Archive for January, 2010

DLC: Value For Money Naysayers Are Looking At It All Wrong

January 31, 2010

A comment in this interview with Rebellion’s AvP Director, David Brickley, got me thinking recently about DLC. Largely thanks to the online capabilities of seventh gen consoles it’s a sometimes controversial revenue stream that’s grown fast over the last few years, and as a result has come under close scrutiny from industry and consumers alike. [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Opinion

Tagged with: capcom, controversy, digital distribution, downloadable content, games industry, guest post

4 Comments
Axe Cop – the surrealist wit of a 5 year old

January 28, 2010

If you haven’t seen Axe Cop, go and read it now. Seriously. It’s an amazing collaboration between a 29 year old comicbook artist and his (much) younger brother. It shows what happens when you give a 5-year old free reign with his imagination. And not only is it brilliant, it has its own internal logic. [...]

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Posted in: Sandbox

Tagged with: axe cop, comics, off topic

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Why Facebook won’t charge 30% for payments and leave billions of dollars on the table

January 26, 2010

“Pay with Facebook” is coming. It’s already live on Happy Aquarium from Crowdstar. Later this week, it’s coming to Farmville, the most popular application on Facebook with over 70 million monthly players. It’s big news. And most commentators and industry insiders are expecting Facebook to charge 30% commission to companies using “Pay with Facebook”. And [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Sales

Tagged with: ecommerce, facebook, microtransactions, starred

4 Comments
Iain Duncan Smith’s Violent Games Controversy: Credit Where Credit’s Due

January 26, 2010

Last week Times Online published this Iain Duncan Smith piece, in which the former Tory leader talks about children, and tax and booze… and briefly mentions violent video games. The relevant paragraph is this: “Innocence, he warns, is being destroyed by children’s television and computer games. ‘We are driving children to lose their childhood, and [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Opinion

Tagged with: controversy, games industry, guest post, politics, starred

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Gamesbrief’s Weekly Tweets for 2010-01-26

January 26, 2010

Good (but old) piece on the different philosophies behind Playfish and Zynga. Worth a read. http://bit.ly/2kugfi # RT @charlescecil Broken Sword – iPhone video posted – take a look: http://bit.ly/4QSLIh # Just posted: Scientists behind “games cause rickets” deny a specific link http://tinyurl.com/yl7hwks # Just posted: “Games cause rickets” – a thorough debunking http://tinyurl.com/yjwfx5m #gamesblamedforrickets [...]

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Posted in: Sandbox

Tagged with: twitter

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Scientists behind “games cause rickets” deny a specific link

January 22, 2010

Earlier today, a number of newspapers ran sensationalist headlines that claimed a causal link between games and rickets. I tried to debunk the story simply by reading the same press release and publicly-available extract available to the professional journalists at Metro and the Times who wrote this sensationalist and deeply wrong story. (You can read [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Opinion

Tagged with: controversy, metro, rickets, starred

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“Games cause rickets” – a thorough debunking

January 22, 2010

UPDATE: I’ve emailed the scientists behind the research. They stated “We do not say that gaming causes rickets”. You can see their full views on the misleading press coverage at http://www.gamesbrief.com/2010/01/scientists-behind-games-cause-rickets-deny-a-specific-link/ I know I shouldn’t get angry when lazy journalist pull a games-bashing story out of thin air, but this one really takes the biscuit. [...]

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Posted in: Featured, Opinion

Tagged with: controversy, metro, rickets, starred

4 Comments