Entries from May 2009 ↓

In a speech earlier this month Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said: “Pay attention to the stuff we’re announcing in the next month on Xbox”. So we have it from the horses mouth that there will be a very major announcement from Microsoft for E3. And 90% it has to be a gesture interface.

So this patent is quite interesting.

“the device is a handheld electronic device.
the device is an input or output device or peripheral.
the device is a controller device.
the settings are associated with a physical configuration of the device.
the settings are associated with a data set employed by the device.”

There is enough in their patent for it to cover their gesture interface. There is a whole pile of other stuff too on things like pheromones. This could be to camouflage their commercial intentions, or it could be so as to cast the widest net.

We will see.

Press release:

Marketing expert talks at University

The University’s ‘Creative Networks’ is hosting a talk by Bruce Everiss who will speak about his experiences in marketing and establishing two major video game companies, Imagine and Codemasters. He will be appearing at the event which is being held on Thursday 28 May at Millennium Point, Curzon Street at 6pm.

In the digital age, we are all Marketeers and, in the current challenging economic climate, finding innovative ways to promote and distribute content via new media platforms is all important.

Bruce has been involved with the home computer industry since its start in the late 1970s and his commitment to the medium has helped to establish the U.K. as one of the world’s most important software producers. Furthermore, as an internet entrepreneur and marketing expert, he has raised the industry’s profile beyond the attention of enthusiasts and into the psyche of a much wider audience.

Creative Networks was established in 2004 as a regular monthly hub of networking and expertise for creative companies and freelancers in the West Midlands. The event is free, anyone interested in attending should email creative.networks@tic.ac.uk or call Dave Taylor on 0121 331 7457. Alternatively, register online at www.creativenetworksonline.com

The internet is awash with rumours of a revised PS3 to be announced at E3, so it must be true. Nicknamed PS3 slim, the new unit is said to be considerably smaller than the original. This makes eminent sense. Firstly the insides of a console constantly evolve during its life to use use less and more modern components, so why not shrink the outsides to reflect that and save money? It is something Sony have done before. Secondly a significant percentage of the cost of a console is shipping, warehousing and other inventory costs, halve the size of the boxed machine and you nearly halve these costs.

What is for sure is that Sony are coming third and last in this generation of home consoles, a long way down from having won the two previous generations. PS3 has cost them many billions in losses and the only way to recover the situation is to get more machines out there. The most effective mechanism they have to do that is price. So the PS3 slim could be the start of the Sony fightback.

Sales are slumped in the game market worldwide. And it is not the recession. It is the stupid lemming like industry insistence on releasing most major titles in Q4. So here in the UK, for instance, Wii Fit has been number one for the last seven weeks. This is ridiculous

I have said many times that I like business models other than paying at the point of purchase. I have also said that I think MMOs and social networking will morph into being the same thing. This has manifested itself in my support for games such as Habbo and Runescape. They are huge successes.

Now Sony has joined them with Free Realms and it is proving, thus far, to be an outstanding success. Getting to a million players in just 17 days. The marketing team at Sony must be very proud.

So the Sims 3 is available to steal online two weeks before it is in the shops. This is one of Electronic Arts’ major releases of the year and has cost many millions to make. Not only that, EA, in response to previous customer protests, have removed DRM from the title.

Society really has got to sort this out, not only for games. Our world is becoming increasingly knowledge based, tens of millions of jobs are now dependent on this thriving sector. But if people do not get rewarded for their labours and instead have their work stolen from them then we are in big trouble.

We are experiencing the biggest glut of theft in the history of humanity thanks to the internet. And every single one of us is losing out as a result, because of the work and creativity that people would have done but haven’t.

SEGA Sammy  lost JPY 22.8 billion (US$ 239 million) in the financial year to March 31, 2009, an improvement from losses of JPY 52.4 billion (USD 550 million) in the year to March 2008.

Sales for the year were JPY 429 billion (US$ 4.5 billion), down 6.5 %, with videogame sales down by 13.4 %  for the year.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Sega are a prime takeover target. They are sitting on a veritable storehouse of heritage IP that, with the right management, could be converted into a stream of worldwide hits.