Since 1999, major console makers including Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE), Nintendo, and the now-defunct Sega have been touting online gaming as a mainstay of the industry. And though online console use is rising, mainstream apathy means the initiative has never matured.
Of the 172 million systems sold in the last generation of consoles*, an estimated 5 million gamers ventured online — representing just three percent of the market. But wouldn’t you know it, each and every major console circa the early 2000s was capable of online play (some better than others).
By comparison, there are currently 26 million “next-gen” consoles in households (11M Wiis, 11M 360s, 4M PS3s). As of August, Microsoft’s Xbox Live claimed more than 7 million active users, including paying and free silver account users that aren’t privy to online multiplayer.
Continue reading at GigaOM…
Here’s a nice little update on an old childhood friend of mine, Matt Holliday.
The AP reports: “Holliday, who has reached base in a franchise-best 38 straight games, finished 2-for-4 and edged ahead of Atlanta’s Edgar Renteria and Chase Utley of Philadelphia for the NL battling lead at .337.”
Matt, despite having you put the athletic thump on us in middle school, Jeff, Barry, Brian, and I would have never have thought for a second that you would one day lead the National League in batting average. Nice work, and keep it up!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPT7q825gwI[/youtube]
I may have spoke to soon regarding my previous “best music video ever” comment as I forgot about this 2:21 minute gem; Wax’s California directed by Spike Jonze in 1995. The shot allegedly only took 12 seconds to shoot, but the execution (not to mention the premise) was flawless. Nice!
Link here
[Thanks, Rick]
We have a little trash extraction system in the Snow household: Lindsey empties our trash cans with haste and leaves the bag just outside our front door for me to take down to the dumpster at a later time so she doesn’t have to scale the three flights of stairs from our penthouse rental. It’s a good system.
I didn’t always think that way, however, as Lindsey apparently doesn’t like to fill the trash bags with dross before readying them for the dump truck (not to mention the fact that she buys the nicest, most expensive bags money can buy). It gets worse just before company comes over as was the case yesterday. Before the company arrived, I took out a trash bag that was less than two-thirds full.
This would have bothered me in our first year of marriage having been reared in a house where you literally had to jump on a trash bag to fit everything in. But now being a “seasoned” married individual of more than four years, I just chuckle when taking out light loads.
The upside to Lindsey’s fastidious trash habit? We’ve never had a spill, leaky bag, or stinky kitchen in our house during marriage.
I finally maxed out my RAM capacity (2GB) on my 2004 desktop PC during this the last week of summer. Up from 1GB prior, the thing is now smoking! OK, not really smoking, but it’s running smoother with added zip.
My local apps now pop open with haste, and I’m convinced the internets load faster in FireFox as well.
With a video card upgrade sometime next year, I’m hoping I can get some added mileage from my trusty 2 GHz Compaq Presario. Have you upgraded your RAM lately?
[RAM courtesy of Crucial]
Lindsey and I went to see The Invasion tonight. It’s a solid, creepy movie that doesn’t drag on too much, has some awesome foreshadowing cinematics, and presents a rather believable story. Good stuff.
The trailers before the film were pretty good also. Here are two movies I plan to see this fall…
Dan in Real Life
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Happy anniversary, Bella!
The latest wave of Microsoft Office 2007 ads are just lame.
Do I smile on my way to work because I get to use Gmail, WordPress, Dictionary.com, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, iTunes, Bloglines, or any other technology? No. To suggest otherwise, especially with software as boring and commonplace as Microsoft Office, is comical at best.
The ads are unconvincing and go unnoticed (unless you’re critiquing their stupidity). One demerit for Microsoft’s ad agency.
I’m going to let the AP sum up the news cause I’m lazy today:
“Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will offer next-generation DVDs in the HD DVD format and drop support for Blu-ray, further complicating the race between the competing technologies… With Paramount dropping Blu-ray support, Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. remains the only major studio releasing movies in both formats.”
Can someone say stalemate? Oh, and my PS3 just lost some value (it doubles as a Blu-ray player).
Here’s an interesting article on the hi-definition format war. From the article:
Blu-ray and HD-DVD are as much a revolution as Video-CD was compared to VHS. They’re an evolution at most but of course that’s not something the companies pushing the formats want you to realize.
The author notes that HD could be achieved on standard DVDs (which it could, albeit compressed and sparing extras), but that companies are forcefully pushing new technologies onto consumer to make up for lost DVD player and disc margins. Can’t say I disagree.
Assuming you’re talking to the right person, offer more than just money, and ask the right questions. Tom Chiarella lays it all out in a 2005 Esquire piece examining what it takes to become a good haggler. It’s a hilarious read to boot.
From the article: “When I asked if a price on a tube of Crest was firm, I was met with the blankness that only a haggler knows. But I found that if you ask the right questions, there are deals to be had.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inA-36YRV0Y[/youtube]
Looks fun. *rolls eyes*
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F79iThUEWFg[/youtube]
Duct Tape in lieu of a ski mask. Cornholio-style t-shirt for added anonymity. Can it ever get any better than this?
A new school year is creeping ever closer, and it’s time for the editors of GamePro to grade the year in gaming.
Continue reading at GamePro…
Our executive branch of the federal government has failed us. Our legislative and judicial branches aren’t much better, though their added checks and balances make them less susceptible to corruption than our most popular branch of government, the one the POTUS oversees.
From my cursory vantage, here are some of the issues that concern me most, both from political and economical perspectives: Continue reading…
Lindsey and I had the opportunity to watch the Bourne Ultimatum while my sister-in-law babysat Sadie on Saturday. Outside of its being a most excellent, non-gadgety, weaponize your environment type spy-movie, I discovered what I believe to be the worst boss in the world: a spy (or CIA) boss.
Continue reading…
It might look something like this.
Gloob.tv, a phonetic portmanteau of glued and tube, is adding an editorial layer on top of the web’s billion-plus available videos; the idea being that editors know best when it comes to selecting the most desired user-submitted videos.
Published by Future US out of San Francisco, Gloob currently employs 26 editors or “spotters,” as they are called, to organize “the unwieldy world of online streaming video.” Spotters work on a rev-share basis being compensated for the traffic generated to their respective video selections.
And therein lies the difference in how Calacanis would do it; actually paying people to do the nitty-gritty as opposed to the insipid use of rev-share to drive traffic to a site that doesn’t have any revenue to begin with.
Continue reading at NewTeeVee…
I love “earning” a good Friday night and subsequent two-day weekend. By earn I mean having completed several items from you weekly to-do list. It just feels good.
I must say that Lindsey and I aren’t the most adventurous folks. We’re home-body, city-slickers by definition. Even so, it’s a challenge to do creative activities with a little 2-year old and one in the cooker.
Lindsey and I have wedding festivities both tonight and tomorrow for two different couples followed by another baseball game tomorrow night (that’s always a blast). So what are you doing this weekend?
We sit down with famed God of War creator David Jaffe and Twisted Metal mastermind Scott Campbell at their new Salt Lake City studios to discuss the PS3 (not to mention PS4, and PS5), review scores, God of War sequels, casual games, and the current state of the industry. While Jaffe is now independent, his loyalties still remain with Sony.
Continue reading at GamePro…
The Associated Press reports: “Barry Bonds hit No. 756 to the deepest part of the ballpark Tuesday night, and hammered home the point: Like him or not, legitimate or not, he is baseball’s new home run king.”
Amid a swarm of expected negative press, the above image is how the nation’s largest sports magazine ushered in the news on its home page. It takes more than just a number to break a record it seems…
My wife Lindsey blogged the other day about things that get her excited (read: make her happy). Liking the idea, here are my top 52 natural highs, heavy on sappiness and in no particular order. Continue reading…
I used to be more critical of Bonds than I should have been, but having done my research I still think an asterisk is in order. Should be interesting to see him “break” the record in the next few days. *
As of September 2006, Nintendo had sold 275 million Mario games worldwide easily making the little Italian plumber the best selling game character of all time. To put that into perspective, imagine all other notable game characters, combine them, and you still won’t account for half of what Mario has sold. Not Halo, not Gran Turismo, not even Nintendo’s own Pokemon or Zelda come close.
And he’s still selling. “Mario is a gaming icon that has had and continues to have a huge impact on the gaming world,” admits once Nintendo rival Takashi Iizuka of Sega. But even though single game sales may never resurface to the level of 1980s gaming, Mario isn’t the only franchise character still thriving. The franchise formula continues to work to this day assuming the playable characters maintain their appeal.
Continue reading at Business Week…
It’s apparently a minor ankle injury, one that allowed him to play for about 15 minutes in his debut game. Click here for more…
The AP reports: “At airports, supermarkets and big-box retailers, ‘customer service’ in recent years has meant self-serve — aided by touch-screen kiosks. As digital kiosks become more user-friendly and capable of handling more complicated tasks, health care providers, fast-food chains and other businesses say trading face-to-face encounters for face-to-monitor transactions improves service and saves money.”
I consider myself one who prefers the personal touch in lieu of self-service kiosks, usually. At the post office, I bypass a line of 15 people in favor of the kiosks. I’m in and out in 2 minutes (because no one else seems to use the kiosk) while others can wait up to 45 minutes to send something. However, at Walmart and other stores employing self-service kiosk, I almost always opt to wait in line for 5 minutes to encounter a human.
I can appreciate the cost savings of kiosks from a business perspective, but the human element in me questions the so-called “improved service.” Our new motto as humans: Get in. Get out. Do your thing. Avoid humans at all costs because they get in your way by slowing you down. That doesn’t sound right…
Here’s a protip for those transitioning into the high-definition world; never buy HDMI cables at retail stores. The cheapest you’ll find one is $50-60 for a four foot cord whereas an online store will get you a 6′ cord for as little as $10 (svideo.com and Buy.com for example). Buy.com has a three for $17 deal right now.
And don’t be fooled with the quality argument on this one. Assuming the cord has standard durability (i.e. a plastic casing), you’ll see zero difference in picture quality as it’s all ones and zeros. Monster Cables worked in the analog world. They have little place in the digital one.
I was interviewed by GameDaily for my thoughts on video game reviews today and here’s what I told ’em. For context, video game review scores are perhaps the most influencial consumer product reviews I know. For instance, something like 8/10 best selling games last year were in the 90th percentile, so you can see how important (and political) a good review score can be to a game publisher. My comment:
“As much as I criticize review scores, I still use them to gauge lemon games and think scores should stay. Unless a game receives an average of less than 50%, I will still buy or at least give it a renting chance if it has sufficient appeal. That said, I find any system above a 10-point scale (think decimal points) to be superfluous in that it takes the subjective review process way too seriously. Kudos to GameSpot for recently dropping their 100-point scale down to 20. Now they just need to drop it to a clean 10-point system.”
My ideal product review system already exists in the movie industry. They use a 10-point scale by way of a five star system, such as 4/5 stars, 3.5/5 stars. I like this methodology for two reasons. First, five stars (though a perfect score in its own system), doesn’t hold the same meaning as a perfect 10 score. For some reason, a 10 implies more perfection than 5/5 stars while both metrics tell that something is very, very good. I say the less presumption, the better.
Second, the star system on a 10-point scale doesn’t take the subjective nature of reviews too seriously as noted above. Round up the average review scores, go read Meta Critic to catch any outliers, and you’re well on your way to dodging repellent products.
Nintendo has crushed a large majority of competing video game handhelds since first popularizing the platform over 20 years ago. Save only a few, an overwhelming number of portables are commercial botches. Here are the top handheld failures.
Continue reading at GamePro…
Be it a lack of games, poor strategy, or inadequate marketing, a majority of video game consoles are commercial failures. Here are the 10 worst selling consoles of all time in terms of high-profile systems that stood a viable chance. Other lesser-known consoles are sure to have sold worse, but the below represent the notable platforms that never met expectations.
Continue reading at GamePro…
Lindsey and I should totally do this! Teaching children in lieu of a professional career is soooo over-rated.
Some recent developments and slow consumer adoption have Blu-ray slowly edging out HD DVD in the states. But things are completely as they seem, especially being that the latter format is performing better in Europe. I wrote a story on the current state of the HD disc format war over at NewTeeVee. For those interested…
Blu-ray adoption is gradually killing HD DVD, or at least that’s how it appears. Retail advantages, bigger support base in Hollywood, and a slightly cheaper PlayStation 3 all suggest that the Sony-backed medium will ultimately prevail over Toshiba’s HD DVD. “We are starting to see the pendulum swing slowly in [Blu-ray’s] direction,” says Chris Roden, analyst with Parks Associates. Continue reading…
I decided to buy a PS3 on a whim this week. To be honest, this game (Heavenly Sword) will be released as a demo tomorrow, and I just couldn’t deny myself the HD action-adventure goodness. So far I’m happy with my purchase. The interface is beautifully simple and well-organized, I really like the PlayStation store for downloadable games, demos, and videos, and I’ve liked what I’ve played so far. No buyer’s remorse what so ever.
The hardware is leagues ahead of the unreliable Xbox 360. For a hefty $500, you get access to Sony’s upcoming and traditionally stellar first-party games, a Blu-ray player, 60GB hard drive, wireless networking, and one of my personal favs, free online multiplayer (albeit limited in comparison to 360’s more expansive list of supported games).
I will admit, the system feels a bit stale at the moment due to a lack of truly compelling software, and it easily trails the Wii in the freshness department. But I’m optimistic of the future prospects, the visuals are gorgeous, and its fall linup of games has my interests piqued.
Faveup is a nifty little Digg-esque voting site for designers looking for inspiration. The site features logo, biz card, flash sites, and css site designs for the uninspired. Granted, some of the looks are trendy and Fisher Pricey, but overall, its a fresh take on the current state of design. Check it!
The Associated Press reports: “The batting coach for the Tulsa Drillers was pronounced dead at a hospital Sunday evening after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach’s box during a Texas League game with the Arkansas Travelers, police said.”
Sad story. I’d wouldn’t be surprised, however, if the coach was looking elsewhere when the foul ball was hit. That said, I still support wooden bats in both college and high school as both the majors and minors currently use.
The PS3 isn’t the only console with problems. Microsoft has an equal share of issues with the Xbox 360 that could prove just as harmful as Sony’s. Here are six reasons why the Xbox 360 is in trouble, though not necessarily doomed.
Continue reading at GamePro…
Facetious headline aside, my wife tells a funny story of one of the many benefits in being a parent.
Take it away, Lindsey: “Last night, Blake and I thought it would be fun to take Sadie to McDonald’s to play. It’s been too hot to go somewhere outside, so after washing one of our cars, we headed to the golden arches. We had already eaten but I felt that I should at least purchase a hot fudge sundae for myself so that we would be paying customers playing on the toys.” Continue reading…
I’ve had several discussions this past week on the best way to interview someone in the name of journalism. Here are my thoughts, methodologies, and best practices when trying to extract pertinent information from key individuals.
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Realize you’re interviewing a human being with feelings. It’s imperative that you are courteous and respectful even if you completely disagree with the person or they have a tendency to spin everything (spin frustrates accurate information, so that can be discouraging, I know).
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Ask straightforward questions without context when possible, e.g. “Why did X happen?” as oppossed to “Given blah, blah, blah, and yada, yada, yada, why did X happen?” When you must use context, be sure to be as objective as possible when prepping the question.
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Be fair. I know an individual that walked straight up to a Sony executive and asked him outright if the executive thought his employer was arrogant. The executive scoffed at the question and immediately walked away leaving the reporter with nothing more than an eye roll to report on. Bad idea. Bad approach. And definitely not fair. Even if someone shows heavy signs of what you’d like to reveal, you have to come at those questions sideways like, “What do you think about X?” in which the interviewee will most likely make known your hypothesis to be true.
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No hints! When reporting, please don’t drop sparky hints. You’re readers aren’t retarded, and collectively they are much smarter than you. When it comes to straight news, just report what happened piecing together the story in chronological order while distilling information in inverted pyramid form so readers can ditch a story when they like.
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View the interviewee as an asset. Remember that the interviewee has information you want access to. Use tact in getting said information so your audience can make an informed decision.
Anyone else have thoughts on interviewing for information? Comment if you got ’em.
If someone told me in 1984 that you could successfully sell dolls to little boys for more than five consecutive years, I would have laughed at them. But that’s precisely what Hasbro (makers of Transfomers) and Playskool (makers of Playdough) did from 1985 into the early 90’s.
Granted, My Buddy wasn’t a smash or sustainable hit, but it clearly was profitable, albeit for a while. The lesson? Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t take to market. I realize this idea encourages a lot of junk product being released, but in business, the best marketing wins, not necessarily the best product.
So the next time someone is drilling you on your marketing plan, just remember the doll intended for boys that had a run of success in the 80s. Remember My Buddy.
Santa Monica, California – If there was one buzzword at this year’s E3, it was “casual gaming” in all its synonymous varieties: family-friendly games, games for everyone, usability, intuitive controls, and accessibility, to name a few. Almost every game maker in attendance had casual gaming on their briefing agenda, even if only name-dropping the idea.
There’s no need to be coy; Nintendo’s Wii is directly to blame for the recent surge in interest of casual gaming and its much larger audience outside of hardcore gamers. Interestingly, that reality is transcending consoles, something that is sure to excite independent developers looking to avoid unfavorable licensing terms. Highlights from the E3/casual gaming convergence after the break.
Continue reading at GigaOM…
Next Generation sat down with Activision Senior Vice President of Marketing Will Kassoy on Friday to discuss Guitar Hero, EA’s competing Rock Band, and casual games for Wii.
“There was a lot of unmet demand due to controller shortage with the release of the first Guitar Hero,” Kassoy said when asked about the franchise’s massive success. “As a result, we invested heavily in ramping up production of Guitar Hero II to meet demand.”
Activision, the number two independent game publisher, says the series is one of the fastest growing brands of all time. The company is currently preparing to release the third installment this fall next to EA’s Rock Band, a game that some are calling the “Guitar Hero killer.”
Continue reading at Edge…
I’m off to Santa Monica tomorrow to cover the Electronic Entertainment Expo again this year. It’s a lot smaller now because the conference ballooned into a pit of money and glut last year, but it should still be a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to get my hands on some fresh games. As a refresher, here’s what happened since last year’s E3:
- Nintendo’s stock has doubled to almost $50/share off unthinkably high Wii sales. The thing really is great; I had two 80 year-olds at my house today having a blast on it. It doesn’t fully satiate my core gamer appetite, but some big titles are expected later this year.
- Sony is in a world of hurt; their PS3 continues to struggle, and it is expected to continue that way despite its newly reduced $500 price, about $200-$300 more than it should cost for a gaming machine. (A majority of people still don’t consider it a blu-ray player and/or a computer and largely never will because it’s sold in the video game department at retail. Oh convergence!)
- Microsoft is doing solid in terms of attracting new games and establishing a respectable install base, but even they can’t catch a break. They’ll lose a billion dollars this year on service repairs alone due to abnormally high 360 failure rates. That’s what you get for outsourcing both your manufacturing and design. Add that hefty chunk to the already estimated 5 billion in total losses since launching the first Xbox, and investors have every right to be pissed, regardless of Billsoft’s absurdly deep pockets.
Games I’m most excited for: Assassin’s Creed, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Skate, Little Big Planet, and a handful of fresh new titles in that order. Predictions: Wii will outsell both Xbox 360 and PS3 by early next year, Xbox 360 will get a price cut to $350 off the heels of the PS3 drop, Halo 3 will be the biggest selling game of 2007, and Sony will continue to underwhelm. All in a year’s work of the $14 billion dollar industry.
See also:
I was out yesterday, but thought I’d chime in with my Independence Day thoughts. Note: Please don’t misunderstand the below comment for ethnocentrism or arrogance. It is only out of appreciation, pride, and in belief of the country which I call home.
“Despite its flaws, and there may be many, the United States is the greatest attempt at democracy the world has ever seen.” — some conservative Rodeo announcer I heard a few weeks ago while on leisure with family and friends.
I believe that statement to be true. I’ve hung my hat as an American abroad for two years in Brazil and would live there again in a heart beat, but I believe America really is the most progressive attempt at democracy the world has ever known despite our current and insipid executive branch (read: president). This is thanks in part to the Brits, the French, and the Greek before us, and I’m sure many others were influential as well.
UPDATE: Fixed “Greeks” mispelling. I’m a retard.
I had the pleasure of seeing Transformers last night with a friend. I stress the word pleasure because it was exactly that. I wasn’t expecting good acting only going for the special effects, but Shia LeBouf was the movie standout. His comedic delivery and believability are top notch.
Michael Bay, the director, did an excellent job despite being largely criticized for his past big, over-the-top movies. Granted, there are several plot holes in the movie, but remember you’re watching a film about big giant robots once catered to 5-year old boys as I once was. Indulge yourself, and you’ll come away watching one of the most visually impressive, entertaining, and freshest movies (at least in terms of cadence and visuals) in a long time. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars, though it’s not Oscar material (like I know what is).
Oh, and I also saw Ratatouille over the weekend. Different kind of movie than the above, but Pixar’s animation is the best I’ve seen and this is easily my favorite film they’ve made due to its sophistication and compelling story. Both films highly recommended.
In classic Apple form, the company seemingly wants you to exclusively buy their earbud headphones for use with their iPhone as opposed to any other headphones you may or may not want to use. Flickr user vrogy has the scoop and the pic:
“It’s very simple- the curvature and insetting of the iphone housing prevents anything but very small audio plugs… i.e. mac hardware. Classic hardware lock-in.”
In a statement to Smooth Harold, Apple CEO Steve Jobs rhetorically asked, “We’d be stupid not to exploit and cash in on our insanely loyal consumer base, right?”*
*Steve Jobs really didn’t say this, but I can’t imagine the thought process being much different.
The reason why most new music sounds worse than most older recordings has to do with loudness optimization that started with the inception of CDs and progressively getting worse with time as shown in the above video.
[via FunL]
Despite its recent troubles, General Motors is the luckiest company in the world over the next few weeks according to Jalopnik. The car-loving blog — while heavily praising the movie’s entertainment value– says the highly-anticipated Transformers movie is basically a 144-minute commercial for GM. From the article:
“What makes this arrangement so amazing is that GM didn’t pay Paramount a single dime to get it done. That’s right — not a single penny changed hands between the big n’ beefy automaker and the big n’ beefy studio. Sure, GM provided some in-kind contributions of concept vehicles and the like, and of course they’ve got their own marketing budget running their own marketing campaign — but unlike other automakers, they didn’t drop a single pence into Paramount’s pocket for the privilege of having themselves featured in a movie [aimed at the coveted 15-35 male demographic, you know, the ones that buy a lot of cars] about cars that change into robots.”
Lucky…
NOTE: Transformers looks incredible! At first I thought the movie and its premise seemed too lame for the big screen, not to mention juvenile and over the top. But after seeing (and hearing) the amazing CG, cinematics, and deep sound, I cannot wait to see this film. “Autobots, transform. And roll out!” (spoiler-free review here)
Nintendo’s Wii gaming system has been a hit on the marketplace, but to keep the momentum, the company is making a strategic bet, and turning it into a developer platform. With enough developer momentum, iconic products say an iPod or Facebook, can become a mass market phenomenon.
Nintendo today announced a new indie developer platform for its widely successful Wii console, likely to launch in early 2008. Dubbed WiiWare, the service is said to enable developers to create smallish, new games via download on the motion-controlled system.
Continue reading at GigaOM…
