Month: May 2004

Boys Shunning Toys to Play Video Games

The NPD Group has published a report that confirms and adds detail to a view that many have held for some time: non-video game toys are losing the battle for our children’s time and attention.

This is particularly evident with older boys from ages 9 to 12 – they show a marked tendency to move away from traditional toys to playing video games. Girls seem to spend about the same time on toys and video games – but as they get older, they tend to find interests away from video games.

According to the report, the average time children among the ages of 5 to 12 spend playing video games is 4.2 hours per week, with one-third (32 percent) of boys and only 10 percent of girls playing more than six hours per week. Nearly half of the children in the study began playing video games between the ages of 4 and 5, with 20 percent beginning at age 3 or younger.

“Video games demand the attention of toy manufacturers who want to understand their implications to play time with traditional toys,” said Michael Redmond, senior industry analyst, The NPD Group. “For toy manufacturers, determining how to leverage the ‘power’ of video games in order to take advantage of their popularity through different marketing tactics is essential. By researching which types of video games are most popular among children, toy manufacturers can discover new licensing opportunities.”

Categories that are suffering are ones that previously had a very strong grip on the boys’ market – action figures, building toys, puzzles and vehicles. This has been demonstrated by poor sales by companies specialising in toys these areas, with the Lego Company being a high profile victim.

Indeed, my own Lego collection has been sadly neglected since I picked up Eve, though I might dust some off later. To make a Minmatar Tempest, obviously.

More on the NPD report

LUGNET – the Lego Users group

Microsoft Drop WiFi Hardware Range

Microsoft are dropping another hardware line – this time it’s WiFi network cards, laptop adapters and broadband networking routers. If you didn’t know that MS sold this sort of hardware, it was in the North American market only. They started selling the equipment in 2002, to favourable reviews and customer comments.

Microsoft have yet to comment on why they are dropping their WiFi line, but it’s though that this move will allow them to focus on their key software businesses.

They’ll allow current stocks to sell out and support the hardware through its warranty period, but then that’s it. The wireless XBox adapter will stay on the market however, underlining MS’s commitment to their innovative games platform.

MSNBC on the news

Infinium Labs Sets Launch for Phantom Console

We have covered the on/off, is it real, is it vapour history of the Phantom Console a number of times.

We now learn that Infinium Labs are at E3 showing the Phantom Console on an 8,000 sqft stand and signing up game developer for the platform. They have also released their pricing plans.

The Phantom is essentially a sealed box containing a high spec PC that has been designed for gaming, so comes complete with a high end graphics card. What makes it different is that the games are loaded on to it via broadband, so not only are there no physical distribution cost for it, but the payment models for the games can vary from single play rental to ownership.

Following its planned 18 November launch, it will sell for $199 or for free, if two years of membership to the $29.95 per month broadband gaming service, Phantom Gaming Service, are signed up for. At the start of the service a large number of free games will be available.

The sleek-looking device will be manufactured by Biostar in Taiwan, and will feature a 40GB hard drive, AMD Athlon XP 2500+ central processing unit (CPU), the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU) and the NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 platform processor. It will also ship with gamepad, mouse and keyboard that they are labelling the Phantom Lapboard, which they claim gives easy control over the keyboard and mouse even when sitting on a couch.

There is plenty of innovative ideas in the Phantom such as the way the capacity of the hard disk is managed. The unit will notice when the drive is becoming full and will invisibly remove the least played games, automatically uploading them from the central server if the gamer request a play.

Kevin Bachus, president of Infinium Labs previously worked in a senior position at Microsoft in the Xbox division.

It is a brave company that takes of the likes of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, and all gaming consoles live or die on the support of the games developers – if there is no strong flow of quality titles, people will not buy. Mr Bachus is not alone in thinking it is a good idea; Infinium has just $46m in first round funding.

Infinium Labs

E3 Games Show

E3 Then
The Start of Something Big
In 1995, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was held for the first time. Video games were based on 16-bit technology and 3D graphics were the exception, not the norm. Few beyond those immediately involved in the medium of PC and video games took notice. That first year, E3 exhibitors numbered far fewer than today’s. E3‘s inaugural event set a new standard for tradeshow launches. It was clearly the beginning of something big.

E3 Now
Clearly the Best
Today, the interactive entertainment industry is in growth mode. It has mindshare comparable to any major sports league-and it partners with them all. Hollywood talent vies to be included in game productions, and established writers whose books sell millions and musicians whose albums have gone platinum two and three times over also contribute to the medium. Technology now brings interactive entertainment to mobile phones, the Web, and networked consoles. As the industry has grown, so has E3. Each year, E3 attracts more media, more international attention, is more productive, and is more fun.

E3 Next
It’s Up to You
Today, the industry is poised for continued growth. Games and game culture continue to convert more and more consumers. Game brands and franchises are increasing their reach, and an industry that once thought in terms of local markets now thinks globally. As E3 approaches its tenth anniversary and peers into the next decade, be assured it will continue to provide a marketplace for ideas and commerce to an industry that continues to grow and evolve. What happens next is up to the exhibitors and attendees of E3 2004 and beyond. What happens next is up to you.
http://www.e3expo.com/e3expo/

CNET launches a new MP3.com

After a lot of uncertainty about the future of MP3.com following its demise, and rumours that all of the content had been deleted, CNet has re-launched MP3.com, but as something completely different to its original guise.

The new version of the service combines extensive information about the musical groups such as the history of each member of the band and details of all of the tracks they have released. The reviews and background information about each of the major albums is also extensive. At a quick glance, the depth of detail is very impressive.

Once an individual track or album has been selected, a page is displayed showing a number of ways to get to the track. Online music download services, on-demand streaming and even where the physical CD are listed. Currently there are fourteen service listed, which we assume will increased as Cnet signs more deals. Each of the download services show the music file format, computer platform for each, as well as highlighting if the service protect their tracks with DRM.

As would be expected MP3.com provides many routes to content that you might not have thought of listening to or buying. One of the novel ones is Musicvine. A graphical representation of artists is shown, with groups of a similar musical type clustered around them, joined by lines. When a band is selected, further information about them is shown on the left-hand panel. It’s a neat idea, but we are at this stage unsure how useful it will be long term.

MP3.com is a clear attempt by Cnet to try and become the Meta music service – THE destination when individuals want to buy music. On first impressions it looks like a pretty good stab at it, but we are unsure if there is sufficient here to keep the idea unique to them.

MP3.com

Musicvine on MP3.com

Softbank losses grow

Japan-based Softbank Corp today announced widening losses for the 2003 year ending March. Declared a net loss of 107.09 billion yen ($94.2m, 79.8m), up from a 99.99 billion yen loss in the previous year, they blame what they called “substantial expenses” to lure customers to its broadband Internet service. Sales rose 27.2% over the period.

Unusually Softbank decided not to announce their financial predictions for the current year. Their stock fell around 10% against the Nikkei Average fall of 4.8%.

The broadband services, Yahoo BB, is a joint venture with Yahoo and has been held up as an example of what broadband could be given their provision of 45mbps coverage to some of their consumers. By March they had over 4 million customers and they are targetting 6m by September 2005.

Softbank (eng)

Wi-Fi Alliance to jump early on IEEE WLAN standard

Claiming that they want to get the market moving, the Wi-Fi Alliance is starting its certification programme for wireless Quality of Service (QoS) in September before the official declaration of the standard by the IEEE. The IEEE is expected to declare the standard by the end of 2004 at the earliest.

WiFi standards really are a confusing alphabet soup. 802.11b is the original 11Mbps wireless running at 2.4GHz frequency, confusingly 802.11a runs faster at 54Mpbs but at the higher frequency of 5GHz, 802.11g is 54Mbps at 2.4GHz, 802.11i has enhanced security, 802.11h is concerned with spectrum and power control management, 802.11e will provide QoS. Even the trade finds it confusing, never mind the consumer, hence the creations of terms like WiFi.

WME (Wi-Fi Multimedia Extensions), part of 802.11e, will provide QoS which is important for a number of applications. Currently all packets of data on a WiFi network are treated equally, but for some sensitive types of traffic such as video, audio and voice it is more important that those data packets arrive before thing such as web pages. If the sensitive packets do not arrive on time or in order, the playback of them can become choppy – not what the consumer is expecting.

Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance explained the importance of this for home media networks, “You need to be able to manage bandwidth and prioritise the packets if you’re sending a video image from your PC to your television.”

Pre-empting the release of standard is a worrying trend that is becoming more common. A commercial entity or industry body gambles that they can possibly influence the market by releasing equipment with their pre-emptive ‘standard’. They hope that if the purchasing public has gone their route and bought substantial amount of equipment using it, it itself becomes the standard.

Wi-Fi Alliance

IEEE

The ZigBee Alliance Open House

Everyone is cordially invited to attend the ZigBee Alliance Open House Wednesday, May 19, 2004 in Seattle, Washington at the Hotel Monaco. ZigBee will hold this event for press, analysts and any interested companies or individuals to come and learn what the ZigBee Alliance is all about. This event will begin at 1:00PM and be followed by an informal evening networking reception. Invite your co-workers, customers, and vendors to join and learn more about the ZigBee Alliance.

REGISTRATION:

To confirm open house attendance, please complete the online registration form.  Meeting registration does not secure you a hotel room.  Please complete one registration form for each individual attending from your company by Monday, May 10, 2004.  In order for us to provide comfortable accommodations, it is crucial that everyone register in advance.

MEETING HIGHLIGHTS:

  • ZigBee Member Company Product Demonstrations
  • Promoter and Member Company Presentations
  • Networking Reception

Hotel Monaco Seattle 1101 Fourth Avenue Seattle, WA 98101http://www.monaco-seattle.com/ Krista Burgess, Event Manager, ZigBee Alliance [email protected]

Streaming Media East

At Streaming Media East, learn how to use streaming to create, manage, publish, and distribute digital media. Streaming Media East is where information technology professionals and business executives will get actionable information about using streaming and digital media technologies in the areas of marketing, advertising and promotion, corporate communications, education and e-learning, and customer relationship management. Currently accepting speaker submissions. Hilton NY, New York City http://www.streamingmedia.com/