MARKETING: Want to see real marketing in action

Like marketing want to see the best advert I have seen in Casual Gaming?

SInce last year I have been noticing the campaign by Sarbakan strong branding and cool tags they started with the whole its not pink its magenta....and there is nothing casual about us tag lines tag lines.

Well this is another level all together. Promise you will smile and someone will rip this off for sure...shame on you.

CLICK ME TO SEE

TECHNOLOGY : Can Onlive kill the console?

In case you don't know about this you need to get up to speed. I will come back with more about this soon but just get up to speed on the concept.

Some say it will kill the console, some say it wont work, Dave Perry says he is launching is own rival company and apparently got a lot of stick from onlive at GDC saying that he is only jumping on the band wagon(although he has talked about this tech for a while) and SONY just registered their own cloud patent.

Read about this here

Dave Perry's company

One thing I will say is I love progress, and this if it works will benefit the industry and game players, but will it work yet and will they make enough money in time or will it all crash and burn.

More about this soon.

A WORD OF CAUTION ON SOCIAL GAMING

So whats the hot topic this month? is it iphone may be its social gaming or may be social gaming on mobiles or may be its virtual items and micro-transactions
no wait its .......

STOP STOP STOP..........the phrase "knee jerk reaction" comes to mind so often and it will be the downfall of many and also it causes the industry problems and confuses people.

Stay focused! and whatever you do or whatever decisions you make make sure you know why your doing them and and how you will execute. (sounds obvious right!)

Its important to develop a long term strategy around your product and don't try to make it fit a particular platform that's currently popular because may be its just not suited. Do you even know your audience and how you will monetize.

I have even heard developers saying how can I make my studio in to a Social gaming studio or we have to do FB games etc..... one company even went from being a SN developer to iphone and back to SN's in a short space of time. Social gaming may be an additional channel but "all eggs one basket" comes to mind.

CURRENT TOP 5 SOCIAL GAMES (Across social networks)



TOP 3 SELLING iPHONE GAMES IN FEB 09
Flight controller, pocket GOD and Zombieville USA









iphone, micro-transactions and Social gaming can all be big business but many companies are putting out products and completely missing the point. My advice would be talk to people in the know work in partnerships and don't be afraid to ask around help is there.

Also SN's are going through a curve and a transition in gaming, the content is getting better, technology improving (flash announcement) people getting into the deeper experience communities developing within communities etc...the new version of FB is more like twitter for updates and a lot of games push message updates so at some point people will consolidate so make sure you talk to the right people get some advice and learn from others mistakes.

But don't believe your own hype you may only get one shot.

Some useful resources for help and advice

www.sharkjumping.com lokipartners.com
www.worldsandgames.com
www.millionsofus.com
www.srpoints.com
www.twofish.com

BUSINESS: Miscrosoft takes 60% in community gaming

Remeber this is for XNA and not XBLA ( but still very interesting)

Microsoft claims as much as 60 per cent of the revenue from Xbox Live Community Game sales, according to XNA developer, Mommy's Best Games.

president, Nathan Fouts, received the sales data for the company's XNA title, Weapon of Choice, describing the results as 'sobering', with less than 10,000 units sold, stating 'that hurts'.

In his blog post, Fouts explained that Microsoft takes a baseline cut of 30 per cent and remittance rate, plus an additional 10-30 per cent cut for advertising. This put the developer under strain, he explained, as it also pays for membership, software licenses, hardware and marketing as well as royalties to contractors.

'What all that means to our bottom-line, we do not yet know, but it does not feel great,' he wrote. 'Maybe rational people hang up their keyboard and call it quits. But if you played Weapon of Choice, you realize we're far from rational.'

Fouts concerns echo comments made by Andrew Oliver, chief technical officer of Blitz, who told GamesIndustry.biz that a developer could make more money by working with a publisher than acting alone through digital distribution."

INVESTMENT: Google Starts a VC fund

Google reviews has announced Google Ventures, a venture capital fund that “seeks to discover and grow great companies” in a “broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech and health care.”

The fund has two managing partners: Bill Maris, perhaps best known in tech circles for founding Web hosting company Burlee.com, and Rich Miner, co-founder of mobile platform Android

As far as the size of the fund goes, actual amounts aren’t disclosed; however, the official site claims that the fund is “able to invest amounts ranging from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars.” In other words, anything goes, and Google probably won’t be cheap if they see a good opportunity. On the other hand, Google has always been somewhat careful, acquisition-wise, so don’t expect Google Ventures to be burning money; as they say, their goal is to “build great companies” but also to generate “long term financial return.”"

Start you business plans now.....

MMO: Top NEWS Stories this week

MMO market grew by 22 per cent in 2008 shown in a new report by Screen Digest

Consumer spending in the sector reached $1.4bn across Europe and North America, with the ongoing success of Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft credited as being the driving factor."
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MMO developer Gazillion has claimed that it is working on “six or seven” titles at the moment, and that its intention is to take the currently hardcore-centric MMO genre to the mainstream.

“We're making a wide range of products, some for kids, some for the core gamers,” Gazillion’s VP of marketing Paul Baldwin told Joystiq.

“We actually think that what makes us unique is that we're going for the mass market. Much like a Pixar film not only resonates with a six-year-old kid, but a 39 year-old guy like myself the whole way through – much like Zelda works with eight-year-old kids and 35 year-old hardcore gamers in terms of the depth of gameplay.
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Marvel MMO to see 2012 release

Marvel Universe Online, the comic book superhero MMO, will be released in 2012 - shortly after a number of movie properties make their debuts in cinemas.

Simon Philips, Marvel's president of worldwide consumer products, said the MMO wouldn't be out until after the Captain America movie in 2011 and the Avengers film in 2012. He explained that time would be used to work with Gazillion to create "the next generation of storytelling".

"It sounds like a long way away, but it's not," Philips told MTV. "We've got to create, together with [game publisher] Gazillion, that environment that is going to be a totally immersive experience and a perpetual storytelling experience as well."
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Eve Online bundled with Nvidia cards

Eve Online will now be bundled with the current series of Nvidia VGA cards manufactured by Albatron Technology, alongside a one month subscription to the space-faring MMO.

Each Nvidia card comes packed with a DVD that includes the Eve client and CD key with one month of game time, worth USD 14.95.

Last year, CCP signed a deal with Atari which saw boxed copies of Eve Online distributed throughout retailers, previously the title had only been available through digital distribution.

The MMO has approximately 250,000 monthly subscribers and, earlier this year hit a peak in concurrent users of over 50,000.

NEWS: XBLA to bring out wii type contoller

Well it was only a matter of time, and believe me this wont be the first both SONY and Microsoft will offer whatever range of peripherals to players to help gain ground.

Fact is it will be Nintendo who will have to hope that their customers are loyal and wont want to move away to a more powerful platform that offers what they have plus a whole lot more.

Apprently the new controller which was announced ad GDC is far superior to the Wii controller as it uses more senors to give more accuracy.

Also it should help deliver more casual games to the platform, however the smart move for Microsoft would be to license the ones that sold well on NINTENDO.

Read more here

PARTNERSHIPS: Microsoft & Myspace

Two Microsoft-related announcements coming from social networking giant MySpace today:

the portal is adding support for Windows Mobile-run phones to its new mobile application, due this summer, and bringing the Silverlight runtime to its developer program thanks to a jointly developed Open Source kit.

The upcoming application will be created by MySpace in conjunction with Microsoft developers, and optimize the user experience for owners of devices running the latest version of Windows Mobile (6.1, which was introduced in April 2008). The company says it currently has 20 million mobile users and is focused on developing applications for all platforms, including the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia, etc. As MobileCrunch reported earlier this year, MySpace anticipates 50% of their total traffic to come from mobiles within the next few years, which is why it has recently launched a redesigned mobile website as well.



read more

RESEARCH: Unique visits for the top DOGS

A snap shot of some of this big players in the industry, based on US visits.

Interesting the only companies who have seen growth are Pogo and Bigfish.

I have to say I am a fan of how they do things. BigFish are on the pulse with their strategy unlike Real. In a smart move following the purchase of developer thinglefin last year they have now announced private beta of their new virtual world Funashpere

RESOURCES: All the events easy acess

Searchme

View in searchme: full | lite

MOBILE: All the key stuff from the last 5 days

Symbian remains by far the most popular smartphone OS on the market. (for now)

New research from Gartner shows that for the fourth quarter of 2008 Symbian based smartphones accounted for 47.1 per cent of the sector’s total sales, with 17.9m handsets sold.

Blackberry-owning RIM was next at 19.5 per cent (7.4m units)
Microsoft Windows Mobile at 12.4 per cent (4.7m units)
Apple trailed with a 10.7 per cent market share (4.1m units)
Linux 8.4 per cent (3.2m units).

Of the Linux figure, Google Android phones (of which these is currently just one – the T-Mobile G1) accounted for 20 per cent – or 1.7 per cent of the total market.

Take Apple as a single device vendor and the numbers become very impressive for Apple – particularly considering that the numbers represent a 111.6 per cent year-on-year hike. Nokia, in contrast, suffered a 21.6 per cent annual drop. Personally I give Apple 2 to 3 years to take over......watch this space for the mini iphone and some other variations to give them more market share. And why not there OS is far superior, tech they produce is the best looking and the distribution channel tops all the competition. So if you want to beat Apple or stay in the market you need to be at least as good......but hell why not go for being better!

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Pop cap releases bookworm on the iphone (I think we will see more and more ports of popular casual games find there way to this platform)

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8 Million iphone downloads for digital chocolate (paid & free)

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GDC 09: iPhone games publisher Ngmoco head Neil Young today opened GDC with a keynote heralding the big changes the iphone & itouch have brought to the games market for developers and publishers.

He then outlined how the iPhone has changed the industry in four key areas: the market, games themselves, game making and publishing.

THE MARKET (ovierview)

800m App Store downloads of the 25,000 apps available, and how 165 apps are released released every day.

Even though the App Store is incredibly 'cluttered', the point to envy is how Apple has normalized digital distribution of game content, said Young.

He said: "Apple have trained 30m people to download and and install applications on their phone where ever they are. It is an amazing process we are witnessing."

And as games are largest part of the App Store, this is an "awesome opportunity" to generate revenue.

Full story

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UK telecoms company T-Mobile has stated that the average owner of the HTC Google Android phone the G1, which is exclusive to the network in the region, has downloaded 40 apps from the Android Market.

PocketGamer reports that the network’s CTO Cole Brodman added that there are around 2,300 games and applications currently available for download. He also stated that 80 per cent of G1 users surf the internet on their handset every day.

However, Brodman added that as the number of apps increases, the Android Market has become increasingly hard to navigate – particularly when compared to Apple’s App Store.

The exec went on to say that T-Mobile has big plans to expand its 3G network to accommodate the increased data usage encouraged by handsets such as the G1.

SMILES: I dream of electric sheep

Even the farmers are getting in on Casual Games. Very funny movie of Farmers using LEDS on sheep to create a giant PONG game.

NEWS: Chinas TENCENT reports 1 billion in virtual items

China's TenCent Announces Almost $1B In Virtual Goods Sales For 2008

TenCent reported 2008 annual revenues exceeding $1 billion, an 87% year-over-year increase from 2007 revenues.

$719 million was generated by sales of virtual goods (called "value-added services" by TenCent) to Internet users of the service.

$204 million generated by sales of virtual goods to users in the Mobile category.

Internet virtual goods sales for 2008 represent a 95.5% year-over-year increase from 2007.

Mobile virtual goods sales for the same period had increased 73%.

Only $120 million dollars of TenCent's 2008 revenue is accounted for by online advertising.

TenCent lists its total 2008 gross profits as $729 million at a margin of about 70%.

TenCent's fourth quarter numbers primarily reinforce, and to some degree explain, the overall trends at play in the annual numbers. Total revenue for the quarter was $306 million, a 3.6% increase over revenues for Q3. This suggests that TenCent's revenues were probably stable quarter-over-quarter throughout the year. $216 million of the revenue total for the quarter was generated by Internet virtual goods sales and $56 million generated by Mobile virtual goods sales. Revenues from online advertising account for only $30 million. Gross profits for the quarter $206 million, and operating profit $136 million.

Total registered IM user accounts, active IM user accounts, number of peak IM users, and number of peak games portal users increased slightly from Q3 numbers. Total number of virtual goods subscriptions increased while number of mobile virtual goods subscriptions decreased slightly. However, mobile revenue was still up due to new lines of bundled SMS packages offered by TenCent.

Game-related sales of Internet virtual goods increased substantially from Q3 numbers, by about 18%, due to TenCent launching three new games during this period (Dungeon and Fighter, Cross Fire, and QQ Dancer). The revenue increase for these games was offset somewhat by declining revenues from older games QQ Fantasy and QQ SanGuo. Regardless, it shows that users aren't tiring of virtual goods, just the old virtual goods. Add a new game and new products, and sales continue. Unsurprisingly, TenCent reported a 15.8% decline in online advertising revenue in Q4 2008, attributed to a harsher economic climate.

TenCent's outlook for 2009 calls for stronger sales in Q1 as it contains a major winter break period for Chinese students and several seasonal holidays such as Chinese New Year that are well-suited to sales of virtual goods. Advertising revenue is expected to continue to decline, as traditionally the period surrounding Chinese New Year is weak for advertising purposes anyway.

TenCent is looking to expand its business in 2009 by extending virtual goods sales offline to "include privileges for lifestyle products." TenCent will launch a new social network for students that only permits use of real names as well as three new MMOGs and one new casual game. In the first half of 2010, TenCent expects to launch "up to six" new MMOGs. Advertising revenue is expected to decrease sharply throughout 2009 and not to recover until a general global economic recovery begins.

“In 2008, Tencent delivered strong financial and operating results, leveraging our diversified, platform-based business model which is unique in China’s Internet market. We are also excited to see that, during the year, China has become the largest Internet market in the world by number of users and that Internet has increasingly become an indispensable part of everyday life for people in China,” said Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent.

CHARTS: HARDWARE Sales Feb 09

USA

PlayStation 2 131K
PlayStation 3 276K
PSP 199K
Xbox 360 391K
Wii 753K
Nintendo DS 588K

CHARTS: World top 10 for casual games

The Download market

1=WMC - A Darker Shade of Grey
2=Annabel
3=Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
4=Chocolatier 3 - Decadence by Design
5=OPERATION MANIA
6=The Serpent of Isis ™
7=Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate
8=Jewel Quest Solitaire III
9=Risk II
10=PICTUREKA! MUSEUM MAYHEM

RESEARCH: VW & MMO's Biz models

Many people often ask what can be achieved in the F2P market.

Here is an example of the figures that the F2P industry achieves on average.

Example

Registered players 1,000,000 (could be any figure) but you will at least need to have 100,000 reg accounts before you can start to apply the figures or even consider monetizing

Active players = 20% 200,0000

Conversion to paying players = 5% 10,000

Average spend per paying player this varies but it can be from $5 to $20 per month. Its possible this can be increased overtime as the experience and offering develops.

Its important that you really understand your customer and make sure that data is analyzed, look for trends and patterns and make sure to listen. Also there are many resources out there in the form of associations and groups that have members who are willing to share what they have learned.

This data is based on figures from over 10 key sites that operate F2P models supported by micro-transactions or subscriptions, and first hand conversations with operators of F2P MMO's or virtual worlds.

NEWS: OMGPOP getting sued by TETRIS

Not long after they get 5 million......the celebrations have turned to trouble.

TETRIS are claiming that OMGPOP (formally iminlikewithyou) have copied TETRIS. OMGPOP's version is very well done and looks great, I am a big fan but its not original and it is a version of TETRIS.

So may be a quick deal to share revenues with TETRIS on any games of BLOCKLES that generate money, and in addition to that the usual copyright statement which acknowledges the creators, or some reference to the game being inspired by etc....etc...

Odd thing is they are focusing on the graphics and not saying they copied the code...probably because of the current LAW.

See for yourself....

Full Story explaining the legal aspects

NEWS: PS3 needs more casual games

The co-founder Media Molecule who developed LittleBigPlanet , believes that any gamers interested in buying a PS3 have already done so - and that if Sony wishes to grow the console's user base it has to transfer the casual success it saw on PS2.

He could have a point but also I believe that it will be key titles that will also help increase sales. The PS3 needs more killer titles.....like GTA etc.

This added to improved community features and a fresh catalog of casual titles, and a back catalog of PS2 games the work on PS3 will certainly help.

Well considering SONY attended the Casual Games event in Hamburg and did a session on building games for the PSN I think they probably agree.

RESEARCH: Thinking about cross platfrom development?

I would certainly recommend that you check out EXIT games. What has been achieved with WGT is stunning.

Take me to the SITE

FUNDING: IGA consideres buyout

In-game advertising firm IGA Worldwide may seek a buyout if it can't successfully close a new round of funding. Chairman Justin Townsend is believed to favor the new funding deal, but won't rule out a sale of the company, according to VC-related news site VentureBeat. According to the site, any interested buyers must register their bids by March 27th. IGA has high-profile deals with publishers such as Sony, EA and Activision, and announced its 30 millionth unique user in October of last year. However, the general downturn in advertising budgets forced IGA to lay off 25 percent of its staff in November, and they needed to create a new business model.

Worried about the economy, STAY POSITIVE

I have been talking about this with various people saying that many of us seem to forget what has happened to us humans in the PAST and we always come out stronger, better, faster. See what Warren Buffet had to say.

(Remember he's lost countless billions in this recession...)

CNBC: “We’ve been getting thousands and thousands of emails from our viewers. Warren, we’d like to start with one that echoes a theme we heard again and again. This one comes from Terry in San Antonio, Texas, who asks, ‘Will everything be all right?’”

BUFFETT: “Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created. We started with 4 million people back in 1790 and look where we’ve come. And it wasn’t because we were smarter than other people. It wasn’t because our land was more fertile or we had more minerals or our climate was more favorable. We had a system that worked. It unleashed the human potential. It didn’t work every year. We had 6 ‘panics’ in the 19th century. In the 20th century we had the Great Depression, World Wars, all kinds of things. But we have a system – largely free market, rule of law, equality of opportunity – all of those things that cause the potential of humans to get unleashed. And we’re far from done. Your kids will live better than mine. Your grandchildren will live better than your kids. There’s no question about that. But the machine gets gummed up from time to time. If you take the bulk of those centuries, probably 15 years were bad years. But we go forward.”

RESEARCH: Slides and MP3's now avilable

A follow up to Casual connect sees the recorded content go live

If you are interested in community gaming then you should see this click here

INVESTMENT: Iminlikewithyou gets 5 million

One of my fav portals has just got 5 Million investment, and they have changed there name to OMGPOP.com very cool name.

Having recently invited Charles to an Event to be a speaker which he had to decline as he was pre rev and was watching the pennies......its really great to see all the hard work has paid off.

The 5 Million has been raised on the strength of its plans to begin monetizing the site through offers of premium service subscriptions, virtual goods, and virtual currency. The round was lead by Bessemer Venture Partners with past investors Spark Capital and and Baseline contributing, as reported by Venture Beat.

Just shows you do something well and the money is out there.

NEWS: Gaming will soon be a part of everyday for most people

1. DS breaks 100 million barrier

What does this mean? it means another bit of the puzzle that will lead to gaming becoming something that will be part of most peoples lives. May be it will take another generation or 2 but soon everyone will play games (electronic games as I challenge you to find me people who don't play a game in one form or other)

2. Paid apps arrive on Android market

Now developers can start to monetize there devs, and if Google are smart they will make the APP store as good as Apples store. (apple really have shown the mobile companies how its done) In case you haven't tried it its the best experience I have ever had on a mobile. This further expands the reach of gaming.

3. 6000 games now available from APP store

Ok so not everyone has an iphone or ipod touch, but look what Apple have achieved so far and give it a few years and it could be a standard platform, They have dominated music download market and I bet they do the same here, they are actively increasing the expose of gaming to NONE gamers.

4. Xbox 360 takes half of its consoles online

A strong indication that people want to play together and be more social, while having the convenience of DLC and added unique features that DLC brings, the more social people are them more they explore other games and ulitmatley they invite non gaming friends to join, if you get an email or SMS telling you your buddy is playing with your other buddies online somewhere and you not invloved you are gonna feel left out at some point. Think Scraboulous

5. Over 5 million Players daily for Mafia Wars

Facebook game Mafia wars by Zynga (copy of MOB wars) is further indication that gamining is penetrating deeper and deeper in to society utilizing any possible channel, in this case social networks are fast becoming a hub of gaming activity.

Several things do need to be worked out to keep us on track as our industry does have its problems like any.

BUSINESS: OBERON partners with DEUTSCHE TELEKOME

Oberon Media Inc. has partnered with Gamesload, the internet gaming platform of Deutsche Telekom AG, to distribute download games and online gaming. Gamesload is the market leader for commercial games downloads in Germany. Oberon will launch its community platform, offering web-based games to Gamesload customers. The community includes a diverse offering of multiplayer and online games.

BUSINESS: Stardoll & Pizco Merge

Key Points

Deal includes cash and stock
Pizco CEO leaves and Pizco to be mainly run by Stardoll
The Aim is to create a larger network with multiple brands and try to follow the strategy of Viacom
New brand Paperdoll Heaven will be launched
They claim they will now reach over 20 million unique per month
U.S. Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners get exit from the deal They invested 11 million into PIZCO

It looks a bit more like a take over, and Stardoll will be taking advantage of the technology PIZCO have built, but reports have noted that PIZCO's numbers have been falling away in the UK and Stardolls number have fell away in the U.S so there is going to be a need for change and The Buzz around the deal may create new interest, also why not keep your existing Stardoll customers if they want to be part of another social network it will be easier for them to join and share especially if they allow one password similar to Yahoo or Google ID.

Read more here (media post)

AND more here (Guardian)

CHARTS: This weeks top 10 casual games

1=Farm Frenzy - Pizza Party!
2=Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow
3=Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
4=Wheel of Fortune 2
5=The Serpent of Isis ™
6=Fishdom
7=Jewel Quest Solitaire III
8=THE GAME OF LIFE™ by Hasbro
9=Women's Murder Club 2
10=Cooking Academy 2

VIRTUAL WORLDS : FutureTechnology?? or a joke

Some ridiculous people n the UK have developed a headset that offers a stereoscopic display and four speaker surround sound, and throws in smells, tastes, and a fan for heating your face up (or cooling it down) . The Virtual Cocoon developed by Professor Alan Chalmers and team of Warwick University is betting that you're going to welcome the opportunity to smell your co-workers when telecommuting, or your fellow cybernauts when running around Second Life. The device, which will have an estimated cost of £1,500 (around $2,100), should be ready for production within five years, so why tell us now.

I can see it now a lion shits in the jungle in Africa and we can smell it here..... Who is going to wear a helmet in 5 years with pipes stuck up your nose and a stupid fan blowing hot and cold air in your face?...... Will it really look like this as a contact lens that has a heads up display is already in dev and microprocessors are getting smaller by the day.....

VIRTUAL WORLDS : A MUST SEE !

Ok once in while a film maker will come along and pull out all the ideas floating round in our heads an articulate them in such a brilliant way that you can not help but smile, and in other ways sent shivers down my spine as I have actually had those thoughts due to something that happened to me when I was younger. (the film will explain) The thing about this is the development, world builder tool used in the film is totally possible and I feel that this is a glimpse in to our future. It Begs the question what happens we can not tell the difference between what is reality and is computer generated? May be we are already there!


World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

HARDWARE: 1 Game Title Can Shift Sales

just goes to show if you have the right title people will rush out an buy the hardware, it happened with Crash Bandicoot and now with Xbox 360 exclusive Star Ocean.

In Japan Microsoft's console outsold both the Wii and PlayStation 3, but it came within 4,000 units of the PSP. The Nintendo DS was still the best seller of the week, but with only two titles in the software top 10, its sales fell 16,000 units.

May be just may this exclusive opens the doors for developers to negotiate better rates based on sales of hardware?

AWARDS: XBLA nominees

Its always worth knowing whats hot and the list below is the best of 2008 on XBLA, this is not necessarily based on sales, you should always cross reference your research to get a balance of what sold well and what got voted.

Best Overall Arcade Game

Braid

Castle Crashers

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Portal: Still Alive

Best Original Game

Castle Crashers

N+

Braid

Penny Arcade Episode 1

Schizoid

Age of Booty

Best Family Game

Boogie Bunnies

Roogoo

A Kingdom for Keflings

Lost Cities

Meteos Wars

Best Co-operative Multiplayer Game

Castle Crashers

Schizoid

Bionic Commando Rearmed

N+

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Best Competitive Multiplayer Game

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Soul Calibur

Meteos Wars

Age of Booty

Best Solo Game

Braid

Mega Man 9

Penny Arcade Episode 1

Rez HD

Portal: Still Alive

Best Innovation in XBLA

Braid (time travel)

A Kingdom for Keflings (use of Avatars)

Fable II Pub Games (retail game integration)

N+ (level sharing)

Duke Nukem 3D (dynamic replay)

Best Graphics

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Braid

Castle Crashers

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Best Classic/Remake Game

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Street Fighter II HD Remix

Mega Man 9

Galaga Legions

Rez HD

INDUSTRY TREND : DL starting to become the norm

There are 2 stories that I have picked up today that show increasing signs that DLC is becoming the standard against retail

One is the news about PSP dropping the UMD format from its next version. Read here

I for one think it makes sense, cheaper to make less moving parts and less cost for content distribution, more opportunities for episodic games.

And to reiterate past comments I think this platform (PSN) will become a serious force to be reckoned with for developers. (get in now while you can)

And the other is about Capcom saying DL is more important than retail....more here

A simple way for retail to pick up on this is offer a place where players can go try out games provide ultimate speed internet and do super fast downloads in store. The retail experience can still offer many things that online can not and well its time for retail to evolve for environmental issues and commercial.

STUDY: Children Attracted To Games Deemed Not For Children

A recent report on Gamasutra has highlighted that Children are Attracted To Games Deemed Not For Children Although they are intended to help parents ensure their children play only age-appropriate material, video game content ratings actually increase the attractiveness of mature content to minors, a new survey claims.

This is no surprise and amazes me that a study was even required? We all want to see R rated movies or read a magazine that was aimed at an older crowd, and girls especially want to grow up quick putting on makeup and dressing in Mums clothes.

I call these kids "aspirational players" and developers need to have and understanding of this when planning or positioning a project in a small range age demographic. Get it wrong and you could miss your target market completely, resulting in a failed project.

NEWS: EA we never made hits in 2008

EA finally admits the awful truth. They say they never made hits in 2008. I would go futher and say the games they made sucked. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs conference Pleasants stated, "The biggest thing was that we didn't make hits [in 2008]." New properties like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space were assumed to be profitable, but in the end sales just weren't high enough.

You can read more here.

There is a comment about not spending enough on marketing and the right channels but I would say no amount of marketing is going to make Mirrors Edge a great game and become a hit.

VIRTUAL REALITY: gets a step closer

Ok this is a long way of for mass market and will need improving but have a little vision and you can see where we could go.

NEWS: Bits in bite size

Tabla Rasa to finally close

The creators are closing the game with a intresting ending which sees the good guys die read more

Eidos Interactive saw revenues up by 26 percent in the six months ended December 2008 --

They also managed to reduce losses to £1 million ($1.4m). The release of Tomb Raider Underworld helped revenues to rise to £80.3 million, compared to £63.4 million ($113.5m) at the same time the previous year. The company also managed to shave its net debt from £5.7 million ($8.1m) to £3.2 million ($4.5) -- the net loss figure of £1 million stood at £81.4 million ($115.0m) the previous year.

Founder and longtime CEO John Welch has departed casual game publisher PlayFirst

The team who created the Diner Dash series is now to be led by Mari Baker. Playfirst have had a long VC funding history and have raised around $26.5 million from investors including Mayfield Fund, Trinity Ventures and Rustic Canyon Partners. Prior to founding PlayFirst, Welch was VP of games and product at AtomShockwave.

Lightening Fish signs strategic partnership with publisher Black Bean Games

The new developer is to create a new family-focused fitness range branded NewU which has been conceived with Gym operator Fitness First. Its shceduled for Q3 09 and will use the functionality of both the Wii Balance Board and Wiimote.

Midway to sell the Mortal Kombat IP.

Acclaim Testing MMO chat VOON read more

New Look and feel to come to MMO HUB

Soon after the investment MMO HUB announce that they will be releasing an update to the site.