market
Latest
Facebook’s pop-up store has everything from clothes to burger sauce
The last thing you might expect to find inside a Macy's store is a space decorated by Facebook. But that's exactly what people in Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh and New York City will see when they visit The Market, a curated collection of established and up-and-coming brands that Macy's features as a shop-within-a-shop at select locations. Through a partnership with the retailer, Facebook this week launched its first-ever pop-up store, which is going to put a spin on The Market and feature 100 "digital-native" brands inside Macy's. Digital native, essentially, means they've either advertised on Facebook or Instagram.
Apple's HomePod arrives in Canada, France and Germany this June
Wedged in among Apple's wider iOS 11.4 announcement today comes the news that HomePod is launching in Germany, France and Canada on June 18. This is a significant market expansion, and one surely designed to boost sales of the Siri-powered smart speaker that have so far been rather uninspiring. While Apple hasn't released any official figures, third parties have speculated on disappointing numbers.
Tesla’s big battery is undercutting Australia’s energy cartels
When Tesla installed the world's largest lithium-ion battery in South Australia last year, it came with the promise that it would revolutionize the way electricity is produced, stored and sold in a region known for blackouts and market monopolizing. Less than two months later, that promise has been delivered to the tune of a multimillion-dollar saving, as the Tesla big battery essentially noped an attempt by Australia's energy cartel to capitalize on power fluctuations and send the market into overdrive.
EU fines Qualcomm $1.23 billion for abusing Apple partnership
Things just get worse and worse for Qualcomm. The European Commission has fined the company €997 million ($1.23 billion) for "abusing its market dominance" in LTE baseband chipsets. According to the Commission, Qualcomm prevented rivals from competing in the market by making hefty payments to Apple on the condition it wouldn't buy from anywhere else, which is illegal under EU antitrust rules.
Without a new Apple Watch, smartwatch shipments decline in Q2
Until now, the smartwatch market had seen year-over-year growth each quarter since the devices made their debut. For Q2 2016 though, that wasn't the case. Global smartwatch shipments were down 32 percent, totaling 3.5 million gadgets during the period. That figure is down from 5.1 million of the wearables shipped during the second quarter of 2015. Apple still led the pack with 1.6 million units, but it was the only top-selling company to experience an annual decline. It's worth noting that Q2 2015 was when the Apple Watch launched and there hasn't been an updated model yet.
Acer feels the pain of the PC's decline
Analysts believe that the PC has had its day in the sun, and now, we've got another shred of proof to toss into the dossier. Acer, the world's fifth-largest PC maker, has revealed that its revenues fell by the better part of 30 percent in the second quarter of the year. The terse announcement wasn't supported by a full earnings release, but the figures mean that this period has been the company's smallest quarter since 2006. The spreadsheet may be missing, but Digitimes is reporting that Acer is betting on Chromebooks, 2-in-1 and gaming laptops will restore the firm to profitability.
China's smartphone market is big, but it isn't getting bigger
China's such a big country that there'll always be an insatiable demand for smartphones, right? Not according to research firm IDC, which believes that the nation's phone market has contracted by four percent in the last year. The outfit's merry band of spreadsheet-wranglers believes that the majority of Chinese people now own a mobile device, and as such, will only buy a phone when they want to upgrade.
John Smedley praises free-to-play on consoles [Updated]
Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley knows a thing or two about running free-to-play MMOs on consoles. The studio already has DC Universe Online as a free-to-play title on PlayStation 4, it's bringing PlanetSide 2 to the console soon, and both titles are already free on the PlayStation 3. And there's good reason for it: Smedley said recently to Gamasutra that players on the PS4 have been monetizing on DCUO at nearly three times the rate of PC players. This isn't unique to the newest console, as DCUO players on the PS3 shell out cash twice as often as PC users. He also notes that it's a challenge to port to the console, as the lack of a mouse has to heavily influence design, plus it requires a method of dropping simultaneous updates across multiple platforms, which in and of itself can be a tricky venture. Read the full article for more insights from Smedley regarding the console market's free-to-play sustainability. [Update: Smed further clarified his statements over Twitter earlier today. "People think we're becoming a console first shop. NO! consoles are a great place for F2P, but we have always been a PC first company because that's our heritage. We aren't dumbing down PC ever."]
EVE gives more market data tools to the mod community
EVE Online is such a mod-happy game that there's an official site for it, and it's on this site today that CCP said that it will be giving another valuable information-gathering tool to players with the advent of a new searchable resource. "We also are making available the MarketType resource. MarketTypes is a collection of all possible MarketType resources," the devs posted. Being able to search market history and orders will help modders pull in data from multiple regions and should be in the game with the Rhea content patch.
Anarchy Online introduces tradable subscription item
Anarchy Online has added a new subscription option into this 13-year-old game, allowing players to buy and sell game time in addition to its free-to-play and standard subscription packages. Patch 18.6.14 added GRACE (Grid Access Credit Extension), which is a $14.95 item that can be purchased and sold on the in-game market. When used, GRACE adds 30 days of subscription game time to a player's account. Unlike other items on the market, GRACE cannot be taken out and mailed separately. Also, since free players can't access the market, they'll be unable to purchase GRACE from other players. Funcom has a FAQ covering the ins and outs of this new system.
Darkfall market exploit leads to rollback
The bad news: Unscrupulous players found and abused an exploit of Darkfall's market this past week. The worse news: Because of this, Aventurine had to roll back inventories to last Thursday, May 22nd. "With the help of the community we have discovered that there was some exploiting of our market feature at the end of last week," Aventurine posted on Facebook today. "We immediately deactivated the market to fix this issue and we identified those who had been actively exploiting it. We are in the process of permanently banning these players for their actions, as their behavior is inconsistent with the values we've set for the Darkfall Unholy Wars community." The silver lining to all of this, apart from a hopefully fixed exploit, is that the studio is granting three days of additional game time to all accounts on June 1st.
Elite's Alpha 4 is here, beta starts May 30th
Development on Elite: Dangerous is moving right along, as evidenced by this week's release of the space sim sandbox's Alpha 4 client. The latest patch represents the final Alpha phase, and it "vastly expands scale, scope, and depth over previous alpha versions," according to a Frontier press release. Elite's already massive universe just got bigger, and the devs have released two additional travel methods to assist with traversing it. Hyperspace jumps are now a thing as is super-cruise for accelerated in-system jaunts. Alpha 4 also introduces inter-system trading via a dynamically evolving market. [Source: Frontier press release]
EVE Evolved: Mining is broken, but it can be fixed
Mining has a reputation for being the most boring activity in EVE Online, but it's always filled a niche role as a low-effort way to make ISK and play with friends casually. When there's no PvP going on and you can't give your full attention to smashing NPCs in missions or anomalies, mining fills that downtime with something more lucrative and social than spinning your ship in a station. The problem is that mining has slowly become obsolete over the years; alternative mineral sources now supply much of the market's needs, and the risk of flying a defenseless barge just isn't worth the mediocre payout. It's currently more efficient for an individual to buy minerals with ISK made via some other form of PvE, such as level 4 missions or incursions. And on the macroscopic level, such huge quantities of minerals hit the market from alternative sources such as reprocessing loot that the economy could potentially function with no miners at all. CCP has tried to make mining more appealing over the years with buffs and new ships, and the devs recently announced plans to nerf mineral compression as part of a campaign to make mining worthwhile, but I think it'll take a lot more than ISK to get people mining again. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how mining and reprocessing are at odds and suggest some ideas for new mining features that could revitalise this long forgotten profession.
Darkfall to add clan markets and realistic weather effects
If you haven't had enough snow this winter, you'll be able to get some more in Darkfall Unholy Wars! The PvP sandbox's upcoming patch is introducing realistic rain and snow weather effects. Snow will soon be dusting buildings, trees, ships, and the ground, significantly altering the visual landscape. Suddenly, those stark white mounts will no longer be such a liability! The update also includes a new way for clans and alliances to do business amongst themselves in the form of clan markets. The clan markets have individual permission settings, so business can be restricted to individuals (when clan-only), allies, non-enemies, or everyone. As an added benefit, clan markets won't have any courier fees or taxes, at least for the time being. These structures can be built within any clan holding, be it a a city or a hamlet, and trade can commence between all locations. Markets can be damaged to the point of deactivation or lost if holdings change owners. The patch is due out next week. Check out more details about these features and other fixes in the patch notes, and watch as snow covers the landscape and ships alike in the weather video below. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Ask Massively: The dilemma of the free-to-play sandbox
Reader Sharvis recently emailed the Massively Speaking podcast with a question I felt deserved more than just a quick verbal reaction on the 'cast. That, and we just discovered that the ask@massively.com email address went dead approximately three weeks ago, and I've not been receiving your letters there (so send 'em again!). In the meantime: Sharvis. What makes a sandbox so susceptible to its business model in comparison to a themepark? I'm not experienced with sandbox titles, and I can only guess on some of the implications. For example, selling boosters in a themepark is fairly acceptable, but in a sandbox, as Jef pointed out [in his ArcheAge column earlier this summer], that'd be cutting into one of the main features of a sandbox. I'd guess it has to do with these sort of MMOs being more player-centric, and that's a very delicate system to be messing with. See? I told you this was a juicy one.
Nasdaq stops all trading due to systems issue, plans to reopen in a limited capacity soon (update: back online)
Well, this is rather peculiar. The Nasdaq stock market -- the entire Nasdaq, which lists major tech firms such as Apple and Facebook -- has temporarily suspended all trading due to a technical issue. The exchange sent an alert to traders at 12:14PM ET today announcing that it was halting all trading "until further notice," according to a New York Times report. Reuters is reporting that Nasdaq will reopen trading soon, but with a 5-minute quote period. The market will not be canceling open orders, however, so firms that don't want their orders processed once everything's up and running should cancel their orders manually now. It's not entirely clear what caused the issue, or how and when it will be resolved, but you better believe it's causing some commotion on Wall Street, and could impact traders for days and months to come. Update (2:28PM ET): CNBC and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Nasdaq will resume limited trading beginning at 2:45PM ET. Update (2:32PM ET): CNBC is now reporting that trading will resume with just two securities at 2:45PM ET. Full trading will begin at 3:10PM ET. Update (3:28PM ET): It appears that trading has resumed as of 3:25PM ET. Update (5:47PM ET): One final tweet here from CNBC. Nasdaq is claiming that today's issues were resolved within 30 minutes. The remaining 2.5 hours were used to coordinate the re-opening. Update (6:29PM ET): Nasdaq has issued an official statement following today's market close. In part, it reads: "NASDAQ OMX will work with other exchanges that are members of the SIP to investigate the issues of today, and we will support any necessary steps to enhance the platform."
Darkfall market system coming this week
Darkfall's getting a new market system in this week's patch, according to a developer blog recently posted on the game's official website. Markets will initially be available in the four NPC capital cities, but Aventurine plans to add more in the future. Markets feature an order system, so players can place and fulfill both buy and sell orders, or even use the new system for player-created quests. "New players looking to earn gold can work to fulfill buy orders that are available," AV explains. You can browse the market from anywhere in the game world simply by using the appropriate GUI button, but placing and fulfilling orders will require a trip to one of the capital market buildings.
Chillingo's COO, head of production talk Icycle, the company's freemium strategy
I got to run through almost all of EA and Chillingo's upcoming titles at E3 a few weeks ago, and one theme was very clear: The company is investing heavily in the freemium business model, and plans to use its quality and expertise to convince customers to generate an ongoing cash flow for its developers. Earlier this week, Chillingo invited me to speak with COO Ed Rumley and the company's Head of Production Andy Needham. We discussed this current trend in monetization as it applies to Chillingo's titles, and how the company approaches publishing in general. "The pay per download market is a challenging market right now," Rumley tells me. Chillingo's goal with each title it publishes is to "bring out the star rating and polish the diamond in the rough." Rumley is proud that Chillingo has hosted a very quality catalog so far, with high ratings all around. But the only way the company can do that, he says, is to "make sure the best game is delivered for the consumer in the right way." That often means that games need a strong, ongoing flow of income via in-app purchases, rather than just an initial bit of profit at sale. Chillingo will soon publish Icycle: On Thin Ice, which is one of the best games I saw at GDC. I was, however, disappointed to see that the company had added freemium options for E3. Needham called it "a game that will influence people one day, and it's a game that we want to make sure we get right. No sort of bolt-on freemium model would work with this game." Instead, Needham and his production team have tried to come up with some freemium elements that leave the game itself untouched. "Anybody could play this game fairly all of the way through it [without paying]," Needham says. "You can even unlock an additional game." And you can do that all without having to pay a cent. Instead, the freemium elements are there for convenience, Needham says. The freemium currency can be used to buy a "spare wheel," which allows the player to restart in place after a loss, instead of having to begin at the start of the latest level. "The in-app purchase is there really to help people enjoy the experience by not having to step back all of the time," says Needham. "What we wouldn't do is compromise the gameplay in order to get those dollars." Other than the work around freemium titles, Rumley says Chillingo is finding plenty of new games to publish, both from current and new partners. "(The number of) unique developers is actually up about 60 percent year on year," says Rumley, "so a huge amount of developers are coming to us." Current developers are choosing to re-publish with Chillingo, too, says Needham, and a big part of that is the company's acquisition by EA a few years ago. Chillingo's production team routinely works with EA. "We're able to share and learn a lot of the findings that they're making, and they're able to view our games and recommend them," says Needham. In the end, says Rumley, Chillingo is focused first on quality. "We know how to deliver that four-and-a-half star quality rating," he says, and make "the games that treat the consumers the way they deserve to be treated." Icycle: On Thin Ice is indeed a beautiful game, and Rumley says the company is dedicated to making the developer's talent and experience shine through, all while making sure he's compensated as well as he can be. "At no point will the monetization distract you from what it is," promises Rumley. "It's a beautiful game and it's exceptionally playable." Icycle: On Thin Ice is due out sometime later on this summer.
E-books not growing much in Canada, slightly better in the US
A new study from BookNet Canada notes that the e-book market may be in trouble. Paperback books, says BookNet, made up 58 percent of all purchases last year, with hardcover taking 24 percent. But e-books were only 15 percent of total sales last year, a figure that's down overall from 2012's first quarter, where they made up 17.6 percent. In other words, e-books are selling, but they're hardly taking over the market. Now, those numbers reflect sales in Canada. In the US, e-books make up 22 percent of the market, so the numbers are higher here. But still, given how ubiquitous e-books now are, it's surprising to not see them taking more of the market. BookNet says buyers cite the convenience of shopping for other items at the same time and pricing as two reasons they're still looking for books in brick-and-mortar stores rather than online. Finally, Apple's iPad only made its way up to number three on the list of the most popular e-book readers in Canada. The Kobo e-book reader was the most popular up in the Great White North, followed by Amazon's Kindle and then Apple's tablet.
European commissioner promises single mobile market by 2015
Europe may be enjoying deeper and deeper integration, but that doesn't extend to mobile connectivity; citizens are still whacked with hefty roaming rates. European digital commissioner Neelie Kroes hopes to change this, telling business leaders that she's planning to push through a single mobile telecoms market before she retires in 2015. Speaking at the European Business Summit, she said she had "no intention to retire until [she'd] knocked down all the barriers to a single market," which was her "major priority" for the rest of her term. Hopefully those on that side of the pond will never again have to fork over $8 per day just to check Vine.
