Archive for August, 2009

Konami Play – right idea, poor implementation

August 28, 2009

Konami shows that it is forward thinking, but makes a hash of implementation Japanese publisher Konami has recently launched Konami Play, bringing classic games like Track and Field and Frogger as well as modern titles like Metal Gear Solid to the browser. It’s a solid start, and I’ll post more comments as I use the [...]

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Posted in: Opinion

Tagged with: browser games, casual games, konami

5 Comments
Q: Who does the Twitterverse render obsolete? A: The newspaper editor

August 27, 2009

As Twitter tries to find a business model and newspaper columnists show ‘>how completely they don’t understand current technologies, the newspaper editor is becoming irrelevant I’ve been asked several times in the last week why I use Twitter, and what is its point. I find Twitter to be one of the most useful pieces of [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Opinion

Tagged with: comment, starred, twitter

2 Comments
The curse of Wolfenstein: staff axed at Raven Software and Endrant Studios

August 27, 2009

What a nice way to celebrate the launch of your new game: fire dozens of the staff who worked on it. Internal Activision studio Raven Software has laid off 30-35 staff, according to GI.biz. The studio have just completed X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Wolfenstein, and some sources blame poor sales of Wolfenstein for forcing Raven [...]

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Posted in: Game Over Zone

Tagged with: activision, endrant studios, job loss tracker, layoffs, raven Software, redundancies

1 Comment
EA confirms Maxis layoffs

August 26, 2009

Electronic Arts has confirmed that it has made further layoffs at Maxis, which are believed to be over and above the 1,100 layoffs previously announced. The company has not released the number of staff who will be affected by the redundancies.

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Posted in: Game Over Zone

Tagged with: electronic arts, job loss tracker, layoffs, maxis, redundancies

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The Live Gamer/Two Fish acquisition signals the end of the distinction between social games and hardcore MMOs

August 25, 2009

The recent acquisition of TwoFish by LiveGamer was justified by the need to offer a full-service ecommerce solution across all genres of games, not just MMOs. Does this mean the end of the distinction between hardcore and casual? LiveGamer was formed to offer ecommerce services to MMO publishers. Headed by Mitch Davis (of Massive – [...]

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Posted in: Analysis, Featured

Tagged with: acquisition, live gamer, m&a, starred, twofish

7 Comments
Incentivising staff with equity

August 20, 2009

Sarah Lacy has written an ill-conceived attack on “mercenary employees” at Facebook who have chosen to cash some of their shares in the company. Facebook has recently announced a tender offer for up to $100 million of common stock that allows staff and ex-employees to sell up to 25% of their shares in the company. [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Opinion

Tagged with: employees, facebook, incentivisation, shareholders, starred

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iPhonoconomics

August 19, 2009

The people over at iSmashPhone have put together an image showing where the money flows around the iPhone eco-system. Some key datapoints: Apple “accounted for 8% of handset industry” (I think this means revenues) Apple accounted for “32% of industry profits ($2 billion). Apple has only made $20-$45 million from the apps While I would [...]

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Posted in: Sandbox

Tagged with: iphone, statistics

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