Cloud gaming service OnLive coming to the TV
OnLive, the closely-watched startup that is aiming to change the way people buy and play video games, officially launched last June. But the company says that was a mere warmup for the main event, which begins in a few weeks.
OnLive emerged from years of stealth development in 2009 with a somewhat audacious plan to offer so-called “cloud gaming”: instant, on-demand and lag-free access to video games stored remotely on servers in data centers.
The service started last June but was only accessible through a PC. But starting Thursday, OnLive began taking orders for its $99 “microconsole,” which connects easily to a TV and which will be delivered starting Dec. 2. Using the console, users can access a catalog of games that will grow to 50 by the end of the year, including big-name titles such as “Borderlands” and “NBA 2K11″
OnLive poses a threat to traditional home consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3, but only if it works as advertised and there are no stutters or hiccups in the game stream.
OnLive Chief Executive Steve Perlman said the carefully managed launch for PCs last June was to ensure that the company’s network could indeed handle the demand. But he said PC gaming only represents around 10 percent of the market, and that TVs are where the real action is. He won’t divulge OnLive’s user base, but said it has already hosted more than than 2 million game sessions.
“We’re up against quite a bit of skepticism, so we knew that if we made any misstep at all people would dismiss us out of hand,” Perlman said. “PC gaming was basically a test.”
The company is launching a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, just in time for the holidays. Perlman said his expectations for OnLive — whose investors include Warner Bros., Autodesk, Maverick Capital, AT&T, British Telecommunications and The Belgacom Group — are “much higher” than last summer.
PluggedIn: Gesture tech eyes growth
By Unnikrishnan Nair and Mansi Dutta, in Bangalore
Gesture-recognition technology is set to motion in a new level of interactivity in everything from games to phones, and poses a serious challenge to the ubiquitous mouse and remote controls.
The technology works by tracking and interpreting hand and body movements of users, and is viewed by many as the next game changer in consumer electronics. Users can just wave their hands in front of a screen to bring up control menus and select the relevant option by pointing a finger. They can zoom pictures, raise and lower volume, switch on and off devices, or do just about anything they can with a mouse or a remote, all with different gestures.
Video game consoles are leading the way. Like Sony’s motion-sensing game console for its PlayStation 3, its answer to Nintendo’s popular Wii.
Microsoft’s “Project Natal” — to be launched around Christmas this year — packs a clutch of technologies for users of Xbox 360, including gesture and object recognition. Hitachi has already demonstrated the technology on televisions, but says it is still to decide on how and when to bring it to the market.
Black Friday sprint begins for video game industry
Black Friday marks the beginning of the most critical time of the year for video game makers, as customers jam stores on the day after Thanksgiving to pick up games and consoles as gifts.
As a brutal 2009 winds to a close, the gaming industry is hoping that a strong six weeks of sales in the United States, the largest market, could help them salvage something from the year.
Nintendo said Monday its Wii home console — the long-time U.S. champ that has been struggling lately — sold more than 550,000 units in the U.S. during Thanksgiving week. To put that in perspective, the company sold around 500,000 Wiis in all of October, according to industry tracker NPD.
Not to be outdone, Sony announced Tuesday that demand for its PlayStation 3 console over the Thanksgiving week “was at an all time high.” The company said it sold 440,000 units for the week in the U.S.
Both Nintendo and Sony have recently slashed prices on their consoles, as has Microsoft with its Xbox 360. The PS3, which is more popular with hard-core gamers, has seen plenty of momentum since the price cut. At the same time, Nintendo has set up holiday kiosks in malls across the country to give consumers the opportunity to play its casual and family-friendly games.
A more complete picture on who turned in the best Black Friday performance will come later this month, when NPD releases its November sales data.
Cloud-gaming service OnLive opens up
OnLive, the “cloud-based” gaming service that generated plenty of interest when it was announced in May, is opening itself up.
The company is aiming to challenge game console makers Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony with a bold and ambitious service: on-demand, lag-free access to graphically rich games, which can be played on any TV and nearly any PC, even budget netbooks.
Analysts say such a product could fundamentally change the economics of the multibillion dollar video game industry. The only question is how well OnLive works, and some have expressed skepticism. Since its splashy introduction, little has been heard from the company, which was busy testing its service internally and installing servers in its data centers to handle traffic. OnLive delivers games run on servers in the cloud, rather than locally on a PC or a console.
The company is now opening the OnLive beta to testing from outside gamers, said Steve Perlman, the company’s founder and CEO, in a blog post. Perlman is a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur who helped launch WebTV, which Microsoft bought in 1997. You can sign up to test OnLive at http://www.onlive.com/beta_program.html.
“One of the key challenges that OnLive technology addresses is providing a high-quality, fast-response gaming experience over a wide range of situations: different speeds/locations/types of broadband services, a variety of different PC and Mac configurations, several kinds of input and display devices, etc. So, a major focus of OnLive Beta is to test as many of these different situations as we can,” Perlman said in his post.
OnLive has been in development for seven years. It already has deals in place with 10 publishers to provide new game titles, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Take Two. The company has said it expects to launch its service in the winter of 2009.
Gamescom lands on gamers’ map
Two days ago, Sony finally announced it would cut the price for its flagship PlayStation 3, reacting to slumping sales which have lagged behind those of Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
But industry experts, who had long expected such a move, were more surprised about the location Sony chose for its announcement than about the decision itself.
“The fact that Sony decided to announce the PS3 price cut at Gamescom shows the importance they attach to it. This has been one of the most important decisions they’ve made in the segment,” said Ed Barton, analyst at London-based media research company Screen Digest.
“We (Europe) have lived in the shadows of the United States (E3) and Tokyo (Game Show) for years, but this is changing.”
Gamescom, which moved this year from the eastern German city of Leipzig to Cologne in the west, is Europe’s largest video game trade show, expected to attract more than 200,000 visitors, and the third big industry event behind E3 in Los Angeles and the Games Show in Tokyo.
For the announcement of the decision even Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai showed up.
“This event clearly highlights how the gaming industry in Europe has changed and really grown beyond recognition over the past 15 years,” he said, speaking at Sony’s news conferenc prior to Gamescom.
Sony cuts PS3 price, sounds confident about holidays
The long-anticipated price cut on Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console might have come just in the nick of time, as industry sales continue to wilt in the heat of summer. Both game hardware and software sales have been flagging, but console price cuts typically spur game sales.
Sony took the PS3′s price to $299 from $399, and the company sounded bullish on its prospects for the holiday selling season.
“With this price move, we’re extremely confident,” said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, in a interview. “I don’t think there’s anything more that we could realistically ask for in terms of putting us in a position to be successful this holiday, I really feel like everything’s lined up for us.”
Sony’s PS3 has languished in third place in U.S. home console sales, trailing Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, both of which carry lower price tags. While many analysts say the PS3 is the most technologically advanced and powerful of the three systems, the $400 price tag in the depths of a recession was a tough sell. U.S. video game equipment and software sales fell 29 percent in July. Activision’s CEO even threatened to stop making games for the PS3, due to high costs and poor sales.
But Tretton said the home console cycle lasts for 10 years, making for a long race. “We’ve kind of kept out guard up and kept our powder dry and now we’re coming out with both fists swinging. We feel like we’ve weathered some significant competitive blows and now we’re great position to land a knock-out punch.”
“I think our competitors have had success in the case of Wii with the innovation and social aspect of the game play, but that seems to be wearing a little bit thin right now, and Microsoft seemingly pulled out all the stops last year, stripping down their machine and hitting that $199 price point on their base device.”
“If you follow this industry and follow where retail sales are generated it’s much like the football season, everything before holiday is pre-season and the numbers really don’t count. But when your get into the fall that’s when the majority of the sales are done, and we really wanted to time this announcement to take advantage of the fall selling season.”
I think sony have done too little to late both the xbox360 and the wii have such a hugh following and better online use that sony will struggle to catch up.
No recession for solitaire on PCs
Forget the bells and whistles, realistic graphics, complex story lines and cinematic soundtracks. When it comes to video games, solitaire still rules.
According to Nielsen’s fourth-quarter “State of the Video Gamer” report, the most played PC video game in the United States is solitaire, the free, easily accessible and familiar time-waster adored by cubicle dwellers. The game, which is pre-installed on most Windows PCs, had more than 17 million players in December. Solitaire players aged 25 to 54 are apt to play it five times a week for about 30 minutes at a stretch
Females older than 25 made up the largest chunk of PC gamers in December, accounting for 46.2 percent of all players, Nielsen said.
On the console side, Sony’s PlayStation 2 — with the largest installed base — still leads other consoles in terms of total usage, although its numbers are trending downward. At the same time, more hardcore users, who favor Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation 3, are apparently far more wrapped up in their game playing. They are less likely to watch television in prime time than users of Nintendo‘s Wii or the PlayStation 2, Nielsen said.
(Photo: Reuters)
Video games defy economic gloom
U.S. shoppers are still spending in a big way — they are just not buying cars, plane tickets, clothing, etc. But they are buying video games.
While most media segments try to maintain stability during today’s economic turmoil, the video game industry keeps on growing, with U.S. video game hardware and software sales up 10 percent last month according to NPD, fueled by record sales of Nintendo’s Wii console and DS hand-held system.
Nintendo’s Wii console sold over 2 million units in November, up from over 800,000 in the previous month.
A separate reports suggests that hard times may favor video games, adults will “turn to staying in with video games rather than going out on the spend.”
(Reuters)
Keep an eye on:
- DreamWorks Animation launches characters like Shrek and the penguins from “Madagascar” into new lines of business, hoping to grow consistently even during a recession that already is slowing DVD sales. (Los Angeles Times)
- Time Warner names CEO Jeff Bewkes as chairman; Richard Parsons to step down on Dec. 31 (PaidContent)
- CBS Interactive reorganization details (PaidContent)
- Howard Stern contemplates re-signing with Sirius XM (Orbitcast)
Who will work for free actually? Me myself not. for sure they will charge money against their efforts and spent time.
$60 video games? Do the math, says Zelnick
How do entertainment retailers come up with the prices they charge? Why is a movie theater ticket $10, a music CD $15, a rental DVD $3-$5 and a top video game $60?
We asked Strauss Zelnick, executive chairman of game publisher Take-Two. He says it’s simple math, based upon the value of that experience.
Prices are determined by the marketplace — if folks stopped buying stuff, prices would fall, etc. (Think gasoline). Balance that with cost. A game like Halo or Grand Theft Auto takes years to develop and costs as much to make as a Hollywood film.
Here’s Zelnick in his own words:
The reason the consumer is willing to pay $60 for front-line product is because they are going to get 20-plus hours of game play out of that product.
I’m a big believer that there is an equation for the pricing of front-line entertainment products, which is: The hours of expected consumption times the value per hour, plus the catalog value.
The price per hour is pretty stable across media. For example, a motion picture: You have two hours of experience in the theater, a very high-quality experience, zero catalog value. So what’s that worth? I guess about $5 an hour (on a per capita basis). If you apply that to a video rental, also zero catalog value, there’s multiple people watching typically, it’s a lower quality experience, that’s how you get a video rental of three bucks. Recorded music, you will listen to the album (up to 10 times — or hours — on average). The same equation applies.
There’s more:
I think he is full of it. I think is base on supply and demand like the rest of the universe. Think about when the games become older and they are sold for less. Is the experience worse? I do not think so (same hardware same software) The only difference is less demand.
Sony offers big PS3 price cut, if you can get the credit
With Black Friday only a few days away and projections for the holiday shopping season bleak, it’s not surprising that Sony is making a price cut move on its PlayStation 3 video game console to lure cash-strapped shoppers.
Now, you can get a hearty $150 price cut on the PlayStation 3 console. The caveat: you’ve got to sign up for a shiny new PlayStation credit card first.
There’s two ways to take advantage of the deal, it just depends how badly you want the PS3.
If you can’t wait to get your hands on the console, go to www.sony.com/newpscard to get instant approval for the PlayStation credit card and the visit the Sony Rewards site to purchase the PS3. You’ll receive a $150 credit for the PS3 after you’ve been approved for the card. What’s more, gamers who receive instant approval for the credit card will receive a coupon from Sony for a buy one, get one free offer on any Blu-Ray DVD purchase.
For those who are slightly more patient, sign up for the card at www.sony.com/getpscard and use it at any Sony retailer to purchase the PS3. The $150 credit will show up on the next billing statement.
The offer from Sony comes after rival Microsoft cut the price of its entry-level Xbox 360 console from $279 to $199 in September – but with no credit card sign-up required. Microsoft also lowered the prices of its mid-range and high-end Xbox 360 consoles by $50 each.
Just FYI
Found This on another site dated 3/17/09 …..
Sony senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille says “there are still no immediate plans to cut the prices of the PS3 consoles.”
