22 December, 2009
This week, at iHollywood’s Digital Living Room conference a Sony US marketing manager stated that company plans to build out an area on the PlayStation with it’s own, original TV programming. Meaning that with a connected Playstation 3, you don’t need a TV subscription to see the TV shows.
MTV your PS3
Sony already released the Vidzone Music Video application for PS3 this month, offering “your own personalized version of MTV” on the Playstation 3. This free app offers unlimited access to high quality music video streams, and the ability to build custom music video playlists, turning the PS3 into an MTV type station - but one that actually shows Music Videos ;)
From MTV to HBO
The ultimate goal is to transition from a Read on…
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13 November, 2009
This week, UK gaming industry publisher MCV has broken the news that in November 2010 the Xbox add-on known as “Natal” (the black thing lower in the picture) will be released. According to MCW 5 million Natal units wil ship globally and there will be at least 14 games supported by the hardware.
Why you should care
Simply put, Natal enables you to talk to your TV, and it will recognize what you say. Also, you will be able to have it interpret motions you make. Don’t think Wii, think Minority Report. It can even see you smile or frown, and react accordingly. Natal is actually a set of very sensitive depth-vision cameras that do facial recognition and voice recognition as well. This is some extremely complicated technology in a low-cost device. What that means is demonstrated in this must-see video.
14 games ready for launch.
After the unveiling of Natal, Activision Read on…
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27 August, 2009
The Xbox 360 Elite game console will be made $100 cheaper this week. As of this Friday it will sell for $299 (or €249). That is an HD device with a 120GB hard drive for the price of a Wii! The Xbox 360 Arcade version, which does not have a built-in hard drive, remains at its current price of $199 (€175). This happens shortly after the recent $100 price drop for the Playstation 3.
Sony drop
Along with the price drop, Sony is now trying to make up for the disappointing sales of the PS3 with a marketing campaign to reposition the console as more of an all-in-one entertainment device because of its ability to play Blu-ray DVDs. This year, Xbox sales are the only console in positive growth in the US, rising by 17%.
Overall score
Microsoft has sold more than 30 million Xbox 360s worldwide since it introduced the second-generation game console in November 2005. Sony has sold 24 million PS3 consoles in the same time, while Nintendo Co. has moved roughly 52 million Wii consoles since launching the device in November 2006. So it would seem that the Wii is the clear winner. However… Read on…
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9 June, 2009
Apple® today introduced the new iPhone™ 3G S, according to Apple “the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet”. This thing was pretty much conceived while Steve Jobs was either very ill or had already left the office for his sick leave. As such, it offers us a first glimpse of what life without Jobs could be like for Apple. Interesting. Let’s take a look at the new features.
Big features
The 2 really big features of this new iPhone are improved speed —up to twice as fast as the last iPhone, according to Apple —and longer battery life. I will be VERY interested in seeing Read on…
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17 April, 2009
An hour ago the verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four was announced. The four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter, Fredrik, Gottfrid and Carl: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000. An hour after the official verdict the Pirate Bay gave a press conference, some highlights of which can be found here below.
Illegal downloads
The Pirate Bay Four operated the Swedish Bittorrent site “The Pirate Bay”. The court has considered its verdict for some weeks, before releasing the verdict (available here) today. The prosecution claimed that Read on…
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14 February, 2009
Local data, but part of a worldwide trend: the Belgian Entertainment Association reports that in 2008, video games made 247 million euro, more money than either music or DVD sales.
Rapid growth
The growth of the share of games in the entertainment spend can be called spectacular. In 2006, games only had a share of 27% of all entertainment sales and the category was in 3rd place after music and DVD’s. In 2007 music sales were overtaken and in 2008 games had a share of Read on…
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7 February, 2009
Proof for the point that internet video distribution through consoles is growing fast. Netflix, an American video rental service that started out renting out DVD’s through the post, is successfully crossing over into internet distribution by using the Xbox 360 game console to get movies on subscribers’ TV screens.
In the last few months, one million Netflix subscribers have downloaded and activated the Netflix app that enables Microsoft’s Xbox 360 videogame console to play normal and HD movies - streaming. And it’s not just that the application was installed often, it’s actually being Read on…
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14 July, 2008
Today movie rental company Netflix and Microsoft announced that Netflix subscribers in the US will be able to watch streamed movies and TV shows on Xbox 360 game consoles. The announcement was made at the E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles. The service will be live late this summer.
The service, a software upgrade for the Xbox 360, will be offered at
Read on…
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5 May, 2008
It was a week ago today. The outskirts of a medium sized university town not far from where I live, just past midnight. Most homes were quiet, some bedroom lights showed that their inhabitants were still awake, and I was walking down the street towards a long line of men. It was raining. The men were standing outside, in the rain, waiting. The line went round the block. It was so long I decided to get a midnight snack first, and return later. The line would be there for a while yet.
The biggest entertainment release of 2008
Finally, close to 01.00 AM, the tired Read on…
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3 April, 2008
TV increasingly has to compete for attention with new media, like internet video on demand, video games, people doing email on their laptops or even Twittering instead of watching TV. To protect its position, TV is bringing out the big guns; sex and large gameshows. This trend is worldwide, and oddly enough even TV about not having sex is part of the trend. This is revealed by recent research done on the most popular shows of over 2.000 TV stations in 82 countries by International Médias Consultants Associés (IMCA).
Amandine Cassi, one of the authors; “The 2007-2008 TV-season brought us the return of the gameshows, usually based on fate or the candidates’ psychological insight or EQ. Apart from that we’ve seen a lot of sex, some of it made a little more mainstream by adding a Read on…
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31 March, 2008
After Warner Bros. Paramount recently became the second studio to declare their ambitions to become a video game publisher. Last week in Variety Magazine, two vice presidents of Paramount discussed the company’s move into the interactive entertainment business: “We are entering into deals now where we will be publishing games this year. There’s going to be a slate where in some cases we’re publishing, in some cases we’re co-publishing, or in others we’re funding development and another publisher buys it. It’s important for us to have a flexible model.”
So why are studio’s moving into games?
First of all, the studios are Read on…
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27 October, 2007
The people at the BBC understand how to translate a format to different media types. The latest result? Car fanatics can watch their favorite TV show Top Gear on the Playstation 3 - while they are inside the game world of Gran Turismo 5.
Can you beat the Stig?
Apparently not a single day goes by at Top Gear HQ without someone claiming they can get around their Top Gear Test track faster than famous test driver “The Stig”. Next year, on Playstation 3, everyone will be able to Read on…
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7 September, 2007
Wow this week is busy - presentations in Madrid, Brussels and Hilversum and I’m struggling just a bit to keep up. So far so good though, I had good fun with the Crossmedia MBA today, we had a special “One day MBA” where people could check out snippets of the MBA content. Some nice people in the audience and some very interesting presentations by others. I can still learn a lot.
I did a 1 hour presentation myself, trying to give a Read on…
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10 July, 2007
Microsoft has announced extension of warranty for the Xbox360 from one-year to three-years. The announcement comes in response to an unusually high number of Xbox 360 failures. This means a massive extra cost being taken by Microsoft of about 1.15 billion dollars, to right the wrongs of the shipped Xboxes. Wow. But OK, Microsoft shows it takes the Xbox360 and its’ customers seriously.
What’s wrong?
The reported problems are usually described as the “red ring of death”, as shown on the image accompanying this article, a red ring on the front of the console around the power button. Once the red ring is there the Xbox stops responding. This problem is caused by overheating of the Xbox360 and is usually permanent, meaning that the unit will have to be sent back to be repaired. According to Xbox hardware fan sites Microsoft is fixing these problems by placing an additional heatsink near system’s GPU. A cooler GPU should help solve these problems, so the bitter pill might just be the cure…
A meaningful number
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, said the number of Read on…
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3 June, 2007
Weinig mensen zullen het zich herinneren, maar ooit stonden Bill Gates en Steve Jobs samen op het podium tijdens een Macworld conferentie. Dat was toen Gates met Microsoft nog software voor de Mac maakte. Sinds die tijd is het niet meer voorgekomen, maar op de D5 conferentie in Californie werden de twee absolute iconen van de computerrevolutie herenigd. In een gezamenlijk interview op de conferentie gaven de heren behoorlijk ontspannen antwoord op de vragen van de interviewers. Kijk hier naar het filmpje met de highlights.
D5??
De D5 conferentie is een Read on…
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Author: Jeroen Verkroost - Category: Internet, Gaming - 906 readers - Comment
9 May, 2007
De Wii is een fijn ding. Als je mensen op bezoek hebt, vooral als er niet-gamers bij zijn, is het een geweldig apparaat om je mee te vermaken. Zo heeft Wii Sports bowling inmiddels al vele enthousiaste aanhangers onder de bezoekers van ons huis. Maar de Wii wordt steeds meer een online console, en er komen dus ook steeds meer features voor gebruik naast het gamen bij.
Zo lanceerde Google onlangs de Wiider Read on…
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26 March, 2007
Mocht het je nog niet opgevallen zijn, de Playstation 3 is dan eindelijk geland in Europa. In Belgie was dat vrij gemakkelijk te missen, de enige plek waar ik persoonlijk bereikt ben met deze boodschap was in de Carrefour, waar een maand lang een stem het publiek in de supermarkt opriep om het apparaat tijdig te reserveren. Weinig marketinginspanningen van Sony verder, kennelijk.
Hij is OK.
Maar zaterdag nam ik hem dan toch mee, en de eerste kennismaking valt me Read on…
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17 March, 2007
Microsoft maakte deze week bekend dat de Xbox Live online service, waar inmiddels 6 miljoen Xbox 360 eigenaars lid van zijn, vanaf mei ook beschikbaar is voor PC gamers die Windows Vista gebruiken. Daarmee kunnen PC gamers tegen Xbox gamers spelen, en heeft Microsoft in mei direct een flink platform voor online gaming beschikbaar voor de PC. Deze lancering komt een jaar nadat Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stelde dat Microsoft “anywhere” gaming mogelijk zou gaan maken.
Ook naar mobiel.
In het verhaal van Gates was naast het linken van game consoles en computers ook sprake van Read on…
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Author: Jeroen Verkroost - Category: Mobile, Consoles, Gaming - 1,352 readers - Comment
31 January, 2007
Ik was vandaag onverwacht deelnemer in een forumdiscussie bij het crossmediagames seminar in Club 11. Dat seminar was georganiseerd onder het volgende motto: “In aanvulling op de traditionele plaatsen voor games vinden games anno 2007 ook hun plek binnen (social) communities en zijn games steeds vaker een crossmediale extensie van printmedia en formats voor tv, film en radio.” Ex Machina, het organiserende bedrijf, timmert zelf al sinds 2001 aan de weg op het gebied van multiplayer games, maar liet als goed gastheer sprekers uit een aantal verschillende hoeken van de media en de gameswereld aan het woord.
Containerbegrip.
Het was een interessante middag, die wat mij betreft aantoont dat de gamesmarkt Read on…
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