Birds-Eye.Net Published Articles About Online Gaming:

Universities Pave the Way for Online Gaming
Internet Gaming: Demystifying the Attraction
Internet Gaming: Understanding the Attraction
Online Gaming: Getting Down to Business
see also - our online gaming white paper:
Online Gaming from a Broadband Perspective

Meta Research:

Public companies to watch who have products or interesting in online gaming...

Internet Gambling

Study shows traditional gambling levels off to make way for online boom (September 00, 2005) Online gambling is now a competitive business and companies are increasing their marketing investment in advertising, brand building and customer loyalty schemes, to attract higher income groups. Last year's ORC GamblerTrack research showed that online gambling increased by 46%. However, online gambling remains small overall in comparison to traditional methods, and clearly has a long way to go to seriously rival the National Lottery.

Online Gamblers To Face Quiz (August 9, 2005) The booming online gaming industry is hoping to weed out addicts by offering a "scientifically developed questionnaire" on poker and casino sites. The survey, which is designed to show whether users have a gambling problem, is part of a first attempt to self-regulate the army of websites offering poker and casino games that have sprung up in recent years.

Is Online Gaming The Next Tobacco? (May 30, 2005)As offshore online gambling clients try to attract U.S. agencies, they may find fewer players then they imagined. The latest gambling client to launch a review here in the U.S., Belle Rock Gaming, will not be meeting with any Omnicom agencies, for starters. Online gambling, deemed illegal in the U.S., is shrouded in legal uncertanties for shops, prompting many to pass on advertisers waving millions of dollars at them.

Spectre Gaming Goes Live With Its Class II Gaming System in Oklahoma (Novemeber 2, 2004) Spectre has reached another significant milestone with the introduction and launch of our Class II gaming system and devices into Blue Star Casino. We have worked with industry veteran Gary Watkins to develop a product that we believe will scale, adapt, compete and appeal to players in the Class II marketplace as it exists today, and as it evolves.

Casinos Are on a Roll (December 2, 2003) An analysis of 13-F filings -- the quarterly equity holdings filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by institutional investment managers with more than $100 million in assets -- shows that institutions boosted their net positions in the gaming space by 2%, or $623 million, in the third quarter. Indeed, according to Hausler's research, institutions spent $3.7 billion on gaming and gaming-related stocks in the third quarter. But with the Dow Jones Casino and Gaming Index up more than 70% since its March low, institutions have been taking profits as well, selling $3.1 billion in casino and gaming stocks during the period.

Online Gambers Sue their Creditors (August 12, 2003) A California couple that lost more than $100,000 gambling online is suing a host of credit card companies and banks, claiming the businesses shouldn't have processed the wagers. The countersuit is seeking to relieve the Hardings of their debt. If it succeeds, it wouldn't be the first suit to put a dent in an online gambler's liability to a credit card company. In two similar suits also brought by Rothken, both Discover Card and Visa agreed to relieve some portion of the charges that online gamblers had rung up. Online gambling payment has also become a hot topic among federal lawmakers. Two weeks ago, a Senate committee approved a bill that would make credit card payments to gambling sites illegal. The House passed a similar bill in June.

Internet gambling bill gets amendment (May 19, 2003) Cannon's amendment, which would remove exemptions granted to technologies employed by state lotteries and the horse racing industry. Leach bill, which forbids gamblers from using credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers to pay for online wagers. Internet gambling wagers have soared from $445 million six years ago to projections of $4.2 billion this year and $10 billion annually in the near future. Meanwhile, the current number of 1,800 gambling Web sites continues to grow.

Casino exec suggests online gambling plan (May 5, 2003) A Las Vegas casino executive urged Congress to regulate rather than prohibit Internet gambling. MGM Mirage has been perhaps the most aggressive brick-and-mortar casino to explore the Internet gambling market. After receiving an online gaming license from the Isle of Man in September, MGM Mirage has collected Internet bets from 10 countries. The United Kingdom is MGM Mirage's chief online market and the other countries are located primarily in Western Europe. The casino does not accept online bets from the United States, Hornbuckle said.

Chimera Signs Joint Venture Agreement (February, 5, 2003) - not really important release other than lists vendors in Internet Gambling space.

Grid Computing and Game Hosting services for massive multi-player online games (MMOG):

Terraplay a network operator platform for high quality, commercial real-time online gaming. Terraplay is both network and device independent enabling content access to the fast growing global gaming community. The system ensures a robust, scalable and easily implemented technology that optimises network resource utilisation and game performance, driving usage by providing superior experience.

Butterfly.Net provides the software infrastructure for massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs) that connect PCs, consoles and mobile devices. Our unique solution, a blend of open source standards and highly optimized, proprietary code, provides unparalleled scalability, reliability and performance. Unlike server-bound systems, our platform, dubbed the Butterfly Grid, dynamically allocated communications and computing resources to the most populated areas and popular games.

Butterfly.net Becomes Big with Sony (March, 07 2003)  The deal comes nine months after IBM agreed to power Levine's Butterfly Grid Though financial terms of the Sony agreement were not made public, Levine said he will boost the company's current staff of 14 to more than 35 over the next two years.; "The fact that Sony is working with this small company in West Virginia seems to have struck people's imaginations," said Levine, a 37-year-old Yale graduate who founded the company and is its CEO. 'And rightly so. I think people realize there's something different going on here."

Sony plans to use "grid" technology to increase online gaming (March 3, 2003) With new software that can support more than a million simultaneous users, Sony is hoping to entice PlayStation 2 owners to join online gaming through the videogame console instead of relying on a PC and likely having a sluggish play experience. Sony plans to accomplish this through "grid" technology, a system of linking computers via the Internet and allocating tasks to those with free space, thereby providing greater and more efficient processing power. Computer giant IBM and start-up software company Butterfly.net are developing the grid.

Firm signs with Sony to use IBM's new grid application (February, 28 2003)  Online gaming platform company Butterfly.net has signed a PS2 tools and middleware agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment America to use IBM's grid infrastructure and Butterfiy.net's gaming grid application. The technology will be unveiled next week at the Game Developer's Conference in San Jose, Calif.

Sony to use IBM computing technology for online gaming (February, 27 2003)  Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. will lease IBM Corp. equipment and networks to build online gaming environments using a ''grid'' platform built by Butterfly.net, a Martinsburg, W.Va.-based game technology developer.  The grid structure uses an array of powerful servers linked together to form a supercomputer that supply computing cycles to meet game players' demands. Sony will lease access to the IBM-Butterfly-owned technology for three years.

IBM, Butterfly.Net Team on Gaming Grid (February, 27 2003)  IBM's Ultradense blade servers will be the backbone of a Linux-based grid that will enable millions of users and developers to access Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 2 games on the Internet. The Butterfly Grid for PlayStation 2--created by IBM, Sony and Butterfly.net Inc., a pioneer in grid computing.

Online Gaming Industry Finally Gets a Load of the "Grid" (November, 3 2003)  A new crop of online games, including The Sims Online, are about to be launched. This generation of games is expected to make unprecedented demands on computer processing power. That's where Levine's Butterfly.net enters the picture. The West Virginia company employs 13 programmers who have created software linking powerful computers that are connected by the Internet. Harnessing their combined processing power distributes the workload more efficiently and at a lower cost. Meanwhile, the partnership with IBM allows Butterfly.net to act as an outsourcer for other game publishers. Because Butterfly can easily adjust the number of individual computers on the grid, a company can quickly add or subtract processing power to match demand.

The Business of Broadband Gaming:

Rumours of console price wars (April 29, 2003) According to the news piece, and as we reported earlier this month, the Xbox is due to drop to $149 in the US. Sony will also be pitching its PS2 at that price. Meanwhile, Nintendo will be dropping the Gamecube down to $99. The big money bets for winners of this round of the console wars must go to Sony. Or at least poorer old Microsoft. It's still losing money on every Xbox sold.

Butterfly.net Becomes Big with Sony (March 07, 2003) Creating online games today is a complex, expensive task. A company launching a game must fund fiber connections, customer support and server capacity, then hope the offering aftracts enough players to turn a profit.; Games that prove too popular can be trouble, too, with overloaded servers kicking off garners in mid-play or creating other hiccups.; The Butterfly Grid sidesteps those hazards by making available, whenever needed, a geographically dispersed network of servers. To players, the game would continue searnlessly even as hundreds of thousands of competitors connect on at the same instant.; "The savings can be pretty big," Levine said. "One of our companies expects the grid will save $1.5 million a year compared to what they would have spent to support their games.

Retailers Set to Score from Online Gaming (January 1, 2003) When Sony Computer Entertainment America held events in San Francisco and New York a few months ago to launch its online game play, long lines of gamers formed for the live, bi-coastal online tournament. The tournament heralded the launch of the company's Network Adaptor, now available for a suggested retail price of $39.99. These events signal the next evolution in the $9.4 billion video games category. With this new capability, gamers can compete online with players across the room or across the ocean. Retailers are set to profit as consumers pick up the necessary hardware and software to join the category that has already seen over 51 million software titles sold.

Online Gaming Will Drive and Benefit from, Broadband Adoption (?, 2002) According to the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA):* Almost 80 percent of online gamers are between the age of 25 to 55, with 60 percent of them in the coveted consumer 25 to 44 age bracket* Almost 75 percent of online gamers have at least some post-secondary education* Nearly 40 percent of them have household incomes of $60,000 or more* It's no boy's club — women who game are more likely than men are to do so online (53 percent to 44 percent)* The vast majority of online gamers play at home (95 percent), with only 21 percent saying they play outside of the home instead of, or in addition to, playing at home* About 43 percent of online gamers have been playing for less than one year, which the IDSA believes indicates online gaming is still in the early stages of a growth surge. They dedicate 30 to 75 percent of their monthly entertainment budget to online gaming. <birds-eye.net is quoted on page 5>

Use of gaming for recruiting:

Army meets teen gamers with own tournament (May 16, 2003) The big draw? A video game. And not just any game: America's Army, the official game of the U.S. Army. No data has yet been collected to measure the impact of the Army's $10-million foray into the video game business, which began three years ago as the brainchild of Lt. Col. Casey Wardynski of West Point. But as the Electronic Entertainment Expo marks the one-year anniversary of the game's debut, it's clear that the Army is taking its message to where the kids are: in front of computers. The Army decided several years ago to make its own game, hiring programmers to produce it in-house. Aimed at 15-to-17-year-olds, America's Army has a core message: the power of teamwork with a realistic portrayal of Army life. Playable online via the Internet, the PC game became downloadable last July. Interest was so high that servers set up to handle the downloads locked up. More hardware was brought in, and in one month, there were 1.7 million downloads of the game, Wardynski said. Another 1.2 million CDs were distributed in gamer magazines, retail outlets and direct mailings. "We have amazing soldiers" in the real armed forces, Wardynski said. "And the ability to get kids excited about being a soldier, if the game does that, it's a pretty big contribution."

Broadband Gaming Content Players:

There are more than 400 companies that create games and more than 1000 different game titles to choose from. Here is a listing of 40 of the most visible gaming software development companies. Note that a number of these are private companies.

Significant News About Gaming Software Companies:

Sega posts profit after 5 yrs of losses (May 19, 2003) Sega (SEGNY: news, chart, profile) booked a net profit of 3.1 billion yen ($26.7 million) in the year ended March 31. The results came in line with market forecasts. Sega revised up its net profit forecast to 3 billion yen only a few weeks ago. The maker of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" game had a 17.8 billion yen loss a year earlier. Sega said it turned a profit because of its game arcade business. While sales in the consumer business, including game software sales, fell 21 percent to 66.6 billion yen, sales from amusement machines rose 16 percent to 61 billion yen.

PC Gaming Hardware Components:

Intel to Release Processor for PC Gaming (September 16, 2003) Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) will release a new processor targeted at gamers and PC enthusiasts that will be available within the next month or two, an executive said on Tuesday. The new chip will include Intel's new Hyper-Threading technology that enables PCs to run multiple programs without any degradation to performance, he said.

FREE-WARE Gaming Companies

Nevrax - An interesting approach to offering free multiplayer online games using open source distribution methods. Worked well for idSoftware at first to offer initial release of Doom and then later charge for updates.

Gaming News, Information, and Reviews:

ConsoleWire News: The source for Internet enabled consoles

GameZoneOnlineCurrent news hot off the net

Gaming InfinityUp to date news on various gaming consoles

PC Gamespot Great up to date news on PC related games

Multi-player Online Gaming (MPOG)Recent news and numerous features, reviews, and solutions
 

Gaming Publications and Research:

 Electronic Gaming Monthly Electronic Gaming Monthly focuses on new electronic games for console video game units, including the Nintendo, Super NES, Sega Genesis, Sega 32x, Sony Play Station, and portable game systems such as the Nintendo GameBoy, Sega Game Gear. EGM also features regular columns on the latest game releases as well as special sections devoted to movies, records and other subjects of interest to the male youth market.

Computer Gaming World This magazine focuses on the computer entertainment market and provides in-depth reviews of new computer games. It also explores the latest in multimedia, CD-ROM and interactive game environments.

GameProGamePro is a multiplatform interactive gaming magazine covering the electronic gaming market. It is edited for the avid video and PC game enthusiast. The editorial includes a mix of news, reviews, strategy and specific topical sections such as Fighters Edge, Role Players realm and the Sports Pages.

The Official Xbox Magazine Every issue of official xbox magazine has exclusive inside information on xbox games, in-depth authoritative and bluntly honest reviews. Plus cheats, tips, and ways to make sure you get the most out of your xbox!

PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation 2 Magazine  Dedicated solely to Sony Play Station coverage, PSM is the ultimate independent authority on all things Play Station, featuring hot  reviews & ratings, cheats & codes and special features.

PC Gamer PC Gamer covers computer games for IBM PC and compatible computers. Editorial includes reviews and ratings of newly released games, previews of upcoming games, interviews with software publishers and developers, news of deployments and trends in gaming software and hardware, and feature articles on various aspects of PC gaming.

Online Gaming - Anytime, Anywhere: U.S. Forecast and Analysis, 2000-2005 by IDC (Author) -- no further information available

From Fantasy Worlds to Backgammon: U.S. Online Gaming Forecast and Analysis, 1999-2004  IDC believes that the U.S. online gaming market is rapidly approaching the end of a first phase of development and growth and entering a second, distinct phase. This report first presents a comprehensive overview of the online gaming market,  including business model evolution, the online gaming audience, and initial steps taken toward online gaming beyond the PC platform.

ONLINE GAMING SYSTEMS, LTD.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (Financial Performance Series) by Icon Group Ltd.
 

Broadband Gaming Content Distributors:

Nickelodeon Online -- broadband gaming content distributer (November 12, 2001) 35+% of nick.com's 1.4 million weekly unique visitors having a broadband connection. Natural migration from offering video content to offering gaming content. Into Networks supplies the delivery system, back office tools, customer service, and credit card verification system in return for a share of the revenue.

RealArcade -- RealArcade, a new gaming service from RealNetworks Inc., attempts to bring the power and convenience of online software delivery to a wide audience of gaming enthusiasts. Download management, quicker downloads, system requirements checking, simplified installation, integrated purchase - Integrated, 100% secure purchasing. Also includes manuals and community features.

G-cluster -- G-cluster offers Gaming-on-Demand (GoD) for broadband networks. A dedicated grid of game servers enables the latest video games to be played on-demand with any broadband-connected device, including existing digital cable and IPTV set-top boxes, entry level PCs, and 3G mobile phones.

Wireless:

YourMobile and NuvoStudios to launch games network for moblie phones (October 24, 2001) Recent Studies indicate that the wireless games market will be worth $4.3 billion worldwide by 2006, with a consumer base of 53 million gamers. NuvoStudios' wireless games-such as Poker, Roulette, and Blackjack; sports titles including Home Run Derby, Nuvo Hoops, and Nuvo Soccer Shootout; puzzle games such as Link 'Em, Brain Check, and Tic Tac Toe; arcade games Shadow Wing and Nuvo Blaster; and other games, including I-Ching, Tarot, Astrology, and Trivia-will be made available to mobile phone users via YourMobile's network of wireless carrier partners.

Wireless gaming providers supported by Sprint PCS

Public Establishment Gaming:

Games Machines Go Broadband (February 21, 2003) Games machines in pubs, clubs and other public places are to be fitted with broadband in a £17.5m, three-year deal with BT. Inspired Broadcast Networks (IBN) is upgrading 3,000 of its machines, currently linked to its main servers via ISDN link, to Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology. And another 18,000 machines - about 25 a day - will be connected to ADSL over a three-year period.

Broadband Streaming Applications Companies:

(now out of business) Into Networks:Since 1996, Into has been the pioneer in powering streaming software applications. Capable of running today's hottest software in real-time across multiple networks and bandwidths without the hassles of full downloads or installations, Into's technology is a market-proven tool that allows software publishers, original content creators, e-tailers, portal sites and application service providers to securely deliver interactive media on demand.
Benefits: Takes advantage of caching serviers (e.g. Inktomi Traffic Server), uses its own client and server (deployed at leading ISPs).
Negatives: A true Internet content delivery system that exploits the use of last mile provider to deliver services, client is PC based no mention of game console solutions or set top box solutions which outnumber PCs.

Media Station Inc.Delivers rich multimedia content on demand and via digital download direct to the home. Partnerships have been formed with the top publishers and developers of multimedia content to provide the best in games, education, sports, music, and animation for the company’s broadband products. Media Station also licenses its technology to retailers, publishers and distributors for the deployment of digital content in their own markets.
 

Broadband Gaming Market Research:

Xbox Live Online Gaming Community Doubles in Just One Year (September 20, 2005) Once again breaking new ground and proving that gamers around the world crave personalized and social online experiences, Xbox Live(R), the premier global online console games and entertainment service from Microsoft Corp., now unites 2 million gamers from around the world. Xbox Live continues to grow exponentially, having doubled its online, dynamic community in just one year -- the equivalent to adding one Xbox Live member every 30 seconds.

Online Gamblers To Face Quiz (August 9, 2005) Last year the annual turnover of the gambling industry rose 25pc to £78 billion. Official statistics on online gambling are sparse, but experts assume that a large amount of this growth is coming from internet sites.

Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: Video games (August 8, 2005) Growth in the console game market, as well as the introduction of new handheld game consoles with embedded online capabilities will help the worldwide video games market reach $54.6 billion in 2009 at a 16.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005-2009."

Worldwide Online Console Gaming 2005-2009 Forecast and Analysis (May 31, 2005)Online console gaming is a revolutionary new activity in the realm of videogame consoles. However, the market will not undergo a sea change any time soon: By 2009, only 12.7% of the next-generation of consoles (Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Revolution) will be used for online gaming worldwide.

Is Online Gaming The Next Tobacco? (May 30, 2005)As offshore online gambling clients try to attract U.S. agencies, they may find fewer players then they imagined. The latest gambling client to launch a review here in the U.S., Belle Rock Gaming, will not be meeting with any Omnicom agencies, for starters. Online gambling, deemed illegal in the U.S., is shrouded in legal uncertanties for shops, prompting many to pass on advertisers waving millions of dollars at them.

HDTV Is a New Reality for Game Developers (May 18, 2005) Games created for two next-generation consoles - the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony - will display video in wide-screen high-definition format if the console is connected to a high-definition TV. Only Nintendo's entry, code-named Revolution, will not cater to HDTV's. To encourage such sales, Microsoft has joined with Samsung in a cross-promotional scheme, displaying Xbox 360 games on Samsung HDTV's in 25,000 retail outlets worldwide. Sony and Microsoft will give further details of their new consoles here on Monday, and Nintendo is to do the same on Tuesday. The Sony and Nintendo products will reach the market in 2006, giving Microsoft a lead of 6 to 12 months. The PlayStation 2 from Sony is the best-selling console game system. By the end of 2004, Sony had sold 32.9 million in the United States, according to the Yankee Group. The Xbox is in 13.2 million homes, while the GameCube from Nintendo holds third position with sales of 10.1 million.

Let the Games Begin (May 9, 2005) Turner Broadcasting System, which recently announced plans to launch GameTap, a broadband entertainment network that will begin offering more than 1,000 games this fall. In the U.K., for example, News Corp.'s BSkyB had $226 million in revenue from its SkyBet gambling service and another $88 million from SkyActive interactive games in the last half of 2004. While PlayJam's iTV gaming service competes with many others on BSkyB's platform, Kalifa says that 25,000-30,000 users pay about $1.10 each day to access one of PlayJam's games. “That is a very good business model that we plan to bring to the U.S,” he adds. Few operators are currently set up to allow people to play games on-demand for a small price, a model that accounts for about 90%-95% of game revenues in the U.K. Most operators have adopted a strategy of charging monthly subscription fees. Gambling applications, which account for about 72% of BSkyB's iTV gaming revenues, are also much more limited in the U.S. In recent years, federal prosecutors have used the Wire Wager Act of 1961 to crack down on the $6.5 billion global Internet casino gambling industry, and most legal experts believe iTV applications allowing users to bet on such casino games as blackjack, roulette and poker would also be illegal in the U.S. [must read]

Online Gaming in Europe: A Market Steadily Growing (January 31, 2005) The gaming industry has not focused heavily on distributing its catalog online through download or streaming. However, games editors are starting to find the Web useful for extending the lifetime of their PC games.

U.S. Online PC Gaming 2004-2008 Forecast and Analysis: Growth Continues (December 20, 2004) The online PC gaming market represents a diverse market, accounting for a plethora of content and emerging business models that have successfully tapped into a diverse demographic of users. Industry revenue is expected to reach $656.3 million in 2004, growing to over $2 billion by 2008.

China's Online Gaming Market to Reach US$35 Mln This Year (December 7, 2004) China's online gaming market will generate 3.6 billion yuan (US$35 million) this year and the digital gaming industry has become a main pillar sector for the development of IT and software industry, according to the Pearl River Delta Software Industry Forum held in Zhuhai recently, The online gaming industry made a great contribution to the output value of telecommunications, IT, media, publishing and other related industries, whose combined output value is 11.7 times more than that of its own. Statistics show that online gaming has taken a share of 20 per cent of main Internet-based profit-making modes including online learning, e-mail, searching engine, online advertising, online short message and online gaming.

Online gaming : going like gangbusters (September 21, 2004) Citing greater global use of broadband as their reason, researchers at DFC Intelligence are forecasting that the market for online gaming will increase 415 percent from the end of 2003 to the end of 2009. Asia, the largest broadband market, was responsible for 50 percent of online game revenues last year.

No Longer a Solitary Pursuit, Video Games Move Online (July 5, 2004) In the United States, Sony has sold three million consoles with the online feature, more than 10 percent of the 25 million total PlayStation 2's sold, according to the company. But so far only about 1.2 million users are actually playing online, said Michael Goodman, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group, a research firm. Microsoft says that a million of its 14 million Xbox users have purchased an online kit and subscribe to Xbox Live, the online play feature. While Nintendo sells an online adapter for its GameCube system, the company "does not see online gaming as an important part of our business at this time," a company spokeswoman said. Only two games for the GameCube are currently available online. For $50 a year, Xbox Live users can play the 100 online games currently available; that number is expected to reach 150 by Christmas. In addition to the console with its standard Ethernet port, Xbox users must purchase a $70 Xbox Live starter kit, which includes a year's subscription, one game and a feature that PC players do not typically have - a headset that allows players to talk as they play online. The $50 million in annual fees that Microsoft currently earns from its Xbox Live users "is a great business model," Mr. Allard said. But Mr. Goodman said that Microsoft was estimated to have spent close to $200 million to create its online server and billing infrastructure.

Gaming scores with advertisers (June 26, 2004) While still a relatively small market, advertising in and around online games is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 25 percent from $77 million in 2002 to $230 million by 2007, according to Deloitte Corporate Finance.

Moms are unsung players in gaming world (May 31, 2004) Females over age 40 spend the most hours per week playing online games-nine hours compared with six hours for men-according to an AOL Games-sponsored study conducted by Digital Marketing Services in February. Stressed and overworked, some 28% of them play games between midnight and 5 a.m., according to the AOL study, when they can finally take time for themselves. They also represent a missed opportunity for advertisers. Not only is this group indulging more hours gaming than the young male players advertisers typically go gaga over, 43% of the average gamers are women according to an Entertainment Software Association study.

Can Korea Be Kingpin Of Online Games? (April 16, 2004) It's already happening in Korea, where online games are far more popular than the console variety, in part because three-quarters of all households have broadband access to the Net. The companies are projecting sales of $640 million this year -- nearly triple 2001 revenues of $233 million. The money comes in through monthly subscriptions of about $25 from game players. TARGETING TAIWAN. NCsoft, Korea's biggest online game company, is leading the overseas push. In Lineage II games, players create 11th century characters representing themselves -- a concept that has proved highly exportable. This year, the company pro-jects that overseas revenue will jump 70%, to $41.5 million, and that overall sales will be up 52%, to $221 million. In Taiwan last year, NCsoft earned $21 million in royalties from its local partner, Gamania Digital Entertainment Co. In China, Korean games currently account for well over 50% of the market. In Japan, NHN Corp. of Korea in mid-2003 overtook Yahoo! Japan Corp. as the country's largest game portal. NCsoft has been building up to this ever since it recruited veteran American programmer Richard Garriott in 2001 and acquired Seattle game development studio ArenaNet for $16 million in 2002.

Study: Surgeons who play video games err less (April 15, 2004) Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games. The study on whether good video-game skills translate into surgical prowess was done by researchers with Beth Israel, and the National Institute on Media and the Family at Iowa State University. It was based on testing 33 fellow doctors - 12 attending physicians and 21 medical-school residents who participated from May 2003 to August 2003.

A silo of their own for the lost boys  (March 22, 2004) TV viewing dipped 8.8 percent among 18-24s and 12.2 percent among 25-34s in favor of video games. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they watch TV while going online. But nearly as many, 52.1 percent, say they listen to the radio (songs or talk) while they surf. About 20 percent read the newspaper while on the web. Nearly 62 percent watch television while waiting for internet downloads to finish. Another 20.2 percent read the newspaper during that time. [Must Read]

Multiplayer Games: Shards Unite! (March 22, 2004) Massively multiplayer role-playing games have a big problem -- they just aren't massive enough. Sun Microsystems will be showcasing a game-server prototype at the conference that integrates Java and Sun's Solaris operating system with database technology from TimesTen and server-hosting tech from GameSpy Industries. This combination will allow game-hosting companies to ramp up server capacity without isolating players into those split-off shard worlds, according to Sun's Melissinos.

Behind the screen: Women make mark in gaming world (March 16, 2004) More women are in the video game business than ever before, helped into the $10 billion-a-year industry by the growing number of schools offering game-design instruction. Women make up slightly more than 9 percent of the artists and animators, the people who create the way characters look and move. Only 3 percent are programmers, writing the computer instructions that turn a game's story and action into a believable universe.

Arcade games save Sega (February 6, 2003) Sales of computer game software grew steadily with the company selling 760,000 units in Japan, 1.15 million in the United States and 520,000 in Europe. Sega Corp.'s recurring profit also rose 19.8 per cent to 10.6 billion yen although overall sales slipped 4.1 per cent to 144.5 billion yen, the company said in a statement.

More Lives Left for Game Makers (January 2, 2004) As console prices fall, Pachter believes video game software prices should also fall 5% to 7% next year. On the surface, a drop in average software prices may look like a bad thing, resulting in lower profit margins for game makers. But the decline can ultimately result in higher overall sales if enough people buy more games at the lower prices. While Gikas forecast a 15% drop in average software sales prices next year, Pachter says that's too steep. He believes video game makers will be careful to avoid repeating past mistakes, in which they suffered losses as profit margins declined while research and development costs rose. Sony's PSP is expected to launch in Japan and possibly North America in the second half of the year. If Sony achieves its goal of selling 10 million PSPs worldwide, that would translate to a 3% jump in U.S. software sales, says Wedbush's Pachter.

Video games: Blessing or curse? (December 15, 2003) Sports video games fell to 19.5 percent of the video game market last year, according to NPD Group, down from 24.5 percent in 2000. Meanwhile action video games climbed to 25.1 percent of the market from 20.1 percent. But even with Madden's video game success, the league's royalties for the 7 million-plus licensed video games that sold in the 12 months ending in August pale in comparison to the $550 million ABC pays the league to have John Madden call the games on "Monday Night Football." The financial health of the league will depend much more on keeping broadcasters' ratings and rights fees up than video game's sales high.

Invaders from the land of broadband (December 11, 2003) IN A country better known for its heavy industry and manufactured exports, some young South Koreans are working hard on software products and services with potentially world-beating characteristics. The companies that employ these game designers, most of them based in Seoul, account for only a tiny share of the world's computer-games industry, which is worth some $32 billion once games and hardware are added together. But steadily their online fantasies are increasing in popularity, and in the process the firms are pioneering new ways to make money on the internet. What the South Koreans have begun to do is take online gaming beyond hard-core gamers and to a far wider audience. They are also trying to export their games to other countries. [Must Read]

Video Game Makers Miss Pull of Key Title (December 9, 2003) Close to half of the $12-billion game industry's annual sales occur in the last three months of the year. In 2002, retailers logged about $6 billion in game sales from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Analysts differ on what will happen this year. Some predict as much as 8% growth while others forecast a 5% decline. They agree that sales haven't exactly been swift. Shares of Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts Inc., the world's biggest independent game publisher, have fallen 15% since the beginning of November. They closed at $42.48 on Monday. Calabasas-based THQ Inc. has fallen 12% to $15.20 in the same time frame, while New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. dropped 23% to $29.65. THQ is on track to increase revenue 22% in its fiscal year ending March 31. Unit sales of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox consoles were up 7% from last year during Thanksgiving weekend. Nintendo Co. sold half a million GameCube consoles that weekend, up significantly from last year thanks to a 33% price cut to $99.

Consoles Vie for Online Players (September 2, 2003) Sony is currently the runaway winner in the console wars. Its PlayStation 2 has sold nearly twice as many units in the United States as Microsoft's and Nintendo's consoles combined -- 18.7 million compared with 5.7 million and 4.4 million. Most observers believe it may be as many as three years before the next round of consoles are released. Microsoft claims that it has 500,000 subscribers for the Xbox Live service in North America -- nearly 10 percent of the console's installed base of about 5.4 million units. Sony says it has sold 780,000 PS2 network adapters in North America, about 4 percent of its base. EA thus chose to go exclusively -- for now -- with the PS2's more open approach to letting publishers pursue their own online strategies and business models. The company's sports titles are being published for all three major platforms but will offer online play only for the PS2.

The Rough Play in Video Games (May 29, 2003) Nintendo has sold just 9.6 million GameCube video-game consoles since its launch in September, 2001, far short of its 13.8 million target. Market researcher NPDFunworld estimates that GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox each has a 15% share of the global market, while Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2) rules with 70%. Nintendo's net profit is expected to fall 38%, to $574 million, on a 10% decline in sales, to $4.3 billion. Microsoft thinks it can make plenty of money with Internet games, and so far, it has attracted 500,000 subscribers who pay $50 a year for its online-gaming service, Xbox Live.

Gaming Future Has Room to Grow: Executives (April 2, 2003) Gaming is also the fastest growing entertainment category, with 60 percent of Americans involved on some level with a video game. Launching a new gaming platform alone can cost a company upwards of several billion dollars.While teens account for less than 10 percent of the U.S. population, they represent a whopping 20 percent of the console video game market. In the mid-1990s, revenue in the console market began to outpace PC revenue by 2-1. Today, that number has grown to 4-1.

Butterfly.net Becomes Big with Sony (March 7, 2003) With less risk and lower operating costs, more companies are expected to enter online gaming. One research firm predicts that a quarter of all U. S. households will play online games by 2007. Industry watchers also expect a price drop from today's monthly perplayer cost of $6 to $10 to as little as $1 per player per month.

Retailers Set to Score from Online Gaming (January 1, 2003) Whether online gaming will prove successful long term is still a question. Experts point to the failure of broadband connectivity to penetrate more fully as the biggest hurdle. Sony, quoting DFC Intelligence, predicts that by 2005 it is expected that 23.4 million people worldwide will be connected online for game play. Another consultancy, the Themis Group, projects that 2003 revenues from online gaming will grow to $635 million, doubling 2002's revenues.

The Video-Game Wars Explode Online (December 10, 2002) In August, market leader Sony unveiled a $39.99 network adapter that lets gamers hook up their PlayStation2s to the Net. The initial shipment of 250,000 units flew off the shelves. Then, in October, No. 2 Nintendo released its $34.95 adapter for the GameCube, another hot seller. The initial batch of 150,000 Xbox Live starter kits -- $49.95 for a one-year online subscription plus a headset for talking with other gamers during online contests -- disappeared almost immediately. Microsoft poured $2 billion into Xbox Live -- a service that, in 2003, is likely to generate only $9.4 million in sales, Cruz estimates. Most analysts expect Redmond to quickly raise the fee for its service by up to 100%, to perhaps $10 a month or $100 for a discounted, full-year subscription.

Online Gaming to Spur Standardization? (December 2, 2002) A broad shift to online gaming in the $9.4 billion video game industry—widely forecast now that the big three console makers have enabled their machines for online play—is likely to create pressure to standardize technologies, possibly leading to a new layer on the Internet dedicated to gaming, according to experts. The overall video game market is already big business. It racked up $9.4 billion in revenues last year, outgunning Hollywood's box office take of $8.1 billion by a cool billion dollars. According to research firm InStat/MDR, console games accounted for nearly $7.4 billion in revenue in 2001. While the online segment is still nascent, London-based audio/visual media research firm Screen Digest predicts online game revenues will be more than $1 billion by 2006. Currently, the best-known online game in the U.S. is Sony's EverQuest, a subscription-based massively multiplayer online roleplaying game that draws 430,000 players worldwide who not only buy the software but pay $13 a month to play in the online realm. South Korea-based NCsoft produces Lineage, an MMOG that boasts more than 4 million subscribers across South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and the U.S. Meanwhile, IDC has projected that online gaming will grow nearly 50 percent each year for the next few years, with U.S. revenue climbing from $210 million last year to $1.8 billion in 2005. Jupiter Research forecasts similar bounty in this market, projecting that U.S. revenue will climb to $2.55 billion by 2006. In-Stat/MDR said it believes wireless gaming will grow to $2.8 billion worldwide by 2006. According to the Internet Digital Software Association (IDSA), 31 percent of game players say they play games online. That's up from 24 percent last year and 18 percent in 1999. Also, 37 percent of Americans who own consoles or computers said they also play games on mobile devices like handheld systems, PDAs and cell phones. Larson noted that 11.1 billion minutes are spent playing online games monthly—more time than is spent on e-mail—and the most popular online games boast nightly audiences that rival those of popular cable television shows. "The service providers must get a cut of the action, or the whole thing will fall apart," Levine said. "They'll evolve to be like the cable MSOs, offering packages of games to subscribers like premium cable channels. Today, 20 percent to 30 percent of [broadband] network traffic is gamer-generated, but they don't make anything on the games.

Let the games begin (11/04/2002) On Nov. 15, Microsoft is scheduled to launch XBox Live, a broadband version of its video game console. XBox players will be able to play online with anyone in the world. The service, which will require a $49.95 start-up kit, includes a headset for voice communications. In fact, in case you want to disguise your identity, you'll be able to choose from six different voices while playing. (The game must have been inspired by the movie "Sybil.")The research firm DFC Intelligence forecasts that 60 million video game systems will be sold in the U.S. by 2005. Jeetil Patel, an analyst for investment firm Deutsche Banc Alex Brown, says the industry will generate $9 billion in sales in 2004. That's nearly double the sales figures in 2000.

Even if you build it, they won't pay (March 18, 2002) A survey by Jupiter Media Metrix finds that 70% of end-users "can't understand why anyone would pay for content" on the Web. About 42% say they expect to pay for content now or in the future. Online subscription content may start to resemble cable TV operations. CNN announced it will start charging for consumers to access news and sports video streams with a fee of $4.95 a month or $39.95 per year. Real Networks, known for selling exclusive online access to Major League Baseball games, will now offer a similar deal with NASCAR for $29.95 a year.

Video Gaming Industry Raises the Bar in 2001 (February 12, 2002) In 2001, with U.S. sales for hardware, software and accessories increasing 43 percent compared to 2000, according to The NPD Group, Inc.  GartnerG2 expects online console gaming revenue in the United States to grow from $138 million in 2002 to $2.3 billion in 2005. It also predicts that online console gaming, a bonus feature of games in 2002, will become an assumed feature in 2005. GartnerG2 defines online console gaming revenue as proceeds from subscriptions for online console gaming using a broadband connection.

Consoles Making Comeback Among Gamers (December 19, 2001) Jupiter Media Metrix states that there were 46.7 million wired computer users at home in the United States who played a PC-based game application in October 2001, up 10 percent from 42.4 million users in January 2001. Jupiter projects that subscription revenues from online PC games will total $1.5 billion by 2006, while subscription revenues from connected console gaming will only reach $250 million in the same period. Interestingly, the slower percentage growth of new PC gamers is mirroring a plateau in new PC buyers, and this trend is coinciding with a renewed hype and interest in game consoles such as the Nintendo GameCube, the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2.

Game Consoles: Is cable ready to play? (December 2001) Because game consoles can foster a session-based broadband connection, costs–both in monetary and bandwidth measures–are associated with that IP stream. Console gamers have the potential to be bandwidth hogs, Housman says, noting that he expects users to require a half megabit to a full megabit “to really be out there screaming” in a multiplayer environment. With proper provisioning and management, however, a cable operator can at least “see” how consoles are impacting the network.

The Future of Online Gaming (October 30, 2001) Richard Garriott, the "creative visionary behind Destination Games") predicts that the $208.3 million online gaming industry will expand to $1.7 billion in the U.S. by 2004—about a 90 percent growth rate per year. Garriott expects revenue from sales of online games to grow from just 2 percent of the game market today to 24 percent in 2002.

Microsoft's Dangerous Video Game Assumptions (November 26, 2001) For Microsoft's foray into video game consoles to work it must pioneer the market for networked console games on its own - at least in the short term. Online games are no stranger to the PC, however their success on consoles is yet to be tested. For instance, several online role-playing titles currently earn significant subscription revenues. Sony's Everquest has around 350,000 players who pay approximately $US10 per month and likewise Ultima Online, which has around 235,000 players paying $US10 per month. The transition to consoles is not as simple as it might seem. Of most concern is the fact that gamers must connect their console to a broadband Internet service.

Number of U.S. Internet Subscribers Drops Again (November 15, 2001) Compared to figures from the report one year ago, the current online customer base is about 7.4 percent higher than the 63.2 million users tallied at the end of the third quarter of 2000.

Broadband Gaming Market Predictions (December 2000) By 2005, Forrester Research Inc. predicts that nearly 50 million households will take part in "pervasive gaming" -defined as broadband gaming with multiple real-time players and added TV, movie, and music hooks. About 43.5 million homes will do so through advanced gaming consoles and 6.3 million via a digital TV set-top box. Hardware revenues will top 9.4 billion by 2005 with software and content revenue hitting 16.9 billion.

Entertainment, Media, Film, Radio, TV, Gaming & Cable Trends The average American spends, on a typical day, over nine hours watching television, listening to music or the radio, going to movies, reading magazines, viewing videos, surfing the Net or otherwise enjoying some form of entertainment. That same average American will spend $674.59 on entertainment this year, an amount projected to increase to $814.11 per person by 2003 (Wired magazine, May 2000).

Bottlenecks, Bundles and Walled Gardens: Cable’s Broadband Strategy (2000) The Road From Cable TV to Broadband

Wireless:

RealNetworks Moves into Mobile Gaming (May 11, 2005) Real's online PC-based casual gaming arena, called RealArcade, features more than 300 casual games and the company's game business in 2004 generated $34.5 million in revenue. In addition, in the first quarter of 2005, Real's casual game business generated more than $12 million in revenue, an 80 percent increase over the first quarter of 2004. Mr. Goodliving, founded in 1999, has a library of mobile games that includes the Playman Sports series, and the company holds the European distribution rights for the mobile version of "Trivial Pursuit." In addition, Mr. Goodliving has carrier agreements with Vodafone Global Content Services, MM02 Group, Telefonica, H3G, T-Mobile International and Orange Group.

Sony Ericsson tests multiplayer m-games (December 22, 2003) The multiplayer mobile gaming service will initially include two games. The first is Rally, which can be played by up to four players and the other is RC Battle, which can be played by up to eight players. The games can be played on a variety of Sony Ericsson phones, including the T300, T230, Z608 and T630 handsets. The games will be available for download from the Sony Ericsson Web site from January onwards. The company said that the trial would measure the market demand for on-line games by conducting in-depth consumer research as well as measuring the performance of real-time on-line games in mobile networks.

Wireless gaming set for mass market (December 12, 2003) The number of wireless gamers is set to grow from 7.9 per cent of all US wireless subscribers in 2003 to 34.7 per cent, or 65.2 million users, by 2008, the firm predicts. "In 2003, US wireless carriers cleared a major hurdle in delivering wireless games to subscribers, demonstrating that wireless gaming is a viable business," said Dana Thorat

Mobile Gaming To Reach Nearly $2 Billion In 2006 (October 30, 2003) The mobile games market will climb from $540 million this year to $1.93 billion in 2006, according to a new report from the Wireless World Forum. apan and Korea currently represent 64 percent of the wireless games market. Brown said although the Japanese market has been growing rapidly, competition has been keeping profits down. The forum said mobile games will grow rapidly in Europe and the United States in the next three years. The report said China and the United States will dominate the industry in 2006, surpassing even Japan.

The Un-Doom Boom (June 26, 2003) I didn't think it was going to be that great," he said. But after downloading a few games into his phone, he was taken by the simple fun they offered, and by his ability to play them anywhere, anytime. Forget about hair triggers, menacing artificial intelligence and fully immersive 3-D environments. This is a tamer universe of games with names like Snowball Fight, Bejeweled, Tumble Bees and Bookworm Deluxe. They are easy to learn and can be played on a variety of devices, including PC's, laptops, digital organizers and cellphones. Even a popular digital music player, Apple's iPod, comes with the simple game Breakout installed. At Yahoo Games, the leading online game site, Nielsen/NetRatings reports more than 8.5 million visitors each month. Daniel Hart, the site's general manager, said that its visitors spend more than 5.5 billion minutes a month playing its casual games - an average of more than 20 minutes a day per user. In terms of audience, 70 percent of the online community play casual games. A successful casual game can be produced in a few months for as little as $40,000, said Wade Tinney, a founding partner of Large Animal, a casual-game developer based in Manhattan. A premier video game for hard-core console players can easily cost $5 million to $10 million to develop and take two years or longer to complete. For example, a console and PC game called BloodRayne cost $6 million to $7 million and took more than two years to complete, said a spokeswoman for Majesco, the game's publisher. Sprint, which added downloadable games to its American service a year ago, now offers 130 titles by 18 game publishers.  North American video game market is expected to reach $13.5 billion by 2007, compared with $7.8 billion in 2002, according to a report issued last week by PricewaterhouseCoopers. A development that helped push open the door to cellphone gaming in the United States was the adoption in 2001 of a technology called BREW, or binary runtime environment for wireless, which Ms. Kane said had helped shorten download times and spur game development. Mr. Wright estimates that there are at least 40 million casual-game players online alone, with the potential for far higher numbers as better games are developed and more consumers turn to high-speed home Internet connections. [must read]

Millionaire launches text message game (June 9, 2003) Would-be millionaires will be able to test their skills in real time by texting through the answers in special codes on their mobile phones. Whoosh has built its own network that bypasses the 50 million-plus messages that are sent over the existing mobile networks every day. Despite the growing popularity of texting it has not been possible to deal with a high volume of messages and declare winners in a short period of time. This is because of the unreliability of texts and the probability that thousands, if not millions, will be sent simultaneously. Bottlenecks at the mobile networks prompted some broadcasters, including BBC Radio 1, to discard thousands of messages as there was no way of telling when they arrived.

Nokia names date for N-game (May 14, 2003) Nokia has announced the launch date for N-gage, its hybrid mobile phone and games device - which it refers to as a games deck. The product should start shipping in October - essentially meaning it should reach stores in good time for the Xmas rush. Receive your SecureID by textAccording to a report in the FT, the N-gage should be priced at around $299 with games cartridges priced at about $30-$40. Although it claimed to have set no definite sales targets for the N-gage, nevetheless, it expects to sell a couple of million units in the first twelve months.

Symbian neglected at quiet mobile gaming show (April 9, 2003) Developers appear to be concentrating very much on Java/J2ME at the expense of rivals such as Brew and MoFun. More surprising was the general reluctance to develop games for Symbian given that two of the most popular games handsets - 7210 and the 7650 - are from Nokia. It's apparent that the big names in the games industry are still holding back - waiting for the number of game enabled handsets and mobile games players to rise to acceptable levels.

It's only a game (May 00, 2002) Online games have come a long way since the days of text-based multi-user contests. One virtual world already has a subscription income of nearly $50 million a year. But will telcos be able to make any money out of linking them to broadband access?

Will wireless gaming pay the bill? (July 9, 2001) Gaming is seen as one of the most compelling forms of wireless entertainment, and also one that has the biggest revenue potential. Confidence in wireless gaming can be measured by the number of new start ups entering this space, as well as the recent spate of agreements between the telecommunications and gaming sectors. We are witnessing a 'landgrab' with gaming companies, handset vendors, infrastructure providers and operators jostling for strategic position.

Wireless Gaming: The Vanguard of Commerce (May 2, 2001) Wireless technology in need of advancements in two related areas: media displays and application management. Mobile phone users can play games by simple text messaging applications, but they're limited in scope. Once the mobile user expresses an interest in a better experience, the bar raises for what's acceptable in wireless data transfer and related applications.

Wireless Gaming: The Next Generation (March 14, 2001) Industry analysts forecast explosive growth for the wireless gaming market in the next four years. According to Datamonitor, wireless gaming will grow to a US $6 billion market in Europe and the United States by 2005. Wireless Knowledge, a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM), Tuesday announced it will join with Versaly Games to create next-generation mobile gaming applications.Versaly's software and Wireless Knowledge's mobile technology will be integrated by Isumbra Inc., a technology consulting firm that is providing the infrastructure and back-end services for Versaly's gaming product.
 

Money for Nothing: Gaming for Real Dollars:

New service allows gamers to play for money (September 2, 2003) Dennis Fong made his name as ``Thresh,'' the Michael Jordan of violent computer games. During the mid-1990s, he quit college and made a living playing games such as ``Doom'' and ``Quake'' in tournaments worldwide. He was so good at blasting rivals with rockets that he picked up tens of thousands of dollars and a red Ferrari as prizes. With Ultimate Arena, gamers sign up to play their favorite games and can wager small sums to play a match against a single challenger or group of opponents. The Web site's software is designed to automatically match opponents of similar skill level. When the 10-minute match ends, the winner of, for example, a $2 bet takes $1.70 home and Ultimate Arena keeps 30 cents. The maximum bet for a single game is $20. The most someone can lose in a month is $100. There is no upper limit on how much players can win. So far, one gamer, nicknamed Black Sabbath, has won more than $2,000 on Ultimate Arena. Both YouPlayGames and Ultimate Arena will have to steer clear of the law. Cassidy said legal research showed playing games of skill (like shooting games) for money is not considered illegal gambling in 46 states, in contrast to games of chance such as roulette. Grove says his company will avoid doing business in 11 states where the operation could possibly run into legal trouble.

Who is Playing Online Games:

Where Have All The Young Men Gone? Increasingly, It's Video Games (November 3, 2003) The younger generations' intuitive understanding of media is crucial to understanding how to market to them using new media... Video games require especially long production cycles-in some cases up to a year. The ad industry is used to far shorter timelines. The long lead times make it hard to plan campaigns that far in advance, and with a fast-moving consumer base, trends come and go all the time. Also, according to research conducted by Forrester, video game consoles were found in 38.5 million homes in 2002-another trend that's certain to continue to grow.

College students are avid gamers (July 6, 2003) Pew Internet Research finds that 70 percent of college students play video games at least “once in a while.” The Pew study smashes a few gender stereotypes about avid gamers, finding that slightly more women (60 percent) than men (40 percent) reported playing computer and online games. About the same number of men and women play video games. Women prefer computer games over violent video games played on consoles partly because they don’t usually require the player to choose a character. Online games like Diamond Mine or Tetris are popular among women because gender isn’t an issue. Men play for fun (45 percent); women play when they’re bored (33 percent). Video games are also a way guys bond with their buddies; 51 percent of men believing that gaming improved their friendship with friends. Only 34 percent of women believe video games help their friendships. Video games are also prime-time for up-all-night college students. About 41 percent of college gamers play after 9 p.m. with only 8 percent reporting that they play before noon.

Is Online Gaming Getting Better -- or Just Bigger (August 21, 1998) According to a study by +Plan, roughly 13% of Net users between 54 and 65 -- and nearly a third of all 18-to-24-year-olds -- go online to play games.
 

Multiplayer Internet Gaming Sites:

Most Internet gaming sites feature a wide array of premium (subscription/fee based) games and free games, software downloads, updates, news on new games coming out, contests, player rankings, hall of fame, tournaments, player of the month recognition, prizes, give aways, special offers, detailed online help/FAQ, personal accounts, and most importantly a large number active PLAYERS. These sites also tend to be platform independent (allowing them to support many types of gaming hardware platforms including PCs, game consoles, set-top-box, and wireless devices.

MSN¨ Instant Games Clubhouse A subscription, interactive gaming service for MSN Messenger that combines online versions of well-known games with head-to-head competition, advanced features and the convenience of instant messaging (IM). Customers can subscribe to clubhouse games such as "Wheel of Fortune," "Bankshot Billiards" and "UPWORDS" at a price of $4.99 per month per game or a special introductory price of $14.99 per year per game. MSN Instant Games Chess is available at a price of $3.99 per month or a special introductory price of $9.99 per year.

Pogo.Com (a division of EA.Com) -- Play PC online multiplayer games for free. Advertiser driven free gaming model. Play multiplayer games while advertising banner circulate in the background. Large selection of card games, board games and users -- very easy for example to find an open chess game or even start a new game and have someone join at any time of the day!

EA.Com -- Plays PC or console online multiplayer games both free and premium (subscription based) services. Costs for subscription games like Ultima Online is in increments of 90 days for $29.85 or ($9.95 per month). Also permits online ordering of game software for PCs and consoles directly from website.

Yahoo.Com -- Play PC games (console games in Japan and an increasing number of other markets -- result of parnership with Sony). Both free and subscription games. Price of subscription games is unknown.

Sega.Net -- Online site for sega games (both free and fee based)

Zone.com -- Play PC games free. Also provides retail games.

Khabal Gaming Free and fee based games

Internet Gaming Location and Launching Service:

GameSpyArcade -- A tool designed specifically for Internet based games that helps you find games to play for your "previously installed" gaming software. Features include: Intelligent chat rooms and easy game launching, PlayerSpy: A built-in buddy list and instant-messaging system, Player Matching: Never be without an opponent, GameSpy Network news, forums and Web browsing, DemoSpy: Find and download the latest game demos, SmartSpy: Advanced filtering for faster server refreshes. Cost: $20

Professional Gaming

Next Jordan Could be a Gamer (August 5, 2003) Professional gaming has grown steadily over the last seven years and now is pursuing mainstream acceptance and financial success. The video-game industry has outpaced Hollywood (PDF) in terms of revenues over the last few years, yet gaming has remained part of the pop culture gutter. However, big money and media exposure is helping change that. Top tournaments now offer as much as $200,000 in purses and draw thousands of international players. It has grown steadily since its launch in 1997. The summer 2003 event, which drew 5,460 registered attendees, was so successful organizers had to turn people away. The big draw was a $200,000 Counter-Strike tournament. With so much interest, Munoz decided to move the summer 2004 event to the Gaylord Opryland Texas Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine. The new location provides more than 100,000 square feet of space, which Munoz said will allow the league to accommodate 10,000 gamers.
 

Gaming Hardware Makers:

Home Media Servers:

Moxi Our goal is to provide a simple solution that seamlessly integrates digital content from television, the Internet and DVD/CD media, and makes it accessible to TVs, stereo systems and computers throughout the home. Finally, consumers can enjoy a world of digital audio and video options, without a room full of boxes, wires and remote controls. Moxi's main product is the Moxi Media Centre, or MC, is a $US400 ($A765) box - containing a DVD drive and 80-gigabyte hard drive - functioning as a cable or satellite receiver, digital video recorder, music jukebox and computer networking hub.

Set-Top-Boxes:

New Gaming on Demand systems turn set top boxes into gaming consoles (April 20, 2005) Gaming-on-Demand (GoD) technology vendor G-cluster, service provider Club iT, and Texas Instruments today announced that IP-based set-top box manufacturers can now easily turn their products into genuine gaming consoles, using the G-cluster Gaming-on-Demand client to provide end users with access to hundreds of games over IPTV. The set-top box will connect to G-cluster's grid of computer servers via a broadband connection, receiving game graphics and sound to display on a television screen in real time. USB-based gamepads or remote controls can be used by subscribers to play a wide variety of games.

Industries Battling for the Future of Set-Top Boxes (November 14, 2001) Once the consumers comprehend the power of the boxes, they’ll want them at their local retailer, the thinking goes. New interactive offerings are announced almost daily, and Cahner’s In-Stat Group recently predicted the market for boxes that access the Internet to grow from 6.9 million units in 2000 to more than 74 million in 2005.

Scientific-Atlanta Mulling Video Game Set-Top Box (March 3, 2004) Wednesday said it is planning to develop television set-top boxes with high-performance video games capabilities, which could compete with game consoles such as Nintendo (news - web sites)'s GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2 Scientific-Atlanta's game box would not likely compete directly at retail with those companies, but instead could be an alternative supplied by cable television providers, who buy the boxes and then place them in consumers' homes.

Launch of the Tv Gaming Zone portal for interactive television (January 2, 2002) Tv Gaming Zone portal was officially launched. Developed exclusively for the Tv Cabo interactive television platform (Microsoft Tv), the portal can be accessed through the address http://www.tvgamingzone.com. With the objective of being a portal of games, and not a portal about games, we intend to maintain an innovative and amusing entertainment service that appeals to consumers of interactive television in Portugal, therefore helping its divulgation and growth. In addition to the games available, Tv Gaming Zone also offers an area of news and the periodic divulgation, through e-mail, of a newsletter with the latest news regarding the portal.

Industries Battling for the Future of Set-Top Boxes (November 14, 2001) Once the consumers comprehend the power of the boxes, they’ll want them at their local retailer, the thinking goes. New interactive offerings are announced almost daily, and Cahner’s In-Stat Group recently predicted the market for boxes that access the Internet to grow from 6.9 million units in 2000 to more than 74 million in 2005.

Pace Demonstrates IP-Based Interactive TV And Advanced Gaming Solutions (May 30, 2001) Pace's PVR home gateway with integrated games technology An industry first, Pace will also demonstrate one of its digital PVR home gateway platforms with integrated Sega games. Featuring 3D graphics, digital-quality sound and full-motion video, consumers will be able to play console quality games online with anyone in the USA, while at the same time using the latest PVR technology to `timeshift' TV.

Set-tops to get Broadband Interactive Gaming (September 24, 1999)  Scientific-Atlanta says it will integrate broadband interactive gaming, educational software and Web browsing in its Explorer set-top boxes. The company said it would work with ICTV to incorporate those capabilities, which it expects cable operators to offer to users.  ICTV is a content provider for cable-connected televisions, providing games such as Test Drive, Hard Ball and Dr. Seuss Preschool.

Sony to Provide Set-Tops, Delivery Platform for Cablevision (September 17, 1999) Sony has agreed to develop a new set-top box and cable delivery platform for Cablevision Systems in a huge deal that some observers is worth as much as $1 billion. Among the features to be included in the set-top box will be always-on, Web-enhanced television, e-mail, interactive gaming and video on demand.  The set-tops will be OpenCable-compliant, the company said.  This refers to the CableLabs initiative to standardize broadband set-top hardware.

Game Consoles:

Game-console rivalry gets fierce (January 12, 2004) Most analysts expect the new wave of game consoles to arrive in 2005 or 2006. More details could come later this year. But for now, none of the three major companies is talking about its plans. Cumulatively, more than 20 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold in the United States, compared with 6.6 million for the Xbox and 5.7 million for the GameCube, according to data from the NPD Funworld research group. The PlayStation 2 also regularly bests the Xbox and GameCube in month-to-month sales. GameFly, an online service for renting video games via mail, has in the past year seen Xbox game rentals gain to the point that, in some weeks, rentals of Xbox games are even with or greater than PlayStation 2 game rentals.

Sony[Buy One]

Sony “Comfortable” with Current PS2 Price (May 9, 2003) Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ Inc., told Reuters recently that the pricing of the PS2 does not matter provided Sony meets its unit shipment targets for the fiscal year and maintains its dominant position in the installed user base. "Whether Sony gets it at $199, $179 or $149, we're indifferent," he said. "All we need is that 10.5 million units."

Playstation 3 in mystery of missing Cell chip (April 23, 2003) a Playstation 3 in 2007 based on the Cell processor becomes a likelihood. Maybe 2006 if everything goes really well. Sony will need an interim machine. A PS2 that runs at nearly 600MHz with the internal graphics also doubling in speed. Sony has been investing heavily in its OTSS joint venture with Toshiba. That Fab is going to be used to make the Cell chips when they're ready. Interestingly enough, the investment in equipment for the Fab is all based around the 65nm embedded DRAM process coming online in financial year 2005. That seems a little early for a chip that won't be ready until 2007 so you have to ask the question of what's going on?

Sony makes PS2 on a chip (April 21, 2003)  The new all-in-one chip will be produced on a 90nm embedded DRAM process. The Graphics Synthesiser will keep its 4MB of RAM onboard thanks to the process. The packaged chip will run at the 294MHz of the EmotionEngine, the CPU component of the Playstation 2.

Sony plans to use "grid" technology to increase online gaming (March 3, 2003) With new software that can support more than a million simultaneous users, Sony is hoping to entice PlayStation 2 owners to join online gaming through the videogame console instead of relying on a PC and likely having a sluggish play experience. Sony plans to accomplish this through "grid" technology, a system of linking computers via the Internet and allocating tasks to those with free space, thereby providing greater and more efficient processing power.

Firm signs with Sony to use IBM's new grid application (Februray 28, 2003) Sources predict that Sony will use "cell" embedded chips, components that have the software baked into the silicone, to increase the processing power of its next gaming system. The PlayStation 3 is expected to link with other PS3s through a grid as well as with other Sony devices that utilize the "cell" chip such as DVD players, PCs, digital video recorders and set-top boxes. This would enable them to be networked as well as to share processing power and create even more realistic graphics.

Sony Boosts Online Gaming (Februray 27, 2003) Sony Corp.'s video game arm will provide game developers with the technology they need to access a vast online gaming network run by Butterfly.net Inc.  While online gaming is viewed as having significant potential in the longer-term, it has not taken off significantly because of slow consumer broadband adoption and still-developing business models, among other reasons.

Retailers Set to Score from Online Gaming (January 1, 2003) With this new capability, gamers can compete online with players across the room or across the ocean. Retailers are set to profit as consumers pick up the necessary hardware and software to join the category that has already seen over 51 million software titles sold. Sony has shipped 400,000 Network Adaptors and expects cumulative shipments to reach 500,000 units by March 31. The Network Adaptor is a connectivity device that combines a 10/100 Ethernet connection with a 56K V90 analog modem that allows network access via inhome broadband or narrowband.

The Sorcerer of Sony (August 2002) One of the biggest and most ambitious of all is ready to launch. In July, Sony and LucasArts Entertainment are releasing a beta of Star Wars's first online colony. Maybe that's true, but so far only 1 million of the 145 million Americans who play videogames subscribe to any online worlds. Galaxies is his biggest project to date; it cost an estimated $10 million to develop. Smedley is betting on its success. If he's right, it could change not just Sony, but the face of entertainment. [MUST READ]

Sony Outlines Playstation 2 Broadband Plans in Japan (February 15, 2002)That platform, called DNAS (Dynamic Network Authentication System) is optimized to securely deliver copyright protected data as well as current Internet content. The secure transfer of copyrighted content is critical to the Playstation BB network, since the role of the Playstation 2 will expand beyond playing games and into music and movies, areas where SCEI’s parent company is deeply entrenched. Playstation BB will access online entertainment content via the Broadband Navigator, a front-end of sorts much like a PC’s browser. The Broadband Navigator gives subscribers access to games, music, movies and interactive content.

Sony's PlayStation 2 Joins the Internet Sony's $40 Network Adaptor for its PlayStation 2 game system, however,makes online console gaming not only possible but as good as in some PC games. How you will play depends on individual game developers. Sony isn't running its own network, leaving it up to each title's creators to set up game servers and features. (Microsoft's Xbox Live service, due Nov. 15, will use a more centralized approach, requiring users to subscribe to a Microsoft-run game network.)

Nintendo[Buy One]

Software support wanes for GameCube (May 16, 2003) Software executives interviewed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show here said they're reconsidering the number of titles they plan to produce for Nintendo's GameCube in the wake of declining sales for the console. EA Vice President Jeff Brown said one encouraging sign of Nintendo's commitment to turn the GameCube business around is the company's newfound interest in working with outside developers. Of the three console makers, Nintendo traditionally has depended the most on self-published content. Microsoft's Xbox sales edge is thin, Brown added, and Nintendo understands the game business too well to give up on the console market. "Hardware is in their DNA," he said. "I think these guys have a really good chance to become the big come-from-behind story we all talk about at the end of the year."

Nintendo to bundle Zelda with Gamecube (April 14, 2003) The Gamecube version of Zelda has already racked up the biggest pre-orders of any game. The combination could well do for the Gamecube what the Goldeneye bundle did for the N64 all those years ago.

Nintendo said GameCube sales fell below forecast (April 7, 2003) profits would fall by 17.5%.   It said it had expected to sell 10 million machines but the actual figure was just over five and a half million in its financial year. Nintendo has also suffered from currency fluctuations and has made a series of price cuts on GameCube in Europe in recent weeks.

Nintendo "underdog" could bite Sony, MS back (February 25, 2003) Nintendo's $4.6 billion in revenue makes it second only to Sony at $8.2 billion in the video game industry in 2002. ...sitting on a cash pot of $7 billion. Nintendo is still relevant, despite it losing market share, and describes the firm as a "video game powerhouse". Console firms can always re-invent themselves every five years, the report reckons. Nintendo is likely to release a successor to the GameCube and unlike Sega, which surrendered, has the cash to put up a major fight.

The Nintendo Factor Even before the Gamecube was announced, most had already written off Nintendo. Unwisely, they assumed that a company that has been around for more than a 100 years would make the same mistake twice. The N64, considered a failure by some, lost the continued Nintendo market dominance for one reason only....Nintendo.

Console makers still figuring out the Net (May 17, 2001) Nintendo executives believe the market is too embryonic and is filled with pitfalls such as getting young game players without credit cards to pay for online content. We're being honest in saying we're still working on it adding that many of the current business plans for online gaming are likely to end up in "the dot-com ash can...great technology, interesting concept, no consumers."

Microsoft [Buy One]

Xbox Live Online Gaming Community Doubles in Just One Year (September 20, 2005) Once again breaking new ground and proving that gamers around the world crave personalized and social online experiences, Xbox Live(R), the premier global online console games and entertainment service from Microsoft Corp., now unites 2 million gamers from around the world. Xbox Live continues to grow exponentially, having doubled its online, dynamic community in just one year -- the equivalent to adding one Xbox Live member every 30 seconds.

Custom PowerPC drives new Xbox 360 to teraflops performance (May 13, 2005) Microsoft Corp. shifted up from the X86 to a custom triple-core, dual-threaded PowerPC for its Xbox 360 which the company claims delivers 1 teraflop of system-level, floating-point performance. The system marks a further step in the evolution of video game consoles into powerful home entertainment servers. In addition, the console includes a graphics chip from ATI Technologies that processes 500 million triangles per second. The ATI chip packs 10 Mbytes of embedded DRAM and 512 Mbytes of external GDDR3 memory running at 700 MHz. The system can stream digital audio files and store and show photos. It also includes an FM tuner and built-in links for streaming media from Windows Media Center PCs.

Leaked Xbox details heat up games war (February 17, 2004) Three IBM-designed 64-bit microprocessors, which will give Xbox Next more computing power than most personal computers. An ATI Technologies graphics chip with speeds much faster than its upcoming R400 chip for the personal computer. This would help the console display games with the resolution of high-definition television. No hard drive - a marked contrast with the 8GB hard drive in the existing Xbox - opting instead for flash memory to store saved games and permanent data. About 256MB of dynamic random access memory, compared with 64MB on the original. Some form of video technology, although the current DVD format on the Xbox could well be superceded by newer Blu-Ray technology.

Xbox 1.5 rumors gather speed in Japan (June 4, 2003) Microsoft is moving ahead with plans to release a redesigned Xbox, dubbed "Xbox 1.5", which will come in a significantly smaller case than the original model. This is, by all accounts, a purely cosmetic makeover.

Microsoft cuts Xbox price to $180 (May 14, 2003) Microsoft Corp. Wednesday cut the price of the Xbox video game console to $179.99 in the United States, one day after chief rival Sony Corp. did the same with its PlayStation 2. Sony (SNE: up $0.79 to $26.31, Research, Estimates) cut the PS2 price from $199 Tuesday to clear out inventory ahead of the June launch of a redesigned PS2 with an online networking adapter bundled in the box. That package is expected to retail for $199.

From Xbox to music box (May 9, 2003) Music Mixer is version 1.0 of Microsoft's plan to transform Xbox into an easy-to-use, secure hub that allows people to summon music, games and movies to any speaker or screen in the house. Sony Corp. wants to do the same thing with its rival PlayStation 2 console. And several other consumer electronics manufacturers and computer makers are exploring schemes to create simple home entertainment networks. "Moving content from the PC to the living room," said P.J. McNealy, an analyst with GartnerG2, a market research firm in San Jose, "is going to require incremental steps such as this — not quantum leaps."

Trouble ahead for Xbox Live? (April 3, 2003) Since its November 15 launch, the online console gaming service has snagged 350,000 subscribers in North America and received nearly universal praise for the service's features and quality. Microsoft was planning to charge a $9.95 monthly fee for Xbox Live after the first year. Recently, though, a buzz has been growing that the company could alter that pricing plan, perhaps cutting the price to just $50 for a one-year subscription. Right now, it doesn't seem that EA games for the Xbox will include the online functionality. EA has, however, strongly supported the online push of Sony's (SNE: Research, Estimates) PlayStation 2. To date, more than 400,000 players have registered to play "Madden 2003" and "NBA Live 2003" online.

MS CFO vows more resources to make Xbox succeed (December 5, 2002) The home and entertainment division, of which Xbox is a part, dropped $177 million in the last quarter, but that will only be a small part of the total spend on Xbox.Connors, who was clearly doing 'things that might worry stockholders' duty, also observed that Microsoft's growth prospects would be hurt if Linux became "a phenomenon on the desktop. 

Xbox Live set for November 15 launch (August 15, 2002) The Xbox Live Starter Kit will be sold for $50 (about £33, although no European details have yet been confirmed) and includes a headset for voice communications, a years subscription to the Xbox Live service and software to enable the Xbox to utilise an existing broadband connection. Xbox Live is initially supported by six software titles, three of them sports games – Sega's NFL2k3 and NBA2k3, and Microsoft’s own NFL Fever title.The primary difference between Sony's approach and Xbox Live is that Sony is, for the most part, leaving the infrastructure of PS2 online to publishers,while Microsoft retains complete control of Xbox Live.The company believes that this control of the entire system from basic infrastructure to actual game titles will enable it to provide a more seamless and enjoyable user experience, giving it an edge over its rivals in the console wars.

MS designing everything in next-gen appliance (March 15, 2002)  Microsoft wanted the next X-Box to be more of a set-top box with game, email and PVR functionality. NVidia has been worried that Microsoft was going to use another vendor to manufacture the graphic chipset. Now it appears that Microsoft is also going to dump Intel and Via and use its WebTV group to design this next generation appliance. Rumored to also be called the HomeStation, the X-Box 2 would finally be the home appliance Microsoft wants in every home. It also appears that DirectX 9 and 10 will be specifically tailored for X-Box 2. The custom CPU is also rumored to be spec'd out to be optimized for .NET code. MS would then shop out the employee designed hardware to the lowest bidder to manufacture and sell.

The fate of Microsoft’s Xbox lies in broadband (February 20, 2002) Other publishers say they don’t like the Microsoft-first server policy because it puts Microsoft between them and their customers. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Square’s Final Fantasy XI game will appear on the PlayStation 2.

Xbox may spawn entertainment hub (January 15, 2002) The X-Box is basically a PC; it has DVD capability. You would just add some connectivity there, a bigger hard drive, some video recording software, some Bluetooth--and voila, you've got something that can be marketed as something else. Microsoft had hoped to license the HomeStation design to other manufacturers, with the most likely parties being PC makers such as Dell Computer. But the newly competitive field may force Microsoft to handle production on its own, as it has done--at great expense--with the Xbox.

Nintendo

Portable Game Players to Test Video Appeal (April 4, 2004) For handheld video game makers like Nintendo (news - web sites), a popular TV character like SpongeBob SquarePants may be cute, but he's no moneymaking match for video game heavyweights such as Super Mario or Donkey Kong. In coming months, handheld video game players like Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS) Game Boy plan to add video capabilities to show cartoons and, in time, movies, but industry analysts say video entertainment will always play second fiddle to the popularity of interactive games played on the portable devices. Each $20 cartridge, made possible by Majesco's technology that compresses the video, will carry several episodes comprising some 45 minutes in all. Cartridges carrying 90 minutes will be available later this year, Majesco said.

Game Boy Advance Hits 20 Million in Sales (February 12, 2004) Nintendo said it in fact met those targets and sold 20 million Game Boy Advance units as of late January. According to the company, it posted record sales, selling 8.1 million of the portable consoles last year. The figure amounts to well over 50% of all the 14 million game consoles sold overall last year, according to figures by NPD Funworld.

Nintendo Haults GameCube Flow (August 8, 2003) Nintendo has suspended production of GameCubes in a bid to empty is warehouses of unsold consoles. To date, Nintendo has shipped some ten million GameCubes since the consoles 2001 launch. By contrast, Sony has shipped over 51 million Playstation 2s since 2000. Iwata blamed falling games sales on overly complex titles that are too tough for newcomers and casual gamers. Nintendo's message to the industry seems to be: forget about discs jam packed with ever more complex levels and involving gameplay, and give the punters something they can complete quicky - and get out to buy more of the stuff. Iwata wants Nintendo to focus on games that have a broader appeal.

Game Boy gears for a fight (May 22, 2003) Four new competitors look to topple Nintendo's dominance of the handheld gaming market. Sony's PSP, Nokia's N-gage, LeapFrog's Leapster, Helix from Tapwave. Nintendo isn't showing any signs of imminent weakness in this market. In fact, since its release in late March, the GBA SP has sold 950,000 units. And more than 143 million Game Boys have been sold in the last 14 years. At least one new version of the system is already in development, perhaps even two – though the notoriously tight-lipped company won't comment on the matter.

GameBoy Gets Blued (April 3, 2003) A Colorado company this week announced that it has developed a Bluetooth solution for turning Ninetendo's GameBoy devices into wireless "edutainment" consoles. The product, from X-traFun, Inc., is a plug-and-play cartridge that slides into the GameBoy handheld allowing interactive game playing as well as email and chat-messaging functions.

Sony

PlayStation Portable for $500? (June 9, 2004) Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst predicted a range of $199-$249. Analysts, meanwhile, are expecting a price somewhere between the dueling estimates. Farrell speculated that THQ (THQI: Research, Estimates) will spend somewhere between $1 million and $2 million to create a game for the PSP. Bonnell said there's no way to accurately predict costs at this point. No developer is willing to ignore the PSP, though. EA (ERTS: Research, Estimates) has vowed to have four games ready at the system's launch. Take Two (TTWO: Research, Estimates) is currently working on two PSP titles.

Sony hit by drop in games sales (April 27, 2004) Over the past year, Sony recorded a net profit of 88.5bn yen compared with 115.5bn yen in 2002/2003. Sony's profits were primarily hit by a 168bn yen charge which the firm took to fund job cuts at its core electronics division. In addition, its game division suffered a 40% profit decline in 2003/04 as demand for PlayStation 2 game consoles fell. Sony predicted the game unit's profits would fall further this year as PlayStation 2 demand continues to wane and as Sony funds development of its new hand-held game machine, PSP.

Handheld Gaming War Put on Hold (March 2, 2004) The reason for the PSP delay is to allow American software publishers enough time to finish their games, said Teresa Weaver, corporate communications manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America. And what about the Game Boy Advance, anyway? The launch of the SP made 2003 the best year in the Game Boy brand's 14-year history, as the GBA became 2003's best-selling game system, outpacing the PlayStation 2 in the United States by 2 million units. Worldwide, Nintendo has sold 50 million Game Boy Advance systems. If 2004 is anything like 2003, Pikachu and pals will clean up -- and with no PSP for North America, there's little reason to doubt that they will.

AOL Launches Online Gaming League for PS2 (December 12, 2003) “AOL Ladders” will offer gamers matchmaking, competitive ranking, and prizes. ‘Platinum’ and ‘Diamond’ premium levels will also be offered for $9.95 and $19.95 per month, respectively, which offer more detailed statistics and additional features. PS2 games currently supported include SOCOM II: U.S. Navy Seals, Madden NFL 2004, and Tony Hawk’s Underground.

Sony to Sell PS2 in China (December 3, 2003) The console, which will go on sale on December 20th, will carry a price tag of 1,988 yuan, or $240. Sony will sell initially sell the PS2 in five cities, which encompass about 40 million people-- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

Sony's Future to Blend Content and Electronics (November 10, 2003) Sony's PSX machine-a combination CD and DVD player, television set, computer and PlayStation, all wrapped up in broadband connectivity-promises to be the video and audio be-all and end-all. The portable wireless PlayStation will provide downloading, storage and transfer of audio and video content and online access. "It is a serious device that will give us a stunning advantage," Mr. Stringer said.

Sony to Launch Service for Online Sports (August 11, 2003) The new 989SportsOnline.com is set to launch Aug. 26 to coincide with the release of the football game NFL GameDay 2004. The online service will feature message boards, tournaments, downloadable rosters and player rankings, and will let users conduct voice chats with a PS2 headset. It will also offer a unified login, so players can access the site with one username and password no matter which 989 Sports game they are playing. Sony's new service is set to launch one day after rival Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) releases an upgrade to its Xbox (news - web sites) Live online gaming platform that will let subscribers conduct voice chats without being in an actual game. The Xbox Live service is a closed one; Microsoft collects subscription fees for it and operates all the game servers, regardless of the game or publisher. Sony's platform has traditionally been decentralized, with publishers operating online services and charging at their discretion. Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS - news), the independent publisher that dominates sports gaming, is putting all of its sports titles online on the PS2 this year, and has set up what it calls "EA Sports Nation" to link its games through common online features. EA has refused thus far to support Xbox Live for its sports games, citing concerns about the business model. Microsoft has its own sports lineup, which it calls XSN Sports, that is also online-enabled and offers users access to message boards and player rankings.

Sony Gaming Handheld to Boast LAN (July 29, 2003) We will be using some challenging technologies including wireless LAN. The new device will process data 10 times faster than the original PlayStation console, the company said. Sony has not set a price for the PSP, a multimedia unit that also plays movies and music, but analysts expect it to sell for 19,000 to 30,000 yen ($159-$251), well above the 12,500 yen price tag for Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo's smaller version of its hot-selling device launched in February.

Sony makes play for handheld console market (May 15, 2003) Console king Sony has announced plans to take on the handheld market currently dominated by rival Nintendo's GameBoy system. Sony laid out the spec for an all-in-one portable entertainment platform, the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Although the battery will be lithium-ion, some potential gamers are worried that the use of optical technology will give the machine a less than portable battery life and that Sony may be overstretching itself by trying to make the machine more than a gaming console. But observers have noted that Sony has to overcome Nintendo's 90 per cent share of the handheld market.

Gaming Servers

Zona aims to take online gaming to the next level (January 17, 2002) Servers for so-called massively multiplayer online games--in which thousands of people congregate in a shared virtual world--are in a surprisingly sorry state. Zona's founders say their system can pack 32,000 players onto one server and can cut dramatically the cost of the computing power required to support each additional player. Zona estimates its product will cost companies $4.50 per additional player; other game publishers face costs of more than $100 per player. Furthermore, players on different servers can communicate with one another, and when one server goes down, the system will shift players to a new server without disconnecting them.

Software Development Tools

Sun plays up Java for gaming (June 4, 2003) The company plans to announce on Wednesday, in advance of its JavaOne conference, the formation of Game Technologies Group, which will focus on providing technology to run games -- particularly online titles. Chris Melissinos, Sun's chief ambassador to the gaming community for several years, will lead the department under the new title of chief gaming officer. Java has already caught on as the dominant format for making games for mobile phones, but the language has yet to be widely used for PC-based games.several major publishers already run their online games using Sun systems, a natural choice given that such games demand that same type of round-the-clock availability as Sun's enterprise customers. "Most of the infrastructure needs the game people have are extremely similar to what people have in financial services or CRM (customer relationship management) or other aspects of high-performance computing

It's the game technology lag (May 12, 2003) Current graphics card technology is 12 to 18 months ahead of the current crop of games. There are many factors that influence this, with the primary one being the differences in development cycles. Graphic chip makers try to introduce new chips every six months (and miss cycles at a significant loss right Nvidia?) While game companies have development cycles that span years.

Game Development Tools For Sony Playstation 2 (March 7, 2003)  This greatly reduces creation, iteration, and validation time and gives artists the most accurate possible review feedback. The SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.3.0 3-D nonlinear production environment, which supports Windows, Linux and IRIX operating systems, is available today with a suggested retail pricing starting at $6,750.

Types of Games:

First Person Shooter (FPS): e.g. Quake3, Half-Life
Role-Playing Game (RPG) e.g. Ultima, Everquest
Social Interaction (SI) e.g. Lineage: The Blood Pledge
Community-Based Games (CBG) e.g. Majestic, Motor City Online
Sports/Action Games: e.g. Basketball, Football
Board Games: e.g. Chess, Backgammon
Casino Games: e.g. Roulette, Craps
Card Games: e.g. Bridge, Solitaire
x-rated games: e.g. Playboy

Free Games
Pay-to-Play Non-Subscription Games
Pay-to-Play Subscription Games

Spotlight Games:

Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (June 24, 2003) Fans willing to pay $50 for the software and $12 to $15 a month for access can jump among the planets, perform missions to gain status in society or simply hobnob with other fans and famous characters. George Lucas' game company, LucasArts, and partner Sony Online are counting on hooking hundreds of thousands of Star Wars fans. Already, 500,000 have registered at a LucasArts fan site (starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com) dedicated to news of the game. Some analysts wonder whether mass-market success is assured, even for proven properties. Jupiter Research analyst Joe Laszlo says there is probably a finite market -- perhaps 2 million players in the USA -- who will commit the time and money.

Enter the Matrix (May 15, 2003) Atari already has shipped 4 million copies of the game to retailers. And Dave Perry, president of the game's developer, Shiny Entertainment, said some stores already are asking for more, having sold out their supply in pre-orders. "Enter The Matrix" is in a unique situation. It will benefit from the massive marketing efforts surrounding the new Matrix film this summer, which should help sales. Then, just as the holiday season gets underway, the marketing blitz will start for the third film in the trilogy, "The Matrix: Revolutions", will start, in anticipation of the November release. That likely will spur game sales once again.

Playboy: The video game (May 13, 2003) a new corporate division that will launch next November. Along with publishers Arush Entertainment and Groove Games and development house Cyberlore, the company will release "Playboy: The Mansion", a new game for the PC and two console systems. Yes, there is nudity in this game – and it's probably not going to be just polygons. Exactly how much skin (digital or physical) will be shown still has to be determined, though. While the PC version likely will be the raciest of the three, at least one of the console versions will not feature any nudity.

New Game Reviews:

Report card grades good, bad in gaming (December 12, 2003) The institute, which surveyed 778 students in grades 4-12, found that 87% of boys played games rated M, suitable for ages 17 and over, and one in five said they had bought M-rated games without their parents' knowledge. (Other ratings include E, for all ages, and T, for ages 13-up.)

The Best of E3 (2003) Best X-Box game: 'Halo 2' (Microsoft) - Winner 'Project Gotham Racing 2' (Microsoft), Best PS2 game: EA Sports Online lineup (EA) - Winner 'Maximo 2' (Capcom), Best GameCube game: 'F-Zero' (Nintendo) - Winner 'Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes' (Konami), Best PC game: 'Half-Life 2' (Vivendi) - Winner 'Deus Ex 2' (Eidos) Best Original game: 'Beyond Good & Evil' (Ubi Soft) - Winner 'Geist' (Nintendo), Best cross platform game: 'XIII' (Ubi Soft) - Winner 'L.O.T.R. - The Return Of The King' (EA)

Freelancer: Game is out of this world (May 12, 2003) Many games claim to be unique, but this one pretty much lives up to the claim; this is a combination of "Everquest" and "Wing Commander," a blend that works well. But the best part of Freelancer is the multiplayer mode; using servers set up by users or main servers around the world, the game is a blast to play with others. There are dozens of weapon systems you earn based on your skill at previous missions, which makes the shoot-'em-up part of the game a challenge. Walking into bars and asking for work got to be a little tedious, but all in all for about $40, I think this is a very good space sim/role-playing game if you have enough PC to handle it.

Gaming Software Company Notes:

Playlogic's games available on demand through broadband (June 6, 2005) Playlogic International N.V. and Club iT Corporation announce that they have agreed to a cooperation to make all Playlogic's current and future titles available ondemand for gamers through broadband connected devices. The first four titles, currently being technically evaluated, to be ported to the G-cluster platform are: World Racing 2, Knights of the Temple II, Gene Troopers and Xyanide. Other titles will be ported in the future.

Video Game-Maker Sega Reports Profit (August 7, 2003) Japanese video-game maker Sega Corp. said Thursday it earned 1.89 billion yen ($15.8 million) on better-than-expected sales of game software and arcade machines in its first fiscal quarter. Sega said ``Sonic Adventure DX'' for Nintendo Co.'s GameCube console and ``Let's Make a J-League Soccer Club 3'' for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 sold well. It reaffirmed its forecast of a profit of 7.5 billion yen ($62.5 million) on 193 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in sales for the year through March 2004.

Gaming Revenue Options:

Online Gaming Special Report (May 16, 2005) Gaming is still an untapped medium for advertisers, given its size. There are about 112 million people age 13 or older in the United States participating in some form of electronic gaming, according to the Yankee Group. By the end of 2008, the number will grow to 148 million. Gaming, as defined by Yankee, takes place on four platforms: consoles (like Sony's PlayStation 2), PCs, handhelds (like Nintendo's Gameboy) and mobile devices (like cell phones). According to a report from the Yankee Group, while the industry saw $80 million in spending in 2003, ad dollars are projected to exceed $870 million by 2009. That projection exceeds a forecast last year from Deloitte Corporate Finance, which predicted less than $300 million in spending by 2007. Massive's Davis is even more bullish, predicting a $1.4 billion marketplace in the United States alone in five years. Each projection represents just a small chunk of the overall advertising pie, but the expected growth will rival the Internet's heady early days. The games themselves are becoming more costly to develop; some budgets are closer to those of a movie, say, in the neighborhood of $25 million, and ads are a way to offset some of those costs. There are about 112 million people age 13 or older in the U.S. participating in some from of electronic gaming, according to the Yankee Group. By the end of 2008, this number will grow to 148 million. Gaming takes place on four platforms. See Console gaming, PC gaming, Handhelds, and Mobile. [must read]

Electronic Arts And ESPN Sign 15-Year Deal To Sell Games (January 18, 2005) Electronic Arts signs 15-year deal giving exclusive rights to use ESPN brand in video games; Electronic Arts will pay $750 million to $850 million for right to use ESPN brand for games based on at leat nine sports, including baseball, basketball and football; deal with ESPN comes one month after Electronic Arts announced exclusive five-year deal with National Football League to design game using its players and uniforms; that deal is worth more than $300 million

Online game makers seek key to profits (January 25, 2002) Popular games such as Sony's "EverQuest" and Electronic Arts' "Ultima" have hundreds of thousands of paying players, generating steady revenue streams envied by other segments of the software business. But the complex fantasy worlds in which the games exist appeal to only a small minority of serious game players, compared with the overall game market.Microsoft's The Zone gaming site offers several sponsored games, starting last year with "Toyota Adrenaline," a racing game built around the company's latest truck. Although game consoles will account for only a small fraction of online game revenue into the foreseeable future, console makers have a chance to write their own rules in a way that favors subscription revenue.

"EverQuest" spins its own economy (January 25, 2002) In "EverQuest," players control characters that acquire skills and possessions that can be bartered within the game or sold for real money on online auction sites such as eBay. Based on a review of thousands of completed auctions for "EverQuest" items and in-game currency, Castronova concluded that players earn an average wage of $3.42 for every hour they play the game and collectively produce annual gross "exports" of more than $5 million.

Imaginary worlds. Real cash (January 16, 2002) "Project Entropia" will be the first massively multiplayer online role playing game to forego monthly charges. Instead, publisher/developer MindArk hopes to make its money from the sale of in-game items, such as armor, weapons or even in-game real-estate. The plan goes something like this: Players, using credit cards, will transfer their money from real world cash to "Project Entropia Dollars" - or PEDs - at virtual banks in the game ($1 equals 10 PEDs). That money can be spent freely in the game. Then, when they decide to take a break from playing, they can cash the PEDs in for real world cash - perhaps more than they initially invested. The game will need 100,000 players to be profitable.

Playing up the online game market (May 18, 2001) The same way that people are willing to pay for premium cable channels, as long as they get 'The Sopranos,' we have to give customers compelling reasons to want to pay for online games. We're convinced people don't want to play online games--they want to play games online. That means they want the same quality of experience they get playing offline, but playing against a human opponent. We can't yet deliver that to consumers from a technology standpoint. We don't have the bandwidth.

Other Things Related to Broadband Games:

Gaming Makes Training Child's Play (September 25, 1998) New York-based, international bank holding company Bankers Trust New York Corp. has added gameware to its corporate training arsenal. Employees who need to review internal company policies play intranet-based games such as Sexual Harassment Solitaire. And employees who need to learn the new rules governing derivatives trading play Straight Shooter -- a three- dimensional desktop game Developed in-house, it resembles the popular consumer games Doom and Quake.  

Gaming Technology for Nongame Use:

Enterprise Play (October 14, 2002) Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation, and Estco Medical's Medigent are highlighted in this discussion of the adoption of gaming technology by CTOs for nongame applications. Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation are popular gaming platforms, but they also have something other companies need: a large set of industry-leading technologies.  

Gaming Security (disruption, identify theft, etc.):

Game Sparks Bad Behavior Online (July 9, 2003) The popular commercial game, where thousands of people interact electronically, is turning into a petri dish of antisocial behavior. And that's raising questions about whether limits on conduct should be set in such emerging virtual worlds, even if they are huge adult playpens. There are no guns in Sims, made by Maxis, and it's impossible to do serious harm to another player. That means griefers -- admittedly a small percentage of the game's 100,000 subscribers -- have to be devilishly creative in their social deviance. "The more real you try to make these online worlds, the more the problems are real-world problems," said John Suler, a Rider University professor who specializes in the psychology of cyberspace. "It's not always easy to contain this stuff in the fantasy world." The game's Terms of Service agreement tells players they cannot "harass, threaten, embarrass or do anything else to another Member or guest that is unwarranted." They're also told, "The laws that apply in the offline world must be obeyed online as well." Maxis gives warnings, terminates threads in message boards, suspends players and in extreme cases, bans accounts. Chase himself endured a three-day suspension for what he said was foul language. Some players have reported online spats leaking out of the game -- players have hacked into others' accounts, posed as acquaintances and spread rumors about real people through instant messaging. Some have even reported identity theft. "You can't produce something that's this potent or powerful psychologically and not have some accountability for it," he said. Piers Mathieson and his wife, Jennifer, are two more hardcore Sims players. They log several hours most days. After the Las Vegas couple distributed photos of themselves to friends, one griefer hacked into Piers' America Online account and stole his in-game character's possessions. Someone else posed as Piers and told other players that Jennifer had died of cancer.

Affects of Gaming on People: Addictive, Violence, etc.

Violent games sparking alarm (December 12, 2003) The ICCR is a New York-based coalition of 275 religious groups that invests more than $110 billion in corporate America and uses that portfolio as leverage for moral issues. The group recently sent letters to several retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, Blockbuster, Best Buy and Toys R Us, asking whether the companies enforce the game ratings, which are similar to movie ratings. Many retailers say they do their best to monitor the sale or rental of mature games to minors. Blockbuster, for instance, allows parents to authorize their children to rent mature-rated games and R-rated videos when applying for a rental card. Wal-Mart's cash registers are set up to prompt customers for identification before allowing a mature-rated game to be purchased, said Karen Burke, a spokeswoman. Toys R Us uses a similar system. Lowenstein noted that the same Federal Trade Commission survey also found that 81 percent of minors were able to buy R-rated DVDs and 83 percent were able to buy music recordings with parental advisory labels. The report also shows that fewer teenagers were able to purchase violent games than last year.

Video games get 'art' status in the US (June 4, 2003) A panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that a Missouri ordinance that bans the rentals or sales of graphically violent video games to minors violates free-speech rights. In doing so, the panel reversed a ruling by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and ordered the lower court to craft an injunction that would prohibit the ordinance from taking effect. "This decision is a total and unambiguous affirmation of our position that video games have the same constitutional status as a painting, a film or a book," Douglas Lowenstein, president of the IDSA, said in a statement. "The decision sends a powerful signal to government at all levels that efforts to regulate consumers' access to the creative and expressive content found in video games will not be tolerated." Patricia Redington, county counsellor for St. Louis County in Missouri, said. "It means the kids can rent video games without their parents' permission."

US first amendment allows kids to buy, play violent video games (June 4, 2003) A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT has consigned ruling preventing children buying violent or sexually explicit video games to the dustbin of history. One of the three appeal judges said that video games are just as entitled to the amendment, which allows free speech, as the "best of literature".

Mortal Kombat ad deemed too bloody (April 23, 2003)  Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled a poster for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was irresponsible because the placement could be seen by children, even though the game itself is rated mature, for those 18 or over. The ASA ruled that Midway Games must consult with an industry advisory body before advertising in Britain again. More than one million Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance games have been sold worldwide since its November 2002 launch, according to U.S.-based Midway.

Video games' allure sparks virtual battle (March 24, 2003) One leading expert thinks violent games will distort only the lives of children with existing social problems, and spare those who have good parents and a sharp mind. Other research exonerates the medium altogether. Funk, one of the country's premier researchers on the topic, thinks "vulnerable children" like bullies, their victims and those with emotional problems may be more receptive to the allure of the digitized violence of games than someone from a stable background with good social skills.  Funk also thinks that children younger than 12 whose parents have yet to erect a "moral scaffolding" for them may also be easily influenced by violent games. "Violent games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City need to be seen by parents before their kids use them," [Must Read]

Has Cupid Met Its Match? (February, 14, 2003) Her husband was addicted to the game, she says, playing up to 16 hours a day. And when it came down to choosing between their marriage and the game, Barnes says her husband chose the digital fantasy world and his crowd of virtual friends. She eventually divorced her husband.

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Check out these other Birds-Eye.Net papers/products regarding Online Gaming:

• Online Gaming Market Research - Great place to start learning about online gaming
• Online Gaming from a Broadband Perspective - A white paper summarizing much of the above research about online gaming
• Internet Gaming: Demystifying the Attraction - An introduction to Internet gaming and what attracts gamers
• Online Gaming Understanding Attraction - A look at how gaming attracts and keeps players
• Online Gaming: Getting Down to Business - Understanding the business aspects of online gaming
• Online Gaming Directory - A growing listing of online gaming software vendors
• Universities Pave Way for Online Gaming - While service providers balk, universities forge ahead with online gaming initiates.

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