MTV Networks Expands Further Into The Gaming Domain

Online gaming software and community services provider Xfire has been acquired by Viacom in a $102 million deal which will see the firm and its four million registered users joining the MTV Networks group of properties.

The deal, which is to be conducted in cash, was announced last night - and is the latest in a series of aggressive moves into the games space on the part of MTV Networks and its parent company, Viacom.

Xfire is a PC focused set of online gaming tools and community services, including Xbox Live style buddy lists, in-game messaging and voice chat, as well as more complex features such as stat tracking and the ability to join games your friends are participating in with a single click.

The software, which is free to download and supported by advertising revenue, recently topped four million registered users - a million of whom are active, and clock up an average of 91 hours each per month, with an average session length of over three hours.

As part of the MTV Networks group, the company hopes to be able to significantly increase its advertising revenues - and Viacom's statement on the purchase promises "more aggressive marketing, greater global penetration and comprehensive integration with the company's other digital and cable properties that address the gaming demographic."

"On both a strategic and an economic level, this is a terrific deal for Viacom," according to Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston. "Xfire is far and away the leading PC gaming communications and community platform, has outstanding management, and is a perfect fit with our growing digital businesses at MTV Networks. It's a bull's eye against our young audiences, and meets our strict financial targets."

Among MTV Networks' other game-focused properties are the Neopets franchise and the recently launched GameTrailers.com video site, which the company claims are part of a wider strategy to address multiple sectors including music, games, entertainment, news and networking for its targeted audiences.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

This shows how companies are latching onto the popularity of gaming.

The Mobile Games Industry

It has been announced today that the "mobile industry has hit a wall" as "Under-investment in customer satisfaction is undermining success."

"Every time we promote and feature something that is of low quality, and deliver a bad user experience, we've lost them forever to the ecosystem."

In an interview, Jason Speron of Digital Chocolate, told mobileindustry.biz that the inustry was churning out too many poorly created games that were putting off users and loosing customers.

Dan Gilmore Returns...

Another feature on the BBC website in relation to blogging and citizen journalism.

Theres not much to say about it - except that its a direct follow on from the last one I posted about.

Here it is...

And if you missed the first one...

Games Technology: Digital Distribution

Illegally, anything has been available on the internet to download for years but it has only been recently that the various industries have reacted to this piracy through Digital Distribution.

It began with iTunes and music with games following shortly behind with the release of Half Life 2 in November of 2004 (Legal film downloads have also just been announced). Since then Steam, the digital distribution system created by Valve, has released countless games. Some of these have only been available through Steam making them the first true 'Digitally distrubted games'. Games are currently priced between $19.95 to $24.95 (£11 to £14) on Steam making them much cheaper than the boxed retail units you'd buy at a shop.

Steam is currently the only major, and successful, distribution service and considering this is an untested service (distributing files of this size) its all going well with only a few hiccups. Games purchased through Steam are installed off of a Steam Content Server minimising the file size. Informationthat the game has been purchased is stored on the users account. This enables the user to install the game via the internet on any other computer - but it is only accessible through that users account.

The systems not 100% secure or perfect but its well on the way in a new and un-tested technology. This can only go from strenght to strength.

Related Links

Steam Website

Games Show How Sleep Affects Long-term Memory

Studies of the brain using the video game Duke Nukem (3D Realms, 1996) have
shown how sleep effects long-term memory.

The team conducting the experiment "used MRI scans to see how the volunteers
stored spatial information from the game" and found that sleep deprived gamers
re-called information from a different part of the brain to those who slept.

The team set the volunteers the challenge of finding their way to a location in
an in game city whilst mapping their brains with MRI. After being given time to
familiarise themselves with the terrain they were split into two groups: those
who were allowed to get a good nights sleep and those who weren't.

"Scans showed that the 'hippocampus', an area of the brain known to be involved
in memory and direction, was most active when the gamers had to retrieve
memories to reach their destination."

On the second and third nights, both groups were allowed to get a good nights
sleep. The team then asked the volunteers to do the same test again.

"The researchers found that the group who had slept recalled information from an
area of the brain known as the 'striatum'."

"Storing the memories in the 'striatum' allowed them to make automatic decisions
about the direction they had to travel. The sleep-deprived gamers, who still
relied on the 'hippocampus', had to think harder about their virtual
navigation."

The researchers wrote that "the work shows that sleep trains the brain and
promotes memory reorganisation from the hippocampus to the striatum, meaning
that navigation becomes more automatic."

"It looks like sleep accelerates this normal process. It looks like the memories
are reprocessed during sleep." said Mr Oban.

The team said its work also shed light on how we navigate the real world.

"If you move to a new town, you have to think about where you are going," said
Pierre Orban of Liege University in Belgium, one of the authors on the paper.

"But with time, once you know the city, you don't have to think about your route anymore."

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Stories like this show how games are helping researchers understand the brain and how it works. Its a step in the right direction as it presents games in a different light and shows that they're not just a hobby of adolescent males.

GamePolitics.com - Where Politics & Video Games Collide

This is one part of a couple of posts im going to do about the Issues of Gaming and how politicians are responding.

The website, Game Politics, is a useful tool when you want to find some information on politics and gaming. On the front page theres your general game industry related news. It highlights contreversial points, the good news, news from the industry & how things are effected by various topics.

The main feature on the site though is 'Legislation Watch'. Its a world map featuring all of the legislation politicians accross the globe are trying to put through that are related to video games. The map even comes with a colour coded key so you can see whats current, in efffect, defeated etc.

If you look at the map you can see that 34 of the 36 attempts to change the law in realtion to video games have occured in the USA. The other two are in Europe (One in Poland, and the second in the United Kingdom).

As well as the useful map theres also a Game Politics Podcast. Its released irregualry but its as useful as the rest of the site. In the podcast Dennis McCauley, the founder of Game Politics, talks about current issues within the gaming industry. The second podcast included a lenghty interview with one of the leading, and most contreversial, game critics in the USA, Jack Thompson.

In my view the site is an invaluable resource. It allows everyone to find out whats happening across the globe and to see whats truely going on at the heart of these debates and its use of Google Maps (for the Legislation Watch) and podcast technology truely make it stand out.

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Related Links:

The Game Politics Website
Google Maps
The US PC Gamer podcast - Its a useful weekly podcast that deals with games, industry news and politcs related issues.

Technology: PS3 European Price Revelation

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) France president, George Fornay, has revealed that the PlayStation 3 will be sold for between 500 and 600 Euro (£350-420) when it launches in November.

Whilst justifying the hefty price tag Fornay said that "the inclusion of Blu-Ray and HD functionality justifies the expense of the console". He went onto mention that the PS3 will be relativly cheap in comparison to devices offering similar media functionality.

There are fears the PS3 wont be a success at launch. All though the price announced by Fornay is lower than analysts predicted its still more expensive than the XBOX 360 and will be the most expensive gaming device on the market at its launch. This is sure to put comsumers off and could see the PS3 being a 'Christmas flop'.

The full pricing information for the PS3 isn't expected to be officially announced until Sony's pre-E3 conference on May 9th, at the very earliest. However there are some who believe that Sony will hold out until nearer the November launch date in anticipation of the predicted 'pre-Christmas price drop' of the XBOX 360.

Blogs: Blogger up for non-fiction award

This is another article from the BBC Technology website about blogs - however this one is slightly different. Instead of providing an overview on them this one is an actual news story about a blog by an annoymous young women in war-torn Iraq. Her blog has been "longlisted for BBC Four's Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction".

"Baghdad Burning" is in competition for the £30,000 prize with 19 other hopefulls. The winner will be announced on the 14th June.

Related Links

BBC Technology Website
Baghdad Burning Blog

Blogs: What the BBC Have To Say

Here are two articles from the BBC News Website.

BBC - Technology - This first is a series of responses by Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media, to e-mails from readers.

BBC - The Magazine - The second is 'The Magazine's' review of blogs , written by Alan Connor.

BAFTA's New Approach to Gaming

“Video Games Are As Important As Film and Television” – BAFTA

On the 8th March the British Academy of Film and Televisio (BAFTA) officially recognised the growing importance of video games.

In 2005 the UK spent a record breaking £1.35 million on games, making it the fastest growing entertainment medium. The PC was responsible for around 29% of the £1.35 million with continuing rises in unit sales. It’s partly because of this popularity that the BAFTA’s officially announced video games as their “third arm”.

With the announcement the BAFTA Games Committee was formed. The committee is made up of representatives from the largest publishers, developers and trade associations. This includes ELSPA, TIGA, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, EA, Ubisoft and many more. (A full list can be found at the end.) This organisation would appear to perfect then to judge games, set the benchmarks and encourage new and creative experiences.

Phil Jackson, head of the BAFTA Games committee, commented “BAFTA’s move to give video games equal status with film and television reflects games’ contribution to artistic innovation and new forms of story-telling.”

BAFTA’s chairman, Duncan Kenworthy, says “The British Academy Video Games Awards”, taking place at the end of the London Games Festival, “are a key part of our strategy to define, articulate and reward excellence in the sector, to the benefit of those who create games and those who play them”.


Full list of BAFTA Games committee members:

John Broomhall – Broomhall Projects Ltd
Ian Baverstock – Kuju / TIGA
Michael Cassius
John Chasey – Infospace
Rob Cooper – Ubisoft
Grant Dean – Timiani Ltd
Fred Hasson – TIGA
Mike Hayes – Sega
Paul Jackson – EA
Miles Jacobson – SI Games
Julian Jones – Ideaworks 3d
Sean Kelly – SCEE
David Lau Key - Renderware
Ian Livingstone – Eidos
Ray Maguire – SCEE
Sanjay Mistry – EA
Peter Molyneux OBE – Lionhead
Michael Rawlinson – ELSPA
Adam Roberts – Vivendi Universal Games
Jez San OBE
Luke Valentine – Eidos
Roger Walkden – Activision
Tim Wapshott – The Times

Dell Buy Alienware

Alienware, founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalex & Alex Aguila, has become Dell's major in-road into the computer gaming market.

Alienware's established brandname and expertise in the field mean that Dell won't have to continue spending millions on advertising campaigns trying to keep up with their latest 'purchase'.

Dell have not disclosed the finacial terms of the deal but it is more than likely to be worth the cost as Alienware is expected to have a turnover of £128m this year alone.

Article Related Links

www.alienware.com
www.dell.com

Push and Pull Media

Push media is media that is 'pushed' upon you. You have no control over its content. Examples include terrestrial TV and games. Both offer little choice in what you can do.

Pull media is media is media that you have a degree of control over. An example of this is the Internet. You can pick what information you want to get and find it yourself.

Today people value choice and want to be able to do things when they want to. That is why most NMT's lean towards being 'pull media technoliges'. An example of this is that in 2007 you will only be able to watch digital TV. This is because the analouge signal is going to be switched off.