The video game industry is not “recession-proof,” as many have trumpeted. So far, the industry has seen a 12 percent decline in revenue in the first half of 2009 versus the same period in 2008. Sales of hardware have slowed down as well, with Nintendo selling 13 percent fewer Wii systems and PS3 selling 30 percent less. There are a few bright spots, however.
Gamasutra notes that Microsoft has “caught its second wind,” selling a dramatic 21 percent more Xbox 360 units so far this year. (Aaron Greenberg was right!) This achievement is even more remarkable when one considers the challenges of this economic climate. Astoundingly, the Nintendo DS has also managed to increase its sales, which begs the question: Who doesn’t already own one — or two? When coupled with the newly introduced DSi, combined sales of Nintendo handhelds have gone up more than 56 percent from last year.
Sony continues to struggle with its PlayStation trifecta, as the aging PS2 slowly loses its relevance and consumers appear reluctant to spend $400 on a PS3. We’d continue this paragraph, but it’s pretty clear what Sony needs to do if it wants to turn things around.
Remember when you could go out to eat, see a moving picture and take the trolley back home for only two bits? Those days, much like the heady days of Xbox Live Arcade games costing only $5, are over. Kotaku has gone through the Xbox 360′s library of XBLA games all the way back to the console’s launch and analyzed the fluctuation in prices over the years.
“Fluctuation” probably isn’t the right word, as the data shows that prices have been rising steadily since August of 2007. In fact, the average price of an XBLA game has risen to $9.05, up from an average price of $7.31 when the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. Also, as many Xbox gamers have probably noticed, the 1200 ($15) price point is becoming more common.
Granted, climbing prices aren’t exactly news to anyone that enjoys Microsoft’s download service but oh-my-God-look-at-that-graph.
By now, you’re aware of the news that Last.fm is coming to Xbox Live, along with Twitter and Facebook in a social media onslaught. We wanted to find out what that means for the service, so we spoke with Orlena Yeung, VP of Marketing at Last.fm (which was purchased by CBS two years ago for a big chunk of change), and Christina DeRosa, a general manager for Xbox Live, to find out how the experience will work on our consoles.
We’ve already reported on the planned Last.fm pricing, but read on after the break for DeRosa’s take on the Xbox side of things, including her thoughts on a Pandora partnership, how Xbox will enhance Last.fm (Party Mode?), and where the service fits into the Xbox Live music channel that’s in the works. (One interesting note: Xbox says that the console won’t audio scrobble, while Last.fm says it will. We’ve reached out to both parties in search of a definitive answer.)
UPDATE: Microsoft got back to us with the following information, “We circled back on this one and can confirm that music played in other parts of the dash will not be scrobbled. In other words, you can’t put in an audio CD and scrobble.” So, that’s a bit of a bummer.
The voice-controlled RTS EndWar didn’t garner the most media attention. But, with 1.5 million units sold, it certainly warrants a sequel. Ubisoft Shanghai is creating a follow-up using a “smaller team,”creative director Michael De Plater told VideoGamer.com. With EndWar‘s successful implementation of voice controls, the development team can focus on one of the most lacking aspects of the original: the presentation of the single-player campaign. “After the first one, now we have a really good understanding of what to do … Giving more attention to the single-player is straightforward to address and will make the game a lot of fun.”
While De Plater is quick to highlight faults being addressed for the sequel, he remains proud of his team’s accomplishment with the first game. While still under the “Tom Clancy” moniker, he considers EndWar an original IP. Considering the challenges that surround launching a new IP, De Plater is more than happy with sales numbers. “We still sold more than Red Alert 3, sold more than Company of Heroes, sold more than World in Conflict. It’s still, along with Halo Wars, the biggest new RTS in the last four or five years. Even with those faults it’s still up there.”
Hot on the heels of its revelation in the Wall Street Journal, Konami and Cartoon Network have officially announced Metalocalypse: Dethgame, the XBLA and PSN title based on the Metalocalypse television series. The press release sheds a few new details about the game, first and foremost that it’s scheduled to release in Q4 2009. The game is set to the music of Dethklok, including songs from Dethklok: The Dethalbum and some from the upcoming Dethklok 2.
The release also mentions that players will “Fight mutants, explore the rooms and dungeons of Mordhaus and protect the METAL faithful.” Oh, and there are mini-games too. According to the show’s creator, Brendon Small, Dethgame will be “the most successful downloadable cartoon death metal game in recorded history.”
Joystiq also reached out to Titmouse, the animation studio behind Metalocalypse, for clarification on why development was handed to Frozen Codebase and not Titmouse Games. Titmouse’s Sam Schoemann informed us that planning for Dethgame began before the creation of Titmouse Games, though the animation studio has consulted on the project. He notes that one of Metalocalypse‘s directors, Jon Schnepp, and Titmouse creative director Antonio Canobbio, have “provided input and art direction” in order to “maintain consistency” with the series.
Now it’s clear: in Australia, wardriving is illegal. To drive home the point, police in Queensland will conduct regular patrols to identify unsecured hotspots. The plan is to sniff out these supposed havens of criminal activity (evildoers piggyback through WiFi to carry out their nefarious schemes apparently) and warn homeowners and businesses who’ve left their door open.
I don’t get the point of this exercise though: Yes, homeowners wouldn’t like random strangers leeching off their connectivity, but the neighborhood coffee shop isn’t exactly vigilant about who uses their hotspot, so long as the coffee’s paid for. If I was an evildoer, all I’d have to do is buy something to drink (and perhaps eat?), set up my laptop, get the WiFi key from the helpful barista, and access my online tools of mass destruction. Mwahahahaha!
Maybe a different kind of legal presence is called for? How does requiring businesses with hotspots to keep detailed access logs? These can be matched to security footage, and make it easier for the good guys to identify who’s being evil, and when.
A Chinese worker suspected of stealing a prototype iPhone committed suicide last week when he jumped off a 12-floor building. The former classmates of 25-yeer-old Sun Danyong allege that Sun was driven over the edge by the security team of his employers. The team allegedly searched his house, beat him, and locked him in a room. Whatever really happened, you can expect some noise. Sun’s employer, Foxconn, has a long-time business relationship with (who else?) Apple. The company’s also known among geeks as the iPhone manufacturer. Sun Dayong was responsible for delivering 16 iPhone prototypes to Apple’s campus in Cupertino. Last time most of the world heard of Foxconn, it was when the Apple contractor was facing allegations of employee mistreatment. The uproar was loud enough that Apple had to conduct an internal investigation for good PR. That produced no evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. I bet people will only pay attention to this because it potentially involves Apple. Remember all those editorials calling for Apple to hold its manufacturing partner responsible for the employee welfare? Why did Apple’s involvement suddenly bring light to the issue? If Sun was an employee of say, a B2B electronic components maker, below the radar of your average consumer, you can bet no one would really care. Source
Turns out the way a door was oriented made sure Armstrong would be the first human to set foot on an extraterrestrial body.
Courtesy Wikicommons
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which featured Neil Armstrong becoming for the first man on the moon. One of the few times in science fiction when reality matched the imagination (for late 60s geeks at least).
So why did Armstrong end up enjoying the first of firsts? (indeed, currently the only first not based on Earth) It all had to do with the way the lunar module—the vehicle mission commander Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin used to land on the lunar surface—was designed:
The real decision had already been made, by some anonymous design engineer. The Lunar Module’s moonwalk hatch… hinged inward, with the hinges not at the top or the bottom, but at one side – the pilot’s side. It swung open away from the commander and toward the pilot. So when the hatch was open, Armstrong had a clear path to manoeuvre out through the opening, while Aldrin was penned in behind the hatch.
…The only way that Aldrin could go out first was for the two men to swap places before opening the hatch. This wasn’t quite impossible, but it was very difficult; when Armstrong and Aldrin tried it in an LM mockup, they damaged some of the cabin equipment! The commander simply had to go first.
Aldrin, who made sure everyone knew he wanted to be first, decided that being first was not worth crippling delicate equipment, potentially preventing a return flight.
Courtesy Wikipedia
At least being first was never an issue for Michael Collins, who remained in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin were busy making history.
From wired.com: An internet-usage pyramid, representing 9 hours “total daily intake” of internet media goodness, average for your typical net-savvy citizen. The breakdown, from top to bottom:
Courtesy wired.com
Gaming – 1 hour
Microblogging – .75
Social Networking – 1.25
Feeds and Blogs – 1
Traditional News – 1.5
Podcasts – 1
Online Video – 1
DVR/TV – 1.5
My typical day online is different, especially I don’t really do podcasts and barely watch TV nowadays. Here’s my own breakdown, taking into account my online content responsibilities for several sites:
Microblogging – 1
Social Networking – 1
Feeds and Blogs – 1
Gaming – 2
Online Video – 2
Blogging – 3
My 10 hour total is actually conservative. My internet consumption can last as long as 14 hours, given my day job as the moderator of a popular online forum.
What is your typical day online? Feel free to share as a comment below.
Really awesome: Continue Time is a clock with only one hand, which isn’t as limiting as it sounds. You see, the single arm is broken into three segments, which rotate independently to represent the hour, minutes, and seconds respectively. So while the hour hand pivots on the clock mechanism, the minute hand pivots on the hour hand, and the second hand pivots on the minute hand!
Courtesy sandermulder.com
Yes, that was pretty confusing. Here’s a video to clear things up:
Due to the clock’s unorthodox form factor, and for the sake of creativity, Continue Time has no casing, exposing its mechanical innards as a “kinetic artwork” showcase.
C’mon, maker sandermulder.com! There’s no need to be artsy-fartsy to sell this product; I myself am sold. Hopefully though you guys won’t limit this creation to only 20 pieces (plus one artist proof). This is an invention that deserves selling to the world! If the massive email traffic representing interest in your product hasn’t convinced you (as reported on the product site), then I don’t know what will!
Pricing and availability info to follow. For now though the maker is pretty mum, apparently happy to bask in the fleeting flavor-of-the-hour interest focus that is the Internet.
Xbox 360 and DS see significant growth, in spite of industry slowdown originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
