NevOn

Rupert Murdoch's long tail play

Financial Times: Rupert Murdoch has put two more internet companies on News Corporation's list of desired acquisitions: Blinkx and IGN Entertainment. [...] Talks to buy video search engine Blinkx are under way. IGN, a video gaming company considering an initial public offering or a sale, is also under consideration and could be valued at up to $800m, people briefed on its plans said.

Rupert Murdoch's long tail is looking very interesting! Blinkx' focus on video (and audio: podcasts) search could make them very big indeed in a burgeoning market where searching for and finding the content you want is crying out for someone to provide consumers with the means to do that easily.

Blinkx say they are already "tracking, listening to and watching over 15,000 podcasts and video blogs." If Forrester Research is right, videocasting will be the next big thing - and it will be hot.

IGN has numerous web properties embracing video games, file sharing, entertainment and movies. All broadband-intensive, and as we can see almost everywhere, broadband penetration is increasing rapidly, both in the US and in Europe.

Earlier this year, Murdoch identified the internet as a priority and said his group could spend up to $2 billion on acquisitions, the FT reported.

Watch the space.

Financial Times | Murdoch sights more internet targets

Game sex scenes denial hits GTA maker's share price

BBC News: The best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game has been given an adults only ratings in the US after explicit sexual content was found in it. The Entertainment Software Rating Board changed the rating as the game's publisher Take Two admitted it created sex scenes found in the title.

There would be nothing especially remarkable about this news were it not for that fact that Take Two denied that the explicit scenes were in the game from the outset, saying instead that they were the result of modifications made to the game by a game fan. Now they've come clean with the truth.

Here are the immediate consequences of being caught out with an untruth:

[...] The news had an instant impact on shares in Take Two, owner of GTA maker Rockstar Games, which fell 11% in after-hours trading. The change in rating led to shops such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy removing the game from their shelves as they have a policy of not stocking titles with AO ratings.

BBC News | Technology | Hidden sex scenes hit GTA rating

[UPDATE 22/7/05] From the Financial Times 21 July - Adult rating damages Take-Two:

Take-Two Interactive Software lowered its fiscal third-quarter guidance yesterday [...] The video game maker said it expected to post a loss of 40-45 cents a share on sales of $160m-$170m for the quarter ending July 31. Analysts had been expecting Take-Two to report a quarterly loss of 6 cents a share on sales of $213m. Shares in the company were down about 6 per cent at $25.40 in after-hours trading.

Play Blogpoly

The new board game for those rainy days:

Great attention to detail, great imagination! By "LittleOslo."

(Hat tip: Skype Journal)

Success for Half-Life 2 piracy control

When I installed Half-Life 2 last weekend, I was intrigued by how the whole experience in installing the game was so integrated with connecting to Steam's servers online as part of the installation process to authenticate that I had a legitimate copy.

This authentication seems to be ongoing and extends to playing the game. I've not had much time to do that - unlike, for instance, Paul Thurrott who's been posting ongoing commentaries about his gameplay fun - but each time I do start up Half-Life 2, it connects to Steam's servers and logs me in with quite a bit of back-and-forth going on between the servers and my PC. Then, I can play the game from the installation on my PC.

So it was interesting read a BBC News report just now that said developer Valve has banned 20,000 people from playing Half-Life 2 because it had evidence that their copy of the game had been obtained illegally. When you install Half-Life 2, authentication involves setting up an account with Steam, Valve's gaming community system, and letting that check which copy of the game was being run, as was my experience.

In a statement detailing the banning of the accounts, Valve said this system helped identify who had got hold of pirated copies. "The method used was extremely easy for Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2," it said.

From the BBC report:

Rob Fahey, editor of online news site gamesindustry.biz, said the mass banning showed off the power of the Steam system. Before now, he said, it has been hard for game makers to do anything about piracy once the game was being played. "But with this, Valve is taking really effective steps against people using illegitimate copies of Half-Life 2," he said.

If Steam proves effective at cutting the piracy of games to a minimum, said Mr Fahey, other game makers may be tempted to set up copycat systems. "It's not hard to see a point in the near future when every publisher wants you to run an application on your system purely to allow you to play their games," he said.

I'd say you can count on it - this will be how you get to play PC games in the future.

The awesome experience of installing Half-Life 2

It took over an hour to install, requires you to be online the whole time, and includes some behind-the-scenes validating to ensure you have a legitimate copy. But without any doubt, it is worth the time and procedure - Half-Life 2 really is an exhilarating game.

Only 45 minutes playing time so far - that's got me to the second level - but more than enough to clearly see that this game is an evolution in PC game development, with its truly gorgeous graphics quality, incredibly realistic gameplay environment and digital characters that react to you in ways that show real intelligence, artificial or not.

You don't need a mega-PC on which to install and run the game, either. The minimum hardware spec is a 1.2Ghz PC, 256Mb RAM, Windows 98 and a graphics card that supports DirectX 7, plus about 5 gigs of hard disk space. The game comes on a DVD, not CD-ROMs, so a DVD drive as well.

While I wouldn't try and play it on a PC with only 256Mb RAM - you really need at least 512Mb - the rest of the spec would be enough for a reasonable gameplay experience. Not spectacular, but reasonable.

As with most recent PC games, though, the better the spec, the faster and more smoothly the game runs, at higher screen resolutions. Unlike games such as Doom 3, which really does need a much higher spec than the advertised minimum (especially the graphics), I've got Half-Life 2 up and running on a 1.8Ghz Toshiba laptop (the same one that had a hard disk failure last month, now fixed), Windows XP Pro SP2, an Nvidia GeForce4 440 Go chip with 64Mb of video memory, all of which enable me to run the game fast and very smoothly at 1024x768 resolution full screen. While this PC has a native screen resolution of 1600x1200, that just isn't worth trying with only 64Mb of video memory.

So, to the actual installation.

Be prepared - it will take an hour or more as game installation includes being online to Steam's servers as part of the installation process (Steam is game developer Valve's 'delivery partner'). You'll need to open an account (free) with Steam, otherwise you cannot install the game. Not only that, once the game installs, a server process validates your installation by unlocking the game files (meaning, ensuring the game's not pirated) and building a cache of the game on your PC's hard disk. That includes downloading more files from the servers and auto-installing them. Even with a high-speed broadband connection, that takes a while.

You'll also need your internet connection every time you play the game. Yes, you will be able to play it offline from the installation on your hard disk (and with the DVD in your DVD drive) but when you start up the game, it logs you in to your Steam account. I noticed that, when I started the game each time today and my PC connected to Steam's servers, new files were downloaded to my PC.

During installation, it's crucial you leave unchecked this little box in the Steam account settings dialog about remembering your Steam password, otherwise you will not be able to play the game in offline mode:

It may all seem a complex process, but I imagine it's a major part of what we'll be seeing more of with PC games - far more robust anti-piracy measures.

Half-Life 2 is an astounding game, well worth the installation experience. The graphics are jaw-dropping, the story line is intelligent and seamlessly follows on from Half-Life released in 1998, and it more than lives up to expectations. My vote: 10 out of 10.

Online reviews and other info:

• Official Half-Life 2 website.
• For opinions from someone who's already played it a lot, and some great screenshots, take a look at Paul Thurrott's running commentaries.
• There's a good review by GameSpot.
• BBC News | Technology | No half measures with Half-Life 2.

Half Life 2 arrives

Arrived  in the mail yesterday  - Half Life 2.

Hope to get time to install it and give it a go this weekend.

Fake blogs, true buzz

The Chicago Tribune reported this weekend on how phony messages and hoax campaigns on the internet have gained acceptance as a marketing promotional tool with a goal of drawing attention to new product offerings.

The paper quotes the example of a video-game tester named Beta-7. When he began suffering from blackouts and uncontrollable fits of violence, he launched a blog to campaign against the release of the game causing his problems.

The Beta-7 blog and two others featured pictures of injuries suffered by gamers during blackouts, and bulletin-board messages were posted across the internet about the adverse side effects of playing. Confidential company memos, purportedly acquired by another game tester, were posted that portrayed gamemaker Sega as increasingly worried about the problems.

After four months of battling Sega, Beta-7 mysteriously disappeared. It was all a hoax - Beta-7 was part of a new marketing trend that uses fake blogs to promote products.

Beta-7 ran for four months and ended with the September release of the game. The unique campaign - the sites attracted 2.2 million visitors - appears to be successful. Sega said sales have improved over last year by 20 percent, selling about 360,000 games.

The Tribune's article also discusses fake blog campaigns that went badly wrong for Dr Pepper and Warner Bros.

Interesting reading. Is this really the way things are going to be in the new marketing mix? Real-blogger trust and credibility will be priceless commodities.

Chicago Tribune | Fake blogs, true buzz (registration required).

Viral marketing 'backfire'

The Register reported yesterday on a marketing campaign to promote the latest version of the Resident Evil PlayStation 2 game which provoked a panic about the spread of a non-existent mobile phone virus.

Phone users have received unsolicited SMS text messages on their mobile phones telling them they are infected by the so-called T-Virus. The messages are sent from a website designed to promote the game Resident Evil: Outbreak which will be released in mid September.

As a result, one anti-virus software firms has been receiving calls from concerned phone users reporting a virus outbreak.

CE Europe, the company behind the marketing campaign - who claim the T-Virus campaign is a world-first as a 'viral mechanic' for promoting a computer game - issued a press release to explain that the whole thing was a promotional stunt, although they seem unrepentant.

Will this backfire hurt launch sales? Very unlikely. I'm not sure it was a backfire. Looks like a refreshing and different marketing approach to me. The resulting segment media coverage and awareness-raising among the primary target audience (teens/young adults) will surely help Resident Evil: Outbreak when launch time comes.

The Register | Resident Evil viral marketing ploy backfires

T-Virus website.

Doom 3 rocks to a high spec

My copy of Doom 3 arrived from Amazon yesterday and it was well worth the wait. Not a game for everyone, though. It's 18-rated (M in the US) and maker iD Software describes it as "Doom 3 is a terrifying sci-fi horror game experience. It is not recommended for the cowardly or the faint of heart." A bit of a challenge!

One immediate fact - you need a pretty high-spec PC on which to run it in a way that enables you to enjoy the best experience. Smooth gameplay, rich graphics, great sound, all that. The minimum video memory requirement is 64Mb, but that just doesn't cut it. You need at least 128Mb of video RAM and a hardware-accelerated video card such as an ATI Radeon 9600 or better or an nVidia GForce 4/Ti or better if you want to get the best out of the game's superb graphics power. And, of course, a powerful PC, at least Pentium 4 2.0Ghz with 512Mb RAM (1Gb is better).

While I'd love to have the highest-spec PC on the market, I haven't won the lottery yet. My Toshiba Satellite P4 1.8Ghz laptop with an nVidia GForce 4 chip has 'only' 64Mb video RAM - and the hardware isn't accelerated - so not the best platform for Doom 3, even though it has 1Gb RAM. I wouldn't even think about installling it on my office ThinkPad T30 which has a measly 16Mb of video RAM, hardly enough for running a fancy PowerPoint presentation. My wife's Sony Vaio desktop P4 2.0Ghz has a Radeon 9700 Pro card with 128Mb of video RAM and that works fine (she let me install the game on it!), although I have reduced some of the game's video quality settings.

Only 40 minutes with Doom 3 so far, but it looks awesome. Reminds me somewhat of Half-Life, at least the beginning sequences. It's definitely similar in storyline to the original Doom (I still have that) which came out in 1993, but with knobs on. I will play it for a while, get to know it and post more comment here at some point.

Doom 3 website.

Gamesradar.com has a good review. Also, the September issue of PC Gamer magazine, on the newsstands now, has a detailed review.

Doom 3 leaked over p2p networks

Highly-anticipated first-person blast-'em-up Doom 3 has already been released by piracy groups over the internet, according to a report by The Inquirer today. According to an ISO-piracy news site, theisonews.com, the game is available for download over various p2p networks, and gives details on how to install the cracked game.

The Inquirer: Doom 3 leaked over p2p networks

A report on BBC News about the online thievery says that copies of the game on file-sharing networks and newsgroups are being downloaded by thousands of people. The cost to the game's makers, id Software, could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost sales, the BBC report said. (I'd say more likely millions.)

BBC NEWS / Technology / Long-awaited Doom 3 leaked online

Doom 3 is scheduled to officially go on sale in the US on 3 August.