Author Archive | Jared Newman

A Modest Proposal for Sony’s PSP, and the Marketing Thereof

Posted by Jared Newman on February 2, 2010 at 7:07 pm

Nintendo and Sony reacted predictably to the iPad’s debut last week — that is, they blew it off.

Sony’s comments, in particular, deserve scrutiny, because PSP sales fell further last year than any other console. It’s harder to find fault with Nintendo’s remarks when the Nintendo DS continues to outsell every gaming machine on the market. John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment’s director of hardware marketing, said Apple’s gaming presence has been “a net positive” for Sony. “When people want a deeper, richer console, they start playing on a PSP,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Sony’s been saying this for a while. The company believes that the PSP offers deep gaming experiences while the iPhone is shallow. That is increasingly less true as games like Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars end up on Apple’s devices. Besides, ignoring consumers who liken portable games to snacks isn’t wise. That’s probably why Sony introduced PSP Minis, a downloadable catalog of cheap, small-scale games, albeit more expensive than the same games on the iPhone.

So here’s what I propose: Instead of trying to position the PSP as the major leagues to the iPhone’s farm team, Sony should exploit the one real advantage it has. I’m talking about buttons.

We’re entering an age where buttons are marginalized. The Wii threw out many of them. Nintendo DS games often focus on the touch screen. Microsoft’s Project Natal will do away with buttons entirely. Play any console game that’s been ported to the iPhone, and you’ll miss the D-Pad’s tactile feedback. Someone’s got to stand up against the erosion of gaming’s most time-honored tradition.

It might as well be Sony, whose PSP is blissfully set in its ways. Mr. Koller, I propose that you ditch the silly marketing jargon and say something that gamers really understand: “Button mashers, welcome home.”

6 comments

In Japan, More Xbox 360 Storage Than Necessary

Posted by Jared Newman on February 1, 2010 at 2:03 pm

It’s a time-honored geek tradition to lust after gadgets released in Japan, but I wouldn’t waste any desire on Microsoft’s 250 GB Xbox 360 hard drive.

The drive will be sold as a standalone product in Japan starting March 11 for roughly $170, according to this Impress press release. Stateside, Microsoft currently sells a 120 GB hard drive for $150.

Microsoft could bring the 250 GB drive to western markets soon, but not necessarily as a standalone product. Last month, Kotaku reported that the Xbox 360 Elite, which includes a 120 GB drive, was out of stock at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Gamestop. This suggests that Microsoft is clearing out inventory to make room for Xbox 360s with bigger drives.

I could see why Microsoft would want to pack 250 GB hard drives into its consoles. The basic Playstation 3 slim includes a 120 GB drive, so Microsoft would have one more selling point for the Xbox 360. A standalone drive could theoretically follow, just to even things out.

But to the original point, a 250 GB HDD isn’t necessary, especially if you’ve already got a 120 GB drive. So much of the Xbox 360 is streaming, including 1080p videos in the Zune Marketplace, Netflix Instant Watch movies, Last.fm music and your PC’s entire music and video library. I’ll admit that my Xbox 360’s 20 GB drive feels cramped (though I still have about 5 GB left), but latecomers who got a 60 GB or 120 GB drive won’t have that problem.

Extra storage is best-suited for people who install lots of games to the hard drive and never uninstall them, download insane amounts of Xbox Live Arcade or On Demand games and prefer to put all their music and movies directly on the console. If all three scenarios don’t apply, I imagine 120 GB will be enough, especially given the price of Xbox 360 hard drives as a whole.

6 comments

Ubisoft to PC Gamers: You Must Play Online

Posted by Jared Newman on January 27, 2010 at 11:18 am

Count Ubisoft’s latest anti-piracy plan as another ill-conceived scheme that punishes legitimate players.

Gamespy reports that the publisher will allow unlimited installs of its future PC games, but Ubisoft’s servers will handle saved games and authentication. That means you can’t play without an Internet connection.

In way, it’s a forward-thinking plan. Ubisoft’s looking ahead to a time when Internet connections will be everywhere, so you’ll never have a problem proving you paid for a copy of the game. Storing saved games online also means you can start playing on your laptop from where you left off on your desktop.

The big problem is we’re not yet in the age of ubiquitous Internet connections. Sure, you’ll have no problem playing at home — unless your Internet connection goes out for whatever reason — but this scheme rules out airplanes, remote areas or hotels that don’t have Wi-Fi. Ubisoft is betting most people don’t play in those situations, but it’s not fair for the publisher to make that decision. At the very least, Ubisoft game boxes should have big warning labels so players know what they’re getting.

One other concern: Ubisoft’s authentication servers aren’t guaranteed for life, and 10 years from now, players could be shut out of the game they bought. In fact, last time Ubisoft tried online authentication with Assassin’s Creed, some players had trouble immediately after purchasing.

In any case, is this really a fool-proof method for stopping piracy? If it was, I’d think other publishers would be using the same methods. Even Steam, a major platform for PC gaming that uses online authentication, has an offline mode.

The funny thing is that, in 2008, Ubisoft released Prince of Persia for PC with no digital rights management, apparently fed up with its past failures to stop piracy. I don’t know the results of that little experiment, but I guess Ubisoft figured it’s more profitable to penalize their paying customers than to let pirates roam free.

2 comments

Microsoft Sued Over Xbox Live Points

Posted by Jared Newman on January 26, 2010 at 9:11 am

One major problem with Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft’s downloadable game service, is that you must deal in “Microsoft Points,” and they come in increments that usually cost more than the price of a game alone. A lawyer has now filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for this practice.

Samuel Lassoff, of Horsham, Penn., argues that the Microsoft Points system effectively charges you for purchases you can’t make, because the leftover points are rarely enough to buy another game, InformationWeek reports. He calls this “a scheme” for Microsoft to “unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling” of his account. It’s not clear how much money he’s seeking.

This issue of point systems — which applies to Nintendo’s Wii Shop channel as well — has been a pet peeve of mine and other gamers ever since Microsoft introduced Xbox Live Arcade. It’s as if you walked into Subway, and instead of paying $5 for a sandwich, you’re required to pay $6.25, and use the rest on a future purchase. And you’re charged $6.25 on the next visit as well, making it tough to escape the cycle of leftover credit.

In fairness, Microsoft lets you pay in exact dollars for its Games on Demand service, which offers large-scale games such as Mass Effect and Bioshock for download, but the company won’t commit to charging dollars for Xbox Live Arcade.

Last week, Xbox group product manager Aaron Greenberg told G4 that the point system was never meant to mislead customers, and that currency fluctuations and technical complexities make a switch challenging. Greenberg dodged the issue of overcharging in points, an issue that has nothing to do with currency.

I’m not a judge, but calling this method “fraudulent” seems like a long shot. “Greedy and unfair” seems more fitting, even though that won’t fly in court. Still, I’m glad someone’s ruffling Microsoft’s feathers over this. The point system can stay if it means consumers can pay exactly what they want, but I’m at the point where the current system is a deterrent, because I don’t want to get stuck with the extra credits. Maybe Lassoff’s lawsuit is the kick in the pants Microsoft needs.

13 comments

Why Are We Talking About the Sony “Kill Switch?”

Posted by Jared Newman on January 25, 2010 at 4:22 pm

In what looks like an example of staggeringly bad journalism, the Telegraph ran a story on Sony’s mythical “kill switch,” or “Sony Timer” — a Japanese urban legend that says Sony products are timed to fail shortly after their warranties expire.

My problem with the article isn’t the urban legend itself — almost two decades old, the myth is fascinating in that it applies only to Sony products — but that it pretends to be a news story while offering no new information whatsoever. The story, by Hunter Skipworth, has not a single statistic, quote or recent piece of evidence to back its claim that “many” Japanese people still believe in the Sony Timer (and how many is “many,” by the way?). Nonetheless, Wired, Engadget and CrunchGear picked up the story without questioning its validity.

Much of the article is rooted in things that occurred four years ago, such as the 2006 recall of 4.1 million Dell laptops containing Sony batteries, and an issue with Bravia TVs that gave them just 1,200 hours of life unless patched. Skipworth says the rumor persists in manga comics and Internet message boards, but he links to no examples, recent or historic. He cites comments from Sony executives that date to 2006 and 2007, saying that the myth is hurting the company, but didn’t bother to get an update for 2010.

It’s also worth noting that an article on the blog Pink Tentacle, which predates the Telegraph article by nine days, has several of the same anecdotes. However, that article does not pretend to be news; the blog clearly states that the post is part of weekly series on Japanese urban legends.

I’m not disputing the urban legend’s prevalence in Japan, nor am I testifying for or against Sony products’ longevity. But the Sony Timer is a 20-year old myth that picked up legs four years ago thanks to a couple incidents. If you’re going to bring it up again and present it as new information, some actual new information is essential.

7 comments

Can the Kindle Play Doom? Of Course Not.

Posted by Jared Newman on January 22, 2010 at 5:41 pm

With Amazon planning to open a Kindle app store later this year, Brad Nicholson at Destructoid asked developer Sonic Boom what sorts of games would be possible on the e-reader.

The answer, from Sonic Boom’s chief operating officer Josh Grant, left me scratching my head. Word, puzzle and card games are on the way, Grant said, and beyond that, they’re looking at book tie-in applications that “take advantage of the literary aspects of the device.” He avoided getting into the details of what exactly the Kindle is capable of.

Now, I’m not expecting that the Kindle should run Doom. Elsewhere, I’ve mused that Space Invaders would be awesome, but I’m not even sure that’s possible with the slow refresh rate of E-Ink displays and a processor originally intended for reading, not gaming. Still, it would’ve been nice if Sonic Boom shed some light on the matter.

It seems safe to say that if a game can be played on paper — or a product made of paper — the Kindle can handle it. But how far can and will developers take that ability? Will card games be limited to Solitaire, Freecell and their ilk, or will we see something as elaborate as online Texas Hold’em? (And would Amazon even allow that kind of bandwidth use?)

I’m also thinking we might see some board games. Electronic Arts, which Amazon has mentioned as a developer, already offers a bunch of Hasbro classics for mobile phones, including Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly. Those certainly seem better suited for the Kindle than Madden NFL 10 or Need for Speed: Shift.

Of course, none of these potential offerings will be as robust as what you can get with a smartphone or — dare I say it –a tablet, but as long as they enrich the Kindle experience, there’s nothing wrong with that.

6 comments

The Press Tries OnLive, Results Not Stellar

Posted by Jared Newman on January 21, 2010 at 5:05 pm

Almost a year after OnLive promised to uproot everything we know about game consoles and PC rigs, a journalist broke into a closed private beta and reported his findings. The results leave something to be desired, but they also don’t give OnLive a fair shake.

OnLive shocked the games industry last March by announcing a cloud gaming service that could run even the most demanding PC games. The idea was to process games on remote servers, equipped with the latest technology, then send compressed data to the player, who would need only a low-end PC. Since then, no one in the press has been allowed to try the service, but PC Perspective’s Ryan Shrout gained unauthorized access through “a friend of a friend of a friend.”

The bad news? Games don’t look as good as they would on a high-end PC. Resolution topped out at 1280-by-720, and games looked sharper and cleaner on the local system than they did over OnLive, even when reduced to that resolution.

The really bad news is latency, which Shrout said was noticeable at best and terrible at worst. While the racing game Burnout: Paradise felt okay, the first-person shooter Unreal Tournament 3 was unplayable due to its reliance on lightning-quick reflexes.

There is, however, a big caveat to this experiment: Shrout was playing from outside the southern California area, where beta testing is happening, and OnLive showed a warning message saying he was experiencing high latency. He claims that lag measured 85 ms. OnLive once said that 35 ms to 40 ms is typical, and 80 ms is on the high-end.

Shrout also acknowledges that lag becomes less noticeable when using a game pad instead of the mouse and keyboard. Combine that with lower latency, and you might have a service that passes muster.

Though I’m somewhat skeptical about lag, OnLive’s business model has always worried me most. Word is that the service will combine a base subscription with individual game purchases, but we’ve yet to see actual numbers. Until we can measure how OnLive’s price measures up to the status quo, I’m not convinced it’ll revolutionize anything.

2 comments

Palm Pre Gaming to Bulk Up Soon

Posted by Jared Newman on January 20, 2010 at 4:58 pm

During CES, I missed the news that Palm plans to release a development kit for 3D video games (as in, games from a 3D perspective, nothing stereoscopic) on its WebOS phones. At the time, Palm also announced a line-up of 3D games including the racer Asphalt 5, a hang-gliding game called Glyder 2 and The Sims 3.

Now, the folks at PreCentral have spotted Palm in the presentation line-up for March’s Game Developers Conference. “An Overview to Creating Games with Palm’s Plug-in Development Kit (PDK)” will be a technical session for game developers, teaching them how to make 3D games for WebOS.

The news fits in nicely with two other developments with Palm: Updated versions of the Pre and Pixi are coming to Verizon Wireless this month, and the WebOS software development kit is now open to the public. That means many more apps are on the way, especially if Verizon’s status as the nation’s largest wireless carrier boosts Pre and Pixi sales, luring in more developers.

Those two developments apply to more than just games, but Palm’s got the right idea by presenting at GDC. Surely, the company sees how games dominate the iPhone’s App Store, and wants gaming to play a big part in the WebOS App Catalog. Check out the landing page for Palm’s list of mobile WebOS applications: 3D games are front and center.

Obviously Palm has a long, long way to go before matching the iPhone’s library of games, so don’t expect Palm to diss Nintendo and Sony anytime soon, as Apple has. But competing with Android on the quantity and quality of games offered seems more realistic. At the very least, WebOS doesn’t suffer from a fragmented market of operating systems and phones, so it’s less likely to draw ire from game developers as Palm bulks up its library.

One comment

The Apple Tablet As Game Device: A Brief History

Posted by Jared Newman on January 18, 2010 at 5:07 pm

We know so very little about the Apple tablet, but the invites to a January 27 Apple event that arrived today add a new wrinkle to the story: Among the invitees was Kotaku, a prominent gaming blog. That suggests there will be enough gaming related news to merit Kotaku’s attendance.

Could the tablet be Apple’s biggest push into video games yet? Let’s look at the clues.

In April, Gizmodo reported that Apple hired two gaming executives within a week’s time. There was Richard Teversham, former senior European director of business, insights and strategy for the Xbox, and Bob Drebin, chief technical officer of AMD’s graphics group and creator of the graphics chip for Nintendo’s GameCube. Tablet rumors had been around for years at that point, but the story was finding new momentum thanks to a Wall Street Journal story on Steve Jobs’ health and ongoing projects.

August yielded a juicy rumor from an unnamed analyst, who told Barron’s that Apple’s tablet would emphasize multimedia and gaming. Another analyst, Jon Peddie, added that gaming “will be a big part of what this is about.” Grain of salt: The unnamed analyst projected a November 2009 launch.

In November, an Apple job posting appeared, seeking a game designer for the iPhone and iPod Touch. One potential theory held that this was actually a covert gig for tablet game development.

It’s also worth mentioning that Apple talked up gaming in two press events last year. The unveil of the iPhone’s OS 3.0 included support for microtransactions, and Apple made a point of knocking Sony and Nintendo at its iPod event in September. Not tablet-related, but proof that Apple now sees gaming as a lucrative business.

Revisiting my reasons Apple shouldn’t get into gaming, I still think a dedicated game console doesn’t make much sense, and a tablet whose primary purpose is gaming would disappoint a lot of people. But if Apple indeed reveals the tablet on January 27, and a significant chunk of Steve Jobs’ presentation demonstrates some new ways of playing video games, I wouldn’t be surprised.

2 comments

My Beef With SarcMark

Posted by Jared Newman on January 15, 2010 at 6:01 pm

Period, question mark, exclamation point — the written word has done just fine with these three sentence-ending punctuations, but Sarcasm, Inc. reckons there’s room for one more.

The SarcMark aims to make sarcasm easier to express online, essentially by beating the reader over the head with it. Add the squiggly and dot to the end of a sentence, and you’ll know your words won’t be interpreted as genuine. Make no mistake, the SarcMark is a real product, selling for $2 if you want to type it on your Mac, Windows or Blackberry keyboard by holding Ctrl and pressing “.”

If you can’t tell from the tone of my words alone, I’m not convinced the world needs a SarcMark. For that matter I’m not certain the very concept isn’t a work of sarcasm.

The problem with SarcMark is partly technical. Unless the idea catches on in the mainstream, you’ll have to explain its meaning to everyone who sees it. So you’re explaining a punctuation that’s explaining sarcasm. That’s not redundant or anything.

But the bigger issue is that sarcasm doesn’t deserve the easy pass, even if the problem it’s trying to solve is genuine. There are plenty of emotions that are tough to convey in words alone, such as dejection, skepticism, urgency and calm. Why should sarcasm, above all, get its own punctuation?

Let’s just give sarcasm an emoticon and call it a day.

24 comments