Instead of using your carrier's network connection, users can make voice calls through a Wi-Fi network. That can include a Wi-Fi connection you have set up at home, or whatever Wi-Fi hotspot you happen to be on when you're out and about, such as a cafe or library. In most ways, it's like any other normal call, and you still use regular phone numbers.

Why would I want that?

Wi-Fi calling is especially useful when you're in an area with weak carrier coverage. For example, when you're traveling to the residential countryside, or you're in a building with spotty reception. You may already be familiar with using Wi-Fi to send messages when SMS texting is unavailable (apps like Kik and Facebook Messenger provide these services) -- and the same applies for when you're trying to place a call. With Wi-Fi, you can call a friend up even if you're in a dingy, underground bar (assuming you can connect to the bar's Wi-Fi, that is.)

Isn't that what Skype does?

Built-in Wi-Fi calling has some advantages over third-party services like Skype.

Nicole Cozma/CNET

In a way, yes. There are various services including Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger that provide what's known under the umbrella term as "voice over Internet" to make calls with either a Wi-Fi or data connection.

Carrier-branded Wi-Fi calling is a bit different, however. It's baked directly into the phone's dialer, so you don't need to fire up an app or connect to a service to use it. You can set it as your default way of placing a call, or if you lose phone signal, it will automatically switch to Wi-Fi calling.

Because the service is built-in, that also means you don't need to add contacts to a service as you do with Skype. You'll have access to your existing phone book, and your friends can receive your Wi-Fi call without needing to download a third-party app. With no contacts to add, carrier Wi-Fi calling requires little effort to set up.

What carriers and phones support this service?

Of the four major US carriers, only T-Mobile and Sprint provide built-in Wi-Fi calling. Though no official timeline has been set, Verizon and AT&T have confirmed plans to offer the service, with only the latter stating it will launch sometime in 2015. In addition, Republic Wireless provides Wi-Fi calling by default on its handsets, and users get support from Sprint's network if connection is unavailable.

Currently, T-Mobile has 18 smartphones that support this option, including the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Edge; the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, 6, 5S, and 5C; the HTC One M9; the LG G3, G2, and Optimus L90; and the Microsoft Lumia 640.

As for Sprint, Wi-Fi calling is available on the iPhone 6 Plus, 6, 5S and 5C only if its iOS software is updated to v8.3. A number of Android devices have the service as well, but to see if yours has it, you'll need to check through the handset's Settings menu.

Does it cost more?

It doesn't cost any extra as such, but making calls over Wi-Fi can come out of your regular minutes allowance depending on your carrier, your phone plan and which country you're calling to/from. Be sure to check with T-Mobile and Sprint's policies to see if any of their potential restrictions and charges relate to your situation.

If you're running out of minutes, then using services like Skype or WhatsApp will help you avoid incurring any additional charges.

Can I use it overseas without paying huge amounts?

Again, that depends. T-Mobile charges 20 cents a minute if you place a Wi-Fi call from any of its 82 "Simple Global" countries, but for countries that fall outside this list, you can be billed a different rate. Sprint customers won't be charged for calls made to, from, or between the US, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, but they will be charged "international calling plan rates" for other countries. Republic Wireless only supports Wi-Fi calling for the US and Canada. Other than that, the carrier has no international support, which includes no support for Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands.

If you're going abroad and want to keep in touch, its best to stick with Skype and WhatsApp when you're connected to a building or hotel's Wi-Fi. You can use data, but remember that it will cost you a lot if you're roaming on cellular networks. If you don't have a roaming plan, make sure you only use Wi-Fi and turn off data roaming in your Settings before heading out.

Do I need a fast Wi-Fi connection?

Though the higher throughput you have the better your connection will be, a minimum of 1Mbps should be enough to patch a solid call through. Republic Wireless reports that it can hold a call with 80kbps, but the quality may decrease and you'll experience more dropped calls as well.

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Kabam restructures to focus only on the biggest mobile game hits

Kabam used to experiment a lot with all sorts of strategy games. But the mobile game company is announcing today that it will focus its 825 employees on a singular push to create games for the top-10 positions on the mobile app stores.

The signals a lot of internal change at San Francisco-based Kabam, including some unspecified layoffs in Kabam’s older businesses, as well as some expansion in other areas.

And it also portends an evolution in the mobile game market, which has been driven by “mobile-first” studios which were once independents. Now the growth could be captured by big game companies and the brand-oriented companies that are pouring resources in to the market, much like happened in consoles. Mobile games could grow to $30 billion this year and exceed the console business, according to market researcher Newzoo.

Kevin Chou, chief executive of Kabam, wrote a long blog post on the strategy shift today. He noted the company has had a history of restructuring to stay ahead of the market. It started on Facebook in 2009, but it shifted away from the social network after Facebook changed the rules on game makers. Kabam shifted to have more than half its revenues come from beyond Facebook by 2011.

It moved to mobile next and succeeded with Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, and scored a big success with the branded mobile game The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth. Now the company has hired leaders from its console brethren, and it is organizing its studios to make “AAA mobile games,” or those that deliver high-end experiences and occupy the top 10 ranks.

As a result of its strategic maneuvering, Kabam is now one of the biggest mobile game companies with more than $400 million in annual revenues and enough financial firepower to shoot for the very top of the industry.

Kent Wakeford, chief operating officer of Kabam, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the market has moved in this direction. He said that market researcher App Annie notes that the top game in the app stores, Supercell’s Clash of Clans, is making $80 million a month, up 1750 percent from $4 million a month for the No. 1 game in 2012. By comparison, the No. 100 game in 2015 makes $1.2 million a month, up 295 percent from $311,000 a month for the No. 100 game in 2012.

That means that the industry is consolidating around the top games, Wakeford said. And that’s where Kabam has to go, he said.

Kabam has raised lot of money to accomplish its goals from investors that include Alibaba, Google, Intel, MGM, and Warner Bros.

Now the company aims to create $1 billion annual mobile game franchises.

“We are in a market where the largest game franchise in the world is no longer on console but rather on a mobile device,” Chou wrote. “And the market is still growing at a blistering pace, where the winners of tomorrow will be much bigger.”

Markets for the size of the mobile game market vary widely. Chou cited market researcher IDG, which generated $17.5 billion in revenues in 2014 and will hit $27 billion in the next five years.

“Kabam is one of a handful of companies in the world in a position to capitalize on this global market opportunity,” Chou wrote.

I asked Wakeford if reorganization will mean layoffs. He noted there would be adjustments, but that the restructuring of the studios has been happening over a period of months. In any case, Kabam isn’t going to disclose much about layoffs in connection with this strategic shift, Wakeford said. But he did say that, after the changes, Kabam is 825 people now, and it has said it has been more than 850 in the past.

“This is a global refocusing of the company that began six months ago,” Wakeford said. “We are chasing after the big prize in the game industry.”

The result of the reorganization is that Kabam will focus more resources and talent on fewer games that it will launch on a global basis and manage as long-term franchises. Right now, about 60 percent of revenue comes from North America, and the rest from Europe. Chou said the company would now invest more heavily in Asia, where the company has a studio in Beijing.

“We are seeing another shift and it requires a pivot,” Wakeford said. “We will focus on AAA games. It’s an opportunity, as there’s a disproportionate market share for the No. 1 game.”

Chou noted that China is the world’s biggest games market with an installed base of 700 million mobile devices compared with North America’s 283 million devices.

“Already the same size as the U.S., China’s mobile gaming market grew at roughly 100 percent last year and continues on its searing pace with market saturation of mobile devices several years away,” Chou wrote. “Kabam is better poised to enter this lucrative market than any of our competitors due to our five years of successful operations in Beijing.”

He noted for the first time that Kabam has financial and strategic partnerships with three major Chinese companies. Alibaba was announced last year as it invested more than $120 million at a valuation in excess of $1 billion. The other two haven’t been disclosed, including one that participated in a secondary financing while the other came through its acquisition of TapZen in Los Angeles.

“Our restructuring beefs up our Studios leadership team, shores up the company’s Hollywood partnerships, readies distribution platforms in China, and trims areas of the business that are not core to developing AAA titles that match Kabam’s new Marvel Contest of Champions, Fast & Furious: Legacy and Spirit Lords in quality,” Chou wrote.

Last fall, Kabam said it was divesting its legacy web games. It also hired some new executives such as Nick Earl, a former Electronic Arts studio executive, and Aaron Loeb, another former Electronic Arts leader. Mike Verdu, head of the Los Angeles studio, came in via the acquisition of TapZen.

Chou said that the company has reduced its third-party publishing business and cancelled games in development that didn’t meet its new AAA quality goals. It also delayed the release of other games to make sure it has enough development time to make them shine. And it is reducing its investment in its older games, while maintaining them for the players who still enjoy them.

In 2015, Wakeford said that Kabam will publish just four games, compared to 12 last year. But he said revenues from the new games and existing games will boost revenue above 2014.

Earl, president of Kabam Studios, now leads a group with four divisions. Loeb, senior vice president, will lead the role-playing game studio in San Francisco and Vancouver. His studio is responsible for titles such as Marvel Contest of Champions and Fast & Furious: Legacy, original titles like Spirit Lords, and another major Hollywood franchise to be announced soon.

Kabam said its first installment in the Fast & Furious franchise was downloaded by customers more than 60 million times since it launched in 2013. The Marvel Contest of Champions game has been downloaded more than 31 million times.

Kabam also has a strategy game studio, headed by Verdu. Based in Los Angeles, this studio is responsible for This Means War! and another upcoming original strategy title.

The company will also expand in Asia, including the studio in Beijing headed by Kabam cofounder and senior vice president Mike Li. He has been running that studio since 2011, and now that studio will make games for both the Chinese and Western markets.

Lastly, Kabam will centralize its platform and operations group under senior vice president Paxton Cooper. That group will provide tech and business services for the other groups.

Chou said that Kabam will work more closely than ever with its Hollywood partners to bring entertainment properties to free-to-play gaming. Kabam is creating a second Marvel game, and last month it launched Fast & Furious: Legacy, a sequel to Fast & Furious 6: The Game. Kabam is introducing another Hollywood game sometime soon.

Chou acknowledged not everything is a success.

“It’s disappointing that some of our big bets from earlier years have proved unsustainable while others have come at an expense that we cannot recoup,” he said. “I especially dislike having to say goodbye to valued employees. No CEO wants to eliminate jobs. It’s the least desirable part of my job. In fact, I hate it.”

He added, “At the same time, I could not be more confident, and excited, about Kabam’s future direction. Every time Kabam adapts to market conditions, we emerge stronger and more competitive.”

Chou said that Kabam has been profitable since 2012 and it has more than $150 million in the bank.

I noted that Kabam will face tough competition from Supercell, King, and Machine Zone, which have been at the top of the charts for a long time.

“Once you are in the top five or top 10, you have a financial structural advantage that allows you to invest capital into areas that are higher than other companies could,” Wakeford said in response. But he noted that innovation will always lead to changes in the top ranks.

The top games are gathering more of the money.

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Apple, Google helping terrorists with encryption – Manhattan DA

Allowing users to take advantage of advanced encryption in order to keep their messages and mobile communication out of the government’s hands will only help terrorists plot future attacks, a top New York law enforcement official said.

The new encryption services offered by Apple and Google will make it harder to protect New Yorkers, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. told local AM970 radio host John Cats. He mentioned built-in encryption – which Apple claims its own engineers cannot break – means that federal and local law enforcement bodies won’t be able to intercept communications between potential criminals and terrorists, even if they acquire a warrant.

When Cats suggested, “terrorists are running out to buy iPhones,” Vance responded by saying, he was “absolutely right.”

“If individuals who are seeking to do serious harm to our citizenry know they have a device that they can use with impunity and that the contents of their messages and images on their phones cannot be accessed by law enforcement that's going to be the terrorists’ community device of choice,” he added, according to the Daily Dot.

In addition to Apple, Google is also incorporating encryption into its mobile devices. The two tech giants’ smartphones compose 96 percent of the global market, the New York Post mentions.

“Apple has created a phone that is dark, that cannot be accessed by law enforcement even when a court has authorized us to look at its contents,” Vance said.

READ MORE: WhatsApp starts encrypting user messages on Android devices

In response, Vance wants police departments around the country to register their opposition with politicians and for hearings on the issue to take place.

On its website, Apple says that encryption is enabled “end-to-end” on its devices and that it has “no way to decrypt iMessage and FaceTime data when it’s in transit between devices.” Additionally, the company states, “We wouldn’t be able to comply with a wiretap order even if we wanted to.” Other features such as iCloud and Mail also offer some encryption protections.

Vance isn’t the only law enforcement official to come out against widespread encryption. In October, New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton heavily criticized Apple and Google for the move, and FBI Director James Comey also blasted the development.

"There will come a day -- well it comes every day in this business -- when it will matter a great, great deal to the lives of people of all kinds that we be able to with judicial authorization gain access to a kidnapper's or a terrorist or a criminal's device,” Comey said. “I just want to make sure we have a good conversation in this country before that day comes.”

In a blog post at the Wall Street Journal, Amy Hess of the FBI clarified the bureau’s position on the issue, which has seen a surge in support since former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed a massive domestic and international surveillance operation. She said law enforcement officials will need “some degree of access” to encrypted messages in order to stop criminal and violent plots in the future.

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The Top 7 New Features in Windows 10 for Phones

If you've been paying attention to the tech news, you've heard about the great new features Windows 10 brings to desktop PCs: The Start Menu's return, virtual desktops, Cortana, holograms, Continuum, the Action Center, the New Photo app. But Windows 10 brings some pretty sweet new capabilities to smartphones, too.

The new phone capabilities in Windows 10 may not be making tons headlines, but users of the critically acclaimed yet under-adopted phone OS are getting some pretty darn important and useful new capabilities with Windows 10. Sure, they're not as sexy or radical as those listed above, but if you've ever wanted to enter text with your voice or see more quick actions from the pulldown at the top of the screen, they may be even more important for your everyday life than those headline-grabbing capabilities.

Perhaps the most significant thing that Windows 10 will bring to phone users isn't exactly a feature, but rather the combination of the phone and desktop operating systems into one. Sort of. Of course, the phone version will always need different interface input methods than the desktop version, and things like notifications and the Action Center, while they'll exist in both form factors, will differ. But the combination is real. Especially welcome will be the phone's ability to run Universal apps designed for both desktop and phone. Fluid transitions between desktop and phone for Office productivity apps and Skype communications will also be benefits.

Windows 10 Technical Preview has up to this point been available for a very small subset of Windows Phone models, but Microsoft's Operating Systems Group General Manager Gabe Aul noted in a Windows Blog post that the number of phones models you can install the preview on will grow to over 30 in the next code update. They're all Lumia phones, though: Sorry HTC M8 Windows Phone Free at Amazon users.

Page through our slideshow, linked from the main image above and below, to see what's in store for Windows 10 phone users, and read our Hands On With Windows 10 for Phones for even more background. And don’t forget to check out our Windows 10 hub page.

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Samsung faces supply shortages for curved-screen Galaxy S6 Edge

SEOUL — Samsung Electronics Co.’s mobile chief J.K. Shin said Thursday there could be limited supplies of its new curved-screen smartphone because of difficulties in manufacturing the screens.

Shin, speaking at a media event in Seoul ahead of the global launch of the company’s 005930, +0.27% SSNLF, +6.25%  new flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone Friday, said that while the curved-screen Galaxy S6 Edge has garnered strong demand, the screens are difficult to manufacture.

“We’re working hard to resolve the difficulty in supply,” Shin said, noting the supply issue could persist “for a while.”

Many analysts said potential hiccups in component supply could hinder the success of Samsung’s new smartphones. The curved-screen model has garnered positive reviews for its unique design, leading some to forecast that the Edge could exceed demand of the flat-screen Galaxy S6.

Shin declined to provide shipment forecasts for the pair of new Galaxy S6 smartphones, which go on sale globally Friday. But he said he expects shipments will exceed the predecessor model.

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/samsung-faces-supply-shortages-for-curved-screen-galaxy-s6-edge-2015-04-09

NO RECEPTION, NO PROBLEM! SPRINT, EE CUSTOMERS GET WI-FI CALLING IN IOS 8.3 UPDATE

Incremental updates to iOS 8 have mainly been about fixing bugs and adding support for the Apple Watch, and yesterday’s iOS 8.3 update did indeed address both of these, but it also added a major feature for users on two carriers: Wi-Fi calling.

Apple added support for Wi-Fi calling to the iPhone with the introduction of iOS 8, but until now the only carrier to take advantage of the feature was T-Mobile, who has been supporting Wi-Fi calling on various devices for years. Both Sprint in the U.S. and EE in the U.K. have confirmed that customers on their networks will now have access to the feature as well.

Many carriers have reluctantly provided femtocells to customers, which use your home internet connection to improve wireless reception, but Wi-Fi calls are much simpler in execution. More importantly, Wi-Fi calling doesn’t use voice minutes. After updating to iOS 8.3, a new carrier settings profile is downloaded and pops up, allowing customers to activate the feature.

While for now the number of carriers supporting Wi-Fi calling on the iPhone has only grown to a grand total of three, AT&T and Verizon have said that the feature is coming to their customers this year, as The Verge points out.

The iOS 8.3 update also brought a slew of new emoji and added languages to Siri, allowing users in more countries to use the personal assistant. Siri can now also make calls on speakerphone from the very start. The update also tweaks the keyboard for iPhone 6 Plus users, allowing them to report junk messages in the Messages app, and including the standard bevy of bug fixes.

If you haven’t yet downloaded and installed the update, you can manually start the upgrade process in the “Software Update” section of the “General” area in your iPhone’s settings.

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