Author Archives: Chris Morris

2010 sees 6 percent drop in retail video game sales

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2010 was another ugly year for video game retailers. Overall sales of video games were down 6 percent compared to the 2009 numbers – coming in at $18.58 billion. But there was some room for optimism.

Adding in other income streams, including digital downloads, used game sales, game rentals, subscriptions, social network games and mobile game apps, the NPD Group, which tallies the numbers, estimates preliminary software sales in 2010 were between $15.4 to $15.6 billion – which represented relatively flat growth compared to 2009 (though perhaps down by 1 percent).

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Nintendo’s 3DS may eventually become a 3D camcorder too

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Nintendo will break new ground with the 3DS portable gaming system later this year, offering the first consumer electronics device to let people enjoy stereoscopic 3D effects without wearing glasses. But it looks like the company might have much bigger ambitions for the gadget.

In the latest Iwata Asks Q&A with the company’s global CEO, Satoru Iwata reveals that he would like to include video recording capabilities into future updates of the 3DS, letting people shoot home movies in 3D and watch them back on their device or (presumably) on a 3D TV via SD card.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Video Game Industry Braces For Negative Sales Report

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After a turbulent and revolutionary year, the video game industry is bracing itself for 2010’s holiday and total-year retail sales figures.

Buoyed by continued strong sales of titles like “Call of Duty: Black Ops” and Microsoft’s Kinect, many analysts expect December sales to show more positive momentum when the numbers are released after the market closes this afternoon.

Read more at CNBC.com

The fine line between game enthusiast and addict

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David Webb is a core gamer – an enthusiast who has a passion for story-driven role-playing games. He’s also a person who knows how completely those games can take over his life. He lost a girlfriend, in part, to excessive playing of World of Warcraft and when a compelling single-player game is released, he goes on self-described “bender” sessions – lasting 12 hours or more.

“My solution has been abstinence, to a large degree,” says Webb (not his real name). “I don’t generally grant myself a single-player game unless it’s reported to have a short playtime – and multiplayer games have to be jump-in, jump-out, like a first person shooter. On rare occasion I’ll buy an role-playing game, but then it’s pizza boxes and soda bottles until I finish. I genuinely feel like an alcoholic with it.”

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Porn: What’s The Next Big Thing?

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The pornography business is a tech bellwether, often sensing the shift in consumer sentiment long before the mainstream world makes a move.

So as the adult entertainment industry’s stars and power brokers walked the red carpet at the recent AVN Awards in Las Vegas – the adult entertainment industry’s equivalent of the Oscars – we polled a few, asking them what they thought would be the next big trend to sweep the industry.

Read more at CNBC.com

Just how popular are pirate sites?

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The entertainment industry’s war on piracy is well known, but exactly how big an army it has been battling has always been something of a mystery.

MarkMonitor, which protects online brands for its clients, has done some counting, though, and it estimates that Web piracy sites distributing software, films and other products attract roughly 53 billion visits per year.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

iPhone 4 coming to Verizon – officially

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After years of rumors, speculation and pining, Verizon finally has the iPhone.

The company made the formal announcement Tuesday, confirming that the top smartphone on the market will be available to its customers in early March, ending AT&T’s long run of exclusivity with the device.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Latest World of Warcraft expansion sets new record

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Blizzard’s MMO juggernaut “World of Warcraft” is showing no signs of slowing down.

The company announced Monday that the game’s latest expansion – “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” – had sold 4.7 million copies worldwide in just one month. That makes it the fastest-selling PC game of all time, displacing “Wrath of the Lich King,” the previous “WoW” expansion.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Analysis: Behind The ESA’s New E3 Media Rules

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[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris examines recent changes to E3 2011’s media registration policy, intended to “prevent some of the problems we’ve had with fake badges,” according to a rep with event co-organizer ESA.]

Getting into E3 in Los Angeles in June is going to be a different experience for journalists this year.

For the first time, the Entertainment Software Association, which organizes the convention, has decided not to pre-mail badges to media attendees.

Read more at Gamasutra

5 banking predictions that missed the mark

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A visitor from the 1940s would be very disappointed with today’s society. We don’t have pill-based, full-course meals. No one is living on the moon. And no matter how hard you look, you can’t find a flying car anywhere.

Predictions about the future have a way of being wrong, but sometimes they’re so far off the mark that they border on being comedic. When it comes to banking, you don’t always need to reach too far back to find prognostications that were a little too forward-thinking.

Read more at Bankrate.com