So, what got me laughing this time? Well alright this is an article probably
aimed at the 16 year olds working on the freebie publications which "hire" for
"free games and glory". Hey, it's a start. Well anyways, href="http://www.gamedaily.com/features/?id=1068&page=3">page 3 of this
article concerns "relationships with PR people." The gist of this is, "Don't
screw the PR people. Screw with them, but don't screw them. If they're flirting
with you just remember, you're an ugly geek and they're doing it for better
coverage."

A pertinent lesson, Rob. (Mrs. Wright, please don't hit me, no I didn't mean to
imply... ohh God... somebody, call an ambulance...)

The console makers are on to a winner with these so called "micro transactions", providing relatively cheap add on content for games via digital download. Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace is the first example we've seen get released into the wild, with people buying credit (and that's a critical part of the equation) for people to spend on items ranging from wallpapers to customise their console to add on maps and items for games.

Some of the stuff, like the Oblivion horse armour for example, has received a mixed reception from gamers. However they have been spending their credit, and Call of Duty publisher Activison has reported that they have sold almost $1 million in expansion maps for CoD 2, the most played multiplayer game on Xbox Live.

That's a serious amount of ongoing revenue intake, but the really surprising thing is that people have also been spending their credits to purchase things that, in the past, PR and marketing types would pay you to take. Things like wallpapers, to "customise" your desktop, can only be provided through the Xbox Live Marketplace, and so it is a sellers market. People have been literally buying promotional materials - only, when you spend "1000 credits" as opposed to "$12.50" it makes the medicine go down that bit easier.

Of course, a stingy person might point out that in games like Day of Defeat: Source and Red Orchestra we're getting bonus materials just as good as the Call of Duty map packs for free. Indeed, there was a time (once upon a better time...) when we got map packs for free. EA have tried selling smaller expansions for PC games, like the Battlefield 2 booster packs, and the exercise has largely been a failure. It seems that this sort of success story for publishers will only work in the highly managed, "sellers market", of something like the Xbox Live Marketplace or Sony's upcoming answer on the PlayStation 3.

There has never been a better time to buy an Xbox than right now this second, I've decided to myself. In fact, I decided it to myself with the launch of the Xbox 360, but I'd like to reiterate the point since I've just returned from a lunch hour excursion in which I saw quite an amazing sight.

In a major game retail store they were (and please do excuse the euro pricings, just think in your native equivalent currency and all will be well) selling an Xbox for €90. Or, you could grab one with 5 games (decent ones at that, spreading the spectrum of fighten' and driven') for €150. And then, beside these now "retro" consoles, were games going for €30. Actually, they were going for €15 as there was a straight up "Buy one, get one free" offer. A "BOGOF" offer in the video gaming sphere is about as common as good music aimed at 14 year olds.

Every game we've been told is so, so bloody great over the past two years was there. This was no display of the shoddy wares that the Game group want to offload onto the streets - this was a display of the great games that the Game group wants to offload onto the streets.

When you consider that an Xbox 360 game costs €75, or €15 less than you can get an Xbox for these days, and even a PlayStation Portable, with no games, is gonna set you back €205 (at least in this particular store), well you begin to see, if you're not an avid Xbox player, how becoming one can be such an appealing financial alternative.

Dammit, what is it with this industry? It would seem that the gaming business fraternity is so afraid that it won't have enough time (a year? Two?) to hype up a game that we get the announcements severely prematurely and then have to undergo a long spate of delays and disappointments. The great hope for many high-brow gamers at the moment is Will Wright's upcoming Spore - first announced in 2005 at the GDC, slated for a late 2006 release, shunted to the "TBD" land of ether and now finally into the second half of 2007.

That is to say, the game has been delayed by anywhere up to a year of what we had originally expected. I say delayed in the loosest sense of PR wording, as any developer on the team probably might have been able to tell you that the game wouldn't hit the late 2006 release date - at least not in any genre defining form.

Stop prematurely announcing games! The entire games press will be there to fondle over it in a years time, and if you're someone like Will Wright then your GDC keynote is pre- booked every year, five years in advance. The correct announcement time for Spore would have at least been at this years GDC - is there not something slightly wrong when we have games scheduled to be released over a year from when they've been announced, only to have that delayed so that in reality it will come out two years after the announcement? Sheesh kebab lads.

It was bound to happen. We predicted it would happen. It's happening... E3 has been shrunk down to size, and now somebody else wants to replace it a new show, exactly the same as the old one. Big, glitzy, expensive, and ultimately self- defeating. Possibly not in the first year, or even in the second, but eventually it'll just become the untenable thing that E3 was this year.

The organisers of the Consumer Electronics Show, the big fish of big fishes where tech trade shows are concerned, have assembled what they're calling an "advisory committee to solicit gaming industry feedback and explore the viability of a West Coast event in late spring 2007 focused on the gaming and entertainment marketplace."

CES being in Vegas, maybe they'll stick it into that particular (proper) sin city, as our own Roberto wanted a while back. Down boy, you're a married man now, can't be at all that. Ultimately however this is a self-defeating exercise. It's one of those ideas that looks absolutely brilliant on paper, except for the fact that in practice it hasn't worked in the past - indeed, E3 isn't dead more than a couple of weeks at this stage.

I'm going back to bed now until somebody has a good idea. I need a good six month rest anyways...

So there I am sitting in my office, minding my own business and sipping a glass of water when suddenly the telephone rings. "Aaron McKenna" I say, my usual greeting which is designed to preclude PR types from wasting any more of my time than necessary by asking to speak to me. Unfortunately, it just takes them unawares, they're not quite sure what I've said and simply ask to speak with Aaron McKenna. Ohh well, back to the story.

"Hello," the other end replies, "Could I speak to Aaron McKenna?" I sigh.

"Speaking. How may I help you? You bastard..."

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. Continue."

"Well, after the announcement of the downsizing E3 next year, the world has been paying attention to GSTAR... that is, Game Show & Trade, All-Round, to be held on November 9 - 12 in Korea."

Aha, I think to myself. Should I put the phone down? Well, that would be rude. I might need this person at some stage in the future. All the back rubbing in this greasy industry, it'd be bad for business. "I see. Could you tell me a little more?" I ask, fully aware that the git was going to tell me anyways, even if I did put down the phone. I'd probably be walking down the street and get dragged into a white van filled with nattering PR people if I hung up.

"The drastic downsizing of E3 will enable GSTAR to expand in size and content as well as establish an exhibition identity," the voice continued. "With the success of last year's show, GSTAR, focusing on online games emerging as highly growing game industry, has become the 'real marketplace' where generates good results for both exhibitors and visitors, unlike the other game shows that cause low success against the spiralling cost of attendance, in the midst of severe competition between the video console and packaged game companies."

Right. Ok. "Erm, send me the press release would you? I'll take a look and get back to you." Great, now I'm going to have to get back to him and think of some good questions. Because I'm honest like that. A bastard, but honest.

One good question which will appeal to my ever cynical outlook though might be "How exactly will it be more cost effective to attend a trade show in Korea?" E3 was costly to attend for the European developers and press, but for the US crowd it was mostly a matter of falling out of their front doors and landing in the LA convention centre. Well, I'm sure they'll have a good answer. WannabeE3Watch continues!

Apparently, the rules of sports media can now apply to technology. Despite all
the negative press reports, despite all of the recent misteps from Sony, despite
the big lead that Xbox 360 has in the race and despite all the buzz around
Nintendo's Wii, one technology analyst firm has declared Sony's PlayStation 3 as
the clear winner in the U.S. next-generation console race. The Yankee Group
recently issued a report that predicts Sony will sell 30 millions PS3s in the
States by 2011 while Microsoft will sell 27 million 360s, capturing 40 percent
of the market and closing the gap on its chief rival.

The Yankee Group also reports that the Wii will be a big loser with just 11
million units sold, despite have a much smaller price point and a whole lot more
positive vibes out there. According to the report, Yankee Group analysts simply
don't believe the feel-good Nintendo nostalgia and glowing reviews from game
developers will translate into big sales for Wii. Also, the report notes that
console sales will be down overall compared to the previous PS2/Xbox/GameCube
cycle because of higher costs and confusion concerning the competing HD DVD and
Blu-ray formats.

Will Nintendo make the Yankee Group eat crow? Check back with us in five
years.

The word "convergence" has become a bit of a dirty one in the tech world, thanks to rather crap attempts to take every device known to man and stuff it into a handheld device that doesn't have very much battery life. In the New Media world however, the word might find new and productive meaning.

MySpace and Snocap (alright, so not Napster, it's just made by a bunch of the same guys) are jumping into bed together to provide music ("and maybe more..." Ohh God, that sounds like a midnight sex chat ad on the telly) to the fawning young masses.

The idea is that "if we want to crack the youngsters, we have to do it on their ground and on their terms", meaning that youngens will be far more likely to buy your stuff if it's sold to them on MySpace or Bebo than traditional outlets.

This entry should really be titled "I feel like I'm getting old", but I'm not self centred enough to take up a whole headline to tell you that. The guts of a paragraph will do. The reason? Because I'm so disconnected from this Bebo generation, and for the first time I feel like an old man in the technology world. Kids (I mean about 12 and up) are using sites like MySpace and Bebo to the extent that, like mobile phones, everyone has a profile and is to be found on one of these two social networking sites.

They're using them as cheap text messaging services and putting videos and pictures up on the web thanks to the simple interfaces offered by sites like YouTube. There's a whole debate about how dangerous this may be to said youngens, but that's another days discussion. For now, let's just accept that it's happening.

So I feel old because I'm watching as 12, 14, 16 year olds who would have derided anyone openly capable of switching on a computer, let alone being able to touch type, just a few short years ago; now just about as tech savvy as anyone really needs to be to get by in the modern day and age, if not more so besides. It has kinda crept up on me - we in the tech sector have been observing it from a distance, but it's different to sit down next to a 14 year old hammering away with a Bebo page and six MSN windows onscreen.

Back to New Media Convergence, if you please. Now that everyone in the hard- to-reach young demography is on social networking sites, New Media Convergence can happen. We already see it with, for example, Bebo integrating YouTube to such a simple extent that it's a matter of pushing a few buttons to get a stock video on your page; and just a few more after that to get your own cam/phone/whoknowswhatelse vids online.

Google paid top brass to get to be the search engine for MySpace a short while ago. And now we're entering into direct sales - forget about just being able to advertise to the demographic, how about being able to directly sell to them like even iTunes can't?

The new big growth sector is New Media Convergence, and so long as the social networking sites hold their water as mobile phones have done we'll be seeing them becoming a more day-to-day thing. Mix up mobile phones, social networking sites, search engines, stores, even municipal WiFi and you can see the shape of teenage lives forming around the internet, whether we like it or not.

Congratulations are in order, we've made technology so mainstream that ditsy blonde teenagers are using it in their fumbling attempts to have sex with one another.

Last month, I wrote a column about PlayStation 3's troubles and examine the
next-generation consoles in regards to the media hype and news cycle. Here's a
quick excerpt:

"After getting beaten up for a few years during the GameCube era and accused of
being obsolete, Nintendo is now emerging as the media darling with Wii. Part of
this is due to how Wii has separated itself from Xbox 360 and PS3 with an
innovative approach and lower price tag. But don't underestimate people's
"Nintendo nostalgia," which I think is leading to many folks to view Nintendo as
the loveable underdog instead of an out-of-touch has-been. In addition,
Microsoft has taken its lumps in years past, but releasing Xbox 360 on time and
ahead of its rivals proved the company has staying power in the video game
market and it has earned Microsoft at least some measure of respect from the
gamer community.

"But again, it's a news cycle. So-called purists are falling in love with
Nintendo's commitment to fun gameplay over realistic graphics, but what will
happen in a year or two? Will people begin to complain that Wii's processing
power pales in comparison to PS3? What will happen if style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; COLOR: #ff6600; BORDER-BOTTOM:
#ff6600 0.07em solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; TEXT-DECORATION: underline"
href="http://www.twitchguru.com/2006/08/07/mmr/page2.html#" target="_blank"
itxtdid="2188621">Blu-ray turns out to be the dominant DVD standard and
provides a huge incentive to purchase a PS3? It's important to keep these things
in mind."

Well, I should have written "But what will happen in a month or two?" in the
above paragraph because it seems like Nintendo's hype has reached the breaking
point. I've read a lot of stuff about Wii in the wake of Nintendo's big event in
New York last week, and it appears there may be a little bit of a backlash
against Nintendo after its summer of media love. Nintendo announced the console
will launch on Nov. 19 in the U.S. and be sold in the for $250.

While $250 was the expected price point by most folks, industry rumors this
summer suggested the cost would be as low as $199. While I personally didn't put
much stock in this rumor (hey, $150 less than the next system was good enough
for me), some gamers did. Check out some of the forum feedback for disappointed
gamer who were hoping for a cheaper console. Now other gamers are saying Red
Steel and the new Zelda title don't look all that good, that too many of the
games don't support four players, and that the Broadway processor from IBM will
be too weak to support the system. My, how quickly things can change.

As for me, I'm still pumped about Wii. Nintendo got their hooks into me a long
time ago, and I've never been able to get them out. Like a lot of people, I
suffer from Nintendo nostalgia so I'm more excited about Wii than the other two.
But enough about me. Here are a few good bits from the Web regarding Wii.

Check out a report from TG Daily's Mark Raby href="http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/09/14/analysis_nintendo_wii/"> here. Mark
examines what gamers will really be getting for the low price point of $250 and
wonders whether the money saved on the system and games will make up for the
vastly lower processing power and inferior graphics of Wii compared to PS3 and
Xbox 360.

Kotaku has a number of funny,
insightful posts about the recent Wii news. Check them out. The headlines alone
are priceless.

Joystiq weighs in on Wii's multiplayer shortcomings, href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/15/wii-not-even-remotely-region-
free/">false region-free claims, and other href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/14/critiquing-nintendos-wii-launch-
details/">Wii launch details. There's also a good href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/14/wii-then-and-now/">"then and now"
post from Ludwig.

Ex-Joystiqer Robert Summa, now at Destructoid, muses about the href="http://www.destructoid.com/a-wiis-day-is-done-looking-back-at-the-nyc-
nintendo-event">NYC event and takes a critical look at Wii.

Khaaaaaaan!!!! KHAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Whatever. Maybe this will lead to an outcry from jilted North American and
European gamers (who will pay a higher price for in U.S. dollars for the console
than Americans -- more than $800 for the premium 60 GB version!). But I'm not
holding my breath. Why? Because I think that Sony's move was prompted by
Nintendo's less costly Wii, which has absolutely owned the next-generation
console buzz since E3. Microsoft hasn't particularly excelled at winning over
the Japanese crowd in the past, so it's easy to see why Sony may be more
concerned with the hometown favorite and lovable underdog Nintendo.

I'm not the only one who suspects that Sony has a little case of Wii-envy. Check
out the latest href="http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/09/22/sony_price_cut_nintendo_wii/">report
from Wolfgang at TG Daily.

Here's what the head honchos at MTV had to say:
"The acquisition of Harmonix will deepen MTV's connection to its audience via
on-line, mobile and console music gaming, and expand the relationship with both
labels and artists through the creation of games based on classic songs as well
as future album releases," said MTV president Christina Norman in a press
statement. "Harmonix's technology allows everyone to pursue their rock and roll
fantasies, even people like me, with more musical ambition than actual talent."

"The acquisition of Harmonix advances MTV Networks' strategy of connecting with
target audiences by creating immersive, multi-platform environments that extend
to every device they use," said Judy McGrath, chairman and CEO of MTV Networks,
in a press statement.

Is MTV ready to be a big time game company? Well, it certainly needs a new
avenue because the network doesn't show videos anymore (as I pointed out in the
above column) and its reality TV programming is - how do I put this gently? -
complete and utter dog poo. In the column last month I wondered if a company
like MTV, which was producing crap content in one medium (TV) could branch out
and produce excellent content in another medium (gaming). I'm not sure if we'll
have the answer to this one for a while, but it will be interesting to watch
considering that MTV Networks is going with a convergence strategy.

MTV now has Atom (which boasts AddictingGames.com and Shockwave.com gaming
sites) as well as Xfire, the popular online gaming communication application,
which has more than 5 million registered users. With the addition of Harmonix,
which has Guitar Hero 2 coming out this November, MTV will have a formidable
gaming presence on which to build. But how in the world can MTV match up its
gaming strategy with its TV shows like "My Super Sweet 16" and "Pimp My Ride"?

For more on Guitar Hero, check out David Konow's story on href="http://www.twitchguru.com/2006/03/01/guitar_hero/">TwitchGuru.

I remember a time when Sony was king of quite a few hills, and king of no bigger a hill than the video game console market. The word PlayStation is synonymous with a gaming box attached to the TV. Sony is master of this market no more, however, and the worry now is that they may crash out of it altogether.

To put it bluntly, I'm not sure if Sony could successfully organise a piss up in a brewery these days, where the gaming market is concerned. The first signs of worry came in 2005 with the PlayStation Portable. The handheld console is a nice piece of kit, but it's over expensive, dogged by piracy and poor format support in the form of UMD movies and games.

From a business point of view, Sony couldn't even roll it out to the world without a bit of a fiasco - anyone in Europe may recall that the entire European allotment of the PSP was shipped to North America, where expected frenzied buying never emerged, leaving Europeans to wait a half a year for the handheld and American warehouses full of them.

It's the PlayStation 3 which is the biggest concern for the company, however. I dunno about you, but when a company stands up and says "Expect it to be expensive, ohh and we're delaying it again... and hiking the price again... and not including some of its best features as standard, like HDMI cables... ohh, now we are, but we have to raise the price again because of it..." Well, I'm not particularly confident in that company. I'm even less impressed when they stand out on stage and arrogantly proclaim to the world at large that "The next-gen doesn't begin until we say it does" when, to be frank, if we left it up to them mankind would probably never get out of bed in the morning.

The PlayStation 3 is setting itself up to be a massive failure, at the very least a large loss-leader for Sony. This lot think that it might bankrupt the company entirely. I doubt that a little, but the numbers are interesting to look at; certainly the "next-gen" isn't going to make Sony a particularly rich company in the short to medium run.

When Microsoft came to market with the Xbox we all laughed at the massive losses the company was incurring - and still is incurring with the 360 - to grow itself a market position. Now Sony too is going to make a massive loss on their console... funny how the "norm" can switch so quickly to such a polar opposite position. It would seem that the boys at Microsoft have a lot more long-term brains than anyone has given them credit for with their games business.

Rahul Sood announced the acquisition on his href="http://voodoopc.blogspot.com/2006/09/project-vampire-is-about-to-
fly_28.html">blog. Sood had made news back in March when he suggested in his
blog that Dell would buy Alienware - before the Alienware
acquisition was announced - and then followed up by disclosing in his blog last
month that he and Michael Dell had discussions in 2005 about the possibility
earlier of Dell buying VoodooPC. According to Sood's href="http://voodoopc.blogspot.com/2006/08/where-theres-smoke-theres-
fire.html">blog entry on those discussions, he felt direct computer maker
wasn't a good fit for VoodooPC because Dell lacked innovation and it "lost its
way a long time ago."
Instead, VoodooPC will become part of HP. Sood wrote in his blog that he feels
HP, with its history of innovation and current management leadership, is a
better fit for his company. Sood continues:
"HP is hungry for new innovations, and if you can imagine what plugging our
corporate DNA into their labs would do - well, you get the picture. We are now
in the position to create absolutely fantastic products in all categories.
Voodoo and HP are complimentary opposites. This deadly combination of Voodoo's
gaming/luxury PC expertise and our brand DNA and influence, with HP's
innovations, scale, and leverage is going to lead to some of the most compelling
machines money can buy."

This is an interesting development for several reasons. First and foremost, I'm
surprised but glad that both Dell and HP, the top two PC makers in the world,
are taking gaming seriously. Second, I have to wonder if this will begin a trend
that will lead to fewer and fewer independent boutique computer makers that
create truly awesome gaming machines. Third, it will be interesting to see how
being part of huge multibillion dollar technology corporations will change
VoodooPC and Alienware. Will innovation be stifled or will having access to
great technical minds and lots of R&D (well, at least in HP's case) propel
the computer makers to new heights?
Whatever the case, I suppose the bottom line may be that the death of the PC was
greatly exaggerated. At my previous gig covering business IT, all we heard about
after 2001 was that PCs were a dead end business, especially after IBM sold its
PC business to Lenovo. But it's shaping up to be a fascinating time for PCs once
again and we may indeed start to see some true innovation real soon.

So it's easy to understand why fans of the Battlefield series are a little
ticked off these days, since EA finally completed its contested acquisition of
Swedish developer Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE). Originally EA
proposed the buyout in 2004, but two DICE shareholder groups controlling 28
percent of the stock opposed the deal. Nevertheless, DICE's board of directors
recommended that its shareholders accept the deal. After buying the majority
stake in DICE last year, EA sealed the deal this week. Thus, DICE became an EA
subsidiary studio.
Of course, EA announced today that it has closed down DICE's Canada operation,
Digital Illusions Canada in Ontario. So those Canadian developers didn't last
too long. EA has tried to put a nice face on this by saying that many Digital
Illusions Canada employees are being interview for other employee opportunities
in EA's Canadian locations. The only problem is, those locations are Burnaby,
Montreal and Vancouver, not Ontario.

The perception is that once EA buys a game developer the games will never be the
same because the publisher keeps the intellectual property but guts the studio
and dumps the employees. The scuttling of Digital Illusions Canada does little
to dispel that notion. I have a feeling that Battlefield 2142, due out this
month, may be the last Battlefield title many fans buy now that there's been a
changing - and dumping - of the guard.