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Reuters reporter to withdraw from Second Life
Eric Krangel, whom most Second Life users will more readily recognize as the personable and approachable Eric Reuters and primary representative of the Thomson Reuters news service in Second Life for so long, is finally moving on. Krangel will be taking up a writing position with Silicon Alley Insider, ending his long stint that saw him replace Adam Pasick (aka Adam Reuters) as the front-man for Thomson Reuters in Linden Lab's virtual environment. In many ways it seems like the end of an era. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Mainstream jumps on Xbox 360 price cut bandwagon
The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and we expect a few other mainstream news outlets, are finding it in vogue to report the $50 price drop for the Xbox 360 Pro is imminent. As evidenced by our gallery below, we're fairly certain that the new $299 price for the Pro console will be in effect by this Sunday.Microsoft still has not confirmed the Pro price drop, which is making us wonder. We're slowly gathering evidence, and it's still too early to say for sure, but there's a niggling suspicion that Microsoft is pulling a repeat of Sony's great PS3 clearance sale switcharoo from 2007, but that's just a rumor for now.Source -- WSJ (Subscription required)Source -- Reuters%Gallery-27273%
Kojima talks about pressure and MGS' future
Hideo Kojima, in a recent interview with Reuters, speaks about the pressure placed on him and wrapping up the Metal Gear Solid storyline. Kojima expresses that the pressure to not only sell MGS4, but to help boost PS3 sales, isn't negative pressure to him. He believes that, thanks to a mixed metaphor by the translator, the pressure helped him "push up the bar" to create a sense of "positive pressure."Kojima also tells Reuters that MGS will always be around, noting that he feels a responsibility to fans to keep the series going, though all the plot lines introduced in the MGS series so far will be wrapped up in MGS4. He says he'll take a different role with the next game and possibly sit in as producer when the "young staff takes control of the new series."
Linden Lab lands Kingdon: new CEO
In the last couple of years, Linden Lab has grown from around 50 people to (we are told) around 250 people. It is a growth stage of companies that most do not survive, as usually they do something lethally boneheaded in the process. Another stage that many companies do not survive is their first change of CEO. It is a massive change for the company's table of organization, reporting chains and corporate culture. The first CEO change generally sees a large staff turnover. That's what usually happens, anyway. While we're not predicting sudden death for Linden Lab, they're getting their first new CEO today.
Europe approves of the Activizzard merger
Regardless of whatever you think of the big Activizzard merger and what it might mean for World of Warcraft (I don't believe it'll hurt a thing, but think what you will), it's going to happen. It's literally official now, as European Union officials have finally approved the merger after several weeks of deliberating on the issue.Approval by the European Commission was necessary because Vivendi (the owner of Blizzard and now the buyer of Activision, if you haven't been keeping up with all this) is a French media company, and therefore subject to EU business laws and antitrust concerns. Officials were mulling over the merger because of fears that Vivendi's ownership of Universal Music Group would give Activision Blizzard an unfair advantage in licensing music for games like Guitar Hero.They finally decided that it's not a threat to the health of the market, and approved the merger. So there it is. It's done. The government can't save you now; Activision Blizzard is your new master. I tremble in terror before the fictional (yet somehow inevitable) Bard class and its l33t Guitar Hero skillz!
Linden Lab asserts control of names and images
When Linden Lab chooses to shake things up, it doesn't do it by half-measures. Easter Monday saw an announcement by Linden Lab that they were introducing a new Second Life logo program, and changing the terms under which various words and images are presented. Unfortunately, we technically can't show you the new logo, since by all rights we have to go through the application process first. Actually, after reading all the terms and conditions a bunch of times, we are not sure that we're even allowed to mention its name. It's inSL, anyway. We'll let the company lawyers sort through the paperwork.
Philip Rosedale stepping down as Linden Lab CEO
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Philip_Rosedale_stepping_down_as_Linden_Lab_CEO'; No, this isn't an April Fool's gag, before you ask. Philip Rosedale, founder and visionary of Linden Lab is stepping down as CEO and becoming board chairman as soon as a replacement can be found. Kapor, the current chairman and Linden Lab's largest investor will remain on Linden Lab's board of directors. "It was not precipitated by a crisis," said current chairman Kapor, speaking to Reuters today. "We had always anticipated that there would be a time when he'd decide he no longer wanted to be a CEO." We don't know about you, but we don't think that CEO is really where Rosedale wanted to be in the long run. Rosedale will remain on board at Linden Lab working on strategy and product development. Update: Rosedale has put up a post on the Linden Lab blog, outlining the reasons for his departure from the CEO position. Essentially, Mr. Rosedale believes that the CEO position will increasingly be geared towards growing the Linden company. His best way of contributing, as he sees it, is from the sidelines offering vision for the future. [via Reuters]
Video games give B-list actors a second chance
While some of you might recognize the gap-toothed gentleman pictured above as actor Keith David, from such films as "The Thing" or "Requiem for a Dream", we'd wager that more of you know his voice -- David is arguably the most prolific celebrity-turned-video game voice actor on the planet, picking up roles in Fallout, Saints Row, Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect, and, of course, providing the guttural dialogue for the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3. Though his on-screen career isn't booming, David has found a comfortable niche in the video game voice acting market.According to a recent Reuters article, he's not the only celebrity to slip through the cracks of big screen Hollywood, only to find solace and celebrity in video games. Terrence 'T.C.' Carson, whose career dried up after his role in the moderately successful sitcom "Living Single", has voiced a number of video game characters -- including everyone's favorite brooding Spartan, Kratos. Michael Ironside of Top Gun and Starship Troopers fame provides the voice of Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher.These kinds of jobs are quickly gaining popularity in Hollywood, says Reuters, as voice work provides a much steadier paycheck than that of on-screen roles. We see it as a win-win situation -- down on their luck actors with distinct voices can find a nice amount of celebrity in the gaming realm, and as a result, we don't have to suffer through another era of wretched, Tenchu-esque voice acting. God bless you, Keith David.
Reuters at Davos, 2008
Reuters' Eric Krangel Adam Pasick will be interviewing a number of notable personalities in Second Life and simultaneously in Davos, Switzerland this year - the second annual set of Davos/Second Life interviews from our friends at Reuters. Is it just us, or does it get a little weird specifying two places at once?
China cracks down on MMOs, claiming they're "spiritual opium"
In a curious bit of international news, Reuters is reporting that China has issued a crackdown aimed at diminishing what the communist government believes to be the undesirable side effects of online games' explosive growth in popularity on the mainland. Most of the online gaming that takes place within China happens in popular "net bars," which are packed to the gills with PCs. The government watches over the proprietors of these net bars with a close eye, making sure they enforce recent laws passed that both ban children from playing altogether, and restrict the number of hours adult players can stay in one net bar.The establishments on which the government brought down their hammer were operated illegally and didn't abide by the gameplay restrictions mandated by the government. In one southern border city alone, officials shut down over 500 illegal gaming cafes. They cited one case where there was as many as 30 computers packed into a 40 square meter room. If you're more an english standard kind of person, that would be a room about 16 feet by 26 feet. You have to hope they had a good air conditioning unit!What I found interesting was one official's comment that, "Although China's online gaming industry had been hot in recent years, online games are regarded by many as a sort of spiritual opium and the whole industry is marginalized by mainstream society." While their description of these net cafes does conjure up an image not entirely unlike that of an opium den, you have to wonder whether they see the real problem underlying China's addiction to MMOs. If players are so desperate to escape the hopelessness of their everyday lives that they'll literally sit and play a game at a computer until they die, shouldn't it be the conditions they live in that are changed, and not their opiate of choice, whether real or in a fantasy?
Mayor Newsom to make another SL appearance
Mayor Gavin Newsom's not completely a stranger to Second Life, having been interviewed by Reuters' Adam Pasick in Second Life at the WEF media event in Davos, twelve months ago. Well, Newsom's back at the New Globe Theater in Second Life for an discussion with Philip Rosedale over the parallels, opportunities and challenges of managing two famously diverse, tech-savvy and dynamic communities with global profiles: the City of San Francisco, and Second Life. Newsom will also be discussing his priorities for his next term, and both Rosedale and Newsom will be taking questions.
Hype and backlash cycle "missing the point" with regards to Second Life
Keen followers of Second Life Insider, before we became Massively, will know we have, at various stages charted the reporting of Second Life in the media, as the media follows its own hype and backlash cycle. Now, MediaShift is reporting something we've been saying all along, although in their own way: the media cycle has missed the reality of the situation, virtual world and real world.The whole article is well worth a read, as it contrasts various styles of (real world) reportage on Second Life, from Hamlet Linden as was, to Reuters, to Wired to CNN, and even has Wired's editor saying that both their hype and their over-the-top backlash were mistakes. The conclusion? A not very startling - it's better to, in the current terminology, embed your reporters or use local information than not, and particularly don't only listen to other journalists - but the steps along the way are well worth a read. They might be especially worth a read if you have to defend your engagement in Second Life to people that have only seen the backlash.[Original lead via SLEd list]
Simon says: no to settlement
Rase Kenzo (aka Thomas Simon) has rejected settlement with the parties represented by lawyer Frank Taney. The settlement offer involved $2,000USD compensation to each of the six plaintiffs, and $5,000USD in legal fees. It probably doesn't get much cheaper than that, in the USA. Nevertheless, Kenzo has rejected the settlement, indicating that he thinks it's too much, and besides, he doesn't have the money. Instead, he's opting for a potentially much more expensive court case - though he is trying to find a lawyer who will take the case pro-bono.
Google almost certainly creating multi-user virtual world
World of Googlecraft? GoogleQuest? Pirates of the Google Sea? No, really. It could happen. Sort of.Apparently Google isn't satisfied with how massive it is already; the tech juggernaut might be developing a virtual online world. Okay, so it probably won't really be an MMORPG per say, but it could be something similar to Second Life. Rumors of the project have been gaining momentum for a while now, and we here at Massively are laying out all the evidence right here for you to see.
Nokia and Reuters develop an N95-based "Mobile Journalism Toolkit"
The rise of the cameraphone has certainly changed the face of journalism, and old-guard wire service Reuters isn't about to get passed by -- the company has entered into a long-term partnership with Nokia to develop new mobile reporting technologies, and the two companies have recently completed trials of an N95-based "Mobile Journalism Tookit" that takes moblogging to a whole new level. Reporters were given a hardware bundle that consisted of an N95, a Nokia SU-8W portable keyboard, a Sony condenser mic with special N95 adapter, a tripod, and two Power Monkey power stations, including the solar-capable Explorer, all of which linked into a custom mobile CMS that allows stories to be posted almost instantly. Reuters also partnered with Comvu for GPS-linked video streaming, and the N95 also provides a host of other metadata about each piece of content as it's filed. Although the trial is now over, both Reuters and Nokia plan on using the kits to teach journalism students and to promote the cause of citizen journalism. Let's hope that means they start teaching people how to take non-blurry cameraphone spy shots, eh?Read -- Mobile Journalism Toolkit press releaseRead -- Posts from the Reuters mobile journalism trialRead -- Toolkit contents
18,000 attend E for All; but first, a little panic
Imagine our absolute panic and horror this morning when we checked the news wires to discover that E3 -- yes, the E3 -- was going on this week! No flights scheduled, no hotels booked and we didn't even send Ludwig to the doctor for his dry-wit injection this week -- wait, we didn't even get our invitations to the event! Thankfully, after reading through the first couple paragraphs we discovered that there was just some horrible computer error and there actually is no E3 this week ... we think. They could be hiding it.In related news, IDG World Expo, the organizers of the E for All event, say that 18,000 attended the inaugural show. Maybe they'll be able to up those numbers by getting Sony and Microsoft to attend when they hold E for All again (yup, it's already planned) much earlier next year at the LA Convention Center from Aug. 28 -30. Anybody who actually attended the event want to chime in on how it went?Read: E3 video game trade show in radical downsizingRead: 18,000 Attend E for All
SEC considering charges against Take-Two
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sent publisher Take-Two a Wells notice, which indicates that the agency is considering filing charges and pursuing a "civil monetary penalty," according to Reuters.Though the publisher has previously been entangled with the government over a cup of warm java, the issue here arises from improper backdating of employee stock options. An internal review by the publisher discovered that their financial records for the last decade were unreliable. Former CEO Ryan Bryant has already plead guilty and was punished five years of probation and millions of dollars in fines.The Wells notice gives Take-Two a final chance to convince the SEC not to take action. Though their financial quarter already looks bleak given the GTA IV delay, the company may have a hit on their hands with BioShock given the inordinate amount of praise that title has received.
Reuters shocked that OLPC testers using XO for XXX
You know it's a pretty slow summer Friday on the Reuters news beat when one of the biggest stories making the rounds focuses on the shocking revelation that Nigerian students are using their shiny new OLPC XOs to do what hormonal young men have being doing since the dawn of time: look at naked women. The esteemed wire service's African correspondent breathlessly reports that a journalist from the News Agency of Nigeria had seen pornography on a few children's notebooks, which led the country's publication of record to surmise that "efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials." Why, the NAN report makes it sound like these kids are spending their days at some seedy adult bookstore and not even attending school at all. Luckily for the porn-addicted youngsters, administrators of the pilot program are aware of this snowballing crisis, and will soon be installing filters that will very likely block out a slew of legitimate pages while still allowing curious students to see all the flesh they want on Myspace. Will someone please think of the children?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
PS3 to have 380 games by March 08 says Kaz Hirai
Reuters is reporting that the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kaz Hirai, has stated that by March 2008 the PlayStation 3 will have a total catalgue of 380 games. This will be a solution to the current slump in sales the PS3 is currently seeing worldwide. Apparently Kaz only just realised that having actual games to play might persuade more people to pick up a system. The current plan is for the release of 200 titles in shops and 180 downloadable from the PlayStation store. Hirai states that there are currently 60 titles in stores and 50 downloadable. If the software library really does almost quadruple in less than a year, then the PS3 will have no problems selling worldwide. The games drought has been hard on early adopters of the console, but with the release of Rainbow Six: Vegas, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, The Darkness and Super Stardust HD all in the next two weeks, the drought looks to be almost over. So start saving those pennies. Before long there will be so many games vying for your attention, you won't know where to start.[Via Gameindustry.biz]
Nintendo closing gap on Sony's market value
Phenomenal success with the Wii and DS have Nintendo closing in on Sony in market value -- not just the PlayStation sector, mind you, but the entire Sony corporation.According to Reuters, Nintendo's market capitalization is now 6.30 trillion yen (approximately US $51.1 billion), vesus Sony's 6.64 trillion yen ($53.8 billion). Though Sony shares have increased 72 percent over the last two years, Nintendo shares have reportedly shot up four-fold in the same period; it's that same increase that has made former Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi now the third wealthiest in Japan.Sony obviously still has sizable market value over Nintendo and current success is not indicative of long-term staying power (e.g. Nintendo's pre-PlayStation dominance), but the House of Mario has certainly found (and capitalized on) a large market. Nintendo, Sony Defense Forces: don't shoot the messenger.[image credit]
