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.
E3: Dancing with Xbox Kinect on Day 1
Day one of the 2010 E3 video game conference was dominated by news from Microsoft, who told us a little more about Xbox 360 with Kinect, the gesture/motion system that lets users do many things on screen without the need for a controller. The system, due in November, poses a threat to top dog console the Nintendo’s Wii, and Sony’s new add-on, called Move.
But I’ll tell you who should be worried: those Dance competition video game folks. Microsoft demonstrated a pad-less, controller-less dance game that looked like a lot more fun than stomping on a giant pad with arrows. Check out the video below…
Here is the unboxing of the new factor of the Xbox 360, which is smaller, and has built in Wi-Fi. (via giantbomb.com)
Waiting for Xbox Kinect (nee Natal)
Today is the day that Microsoft fully takes the wraps off of its much-anticipated motion/gesture system “Project Natal” for the Xbox 360 system. Its press conference promises to be one of the most important at this year’s E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles. It’s expected to come out in November in time for the holiday season.
The camera-based system got a early pre-introduction to the media last night — and a new name, “Kinect” — in a Cirque Du Soleil event that has been called both amazing and odd. We can’t tell you much about it since I did not attend, and Microsoft banned cameras. But we scoured the world (that is, you know, we googled Youtube) for some reports from those who got a glimpse (and snuck in cell phone cameras.)
Stay tuned for more details about the system and other development from E3. Until then, here’s a demo video of the kinds of things Natal will enable families to do — with no controllers.
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.
Saints over Colts, says EA’s “Madden”
If Electronic Arts’ recent track record on Super Bowl predictions is any guide, it looks like New Orleans may well bring home the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.
EA ran a simulation of the Super Bowl XLIV matchup through its popular “Madden NFL 10” game on the Xbox 360, and the Saints edged the Indianapolis Colts 35-31.
A little taste of play-by-play from the world of make-believe sports:
“With the game hanging in the balance, Drew Brees hits David Thomas for an 11-yard touchdown and the game winning score. Drew Brees takes home MVP honors as the Saints earn their first Super Bowl Championship title in the franchise’s 46 year history.”
EA’s prediction is nothing to be scoffed at. Last year, the game publisher predicted Pittsburgh would top Arizona 28-24 – eerily close to the game’s actual results, which the Steelers won 27-23.
EA used “Madden” to predict the results for both the AFC and NFC championship games within a margin of three points. And the company said it has correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner in five of the last six years, since it began running the simulation in 2004.
THQ CEO: Don’t bet against the Wii
Remember how you couldn’t get a Nintendo Wii? Remember the long lines at retailers, and “No WIIs” signs in store windows. The Wii is still very popular, but the momentum has slowed a bit, leading some to wonder if it has lost its mojo.
And even though games like “Wii Fit Plus” and “Wii Sports Resort” are top sellers, adult action titles like Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ and Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” have been getting all of the fanfare.
But Brian Farrell, long-time CEO of THQ, which publishes games on the Wii including “All Star Cheer Squad” and “World of Zoo” said that its the short-sighted game publisher who thinks the Wii is dead, if only because, you know, those things are everywhere, Farrell said at the Reuters Media Summit.
“One of the good things about my tenure is I have seen a lot, and you tend not to listen to fads. You tend to follow your judgment about how markets work. So when we heard (other developers saying they had not made enough games for the Wii) last year, we were just ‘steady as she goes’ on the Wii. That is the way we feel about it now.
There about 40 million Wii’s out there globally. That is a huge installed base. It is music to our ears when people say, ‘horrible market, we are getting out of it.’ We have made a lot of money over the last 15 years of my tenure going into markets that other people have given up on.
Does it have the high growth it used to have? No. Is it a perfect market to harvest with low cost, high quality products? We are delighted with the numbers so far on “The Biggest Loser”, “Super Hero Squad”, “SpongeBob”.
There is still a lot of money to be made on the Wii, so I love it when my competitors say it is over.”
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.
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)
