Microsoft Does It Again Screwing the Little Guy

The geniuses over at Microsoft have done it again. The new scam for Xbox Live is to make Silver members wait a full week before they can download any demos off of the service. Hay Dumb Ass the goal of a demo is to get consumers to buy the full game. Here’s the deal:

When people talk about features they’d like to see added to an Xbox Live Gold subscription, dedicated servers, expanded buddy lists or separate bandwidth pipes for popular downloads are first to mind. Instead of adding features to the Gold experience, however, they’re “enhancing” Gold subscriptions by continuing a practice started last summer of stripping Silver members of features and making them Gold-only.

The latest? Playable demos are no longer available right away for Silver members. Instead, they’ll have to wait a full week before they’re allowed access. Starting with the Fall update, Silver users will start seeing a red circle with a slash through content that’s currently inaccessible.

[Source 1Up]

Mass resignations immanent at Gamespot

Because of an air of confusion, fear and “irreconcilable despair,” Gamespot could soon be facing the resignation of a “large number” of editors, Kotaku is reporting, citing an anonymous source who works at Gamespot.

The source also confirmed that another anonymous poster, identifiying themselves on Valleywag only as “gamespot,” was right on with their assessment of the situation.

“[It] could have been written by a stenographer,” the source said.

Kotaku goes on to report that the other Gamespot staffers don’t know why Jeff Gerstmann was fired, adding that “Money has never played a role in reviews before” and “Gamespot has never altered a score.”

The source speculated that friction between Gerstmann and Vice President of games Josh Larsen could have been the root of Gerstmann’s firing.

The source also indicated that Larson’s paraphrased assertion that “AAA titles deserve more attention” was not necessarily a hint that Gamespot’s reviewers be more lenient to those titles. Instead, in light of some rather controversial review scores—for example, the 7.5 for Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction—the editorial team needed to be more conscious of accuracy and impact of its scores.

Reports that Gerstmann’s review quality had been slipping are anecdotaly corroborated by the source.

As for the now-pulled video of review, it appears the reasons for it’s removal are less nefarious than assumed. “Jeff showed up late. It was thrown together quickly, the sound sucked, there was only footage from the first level of the game—it was a mess,” our source said. We were told that the redacting of the clip was based on a producer’s decision and not a demand from upper management.

The source also said the brand has been irrevocably tarnished, and the staff are in near mutiny. The controversy is a “cataclysmic event in Gamespot history.”

It appears as though my predictions of the ruining of Gamespot’s reputation and the eventual downfall of Gamespot if they didn’t reverse course quickly are becoming a reality.

Gamespot has been a video game fixture on the internet for years, and I would hope that their previous reputation as a really pretty hard reviewer would stick with them when the going got tough. It appears they’re learning the hard way that, while it takes years to build a good reputation, it only takes minutes to get a bad reputation.

Gamespot, CNet, someone needs to act fast to save their credibility, not to mention reverse the feeling of despair among the staffers, or there won’t be a Gamespot much longer.

Kane And Lynch Web Site Doctors Review Scores

CNet has officially said that the firing last week of GameSpot executive editor Jeff Gerstmann was not the result of editorial pressure from outside advertisers. It does look like the game could is fact be part of Gerstmann’s dismissal.

The Kane and Lynch: Dead Men web site may be doctoring review scores and placing the doctored scores on the official game web site. Kotaku  has pointed out that two of the review scores from Game Informer and GameSpy don’t match up. Both have five stars as the review score but GameSpy’s actual review only has three stars and GameInformer doesn’t use stars but a 10 based number system and it only gave the game 7 out of 10.

It looks to me that there is more to the story than Edios or CNet want to admit.

ESA hires former MPAA exec

The Entertainment Software Association has hired former Motion Picture Association of America senior vice president Rick Taylor, Gamespot is reporting. Taylor’s new job as senior vice president for communications and research will be similar to his old job, in which he headed the communications department, overseeing press relations and serving as a senior strategist.

“The ESA and MPAA share many of the same goals, such as promoting intellectual property rights and reducing piracy across the world,” said MPAA CEO Dan Glickman. “Rich will hit the ground running in his new position, and his insight and creativity will be valuable to ESA, just as it was for the MPAA.”

Let’s just hope the ESA doesn’t start going so far in the same direction as the MPAA and RIAA have in regards to pursuing copyright violaters.

GameTap Losing EA, Interplay And Other Games

GameTap’s message boards have revealed that the service will be losing the rights to offer a number of down-loadable games from Electronic Arts, Interplay, Atari and other publishers beginning Dec. 11. The list of games totals around 70 titles and can be found here.

GameTap executive editor Doug Perry stated in the message boards that the reason for the pulling of the titles was apparently due to contracts that are all ending on Dec. 11. Is this the start of more game studios not renewing contracts with the GameTap service?

Activision-Vivendi Games To Merge and Renamed Activision Blizzard

Game publishers Activision and Vivendi Games will merge their companies into one and be renamed Activision Blizzard. The result will create a company with revenues of $3.8 billion in 2007. The deal is expected to be made official in the first half of 2008. What does this say for Sierra only time will tell, but I am here to say I don’t think sierra will be around much longer.

Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Vivendi (Paris: VIV) today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi’s interactive entertainment business — which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®, the world’s #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise — with Activision, creating the world’s largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI. Activision, one of the world’s leading independent publishers of interactive entertainment, is best known for its top- selling franchises, including Guitar Hero®, Call of Duty® and the Tony Hawk series, as well as Spider-Manâ„¢, X-Menâ„¢, Shrek®, James Bondâ„¢ and TRANSFORMERSâ„¢. Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, has projected calendar 2007 revenues of $1.1 billion, operating margins of over 40% and approximately $520 million of operating profit. Blizzard owns the #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise, World of Warcraft, which currently has over 9.3 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Warcraft®, StarCraft® and Diablo® games account for four of the top-five best-selling PC game titles of all time. Vivendi Games also owns popular franchises, including Crash Bandicootâ„¢ and Spyroâ„¢. Pro forma for calendar 2007, Activision Blizzard expects to generate approximately 70% of its revenues from owned franchises. As a result of the business combination, Activision Blizzard expects to have the most diversified and broadest portfolio of interactive entertainment assets in its industry, positioning the combined company to capitalize on the continued worldwide growth in interactive entertainment.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi stated: “This alliance is a major strategic step for Vivendi and is another illustration of our drive to extend our presence in the entertainment sector. By combining Vivendi’s games business with Activision, we are creating a worldwide leader in a high-growth industry. We are excited about the opportunities for Activision Blizzard as a broader entertainment software platform. We believe this transaction will create significant value for Activision Blizzard and Vivendi stockholders. In Activision, we have found a partner with a highly complementary business and strong operating team. Bobby Kotick and Brian Kelly are industry pioneers, well known for creating shareholder value. The combined strength of the existing management teams at both companies will set the stage for further profitable growth of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to being an active and supportive majority stockholder in a company that is poised to lead the worldwide interactive entertainment industry in the years ahead.”

René Penisson, Member of the Management Board of Vivendi and current Chairman of Vivendi Games, added: “We are very confident that by combining forces, Activision Blizzard will set the highest standards in quality, reputation and profitability, and will bring together the best creative teams in the industry. The combination of this unique product portfolio with highly professional employees gives us great confidence in the growth prospects for Activision Blizzard.”

Said Robert Kotick, Activision’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: “This is an outstanding transaction for Activision and our stockholders, as well as a pivotal event in the continuing transformation of the interactive entertainment industry. By combining leaders in mass-market entertainment and subscription-based online games, Activision Blizzard will be the only publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry and reach the broadest possible audiences. By joining forces with Vivendi Games, we will become the immediate leader in the highly profitable online games business and gain a large footprint in the rapidly growing Asian markets, including China and Korea, while maintaining our leading operating performance across North America and Europe. Activision stockholders will benefit from significantly increased earnings power and the recurring nature and predictability of subscription-based revenues, while also having the opportunity, if they choose, to receive $27.50 per share for a portion of their shares in the post-closing tender offer.”

Kotick continued: “Vivendi Games provides Activision with unique strategic and financial benefits and will allow us to leverage our franchises into emerging online opportunities as Blizzard has done so successfully. Activision has been very focused on margin expansion, and this transaction will meaningfully increase our overall operating margins as we expand our franchises online and in new geographies. Diversifying our revenue base among subscription-based online, console and PC formats, as well as wireless and casual emerging opportunities, gives us the broadest platform to capitalize on industry growth. With Blizzard’s successful franchises, such as World of Warcraft, StarCraft and an exciting pipeline of yet-to-be announced titles, Vivendi Games’ and Blizzard’s management team will join with Activision’s strong and experienced leaders to become an even more powerful force for innovation in online and offline interactive entertainment across a wide range of platforms. This transaction also provides a unique relationship with Universal Music Group – the world’s largest music company – which will benefit Guitar Hero and further extend our sizable leadership position in music-based games.”

Mike Morhaime, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blizzard, added: “Blizzard’s industry-leading PC games business, with a track record of nine consecutive bestsellers and a global subscriber base of more than 9.3 million World of Warcraft players, is an exceptional fit for Activision’s highly profitable console games business. From our interactions with the Activision team, it is clear we have much in common in terms of our approaches to game development and publishing. Above all, we are looking forward to continue creating great games for Blizzard gamers around the world, and we believe this new partnership will help us to do that even better than before.”

Gamespot, advertising-supported media, and the rage of the internet

In case you haven’t heard, the word on the street is that Jeff Gerstmann, long time reviewer and current editorial director for Gamespot, has been fired for giving Kane and Lynch a mediocre, though very negatively worded, score. According to the rumor mill, Eidos got pissed and threatened to withdraw the huge amount of advertising they were doing with Gamespot.

According to a statement from CNET, the only official statement I’ve been able to find, “GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis.”

“It is CNET Networks’ policy not to comment on the status of its employees, current of former,” the statement said.

I can’t bring myself to really believe Gamespot would do something this stupid until it has been confirmed by someone, but if it’s true, this makes me at once very angry, very sad and very afraid. Very afraid for my future in business, very sad that it’s still the bottom line that media companies care about and very angry at what would be an unjust firing.

Gerstmann certainly would not be the first journalist fired for not appeasing the advertisers, and he definitely won’t be the last. This past May, Harry McCracken, editor in chief of PC World, quit for a few days over the chief executive’s refusal to publish an article, “10 Things We Hate About Apple.” McCracken didn’t come back until the article was posted on the magazine’s website. Pulitzer Prize winning automotive writer for the Los Angeles Times Dan Neil provoked the ire of GM, who removed their advertising from the newspaper. At a smaller publication this could have gotten Neil fired.

This kind of back and forth between an outlet’s integrity and keeping advertisers has been a part of the journalistic world since the very first advertisement in media. The scariest part is the subtle effect this could have if it’s true. While the temporary outrage (and you can be sure, the anger will fade) will make journalists even more independent-minded, the long term effect could be a reluctance on the part of journalists to put the truth out there, whether because they fear for their jobs if the advertisers threaten to pull their ads or not getting published because the editors don’t want to risk it. The fall out of this firing could be chilling, if the rumors are true.

Of course, whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter on the internet. What matters is the perception of the internet at large, and their perception is clearly that this firing was in response to the Kane and Lynch review. The most noticeable effect of this rage is the Kane and Lynch user reviews at Gamespot, which has become about 70 percent 1-out-of-10s. The reviews no longer argue the merits of the game but declare Gamespot is no longer credible.

“Hell hath no fury like gamers scorned,” said one user.

“Down with CNET,” another user, who signed his review with Anonymous, said (I’ll spare you the all caps). “The game that ruined Gamespot.”

It’s ironic, but the person who will benefit most from this is Gerstmann. With one review he has become a hero of the internet, and the positive PR any website or magazine that snaps him up gets will be huge, not to mention his quality as a long-time video game journalist. On the internet, positive feelings tend to not be as strong as rage on the internet, but I have no doubt the effects will be well worth it.

The ultimate loser here is going to be Gamespot. Regardless of whether they actually fired him for the review or not, the damage to their reputation has been done, and every review on the site must now come into question. A huge site like Gamespot can take the hit to their userbase, but if they don’t act soon to mitigate the damage, either by taking Gerstmann back (if he will go at all), refusing to take advertising from Eidos or, with Gerstmann’s consent, saying exactly why he was fired, it may indeed be the game that ruined Gamespot.

UPDATE: Saw this over on Valleywag via Kotaku:

When companies make games as downright contemptible as Kane and Lynch, they deserve to be called on it. I guess you’ll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they’ll be shitcanned. Everyone’s fucking scared and we’re all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore.

Still anonymous source, but still…

Nintendo sells 7.8 mil Virtual Console downloads, shrugs

The Wii’s Virtual Console has sold 7.8 million downloads so far, totaling 3.5 billion yen, which is about $33 million, according to a post by IGN quoting Nintendo executive Shinji Hatano. With 175 games available, according to that most trusted of sources Wikipedia, that comes out to about $188,500 per game and about 44,500 downloads per game.

Apparently, Nintendo doesn’t know whether that’s good or not.

“We’re currently unsure if this is a lot or low,” Hatano said. “They’re not bad figures.”

The costs for maintaining the Virtual Console service can’t be very high, so I would guess that they’re at least making a tidy amount. Then again, when you’ve sold over 1 million consoles and grossed $172 million in one week, $33 million in about a year can’t be terribly exciting.

Xbox 360 Free With Your Pizza Order

As if Pizza and Video games did not go hand in hand, here comes Dominos and a new Xbox promo. I have never been a fan of any enter a code and win product tie-ins that most companies like to do, But this one really does not sound bad at all.

If you’re a gamer you most likely already eat your share of pizza like I do and you have a internet connection. So all you have to do wo win a Xbox 360 is order your pizza from Domino’s pizza on line.

Starting December 1st and running through the 12th, Domino’s Pizza is giving away Xbox 360 prizes to every customer who orders online. When your online order is placed during these “XII Days of Xbox” you will receive a free 48 hour Xbox Live Gold subscription automatically. Also every day, 10 random orders will win an Xbox 360 and a copy of Project Gotham Racing 4. Once your order is placed a window will pop up, telling you if you’ve won a console or a piece of crap subscription, with prizes shipping within two days of winning to arrive in time for Christmas.

I have already bookmarked the order page and I know what’s for dinner the first 12 days in December.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) and Xbox(R) are teaming up this holiday season to deliver the “XII Days of Xbox.” Every day, beginning Dec. 1 through Dec. 12, customers who place their order online at www.dominos.com will instantly receive Xbox prizes, and some entrants will win Xbox 360(R) consoles.

Every order placed online during the “XII Days of Xbox” will receive a gift with purchase -a 48-hour trial of Xbox LIVE(R) Gold, Xbox’s premier online multiplayer gaming and entertainment service that lets players connect their gaming consoles to the Internet and play games online. Best of all, every day during the “XII Days of Xbox,” 10 lucky customers will win an Xbox 360 gaming console and a Project Gotham Racing(R) 4 video game.

“We’re giving our customers some of the hottest gifts this season along with a hot, delicious meal when they place their order online,” said Ken Calwell, Domino’s Pizza chief marketing officer. “We’re delivering the convenience of online ordering and pairing it with the excitement of instantly getting great prizes from Xbox.”

Customers can order online Dec. 1 through Dec. 12 for more chances to play. Once an order is placed, a pop-up window will appear to confirm the order and announce instantly what prize will be received and if the customer has won the Xbox 360 console and Project Gotham Racing 4 video game. Prizes will be shipped within two days of winning to arrive in time for the holidays. Customers can visit www.dominos.com for automatic entry into the “XII Days of Xbox and for the official “XII Days of Xbox” contest rules. No purchase necessary to enter or win. Void where prohibited. Must be at least 13 years of age to enter. Contest ends Dec. 12, 2007.

Nintendo setting company sales records, but what does that mean?

Nintendo had it’s biggest week ever, selling 653,000 DS Lites, the all-time high for any console from the company, and 350,000 Wiis, second only to the week of launch.

My response is what did you expect? Of course it’s going to be more than they have ever sold for previous consoles. Video games, especially consoles, have only exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry since then, so it’s not like there’s a smaller pool of people to buy the things.

It’s like when movie companies break opening weekend records. Movies break these records because it costs twice as much to go to the movies as it did even 10 years ago, let alone the 50 years since some of the greatest movies have been released. In a similar, though admittedly slightly different way, video games are going to continuously break these records because they’re only going to get more popular. Of course, when they reach a certain point of saturation the record-breakings will come slower, but they will still happen for the same reason.

What’s more interesting are the relative records. What precentage of the population that plays video games bought a DS in this one week? If it’s more than the percentage of gamers that bought a NES when it was 3 years from it’s U.S. launch, then that’s something impressive and would certainly make me say it had broken some records.