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Can Infinity Ward survive?

The studio responsible for the multimillion-selling Call of Duty series has seen several senior staff leave amid a growing legal storm. But this doesn't necessarily spell doom.

Modern Warfare: Infinity Ward is apparently working on another, but is the series as we know it safe?

A month ago, Infinity Ward was one of the most successful and admired development studios in the world, worshipped by fans of its Call of Duty series and surely adored by accountants at its parent company, Activision.

But then one morning in early March it all started to unravel. Studio heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella were escorted from the premises; the duo claimed they were the victims of a trumped up indiscipline charge, formulated by Activision to avoid paying them substantial royalties on Modern Warfare 2. They slapped the publisher with a $36m lawsuit, formed their own development studio, the ironically titled, Respawn Entertainment, and announced a distribution deal with EA. Then, in early April, Activision slapped them back via a counter lawsuit, characterising the twosome as "insubordinate and self-serving schemers."

Amid all this, an exodus of Infinity Ward staffers began. Starting with Lead designer Todd Alderman and lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti at the beginning of April, it's alleged that up to 13 senior staff have now left the studio, though it seems none have conspicuously joined Respawn. So far. And the mood inside the stricken company? US news site Kotaku has heard from two unnamed staff members, one of whom claimed that the studio is effectively dead, and another that:

"We are not dead, we definitely lost original team members, but not all of the talent. When you talk about the people who left, they are the best in the business, but equally everyone at Infinity Ward deserves that same credential. We are here for the long haul of keeping the Modern Warfare name..."

Meanwhile, Activision is doing its best to jam a lid on the spluttering cauldron of controversy. Last week, Thomas Tippl, the company's chief operating officer, told the LA Times, "we treat our developers extremely well." He also stated that Infinity Ward has "interim leadership" in place, countering the fantasies of certain videogame news sites, who are picturing something akin to Lord of the Flies in there.

But the fundamental question is, can Infinity Ward recover?

Well, on the one hand, history shows that the most successful studios are those with a stable upper echelon. The likes of Blizzard, Bioware and Epic Games have had the same people at the top for years and have duly prospered. At the same time, many strong developers have collapsed when the head honchos walked: legendary Britsoft studio, Bullfrog, keeled over when Peter Molyneux left; Sonic Team never shone again when the mascot's unsung creator, Naoto Ōshima, abandoned ship in 1999; and Cavedog, the creator of the critically acclaimed Total Annihilation series, never recovered from the departure of the game's creator, Chris Taylor.

Structure is a vital element of the video game studio. In the west at least, game development is a democratic pursuit, typically involving strong-minded staff confident in their own creative ideas. Without a respected figurehead, factional disagreements can destroy the sense of common purpose. It's like a premiership football team filled with superstar players - if the manager can't cope with the inherently combustible mix of talents and egos, the side is unlikely to be challenging for a Champions League position.

But the thing about Infinity Ward is, it's working on a highly stable and successful series that doesn't need a lot of reinvention and innovation. This is not PlatinumGames or Team Ico - the world isn't expecting a paradigm-shifting classic with every release. Let's face it, Modern Warfare 2 is a rigidly constructed video game, but it's not a stunning reinvention of the series. What this 'franchise' probably needs is a competent, skilled and experienced workforce capable of producing compelling variations on what we've already seen. And that's exactly what it's got.

Ultimately, I'm not sure I understand the growing schadenfreude surrounding the developer's difficulties. Much of it seems to be connected to the usual 'all publishers are evil' nonsense that gets whiplashed round the games forums. Sure, if Infinity Ward collapses, that'll be a mighty punch in the stomach to Activision boss Bobby Kotick who seems to have become a pantomime villain in the eyes of some vocal online pundits. But it'll also be 100 people looking for new jobs, and a fabulous game series - Modern Warfare - virtually consigned to the history books.

I think Infinity Ward will survive because the demands on it are such that a dedicated team ethic is more important than a visionary leadership. I also hope it survives because I still love Call of Duty and Modern Warfare - just as they are, thanks. Just as they always have been.

How about you?

Super secure data encryption gets faster

Researchers at the Cambridge Lab of Toshiba Research Europe have solved the problem of transferring highly sensitive data at high speed across a long distance network.

The team were able to demonstrate the continuous operation of quantum key distribution (QKD) -- a system that allows the communicating users to detect if a third party is trying to eavesdrop on the data communication -- at a speed greater than one megabit/sec over a 50 km fibre optic network, thanks to the use of a light detector for high bit rates and a feedback system which maintains the high bit rates during data transfer.

Having previously been able to only transfer secure data over such a distance at speeds 100 to 1,000 times slower, this development is particularly important as it could extend the real world uses for the system to hospitals, banks or anyone transmitting sensitive data.

Speaking about the research, Dr Andrew Shields -- who directed the development at Toshiba Research Europe -- said, "Although the feasibility of QKD with megabits per second has been shown in the lab, these experiments lasted only minutes or even seconds at a time and required manual adjustments."

Importantly, the technology will now work without user interference, and allows sensitive information to be distributed using "one-time pad" encryption -- a theoretically perfect (uh oh!) system for secure data transfer that requires the key length to be the same character length as the message, and for each encryption key (or pad) to be totally random and unique. Due to the length of the keys and slow transfer speeds one-time pad is only commonly used amongst security forces and the military to transmit short messages.

The faster one megabit/sec data handling will allow the one-time pad to be used for the encryption of video -- a vast step forward over the current ability to only encrypt voice data.

Development of the study will now extend to the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Tokyo where, according to Tokyo QKD network coordinator Dr. Masahide Sasaki, a quantum key distribution demonstrator will test the secure key across a wider "metropolitan network", which may ultimately lead to the technology becoming commercially available.

Preview Lego kits in store with augmented reality

Lego has already been a big part of my childrens' life. But I have noticed that in toy shops they're more attracted to toys they can see completed through the packaging. There is a disconnect between the kit and the finished product because they have to go through the process of building it. This new augmented reality Lego kit viewer should change all that.

Pick the box you are thinking of purchasing and put it in front of the camera for identification, which utilises a QR code. Then, as if by magic, the finished kit pops-up on the screen. As you move the box around in front of the camera, the building tracks your motion. It even animates for you.

As with other augmented reality gadgets you need to see it in action to really get why this is so exciting.

I'm sure the novelty of the gadget will make Lego a much more attractive pocket money choice for my kids. In fact I think the problem now will be dragging them away from the shop when we're are finished.

The only thing I would say is that from the pictures the camera and screen look rather high. I hope that when they hit UK stores (this tech is being rolled out to all Lego stores worldwide) they position it a lot lower so I don't have to hold my kids up to use it.

How a tax break could affect the UK gaming industry

Gaming industry experts and insiders talk about the effects a Government tax break could have on the British videogames industry.

With the election fast approaching and the controversy over the Digital Economy Billdominating political coverage, it is not surprising that an important lifeline for the UKvideogames industry has fallen off the agenda.  

Alistair Darling's announcement of a tax incentive for UK videogame developers came as a welcome surprise for the scores of British creatives, and was a victory for TIGA -- The Independent Games Developers Association -- which had been campaigning for such a tax break.

"This is an inspired decision," said TIGA CEO Dr Richard Wilson. "In backing TIGA's Games Tax Relief the Government has chosen the future over the past, growth over decline, success over failure. Our research shows that Games Tax Relief over a five year period should create or protect 3,550 graduate level jobs and increase or safeguard £457 million in development expenditure."

It is hoped the benefits of the tax break will be felt across the industry and, in particular, will prevent the so-called "brain drain" of new talent fleeing to growing development hotspots in Canada, France and South Korea.

According to Michael Rawlinson, Director of The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), the news has come at a pivotal time for the games industry, drawing in much-needed investment.

"We want to see growth in the industry and develop the video games industry in the future," says Rawlinson. "It [the tax break] will be a building block for establishing the UK as a centre of excellence, and hopefully encourage investment by external investors, venture capitalists and multinationals, and get them to commission UK talent to make new games."

Countries including Canada, which overtook the UK to become the world's third largest games producer, already have incentives in place for video games, and have seen investment from large games development companies such as Eidos, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. It is hoped that when a UK tax incentive for developers is introduced it will stem the flow of talented creators moving abroad, and prevent the UK from slipping further down the rankings behind the likes of South Korea and China.

Britain versus the world
For many large companies the business case for setting up in the UK hasn't stacked up in recent years. But Guy Cocker, editor of GameSpot UK, believes the British video games industry will bounce back once it is put on a par with its rivals. "There's a lot of opportunity -- video games have entered the mainstream and we've got some great talent that has proven itself by creating many great games such as Grand Theft Auto and the original Batman," he says. "The main concern is that all our creative talent will go overseas. We've got a lot of creative leads -- the producer of Fifa, for example, is a Brit -- but we're losing out to Canada. It may be one of the most expensive [places to develop] but we have a great history and lineage in the UK."

The UK has a long history of games development, achieving global success from the likes of GTA, Tomb Raider and more recently Little Big Planet. With the gaming industry worth countless billions globally each year, it is not surprising that the Government singled out the sector for special tax benefits to curb the exodus of talent.

"The announcement is a very big acknowledgement, as it was the only industry singled out in the Budget," says Michael French, Editor-In-Chief of video games trade website MCV. "It must mean something is going well in the industry and it will make people wake up to it. People will probably want to tweak their ideas to fall into the tax break, but that might result in some really good, unique British products."

The proposed tax benefit might then create a wave of exciting new entirely British games -- a prospect leading UK developers are already excited about, such as Ian Livingstone, Life President of Eidos.

"There might now be an opportunity to develop more games in the UK," Livingstone told Wired. "We're perhaps the most creative nation in the world, with our fashion, music, film and art. A tax break will help stop the decline of development in UK games. We're the unruly step-child of the creative industry, despite being the largest entertainment industry in the world. This now puts games on the agenda."

Gareth Edmondson, head of the Ubisoft Reflections studio based in Newcastle, has previously said Ubisoft would like to increase its UK development staff by 1,000, but could only do so if there was a tax break. In an emailed statement to Wired, Edmondson reflected upon the tax break proposal by saying: "I believe a Games Tax Relief will allow UK developers to become more innovative, to be able to invest in new business models and technology and to create new intellectual property. We expect the criteria [of the tax break] to allow game developers a large degree of latitude."

Investment
But it's not just the immediate impact of the tax break that followers of the industry are excited about. The ripple effect of increased investment and interest in UK gaming might have a dramatic impact on the number of people entering the industry.

The future of the Games Tax Relief is still uncertain, but TIGA is tenaciously pursuing the matter in its own Election manifesto. In a statement, TIGA Chairman and CEO, Jason Kingsley, said: "Our political parties need to ensure that Games Tax Relief is operational in the UK by 2011 if they are serious about wanting to boost the UK video games industry."

For developers it is now just a matter of waiting. But when a tax break finally does arrive it promises to be a very exciting time for our nation's current and future creative talent.

TV-Hat, the dork-tastic head-mounted theatre

This week's dumbest gadget award goes to the TV Hat, a baseball cap with an elongated peak from which hangs a "personal private theatre". It is a head-mounted blackout tent into which you drop your portable media player, wherein you can watch movies in the glare of the midday sun, or in bed next to your smiling spouse. It costs $30 (£20), and includes a 2.5x magnification screen.

Who would use this? First, you look like an idiot, or at the very best like some weird, creepy guy in night-vision goggles. Second, this is most likely to be used outside or in a public place, which means you will be rendered not only blind and deaf to the outside world, you will not be paying any attention to the goings-on around you. That would make me very nervous.

But wait, there is another use. The head-mounted dork-theatre is not only for watching distraction-free. It is also for keeping others out: "Privacy side shields prevent others from seeing what you are viewing." Be careful, though. They might not be able to peek at the naughty movie you are watching, but they can sure as hell still see what your hands are doing.

Tested: The G.tec intendiX at-home mind-reading kit

The system consists of an EEG cap, a USB signal processor and amplifier, and a laptop running the indendiX software. The cap has eight EEG electrodes, most of which are centred on your occipital lobe -- the visual processing centre at the back of your brain.

Once you've put on the cap and attached the chest strap to pull it firmly down onto your head, you squirt conductive gel into each electrode to improve signal transmission. There's also an ear clip that acts as a reference point -- the software compares the signal from the EEGs with the baseline figure from the ear clip to compensate for background noise.

The first step is calibration. The software displays a grid of letters, and you select the letters you want to try to spell. You concentrate on the letter you want, and the software flashes horizontal and vertical lines across the grid. When your letter is highlighted there is a recognition spike in your occipital lobe -- the P300 wave that the kit detects. Telling the equipment which letter you wish to spell in advance helps the software distinguish between genuine P300 waves and background noise.

After 10 minutes of calibration it was time to spell for real! It's like Sesame Street, only instead of a giant yellow bird, it's a brain reading device.

The process is the same as calibration, but you don’t select a word in advance. We tried to spell 'wired'. It came out as 'sired' -- an impressive first attempt. Our test room has large amounts of background noise thanks to air conditioning and several wireless networks in the vicinity, so was almost a worst-case scenario for interference.

Spelling words this way is a laborious process, but the system is adaptable -- instead of a grid of letters you could have a menu or a set of locations in a house; select the kitchen to have an electric wheelchair move there automatically.

Want to give it a go? The intendiX kit costs £8,500 from OpenVivo.

The new iPhone browser: An Opera Mini review

It's a miracle that the phrase "Opera Mini for iPhone is now available from the iTunes App Store" can even be uttered at all. 

Following years of development, tweaking, tinkering, accusations of censorship and obsessive reading of the App Store guidelines, Norwegian company Opera Software has finally managed to create a version of its mobile browser -- Opera Mini -- that Apple has deemed acceptable to release on the iPhone. What swung it for Opera was the argument that it doesn't render web pages directly -- it instead displays a custom representation of that page from the company's servers.

The advantage this gives Opera over the default Safari browser is that it can modify that page in the process -- dialling down the file size of large images, and compressing the code so that it loads far faster for the user, and eats into less of you inclusive data allowance than Safari.

It works, too. When you're connected to Wi-Fi you won't notice much of a difference between Opera and Safari in terms of speed. But if you're suffering on a flaky EDGE connection then the speed boost in loading pages is real and noticeable. If you frequently find yourself with poor phone signal, you'll really appreciate this feature.

Other advantages over Safari include a useful "speed dial" homepage for quick access to your nine most visited sites, a handy function to search for text in a page, URL auto-complete, the ability to choose from multiple search engines -- including site-specific ones -- and the ability to save pages for offline viewing. The tabbed browsing experience is also far more pleasant to use than on Safari, and you can open as many tabs as your phone can cope with, as opposed to the maximum of eight allowed by Safari.

But it's not all flowers smiling bunny faces. The gesture support is poor at best: Pinching is erratic and only seems to support two zoom levels. Copying and pasting require an extra step over Safari too, you can't set it as a default browser (meaning links from, say, email will always open Safari, not Opera), and the UI and toolbars don't match other applications. We also found that many pages render incorrectly, rendering some sites almost unusable. Javascript support is average at best as well.

So ultimately, while you might want to keep Opera around for when you find yourself in a low-signal area, Safari is still the best browser for the majority of situations. But that doesn't matter -- the real story here is Apple's acceptance of an alternative to one of its own pieces of software. We now know possible to create a better browser than Safari.

It's just a shame that Opera Mini for iPhone isn't quite it. Yet...

How to get a UK iPad early

Desperate to get your hands on Apple's iPad? Frustrated by the international launch date delay? Then let Us help you fill that tech hole with our guide to buying an iPad.

Buy one and have it shipped overSounds simple enough, but Apple ain't no fools. You'll need a US credit card and a US address to ship it to, neither of which the average Englander has.

Fortunately a number of sites will let you ship products direct to them, before they're bundled up and forwarded to your actual address in the UK. Mind you it's not a cheap way of doing things, and after scouring the net for the shipping weight and size of delivered iPads -- which for your reference are approx. 1.54 kg and 29cm x 25cm x 11cm -- our designated carrier, BundleBox.com, returned a total cost of £108.11 to get the must have iPad to your door. That does, however, include VAT and import duties and the company's own fee but there is still the small problem of procuring a US credit card.

If you ask nicely Bundlebox will take care of this purchasing of an iPad for you, but if you're a hands on sort of person try USunlocked.com, which gives you a virtual pre-paid debit card for payments on US websites.

EbayWhere would we be without eBay? Most of us will probably be a hell of a lot richer, and in the case of the iPad that is no different.

Models are exchanging hands at a hefty premium through the auctions, but if you look hard enough there are some reasonably priced Buy It Now options.

We found a 16Gb WiFi iPad being shipped from the US for around £412 (such as this one, but Wired does NOT know or endorse this seller). Watch out though: if a seller labels it incorrectly you're likely to have your shipment delayed while customs send you a hefty bill for the import duty and VAT.

If that sounds a bit too risky, then how about you make someone else shoulder the responsibility? Oneenterprising eBayer had listed a hand delivery option to any major airport in the world, but its $10,000 Buy It Now price probably put buyers off.

Fly to the USFairly obvious: fly over and collect one yourself -- volcanic ash clouds permitting. However, beware as stocks are in short supply and you may find that that whistle-stop 24 hour round trip to the Apple Store ends up with you spending a night in a damp motel and an early morning wait outside the shop.

Lowest bid auctions These aren't the best way to secure an iPad as you're not actually guaranteed to win, but with a bit of luck you could be the proud owner of the world's cheapest iPad, with some sites such as Swoopo.co.uk claiming to have sold iPads for as little as £24.37.

That sounds like a bargain, but factor in delivery and the "bidding price" charged by the site, not to mention the fear of not actually winning, and it hardly seems worth it.

Make a friend buy you oneNo, not as a present -- although if you're in the giving spirit I'd quick like one, thanks -- but get a friend living in the US, or just visiting, to run down to the Apple store and grab you an iPad. Sounds simple; because it is.

BriberyWe're not entirely sure who you'd bribe to get one, but you could start off with someone who actually works at Apple. Or us, since we have a couple.

Failing that, and in the absence of a friend living in America, how about bribing a stranger to go and buy one for you? Run a search for people on Twitter who've tweeted that they're about to fly to the UK and drop them a message asking for an iPad. In return for a ride in your Ferrari (or Hyundai), free accommodation during their stay, or a slap up meal at Beefeater you might just get lucky.

If that doesn't win them over, how about you offer them a free iPad? Get them to buy an extra iPad for themselves and when they bring it, pay them for two.

As you can see, it's not going to be easy joining the iPad club ahead of its UK launch, but if you can think of any other sneaky ways then let us know in the comments.

Opera Mini browser tops global App Store downloads

Just two days after receiving approval from Apple, the Opera Mini web browser for the iPhone has topped the list in all 22 App Store charts. 

Official figures from Apple reveal that fast loading browser applications has been added to 1,023,380 iPhone and iPod Touch devices and was at one point heading up the list of the Top 10 most downloaded applications across all 22 App Stores. 

Speaking about the success of the Opera Mini browser, Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software said: "Today iPhone users have a choice, and, as the numbers show, they are eager to explore new and faster ways to surf the Web on the iPhone - especially during heavy Web traffic." 

Whether Apple would accept the Opera application quickly became a topic of huge debate after it was submitted for review on 23 March.

However, speaking to Wired at Mobile World Congress in February, developers at the company were confident that the unique server compression carried out by the browser made the application a suitable addition to the App Store and were confident Apple would not see it as a rival to its Safari browser. 

Opera Mini is now available to download here, for free through the UK App Store.

Have any Wired reading, iPhone owners downloaded the app? If yes, your views on its performance in the comments below would be much appreciated.

End of May now for iPad UK arrival

For all those of you out there who have circled 24 April as the day that you would have to dust off your tent and thermos, then head to the Apple store to queue for an iPad, the wait has just got that bit longer.

Apple has released a statement stating that, due to the device becoming "a runaway success in the US" -- the rest of us are going to have to wait for the company to get its stock levels up again.

The iPad is not going to available in the UK now until the end of May although the Apple Store will be accepting pre-orders from 10 May -- the day that international pricing will also be announced.

Apple says in its statement: " Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April."

It admits: " We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news."

Want to learn more about the iPad? Check out our full iPad coverage here.

UPDATE: News from Orange, Vodafone and O2

Vodafone is going to be selling the iPad in the UK alongside data plans for the 3G-enabled model. In a statement, it says: "Vodafone today announced that it will offer dedicated iPad price plans for all models from the end of May in Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK."

O2 and Orange have also announced that they will will offer dedicated iPad price plans for all models from the end of May in the UK.