Author Archives: Chris Morris

Showbiz sweats hacker attacks

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No one in the entertainment world wants to be Sony these days.

After a security breach resulted in the theft of personal information in more than 100 million user accounts, it didn’t seem things could get much worse. But a series of rapid-fire smaller hacks to sites in Canada, Thailand and Indonesia — along with an exploit on Sony’s PlayStation site that temporarily put accounts at risk again — continued to endanger the company’s reputation with consumers.

Instead of the muffled competitive snickering that usually occurs when a rival stumbles, other entertainment companies have watched in fear as the drama has played out, knowing that their own online operations were spared only by the whim of the hacking community.

Read more at Daily Variety

EA ups the ante in its retail game

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Plenty of publishers have done a lot of saber rattling when it comes to selling direct to consumers, but that’s generally as far as it goes. So when EA began touting its Origin service a few weeks ago, no one was quite sure how serious the company planned to compete.

These days, though, it’s looking like EA intends to put its full efforts into the fight.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Set-top box vampires

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There are roughly 160 million set-top boxes in homes around the U.S. – that’s more than 80 percent of the country’s domiciles. And every last one of them is a vampire.

Not the Bela Lugosi or Robert Pattinson kind, of course – but the kind that suck power from your walls and money from your wallet.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Nintendo facing Wii U backlash

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Nintendo’s Wii U saw plenty of excitement at E3. Lines at the company’s booth for a few moments of hand-on time were five hours long, as people jockeyed to be among the first to tinker with the next-generation system.

But outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center, the attitude towards Nintendo’s new machine was decidedly cooler — and in the days following the show, things haven’t warmed up at all.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Meet the Internet’s new public enemy #1

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Fame in the hacking community is a rare and fleeting thing. Kevin Mitnick found it – and served time for it. And more recently, the decentralized group “Anonymous” has been the reigning top dog.

But in the last month, a new contender for the throne has made a big push – and a lot of entertainment companies have been casualties of this war.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Interview: Take-Two’s Zelnick Talks Social Games, Acquisition Rumors

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[Speaking with Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris about the road ahead for his company, CEO Strauss Zelnick explains why he’s in no hurry to sell Take Two, and why the publisher isn’t taking part in the social game land grab.]

The turnaround story at Take-Two Interactive Software has been an impressive one over the past couple of years. The company, which had previously never posted a profit unless it had released a Grand Theft Auto title in its lineup that year, has managed to push into the black without the help of its biggest franchise and had several of the most anticipated games of 2011 and 2012 on display at its E3 booth this year.

But the success has once again kicked up chatter that the company might be in play. Analysts have speculated it is an acquisition target and, with activist investor Carl Icahn holding a big stake in the company, have begun openly wondering who will make the first bid.

Read more at Gamasutra

May video game sales worst in five years

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After riding high from the thrill of E3 last week, the video game industry got a harsh slap in the face Monday.

As reported by the NPD Group, sales of video games in the month of May were down 19 percent compared to a year ago — the worst performance for the industry in nearly five years.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Hackers continue to target video game companies

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Everyone hates a copycat, but the cyber attack on Sony’s PlayStation Network has created more than a few. For hackers seeking notoriety or fame, there is no easier target these days than gaming companies.

The latest victim is Bethesda Software, makers of hit games like Fallout 3 and the Elder Scrolls titles. LulzSec, the group that has claimed responsibility for the Memorial Day weekend takeover of PBS Websites (posting false news stories that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive and living in New Zealand), says it has breached the company’s servers and plans to release the data today.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

May game sales bite the dust

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No one expected May to be a particularly stellar month for video game sales – but no one expected it to be a disaster either. Unfortunately, disaster doesn’t begin to describe the month.

Software sales nose dived 19 percent in May, the industry’s worst performance since Oct. 2006. Overall, brick and mortar sales were down 13 percent to $718.8 million. Year to date, the industry is 14 percent off of 2010’s retail sales pace, according to The NPD Group.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog