Tag Archives: PlayStation 4

November 16, 2013 · 23:17

A changing console war

We are 12 days from the beginning of a new war, an all-out war, it is the war of the consoles and this war will start now and will go on until past Christmas. Yes, Christmas is the new center of these war efforts.

On the left side we have the one, and on the right side, the other. It is Sony versus Microsoft and it does not matter who you choose or support, you the gamer will make at some point a choice. Some with get neither and some will get both, 4 groups! From my view, I choose the Sony side, as the PlayStation 4 is stated by them as a system for gamers! Yet, both sides made the same mistake, even though Sony had an optional alternative, both systems come with a 500 Gb drive. The PS4 allows for the system to be upgraded with a bigger drive. What I do not understand is why they did not install a 1Tb drive for a mere $20 more. There is a lot more to this, but about that part more a little later.

I will mention at this point, right now, that part of the view that follows has bias. I want to be completely impartial, but to claim impartiality when a person’s passion is attacked is at times way to ludicrous!

My issue with the Xbox One, the Microsoft (aka Micro$oft) product had issues from the very beginning. First, they (Microsoft via Don Mattrick) announced on the need for a once a day login to the Microsoft system. I discussed that in my blog called ‘Discrimination or Segmentation in gaming? (UPDATED!)‘ In June 2013, that part was later recalled, which is why I updated the blog. I do believe in keeping people abreast of the correct information. Microsoft made the blog again in August 2013 in my blog called ‘Tax evasion, copyrighted by Vodafone?‘ This was all about ‘pay as little as taxation as possible‘, which will link to this later. Then in September 2013 we get the blog ‘The marks of trade‘ which again links Microsoft. So, why are these linked to the console war?

The last article has the mayor link to what the consumers of their choice in the console wars are not getting informed about. “When the digital world is entering the field where more and more possible ‘new’ consumers are updated through the net, it seems that their marketing and party lines need to get a massive overhaul and it should all get a much better mentor system then it currently seems to have.” There is a side that had been hidden, even from me. This side is not on the up and up and even game sites like Gamespot have until now been silent about it. The latter one is silent about it as they might not be aware at all, which would be fair enough.

So what is going on?

The next generation of consoles will evolve into a new world that is all about DRM (Digital Rights Management). Even though you think that this was off the table, certain changes are now becoming visible doubting that all no matter what some executives claim to be the case. In case of Microsoft, for their system, as this is not a gaming system, but it has been labelled as an ‘entertainment system’ this all will become a much bigger issue. Do not think that Sony is off the hook here, they will be part of all this down the road too!

The issue came to light when I was made aware to an article called “TPP ‘A Substantial Threat To Australian Sovereignty’” (at https://newmatilda.com/2013/11/14/tpp-serious-threat-australian-sovereignty). If we ignore mentions like ‘secret law‘ for now and concentrate on “a law that will override the High Court of Australia” as quoted, then we see that our attention was pulled away from lawmaking that will have a massive influence on global users of all forms of entertainment.

Suelette Dreyfus a research fellow from the University of Melbourne states “At its heart the TPP is basically a grab for money. It will take money out of the pockets of average Australians and give it to large corporations in the US“. She also makes a mention on how illegal movies will now have to be policed by the ISP’s, even though the high Court of Australia had already ruled in ‘Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd [2012] HCA 16‘ in this matter. The law changes would influence future events. I dealt with the initial issues of illegal downloads somewhere during the year, but the change might, if enforced mean that, should illegal downloads stop (I am not against that), that the economic fallout would be enormous. Consider that Telco’s would see a bandwidth drop of two marks, which would mean that the consumer bill would lower an average of $30 a month, with over 7 million users this amounts to 210 million revenue per month less (spread over several providers), this would have a massive consequence, but the effect would soon be global if this path continues. To be frank, it does not affect me, I never download movies. I prefer the quality of a DVD/Blu-Ray on my TV screen, whenever I want it.

Brendan Molloy, the Information freedom activist and Councillor for Pirate Party Australia has an interesting view on other changes. “Perhaps the most shocking inclusion in the TPP IP chapter is criminalisation of non-commercial copyright infringement.” The Australian patent law changes, discussed in what is referred to as the ‘raising the bar act 2013‘, is all about promoting innovation. These events change everything. His quote “The text even attempts to consider temporary copies to be copyright infringement!” is an interesting (read dangerous) change. It implies that personal owned transfers (like CD to MP3) could be affected. A final quote is “There is language that would lower global standards on medical patents and potentially extend patents beyond 20 years, all supported by the United States.” This means that there steps in place to thwart innovation and strangle hold commerce. This means that only the big boys will be able to dictate progress for the next few decades, which means innovation goes out the window for a long time to come.

Angela Mitropoulos, Researcher at the University of Sydney has the following to say “The biggest winners in the TPP are the largest global corporations and, with the proliferation of mechanisms proposed, they intend to fully harness the infrastructures of the internet and the full force of the law in order to capture and extract even larger profits and a wider share of the world market.”

Basically, the new world terrorists will be the large corporations, if these reported events are true. So how does this strike back to the console war of Sony and Microsoft?

First of all, games and consoles are ALL about innovation. A console is only as good as its games and without innovation a console dies fast. Sometimes reverse engineering is the only way to get true progress. Consider the parts mentioned earlier, and if you have a console (either Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3), look at all the parts you have and how many of these parts were not an official Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft product. Items like recharge-able batteries, controllers and head sets. All that could stop! The issue goes a lot further, if we consider the quote from Brendan Molloy “article QQ.G.10 reinforces one of the worst parts of our current IP regime, which consists of legal protections for technical protection measures. Why should it be illegal to jailbreak your iPhone?”

So products like Blu-Ray’s and DVD regions and Smartphones. All of it treated under scrutiny of big business! Consider that due to these changes the new iPhone 6 could then only be there for the Telstra (or Vodafone) customers (presumption). These changes would make these events possible. Smaller firms would quickly be pushed out of existence, giving even more power to big Telco’s. This could also have an effect on consoles. If we consider the implications, then the danger becomes ever more apparent that the innovation that we desire to see gaming go forward is also in danger as a sizeable part of the indie developers are in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany and a few others, who are not part of this agreement. So, if Sony and Microsoft set their IP stranglehold to such an extent to drive these developers away, then what happens to innovation?

The TPP seems to be about segregation not about innovation (as far as I saw the information pass by), which means that whatever happens will be under complete control for Sony and Microsoft for their respective consoles. Is this bad or is this good?

I think it is a bad thing, if we consider innovation in gaming. I am not against Activision protecting themselves against a reverse engineered version of Skylanders on one side, but to strangle hold a market will never lead to innovation, which translates in our case to better and new original games.

The next part is on Microsoft specifically. This is because they ‘wanted’ to label their system as an ‘entertainment system’ as such; the changes that the TPP is trying to push through will have additional consequences for the Xbox One.

The initial TPP article made the following mention, which came from Brendan Molloy “The United States has proposed several provisions that are anti-innovation. One such provision is a blanket ban on the retransmission of TV signals over the Internet in Article QQ.H.12, regardless of purpose, without permission of the rights holder.” This is where I get back to that small drive in the Xbox One. There are two sides. If we cannot store too much on the Xbox One, then we must either park it on the cloud (where we can be monitored), or we download it again and again (costing us bandwidth). That was ‘yesterday’, when the TPP comes into play, the retransmission of a movie from the cloud might come with additional limitations where any additional ‘replay’ could be charged. I am not stating that it will, yet the changes are ALL about economic control, so it could happen. This reflects back to the part in ‘Tax evasion, copyrighted by Vodafone?‘, because even though we are all charged, the provider is likely to pay a lot less taxation on these services, so not only will local commerce get hurt, those local governments will collect a lot less corporate taxation because of this all. We saw that in cases of Apple, Amazon, Google and a few others.

That means that the digital movie and TV options from Microsoft would go through very specific bans and very tight rules. This means that picking up the Swedish or the Dutch newscasts online might not be possible. You see, QQ.H.12 is one step away from WHICH stations your entertainment system will receive, all set in a nice package pushed through by a nation that is one step away from bankruptcy, desperately in need of money! You still feel safe with your Xbox One?

So, as we see the interaction of QQ.G.10 (jail breaking) and QQ.H.12 (retransmission) we see that in the broadest sense of the word that Microsoft could decide what we see and when we see it. Is this the global, shared world we were supposed to move forward to?

The site ‘Business Spectator’ quoted the following in regards to the TPP. “Besides the United States, the pact would include 11 other nations, among them Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Mexico, though it excludes regional powerhouse China as well as Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy.” So, it seems that the IP world is no longer about making a global effort in moving forward, with these different trade pacts we will get a new war, not on resources, but on who gets to play with what, when and how and the new consoles are smack in the middle of this changing landscape.

So if your console does more then play games, the question will soon become ‘at what price‘ will it do what it does?

Philip Dorling from the Sydney Morning Herald reported this 2 days ago “Australians could pay more for drugs and medicines, movies, computer games and software” so even though we get to pay 30%-60% more on games at present and 60% more for movies, we might end up paying even more then that? I am not even touching medication, which is a hot iron on several levels. To read that Tony Abbott is quoted in the article with “Prime Minister Tony Abbott has indicated he is keen to see the trade talks pushed to a successful conclusion next month” gives us further pause for concern. The man just got elected and it looks like he sold us out to the Americans within 80 days of his election, this must be a new world record!

So the choice of your new console could come with an additional price tag, one that the politicians will happily leave to big business to decide. I have not known ANY instance EVER, where greed driven entities EVER decided in favour of the consumer! It is an expensive lesson gamers might soon be forced to learn again soon.

Have a great holiday and don’t let that new console hit you too hard in the Credit Card on the way out of the shop.

The marks of trade

Even as we look into an abyss of unsettling economic prospects, we notice that many of the gadgets providing entities are still playing the high game for now. The fact of the matter is that even though many places are in recession, some places seem to be getting through and only a few are on the path of former comfort, all of the people are looking at some light point in their life, whether it is for them personally, or for the entire family. However, in the US there are the upcoming Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. A large portion of the world relies on Christmas day with a few places having an added feast of Saint Nicholas. Basically three moments the retail industry relies on these days to stop them from turning into Lemmings and run of the nearest cliff (could be an excellent game).

The following players (some of them) are:

Sony is going for the Playstation 4
Microsoft is going for the Xbox One
Nokia (a Microsoft company) is aiming at the Lumia 1020
Apple has a league of ‘new’ options, with all kinds of letters (and/or numbers).

So if these places have trademarks, then are they about protecting their recognisable design or expression. Yet, is that true, or is that what they proclaim they do?

What if their recognisable design becomes:

Playstation 4 – An average renewed system where they forgot about harddrive space?
XBox One – The place where your privacy truly went lost forever
Lumia 1020 – Another model, now with 41Mp camera, but where to store all those pics?
iPhone – more of the same and additional ways to run out of battery power before lunch.

So whist the brand (Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony) have the one story, their products are getting different labels, and it is likely that the junior marketeers as stated ‘Junior’ seem to be not on par with HQ as it goes for the mission of the brand, and drop the ball all over as it comes to the product. When I see the trade shows, as I saw the stories and the way they try to hype the concept, I do wonder whether some of these ‘soldiers’ are on proper par with the concepts of trademark and long term damage that they seem to invoke.

So let us go over these ‘Trademarks’ in that order.

Playstation 4 – This is the one system I have decent levels of faith in. It’s initially weaknesses has been dealt with. The too small hard drive can now be upgraded. Mind you the 500 Gb should last a while, however, as 500Gb to 1 Tb is a mere $25 extra, so I wonder why 500Gb was chosen. If you spend an additional $100, you can upgrade immediately to 2Tb. I agree it is overkill, however upgrading once at start could prevent a 1-2 day loss down the line. I did it with my PS3 and never regretted it. ‘Sony, where storage was left at Kennard’s!’

XBox One – There have been loads of messages about online all the time, or even once a day. This has now been ‘removed’ as an issue as Microsoft no longer requires it. You see, it is so much better to get these people connected with a carrot then with a shotgun, so now the console comes with a free digital copy of FIFA 14. Which still needs to be downloaded! Whether this is only once, or the start to get people online in a sneakier way is yours to debate or conclude. Gamers for the most (the multi-player group) need to be online; the rest could be if the game is good. Many of the issues are about digital privacy fears. Some are realistic, some are speculated rumours, but a large portion is just absurd conspiracy theory. There was a rumour that deliveries were down, but this was denied by two sources. So in case you heard the 1 million less consoles on launch day, be sure to check your sources. I personally believe that the invasion of privacy was the biggest blast this trademark took. The additional issue of online once a day did not help, especially knowing how irritating broadband has been in plenty of places outside of the US. It would be nice to just dump this on Don Mattrick, yet I feel that this was not just his call and those above him should start taking a long hard look at the population of gamers. Calling this an ‘entertainment system’ instead of a ‘gaming console’ might seem nice and claiming that it will make you win the war is also nice, but the reality is that this multi-billion dollar market is all about gamers, not knowing that population will turn out to be ultimately fatal to the Microsoft XB-1 brand, no matter what else it can do.

Lumia 1020 – This is a new contraption. It has two sides. One, it is really fun to use (I tried it) and the camera abilities blew me away. Yet, the other side is that it is linked to Microsoft and they will have a few issues to deal with down the line (not just that weird OS). The device itself is no longer a Nokia device, or not in the traditional sense. Nokia was always the number one brand for me and it lost appeal as it was too slow moving into the smart phone world. They are coming back strong, but a 2 Gb ram when you have a 41Mp camera? Seems a little short sighted. So, they added a free 7 Gb SkyDrive option. Oh, wait? Is that not the place from Microsoft who gave their access to the NSA? So what about your privacy, not to mention the data usage price?

As you see, we are getting more and more towards the new Microsoft Trademark ‘Microsoft, because privacy is just an illusion!’ Is that fair? Not sure! You see, in the end I do not care whether the NSA gets access to my data. My worry is that overall, cyber criminals have more resources and abilities then we see at federal places. You know those small, massively underfunded places where they try to stop cybercrime (read FBI). The fact that the NSA gets access means that there is external access, which means that criminals get to have a go too. To that part I do object.

iPhone – the device that truly revolutionised smartphone and mobile usage is now going towards mobile phones in the same way Russia showed diversity for the S-300 (22 letters added over 30 years). Apple seems to forget to truly move their battery forward and in other fields of smartphones the iPhone is no longer regarded as the heralded winner. The device wants to be too much of everything and ends up coming up short in many of the fields they are in. So will the new Apple Trademark read ‘Apple – Master of none, drowning in some?’

There are plenty more devices out and about for the expensive festive season, yet it seems to me that some of the players entered that field by using spokespeople with a golf handicap equalling their IQ, or is that the other way round? When the digital world is entering the field where more and more possible ‘new’ consumers are updated through the net, it seems that their marketing and party lines need to get a massive overhaul and it should all get a much better mentor system then it currently seems to have.

Trademarks!

They might be seen as great assets, yet when those trademarks get assigned by the audience (example: Vodafail, because Vodafone just doesn’t connect) and it gives your brand itself a twist moving its customers towards to competition, you know you have problems coming (and many of these from your own board of directors).

Discrimination or Segmentation in gaming? (UPDATED!)

Some might have heard of the issues that gamers are about to get. It has been blogged and it made all kinds of media. The console war have begun, but there are more then a few indications that the was has been decided even before the consoles launched.

The war between Xbox One (XB1) and PlayStation 4 (PS4) kicked off during the E2 in the beginning of June, now it is on in earnest.

The story as it came to me was that a new game, to be launched on both systems called the Witcher 3, will not be playable in Poland, the country that is developing it, piqued my curiosity.

My initial thought was that it would be some kind of censor rating. Yet, that was not the case. It turns out that the XB1 will launch in 21 countries. You must log into the XB1 once a day, so if you are not one of those 21 countries, then you cannot play games. Is this an overly dumbfounded form of control utterly stupid?

So Poland did not make that list, neither did Japan (not that Japan was ever warm for the Xbox anyway), Greece, Portugal, Monaco (where the truly wealthy are), Czech republic, Hungary, Several South American nations, India, Pakistan and a few others, all missing! Now there could be the issue that those markets are not big, yet to cut them off in all ways means that questions should be asked. I found that CNet reported the fact that Asia will get the machine late 2014 (source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57588702-75/xbox-one-asia-launch-set-for-late-2014-no-word-on-japan/), so almost a year after Europe. Reason enough for them to not consider a Microsoft product in the first place, especially as many games will come to both.

The Playstation 4 does not have these restrictions.

For gamers the clear impression is that Microsoft has lost the plot. However, Microsoft is not painting this as a gaming console, but as a ‘home entertainment system’. It is about TV, Movies and Games. The question then becomes how stupid, or how clever they are (depending on their intent, either or even both might apply). You see, the gamer states that Microsoft acts are stupid, the rest does not know. Yet, if the reports in regards to project PRISM are true, then what to make of the XB1? All that information moving through 200,000 servers Microsoft mentioned that they were setting up for the XB1. Did they not comply with the NSA requests? If so, how much registration are you adding by watching via their box? Even if the NSA does not care, all that data, all that information, so how secure is your privacy? Will these machines be an ‘opt in’ device, where you must give permission before anything starts, or an ‘opt out’ where they collect until you say no.

Questions that have been an issue before and Microsoft have stated that you can set the privacy you are comfortable with. Yet, we do and should wonder about security breaches that could impede your privacy. If windows requires almost daily updates, then what about the XB1? A system this large in architecture will have flaws; this is unlikely a big deal as any system this complex has them. Sony will likely have them too. If we must register every new game, then certain data will be there, so how secure is that? This is however not about privacy (at present). It is more about the cyber criminals. How long until a security breach gets game lists wiped or scrambled. Then what? Wait days or even weeks for things to get fixed? Remember the issue Sony had with credit card details? What happens when your game list is the target?

Microsoft stated in the wall street journal on the 11th June: “that the device would only be available in select Asian markets in 2014. They are pegged as high-growth markets for the region’s booming gaming industry“. Really? But it is not a gaming console, but a home entertainment system according to Microsoft. So, these emerging markets are better off with a PlayStation 4.

This has every notion that at Microsoft the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing. That is the conclusion I get when I see these ‘conflicting’ messages from Microsoft. No matter what it is labelled as, it leaves us with a load of questions. The important one is ‘What on earth does Microsoft think it is doing?’

1. There are questions on the hardware

a. Ridiculous small internal drive considering the market it is supposed to be supporting.
b. Mandatory daily login. Consider that even in Australia hundreds of thousands (even in the capital cities) do not have quality broadband. (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, March 7th 2013).
c. possible additional charges for pre-owned games.

With the last one I hope that the governments keep in mind that Tax laws must be altered on a global scale as this fee should be corporate taxable at the location of the consumer, not in the non-taxable location where their servers reside. (personally the excuse that this is an issue for the publisher of the game just does not hold water with me).

2. Possible issues with software

a. Censoring. Interesting here is that an example became visible just last week on the Xbox 360. An arcade game called ‘State of Decay’ for the Xbox 360. Apparently it missed some review board, even after so long of hassles to get an 18+ rating in Australia. The result was that this game which is a sort of ‘walking dead’ kind of survival game cannot be purchased in Australia at present. This might be a minor title and many might not care. Will we get this with major releases on the XBox one because one of the following was missed: Review, Server registration, release lists, database part number check, release codes per nation and time zones?

Those issues could lead to the point that the $120 you spend on a new game, will have to wait until after the weekend, as someone ‘forgot’ to do one of the aforementioned things. That is a daily risk in the Gaming industry, even more in gaming products then other software forms. So, why should we have to accept these risks?

We can speculate for all we care, but if this is all about saving costs, then how long until buying an XB1 game is nothing more than buying a credit card with a license number at EB Games (or some other game store)? Then we end up having to download 5 – 50 Gb depending on the game, which means broadband costs could go up between $30 – $50 a month. That is an additional $350+ a year. Will that happen? Many do not know at present, but the level of registration Microsoft is forcing on us has a definite reason, and I do not believe it is about piracy. My speculation was countered by Microsoft at E3 where they did mention that they will continue with discs. For how long is the question from my side. You see, the simplicity is that all these efforts would not be an issue they started with, unless there was a long term plan. Several futurists are all about the cloud. The cloud provides, the cloud refines, the cloud defines. No product to sell, no tax-ability for many and games are no longer a product you buy, but a license you rent until the conditions change. It is a business future; it should never be an entertainment future.

Is this just my view? Well, not sure how most felt about the XB1 before. I, like many other gamers enjoy my 360 a lot. I was already in the know about some facts, so I remained cautious during the E3. Yet, soon after, as we saw confirmation, many gamers moved loudly swearing on the internet away from the XB1. I feel the same way. For now, if only one system will be my choice, then the PS4 will definitely be on my Christmas list and I am not alone with that sentiment. Currently

What is important is to know is that this field could still change. I am still hoping that Microsoft might get a clue about the market they are about to lose for one.

However, should nothing change then it will be my prediction that 2014 might be an amazing good year for Sony.

On June 19th, Microsoft made public the following anouncement. In light of what I wrote, it would be utterly incorrect not to inform you!

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting on-line again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360. (source: http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update)

There is the one question whether that one time set-up requires you to be on-line, but that seems to be minor compared to the huge step that Microsoft made towards its current extremely upset customer base.

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

1 Comment

Filed under Gaming, IT

Tagged as corporate taxation, gaming, home entertainment system, Microsoft, microsoft product, PlayStation 4, Poland, PS4, Sony, State of Decay, XB1, Xbox One

June 14, 2013 · 16:42

How the mighty fall

For some the E3 is still in the front of their minds. For some it is the confirmation of things to come and of things about to happen. For some it is also the start of a nightmare.

When it comes to gamers, we often see the start of name calling. We might hear words like Nerds, Geeks and a few others. It makes the people who do not understand gamers happy and comfortable. There is however the group that thinks of them as exploitable. That group is about to see the light in ways thy have never experienced it before. In this I am talking about Microsoft.

You see Microsoft had a good name, for some this good name remains. The Xbox and the Xbox 360 are good consoles. I have a 360 and I have enjoyed gaming. I will enjoy gaming a while longer, but no matter how good it could be, the X-Box One (XB1) is currently not on that list. You see, Microsoft wanted too much, too quickly and now they are at risk to pay dearly. There were these large thoughts of charging pre-owned games for usage, to be online at least once every 24 hours. This has nothing to do with gaming. This is all about keeping tabs. I wonder if the scare the NSA PRISM issue gave many has anything to do with it.

The truth is that the gamer group wants to play games pure and simple. I belong in this group. I can afford a new game with some regularity and I have been part of Gaming and the Gaming Industry since 1986.

I know plenty of people, many mothers who want to give their kid a nice game, but $109 is just not in their budget. Even for some it is over the top for a birthday present, which is very understandable in this economy. These people RELY on pre-owned games, and in this economy that group will grow exponentially for a little while longer. So when Microsoft enabled the chance to go after gamers, I revolted! The reason is simple, if we gamers do not unite, we get taken for a data-collection and money grabbing ride.

Some will not care about not being online, about privacy and they just buy games and play. That is fair enough. Buy your XB1 and game. Many of those will keep on gaming happily and all. I feel for those unable to buy new games, and even though they would face a season-pass fee to play multiplayer online (which in my mind is fair enough). they end up paying a lot less than the $100+, to play.

So as gamers feel betrayed by the issues raised by Microsoft (or M$ as some now call them), they will move away and run towards the PlayStation 4. So Sony is more than the big winner, they are likely to leave Microsoft with their XB1 (or X-Bone as some call it now) far behind them and no longer see Microsoft as a contender in the gaming industry.

This also opened a door for others. Even though this market has had a long time 3 player supremacy, Microsoft has opened the door for Google to enter in the low class with their OUYA and open up for a new form of gaming. Even in old Roman days (not the one shown by the new game RYSE), we know that the people want bread and games. Even if everything goes down, political and industrial power remains where the people have bread and games. So as OUYA enters the field, as Sony strengthens its pure gaming power core, Microsoft is about to lose a serious amount of market share.

They will deny this and over time they are likely to show on how the ‘home-entertainment’ market is so up in revering the XB1, the gamers will see a shift in the balance of power. Nintendo has always been a gaming world and as such it has a unique family based following. Yet, the others will feel their markets. Sony will be up and Microsoft will go down.

I thought about this, and should I win the $25M jackpot (extreme wishful thinking), then I know exactly where to go. You see, Microsoft is about to leave a quarter of a billion dollars up for grabs for those who know how and where to take charge. It is very certain that Sony will grab part of that, yet they remain high end. Especially if we look at countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, France, US and the UK. These nations are saturated with people who just cannot afford the high end gaming market and a $99 Google AUYO with a Google play approach of less than $10 games might sound small, but when you consider a market of 30-50 million gamers that is now up for grabs, that market will amount to serious coin.

Will Microsoft fade? No, they are too big to fade and when the Microsoft Lawnmower man comes in to trim the size of MS management and reshape their entertainment side. When they see the nightmare they themselves created, they will refurbish their share and they might even regain some of their lost market share. However they are unlikely to regain it all until the economy gets a whole lot better. This is not likely to happen before 2015. Until then Google gets a chance to get into a market they did not expect to have. A multi-Billion dollar market the got opened to too many factors of greed and they tried that in a place where greed gets stopped real fast.

Consider a count of games that consoles offer at launch date. In fairness all systems have start-up issues sith games. It comes with the territory. The Google OUYA at prelaunch (today) has registered 146 games for purchase. That is the biggest start EVER (ps1 games on ps2 launch date do not qualify, neither do NGC games on Wii). If this ends up about timing, then Google’s timing was perfect.

More info at http://www.ouya.tv/

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, Media

Tagged as E3, gamer group, gaming, google, Google OUYA, Microsoft, NSA, PlayStation 4, pre owned games, PRISM, RYSE, Sony, Xbox, xbox 360, Xbox One

June 12, 2013 · 16:05

Has the case of UKIP been made stronger?

It seems that the EU is starting to hand out slightly less restricting measures. Commissioner Olli Rehn is removing for a short time the 3% deficit limit. This is a slippery slope to say the least. Yes, it is correct that the economy is a fact that needs to be fought. Yet all (including the UK) are spending money that they do not have. UKIP is riding on the waves of these fears, where we the taxpayers will end up footing that bill no matter what. And in the European picture the ‘we’ is simply any citizen paying tax. Governments writing checks, for which they have no money. However the difference of that small point that they can no longer cut is still amounting to billions. In the UK with a vastly over the 1 trillion pound deficit such sliding numbers will really add up. Like me, Nigel Farage saw this coming from a mile away and now he is ready to play his move to start walking towards a landslide victory.

If these driving reasons are not dealt with then both Labour and Conservatives who are currently nowhere near changing the economy are heading to a legendary defeat. There is however a comical side to this. (One should always find reason to smile) It would be the first time in history that the opposition could get crowded by both Labour and Conservatives, with day one likely becoming quite the show. How would that fall in the House of Lords? In that case Black Rod (the Usher) will have a field day! A role currently assigned to Mr David Leakey, former Lieutenant General in command of European Union Military Staff. He was awarded ‘Companion of the order of St. Michael and St. George’. Take it from me that when the members of Club Carlton and the Reform Club are on the same side of the isle, the Usher might need a little back-up to break up slight differences of opinion and he better bring a bigger Dragon then the one St. George slew to aid him.

Yet, the shortage is the issue. How to stem the tides? It is clear that spending more and more is not making it happen. I personally think that it is time to join hands together (not singing Kumbaja). As Commonwealth nations we have a duty to stand together. We have always seen the US as a brother, yet when it comes to accountability, their actions have a massive bearing on our situations, yet they just shun accountability, they have remained absent in stemming the tide of the economical Tsunami, they themselves are creating. My suggestion is that we the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand start uniting economic solutions together. Being parked in London, Sydney or Melbourne is no longer an option. All three have to deal with shortages on one hand and unemployment rates on the other. What if we seriously start to change that? What if we push for a preferred partner in solutions? I myself experienced last week the answer from Canada, that they (one consultancy firm), when it comes to foreign workers limit themselves to US citizens. Perhaps our English is not good enough? There might have been a very valid reason in this, yet I cannot stop to wonder whether we are ignoring possible options to make the Commonwealth economically great again.

We are under such pressures to adhere to ‘corporate’ standards, and the bulk of all those companies are American. This is not about pointing fingers, but to restart an economy. If we look at the gaming industry nowadays, then that war, which was a former war of innovation, which is now diminished to a war between Microsoft who is about to hurt low income gamers and Sony, who is true to the gamers. The interesting side is that they for the most come with the same titles. There is still Nintendo, yet they seem to be lagging way behind. This is a multi-billion dollar industry and the shares are almost 40-40-20 with Nintendo in the 20% group. What is stopping us to take the Google OUYA Android Gaming Console into that market and start growing a market that is now, but has massive potential. Let’s face it, getting 10% of that market is still serious money and the economic downturn to people will remain at least another 3-4 years. So with a play to a cheaper solution is one they would love. It also forces the other three to become innovative and competitive again. Smaller playable games at less than £ 5 makes it possible for starting developers to make many millions. Consider that families can afford 4-5 games instead of 1 Microsoft game with a £5 surcharge. It does not end there.

Europe is outsourcing customer care centres, technical care centres and we cannot find a way to get 100,000 a job? We need to rethink corporate thinking that is smaller based, makes money and pays taxation. That makes those places 3 times a winner for all parties involved. It does not matter who gets to be in office, in the end we need to fight to make sure that this office survives!

And as we go back to that multi-billion dollar gaming industry, when these people get a pre-owned game surcharge where will that be taxed? It is time to put a stand and make these chargeable items taxed in the gamer’s nation, not in a virtual server location where no taxation is due. When these companies move into the nations of the world, demand rights, protection and support, yet walk away from taxation that is due as they receive all those rights, then we should look at the abundance of non-accountability and make it an accounting matter.

We need to start moving. It is nice and essential to fight over the GCSE A-levels, but without an economy they have no future, and we must fight for both!