Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Video game sales dropped 7 percent in 2009 globally, as represented in the top game markets: United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The UK had the greatest drop in sales with 14%. The annual Top Global Markets report by The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbrain agreed with the NPD study of the 2009 U.S. market.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 defied the overall industry performance by becoming the fastest selling video game of all time.
Friday, January 8th, 2010
Microsoft just announced a new product called “Game Room,” which will bring back classic games to Xbox 360 and Windows Live. The aspiration is that Game Room will serve over a thousand titles. It will start with 30 games for it’s launch over the 2010 holiday season. Games will be available in two ways: 1 time play for the original arcade feeling or you can purchase the game. The currency will be a point system.
Friday, December 11th, 2009
US Wii sales dropped this past November following a 50% price cut in September.
In addition, Nintendo’s US Wii sales dropped 38% from last year. Since March, Nintendo’s Wii has been a very poor performer from the perspective of year-over-year sales.
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
There was a lot of debate whether the highly anticipated launch of Modern Warfare 2 by Blizzard Entertainment would perform as desired. Many words of caution surfaced about Blizzard’s potential success. In such a gloomy market, many felt that the company was putting too much money into the marketing of their new game.
Modern Warfare 2 has topped the charts in both the video game industry and the entertainment industry in general. CNET calls the launch the “biggest entertainment launch in history.” Within it’s first five days it set a worldwide record with about $550 million in sales (Source: Activision). Activision reported that “5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day alone.”
Monday, September 7th, 2009
A report by the FCC states that the implementation of Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007 and the universal rating system for video and media games across a variety of platforms. The report, released August 31, 2009, stated that the video game ratings scheme has been a success and that the video game industry provides one of the “most robust voluntary rating systems available”.
This report to Congress covers the ability of the gaming industry to provide a suitable ratings system and the capabilities of a government act that ensures: “the existence and availability of advanced blocking technologies; methods of encouraging the development, deployment and use of such technologies that do not affect the packaging or pricing of programming; and the existence, availability and use of parental empowerment tools and initiatives already in the market.” Federal Communications Commission FCC 09-69, 9/31/2009.
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Thirteen miles away from the Microsoft headquarters in Washington State, an internet, texting and online video game clinic has opened to help users heal from patterns of addiction. The program, entitled reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program, provides a 45-day intensive care program for game, Internet, and texting addicts.
Similar programs serve as inspiration for this US based clinic. Amsterdam and China already have clinics that treat addiction for internet and online video games such as the ever popular World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft was blamed for an increase in college drop outs by the FCC Commissioner and the college board.
A study in the month of August by the US Center for Disease Control found that gamers had a higher chance of being overweight and suffer mental health problems. A British psychiatrist announced plans of creating an addiction team and going “in-game” to treat addiction and gamer ills.
Friday, July 24th, 2009
Since 2005 the State of California has been trying to ban the sale or rental of video games to minors. The law was thrown out in 2007. Again in Feb. 2009, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voted no on a law to require limitations on selling violent video games to minors. In the case, Video Software Dealers Association v. Schwarzenegger, the outcome was cited as an invalid content based restriction on freedom of speech.
Now, the California’s Psychiatric and Psychological Association along with State Senator Leland Yee has filed an amicus curiae brief petitioning the court to review the law again, as they submit new materials that explain the purpose behind the law in more detail.
The video game industry has filed an amicus brief in return to dispute the brief submitted by Senator Yee.
Here is an excerpt from the document: “Parents can read a book, watch a movie or listen to a CD to discern if it is appropriate for their child. These violent video games, on the other hand, can contain up to 800 hours of footage with the most atrocious content often reserved for the highest levels and can be accessed only by advanced players after hours upon hours of progressive mastery. … Notably, extended play has been observed to depress activity in the frontal cortex of the brain which controls executive thought and function, produces intentionality and the ability to plan sequences of action, and is the seat of self-reflection, discipline and self-control.”
Monday, April 20th, 2009
Time Warner recently offered a concession to strong public outrage regarding a proposed tiered billing policy. The tiered billing policy that Time Warner wanted to push through was to charge users more if they use the internet for anything more than general email and light web surfing. The rates that Time Warner were considering were as much as 100 dollars more if you watch online videos or use web video chat such as the popular iChat application that comes installed on all Mac computers. Such service charges are obvious attempts to reduce or halt pier-to-pier file sharing–which Time Warner and other content production companies have complained are havens for copyright infringement. Others argue that such a broad spectrum punishment will have a negative impact on small (legitimate) content producers and will reduce competition in numerous markets due to a higher entry cost and reducing the number of users that can afford to access such rich media content.
Monday, April 6th, 2009
Tracking and analyzing power consumption might not sound like a fun thing to do on a nice Sunday afternoon. Well, that might change as NEC turns this information into an online game–it uses a Wifi tool that is attached to your circuit breaker to track of power consumption from where it is sent to your PC and the data can be used in games such as “Carbon Diet” and “Carbon Ball”. Nec estimates that it will sell 20 million worth in such games over the next three years.
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Many wait as Sony is about to announce its new gaming strategy. Rumors abound with everything from price drops on its very popular PS3 system to motion sensor controllers similar to Wii. There have been numerous suggestions made by the public recently as Sony is poised to carve a larger piece of the pie.