Category Archives: Gamasutra

Analysis: How Netflix Could Shake Up The Game Rental Business

Posted on by

Gamasutra columnist Chris Morris looks at how Netflix’s recent decision to add video games to its rent-by-mail service could pose a threat to competitor GameFly and shake up the video game rental market significantly.

Maybe it’s a good thing that GameFly has been unable to get its act together and launch that IPO it filed for last February – because if it had, its stock would surely be taking a prison yard beating today.

Netflix has made some baffling moves in the last couple of months, and Sunday’s announcement that it would be spinning its DVD-by-mail service into a separate division certainly qualifies as one of them. But the addition of video games to its offerings could be just what the business needs to prop that service up for a few more years.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Opinion: Sony’s Updated Terms Of Service – Mountain Out Of A Molehill?

Posted on by

Just as Sony was starting to put the consumer badwill of this year’s hacking fiasco behind it, it goes and slips a change into the terms of service for the PlayStation Network. In this opinion piece, Chris Morris takes a look.

Sometimes you have to wonder if Sony even bothers to run things by its public relations department before taking action.

Just as the company was starting to put the consumer badwill of this year’s hacking fiasco behind it, it goes and slips a change into the terms of service for the PlayStation Network – and the masses began to howl once more.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: GameStop Keeps Up With The Times

Posted on by

Following GameStop’s mobile device announcements earlier this week, Gamasutra’s Chris Morris discusses the company’s plan to defend itself against the ongoing decline in retail game sales.

It’s no secret that game publishers have spent a lot of time focusing on the growing importance of the mobile space, but things have been a lot quieter on the retail front.

However, GameStop’s pair of announcements Monday sent a clear signal to both gamers and investors that the company was planning to defend itself against the ongoing decline in retail game sales and the changing nature of the gaming market.

Read more at Gamasutra

EA And Activision: A Tale Of Two Social Media Strategies

Posted on by

Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at two traditional publishers — Activision and EA — examining how the packaged game giants will square off in the emerging social media space.

EA and Activision, despite their ongoing war of words, tend to swim in the same waters. Both like the military shooter genre. Both used to like the music genre. And both want to own the MMO market.

To date, that rivalry hasn’t extended to the social gaming and mobile space. While EA has substantially expanded into both fields, Activision has been content to sit back and view the fray from a distance. That could be changing before too long, though.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: 2011 – The Year Of Publisher Screwups

Posted on by

It’s only September, but 2011 already has no shortage of publisher screwups — Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris chalks it up to “growing pains” of the new age of digital gaming.

When gaming historians look back at 2011 sometime down the road, there’s going to be plenty to examine.

What might fascinate them most, though, will have nothing to do with the sustained decline in brick and mortar retail sales or the growing strength of digital distribution. It won’t even be the emergence of privacy issues. Instead, 2011 may well be remembered as the year publishers kept screwing up.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: When Will The Law Of Gravity Apply To Call Of Duty?

Posted on by

With the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 looking to set new industry sales records when it launches later this year, Gamasutra’s Chris Morris questions whether Activision’s behemoth franchise can keep it up.

Even if you slept through your high school physics courses, you’re probably pretty familiar with the concept of what goes up, must come down. And given how high up the Call of Duty franchise has gotten in the past few years, there’s a very vocal segment of the gaming world waiting for it to fall.

Part of that is this industry’s insatiable need to declare the leading publisher evil and wish them harm. Part of it is rooting for an underdog. But whatever the reason, it looks like despite all the bellyaching by Activision opponents, gravity’s not going to be pulling the franchise from orbit this year either.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: Why Zynga’s IPO Might Be ‘Delayed’

Posted on by

Reports this week that Zynga is holding off on its IPO are not “a sign of weakness or scandal,” according to Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris, who says it’d be reckless to go forward in current market conditions.

When reports crossed the wire Monday that Zynga might push back the launch of its initial public offering, the conspiracy theorists started buzzing. Later word that the SEC might play a role in the delay whipped ’em into a frenzy.

In fact, none of this was a sign of weakness or scandal. It was actually a sign that the folks running the business side of the game maker could a) read tea leaves and b) realize that early, enthusiastic investors might become confused, angry ones if a few things up weren’t cleared up.

Read more at Gamasutra

Behind The Scenes Of The Portal Proposal

Posted on by

Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris goes behind the scenes with the developers and future groom behind the Portal 2marriage proposal mod that has swept the web this week.

Stephanie Harbeson – Stephy to her friends and loved ones – wasn’t what you would call a core gamer. Sure, she played her share of casual games and would always offer to play co-op when her boyfriend Gary Hudston got something new, but no title ever really captured her – until she tried Portal 2.

Suddenly, after five years of watching Gary play, she was playing with him – taking charge, in fact, and telling him where to go. For the first time, the pair had a game they both truly enjoyed.

Read more at Gamasutra

Opinion: The Revolving Door At Atari Approaches Terminal Velocity

Posted on by

Can the latest round of executive hires turn Atari around with a focus on the fast-moving social gaming and digital space? Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at execs who’ve come and gone — and he’s skeptical.

With all due respect to the incoming executives at Atari, I really can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would take a high-ranking job with that particular publisher.

Sure, it’s a company that has proven almost Rasputin-like in its will to live, but it has also spent the last four years floundering – desperately searching for a viable business plan and hiring a slew of notable industry executives, only to see them racing for the exit in short order.

Read more at Gamasutra

Analysis: PlayStation Price Cut A Win For Some, A Threat For Others

Posted on by

As Sony cuts the price of the PlayStation 3 for the first time in two years, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at the ramifications the move might have on Xbox 360 and Wii.

So the PlayStation 3 price cut we all suspected was coming at some point this year has finally been announced, and immediately implemented to boot. Now things are going to get interesting.

Sony’s $50 reduction, positioned as the exclamation point to their Gamescom press conference, will have reverberations throughout the industry over the next couple of months. Let’s take a look at some of the ripple effects.

Read more at Gamasutra