June 8, 2009
Volume XXVI, Issue 9
Videogame Players to Top 1 Billion: EA's CEO
Excerpted from Reuters Report by Franklin Paul
More than a billion people will soon be a part of the global videogame community, presenting software developers a broad opportunity for growth, said John Riccitiello, chief executive of Electronic Arts (EA).
With many consumers worried about their jobs and curtailing spending, game makers like EA are applauding the rapid expansion of the market to women, older people, and others new to the industry.
"A few years ago, I think there were a couple of hundred million consumer participants in our industry. I think we are going to break a billion in a year or two," Riccitiello said in an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) videogame conference in Los Angeles, CA.
"They are participating in lots of different business models: online casual PC, downloading games to their iPhones," he said, referring to Apple's mobile handset. "They are doing micro-transactions on games like FIFA online."
Such an influx of customers could help boost sales in the videogame software industry, which Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernest says grew to almost $29 billion in the fiscal year ending in March.
But with top titles often costing as much or more than a Hollywood film, videogame publishers face a fair amount of uncertainty when deciding where to spend on game development.
After a wave of belt-tightening in the past year or so, including job cuts, studio closings, and the cancellation of some games, many have adopted a strategy of putting resources in only their most bankable franchises.
With an eye on those billion customers, Riccitiello says that the company is still planning to deliver a broad slate of games, ranging from top-tier titles in best-selling franchises such as "Madden" football and an online version of "Star Wars," to inexpensive games for mobile phones.
"We are producing fewer titles than we used to, but I don't know that I would agree with the idea that you just can try to identify your hits before you launch them, and do nothing but that," he said. "We had the number-one market share in our industry last year, and we had our fair share of hits."
But he added that he found it amusing to think you could focus only on hits, "not being able to know what they are before you start."
EA ended the fiscal year in March with a loss of about $1 billion, after suffering a weak holiday season, and failing to score enough big sellers on the most popular game console system, Nintendo's Wii.
But at the show, EA was optimistic about the coming year. Riccitiello noted that the company will have more games on store shelves for Nintendo's Wii, the top-selling videogame console.
In all, it focused on a dozen coming titles, including the latest version of the blockbuster "Sims" franchise, "The Sims 3," and fresh installments of sports franchises, such as "Fight Night Round 4."
"I feel good about where we are," he said. "I feel great about what we are showing."
68% of US Households Play Computer/Videogames
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
68% of US households play computer games or videogames, an increase of 3% over 2008, according to a report conducted by Ipsos MediaCT on behalf of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a trade group of US game publishers and developers.
The survey also found that 42% of American homes have a videogame console.
The average US game player is 35 years old; adult gamers have been playing for 12 years on average - a decrease from 2008 - indicating that more Americans are now playing games for the first time.
Almost half of all games sold (45%) are rated 'E' for Everyone, and 77% of parents believe that the parental controls available in all recent videogame consoles are useful.
Activision Poised to Become a Billion Dollar Business
Excerpted from MCV Report
Activision Blizzard is poised to become a billion dollar business by 2012.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick claims 23 million people are playing online games with friends today.
During Activision's pre-E3 2009 press conference, Kotick cited the publisher's recent research as proof that "the audience is changing."
"An Activision study found that 12 million people played games online with friends 18 months ago," he said. "Today it's 23 million people. Clearly you can see that gaming has gone from the solitary to the social."
He attributed this growth to new interfaces, such as the company's "Guitar Hero" titles.
Kotick also said the attach-rate for each format is increasing, with the average number of games purchased per console rising by 17% since the previous generation.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Adoption of peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies by games publishers for online distribution of games and delivery of updates is already more advanced than for music or video content.
In many ways, this is not surprising given the relatively high degree of technical sophistication and know-how among games developers in contrast to the norm for other entertainment content production communities that have a substantial legacy dating from the pre-digital era.
Monetization of games file-sharing traffic should also be viewed as a high priority given the scale of this activity and its growth trajectory.
By contrast, for music, as we have discussed here in recent weeks, due to the relative maturity of consumer behavior, a recurring monthly fee to compensate rights-holders for tracks distributed via open file-sharing programs should be introduced at this point as a critical stop-gap measure.
And for video, where online distribution is a much newer phenomenon, a combination of advertising, subscription, and paid-download models can still be introduced - which could mirror established business models for broadcast and cable television as well as home-video.
In the case of games, however, given the higher level of familiarity with and implementation of P2P by rights-holders, timing seems right for an inter-industry initiative focused on advancing and accelerating commercial development of P2P for games.
Gamers represent nearly 70% of the US population and spend over $25 billion annually on gaming.
As with related proposals for other genres of creative works, this P2P-for-games initiative should have carefully defined strategies and tactical components that must be proven workable and attractive to games developers, publishers, and aggregators on one hand, and delivery software investors, distributors, and marketers on the other.
A critical feature must be the enablement of provisioning and integration of user-generated content (UGC) with professionally produced game formats in a wide variety of ways that reflects today's technical capabilities for multiplayer games.
It also needs to be able to accommodate and incentivize delivery platforms including the most promising content delivery network (CDN) solutions that take advantage of P2P technologies, including live P2P streaming and on-demand P2P download technologies to minimize costs and maximize quality and reliability.
The initiative should be focused around developing and disseminating a standardized set of voluntary practices for using P2P technologies to deliver online games and updates that are optimized to provide transparency, control, and value to consumers.
The first area of work should center on developing a written work-product acceptable to key constituencies setting forth a regimen of such optimal procedures for implementing P2P technologies for the delivery of games and updates to end users.
There must be a consumer-centric focus to this effort addressing such critical issues as user resources (e.g., device memory and bandwidth) and customer communications (e.g., clear-and-conspicuous notice and informed consent), among others - and this is why the role of an entity such as the ECA will be so important.
The basic driver for this initiative should be that acceptance of and adherence to a well-developed program of best practices by industry participants will foster acceptance, usage, satisfaction, and trust among games users.
Consumer confidence with respect to the use and deployment of P2P technologies for games will be advanced by demonstrating consideration for users through this initiative's principal directives.
We strongly encourage interested qualified parties from the games and P2P industries to join with us in this historic effort. If enough vendors, games rights-holders, and software developers show interest, the DCIA will facilitate a new working group totally focused on this project.
Please call me at +1-410-476-7965 or e-mail me simply by replying to this DCINFO newsletter mailing with questions or for more information.
I hope to see you this week at the the World Copyright Summit (WCS) here in Washington, DC. WCS is the international forum that brings together all those directly involved in creative industries to openly debate the future of copyright and the distribution of creative works in the digital era.
WCS is organized by CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers and proudly co-sponsored by the DCIA. Share wisely, and take care.
GigaTribe Selected for 2009 French Tech Tour
GigaTribe, the revolutionary free Web 2.0 file-sharing software, was selected to showcase its new P2P Internet file-sharing technology at the third annual French Tech Tour. GigaTribe was one of seventeen French start-ups chosen to demonstrate its new technologies to Silicon Valley leaders.
GigaTribe is a free software community that lets users easily share entire file folders of photos, videos, music, and other unlimited files over the Internet with their "tribes" of friends, family, and coworkers quickly and securely in a private, completely encrypted peer-to-peer environment.
The French Tech Tour '09 competition selects exciting French start-ups to showcase their new technologies to Silicon Valley / Bay Area movers and shakers. Chosen by world leaders in technology (Apple, Cisco, eBay, Google, Intel Capital, Microsoft, and Sony), French company CEOs will be flown to the US for exclusive meetings with potential partners, other start-ups, and VCs. GigaTribe's CEO, Stephane Herry, will demo GigaTribe's Internet file-sharing technology at the French Tech Tour in Menlo Park, CA on Monday, June 8th.
"We are excited to be honored by French Tech Tour '09 for our innovative Web 2.0 technology," said Stephane Herry, CEO, GigaTribe. "GigaTribe's 1,000,000 international community of users show that GigaTribe is the easiest-to-use, lowest-cost, safest way to share large files with friends and coworkers from all over the world."
GigaTribe lets you easily share large file folders with friends with no extra steps needed. Once you select which folders you want to share and with whom, folders are instantly accessible to your friends. In addition, you can add new files or change files at any time. There is no need for any additional steps, no uploading, and no size limitations for instant file sharing.
E3 Expo is Action-Packed Again
Excerpted from LA Times Report by Alex Pham and Ben Fritz
The E3 Expo, which was substantially scaled back in 2007 and 2008, came roaring back this week at the Los Angeles Convention Center, attracting more than 35,000 visitors. For Los Angeles, E3 was the biggest convention so far this year, said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who welcomed the conventioneers Tuesday.
Some Angelenos may remember the videogame confab for its over-the-top spectacles: soldiers rappelling from US Army helicopters, models strutting in thongs and 6-inch heels, skateboarders sailing off half-pipes, and celebrity-soaked parties that were more like three-ring circuses.
But the merriment came to a halt in 2007 when game companies decided enough was enough. The show, which hit peak attendance in 2005 with more than 65,000 attendees, was toned down in 2007 to a stately affair in Santa Monica with an invite-only guest list of about 4,000. It returned to the LA Convention Center last July but was so low-key that some in the industry lamented that it looked like a pipe-fitters convention.
This year, the ESA, the industry-funded group that puts on E3, screened the event's registration to keep out the "fanboys" - people who like to play games but don't work in the game industry. Companies, sobered by the economic recession, spent less money on parties. But there was still enough glam to attract a sizable audience of gawkers and camera crews from major TV networks.
"What we've done is put together a show that is much more reflective of the high octane, high energy, innovation and excitement that is the videogame industry," ESA President Mike Gallagher said.
Game companies are counting on that excitement to help drive sales, while consumers are looking for ways to save money. Avid players plan to maintain their rate of spending on games, but women and older players plan to spend less, citing the bad economy, according to a survey released this week by media consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates.
Please click here for the full report including some of the industry's biggest blockbuster bets for release in the next several months.
Verizon Debuts Cloud Computing Service
Excerpted from Telephony Online Report by Ed Gubbins
Verizon Business unveiled its much-anticipated cloud computing service this week, which the company calls Computing as a Service (CaaS), a deliberate departure from the approach taken by cloud innovators such as Amazon - one that is tailored more for large and mid-sized enterprise customers.
Like other cloud offerings, Verizon's CaaS allows customers to pay for data-center resources such as storage and application hosting dynamically based on the amount of resources they consume. Using a web portal, customers can daily adjust the amount of infrastructure they use, coupling it more tightly with their own usage and demand trends. Using a combination of VMware virtualization technology and its own proprietary code and logic (and employing HP and Red Hat), Verizon has reduced the time it takes to provision blocks of 50-to-100 servers from weeks to minutes.
"With CaaS, we can turn on a physical server as easily as we can turn on a virtual machine," said Patrick Verhoeven, Verizon's Senior Product Manager of IT Solutions. "That's a unique proposition."
Key to Verizon's offering is giving customers a choice between virtual infrastructure (for example, server resources that are distributed among multiple physical servers) and traditional physical infrastructure. Because while virtual servers might make sense for web content and applications, for example, apps with high input and output such as databases and e-mail are best supported with dedicated devices, Verizon said.
Enterprises are likely to want such a mix of physical and virtual machines for the foreseeable future, said Melanie Posey, IDC analyst. "That's going to be the reality for enterprises for quite some time. There's probably not a single enterprise customer on Earth who says, 'Okay, we're shutting down our data centers and throwing away all our servers, and we're going to move everything onto a virtualized cloud infrastructure.'"
"Verizon's approach fits the way enterprises are going to use cloud computing infrastructure, which is very different from the way small businesses or individual software developers or even departments within enterprises are going to use cloud computing infrastructure - for a specific project or workload, not for all of their IT."
CaaS customers will pay a one-time fee of $500 to join Verizon's cloud, then a subscription fee of $250 per month for access to it. And on top of that, they pay for the resources they consume: for computing, the number of servers per day (physical or virtual); for software, the number of central processing units (CPUs) or servers per day (depending on the type of software); for storage and back-ups, the number of gigabytes used per day; and for bandwidth, there are service tiers.
Potential customers are already asking whether they can throttle their bandwidth up and down each day, and Verizon says they hope to add that capability by summer's end.
Verizon's model of basing prices on servers (physical or virtual) is positioned as a simpler alternative to some of the more innovative pricing models - with their attendant new vocabulary, including prices based on computing units called "instances" - that have gotten Amazon and its EC2 cloud offering so much attention. Verizon's model lets customers more easily estimate their costs for any increase in usage based on terms they already know, the company said.
How Cloud Computing Will Change Business
Excerpted from Business Week Report by Steve Hamm
In 1990, in a keynote speech at the Comdex computer conference, Microsoft's then-chief executive, Bill Gates, bolstered his bona fides as a tech visionary when he declared the PC industry would produce advances within a few years that would put information at people's fingertips.
To get there, Gates said, the world needed three things: a more "personal" personal computer, more powerful communications networks, and easy access to a broad range of information. Sometimes visionaries are right on the vision but off on the timing.
Only now is Gates' grand vision finally becoming a reality for businesses. While pieces of what he had in mind have been available for years, they typically were expensive and difficult to set up and use.
Now a more personal PC is here in the form of smart-phones and mini-laptops, and broadband wireless networks make it possible for people to be connected almost anytime and anywhere. At the same time, we're seeing the rise of cloud computing, the vast array of interconnected machines managing the data and software that used to run on PCs.
This combination of mobile and cloud technologies is shaping up to be one of most significant advances in the computing universe in decades.
"The big vision: We're finally getting there," says Donagh Herlihy, Chief Information Officer of Avon Products. "Today, wherever you are, you can connect to all the information you need." Please click here for the full report.
Apple & Google Consider Mobile P2P Tools
Excerpted from Business Week Report by Olga Kharif
These days, downloading software applications for a smart-phone is a breeze. But good luck trying to share that fun game or handy work-productivity tool with someone else. Sure, a handful of apps feature "tell a friend" buttons that let you alert others to an application you found useful, but if they want to check it out for themselves, they'll have to download it or look over your shoulder.
A handful of upgrades from some of the biggest names in mobile software is set to upend the way smart-phone users get and share apps. Apple's new iPhone 3.0 software includes features that, if activated by Apple, may let users share software with one another, according to a person familiar with the technology. Eventually, iPhone users may even get a commission when they've induced someone else to make a purchase, says Richard Doherty, Director at Envisioneering Group.
Separately, a group of software developers led by Google is also considering enabling user-to-user gifting and recommendations through its mobile applications store, Android Market, a person familiar with the plans tells Business Week.
By enlisting cell-phone users to play a role in distribution, these features could dramatically increase sales of apps, music, and movies for cell-phones. As it is, revenue from mobile applications for consumers is expected to exceed $25 billion by 2014, as companies like Microsoft open stores, joining the ranks of existing online marketplaces including Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World, Apple's App Store, and the Android Market, according to consultant Juniper Research. Analysts estimate that sales of these applications added up to less than $1 billion last year.
New viral features will also come in handy amid the proliferation of so-called peer-to-peer or P2P applications, which let people transfer content directly from one phone to the next. P2P is nothing new in the fixed Internet world, where many people use services like BitTorrent to watch each other's movies. But P2P services have been slower to take off on wireless networks.
"P2P is going to have a major impact," says Robert Rosenberg, President of Insight Research.
One example of P2P connectivity will be available in the new iPhone 3.0 software, due this summer. Users will be able to play multiplayer games with one another using Bluetooth connectivity, rather than needing to be on a carrier's network. A player's phone will automatically detect nearby iPhones and iPod touches that run the same app and send them an invitation to join the game. Initially, the feature will work only when both parties already have a particular app.
"Now you can sell copies of your app to two players instead of one," says Dave Howell, a former Apple engineer who now runs P2P file-sharing apps maker Avatron Software. In the future, a player may be able to invite another to a game when the second person does not yet own a particular app. Such invitations could trigger additional purchases.
Increasing use of so-called cloud services, which allow users to share content stored on outside servers, could make user-to-user mobile transactions more common as well. One example is the web-based service Cloudtrade. The Ann Arbor, MI start-up, which is currently in a test phase with 2,000 users in the US, lets cell-phone owners share songs, photos, and applications. Users can browse each other's music libraries and download each other's favorite songs and apps for free, though they have to watch ads. Customers can also include links to content or applications, such as games they liked, in text messages to friends.
Apple Cannot Afford to Ignore Gaming
Excerpted from Macsimum Report by Dennis Sellers
Whether it's a revved up Apple TV with gaming features as some are predicting or my own wished-for revision of the "Mac/Life" GameDock concept, Apple would be foolish to ignore gaming beyond the iPhone/iPod touch.
"This is the new golden age of entertainment software. Our products are now being enjoyed by over two-thirds of Americans," says Michael Gallagher, CEO of the ESA.
"As the findings of the 2009 Essential Facts illustrate, more-and-more Americans across all demographics are now embracing the interactive entertainment experience that computer and video games provide."
In addition, 63% of parents who have children under 18 with a gaming console in the home believe games are a positive part of their children's lives. Those parents are present when games are purchased or rented 92% of the time and report monitoring the games their children play 91% of the time.
Obviously, there's a lot of moolah to be made in gaming. And if 42% of American homes have a game console, that leaves 58% that don't. Wouldn't it be nice if an Apple TV or GameDock/Mac combo captured the attention and dollars of those households?
P2P Users Are Music & Movie Industries' Best Friends
Excerpted from The Inquirer Report by Nick Farrell
A new survey by Vuze, maker of one of the most popular BitTorrent clients, shows that P2P users are actually the movie and music industries' best customers.
According to Ars Technica, while P2P users might share files online that originated from the entertainment industries, they are more likely to spend money on entertainment offline.
Frank Magid Associates conducted the survey, which contacted 693 Vuze users and 606 Internet users, all Americans, aged between 18 and 44.
Apparently these users buy more movie tickets, rent more films, and pay for more DVDs than most people on the worldwide web.
In a typical year, a Vuze user will go to the flicks eight times, whereas the average non-Vuze punter will go out to a movie only six times. A Vuze user will rent nine movies a year, while a non-P2P user will rent only seven.
While Vuze users apparently can infringe every movie in the world, they will buy about 16 DVDs a year. Most Internet users will buy only 13 DVDs.
What is not surprising is that P2P users will not pay for content online. Perhaps that might be because they see their file sharing as a way to try-before-they-buy.
They also do not like any DRM that is placed on content. They would much rather buy a disc without any of that nasty stuff on it.
Game Developers Speak Out Against DRM
Excerpted from Tom's Hardware Guide Report
As any legit PC gamer will tell you, copy protection can sometimes really suck. And now, game developers are starting to agree.
With any digital intellectual property (IP), those who hold the rights will always want to protect their investment. Given the digital nature of the works, however, it's often easy for infringers to copy and redistribute without authorization.
Last year saw a broad spectrum of digital rights management (DRM) usage from games publishers. "Spore" released with some of the most infamously infuriating DRM for gamers, leading some to speculate that gamers purposely infringed the game to send a message to Electronic Arts.
"Spore was the final straw that broke the camel's back," recalls Brad Wardell, President & CEO of Stardock, in a Gamasutra report. "Someone who buys software does not want to be made to feel like a chump for buying it. Much of the outcry came from customers who said that they shouldn't be restricted by DRM, especially since people with infringing versions weren't."
On the other hand, Ubisoft decided to release "Prince of Persia" on PC last year without any DRM whatsoever. Independent game developer 2D Boy also released its critically acclaimed "World of Goo" game without any protection. 2D Boy figures that only 10% of the copies of "World of Goo" are authorized.
Ron Carmel, Co-Founder of 2D Boy, said, "We found 10 times more player IDs and 10 times more IPs out there than there were licenses sold," later adding that he still made money off of "World of Goo."
"I'm convinced that we lost very few customers because of infringement," he says. "People who infringe the game are people who wouldn't have bought it anyway. I don't know anyone who would try to find a cracked version and, if they can't locate one, they say, 'OK, since I can't find it for free, I'm going to go out and buy it.' I just don't think that happens."
Carmel actually argues that DRM isn't just for stopping infringement, but another facet of game sales that publishers are trying to stomp out - the used games market. "Publishers aren't stupid. They know that DRM doesn't work against infringement," he explains. "What they're trying to do is stop people from going to GameStop to buy $50 games for $35, none of which goes into the publishers' pockets. If DRM permits only a few installs, that minimizes the number of times a game can be resold."
Of course, most games stores only sell used console games, not PC games.
Might we be seeing a shift in attitude for game DRM this year? EA has said that it will be releasing "Sims 3" with just serial key protection. BioWare has also said that its "Dragon Age" will be free of online authentication DRM.
W3i Online Media Player Now Powered by RightsFlow
W3i, a provider of marketing solutions that increase revenue, distribution, and engagement for Windows applications and plug-ins, and RightsFlow, a provider of music licensing and royalty services, this week announced the creation of an integrated music marketing platform designed to help artists and labels monetize free music downloads through media support.
"W3i has developed solutions to enable the distribution of free content for over nine years," commented Robert Weber, Vice President of Business Development at W3i. "Our proprietary technology, Install IQ, and W3i's Download Network can help downloadable content providers increase their revenue as well as ensure speed-to-market while utilizing minimal artist resources."
As traditional music business models continue to change, artists and labels are looking for innovative sources of revenue in the digital space. "We are very excited to offer record labels and artists access to the W3i Media Player," said Alex Holz, Director of Client Relations for RightsFlow.
"This system helps artists and labels reach music lovers searching for free music, while still generating revenue from their recordings."
The media-supported initiative involves reaching fans searching for free music and offering DRM-free downloads of unreleased and difficult-to-find digital tracks. The initial rollout features 100 tracks across Rock, Pop, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Latin, Alternative, and Country music genres, including artists such as Say When, Carey Ott, Michael Olatuja, and Drunken Barn Dance.
UGC for Games Becoming the Norm
Excerpted from Gamasutra Report
"Noby Noby/Katamari" creator Keita Takahashi has been discussing the rise of user-generated content (UGC) in games like "LittleBigPlanet," praising it but cautioning on players' levels that copy other games as "not really... creation."
The comments came as part of a Gamasutra interview in which the Namco Bandai designer discussed his work so far, aided by a packet of markers and a pad of drawing paper that we brought to the famously recalcitrant creator's interview to help inspire him.
The UGC comments came as part of the following subsection of the interview:
Christian Nutt: A game like "LittleBigPlanet" that allows people to actually contribute back to the game - is that something that you find interesting?
Keita Takahashi: I find that somewhat interesting.
Mathew Kumar: Do you think that would be something you'd want to do in the future - give people the opportunity to create things for other people within the spaces you create in games?
KT: User-created content is somewhat becoming almost a norm, so I do believe that's the direction that I would end up going.
CN: Do you think that there's a different approach that could be taken towards it that's maybe not so... People in "LittleBigPlanet" are creating levels; it's involved. People can't all contribute; it limits the audience to an extent. Do you think there's a better way for fans to collaborate?
KT: I do believe that contributing by creating levels is very challenging for many people, and I do believe, yes, that something that would be easier for people to collaborate and create fun together - that's something that I definitely want. But a question to that question would be, how is that being accepted by the user community for "LittleBigPlanet?"
CN: I think it's being accepted quite well, in terms of a lot of people contributing.
MK: One of the things that I noticed about "LittleBigPlanet" is that most people want to remake other games' levels. Do you think that people within the games industry and also people that play games concentrate too much on games' histories rather than looking at films or art - or parks, for example?
KT: I can't quite put the thought together, but the thing that I don't like about how those games are is that you provide an environment where the players can create their own content, but at the end what do you get? You basically have people just copying what they saw on some other media, and that's something that you cannot really call creation. So that's what bothers me a bit."
Nielsen Hugely Underestimates BitTorrent Traffic
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
BitTorrent's user base is growing month-by-month and has reached a level where reputable marketing research companies have started to look into the phenomenon.
Over the years, Nielsen Media has optimized its ratings system for television, radio, and films - but, on the other hand, its BitTorrent traffic estimates have been far from accurate. Nielsen, one of the largest market research companies worldwide is probably best known for its TV-show ratings in the US.
However, it's also looking into less old-fashioned media outlets such as BitTorrent. Most recently, it says it has found an interesting trend in Australia.
"Total visits by Australians to BitTorrent websites including Mininova, The Pirate Bay (TPB), isoHunt, TorrentReactor, and Torrentz grew from 785,000 in April last year to 1,049,000 in April this year, Nielsen says. This is a year-on-year increase of 33.6%," The Age wrote a few days ago.
This may sound like a lot of traffic, but since Nielsen reports the number of visits and not the unique visitors, we expected it to be much higher. Luckily, Mininova was kind enough to give us some insight into its statistics so we could check how accurate Nielsen's estimates are. The results are quite a shock.
When we look at the statistics of Mininova alone, we see that the site had 6,268,969 Aussie visits in April and a massive 33,162,846 Aussie page views. Compared to the same month in 2008 (4,144,556 visits), this is an increase of more than 50%.
So, the Australian visitors to Mininova alone are already 600% higher than Nielsen's estimates of the total traffic to Mininova, The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, TorrentReactor, and Torrentz. Unfortunately, we don't have any details on the methodology or sample Nielsen used, but it's certainly not very representative.
Perhaps even more worrying, The Age attributes the surge in traffic to the economic downturn, without providing any evidence for a causal relationship between the two events. Over the past five years, most BitTorrent sites have seen huge traffic increases every year when the economy was in an upswing.
In Australia, BitTorrent is especially popular among those who want to catch up on US television shows that appear months or years later on TV down-under.
A Brief History of Downloadable Console Games
Excerpted from CNET News Report by Josh Lowensohn
At this year's E3 in Los Angeles, both Sony and Microsoft pushed upcoming services and devices that allow users to download full games to their hardware. For Microsoft, it's a new arm of its online marketplace that will let gamers download full retail games to their system's hard drives. For Sony, it's the new PSP Go, a slimmed-down version of its flagship portable gaming hardware that does away with its game-slot in place of pushing Wi-Fi game downloads to its 16GB of built-in memory.
Both companies are pushing direct downloads as the premiere way to buy new games, and many are expecting the direct-downloading technology to be one of the main selling points in the next generation of gaming hardware. As a side effect, the new revenue model largely cuts out used-game retailers, since there's less physical media to resell or swap with friends.
But let's get real for a moment, this is nothing new. In fact, game companies have been trying to get direct-download games working on consoles since the early 1980s. For a brief look at previous efforts to sell console games without any physical media, please click here.
New Sport Games Coming in 2009 & 2010
Excerpted from Bristol Press Report by James Drzewiecki
Here's a list of some of the more anticipated sport games that are looking toward a 2009 or 2010 release date.
First on the list is "Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage." This is a sequel to the 2008 game and will follow Shaun White and his friends as they go from chasing the freshest powder to competing against the snowboarding world's best.
Moving over to the basketball court are two NBA games that are worth mentioning. The first one is, of course, the yearly product from 2K Sports and that's "NBA 2K10." They will continue to build on their franchise this year to deliver the best possible NBA game. Little is known yet about this title.
"NBA Unrivaled" will sport an old-school look-and-feel that will make you think you're playing a classic arcade game. But with its contemporary retro design it will be still played smoothly with this generation of high-definition (HD) gaming.
Jumping onto the golf course we turn our attention to "Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online," not to be confused with "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10." This online game is going to be able to stream from your computer without game installation or a disc, so if you have an Internet connection you are ready to go.
You will have several world-class championship courses, which include Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and TPC Sawgrass. The whole idea of this game is to get Tiger Woods fans and golf fans connected. As the community grows new things will become available such as items in the pro shop, course additions, and new tournament conditions.
Now, here is the one that a lot of people are excited about: "Gran Turismo 5." This version offers online racing, new tracks, a new physics engine, a new in-cockpit view, HD support, and other things that have not been mentioned yet.
Here are some other games that have been announced: "EA Sports MMA," "FIFA Soccer 10," "NCAA Football 10," "Madden NFL 10," "Tony Hawk: Ride," "Blur," "Tecmo Bowl," "Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games," "Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing," "The Bigs 2," "Yoga," "Golf Training," and "Kids Sports: Crazy Mini Golf".
Tackling Business Problems with Online Games
Excerpted from CNN Report by Mark Tutton
Picture this: You work for a racing car company that needs to raise $18 million in sponsorship. Do you go with a reliable sponsor that can only offer part of that sum, or take the full $18 million from a company getting bad press for selling arms to a Middle Eastern country?
That's the scenario of "Eagle Racing," a video-based business simulation designed to teach collaborative decision making.
It was developed at the Center for Advanced Learning Technologies (CALT), run by business school Insead, and it's an example of the kind of simulation used by business schools and companies wanting employees to hone their business acumen.
Realistic simulations can teach general skills, like decision making, or allow participants to try their hand at all manner of specific business disciplines, be it finance, accounting, marketing, or human resources.
Dr. Annette Halpin is Vice President of the US-based Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning (ABSEL), and Chair of Business/Health Administration and Economics at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. She says that computer-based business simulations are now widely used on MBA courses.
But simulations aren't only used by business schools - they are equally in demand with companies wanting to arm employees with new skills.
Professor Albert Angehrn works at CALT, in Paris, where he develops interactive technology for management training. The simulations developed at CALT are widely used in business schools and by companies including IBM and BMW.
"Simulations are seen as an important component of management development because they put people directly into a scenario, and that means there is stress and emotion," he says.
The Internet has revolutionized the way business simulations are used. Where an administrator once had to manually input the participants' in-game decisions into a computer, users can now input their own decisions online. Online simulations allow employees from different companies to take part in the same simulation and can add an extra dimension to online MBA courses.
Angehrn says there is a trend towards "massive" online simulations that allow hundreds of users to simultaneously participate in a scenario. He says these are popular with big organizations, such as IKEA, that want to rapidly increase know-how across the company.
As for the future, Halpin thinks that business simulations will become more immersive, incorporating the visual elements of virtual worlds like "Second Life." That could provide an even more realistic experience, and if the old adage is to be believed, experience is the best teacher.
Sequoia Puts $4.1 Million into GameGround
Excerpted from Washington Post Report by Jason Kincaid
Israeli gaming company GameGround has closed a $4.1 million funding round from Sequoia Capital. The company had previously raised a $2 million seed round from a number of angel investors and founders.
For now, we don't really know much about GameGround other than the team behind it. It was founded in 2007 by Shaul Olmert (formerly of MTV), Guy Margolin (formerly of 888.com, and Itzik Ben-Bassat (formerly of highly regarded game development studio Blizzard, where he was VP of Business Development and worked on integration with Internet services).
While Ben-Bassat, who serves as GameGround Chairman, wouldn't get into specifics, he says that GameGround is looking to expand how far the Internet ties into computer games.
For now, the company isn't actually making any games. It's making a special agent for Mac and PC that can work with existing games to expand their online functionality, even after they're released.
At this point exactly what can be done with the agent is unclear, but I suspect it will allow gamers to distribute high scores and milestones to their social networks, and perhaps use their social graphs to connect you with their friends in-game. Apparently these features will be integrated with the games in an "automatic way," presumably with little, if any, work needed on the developer's side.
Here's how the company describes itself on its website:
For you, gaming is more than a mild diversion. It's a way of life. And soon, life is going to get a whole lot more exciting. Introducing GameGround, an all-new personalized gaming center built around advanced technologies that aggregate all your web-wide gaming activities into a single online destination.
At the heart of GameGround is a powerful yet simple-to-use Personalized Command Center (PCC) that gives you total control over every facet of your gaming experience.
From this console, you'll have the ability to tap into comprehensive, never-before-existing data for any game you play, no matter where on the web you play it, no matter who you play against. This is an unprecedented innovation that simply cannot be found anywhere else in the world of gaming!
Hilary Rosen Slams Licensing Sluggishness
Excerpted from Music Ally Report
Billboard has an interesting Q&A with former RIAA boss Hilary Rosen, tying in with the tenth anniversary of Napster. She's got some sharp words for the industry's reaction in recent years.
"There's been this time period between 2002 and 2006, maybe 2007, when there just weren't enough deals done," she says. "There were so many innovative ways to deliver music and not a lot of licensing support from the music business. That's not just the record companies, the music publishers have been really brought kicking to the table."
And there's more: "The one lesson the industry did not learn after Napster was speed. When you're talking about technology, you have to move quickly on opportunities."
It could be argued that many elements within the music industry still haven't taken this lesson on board.
Assessing Napster - Ten Years Later
Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle Report by Benny Evangelista
When 18-year-old Shawn Fanning released his Napster file-sharing program on the Internet 10 years ago this month, little did he know he was unleashing a digital revolution that would continue today.
The teen simply saw a better way to share good music among friends. But within months, millions of people around the world were hooked.
Although the original Napster was buried long ago by a copyright-infringement lawsuit, the program hastened the Internet's role in becoming a primary conduit for digital entertainment. It also dragged traditional media companies into a new era of changing consumer habits.
"It probably was the single most important event as far as media consumption on the Internet is concerned," said Phil Leigh, an Internet media analyst. "It was a real epiphany that computers were going to be more than just document-creation devices. They were going to be entertainment appliances as well."
Napster also introduced to the mainstream the idea of an "almost infinite library" of online digital content. "That was a concept that was never really imagined before," said Leigh, Founder and Senior Analyst at Inside Digital Media, a FL-based media consultancy firm. "That was a radical shift in thinking from having to go to a Virgin superstore to buy music to having an almost infinite number of Virgin superstores at your desktop."
Napster helped change the mind-set of a generation that now sees digital forms of all media, from music to newspapers, as more convenient, said Mike McGuire, Research Director for Gartner Industries' Media Team.
"You can argue that everything that happened since has been a reaction to Napster," he said. "What did Napster give everyone in the world? It gave them a frictionless, convenient way to get content. Ten years later, at the heart of it, we're still wrestling with the physical-to-digital transition."
In 1999, music fans mainly listened to pre-recorded CDs on disc players - portable MP3 players were still largely unknown. But for a groundswell of tech-savvy music fans, a new audio format had already taken hold - the digital MP3.
Fanning was a student at Northeastern University in Boston, MA when he had the idea for a computer program that would make sharing MP3s easier by allowing users to see a directory of songs stored on other members' computers. He called it Napster, stemming from a nickname he once received for his nappy haircut. After months writing the program, he released it to a group of about 150 friends and Internet Relay Chat acquaintances.
Napster's fame spread by word of mouth, and it soon had 10,000 to 15,000 users. But once the program was featured on CNET's Download.com site, the number of users soared into the millions. Please click here for the full report.
Six Months Later, No ISPs Have Joined Infringement Fight
Excerpted from CNET News Report by Greg Sandoval
Last December, the music industry's message to songwriters, publishers, and musicians was that copyright infringement help was on the way. Hopes soared after the major labels announced that they had convinced a group of telecoms to work with them.
Filing lawsuits against individuals accused of unauthorized file sharing was, for the most part, a thing of the past, said the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group representing the top music companies. The new strategy was to enlist Internet service providers (ISPs), the gatekeepers of the web, to issue a series of warnings meant to increase pressure on alleged infringers in what the RIAA called a "graduated response." Under the plan, those subscribers who refused to heed warnings could eventually see their web connection suspended.
Six months later, the music industry is still waiting to hear from the RIAA which ISPs have explicitly agreed to work with the association. When the RIAA first announced its new project, it didn't name partners. Behind the scenes, industry insiders assured the media that the group would disclose the names of partner ISPs "within weeks."
Six months later, however, not one ISP has publicly acknowledged working with the RIAA on a "graduated response."
That there are still no announced deals - and there's no guarantee the RIAA can sign any of the major broadband companies - indicates that at best the big recording companies may have spoken too soon when they said broadband providers would help, says one ISP executive. Ironically, at a time when many figured the RIAA had finally hit upon a compelling way to go after music infringement, the association's copyright protection efforts may be more toothless than ever.
"The RIAA has tried various ways to turn ISPs and other intermediaries into their own Internet cops," said Cindy Cohn, Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an advocacy group for Internet users. "What the ISPs appear to be saying is that this isn't our job."
To be sure, the RIAA continues to pitch its plan to ISPs, numerous sources have told CNET News. AT&T has launched tests of a graduated response - everything, that is, but service interruption. The telecom said it would never shut off a customer's service without a court order. The recording companies may soon announce some kind of agreement with one of the ISP trade groups. But this won't bind the group's members and the RIAA will still need to strike deals with individual companies.
"We have been working slowly but surely, directly, and through the offices of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, with virtually every major ISP on common approaches," said Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman. "During the past six months, a number of different ISPs have forwarded nearly half a million RIAA notices to P2P infringers. They had not done that before last winter. A number of individual ISPs now argue that notices alone are proving to have a sufficient deterrent impact."
What the RIAA seems to be suggesting here is that it doesn't need a threat of service termination for a graduated response to be effective. This, however, conflicts with what music executives say in private. They want a carrot and stick approach. They know they have to offer the public inexpensive and easy-to-use alternatives to unauthorized file sharing. They also believe chronic abusers won't stop without the threat of a serious punitive consequence.
So, why did the RIAA announce the ISP-based program without any ISPs on board so many months ago? Please click here for the full report.
UK Scraps Three-Strikes Plan
Excerpted from DSLreports Report
This week, we noted how the RIAA's having a hard time getting US Internet service providers (ISPs) to sign up voluntarily to play copyright cops - booting heavy P2P users from their networks.
In many countries, the entertainment industry's next course of action has been to lobby for laws forcing the ISPs to play along.
While that's worked well in France, plans to force UK ISPs to play copyright nanny haven't been going quite so well (via Techdirt).
The government has all but ruled out a "graduated response" approach, instead stating they'll use undefined "technical solutions" as a deterrent to heavy P2P users.
That may not be a whole lot better, particularly if it involves ISPs who've cheaped out on infrastructure upgrades to placate investors advertising 8Mbps connections really run at 896kbps.
Coming Events of Interest
World Copyright Summit - June 9th-10th in Washington, DC. The international forum that brings together all those directly involved in creative industries to openly debate the future of copyright and the distribution of creative works in the digital era. WCS is organized by CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.
Digital Media Conference - June 25th in Tysons Corner, VA. With 500+ participants, DMC at the Ritz-Carlton attracts the best and brightest from the Washington, DC region and beyond for a packed day of in-depth discussions and networking focused on the the business issues impacting digital media companies.
Structure 09 - June 25th in San Francisco, CA. A world-class roster of speakers break down how to put cloud computing to work. Cloud computing's movers and shakers go beyond theory to discuss how they have leveraged cloud computing in their businesses.
PopKomm - September 16th-18th in Berlin, Germany. With more than 843 exhibitors from 52 countries, PopKomm is one of the leading international conferences and expos for the music and entertainment businesses worldwide.
New York Games Conference - September 30th in New York, NY. Join games industry leaders - including leading video game publishers and developers, carriers, portals, technology companies, advertising execs, venture capitalists, lawyers, analysts, and many more.
Digital Hollywood Fall - October 19th-22nd in Santa Monica, CA. With many new sessions and feature events, DHF has become the premiere digital entertainment conference and exposition. DCIA Member companies will exhibit and speak on a number of panels.
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