Posts Tagged ‘scea’

2010 E3 – it’s all about Sony (so far)

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

While the E3 industry trade show and event is only in it’s second day, it looks like Sony Computer Entertainment is leading the charge out of the gate with a ton of announcements.  Let’s dive right in….

3D

SFM066LOGOLet the 3D gaming wars begin! Sony officially announced their commitment to Stereoscopic 3D at the E3 yesterday. Some of their hottest titles including MLB® 10 The Show, MotorStorm®: Apocalypse, Killzone® 3, The Sly Collection, and Gran Turismo®5 will be available in this new format. Where Sony holds the upper hand in this, sure to be developed my the other major platforms very soon, card game lies in the fact that the 35.7 million PS3s around the world can already play 3D stereoscopic content as of a firmware update that went out in April of 2010. Four titles: PAIN, MotorStorm® Pacific Rift, Super Stardust™ HD and WipEout® HD are already available for 3D consumption via the PlayStation Network.

Move

Mark your calendars, September 19th will be the day that Nintendo lost it’s monopoly on motion based gaming controllers. Sony stamped the date on their anticipated Move controller yesterday. Sony is offering up three different pricing/packaging options: a Move/Eye/Sports Champions bundle for $99.99, a PS3 console, Move/Eye/Sports Champions bundle available for $399.99, and a standalone Move for $49.99. Additionally, Sony announced the Move navigation controller which is used alongside the Move for intuitive in-game navigation (can you say nun chuck?). Sony already has 15 Move approved titles ready to go for launch, with 40 more in the pipeline projected for a holiday season 2010 release.

Subscription plus

Now joining the ranks similar to the Xbox 360 style of online gaming, Sony has announced their PlayStationPlus subscription package. Hitting a PS3 near you on June 29th, the PlayStationPlus package will offer users:

  • Full game trial*3 – Members will have access to full versions of designated PS3® and PlayStation Network titles including PS one® Archives (PS one® Classics). The titles on offer will be available for download on PlayStation Store for a stated period and change every month. Members will be able to play the full version of the game for a designated period and even after the trial period expires, users will be able to continue playing the game by purchasing the game on-line*4.
  • Games – Member will be able to play the full version of designated PS3 downloadable and PlayStation Network titles including PS one Archives (PS one Classics) and minis*5 with no limit of time as long as membership is effective. These games will become available exclusively for PlayStation Plus members at no extra cost.
  • Special content – Content such as avatars and custom themes many of which are exclusive will become available for PlayStation Plus members at no extra cost.
  • Discounts – Members will have access to exclusive discounts on designated PS3 and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) titles. Titles will vary every month on PlayStation Store.
  • Early access – Members will have early access to designated new game beta trials, game demos and video content prior to public distribution.
  • Automatic content downloads and updates – PS3 will automatically download and install designated game demos and game updates and also download the system software update data*6. PS3 will automatically start up at a designated time to download content and will turn off after the download has completed.

Sound

SCE announced that they’ll be releasing an all-in-one subwoofer included surround sound system for the PS3 this fall. Priced at $199, this audio solution seeks to immerse players in a rich digital audio system that includes the upcoming Move based titles. The speaker system taps elements from Sony’s high end audio department including the S-Force PRO front surround sound that produces surround sound from only a single front speaker.

50 Million PlayStation accounts

And last but certainly not least, and a cherry on top of the Sony sundae, they’ve recently surpassed 50 million registered accounts worldwide as of June 14th. Accounts come from over 58 countries around the world, and Sony has racked this number up in just 3 years and 8 months.

Not a bad showing for Sony at this year’s E3.

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Google going gaming?

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Back in July Google took it’s ‘Second Life’ competitor product ‘Google Lively’ out of barn and brought it out into the light of day.  Back in March of 2007 the king of search acquired Adscape for a cool $23 Million.  Putting two and two together here, it’s easy to see that Lively could very well be a testing ground for a Google in-game advertising network.

As with a number of other Google properties, these two seem to be right back where they started from: on the shelf.  Sure Lively is public and anyone can join and ‘play’, but is anyone?  After the initial hype and marketing push, active users on the platform remain sparse.  I’ll admit that I gave it a go briefly after the initial launch, found myself in some deserted and creepy ghost town areas, and haven’t been back since.  Likewise, Adscape has been eerily quiet since the acquisition.  Kind of like a sleeping tiger, or is it more like the crouching tiger?

Chris Morris at Forbes.com recently published an article concerning Google’s increasing look at further monetization via in-game advertising.

“The way Google works is they try a lot of different things, and they’re OK with putting out sub-par products initially to get things moving,” says Colin Sebastian, senior vice president of equity research at Lazard Capital Markets. “People are pretty forgiving of that … since they’re good at upgrading their products.”

“Given all the employees they have and the company’s policy of encouraging side projects, I would be very surprised if there wasn’t somebody in Google who’s not approaching [gaming] as an opportunity,” Sebastian says. “Of course, there are a number of hurdles that have to be cleared before it reaches the outside world.”

Google’s Dean of Games, Bernie Stolar, formerly from SCEA and Sega stated back in July 2007 that the big G was interested solely in the advertising potential of games—nothing else.  While this has been seen as a ‘downplay’ by a large number of reporters, what else are we talking about here?  Isn’t Stolar’s comment about ‘just advertising potential’ enough to sound a few bells and whistles around the gamescape?

Morris points out that Pogo.com and RealArcade players tend to be women over the age of 35 and are already used to seeing advertising in their games.  Well of course they are, Pogo and RealArcade are both free-to-play portals supported by in-game advertising.  Morris’ point is valid here, but he also steps out on the wrong limb by stating that Google/Adscape could easily acquire a top tier developer and court hardcore PC gamers.  Morris proposes that this segment might be willing to put up with it in exchange for a free top tier game.  I’m going to have to stand up and be counted in this one and firmly disagree.  While according to the recent NPD report, Extreme and Avid (for ease of nomenclature, let’s call them ‘Hardcore’) gamers make up the smallest percentage of players, they ARE often the most vocal, especially when it comes to the area of discontent.  Given the nature of ‘casual’ gamers, this segment often goes uncounted, and the hardcore gamers win out.  While in-game advertising might be acceptable to those that have been introduced to the gaming world via free-to-play portals, die hard fraggers are never going to give up gaming realism in exchange for something for free.

So while Google may be ‘just browsing’ (Chrome pun intended) the potential of in-game advertising, they’ve got a very hard challenge ahead of themselves if they plan on simply pulling another Google move; purchase a hot (gaming) property, stick it full of adsense ads and take it to the bank.   Gamers are a tricky bunch, Google’s going to have to work a little magic to get this one right….if they do at all.

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