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NYTimes says children's virtual playgrounds are serious business
It's that's time again, gentle reader: the New York Times are taking a look at the financial side of virtual worlds, and analyzing the potential for growth within the market. But instead of focusing on Second Life or World of Warcraft, it's ... WebKinz and Club Penguin.Despite my mental age, until now I've known the bare minimum about either. But now they're big business, and the virtual worlds market is entirely under their thrall. Or so the article claims. There are a few flaws in the article, but there's plenty of food for thought -- could virtual worlds overtake television in the children's entertainment sector? Is there big money in virtual worlds aimed at kids? Or, like the conference last month discussed, how will this influence our children?Nobody really knows, I suspect. Analysts are notorious for being unable to predict what children want, beyond jumping on the bandwagon when it comes into town -- it's not like the 'adult' virtual worlds market, where further growth is guaranteed. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
NY Times profiles Apple stores
From BusinessWeek predicting they wouldn't work to the New York Times writing a piece lauding Apple Stores as 'community centers' for the neighborhoods in which they are situated. The article points out that Apple now makes 20% of its total revenue from Apple Stores (not too shabby), and highlights some of the unique features of the stores themselves: the architecture, the staff, and the general feel of the stores.The article also points out that some other high profile technology company's brick and mortar stores aren't doing nearly as well as the Apple Stores. Sound off in the comments with your best Apple Store experience.
An eight-letter word for 'reduced pricing'
We never understood why The New York Times Crosswords wasn't a runaway success, sales-wise. You would think that with Touch Generations' momentum and Nintendo's buzz for attracting older gamers, this puzzle title would be a sure thing. But even with the Gray Lady's backing, the rest of the mainstream media just didn't seem to pick up on it. Maybe Nintendo was more interested in putting its efforts and marketing money behind its own crossword game? Poor Majesco.We suspect that the $30 tag was also partially to blame. For those of you that agree, Amazon has temporarily listed The New York Times Crosswords at $19.99, bringing the stylus-driven title down to bargain pricing where it probably should've been from the get-go. This deal expires at midnight -- or when the item goes out of stock -- so don't wait too long to jump on it![Via CAG]
Hollywood eyes the iPhone
iPhone fever, have you caught it yet? It would seem that Hollywood has. The iPhone has set the cellphone market on fire (even though almost no one has used it yet) and Hollywood has taken notice. They are now scrambling to work out deals with a variety of companies to serve content to the iPhone (and other cellphones as well) according to the New York Times.The movie industry has largely ignored the mobile phone market mostly because historically the only phones that would offer a pleasant viewing experience (i.e. sport a large screen) have been limited to phones targeted to the corporate market. Apple has the consumer in mind, and that is an audience that Hollywood knows, and wants to sell things to.Even if the iPhone fails (which is a pretty big if, but possible) it will have lasting ramifications on the cellphone industry. People will expect more, and there are some companies out there that seem to finally be getting that.
NY Times compares Apple and Sony retail experiences
Remember when Apple's "retail experiment" was viewed as a risky, borderline-nutty strategy? Recall how Gateway and other technology companies were running away from their mall outposts while Apple was rolling out its first stores back in 2001? Randall Stross at the New York Times remembers [registration required], and he says that "[o]f the many predictions in the world of technology that have turned out to be spectacularly wrong, a prominent place should be made for what the pundits said in 2001 when Apple opened its first retail store in Tysons Corner, Va." Apple has succeeded tremendously in retail, partly due to a strategy of supporting a positive customer experience (Genius Bar!) and partly due to an unexpectedly popular product (the iPod).Stross quotes Apple's quarterly report on retail numbers -- over 180 stores, sales of $855 million -- and compares the Apple retail mojo to the Sony Style stores' relatively low impact. He also notes the impending return of Dell to the retail channel; not through Dell-branded stores, but through Wal-Mart... there's a really positive retail association for you. As long as Apple continues to make an emotional connection with buyers at the point of sale, it'll be hard to beat the Apple Stores.via Philip Elmer-Dewitt at Apple 2.0
NY Times crossword puzzler lines up some screens
Remember when we posted about that NY Times crossword puzzler coming to the DS? Well, IGN got ahold of some screens for the game and it looks to be coming along swimmingly. As you can see in the screenshots, which have been embedded past the post break, players write the letter in on the bottom touch-screen, where it displays the completed word on the top screen. Other than that, the experience looks to recreate that feeling one gets from opening up the paper and solving the included crossword puzzle (sans ink all over the hands).
NY Times crossword game headed to the DS
Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor for the NY Times, is following in the footsteps of Dr. Kawashima, teaming up with Majesco to release The New York Times Crosswords. The game is to be a collection of over 1,000 different word puzzles. The game should appeal to those same gamers who enjoyed Brain Age, allowing users to manually write in answers using the stylus on the touch-screen or substitute that functionality for that of an on-screen keyboard. The game is to ship this Spring and will feature wireless head-to-head crossword battling action. [Via Joystiq]
NY Times crossword puzzler headed to DS
If Dr. Kawashima can do it, so can Will Shortz. The New York Times crossword puzzle editor is poised to become the next DS icon when Majesco releases The New York Times Crosswords, a collection of 1,000 wordplay puzzles for Nintendo's handheld. Well, that's if developer Budcat decides to pixelize Shortz.Even without another goading head, Crosswords has the makings of a DS crossover hit -- you know, popular with the old folks -- with its proper usage of the touch-screen (allowing wordsmiths to scribble in answers or use an on-screen keyboard), progressive difficulty modes, and head-to-head wireless battles ... yeah, we said battles!The New York Times Crosswords ships this spring. Wurd.[Via 4 color rebellion]
Gray Lady confirms Wii's early success
You can always count on the New York Times to confirm what most people have acknowledged as conventional wisdom weeks ago. To that end, the Gray Lady today has an article looking at the relatively warm welcome the Wii has received when compared to the PS3. The Times recounts more now-tired tales of hard-to-find Wiis, PS3s piled in shops, and the Wii's potential appeal to new gamers ("My husband broke a sweat playing golf on there," one mother declares). The biggest fireworks come from Sony spokesman Dave Karakker, who derisively calls the Wii an "impulse buy" and Nintendo marketing head Perrin Kaplan, who angrily argues that Sony's reports of slow Wii shipments are "absolutely inaccurate." Save it for the ring, fellas. Possibly the most notable thing about the article, though, is the absence of any practical discussion of the Xbox 360 and its effect on the next gen race. Sure, the 360 might seem like old news compared with the more recently released systems, but it does have a multi-million unit head start and just this past holiday saw a multi-platinum ultra-seller. Surely its impact warrants more than a passing mention in the eighth paragraph. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]
Ry Cooder uses iTunes to master his album
Ry Cooder, an accomplished guitarist, was having trouble with his latest solo effort 'My Name is Buddy.' Try as he might he just didn't like the way that the tracks (that's songs in musician speak) sounded. They were a bit over processed to his ears, however, when Ry burned a CD of his album from iTunes it sounded great.What was going on?One of the sound engineers pointed out that iTunes applies a 'Sound Enhancer' to each track, hence why they sounded so sweet. Ry then knew the answer, he just took the iTunes CD and make it the 'master' (that's the copy of the final album that all others are created from). See that, you too can create an awesome album with just a little talent, iTunes, a studio full of expensive equipment, and some highly trained professionals.Sadly, the album isn't available on the iTunes Store (yet).[via collision detection]
NY Times: It's a Wii60 Holiday
The New York Times' Seth Scheisel, who already gave a critical review of the PS3, comes back in this morning's NYT to finish the job with console holiday picks. Scheisel says, "If you are anything other than a complete Sony fanboy (that's Internet lingo for an obsessed, myopic groupie) go ahead and forget about the PlayStation 3 this year." He goes on to say that the "overhyped PS3" doesn't deliver with its $599 price (plus accessories).The Wii becomes a holiday pick at the NYT for being a "riotously fun experience" for the whole family. When comparing the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Xbox 360 won in every given category. The only two toss-up groups were graphics and movie-playback. Graphics were called a tie, but Scheisel points out developers have complained about difficulty programming for the PS3 system and that Gears of War looks better than anything on the PS3. Movie playback was considered a wash because both systems offer the same thing, in different formats, for what would end up being the same price. Scheisel says, "Right now there is basically no rational reason to buy a PlayStation 3 instead of an Xbox 360."
NY Times says Wii succeeds
The NY Times' Seth Schiesel recently had some very nice comments for Nintendo's Wii console, praising several of the console's titles, such as Wii Sports, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Madden '07, stating that the fun factor of all these titles, as well as the console itself, is what sets it apart from it's competition."The Wii is about rescuing gaming from the clutches of the hard-core young male demographic that has dominated the industry's thinking for years. It is about making video games accessible again by providing a simple, intuitive, relatively inexpensive entertainment experience that an entire family can actually enjoy together. At that, the Wii succeeds admirably."Schiesel also goes on to comment that however much fun the console is, it just won't work as the primary console for the hardcore gamer. With strong first-party titles behind them like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Nintendo is undoubtedly seeking that hardcore gamer. What do you guys think? Will the Wii forever be doomed to 'extra console' status and never get itself into the spotlight?
NY Times: The PS3 "isn't that great"
Seth Schiesel from the New York Times logged more than 30 hours with 13 games for the PS3 over the last week. His early verdict? Sony has failed to deliver on their promise and the new video game system "just isn't that great." He criticizes the lack of in-box HD cables, having to connect "wireless" controllers to the console for recognition purposes, and the difficulty playing custom playlists in games. He basically deems the 360 the better machine for now calling it a "powerful but intuitive system" likening the PS3 to a "brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer."From the article: "Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world's most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world's most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other."The man does praise multi-player battles in Resistance: Fall of Man, but even Joystiq's own Chris Grant, quoted in the same article, believes the console "doesn't feel finished." Granted, all newly launched systems have hiccups. The real factor is how the manufacturer handles said hiccups moving forward.[Thanks to all who sent this in]
The MSM responds to Microsoft's HD announcement
The mainstream media (or MSM for those of you down with the Web 2.0 lingo) doesn't cover every video game story out there, so when they dom, we always perk up and take notice. Following Microsoft's big HDTV announcement Monday night, several major mainstream outlets covered the news. Let's see what they had to say: Time Magazine considers the downloadable space as a whole, where "many companies including Microsoft competitors Apple, Amazon.com and Google are getting into the video distribution business. Microsoft's ace is that the Xbox 360 is already connected to the TV, a hurdle others try to overcome by marketing multimedia set-top boxes or creating unwieldy hardware partnerships." The New York Times compares Apple and Microsoft's similar, but oh so different, strategies, writing, "Microsoft will go into the video business with a different business model. Apple, most analysts believe, does not make much money selling iTunes content, but makes up for it by selling more iPods, which are extremely profitable. Microsoft, which analysts say loses money on each Xbox 360 it sells, expects to make up for that shortfall by selling games -- and now video. Reuters looks to the more obvious competitor. "Sony Corp., which ships its PlayStation 3 on November 17 with its own digital-distribution network, PlayStation Network, also will look to movies, TV content and music down the line but has not yet announced specific deals. Games will be the first focal point, as they have been for Microsoft during the past year with its Xbox Arcade service." So, Microsoft got there first (or, rather, they will when the service launches on November 22nd): A high-definition video download service connected to a set-top box already installed in millions of living rooms (and counting). But there's still more questions than answers in this shady, poorly-lit basement cockfight for living room supremacy. Like: what about the borderline impossibility of future cooperation with Sony Pictures? That would make it hard to be a comprehensive service. What about iTV?
NY Times: Game stigma is industry's fault
New York Times reporter Seth Schiesel was one of a select few to attend Ziff Davis' Electronic Game Summit in the wine country of California. He used the opportunity to reflect on the "look at all the freaks" mainstream coverage of E3 and the game industry's image problemSchiesel argues that games are not yet something that most adults will admit to spending time on and that game companies have to market themselves differently to get over this stigma. He noted Nintendo's marketing strategy as a hopeful step, but warned the rest of the industry that they may end up like the comic book industry -- marginalized for decades as a childish diversion.Do you still notice a stigma about your video game playing, or do people treat playing games as just another form of entertainment now?
NYTimes: games industry is taking a beating
The New York Times is running a doom and gloom piece on the current economic state of the big four publicly traded game publishers: Activision, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and THQ. It's nothing we haven't heard before; higher next-gen development costs coupled with a console transition which have not only historically proven to be difficult, but the current one especially so. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick "acknowledged that there were challenges, including a growing need to produce games more efficiently. He said the industry would probably also focus more narrowly on games with hit potential (selling several million copies) as opposed to a scattershot approach of creating numerous games that sell one million copies or less." This blockbuster approach runs contrary to the XBLA success story, or quirky DS hits like Pheonix Wright. So basically, Activision doesn't subscribe to the long tail.Pretty damning evidence of this trend: following E3 in May, "Electronic Arts' shares have fallen to $42.30, from $56.80; Activision to $11.58, from $14.19; THQ to $21.49, from $25.63; and Take-Two to $13.10, from $17.05." Ouch! Well, that's my cue to go grab some TTWO and ATVI shares![Thanks, laserboyjc]
NYTimes examines Sony's worldwide appeal
Though not directly about the PlayStation 3, this profile of Sony's worldwide appeal in Sunday's New York Times dovetails nicely with my look at the lead up to "the price." Titled "Cutting Sony, a Corporate Octopus, Back to a Rational Size," writer Martin Fackler examines the marginalization of Sony in the international marketplace. The company's name was once synonymous with not only portable music, but electronics in general; now, faced with increased competition, they're looking to "restore" their image "to prevent the problems in Japan from spreading overseas."A Merrill Lynch analyst said, "What is Sony? We don't even know anymore. Consumers used to pay more because the brand meant something special." Another echoed that sentiment, saying, "Sony has to trim its premium ... The brand equity, although still high, is clearly on the decline in consumers' minds."One way to improve that brand image: trim the premium (sorry little buddy) and focus on "champion products." CEO Howard Stringer says "[they] need to rebuild the brand seriously in terms of energy and perception around the world" and the PS3 and Blu-ray are a serious part of that strategy.[Thanks, Stephen](Update: Merril is spelled Merrill)
iPod Accessories a One Billion Dollar Business
If you ever wonder why TUAW seems to be an iPod accessories blog some days, you may stop to reflect on this fact: the iPod accessories market accounted for 1 billion dollars last year and is still in an upswing.A New York Times article released today [warning registration required] enumerates the growing market of iPod add-ons. As I personally had the chance to talk one-on-one with Griffin representatives at the last Paris Apple Expo, I can confirm that manufacturers of add-ons do take the iPod market seriously, and for good reason. Even if manufacturers find themselves scrambling when a new revision of iPod is released, the competition is steep and well worth the effort.Another interesting note from the NYTimes article is that iPod cases have 50 percent profit margins for vendors while circuit-based accessories only 25 percent.
iPod with video delights and isolates
David Carr was skeptical of the viewing experience offered by the new iPod with video. He didn't think that he would enjoy watching anything on such a small screen, let alone a TV show. His 45 minute commute, however, has shown him the error of his ways. Each Lost episode takes up about 44 minutes of time, which almost covers his commute entirely. Instead of having to pretend not to listen to someone else's conversation Carr is whisked away to a strange island and ponders the meanings of wacky symbols.Carr has bought into the iPod hook, line, and sinker but part of me thinks that cocooning ourselves into little private spaces defined by our iPods in very public spaces can't be a good thing. I can easily imagine a day when everyone on the train will be focused on a small screen with earbuds blocking out the noise and totally blocking out the environment around them. Or would that be a good thing?
