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The Soapbox: Games-as-a-service sucks for the consumer
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. If you pay close attention to game industry marketing-speak, you've probably heard of something called games-as-a-service. It's an initiative that's been gaining momentum in recent years, as publishers and development houses look to increase revenue, strangle used game sales, and clamp down on both PC and console piracy. It's also championed by a few of our more clueless game "journalists," more often than not due to their (desire for a) cozy relationship with the aforementioned industry players. Put simply, games-as-a-service seeks to change both the definition and the public perception of the phrase "video game" from a product that you buy to a service that you rent, thereby granting developers and publishers complete control over the end-user's experience. If that sounds somewhat nefarious, that's because it is. It's also something that MMORPGs have been doing for two decades.
Track US new iPad adoption in real time
Do you wonder how many new iPads will be lovingly opened and used to browse the Internet today? To find the answer, head to Chitika's website where you will find a tracking page set up for the third generation iPad. As noted by BGR, the tracker looks for both the user agent string of the new iPad and the tablet's unique display resolution of 2,048 x 1,536. Right now, the new iPad is sitting at 0.875 percent, which is what you would expect for a brand new device. Looking forward, it will interesting to see how quickly its percentage climbs. [Via BGR]
Burstly acquires TestFlight, builds "TestFlight Live"
TestFlight and Burstly shook up the developer world today when the pair confirmed that TestFlight has been acquired by Burstly. TestFlight is a platform that lets developers distribute test builds of their apps to a beta audience; while Burstly is platform that helps developers track and monetize their apps. Together the duo has created TestFlight Live, a new platform that'll let developers distribute their apps and track both their usage and performance. TestFlight Live is a real-time dashboard which shows overall app engagement, revenue, audience, and stability. The dashboard tracks stats like the number of unique users, number of visiting users, lists of different devices, in-app versus paid app purchases and more. It's similar to HockeyApp, another platform for distributing beta versions of applications and tracking their performance. Both TestFlight and TestFlight Live will be free for developers and developers already using TestFlight can start using the Live service now. TestFlight and Burstly plan to keep the basic framework of TestFlight Live free and will monetize the system using premium features in the future. It's compatible with Safari on the desktop, the iPad, and the iPhone. [Via PandoDaily]
BioWare: Average SWTOR play session tops four hours
Star Wars: The Old Republic players are consuming game content in four- to six-hour sessions on average, according to Kotaku and BioWare bigwig Greg Zeschuk. "When they play, their sessions are absurd," he said recently. Zeschuk goes on to say both that the retention is a sign of the title's addictive "just-one-more" gameplay and that the firm is pulling an "intense amount of analytics and telemetry" from the title. Finally, he hints at the theory that most SWTOR players are happy due to a general drop in forum tomfoolery. "You can tell when things are going really well in the game," Zeschuk explains. "The amount of forum chatter drops. People don't go to forums. They just play." Take that as you will, and let us know how long your average SWTOR session lasts.
ComScore: Android and iOS gallop ahead, US smartphone usage approaches 100 million
The latest report is in from ComScore, and as you might expect, the news is sunshine and roses for the crews at Google and Apple. Both companies platforms charted some worthwhile month-over-month gains, as Android is estimated to account for 47.3 percent of smartphones in the US, while iOS runs a strong second with 26.9 percent. Meanwhile, former BlackBerry fans continue to scatter, as the platform now accounts for 16 percent of smartphone users. Similarly, Windows Phone (and whatever's left of Windows Mobile) have taken it on the chin, and have fallen to just 4.7 percent market share. Without ever gaining much traction in the US, Symbian now makes up 1.4 percent of the smartphone pie. You'll find a quick look at the manufacturing side of the equation, along with the full ComScore press release, after the break.
iOS ends 2011 with 52% of mobile Web browsing
iOS began 2011 by grabbing more than half of the mobile browser market share and ended 2011 equally strong. According to mobile web browsing data from Net Applications, which counts unique visitors to its network of websites, iOS accounted for 54.07% of the mobile browser market in January 2011 and dropped slightly to 52.10% by the end of the year. The mobile platform stayed mostly steady in the intervening months, but there were a few fluctuations. Market share climbed to 61.50% in October 2011, presumably fueled by the launch of the iPhone 4S, and fell as low as 46.57% in February 2011. This dip might be the result of the iPad 2. Some original iPad owners may have sold their tablet in anticipation of the iPad 2, which was unveiled in early March. Among its competitors, Android climbed from 12.75% to 16.29%, while Symbian fell from 7.40% to 5.76%. Other platforms remained about the same with only minor changes in market share. These figures are interesting because they don't fit in with other metrics that show Android is the leading mobile OS. When you look at activations and handset sales, there are more Android handsets being sold than Apple iPhones. Consequently, you would expect Android to have a larger market share than it does. So why the discrepancy? This difference is likely the result of mobile Safari which, in my opinion, offers a better browsing experience than Android. Mobile Safari is an excellent browser, which was made even better now that it supports tabs on the iPad. Safari for iOS also loads pages quickly and is very responsive to multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom. Though Android's mobile browser is decent, it just isnt as smooth or polished as iOS. Scrolling can be choppy, copying text from pages is clunky and Adobe Flash seems to slow things down. It's a capable browser that'll serve up information, but it doesn't have the same enjoyable experience as iOS. [Via AppleInsider]
ComScore: Android continues to boom, RIM and Microsoft decline
Numbers, numbers, numbers. ComScore is back with a few more of them, this time covering the mobile market during a three-month average period ending in October. The results aren't going to shock you: Android not only continues to dominate the market, it's on the up-and-up. Out of 90 million smartphone users in the US, Android held strong at 46.3 percent (up from 41.9 between May and July). Apple bumped up a full percentage point, while RIM's BlackBerry OS took the largest fall from 21.7 to 17.2 percent. What about Windows Phone? Microsoft's mobile OS fell slightly from 5.7 to 5.4. Moving from mobile platforms to OEMs, Samsung was still the top vendor at 25.5 percent, though it didn't grow or diminish that number. Rounding out the top five was LG (20.6 percent), Motorola (13.6), Apple (10.8) and RIM (6.6). If more numbers are what you crave, check out the full press release -- as well as another chart -- after the break.
Report suggests Apple slipping in handset rankings
Last quarter was a transition quarter for Apple and its iPhone. Sales of the 18-month-old iPhone 4 fell slightly as the company prepared to introduce the iPhone 4S. This slowdown caused Apple to slip to fifth place in the global handset market and to the number two slot in the global smartphone market, according to Strategy Analytics. Strategy Analytics's report examines global handset shipments and reveals that Apple now trails Nokia, Samsung, LG and ZTE. Chinese manufacturer ZTE shipped 18.5 million handsets last quarter and beat out Apple which shipped 17.1 million. Nokia held onto its first place position by shipping 106.6 million handsets, most of which are feature phones. In the smartphone market, Samsung climbed past Apple with 27.8 million in quarterly smartphone shipments. In the June 2011 quarter, Apple had slid past Samsung to claim first position, but it's time at the top was short-lived due to several market factors. Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics says, "We believe Apple's growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter, volatile economic conditions in several key countries, and tougher competition from Samsung's popular Galaxy S2 model." Apple may be down this last quarter, but next quarter should be significantly better. During its quarterly earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook assured analysts that the holiday quarter should see iPhone sales return to record-breaking levels. Early sales of the iPhone 4S have been brisk and these numbers are expected to climb now that Apple is rolling out the handset to additional countries. [Via AppleInsider]
GDC Online 2011: SWTOR's Georg Zoeller on analyzing in-game feedback
Star Wars the Old Republic is rapidly approaching its launch date, and questions constantly pop up about what the game will be like. Some longtime MMO veterans are even a bit skeptical about whether BioWare will be able to release a game of this scope in a finished state. At this year's GDC Online Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller demonstrated some of the tools that the team uses to analyze player feedback and data, and then he explained how, through sophisticated technology, the team can make appropriate adjustments to the game as it wraps up beta testing and prepares for launch.
GDC Online 2011: BioWare's Damion Schubert takes a wrecking ball to the casual vs. hardcore model
"I'm trying to finish a product, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I am not going to talk about today." Thus began BioWare's Damion Schubert's seminar, Double Coding: Making Online Games for Both the Casual and the Hardcore, at this year's GDC Online. "This is more of a weary man, sort of stream-of-consciousness design theory talk." Schubert wanted to call the talk "Moving Beyond Double Coding," which is a term that comes from cartoons, of all places. Double coding is content that reaches two different groups of people at the same time. Looney Tunes, for example, would entertain both adults and kids because the writers and animators designed it so. With MMOs, Schubert says that devs are often trying to double code the games for both casual and hardcore players. This is where the well-known slogan "easy to play, hard to master" originates. He held up Blizzard as a primary example of this model. Blizzard's "donut," as Schubert calls it, has a casual outer ring and a hardcore center for both types of players. By double coding, Blizzard ensures that casual players can invite their hardcore friends to experience the game and vice-versa. However, this model is faltering, and Schubert pinpoints why after the jump!
Battlestar Galactica Online adding new ships this month, surpasses 5M registered players
Bigpoint just can't seem to stay out of the news today, and whether its the incendiary pay-to-win remarks of an executive or an update to its Battlestar Galactica browser MMO, there's a lot of interesting buzz swirling around the company of late. The devs are adding a new line of fleet recon ships to Battlestar Galactica Online, and the craft will enable both Colonial and Cylon players to jump directly to their targets while "in proximity of an erupting battle." The ships will debut in mid-September and are modeled on the Raptor and Heavy Raider craft from the beloved Syfy television series. Bigpoint's latest press release also mentions that the Brimir-class carrier will be "available this fall, though its size, complexity, and impact on game balance must be optimized before its general release." Finally, the company is trumpeting some new metrics, and the release says that BSGO has surpassed the five million registered player mark. [Source: Bigpoint press release]
Apple now the world's largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung checks in at number two
We make our own truth. That's how IDC can come up with roughly the same numbers as fellow research firm Canalys and crown Apple the king, when its rival called Android top dog -- it's all about how you slice it. See, where as Canalys bundled all Android handset makers together, IDC has broken them up, which leads to a rather interesting twist -- the largest smartphone maker in the world is now Apple. Cupertino's growth of 141.7-percent in shipments year over year was enough to push it past Nokia (which slipped to number three) and Samsung (which climbed two spots to take the silver medal), while RIM and HTC rounded out the top five. That being said, no one is running away with the lead here, and Sammy's continued stratospheric rise should keep Apple on guard. Check out the full report after the break.
IDC: Nokia, LG see significant Q2 shipping decline, Apple continues to grow
Well, the numbers are in and Q2's proved to be a mixed bag for the mobile market. According to IDC, cellphone makers shipped a total of 365.4 million units last quarter, a year-over-year increase of 11.3 percent. Nokia, while still the world's largest handset maker, suffered a significant blow, with shipments dropping from 111.1 million in Q2 2010 to 88.5 million; the company's market share was similarly down, hitting 24.2 percent, compared to last year's 33.8 percent. LG Electronics was the only other manufacturer to see a loss, with shipments dropping to 24.8 million from 30.6 million in 2010. Apple managed to maintain its recently acquired number four spot, with iPhone shipments hitting 20.3 million, up year-over-year from 8.4 million. RIM was conspicuously missing from the top five lineup, while ZTE landed the number five position. In news that shouldn't surprise anyone with a pulse, the feature phone market saw a decline this year, surprisingly its first since Q3 2009. If you're jonesing for more market share and shipping stats, hop on past the break for the full PR.
NPD suggests Apple had another record Mac quarter
A new report from NPD says that Apple has probably done it again, racking up yet another quarter of record Mac sales. NPD puts the number of Macs sold at 4.2 million, which would be a year-over-year gain of 12%, and make for the best record Apple's Mac sales have ever had. US Mac sales in general are down, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, but since the reasons for that are the impending Lion release, as well as a possible new version of the MacBook Air coming sometime this month, he expects sales to rebound as soon as both of those things actually happen. In short, though these are still preliminary figures, it's looking like Apple will have a solid June quarter here, and Mac sales should be even higher later on this year, especially when you throw Back to School and all of the other big news in the mix. Macs have never been more popular. Stay tuned -- we'll be liveblogging the results of Apple's conference call tomorrow, so come back then to hear the official numbers.
Study reveals Apple surpasses RIM in US smartphone share
Apple is now the #2 mobile platform in the US with 26.6% market share. Apple rose 1.4 percentage points and inched past RIM which now holds 24.7% of the US market. Similar to Apple, Android also gained market share grabbing another 5.1 percentage points to climb to 38.1% market share. Rim took the biggest plunge with a loss of 4.2 percentage points. These metrics are from Comscore's latest report which monitored smarpthone usage for the three-month period ending in May 2011. On a manufacturer basis, Apple showed the greatest gain, jumping from 7.5% to 8.7% market share. Though it's far from being the leader (Samsung is #1 with 24.8%), Apple continues to move upward while rivals like Samsung, Motorola and RIM remained steady or slid slightly. If this trend continues, the US smartphone market could become a two-horse race with Android and iOS vying for the lead. A third platform could grab the bulk of the leftovers. Right now RIM is sitting pretty in third, but if it continues its downward slide, it might lose its spot to the onslaught of Windows Phone handsets expected from the Microsoft-Nokia partnership. [Via GigaOm]
GamersFirst welcomes World of Warcraft to 'the free-to-play revolution'
Sarcastic, genuine, or merely self-promoting? An open letter from GamersFirst's Joshua Hong to Activision-Blizzard's Bobby Kotick following World of Warcraft's surprise move to an indefinite free trial could be all three. "I wanted to congratulate you on taking your first big step to join the Free2Play® revolution," Hong writes. He certainly isn't shy in expressing what he sees as GamersFirst's great accomplishments in the market: "Having created this market in the western hemisphere, it's very encouraging for us to see the last bastion of the subscription-only online gaming business joining the Free2Play movement... Given our recent success in reviving APB Reloaded, which launched as a subscription-based game we transitioned to Free2Play, we know that the first steps are often the hardest. But the proof is in the metrics, as APB now has more than three times the active player base than when it initially launched as a subscription product. We also plan to repeat this success with Fallen Earth." Hong continues the letter by "extending [his] friendship and support" to Blizzard, inviting Kotick to the free-to-play party at Gamescom, and hoping that the company's entire library will be made free in the future.
iOS devices popular on surveyed restaurant Wi-Fi networks
Meraki is a networking company that installs Wi-Fi networks in places like Starbucks and Burger King. The company looked at the devices that connect to its network and discovered the top device is the iPhone. Unlike many metrics, this number is not based on a small sampling. Meraki has a network that reaches 40 million users in 140 countries around the world. The iPhone accounts for 32% of the devices connected to this vast network. It is followed by Windows machines (23%) and Mac OS X (13%). The iPod touch and Android are tied at 11%, and the iPad grabs a surprisingly small 4%. When combined, the trio of iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) account for 47% of all devices that connect to Meraki's public Wi-Fi networks. Add in Mac OS X, and Apple products make up 60% of the devices browsing from your local Starbucks. An interesting side note to the iPad stats: though the iPad doesn't connect as often as the iPhone, it's a data hog and devours 400% more data than the average iPhone, iPod touch or Android device.
65 percent of connected apps run iOS in UK
The GSMA released its April Mobile Metrics report, which shows that 65% of devices using connected applications in the UK are powered by iOS; about 30% of devices run Android, and a meager 1% use Symbian. This report measures the number of wireless devices that have internet-connected applications. It does not take into account users who fire up their phone to make phone calls and play local games only. A broader metric from comScore shows a similar trend with the iPhone grabbing 27.6% and Android snagging 24.7% market share in April. Symbian slides into the number three slot with 23.6% of the market, and RIM is number four with 18.1% market share. Together these two reports show that Apple iOS devices are selling well in the UK, and owners are actively using them on the internet. Numbers like this should be a wake-up call for UK developers looking to break into the mobile app market. iOS should be your primary target, Android your backup.
Massively's in-depth interview with SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid
Last Friday, Star Wars: The Old Republic finally revealed the Crew Skills crafting system. In a slightly less important announcement, BioWare also announced its new Community Manager, Stephen Reid. OK, I'm teasing. It is very important announcement. Since Sean Dahlberg stepped down, the community team has been without a face and voice to the community. Those left behind had to put in extra effort into providing the fans with the latest releases from the SWTOR news room, and for a while, the community was unsure who, if anyone, would be able to fill the shoes. Now, Stephen Reid has taken the helm of the massive community starship. Now since we have a new voice of the SWTOR community team, Massively thought it would be interesting to get his thoughts on the game, on the community, and on how we, the fans, could best make Star Wars: The Old Republic the game it should be. Massively Senior Editor Brianna Royce sat down with Stephen at a recent LucasArts event for an in-depth interview -- join us past the break to see what he had to say!
Android accounts for one-quarter of mobile web traffic, says Quantcast
It's terribly difficult to get reliable statistics, as numbers tend to vary drastically depending upon whom you ask, but if you're inclined to believe that Android is mopping up Apple and RIM's declining mobile mindshare in the US, you'll find nothing but corroboration from Quantcast. The analytics firm reckons a full one-quarter of mobile web traffic stateside comes from devices running Google's OS, though it's important to know that the iOS tallies apparently don't include the web-friendly iPad. You also might want to note that this is mobile web traffic here -- these days, we spend an increasing amount of our internet time in apps -- and since we're on a roll with the disclaimers, let's just add that these numbers have nothing to do with a company's financial success. Nokia can attest to that.
