Month: June 2004

Microsoft Scraps Major Online Game Before Launch

The hugely anticipated MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) True Fantasy Online, seen as a competitor to Final Fantasy X and tool for winning over Japanese gamers has been scrapped after more than three years in development.

The title had already been delayed three times – it was originally intended to go live in Spring. Role-playing games are enormously popular with Japanese players, and indeed the country is the source of all the best RPG franchises: Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Vagrant Story, to name just a few. Japan also is home to a phenomena known as “Final Fantasy Flu” where there is a sudden peak in staff calling in sick on major RPG launch days.

Level 5, developers of the game have an incredible track record when it comes to games – they’re already responsible for the best-selling Dragon Quarter and Dark Cloud series.

Peter Moore, of Microsoft’s games unit, and formerly of Sega, said: “It was very, very clear to us that there was no way for the quality level we needed that it was going to make winter. We wish that we could just through sheer force of will bring this game to market. It just isn’t happening. We started to be concerned with timetables and milestones in recent months. The developer, who we have the greatest regard for … agreed with us.”

Since launch, Microsoft have sold just 500,000 consoles in Japan – reasons given revolve around the sheer size of the console (it originally launched with a special controller that was smaller than the standard US/UK issue – now available worldwide) and lack of games designed to appeal to Japanese gamers. By comparison, Sony has sold 15 million Playstation2 consoles, Nintendo has sold 3.2 million GameCubes.

The MMORPG market worldwide is acknowledged as being difficult to crack – despite being relatively new, there are already well-established games in operation and players are loath to switch between them. Everquest is undoubtedly the most popular with more than 420,000 subscribers paying $12.95 per month to punch rats in the face and steal their whiskers for one experience point.

Level 5

Nvidia Expect Media Centre Shipments to Treble

One of the leading manufacturers of video cards, Nvidia, has stated that it expects worldwide shipments of media centres – PCs used to play video, music and games in a living room environment – to treble in 2004. This would take global figures to around six million units.

Huang Jeh-hsun, president and CEO of Nvidia made the statement at Computex 2004, saying that demand was picking up, and further growth was expected as prices fell.

Most media centres are still based around a PC paradigm – and many home users find PC concepts and interfaces off-putting. Operating systems such as Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Centre Edition are a step in the right direction but are still daunting for casual users, and it’s frankly a pain to have to boot up your PC and navigate menus and settings just to watch K-PAX on DVD.

Nvidia’s optimism on increased shipments, however is no doubt inspired by their own range of products, principally their nStant Media platform. Currently a laptop-only solution, nStant Media allows users to use digital content without having to boot into an operating system – and consequently uses less power too.

Nvidia

NPD Group: US CD Price Cuts Are Accelerating

NPD Group’s MusicWatch PriceLab latest information shows that US price cuts to CDs are accelerating. CDs in Q1 2004 were 4% cheaper than in Q1 2003. By Q3 2003, the prices had only fallen 1%, by Q4 2003 they’d fallen 2.5%.

This means that the average price of a CD in the US has fallen to US$13.29 (€10.90) from US$13.79 (€11.31) in 2003. Titles older than 18 months are cheaper still, averaging at US$12.99 (€10.65).

“There are several reasons for the accelerating decline,” according to Russ Crupnick, president of NPD Music. “First and foremost the recording industry has had to deal with a changing market over the past few years, which was fuelled in part by file-sharing. But the retail landscape has also changed, and consumers are increasingly exposed to everyday low prices or terrific discount offers. Everyone also recognizes the increasing competition for entertainment dollars, as DVDs and video games are growing at double digit rates. These situational factors are causing the industry to reduce rethink pricing.”

NPD Group

Amazon’s New Preview Jukebox

Amazon's new jukebox featureAmazon.com have quietly rolled out a nifty new music preview feature, allowing much more convenient previews than before. The site’s erstwhile preview system was always a bit hit and miss, lacking in some obvious functions, but the new system, comprising of a pop-up box control panel with more than a whiff of iTunes about it is much better and demonstrates that it’s not just the better download sites that allow you to try before you buy.

The new feature makes it mush easier to browse music samples and discover artists and tracks that you might like, with all the pertinent information and links near at hand. Tracks from albums are queued up and played in order, so you can get a feel for a whole albums without having to budge.

The Preview section has been reorganised, with the new Amazon Music Sampler coming first – clicking on a link opens up the preview window. Customers can now jump between albums by the same artists, or even samples of recommendations and top sellers, from the same window. For convenience, the Add to Basket button is never too far away.

Samples are streamed to your PC without firing up an external media player, and most samples are 20Kps quality-wise.

Try it out

Federal Trade Commission Wants to Get Tough on Bad Patents

Using intellectual property as a form of harassment is on the rise in the US and Europe, and there seems to be no stopping it. US patent laws were last revised in 1952 and many industry leaders claim that they are not relevant to business today.

The Federal Trade Commission is teaming up with Cisco, Intel, eBay, Microsoft, Genetech and others to form a working group to find a solution to the problem of anti-competitive patents and to make the US patent system more equipped to deal with technical patents.

FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson announced the group after a high-level conference on patent reform, Ideas into Action – though the group is yet to be given a name.

Companies and individuals “troll” by exploiting vague patents to either prevent competitors from operating in a particular field or for extracting “license fees” for technologies that may only be distantly related to intellectual property actually in question. Often patent harassment is the sole revenue stream for a company.

3,000 patent examiners in the US handle 350,000 patent applications per year, allowing an average of 17 to 25 hours to check whether a patent application is valid or not. This means that a lot of nonsense gets through – academic studies claim that 95% of all US patents should not have been issued in the first place. Japan and Europe still have a poor showing at 65%.

The FTC wants to make it easier to challenge a patent with the Patent Office without having to go to court, and to limit the award of treble damages in cases.

Ideas Into Action

The Federal Trade Commission

Nintendo Will D

Nintendo will be début their successor to the GameCube at next May’s E3. To be in a position to demo the console, referred to as the N5, in less than a year mean that they must have been developing it for a while.

An E3 showcase could mean a December launch for Japan, March 2006 for the US and a summer 2006 launch for the UK. Now that I’ve just typed that, it doesn’t seem so imminent after all. The timing is crucial, however – it will give Nintendo a lead on Sony and Microsoft when they launch their PS3 Xbox Next consoles. We’d just like to point out that this strategy did nothing to save Sega when they launched the Dreamcast ahead of the PS2.

The new console will almost certainly have advanced link up capabilities with the new DS handheld which will have been out on the market for a year by the time the N5 hits Akihabara. Of course, all of this is speculation as no details about the box have been released.

Nintendo didn’t have much luck with the GameCube, despite it looking great on paper: a technically advanced console, small and portable, quality games and characters, with a price (eventually) less than it’s competitors – Sony and Microsoft wiped the floor with it nonetheless, and many developers are cancelling scheduled games for it as sales continue to drop.

Sorry, was I talking about the GameCube there or the Dreamcast again?

Nintendo

PlanetDreamcast

BT Launch New Broadband Satellite Service, Satellite Broadband 500.

Literally aimed at rural businesses, BT have introduced a new broadband satellite service providing 500kps to areas where there there are currently no ADSL facilities. The service is carried on Intelsat’s IS-907 satellite and covers the entire UK – if it’s successful, BT has an option to take the service into Western Europe.

The product, Satellite Broadband 500, comes in two flavours – Plus and “Lite”. Lite is for single users with a need for web access, whilst Plus is for multiple users requiring LAN connectivity.

The service will be available from BT Retail, but will also be offered wholesale for other ISPs and operators to resell. Subscription charges are competitive, starting at UK£46.99 (€75) per user for Lite and UK£85.99 (€129) for Plus. However, equipment prices start at UK£699 (€1048), and standard installation is UK£250 (€375). Subscriptions come with a dedicated BT support network.

Jonathan Wing, Head of Satellite Broadband at BT Broadcast Services, said in a statement: “There is a clear and demonstrated need for businesses, ISPs and others in the UK to have high-quality, high-speed, satellite broadband connections. Satellite broadband enables businesses and ISPs to be effective and competitive, wherever their offices are located.”

BT

UK Music Downloads Exceed 500,000 Tracks Sold

Figures from the Official UK Chart Company demonstrate that the record industry can’t have its cake and eat it: although paid music downloads this year have just broken the 500,000 barrier, CD single sales are down. Something has to give somewhere, and music lovers are turning to the convenience of downloads whilst buying correspondingly less singles.

The bestselling download in the UK so far this year is “2,000 Miles” by Coldplay.

Looking at the quarterly totals for January/March, the sales value of CD singles is down by 32% on last year, whilst CD albums are down nearly 3% this year, though the picture for the entire last 12 months is more encouraging.

Surprisingly, that great love of DJs, the 12” single has suffered a dip of 14%, possibly due to the slump in interest in trance – but bafflingly, 7” singles are up 47% on last year. Expect a retro CD single sales peak in about 2021.

Once iTunes launches in the UK and the new Napster finds its feet, we expect that CD singles will be affected even more dramatically, and music labels will need to find some way to make singles more compelling to the public to avoid cannibalising the market.

The British Phonographic Industry is upbeat about the state of the market, expecting great things from DVD music sales and “truetones” (ringtones that sound just like the track they’ve sampled) – no doubt something to do with the 3.8% increase in CD album sales that the year to March 2004 saw above 2003.

BPI Quarterly Market Review

Ofcom’s Media Literacy Strategy

Centring around the principles of research, partnering and labelling, Ofcom have published a report outlining a strategy for media literacy in the UK.

Ofcom recognise that the public are now faced with a huge choice of media, and that familiarity and media awareness are essential to managing this choice, protecting children and understanding the world around us. The regulator wishes to promote media literacy as “A media literate person will have the potential to be an efficient worker, an informed consumer and an active citizen. People who are not able to use effectively the new communications technologies will not be able to take full advantage of the benefits they bring and may become marginalised in society.”

Ofcom’s strategy is based around three main work strands:

“Research. Key to the success of our early work and in defining future priorities is to develop an evidence-base of research. This will help us to identify the issues, to direct our work and inform progress towards achieving our goals.

Connecting, partnering & signposting. We aim to add value to existing media literacy activity, to stimulate new work and to promote and direct people to advice and guidance concerning new communications technologies.

Labelling. Viewers and listeners need to have clear, accurate and timely information about the nature of content so that they can make informed choices. Our prime concern is to ensure consistency in the presentation of information related to possible harm and offence, in particular to help protect young and vulnerable people from inappropriate material. This advice can be effectively delivered using a content labelling framework. Ofcom will work with industry players to explore the possibility of creating a common content labelling (information) scheme for electronic audiovisual material.”

Of primary interest to many, the call for a universal e-content label covering TV, internet, mobile products and games presents a considerable challenge to industry. Ofcom isn’t even sure it can be done – and of course the regulator has no remit when it comes to internet content.

Ofcom’s strategy and priorities for the promotion of media literacy

Cable and Wireless Buy Bulldog – What’s the Threat to BT?

Cable and Wireless’ recent purchase of Bulldog means that they acquire four years of local loop unbundling experience, 38 ready-equipped exchanges and a number of well-marketed, innovative products. All for the bargain price of UK£18.6 million (€28 million) – though Bulldog’s net assets at the end of 2003 were only UK£1.6 million (€2.4 million). This puts C&W in a position to offer unique services, and not just resell products from BT Wholesale.

Bulldog have long been critical of BT, and have said some fairly dramatic things over the last few months. My own personal favourite quote was from Richard Greco, when talking to The Register in 2001: “Oftel needs to force BT to move. And if BT doesn’t, then Oftel should point the gun – and pull the trigger.” However, he was quite gushing about BT when agreed to carry their SDSL products some months later: “It really is a powerful combination.”

Bulldog’s frustration at BT stemmed from the glacial pace that the communications giant was unbundling the local loop. Bulldog have installed their own equipment into 38 exchanges, a figure that C&W now want to raise to 200. They will doubtless use this position to tempt more ISPs to jump from bitstream services to LLU – as C&W chief Francesco Caio said in a statement: “The acquisition of Bulldog will accelerate our ability to deliver directly connected DSL solutions for our existing and potential customers with an experienced team specialising in LLU services.”

Bear in mind that it’s not just BT that is causing frustration with LLU – across Europe the entire process has been slow and as yet only a small percentage of lines have been unbundled.

BT has already demonstrated that it’s worried about complaints about its LLU conduct and progress by making huge cuts to wholesale prices and promising faster progress. With C&W breathing down its neck even more, expect those exchanges to be unbundled faster than ever before.

About Bulldog