Bits Blog: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You

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PlayStation All-Stars: No New DLC Coming

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale came to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita last fall. It was a great game and sold over a million copies worldwide, but it wasn’t enough for the game to require extended support. DLC started to come out back in December, and there were even signs that developer SuperBot Entertainment was hiring for a sequel. But Sony ended up severing ties with the studio, causing a round of layoffs.

Anyone who was hanging around hoping for more DLC support following the release of Zeus and Isaac Clarke earlier this year will be disappointed, as Sony has confirmed that there will be no future DLC for the game in terms of characters or stages.

A forum post from Sony Santa Monica notes, in part, that “the characters that have already been released to-date represent the full content for PS All-Stars,” further commenting that “there are always elements that never quite get finished” during a game’s development, likely a nod to the recently leaked images of unfinished characters and stages.

With that said, Sony Santa Monica is currently working on and will release a new balancing patch, free costumes for some of the game’s characters (that will be released for free later in August), and a fix for some leaderboard and tournament glitches currently being experienced by online players.

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Internet Sales Tax Coming Too Late for Some Stores

Now that Congress seems ready to do that, she is no longer sure it matters. Even in losing, the e-commerce powerhouse is triumphant. It no longer needs the tax break to vanquish its foes — and could even make money by collecting the new taxes for other retailers.

“I’m surprised and glad this is happening,” said Ms. Demetropoulos, who owns three toy stores with her husband. “But Amazon won’t rest until it gobbles up everyone and everything.”

The Senate is poised to pass a bill to require all but the smallest online sellers to collect the tax. The House appears likely to follow suit. Although Amazon’s desire to avoid the tax played a fundamental role in its founding and growth, it is a supporter of the legislation.

As it builds new warehouses and extends its already considerable reach, Amazon is relying less on price than speedy delivery, free shipping and a selection that encompasses just about everything. Small retailers say Amazon was always a significant opponent, and is now a fearsome one.

“It’s beyond frustrating that Congress waited until Amazon became so dominant that having a massive tax advantage is no longer essential to its strategy,” said Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “The right time to fix this was a decade ago, when it could have saved many local businesses.”

Analysts who closely follow the fortunes of Amazon say collecting taxes is unlikely to drive away its customers. They say it may even help the Seattle company while simultaneously defusing a potent political issue.

In the few states where the company has already begun collecting, said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, sales dip for about a year. “Then the customers come back for the convenience and selection,” he said.

Figuring out the tax in thousands of jurisdictions could be a logistical nightmare for merchants just above the legislation’s threshold of $1 million in annual revenue. That is another place where Amazon is expected to benefit; it could sell tax collection services to tens of thousands of third parties.

For some store owners, the digital world’s momentum can seem overpowering.

Ms. Demetropoulos tried to sell specialty toys online, but business dwindled as Amazon sought out her competitors and signed them up to sell through its Web site. The company courted her as well. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’ ” she said.

Customers come into one of the branches of Island Treasure Toys, she said, scan a toy on their smartphone, and inform the sales clerk that Amazon sells it cheaper. Would the store be willing to make a deal?

The tax will not help this situation much, which is regularly played out in all kinds of stores across the country.

If retailers say no, Amazon often gets the business.

Amazon reported this week that its first-quarter revenue rose 22 percent, to $16.07 billion, an amazing increase for a retailer of its size. Wal-Mart, by contrast, is expecting no sales growth at all this quarter.

“This is the moment when Internet commerce was finally forced to stand on its own two feet,” said Michael Mazerov, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who wrote the definitive report on Amazon’s long-held intransigence on the issue. “But it’s coming very late in the game.”

Under the current system, an Internet company has to collect taxes only in states where it has a physical location. For most companies, that means the state in which it has its headquarters.

When Jeff Bezos had the idea for Amazon in the mid-1990s, he explored setting up shop on a tax-free Indian reservation. Foiled in that goal, Mr. Bezos chose the State of Washington, which had an abundance of software programmers but a relatively small population. “It made no sense for us to be in California or New York,” he explained in an unguarded 1996 interview.

For years, Amazon rejected the notion that it should collect money in states where it had no employees. “It’s not fair,” Mr. Bezos told stockholders in 2008.

Consumers are supposed to add up their Internet purchases and pay the appropriate tax directly to their state revenue collectors. In practice, however, few do, and enforcement is minimal.

Nick Wingfield contributed reporting.

The New Old Age Blog: Online Habits Coming Slowly to Older Adults

Older adults hit a digital milestone last year: For the first time since the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project began conducting surveys, a majority (53 percent) of people over age 65 used the Internet. The proportion has since inched upward, to 54 percent.

Which certainly represents progress. When Pew first began tracking Internet use in 2000, only 13 percent of seniors were online. But it remains a fairly anemic number compared to the rest of the adult population, more than 80 percent of whom use the Internet.

And among the older old, those over age 77, only about a third are online. Yet that’s the cohort most likely to become isolated by physical limitations, poor transportation and the loss of social connections — the group, in other words, who might particularly benefit from being able to interact with the world digitally, for everything from banking and ordering groceries to e-mailing faraway friends.

I wonder, too, how much satisfaction we can really take in the growth of wired seniors, as Pew used to call them. Back in 2000, more than 40 percent of the group just behind them, those aged 50 to 64, were online. So maybe we haven’t made as much progress as it appears. Maybe, 13 years later, the people online just got older.

Laurie Orlov, a tech industry analyst who writes the Aging in Place Technology Watch blog, has been fuming about this particular digital divide for years. “It matters more than ever,” she told me. “Organizations keep thinking they’ll save a buck by no longer using paper.”

When it comes to government programs, financial and insurance statements, health information or discount coupons, “the assumption is that you’re online.”

Even simple tasks like finding phone numbers for local businesses may soon require Web access. How long will there be print yellow pages? How long will there be movie listings in print newspapers? For that matter, how long will there be print newspapers? Without Internet access, older people could feel even more cut off than many already do.

A number of programs have tried to address this disparity, but they tend to be small-scale and local.

A few years ago, I wrote about a “virtual senior center”: a nonprofit organization acquired computers for about a dozen low-income New York City seniors, provided instruction, then linked their users to discussions at an actual senior center in Queens. A worthy demonstration project, but three years later it still has fewer than 100 participants.

Or take the company called It’s Never 2 Late, which has placed its simplified touch-screen computer systems in 1,200 nursing homes and assisted-living communities, plus some adult day programs. Another good idea with a “but”: most seniors don’t live in congregate settings.

AARP last year started a $169-a-year subscription service that gives its members unlimited phone, online or in-store access to Best Buy’s Geek Squad agents, who can help them choose, install, use and repair electronics.

I hear enough muttering from boomers whose parents call whenever they encounter a computer glitch to think turning over this job to the Geek Squad might be a smart move, but it doesn’t seem like one that can bring large numbers of low-income seniors onto the Internet.

“We want faster adoption,” Ms. Orlov said. “Little efforts start up here and there, but it’s not a national effort to get 100 percent of seniors online.”

She’s convinced, by the way, that older people can make the leap (as many readers here are about to point out, I know) and that most will want to. “With some of the devices available today, if a person is open and interested and there’s something on there that’s worth the trouble — like video of family members or the ability to Skype with family — they can learn to use a computer or a tablet,” she said.

Money will be the big obstacle, of course. As Ms. Orlov points out, it’s going to take big national organizations with deep pockets — foundations, technology corporations, Internet providers and cell carriers, AARP — to undertake a bigger, faster and more effective effort than our current piecemeal approach.

But it may take less than we would have thought a decade back, because tablets are cheaper than most desktops and laptops. And tablet ownership is growing among seniors, Pew reports. Just within 2012, the proportion of the over-65 population with a tablet climbed to 15 percent from 8 percent. Among those over age 77, tablet ownership jumped to 12 percent from 3 percent.

This might be the way. Other ideas are welcomed.

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

Is Dust 514 Coming Out in October?

The IGN readers strike again. This time, a news tip has come from Uzair Syed, who linked us to this video from Fox Business. In that video, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s President and CEO Jack Tretton sounds off on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, but it’s something he says about the upcoming PS3-exclusive free-to-play shooter Dust 514 in particular that proves mighty interesting.

When asked about the trend towards cheaper and outright free-to-play games, Tretton notes that PlayStation platforms already have free-to-play titles. “We do have free-to-play games. A game called Dust 514 is a full-blown first-person shooter available on PlayStation 3 that not only allows you to play against your friends on PS3, but also against people on the PC.” When asked for clarification on if it’s “Dust” or “Dusk,” Tretton confirms it’s Dust, following up with a seemingly innocuous statement: “Coming out next month.”

There’s also plenty of interesting data in the video interview. Over 100 million PlayStation Network accounts have been created, and 44 million of them are in the United States. 2.2 million PlayStation Vitas have been sold worldwide, along with 63.9 million PlayStation 3 consoles. Over 21 million PS3s are owned in the US.

We’ve reached out the PR firm covering Dust 514 on behalf of developer CCP to confirm or clarify Tretton’s statement, and will update when we hear back.

Rumor: Lumia 920 and Galaxy Note 2 Coming October 21

Nokia and Samsung got us all excited when they announced their top-of-the-line phones for the fall - the Lumia 920 and the Galaxy Note 2. But both events were soft-releases; i.e. they failed to mention anything about when we can buy the things or what they'll cost.

If a report over at BGR is right, Nokia's Windows Phone 8 flagship and Samsung's latest "phablet" beast will be available the same day: October 21st.

AT&T hasn't confirmed the leak, because that kind of thing just never happens, but the article cites a "trusted source" who (we're willing to bet) works for the carrier. This wouldn't be the first time a wireless provider leaked a high-profile release date.

Will the phones be available from other carriers on the same day? That would certainly make sense given how hard they're being pushed. And Samsung has previously stated the Galaxy Note 2 will come out sometime in October.

Can you wait 'til late next month for the Lumia 920 or Note 2? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Report: TomJam & Earl Coming to PS3

SEGA Mega Drive cult classic ToeJam & Earl (1991) and its sequel ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (1993) could be coming to PlayStation 3.

According to a report on Siliconera,  the games will be released as part of a forthcoming SEGA Vintage Collection.

This would be in keeping with SEGA's recent drive to re-release its back catalogue in HD. Recently, the publisher announced that Sonic Adventure 2 HD and NiGHTS Into Dreams will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN later in the year.

If you've never played ToeJam & Earl read IGN's twentieth anniversary retrospective of this much-loved game.

Daniel is IGN's UK Games Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Mega Man, Pac-Man Never Coming to Street Fighter x Tekken on 360

Capcom has confirmed that Mega Man and Pac-Man will remain exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and Vita versions of Street Fighter x Tekken. In an interview with Siliconera, Street Fighter x Tekken producer Tomoyaki Ayano commented that "Unfortunately for Xbox 360 users, Mega Man and Pac-Man are exclusive to the PS3 version of the game.”

When asked about the fact that hackers have found data for Mega Man and Pac-Man on the disc for the Xbox 360 version of Street Fighter x Tekken, Ayano commented that "Every game has data on it that is unused. In this case, Street Fighter x Tekken for the Xbox 360 did have the Mega Man and Pac-Man data on it, but we never intended to release these characters on the 360. They are PS3 exclusives and that was our intention from the very beginning. They are not going to be timed exclusives either. They’re PS3 exclusives."

While Ayano specifically referred to PlayStation 3, the characters will also be available on Vita. Pac-Man and Mega Man join other PlayStation-exclusive characters including Cole MacGrath from Infamous and Japanese PlayStation mascots Kuro and Toro.

Street Fighter x Tekken was recently featured in the EVO fighting tournament. The game will receive downloadable content for new characters later this month and will hit PlayStation Vita in October.

For a look at all of Street Fighter x Tekken’s characters (exclusive or otherwise), check out our Street Fighter x Tekken wiki guide.

Is Metal Gear Solid 5 Coming?

Update: Konami's UK Twitter account has called the photos fake, writing "Seriously, just in case the ?#pinch? ?#salt? hashtags weren't enough - the chap who claims to have set up the fake rumours has been in touch."

Despite the Tweet, Konami still declined to confirm or deny that the photos are fake when we reached out for comment.

Some blurry shots of what looks to be a Metal Gear Solid 5 presentation have surfaced, prompting speculation that the game is about to be announced.

The shots first appeared in a Reddit thread, and more have turned up on NeoGAF. The text above the title reads "Open Ground Reconnaissance Endeavour" - and Kojima's next Fox Engine project goes by the codename "Project OGRE", so that would match up at least.

This image shows the text "The moment we were cast out of heaven, we became monsters", where another reads "A Paradise is born of the bloodstained earth". Below that, you can make out the words: "-Would she have wanted this? -That doesn't matter now."

We've contacted both Konami and Kojima Productions for comment - the official line from the publisher is that it doesn't comment on rumour or speculation.

Konami UK has tweeted about it, though: "Fake or real, we love a bit of speculation! #ogre #mgs5".

A New One Piece RPG Is Coming to… PSP?!

We’ve known since early April of this year that One Piece: Pirate Warriors, the PS3 exclusive that did gangbusters numbers at retail in Japan, would also be coming to the west by way of the PlayStation Network. And now, thanks to Andriasang, we know that a new One Piece game is headed to another PlayStation device... though not the one you probably wanted.

According to Andriasang, One Piece: Romance Dawn – “a traditional RPG with a command battle system” – will come to PSP this winter in Japan. The game may very well be playable on the Vita as well, as chances are it will see both a retail UMD release as well as a digital release on PSN, but it’s certainly disconcerting to see yet another game that will sell big in Japan come to PSP instead of Vita, a fledgling handheld absolutely starving for content in its native country.

There’s no word on if Namco Bandai intends on releasing One Piece: Romance Dawn outside of Japan, but with PSP’s flat sales in the west, it’s unlikely to happen. Then again, if One Piece: Pirate Warriors does well when it comes to PlayStation 3 later this year, then who knows?

We’ve reached out to a Namco Bandai representative for official comment and will update when we hear back. In the meantime, let’s remain as confused as ever as to how Sony intends on selling PlayStation Vitas in Japan while letting its third parties continue to release big games on its previous generation handheld.