Archive for May, 2010

1. Speaking at the Immersion Conference next week

   May 20, 2010

   I’m just about to kick off a busy season of speaking at a wide variety of very different conferences. My first one is on Monday 24th May (i.e. next Monday). I’m speaking at the Immersion Conference “focused on monetisation, funding and distribution of games and immersive social media; the future of MMOs, games, social media, [...]

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   Posted in: Past Events

   Tagged with: conferences, immersion

   No Comments

2. Please help me: I need to choose a cover for my book

   May 19, 2010

   I plan to launch my book “How to Publish a Game” next Tuesday (25th May). But I can’t decide on a cover for it. My talented designer Scott Maclean has come up with five different designs. (Actually, he came up with more, but these are the remaining contenders.) I’d like to know which ones you [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: gamesbrief, how to publish a game, self-publishing

   27 Comments

3. More alpha-male investors throw money after tournament gaming

   May 18, 2010

   Titan Gaming just has just raised $1m from a bunch of angels for its tournament gaming platform. I am deeply sceptical about this model for hardcore gamers. The past is littered with tournament gaming failures such as Tournament.com, Kwari and Prizefight. Broadly speaking, all investors are hyper-competitive alpha-types (whether male or female) and they assume [...]

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   Posted in: Finance

   Tagged with: investment, titan gaming, venture capital

   8 Comments

4. Capcom stops working with non-Japanese devs – but at least they’re honest about why their market is shrinking

   May 17, 2010

   Capcom has seen two big flops recently: Dark Void and Bionic Commando. According to an interview with the Financial Times entitled Capcom shuns foreign game developers, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, Capcom president, said that the company would only “employ overseas developers for sequels or new versions of existing games”. Capcom believes that original IP developed abroad doesn’t [...]

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   Posted in: Distribution

   Tagged with: capcom, development, starred

   1 Comment

5. Interesting role at Moshi Monsters publisher Mind Candy

   May 17, 2010

   Mind Candy is recruiting. They are looking for a “a highly talented and entrepreneurial Head of Mini Games” for Mind Candy. Their LinkedIn ad says that they plan to “launch a standalone mini games site outside of www.moshimonsters.com.”  I believe that the casual portal model is deeply challenged (see my analysis of portals), so this [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: mindcandy, recruitment

   1 Comment

6. Everything you needed to know about mobile in 2010 – but with 20% off

   May 14, 2010

   PocketGamer have just released their PocketGamer.Biz Mobile Games Trends Report 2010. It’s over 120 pages of everything you need to know about mobile games from business models through navigating the different app stores and which games you really need to know about. The 2009 report was very successful and this one will be even better [...]

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   Posted in: Resources

   Tagged with: mobile, mobile games, reports

   No Comments

7. Is criminalising someone for NOT password-protecting their WiFi so wrong?

   May 14, 2010

   Of course it bloody is. Berlin’s top criminal court yesterday passed this chilling wifi password judgement: “Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation” Words fail me at how wrong this is. It means that a cafe [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Opinion

   Tagged with: controversy, germany, legal, starred, wifi

   3 Comments