- Seven Hollywood studios including Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Warner Bros and Disney have teamed up to sue iiNet, Australia’s third largest ISP. iiNet is accused of doing little to stop its subscribers from sharing copyright works via BitTorrent. We are going to see a lot more of this if the film, music and gaming industries are going to survive. We are currently experiencing the biggest glut of stealing in the history of mankind and the ISPs are the only people who could possibly reduce it. It’s not nice to see that the Hollywood studios understand this better than the gaming industry.
- Microsoft fail in their attempt to reach a broader demographic. Lips just isn’t any good. Eurogamer give it 5 out of 10 because of flawed game play. There is no excuse for this, Nintendo have taught us just how polished games need to be these days.
- Oh the sweet serendipity of two widely diverse articles on here coming together. Ann Diamond is a z list celebrity who was paid by the Daily Mail to say how bad video games are. Now she is being paid by Popcap, a dynamic publisher, to say how good their games are. “PopCap is working with one of videogaming’s toughest critics to see if casual gaming can aid weight loss.” This is excellent marketing all round. Ann Diamond gets the chance to restore some credibility to her image whilst PopCap ride on her notoriety in this area.
- Future publishing is now worth only £30 million after reporting minisculey improved results. They are reaping what they sowed here with a disastrous historic lack of an internet strategy. Basically they didn’t see how chopping down trees as a communication medium would fall away so quickly. The new management are obviously correcting this but from a long way back. They should do it which makes these shares a bargain. Unless they get taken over first.
- Developer whinges that XNA game prices are too low. Maybe in comparison with boxed retail console games, but these are vastly overpriced. I don’t see how he can complain when he knew what he was getting into. If he doesn’t like the way XNA is run he can always develop for the iPod or nGage.
- Chris Lewis, VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft EMEA drops some  hints about the next generation (phoenix) and how important scaling is to Microsoft: “I think this generation will be longer, because there is so much scalability. When you look at NXE, that is a complete revision of the interface and the look and feel and every aspect of the system. That’s not predicated by new hardware. We have fundamentally done that through software and services. So if you think of that scalability and the opportunity to enhance and develop what we do with this platform, then I think it’s very, very possible–and indeed appropriate–that this generation will be longer. But we’re not specific about when that will happen, and we don’t have a particular timeline that we share right now.”
- The game addictiveness debate rumbles on, fuelled by Wrath of Lich King. We have to accept and allow for the fact that games can definitely be addictive. But that there are far worse addictions and vastly worse things in life. Dr Richard Graham, a child psychiatrist at London’s Tavistock Centre, told the BBC: “The problem with World of Warcraft is the degree it can impact and create a socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game and is largely dropping out of education, social opportunities.” I don’t see anything massively wrong with people preferring to live a virtual reality, they are lucky to have the choice.
- Carphone Warehouse, a UK retailer, is giving away free PS3s with new phones. How the mighty have fallen. That Sony need to resort to this sort of marketing in peak season tells you exactly how well they are competing in the market.
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You can’t just sue ISPs to stop piracy. They work on incredibly tight margins and they can’t afford to police the internet.
If they start to get sued or have to take action, then ISPs will disappear because it’s not worth it and the few that are left will drive prices up to pay for the policing (and of course, their monopoly).
People will then have less money and will probably not be able to afford as much entertainment (like a game or DVD less a month) pushing them towards old-fashioned piracy like the car boot sale.
The other argument is, can you sue Smith & Wesson for the horror that they enabled?
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re: Carphone Warehouse “giving away” PS3’s.
This is more a reflection of how badly mobile phone users are getting ripped off by CW than anything to do with Sony’s fortunes.
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Mobile phone resellers have been giving away Wiis and DSes for several years now.
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Quote:
Nintendo have taught us just how polished games need to be these days.
Um…you mean like Wii Music?
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Last comment isn’t appearing…
So… Carphone warehouse is also running a Free Wii promo…does that mean there is something wrong with Wii sales too?
Bollocks.
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I know you like to bang on that piracy drum until it’s dead, but –
ISPs should not be responsible for the data that their infrastructure carries.
ISPs should not disconnect users just because a third party asks.
Content providers need better proof of infringement than just Logistep data.
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Atari have just stopped pursuing alleged filesharers using the Davenport Lyons fear extorting scattergun method. Thank god one company sees sense.
I’d like to see someone with the resources to take these allegations to court, I doubt the evidence, or more specifically, lack of evidence would stand up at all. The allegation that the ISP contract holder is responsible for all traffic that goes in and out of their unsecured wireless connection would probably fall flat on its face too.
But we know that’s never going to happen. As soon as someone man’s up, that case is dropped. It’s too much hassle, move onto someone willing to settle.
One letter, £0.36, one settlement, £500. In times of recession, what an incredible return.