None of these will be a surprise, but good to know they'll all be there.
Showing posts with label E3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E3. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Friday, June 18, 2010
E3 numbers
45,600 attendees came to the 2010 E3 - roughly the number that show organisers were expecting.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Opinion: Why Nintendo failed at E3
Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way from the start: Nintendo’s presentation blew me away. The 3DS announcement has me more excited about a console than I’ve been for a long time, and the list of games that Nintendo rolled out will keep me occupied for a long, long time.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
E3: Sony hedging its bets with online gaming
One thing we can all take away from this year's E3 is that Sony is very keen to convince us all its PlayStation Network is something we want.
Arguably the major announcement of interest for Sony's E3 was its premium content service, called PlayStation Plus. Directly from the press release:
"PlayStation Plus provides gamers with more value, access and convenience by offering subscribers features such as frequent discounts on PlayStation Store content, free and exclusive access to select games, full game trials, early invitations to select betas of popular games, and new functionality such as content downloads and updates which will automatically be 'pushed' to the PS3 system even when consumers are not using their system."
For what it promises, the service seems fairly priced - a year will set you back $US49.95, or $US17.99 for three months. For Sony, it's a good deal too. With free games only remaining playable as long as a user is a paying subscriber, there is a degree of lock-in involved with this service, while at the same time not being so stifling as to discourage people from giving the service a go.
Sony will also keep the goodwill of its existing users by maintaining a free service for people who are unwilling to subscribe to PlayStation Plus.
Sony also spent time at E3 touting its PlayStation Home social space, highlighting the continued support the service has, and putting numbers (such as a 70 minute per visit average) to suggest that people who use Home are quite involved with it. There’s nothing more encouraging for remaining committed to a community than knowing your fellows are as involved in it as you are, after all.
It's easy to understand why Sony is so keen to build on its 50 million online install base. The vendor has been experimenting with the digital download medium quite publically with products such as the PSPgo, and, ignoring the existing competition from the Microsoft Xbox online service and (to a much lesser extent) the Nintendo Wii, the industry is about to gain another genuine competitor in OnLive - a cloud-based subscription service. Vendors know they are going to have to fight much harder for those online gamers over the next few years, but the online strategy seems to be that much more important to Sony.
It's clear that Sony believes the download medium to dominate in the future. From a business sense it makes sense to back downloadable media. It allow publishers and developers to bypass some of the expenses involved in producing a retail game, in turn allowing consumers access to less expensive games.
Downloadable games are also the preferred method of delivery for the indie developer/ publisher scene - an important one for finding and exploiting niche markets.
On the other hand, Sony needs to be careful - by definition an online-focused console would require fast broadband speeds. While this might not be such a problem with large market saturation when it comes to broadband, it will make it more difficult for Sony to gain traction in the kinds of emerging markets that its rivals, Microsoft, are chasing.
It will be interesting to see how PlayStation Plus evolves. I expect it to be quite successful; in many ways, Sony's E3 show was subtle and may have lacked the 'wow' factor of Nintendo's show, but it was a significant show in outlining some of the very significant shift in direction the company is taking.
Arguably the major announcement of interest for Sony's E3 was its premium content service, called PlayStation Plus. Directly from the press release:
"PlayStation Plus provides gamers with more value, access and convenience by offering subscribers features such as frequent discounts on PlayStation Store content, free and exclusive access to select games, full game trials, early invitations to select betas of popular games, and new functionality such as content downloads and updates which will automatically be 'pushed' to the PS3 system even when consumers are not using their system."
For what it promises, the service seems fairly priced - a year will set you back $US49.95, or $US17.99 for three months. For Sony, it's a good deal too. With free games only remaining playable as long as a user is a paying subscriber, there is a degree of lock-in involved with this service, while at the same time not being so stifling as to discourage people from giving the service a go.
Sony will also keep the goodwill of its existing users by maintaining a free service for people who are unwilling to subscribe to PlayStation Plus.
Sony also spent time at E3 touting its PlayStation Home social space, highlighting the continued support the service has, and putting numbers (such as a 70 minute per visit average) to suggest that people who use Home are quite involved with it. There’s nothing more encouraging for remaining committed to a community than knowing your fellows are as involved in it as you are, after all.
It's easy to understand why Sony is so keen to build on its 50 million online install base. The vendor has been experimenting with the digital download medium quite publically with products such as the PSPgo, and, ignoring the existing competition from the Microsoft Xbox online service and (to a much lesser extent) the Nintendo Wii, the industry is about to gain another genuine competitor in OnLive - a cloud-based subscription service. Vendors know they are going to have to fight much harder for those online gamers over the next few years, but the online strategy seems to be that much more important to Sony.
It's clear that Sony believes the download medium to dominate in the future. From a business sense it makes sense to back downloadable media. It allow publishers and developers to bypass some of the expenses involved in producing a retail game, in turn allowing consumers access to less expensive games.
Downloadable games are also the preferred method of delivery for the indie developer/ publisher scene - an important one for finding and exploiting niche markets.
On the other hand, Sony needs to be careful - by definition an online-focused console would require fast broadband speeds. While this might not be such a problem with large market saturation when it comes to broadband, it will make it more difficult for Sony to gain traction in the kinds of emerging markets that its rivals, Microsoft, are chasing.
It will be interesting to see how PlayStation Plus evolves. I expect it to be quite successful; in many ways, Sony's E3 show was subtle and may have lacked the 'wow' factor of Nintendo's show, but it was a significant show in outlining some of the very significant shift in direction the company is taking.
E3: Virgin gaming service offers cash prizes
Virgin Gaming is offering $1 million in cash and prizes over the next 12 months.
Unveilled at E3, the service was devised by competitive gamers and founders of WorldGaming.com William Levy and Zack Zeldin. The company is promising a secure service supporting a number of major titles and offering prizes as big as £1500.
Launch titles will be revealed at a later date. Confirmed features of Virgin Gaming include automatic results verification, player match-making, skill ratings and a reputation system.
Speaking at the launch, Virgin founder, Richard Branson, refused to confirm or deny whether Virgin would make a return to games publishing.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
Unveilled at E3, the service was devised by competitive gamers and founders of WorldGaming.com William Levy and Zack Zeldin. The company is promising a secure service supporting a number of major titles and offering prizes as big as £1500.
Launch titles will be revealed at a later date. Confirmed features of Virgin Gaming include automatic results verification, player match-making, skill ratings and a reputation system.
Speaking at the launch, Virgin founder, Richard Branson, refused to confirm or deny whether Virgin would make a return to games publishing.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
E3: New free-to-play FPS unveilled
GamersFirst, a publisher of free-to-play MMO titles, has used E3 to unveil its newest project.
MKZ is a massively multiplayer FPSer that will allow players to battle across warzones over the world. Based in modern times, the game promises authentic weaponry, vehicles and aircraft, and players will be able to form corporations - guilds of sorts, and rise through the ranks as their kill count grows.
The game will enter a closed beta in Fall (Spring) 2010. Other published titles from GamersFirst include War Rock, Sword 2, Our World and Gogo Racer.
MKZ is a massively multiplayer FPSer that will allow players to battle across warzones over the world. Based in modern times, the game promises authentic weaponry, vehicles and aircraft, and players will be able to form corporations - guilds of sorts, and rise through the ranks as their kill count grows.
The game will enter a closed beta in Fall (Spring) 2010. Other published titles from GamersFirst include War Rock, Sword 2, Our World and Gogo Racer.
The price of Natal (sorry, Kinect)
There's been a number of reports that Microsoft's motion-sensing device, Kinect (previously named Natal) will cost as high as $US200.
According to a number of reports (including Kotaku), Swedish retailers are listing a price of 1,499 SEK, roughly $US200 on exchange.
Given the low apparent interest in Kinect, I would expect such a price to be prohibitive, and dampen interest further.
According to a number of reports (including Kotaku), Swedish retailers are listing a price of 1,499 SEK, roughly $US200 on exchange.
Given the low apparent interest in Kinect, I would expect such a price to be prohibitive, and dampen interest further.
Will Square Enix make further acquisitions?
An interesting titbit of news came the way of Gamasutra from Square Enix president, Yoichi Wada, courtesy of E3.
In the interview, Wada is quoted as saying: "of course I will always do it [pursue an acquisition] when the right opportunity arises. For example, new culture is needed. There is a need for social networking type services. When it comes to that, maybe the resources we have today may not be enough to address that market."
It's not the most surprising piece of news - last year another publishing giant, EA, also saw the need to capitalise on the massive market being created by vendors such as Zynga. To that end, it acquired Facebook rival, Playfish, for $US275 million.
Between the growing popularity of downloadable games, and the explosion of social networking games, there's entire new markets opening up to publishers, and acquisition is a relatively speedy way to develop competencies in new markets. Square Enix has already shown it's keen on developing its iPhone and download business, so it was only a matter of time before it looked to social networking.
It’s also no stranger to acquisitions. Last year, Square Enix acquired UK-based publisher, Eidos.
In the interview, Wada acknowledges there is a difference in US and Japanese social networking markets and this would be a challenge for the Japanese publisher, but it seems inevitable that we'll soon see some kind of Final Fantasy take on FarmVille.
In the interview, Wada is quoted as saying: "of course I will always do it [pursue an acquisition] when the right opportunity arises. For example, new culture is needed. There is a need for social networking type services. When it comes to that, maybe the resources we have today may not be enough to address that market."
It's not the most surprising piece of news - last year another publishing giant, EA, also saw the need to capitalise on the massive market being created by vendors such as Zynga. To that end, it acquired Facebook rival, Playfish, for $US275 million.
Between the growing popularity of downloadable games, and the explosion of social networking games, there's entire new markets opening up to publishers, and acquisition is a relatively speedy way to develop competencies in new markets. Square Enix has already shown it's keen on developing its iPhone and download business, so it was only a matter of time before it looked to social networking.
It’s also no stranger to acquisitions. Last year, Square Enix acquired UK-based publisher, Eidos.
In the interview, Wada acknowledges there is a difference in US and Japanese social networking markets and this would be a challenge for the Japanese publisher, but it seems inevitable that we'll soon see some kind of Final Fantasy take on FarmVille.
Call of Duty deal keeps the add-ons flowing for Microsoft
Microsoft has signed a deal with Activision to ensure that the Xbox 360 will receive Call of Duty add-ons first for the next three years.
It's not the first time the vendor has signed this kind of agreement. Microsoft previously signed a rumoured $50 million deal that saw Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content released exclusively to the Xbox in 2008.
Financials were not announced when Microsoft revealed the deal at its E3 press briefing, however the deal starts with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
It's not the first time the vendor has signed this kind of agreement. Microsoft previously signed a rumoured $50 million deal that saw Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content released exclusively to the Xbox in 2008.
Financials were not announced when Microsoft revealed the deal at its E3 press briefing, however the deal starts with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
E3: Mini Xbox 360 to hit the market
The Xbox 360 Slim has been announced as part of Mircosoft's E3 reveal.
The new Xbox 360 will ship with a 250GB hard drive and includes wireless N built-in. The console should be released to the Australian market at roughly the same time as the UK and Europe editions - July 16 or thereabouts. There has been no official confirmation of release dates, however.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
The new Xbox 360 will ship with a 250GB hard drive and includes wireless N built-in. The console should be released to the Australian market at roughly the same time as the UK and Europe editions - July 16 or thereabouts. There has been no official confirmation of release dates, however.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
Friday, June 11, 2010
THQ merges business units, prepares E3 presentation
THQ has merged its Online Business unit with its Core Games and Kids, Family, Casual Games branches.
The publisher has promoted Martin Good to executive vice president of Kids, Family, Casual Games and Global Online Services to look after the new business unit.
In a release, THQ president and CEO, Brian Farrell, said "Online and digital represents our industry's largest growth opportunity and it is imperative that we integrate digital and online game strategies into all of our key franchise plans.
"Now that we have momentum in our online pipeline, this is a natural evolution of our organizational structure, putting the leaders of our two product-focused business units in charge of development across all platforms. The company will now be organized in two clear business units and we are aggressively creating content to be delivered to gamers in all possible formats."
In other news THQ will host he E3 Investor Meeting. There, Farrell and executive vice president, Core Games, Danny Bilson will make a presentation to the investment community in connection with the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The presentation is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, June 15, 2010.
The publisher has promoted Martin Good to executive vice president of Kids, Family, Casual Games and Global Online Services to look after the new business unit.
In a release, THQ president and CEO, Brian Farrell, said "Online and digital represents our industry's largest growth opportunity and it is imperative that we integrate digital and online game strategies into all of our key franchise plans.
"Now that we have momentum in our online pipeline, this is a natural evolution of our organizational structure, putting the leaders of our two product-focused business units in charge of development across all platforms. The company will now be organized in two clear business units and we are aggressively creating content to be delivered to gamers in all possible formats."
In other news THQ will host he E3 Investor Meeting. There, Farrell and executive vice president, Core Games, Danny Bilson will make a presentation to the investment community in connection with the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The presentation is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, June 15, 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)