Month: January 2017

Enlarge / Guess we'll never get to play this. (credit: Microsoft Studios)

Microsoft's Xbox-exclusive lineup grew one game smaller on Monday. The company had long teased the launch of action-adventure game Scalebound, made by esteemed Japanese developer Platinum Games, but after repeated delays and a noticeable absence on game expo show floors, the game received a formal cancellation today.

"After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for Scalebound," the company said in a statement. "We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, and other great experiences."

Scalebound would have allowed players to control, at alternating times, a sword-wielding warrior and a fire-breathing dragon on a giant quest. Exactly how the game would have played out was never clear. Microsoft never allowed press or the public to test the in-progress game at expo events, leaving us with little more than three-minute video snippets during game expo keynotes. As Ars' Mark Walton wrote last year, "Microsoft hasn't so much shown off Scalebound as it has demonstrated a bunch of neat but disparate gameplay systems without actually showing anyone the game." (The same can be said for two more "2017" games that Microsoft mentioned in its Monday statement, Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2. We haven't seen playable versions of either game in the wild to date.)

Enlarge / A number of us watching this huge Snorlax walk the halls wondered how he got into elevators or through doors.

Of all the gaming conventions I go to every year, MAGFest (the Music and Gaming festival) might be my favorite. Now in its 15th year, MAGFest knows how to draw a crowd of tens of thousands of nerdy party people for a wild weekend. For nearly four whole days, the Gaylord National Hotel in the Washington-area National Harbor resort becomes a 24-hour celebration of gaming, music, gaming music, and the somewhat nerdy culture surrounding all of it. While E3, GDC, PAX, and the like all have their charms (and their business uses), MAGFest has a passionate energy and socially focused atmosphere that other gaming conventions struggle to match.

The Japanese import-packed freeplay arcade is definitely the biggest draw for me, but board games, newer indie titles, and console classics are waiting to be played at literally all hours of the day and especially the night. And that's not even counting the countless concerts—both on official stages and from unofficial jam bands in the hall—an extensive merchandise area and panels where gamers offer everything from earnest industry advice to hot takes on gaming history. This being a festival, naturally there are excellent cosplayers wandering the hall throughout.

To commemorate our most recent trip, here's a quick look at the most memorable bits of this year's MAGFest show, including an interesting computer history exhibit tucked away in one corner of the resort.

Enlarge (credit: ullstein bild / Getty Images News)

Rather than disclose the source code that the FBI used to target a child porn suspect, federal prosecutors in Tacoma, Washington recently dropped their appeal in United States v. Michaud.

The case is just one of 135 federal prosecutions nationwide involving the Tor-hidden child porn website Playpen. The vast effort to bust Playpen has raised significant questions about the ethics, oversight, capabilities, and limitations of the government’s ability to hack criminal suspects.

In United States v. Michaud, Jay Michaud of Vancouver, Washington allegedly logged on to Playpen in 2015. But unbeknownst to him at that point, federal investigators were temporarily operating the site for 13 days before shutting it down. As authorities controlled Playpen, the FBI deployed a sneaky piece of software (a "network investigative technique (NIT)," dubbed by many security experts as malware), which allowed them to reveal Playpen users’ true IP addresses. With that information in hand, identifying those suspects became trivial.

Enlarge (credit: Flickr user Erica Zabowski)

A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy that illegally accessed the e-mail and social media accounts of Central Intelligence Director John Brennan and other senior government officials and then used that access to leak sensitive information and make personal threats.

Justin Gray Liverman, 24, of Morehead City, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, commit identity theft, and make harassing, anonymous phone calls, federal prosecutors said Friday. Among the 10 people targeted in the conspiracy were Brennan; then-Deputy FBI Director Mark Giuliano; National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper; Greg Mecher, the husband of White House Communication Director Jen Psaki; and other government officials. The group called itself Crackas with Attitude, and it was led by a co-conspirator going by the name of Cracka.

"She talks mad shit abt snowden," Liverman said on December 10, 2015 in an online chat with Cracka, referring to a target who is believed to be Psaki, according to a statement of facts signed by Liverman and filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. (The document refers to Mecher and Psaki as Victim 3 and the spouse of Victim 3 respectively.) "If you come across anything related to [Victim 3's spouse] let me know. If you find her cell or home number omg gimme." Liverman went on to say he wanted to "phonebomb the shitt [sic] outta" Psaki.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Spencer Platt)

Verizon Wireless customers with unlimited data plans who use more than 200GB a month will have to switch to limited plans next month or be disconnected, a company spokesperson confirmed today.

Since Verizon stopped offering unlimited data to new smartphone customers in 2011, this change affects only longtime customers who were allowed to hang on to the old plans. Verizon could simply force all customers who aren't under contract to switch to new plans, but instead it has periodically made moves that reduce the numbers of unlimited data subscribers.

"Because our network is a shared resource and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon, we are notifying a small group of customers on unlimited plans who use more than 200GB a month that they must move to a Verizon Plan by February 16, 2017," Verizon spokesperson Kelly Crummey told Ars today.

Enlarge (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Ten years ago this week—on June 29, 2007—many waited (in line or online) for the first iPhone's formal release. This week as the device turns 10, we're examining its impact and revisiting the phone that changed it all. As such, we wanted to resurface this trip down iPhone review memory lane. This piece first ran on January 9, 2017 (ten years after Steve Jobs first unveiled his now signature product to the world).

Ten years ago, Steve Jobs hopped onstage at the 2007 MacWorld conference and announced a much-anticipated product that would come to totally eclipse the Mac. It was an iPod, a phone, and an Internet device. It was the first iPhone, and whether you like Apple and its products or not, it drastically altered the face of computing.

Apple stopped attending MacWorld in 2009 (the conference ended entirely in 2015) and Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, but the iPhone is still here and so are we. We've reviewed every single iPhone that Apple has released, and as we did when the iPad turned five, we'll walk down memory lane with both the benefit of hindsight and the stuff we thought at the time.

(credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Verizon Wireless is now charging a $30 upgrade fee when customers switch to a new phone, up from the previous fee of $20. The $30 upgrade fee must be paid "if you purchase a new device at retail price or through [Verizon's] device payment program," Verizon notes.

The fee increase went into effect on January 5. In another change last week, Verizon stopped offering two-year contract renewals and device subsidies to existing customers (Verizon had already stopped offering contracts and subsidies to new customers).

When asked why the upgrade fee was raised, a Verizon spokesperson told Ars, "These fees help cover increased cost to provide customers with America’s largest and fastest 4G LTE network."