Danc7's Weblog

Quick hard facts (like my love)

danc7 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:39:31 +0000

90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play.

people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media

Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games.
1. World of Warcraft, released 2004 – 8.5 million subscribers.
While Habbo is giving Blizzard a run, the numbers generally support WoW as the biggest MMO in the world. Important qualification, though: only 4 million are based in the West and monthly subscribers, while its 4 million Chinese players only pay roughly 4 cents an hour to play it in Internet cafes.

2. Habbo Hotel, released 2000 – 7.5 million active users.
The Finland-based “social game” MMO popular with teens and growing fast. Look out, Horde!

3. RuneScape, released 2001 – 5 million active users.
A Java-based MMORPG operated by Jagex Ltd. with over nine million active free accounts. Boasts one million paying customers. Fancy that.

4. Club Penguin, released 2006 – 4 million active users.
MMO for the kiddies developed by New Horizon Interactive. The game shares similarities with other social environments like Habbo Hotel.

5. Webkinz, released 2005 – 3.8 million active users.
Here’s a novel idea: create beanie baby like stuffed animals, assign them a unique ID, then create an MMO portal in which kids can spend even more time using your product. When kids graduate from Club Penguin, they go to Webkinz (or so I’m told.)

6. Gaia Online, released 2003 – 2 million active users.
Not quite an MMO, not quite a social site, but founder Derek Liu has openly stated the networks desire to focus on social gaming. Forums make up 30% of the current site activity.

7. Guild Wars, released 2005 – 2 million active users.
Another MMORPG made by the popular NCsoft out of South Korea. No Mac love here, but a lot of active users.

8. Puzzle Pirates, released 2003 – 1.5 million active users**.
Published by Ubisoft and developed by indy king Three Rings, Puzzle Pirates merges casual games with a rising interest in pirate culture. Puffy shirt aside, it’s working like a charm.

9. Lineage I/II, released 1998 – 1 million subscribers.
Published by South Koreas NCsoft, Lineage was once the most popular MMO of its day. At one point total active users peaked at 3 million. A Western release in 2002 mostly fizzled.

10. Second Life, released 2003 – 500,000 active users.
No introduction needed here. Created by Linden Lab, this virtual world features a rabid fan base, inflated numbers, a high influx of corporate doppelgangers, and lots of digital genitals. First life optional.

game vs film

danc7 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:23:02 +0000

The software giant [EA Games] reported it had sold 2.38 million copies in the first 24 hours [of Halo 2's release], translating to about $125 million in sales, surpassing Hollywood’s biggest weekend opening, that of “Spider-Man” at $114 million.

UMD

danc7 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:43:19 +0000

up to 1.8gb of storage, thats about 2.5 times as much as a CD (PS1). Format war (Blu ray vs HDDVD) largely helped by PS3. psp- most popular game monster hunter.

playstation eye

danc7 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:01:44 +0000

“The PlayStation Eye is capable of capturing standard video with frame rates of 60 hertz at a 640×480 pixel resolution, and 120 hertz at 320×240 pixels,^[1] which is “four times the resolution” and “two times the frame-rate” of the EyeToy, according to Sony.^[10]

The PlayStation Eye also has “two times the sensitivity” of the EyeToy,^[10] with Sony collaborating with sensor chip partner OmniVision Technologies on a sensor chip design using larger sensor pixels, allowing for more effective low-light operation.^[9] Sony states that the PlayStation Eye can produce “reasonable quality video” under the illumination provided by a television set.^[10]

The camera features a two-setting adjustable fixed focus zoom lens. Selected manually by rotating the lens barrel, the PlayStation Eye can be set to a 56-degree field of view similar to that of the EyeToy,^[10], for close-up framing in chat applications, or a 75-degree field of view for long shot framing in interactive physical gaming applications.^[1]

The PlayStation Eye is capable of outputting video to the console uncompressed,^[1] with “no compression artifacts”^[10]; or with optional JPEG compression.^[1]“

Singstore!

danc7 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:46:51 +0000

with the release of the PS3 singstar came the “singstore”. Basically a constantly updated itunes, where you can download songs to play. increases longevity of gameplay but most importantly gets the intstitution more money. twice monthly updates of about 15 extra songs. 99p a song. 1 million sales as of april, relased in dec 07. haha in something of a twist europe has more songs than america! ha suck that u yankee swine.

Also can show videos of self playing. social gaming, appeals to new audience. Worldwide phenomena “singstar latino” and “singstar deutch rock pop” appeals to other nationalities.

the “3mote” and the “xmote”

danc7 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:08:44 +0000

Apparently the 360 and the ps3 have jumped onto the waggling bandwagon and are developing their own wiimotes. Shameless rip-off or trying to get a place in the market? nothing yet confirmed.

Videogames: Case study

danc7 — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:55:52 +0000

Technologies
- Advances in next-gen consoles. PS3 and Xbox 360 allow HD gaming, increasing realism of graphics. Audience gets more involved.
- ps3 (blu-ray) vs 360 (HD DVD) competition largely won by blu-ray
- Technologies like – eyetoy, dance mat, guitar (guitar hero), singstar, drumkit (rock band), wii controller, guns, “wii fit” etc. all are used to appeal to a wider audience and by this i pretty much mean women and old people, as they are the targets currently not “interested” in video games.
- Genres and who’s leading in them. Trademark names like Final Fantasy

Statistics:
ooh this is a convenient gold mine http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/apr/20/games.guardianweeklytechnologysection1
Wedbush Morgan Securities’ NPD preview of console software sales for last month suggests they were down 18% on last year to $445m.

Prior to the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision has worked with the iTunes Store to provide more than 1300 tracks of Guitar Hero-related music across more than 20 compilations, including most of the tracks from the games in the series, called “Guitar Hero Essentials”. These compilations, such as “Killer Guitar Solos” and “Guitar Anthems of the ’80s”, include songs related to but not contained within the Guitar Hero series. Dusty Welch of RedOctane has stated “Where there’s music, there’s Guitar Hero, and with iTunes, we are able to provide fans with a central location for downloading their favorite rock anthems.”[36] Both licensed and indie bands whose works have been included in the Guitar Hero games have gained further popularity from this inclusion.[37] Every Guitar Hero III song tracked by Nielsen SoundScan (62 of 70) saw an increase in digital download sales the week ending December 30, 2007, when many who got the game as a gift were playing it.[38] Indie group Bang Camaro’s recognition increased after their song “Push Push (Lady Lightning)” appeared in Guitar Hero II.[39] The band DragonForce, whose song “Through the Fire and Flames” is featured as the final song in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, saw a 126% increase in CD sales in the week after the release of the game,[40] and downloads of the song, selling fewer than 2,000 weekly, rose to more than 10,000 after Guitar Hero III’s release and approached 40,000 the week ending December 30, 2007.[38] Even older, established groups such as Aerosmith saw an increase in sales at the same time Guitar Hero games containing their songs were released,[38] such as a modest increase in download sales for its “Same Old Song and Dance”, which rose to 2,041 from 374 copies the previous week.[38] Charles Haung of RedOctane has stated that they have “been told by retailers that downloads for songs and CDs increase 200 percent after appearing in the game.”[41] Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band are seen as new methods of music distribution; an analysis for market research company NPD Group states that “As the video games industry grows, it’s becoming an ever-more attractive promotional outlet for all kinds of industries.”[42]

PSP
Units sold Worldwide: 20.25 million (sold between April 2006 and December 31, 2007)[2][3] (details)
lol at this marketing campaign http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/sonylieblog/default.aspx.htm

Best-selling game Daxter, 2 million (as of January 21, 2008)[5]

Nintendo DS
Units sold Worldwide: 70.6 million, including DS Lite units (as of March 31, 2008)[2] (details)
Best-selling game Nintendogs, 18.67 million, all versions combined (as of March 31, 2008)[3]

PS3
Units sold 13 million (as of April 21, 2008)[2] (details)
Best-selling game MotorStorm, 3 million (as of February 18, 2008)[3]

Japan 2,009,492 as of March 30, 2008[60][61] November 11, 2006
United States 4,000,000 as of April 21, 2008[62] November 17, 2006
Europe 2,800,000 as of April 1, 2008[63][64] March 23, 2007

Less that a third recognized DVD playback

According to the Diffusion Group, while 80 per cent of US households own game consoles capable of DVD playback, only 30 per cent were aware of that fact and only 13 per cent of gamers are using them for that purpose.

The Dallas-based research firm also found that, of the households who view movies on their game consoles, 74 per cent are watching physical DVDs and only 26 per cent are going online to purchase or rent a digital movie download.

“Today’s next-generation games consoles such as the Xbox 360 or Sony PS3 are true digital multimedia powerhouses,” said Dale Gilliam III, author of the Diffusion Group report.

“Yet very few of these devices are connected to the Internet and, even though these same platforms may feature a high-definition DVD playback system, very few consumers are using them for non-gaming media applications.”

The report also found that approximately half of US households with broadband own at least one game console, with 15 per cent owning two or more game consoles. Those consoles are most likely to be located in the living room or family room (52 per cent) than in a second bedroom (24 per cent) or in a dedicated games room (21 percent).

The Diffusion Group’s report, On The Use of Game Consoles for Movie Viewing, is based upon a survey of 2,000 US broadband heads-of-households.

Xbox 360
Units sold Worldwide: 19 million (as of April 25, 2008)[1] (details)
Best-selling game Halo 3, 8.1 million (as of January 3, 2008)[2]

United States 9.15 million as of January 1, 2008[83][84][85] November 22, 2005
Japan 602,558 as of March 30, 2008[86][87] December 10, 2005
Worldwide 19 million as of April 25, 2008[1] (more…)

Guitar hero 3!!! vs Rock Band

danc7 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:43:43 +0000

i go mad for guitar hero, it’s mental gameplay but not realistic in any way apart from the shape of the controller. i think its fantastic though and shows something for a wider range of audiences to enjoy in the way that the wii and dance mats do. Also there are extra downloadable tracks, meaning the game doesnt just end after you buy it and complete it.

HOWEVER, from being unchallenged in this market a new competitor has arisen with one advantage over guitar hero, this being the combination of this game with singstar AND a dumming section, mental, however the price for this kit is a hefty £160 so i feel it probably won’t sell as welll.

facebook scandal

danc7 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:16:30 +0000

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/06/facebook.socialnetworking

what a mess.

image detailing important parts of web 2.0

danc7 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:57:10 +0000