Author Archive | Jared Newman

PS3 Bundle Speaks Volumes About Playstation Move

Posted by Jared Newman on August 18, 2010 at 8:39 am

I’m not in Germany for GamesCom, but Sony’s big announcement from the video game trade show was a Playstation 3 bundle that includes the Playstation Move camera and motion control wand, one game and a 320 GB hard drive, for $400.

Interesting strategy. By opting for a motion control bundle with a bigger hard drive and price tag than the standard PS3 model, Sony is sending a clear message: This is motion control for the devoted gamer. Come for the roomier hard drive, stay for the fancy new peripheral that lets you play real-time strategy games on a console.

At least I hope that’s the message. After all, a $400 console is twice the price of Nintendo’s Wii, and $100 more than the Kinect Xbox 360 bundle Microsoft announced last month. Sony’s kidding itself if it thinks the occasional gamer is going to sink $400 into a game console, especially now that so many cheaper options exist.

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Groveshark's Brief App Store Stint is Over

Posted by Jared Newman on August 17, 2010 at 3:53 pm

The iPhone App Store now plays host to many kinds of subscription music apps, but Grooveshark is no longer one of them.

Apple brought the axe down on Grooveshark after five days in the App Store, and all it took was one complaint from Universal Music Group’s U.K. office, according to Grooveshark’s official blog. “This comes as an absolute surprise to us, and we are not sleeping until we figure out exactly how to fix this—and get Grooveshark for iPhone back in the App Store,” says the Grooveshark crew.

Grooveshark for iPhone was like a lighter, less-committed version of MOG or Rdio. For $3 per month, users could search for and play any song on-demand, and create playlists of their favorites, but the app didn’t allow users to create full music libraries, like you can with the aforementioned $10 per month apps. Grooveshark’s website does include these capabilities, and the ad-supported version is free.

Grooveshark’s rates are low because it doesn’t license music from any major labels except EMI, which negotiated a deal after suing the service. Instead, music is uploaded by users at their own risk and shared with the masses. I don’t know why Grooveshark has escaped the wrath of other labels, but I do know labels are particularly demanding with mobile phones. This is why Rdio costs $10 per month for smartphone access instead of $5 for PC-only, and why Napster acknowledged nearly a year ago that high licensing fees for mobile streaming would make its $5 per month plan impossible.

Curiously, Grooveshark remains available for Android, Blackberry, WebOS and Symbian phones. Maybe Apple was the only company Universal complained to, but unless the label thinks it can cripple Grooveshark without any further action, I doubt it will be the last.

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Windows Phone 7 Games List: A Complete Breakdown

Posted by Jared Newman on August 17, 2010 at 9:21 am

As expected, Microsoft made a big announcement about Windows Phone 7 gaming this week, revealing the first wave of Xbox Live-enabled games that will be available at launch. The list includes 63 games, with more promised before Windows Phone 7’s holiday launch.

As I explained in my rundown of Windows Phone 7 gaming, these Xbox Live games will include achievements and leaderboards, and Microsoft says you can also try them before you buy. Not included in this lineup is the more open Windows Phone Marketplace, which won’t be curated by Microsoft and won’t have access to the Xbox features. Microsoft also didn’t say anything about the ability to play games across the phone, PC and Xbox 360.

Just how impressive is Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 gaming lineup? To find out, I made a big spreadsheet of every Xbox Live game announced, noting which ones are also available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre, PSP Minis, DSiWare and Flash. You be the judge of whether Microsoft’s flying out of the gate.

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When War Games Hit Too Close to Home

Posted by Jared Newman on August 16, 2010 at 2:35 pm

Over the weekend, Fox News kicked off a controversy by asking whether the upcoming Medal of Honor goes too far in letting players fight as the Taliban.

The debate on Fox News and the angry comments from Karen Meredith, a Gold Star Mom, don’t surprise me in the slightest or interest me all that much. Anyone who’s kept an eye on the first-person shooter since it was announced last December could’ve seen the outrage coming from a mile away.

What interests me is that even some game critics, who as a group usually rally to defend the morality of violent video games, realize that Electronic Arts might’ve crossed a line with Medal of Honor.

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Asus Offers Proof That the iPad Hurts Netbooks

Posted by Jared Newman on August 16, 2010 at 10:36 am

Whether Apple’s iPad is killing netbooks remains a touchy subject, but Asus has added fuel to the fire by lowering its netbook shipments for next quarter.

According to DigiTimes, Asus president and chief executive Jerry Shen acknowledged that the iPad was cutting into netbook sales, which fell short of expectations last quarter. At a conference for investors, Shen reminded the audience that Asus is working on its own tablet and e-reader, but said the company will continue offer the Eee PC netbook line.

There is at least some other proof that the iPad is hurting netbooks. A Morgan Stanley/Alphawise study conducted in May showed that 44 percent of U.S. consumers who planned to buy an iPad were doing so in lieu of a netbook or notebook PC. And why not? Between smartphones and PCs, there might be room for a third device, but four is a stretch, especially when tablets and netbooks overlap in their ability to check e-mail and surf the web. That doesn’t mean the iPad is killing netbooks, it just means consumers will make a choice, which explains why hardware makers besides Apple are trying to push out their own tablets.

Still, I’m taking Shen’s claims about his company’s netbook performance with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that Asus lost netbook market share between 2008 and 2009, and could lose its second place standing behind Acer with strong netbook sales expected of Samsung. Even before the iPad launched, Asus was already seeing flat-to-meager increases in netbook sales. Meanwhile, iSuppli expects overall netbook sales to grow by 30 percent this year.

In other words, Apple’s tablet makes a good scapegoat.

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Instant Jam Goes Where Other Music Games Won't

Posted by Jared Newman on August 16, 2010 at 5:00 am

Although I sometimes say nice things about music games such as Guitar Hero, I don’t host enough parties to justify spending money on them, but I might consider buying a fake plastic guitar for Instant Jam, a music game that launches in closed beta on Facebook today.

At a glance, Instant Jam looks like Guitar Hero for the PC. Colored notes scroll down the screen, prompting you to press keyboard buttons in step with the guitar track. You can also use guitar controllers from other games, as long as they have USB output.

Here’s the big twist: Instant Jam uses music you already own, reading songs off your hard drive and matching them with a database of note charts. If a note chart exists for your favorite tune, you can play it in Instant Jam for free, and if a chart exists for a song you don’t own, the game provides links to iTunes and Amazon. Furthermore, there’s no music licensing involved, so even artists that have refused to appear in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, such as Led Zeppelin, are represented among the initial 2,000 songs.

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Google Spits Out Video Game Release Dates, Sometimes

Posted by Jared Newman on August 13, 2010 at 10:56 am

Here’s an intriguing idea: Google automatically compiles a massive list of release dates for video games, movies, books and music, and sticks the information on top of relevant search results.

I have no idea whether that’s going on, but Google is at least quietly fooling around with the concept for video games, as journalist Kyle Orland discovered. For instance, searching for “Mafia 2 release date” brings up a date and a list of sources, in this case Wikipedia and VGReleases. I’ve gotten this to work for a few other games, but only when they’re a couple weeks away from launch.

Looking up release dates for video games is an otherwise tedious process. Wikipedia tends to be my go-to source, but the information isn’t always reliable — launches are fickle and subject to change — and getting to the page requires a few steps. Publisher’s video game websites are usually abominations, locked behind age verification gates (do those really work?) and drowned in clumsy Flash. Good luck finding any useful information from the official source.

Because I’m a nerd, I don’t look up release information for movies and music nearly as often as I do for video games, but Google search results for other media would be just as valuable. Google could even take it a step further and build a media database for manual browsing, always linking to its sources so you can verify the information.

Google’s video game release date listings aren’t perfect — in all cases, I’m seeing launch dates for Europe, rather than North America — but I hope they’re a work in progress, and a sign of bigger things to come.

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Windows Phone 7 Gaming: What We Know So Far

Posted by Jared Newman on August 12, 2010 at 10:14 pm

At a presentation for developers in March, Microsoft showed a single Xbox Live game running on three different platforms. First came the PC, then Windows Phone 7, and finally the Xbox 360, each one picking up where the last left off. Developing games for all three would be a breeze, Microsoft promised, and it seemed that by connecting the three screens, the company’s gaming strategy would go where the competition hadn’t.

Five months later, Windows Phone 7 gaming is still somewhat of a mystery. Microsoft has missed a couple opportunities to show that Windows Phone 7 is a serious gaming platform. The phone was mostly absent from E3, a major video game industry trade show, and when several publications tested Windows Phone 7 prototypes in July, the Xbox Live section was an empty shell, with no actual games to speak of.

Microsoft still has until the holiday season to impress gamers with Windows Phone 7, but there are a lot of blanks to be filled in. For now, I’ve learned enough to paint a blurry picture of what Windows Phone 7 gaming will be like.

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Notion Ink Swears the Adam Tablet is Real, and Priced

Posted by Jared Newman on August 12, 2010 at 4:27 pm

In a nice addendum to Harry’s definitive iPad alternative guide, Notion Ink is divulging price and launch details about its Adam Android tablet, as if to suggest it’s not vaporware.

There’s still a fair amount of throat-clearing in a blog post by Rohan Shravan, Notion Ink’s founder and chief executive, but the bottom line is that the Adam will supposedly cost between $399 and $498, depending on whether you want 3G coverage and the PixelQi screen that can switch to an outdoor-friendly reflective mode. Slashgear’s inside source gets more specific: $399 for Wi-Fi and an LCD screen, $449 for 3G and LCD, or Wi-Fi and PixelQi, and $498 for 3G and PixelQi. Shravan says he’s aiming for FCC certification in November.

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A Sony Ericsson Playstation Phone Wishlist

Posted by Jared Newman on August 12, 2010 at 9:41 am

The folks at Sony Ericsson had a novel idea, according to Engadget’s tipsters: Build a smartphone running Android 3.0, add a sliding set of game controls instead of a physical keyboard, open a section of the Android Market specifically for this phone’s games, and put the weight of Sony’s Playstation brand behind it. And just like that, the PSP Phone has its most credible rumor yet.

Engadget’s Josh Topolsky says Sony Ericsson’s gaming phone could arrive as early as October, which means we’ve got a few months to speculate wildly on the missing details (the image here is just a mockup). Here’s what I would like to see in the fabled Playstation phone:

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