Archive for July, 2009

1. Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers – Why Steve Ballmer makes the perfect mashup

   July 31, 2009

     Every so often, when I get weary of the Internet, I go back to YouTube and watch the video embedded above. It cheers me up without fail. Every time. And it gives me heart that the Internet really is changing the way we view content, authority, business, and art. That’s quite a grandiose statement [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: entertainment, humour, microsoft, steve ballmer, video

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2. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all stumble – not recession proof after all

   July 31, 2009

   The first quarter results for the three major platform holders make grim reading and explode the myth that console-based gaming is recession-proof. Microsoft annual revenues from the Entertainment and Devices division were down 5% ($8.20 billion year to June 2008, $7.75 billion 2009). The quarter ended June 09 suffered even worse, with a drop of [...]

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   Posted in: Finance

   Tagged with: microsoft, nintendo, sony, starred

   6 Comments

3. Charles Cecil’s handheld Revolution

   July 30, 2009

   Revolution, the developer of classic adventure gaming franchise Broken Sword, has launched a new handheld division. Revolution Pocket will focus on “iPhone, iPod touch, Android, PSP Go, DSi Shop and others”. I’m a strong believer that “casual” games can be narrative-led, with strong plots and engaging characters, and that’s exactly what Revolution has delivered in [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: beneath a steel sky, charles cecil, iphone, ipod touch, revolution

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4. DoubleSix releases PSN sales figures and urges the platform holders to do the same

   July 30, 2009

   Why are the platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Nintendo) so coy about releasing hard numbers about units sold for their platforms? We are working in the great unknown here. Developers and publishers are trying to make investment decisions about which platform to develop for and where to put their money. The absence of meaningful statistics [...]

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   Posted in: Sales

   Tagged with: digital distribution, double six, psn, statistics

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5. 12% of Americans have bought virtual goods in the last 12 months

   July 30, 2009

   A recent survey by commissioned by PlaySpan and reported by GigaOm says that 12% of Americans have spent real-world money on virtual goods in the last 12 months. There are some interesting takeaways: The biggest categories of spender, where over 15% of respondents had bought virtual goods were: Males aged 12-17 and 18-24 Females aged [...]

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   Posted in: Sales

   Tagged with: free games, playspan, statistics, virtual goods

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6. How much did the Chinese downtime for World of Warcraft cost Activision?

   July 30, 2009

   World of Warcraft’s servers have been down for a couple of month now, but the end appears to be in sight. GamaSutra reports that the Chinese government has now approved a “limited beta” to start on July 30th. A number of people have commented that the loss of 6 million accounts in China has had [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: activision, china, starred, world of warcraft

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7. MySpace wants to be “a gaming platform” – who are the top acquisition targets?

   July 27, 2009

   Jonathan Miller, head of digital activities at NewsCorp, has said that “MySpace is and will be more in the future a gaming platform, a space for people to meet and play games” (Thanks to GI.biz for quoting the Fortune Brainstorm: Tech conference in Pasadena, California). He added: “If you look at the big activities online, [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Finance

   Tagged with: m&a, mySpace, news corp., starred

   3 Comments