Category: Featured News

Mobile games distribution startup in Singapore gets huge investment from Sega

goGame is receiving millions in funding from Sega Networks which decided against opening an office there.

While Sega Networks could just as easily have opened up its own office location in Singapore, it has chosen to place its mobile games brand under the control of a startup there called goGame, under its head, David Ng.

The developer has been recreating its mobile gaming strategy for several months it chose to invest in the startup.

The choice will allow Sega, a Japanese company that specializes in video and mobile games, to allow goGame to spend its energies on localization, marketing and customer service, while it keeps it resources dedicated to its own top priorities and strengths. In that light, it has made a multimillion dollar investment into the Singapore company and announced this choice at an event in the new office of that startup business.

Sega has shown a massive amount of trust in this investment of its mobile games through goGame.

Mobile Games - SegaBy the time of the writing of this article, no precise amount of the actual investment had been disclosed to the media. It was, however, pointed out that Incubate Ventures, Japanese VC firm still in its early stages, also contributed to the investment in the startup.

The CEO of goGame, David Ng, said at the launch party that “People keep telling me that I’m crazy. To build Gumi to the global stage for three and half years and then just leave. People said, why did you leave? Who in their right minds would leave? But I’m excited to show you what I have.”

Ng is no new entrant into this space. His flagship product called goPlay has changed the way developers are able to launch, market, and support their mobile games through a convenient drag and drop service that is free-to-publish. Now, with goGame, it is possible for software development kits (SDKs) to be dropped into a game to fix issues or better the customer management, localization, worldwide marketing, payment and even 24/7 live operations of a game. Alternately, if a developer were to attempt to use the traditional means of replicating the SDKs on their own, it could take as long as months, depending on what the purpose of the change is meant to be.

Augmented reality headsets to be worn by astronauts in space

The HoloLens is now being sent into space for NASA employees to test while weightless.

Even though virtual and augmented reality technology based gadgets haven’t really done much in mainstream life down here on Earth, when it comes to people who are living in space, a different situation is underway.

The Microsoft HoloLens is now being sent up to the residents of the International Space Station.

The resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has included 2 Microsoft HoloLens devices that are meant to be used by NASA astronauts. This will allow them to test out the augmented reality technology for uses in weightless scenarios. The astronauts living on the ISS will be given devices that are meant to function as instruction manuals that offer relevant information in real time. This is a component of an existing NASA project that is called Project Sidekick.

The idea of this use of augmented reality is to boost the communication between the ISS and ground control.

In this way, a tech on Earth located in Houston would be able to see exactly what an astronaut wearing the HoloLens AR headset is viewing, and they will see it in real time. That would then make it possible for that individual on the ground to be able to draw a circle around a specific button or hardware on the view of the space station so that the astronaut’s attention can be drawn to it quickly and easily without lengthy descriptions and directions to find it. The idea is to make it easier to offer instructions for conducting experiments and repairs in a more efficient and effective way than written or verbal instructions.

According to the ISS program director, Sam Scimemi, “HoloLens and other virtual and mixed reality devices are cutting edge technologies that could help drive future exploration and provide new capabilities to the men and women conducting critical science on the International Space Station.” He added that the use of this new augmented reality tech could improve opportunities for explorers in the future who require heightened autonomy, such as on a journey to Mars.