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Is Sony Playing a Dangerous Game with PS3 Customers?
The recent outage that crippled PlayStation 3 consoles for millions of gamers didn’t seem to faze Sony management very much. While frustrated players tried to figure out why their systems wouldn’t work — losing time, trophies and tempers — Sony’s response was lackadaisical. Sony apparently doesn’t understand that we’re now living in a social universe, and the balance of power between companies and customers has shifted.
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Atari.com Promotion Causes Galaxy-Sized Uproar among Star Trek Online Community
A red alert was sounded among the community for the fledgling Star Trek Online over the weekend, as word got out of a special Atari.com promotion.
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Sony Subsumes Media Molecule
When Media Molecule was first unveiled more than three years ago, the upstart development studio already had an exclusive relationship with Sony. The electronics giant formalized that exclusivity, announcing that it has acquired Media Molecule.
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Activision Forms Call of Duty Business Unit
Following the events of yesterday’s Infinity Ward firings, Activision formed a new business unit dedicated to producing one new Call of Duty game annually. Their first announced game that we didn’t already know about is a 2011 Call of Duty game in development at the newly formed Sledgehammer Games.
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WiiWare, Virtual Console Sales Exposed
The three console manufacturers (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) all tend to be cagey when it comes to releasing sales data for their digital distribution platforms. But research firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment released its own estimations on the revenue Nintendo collected last year from WiiWare and Virtual Console sales. According to FADE, the two services combined generated $125 million in revenue for Nintendo. WiiWare earned $59 million and Virtual Console earned slightly more with $66 million.
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En Masse Entertainment Debuts as New MMO Game Company
En Masse Entertainment, a new breed of game publisher specializing in bringing globally renowned online properties to Western audiences, has announced its company formation.
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How Dundee Became a World Gaming Hub
The UK government is investing £2.5m in a video games centre at Abertay University, Dundee. There are more than a dozen gaming companies based in the city. How did it become such a hub for the industry?
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Last.fm, Microsoft Sound Off on Xbox Live Partnership
During its E3 2009 press conference, Microsoft announced partnerships with a number of high-profile online services such as Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm. The former two sites dominate online microblogging and social networking, while the latter offers Internet radio services based on users’ artist preferences.
Microsoft is finally rolling out these services to the Xbox 360 today, and GameSpot UK attended the Xbox Collectives event in Central London last night to cover the launch. During the event, editors spoke with Last.fm chief financial officer and chief digital officer Ryan Regan and Xbox Live UK and Ireland marketing manager James Houlton to find out what the introduction of the streaming all means for Xbox users, and future plans for Last.fm and Xbox Live.
See the story here and discuss it in the forum.
Eutechnyx Shows the Value of Self-Help
“We’ll see some more good companies go to the wall purely as a result of chronic bank support, which in turn will limit our ability to climb out of this recession quickly,” explains Eutechnyx founder Darren Jobling.
Eutechnyx is one of the myriad of companies that have sprung up across the country over the past two decades and made the UK the world’s third most successful developer of video games.
See the story here and discuss it in the forum.
The Corporate Gaming Generation
There is an underground revolution sweeping through the corporate sector. The Gamer generation are here and if they aren’t already changing your organisation…they will soon. Generation X is the first generation to grow up with computer games rather than with board games as a means of entertainment. As the Millennials follow Generation X into the workplace the recreation habits of these groups are changing the way they do business.
There are numerous implications for business but they can be simplified into two generic areas; the impact on organisational structures and culture, and the impact on the way we lead, manage and train. Gamers bring critical skills and perspectives to companies that are operating in a quickly changing reality.