- Hello Kitty Online. Another competitor for Habbo Hotel, Runescape, Dofus, Club Penguin, MapleStory and others. Hello Kitty seems to have good social networking, which is essential. The competition (and potential rewards) in this sector are so great that the publishers will have to be raising their standards just to stand still.
- Nokia relaunch nGage. But this time as a software platform, which is what they should have done in the first place. The original hardware platform was flawed in so many ways that it attracted a lot of derision. The potential for a standardised phone gaming platform like this is so massive that even a small uptake will yield great results. If it catches on it could become one of the top gaming platforms.
- The BBC programme Watchdog has a whinge that the voice recognition in Brain Training can’t recognise northern English accents. The answer to this is simple, northerners should learn to talk properly.
- There is good money to be had from Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), as long as your game doesn’t have giraffe in the title. These games cost little to develop and have a very long tail. It is a pity that the database front end on XBLA is so weak, Microsoft should take a lesson from Amazon.
- Nintendo shares slump to seven month low. So either someone knows something that I don’t. Or someone doesn’t understand the video games industry. Or the Wii bubble finally burst and I didn’t notice. Seriously, Wii Fit is going to make Nintendo gazillions of yen this year.
- Nintendo sell ten million Virtual Console (VC) games. The writing is on the wall. The plastic and cardboard distribution model for video games is on the way out. Change your business model now to capitalise or become a dinosaur.
- USA game sales to hit $10 billion in 2008. The thing is that the analysts got 2007 so completely wrong that it is difficult to believe them now. This is the year of GTA IV and Wii Fit so anything can happen.
- Storm in a teacup over Wii piracy, ELSPA, British tabloid newspapers etc. This is creating a smokescreen over the fact that piracy is a rapidly increasing problem on the DS. And nobody seems to care
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RE: Shares being at a seven month low – This basically reflects the current stock market trend of stocks losing their value. Nintendo themselves may have investments in other companies and this is an indirect result, or possibly just people panicing and selling their shares. Even Toyota and Mazda were also affected I believe.
RE: Business model for distribution of software: I agree that game companies should start building the infrastructure for an eventual online distribution model for all of their games and IP but until broadband speeds generally improve in a lot of areas plastic and cardboard will be here for some time still