Report: The Last Guardian Trademark ‘Abandoned’

Listings suggest that the trademark for Sony’s long-in-development The Last Guardian has become “abandoned.” According to a status update on Trademarkia, “On Monday, August 6, 2012, status on the The Last Guardian trademark changed to Abandoned - No Statement of Use Filed.”

The Last Guardian was originally announced way back in 2009 and has continually been delayed since. It was originally set for holiday 2011 then pushed into 2012 last year. Executive producer Yoshifusa Hayama left Sony and was soon followed by creator Fumito Ueda.

Ueda said he was “committed to completing” the game in a freelance capacity and while rumors briefly indicated that the game had been canceled, Sony later reported it was still “making progress.”

After missing TGS 2011 and being absent from E3 2012, we last heard from Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida that The Last Guardian is “still in development.”

We’ve reached out to Sony for comment about the trademark and will update with any comment we receive. For more on The Last Guardian, listen to our thoughts on Podcast Beyond.

Source: PlayStation LifeStyle

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Microsoft Job Listing Outs "Next Generation Surface"

In more than a dozen job listings on the Microsoft Career site spotted today by TechRadar, the Redmond, Washington technology giant let slip a hint that its Surface tablet releasing on October 26 this year won't be the last of its kind. A post on the Official Microsoft Blog echoes the sentiment, calling Surface "our new family of PCs".

While this could be a case of some bad or antiquated terminology (possibly referring to the already-announced Surface as the next generation of PixelSense, for example), the listings were posted after the reveal of the tablet on June 19.

The listings themselves also imply that these new positions will involve working on a different set of devices, as one listing mentions "understanding of touch display architecture and experience in mechanical integration of large touch displays into electronics products". "Large" is a relative term in the world of displays, but it could refer to a desktop monitor or integration with TV monitors.

If these listings do represent a new breed of Surface devices, then they may well feature some unique components mentioned in to the job requirements. "Alternative power sources" seems to imply that the next generation will be even greener than the first, though another listing does include AC/DC power expertise, which means battery-powered machines.

As much as Microsoft has lauded the already-announced Surface tablets for their unique cooling architecture, new developments in "passive and active cooling thermal designs" could further innovate on those models and allow for more powerful processors.

Whatever the next Surface looks like, it's no surprise that Microsoft is getting an early start on preparing it for consumers. Given past software cycles, its likely that these newer Surface devices would still run Windows 8, and that third-party hardware manufacturers will still get shafted as Microsoft dives headlong into the hardware space.

Source: TechRadar 

Dan Crabtree is an I.T. guy and freelance writer with words on IGN, and a league of other gaming news outlets. His dog is considered handsome and well-read. You can find him (the human) on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Microsoft Job Listings Hint at Next-Gen Kinect

New job listings on Microsoft’s site indicate that the publisher may be gearing up development on the next generation of Kinect. According to a listing for a software development engineer, “the team that shipped Kinect for Xbox 360” is seeking a candidate to work on “the future of Natural User Input.” More specifically, the listing later refers to the fact that “The Xbox Platform Team is gearing up towards the next generation of Natural User Interface (NUI) technologies.” The listing also refers to “rapid prototyping” and that a “successful candidate must be able to come up to speed with new technologies.”

A separate listing for a senior electronic engineer specifies that it’s looking for a candidate who would be responsible “for designing, building and delivering the devices and the innovative solution for Xbox and various future NUI applications.” It also includes its mission statement to “re-invent entertainment, led from the living room, powered by the cloud, across multiple screens and best experienced on our devices.”

The listings were posted in late June and early July, and fit in with rumors we previously heard about Microsoft working on an improved Kinect sensor. A Microsoft patent that emerged last month also hinted at a new Kinect sensor that could capture depth by using infrared light “to determine a physical distance from the capture device to a particular location on the targets or objects in the scene.” Previous rumors also suggested that the next Kinect will be accurate enough to read lips.

We know that Microsoft is likely working on the next-generation Xbox, as developers told us in an anonymous survey that the next generation of consoles will begin in 2013. We’ve also seen other Microsoft job listings refer to a new system, including a listing from Rare about next-gen games and a listing that implied a next-gen Halo is already in the works.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft about the job listings and will update this story with any comment we receive.

Thanks to OXM for the heads up.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com