MOBILE NEWS: 5 stories you should now about

All the stories all linked.

The theme is the impact new platforms are having on the market, and reactions of companies to try to catch up or how they lead the way



Nokia, reporting a 90 per cent fall in profits for Q1 2009. (shame big fan of the N series for years very good phone, all though its iPhone all the way now for me)

Net profits reached €122m, heavily down on the €1.2bn in the same period in 2008.

Sales were also down, dropping 27 per cent from €12.7bn last year to €9.28bn. However, the results were not as bad as many had predicted, the result of which was an eight per cent increase to the company’s share price.

Samsung steps on to a new platform with Google Android handsets soon to be released S8000 will be sporting the exciting mobile OS.

Samsung is also believed to be planning a trio of Android devices.

Sony Ericsson confirm that it will be revealing more details on its Entertainment Unlimited service on May 28th.

The company has already confirmed that the Idou – its first Entertainment Unlimited handset – will be launched in the second half of this year. Entertainment Unlimited itself broadly unites Walkman music, Cyber-shot imaging and Java gaming, with messaging and other services/apps also in the mix.

It also allows consumers to share content through the TV, PC and wi-fi and syncs with web applications and PlayNow.

The company earlier confirmed a massive pre-tax loss for Q1 09, albeit in line with earlier forecasts, and swiftly embarked on a €400m cost savings drive that will see 2,000 more jobs go this year.

PSP platform opened up the store to encourage uptake with tomorrow's 5.50 firmware upgrade removing the need for a PlayStation Network account to browse the store.

As long as a wi-fi connection is at hand, any PSP user will now be able to check out the latest games, trailers and demos available to download on the machine.

The 5.50 update also allows for access to the PSN Information Board via the machine’s XMB interface.

DSi sells 435,000 units in first US week

In an official response to the NPD's March 2009 sales numbers, Nintendo revealed that the Nintendo DSi handheld - released April 5, has sold 435,000 units in North America in its first week.

This figure surpasses initial sales of the handheld's previous iteration, the Nintendo DS Lite, which sold 226,300 in its first week on the market.

TECHNOLOGY : ONLIVE may never make it ?

Why ON-LIVE will not be a console killer.

Don't get me wrong I am all for progress and service, how ever I'm not sure they even believe they can do it.

After giving this some thought and going over some basics here is my view on this topic

1.Realistically the technology wont be available and ready for the masses till 2012 to 2015. You can read about this all over the web.

They plan to start in the US and what will happen is you get the early adopters going through the pain barriers and as long as the game play is not interrupted more than once may be just may be people will accept it.

But remember game play can not be interrupted, How many times does You Tube or other low quality stream slow down or stop on your PC. I am sure the demos worked amazing and they planned well for that at GDC....but wait till you have several hundred thousand people all wanting the same game at a very slightly different time.

So assuming that some people do stick with the service and they grow slowly they will not be making any money and will require more and more funding. They got around $12 million in 2007 for a second round.


2. The investment is pure speculation

So investors and future VC's will speculate based on the management background and the chance of this delivering a huge pay off....and that they could get control of or a big chunk of control of the video game industry right? Wrong they may at best get a share of the market. But this is where I don't think they are really interested, my gut tells me they are trying to convince people they have the best compression technology and hope that a huge company buys the IP for a tonne of cash.

3. Are you forgetting those other small companies in the industry?

Yes little Microsoft, quite shy Nintendo and that big sissy Sony......do you really think they will lie down and just give up and say yes you win....we don't care about the billions we invested in making this industry happen.....

Not a chance, here is what could happen.....all of the above companies launch similar services or HYBRIDS of the service like PS3 lite or XBOX lite (Microsoft already sells a lite version for XBLA) So part processing happens on line and the rest in home.

And or the Hardware just gets cheaper and cheaper......(historically this is what happens and is happening)

All of these companies have massive installed base across USA, Europe & Japan. As for Asia they don't have the bandwidth yet so forget Onlive for China's or India for the next 2 to 3 years.

4. The installed PC base

Who are your customers? well the ones with a PC or a TV who want to play high quality games. I am going to assume that people who invested in consoles are not the target. Also I would question if the PC owners who have great or decent spec machine at home and play games are the target either.

So are you after the 85 million online gamers in the USA from 2008 (stats provided by comscore) Then you need to take into account the number of women in that figure was around 45 to 48 % and then take into account age demographics and your target audience is reduced further.

My guess is they will also try to leverage deals with the cable providers and try to get into peoples homes through the TV.

Good idea? progress right. Sure choice is great.

Ok high quality games require high quality peripherals so if you play on the TV and want to compete with the consoles you will need:

Rockband Kit
Microphones
Dance Mat
Driving Wheel
Wii type contoller
Guitar

So all of a sudden we are in the family home and the choice is streaming games with no peripherals, less game choices or by a Wii or play the one we have. fun of what the above can provide. Hummm (please tell me If I got this wrong and you can just plug in to a port on the

5.NO exclusive content....

its nothing new just a new distribution method. Its not like they have Little big planet, GTA or Crash Bandicoute or Matrix or some amazing game to launch this service they just offer the same.

6. The future of gaming

Its all about how you can enhance your experience through community and better peripherals making controlling a game easier, expanding choice of titles (like casual)and all the big companies are way along with this process in addition to that they are offering better distribution models, Episodic content etc.....

If Onlive truly have amazing technology they will end up selling it or becoming like DOLBY and licensing it. They will not lead the games industry or have any chance of killing off the others.

I do believe in this technology and cloud computing will become the norm but at very best Onlive will sit way behind the others , but I can not see them making it as a replacement for PS3, XBLA or Nintendo.

Love to hear your thoughts please comment....

Here is some good reading

Onlive was a dumb investment

Dave Perry s take on things

Console sales data

Venture Beat

Venture beat ( read all the postings at the bottom of the page)

Crytek story

CAST YOUR VOTE ON LINKEDIN

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.

VIRTUAL WORLDS : Home passes 4 million users

Sony has announced PlayStation Network has over 20 million reg accounts.

Its taken over two years to reach this level, alothough HOME was only released end of 2008.

Other stats were also announced saying that over 600 games with online features have now been released for PS3, and PSN itself now hosts over 14,500 pieces of downloadable digital content. To date over 380m pieces of content have been downloaded, with sales reaching $180m.

NEWS: 7 Headlines you should know about consoles

The PlayStation 2 passes 50 million units sold in the North American market

Guitar Hero III rakes in $1bn
Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith has claimed that 2007's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has now surpassed a sales value of $1bn - a milestone the exec claims has never before been achieved by a single title.

Sony PS3 home is downloaded 3.4 million times and over $1 million in item sales. Sony also mentioned that the worldwide installed base of the PS3 and PSP now totals 63.1 million, meaning there is a huge potential for Home to continue to expand.

Console installed base reaches 22m in UK
The latest generation of home consoles - the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - have a total installed base of 10 million units in the UK and Ireland.

UK households spend 6 hours gaming per week - survey
Deloitte has revealed that the average UK household plays over six hours of videogames each week. The survey, conducted with 2,023 consumers ages 14-75, further revealed that 55 per cent chose console gaming, while 30 per cent chose PC or Mac gaming.

Deloitte added that it had found that one quarter of households currently own a Nintendo Wii, with a further 24 per cent planning to buy one in the coming year.

"Gaming has been traditionally frowned upon by parents. However it is now considered 'family time' for many people aged between 26 and 42," said Jolyon Barker, head of technology, media and telecoms at Deloitte.

"Although interest declines after the age of 40 this could change as a generation of gamers grows up."

Wii Sales Driven by Women and Girls, says Ubisoft
Nintendo has done quite a bit in making their system appeal to females, and Ubisoft has done their fair share as well with brands like Imagine and Ener-G.

PS3 at $299 in April, Xbox 360 Price Cut to Follow
Leading analyst Michael Pachter has stated that Sony will drop the PS3's price to $299 this April, but Microsoft could also lower its MSRP on the Xbox 360.

'Less than 3 out of 10 games recover costs,' says EIF boss // News // GamesIndustry.biz

1)Could studios follow the casual model try and buy(well something similar)

Here is a scenario. A studio develops part of the game 1 or 2 levels and releases the taster version for fans to try out and feedback. Smaller budget, quicker release and the fans get to try out the game via X-BLA, PSN or whatever platform will support the option. There could even be a very small charge to cover cost.


I know its not possible for all games but there may be some titles that this could work for, May be it could save jobs and budget while improving product and help sustain the industry. After all its has to be better that losing money? doesn't it?

'Less than 3 out of 10 games recover costs,' says EIF boss // News // GamesIndustry.biz: "'Less than 3 out of 10 games recover costs,' says EIF boss

In a speech opening this year's EIF, Deering said, 'Traditional revenue sources will not be sufficient to fund games development. If you look at the very narrow definition of the gaming market, people are saying the software business will be down 20 per cent by 2011 versus this year.

major games can now cost more than USD 10 million to develop - and up to USD 100 million in the case of titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV.

less than 3 out of 10 games recover their development and marketing costs with boxed goods sales,' said Deering. 'So what's going to have to happen?

Creative use of hybrid online and offline advertising revenues, online offline transactions with consumers - these business models must be explored.'"