DICE Summit: GameStop executive says used games drive new sales
Game developers have been sore about the sales of used games and how they eat into new sales without giving the developers or publishers any compensation.
One culprit, they say, is GameStop, the biggest U.S. game retailer, which besides selling new games, also buys back used games.
But GameStop’s No. 2 executive said today that the whole industry benefits from the used market because it brings new gamers into the market.
“This is the elephant … Continue Reading
Cable TV online may sound great, but a la carte pricing is still the key
I recently ditched all but the most basic television package from my cable provider — and I would have ditched it all, but it was something like $5 for basic cable on top of my internet service. I simply don’t watch cable television anymore. But that’s not to say I don’t watch television shows anymore — I do, just through my Apple TV, Xbox 360 or on the web through services like Hulu. In moving … Continue Reading
Fire Eagle doused in location streams
When Yahoo started working on Fire Eagle, its location-based web platform, it clearly had the right idea. It wanted to make serving your location data to third-party web services easy. Unfortunately, this concept has taken a while to catch on. Yahoo gave Fire Eagle a push out of the nest last year, officially unveiling it, but it needs something else to get moving on its own — and that just may be a stream.
The … Continue Reading
Psst. Got a secret? Share it on Twitter anonymously — eBay VPs do
Among other things, Twitter is a thought market. In the same brief, fleeting moment you can whisper something in someone’s ear — or mutter it under your breath — you can commit it to the web via Twitter. And with that, the service provides you with the feeling that you can say what’s on your mind and hear what’s on the minds of others. You don’t necessarily have to provide any explanation or context the … Continue Reading
U2 obsesses over small leaks, misses huge, gaping hole
One of the biggest bands in the world, U2, has a new album due out next month, No Line On The Horizon. Of course if you’re familiar with the file sharing service BitTorrent, it’s out right now.
Yes, the album leaked onto the web despite a ridiculous amount of security that included no review copies going out to the press. But here’s the best part: It may have leaked because someone apparently forgot to tell … Continue Reading
A snow leopard on Live.com is causing some to lose their minds
I saw the story once and I thought: Oh, that’s kind of funny. I saw it twice and I thought: Hmm. I saw it three times and saw it all over Twitter and thought: This is getting ridiculous. There must be a shortage of stories in the blogosphere tonight because everyone seems to be pouncing on what is likely no more than a cute coincidence — that a snow leopard was the background image on … Continue Reading
Video ad network Tremor Media raises $18M
Large video advertising network Tremor Media announced that it raised $18 million in a third round of funding so that it can invest in other video technologies, like video ad monetization platform Acudeo. Earlier this month, the New York-based company sealed a deal with web monitor comScore to provide gross rating points for online videos (just like TV commercials). According to comScore, Tremor is the fourth largest aggregator of streaming video on the web behind … Continue Reading
E-commerce conversion software 7 Billion People snags $3M
7 Billion People, maker of software that supposedly ups the number of purchases on e-commerce web sites, announced that it raised $3 million in second-round funding to expand its marketing and sales operations. The Austin, Tex.-based company claims to apply behavioral science to personalize online shopping experiences and increase revenue for retailers.
SmithCo Investments led the recent round, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $6 million.… Continue Reading
Massachusetts shines on solar co. Konarka, loans $5M
Thin-film solar company Konarka just landed a $5 million loan from the Emerging Technology Fund of Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust‘s Business Expansion Initiative. The funds will be used to build out its new solar material factory in New Bedford, Mass., which has been open since October.
Konarka is known for making plastic solar film capable of turning natural and artificial light into power. Its current manufacturing plant can make … Continue Reading
Dice Summit: The mood at the game industry's Oscar awards: happy but cautious
The Interactive Achievement Awards at the Dice Summit represents the industry’s chance to get excited about what it does and to give away the equivalent of the Oscar to its best game developers.
The awards show is always an interesting place to observe the state of the video game industry. Nominees include the first iPhone games (Apple was invited to speak, but didn’t send anyone). While the crowd is at capacity and happy to be … Continue Reading
Amid PR follies, Facebook attempts to humanize
Facebook has a lot of communication problems. Most recently, changes made to its terms of service sent a ripple through the internet community, leaving users feeling like they had unwillingly ceded ownership of their data to the site. Facebook backtracked almost immediately, but the damage has been done. And as PR glitches continue to arise, the company runs the risk of being viewed as a faceless (ironic, huh?) and untrustworthy entity. So it comes as … Continue Reading
Facebook launches comments widget for web publishers
Facebook’s Connect service already lets users comment on news articles and other web-wide content using their Facebook identities. Now the company is taking another step, by letting web publishers install the actual Facebook comments interface within their own sites. For web publishers who just want their comments tightly integrated with Facebook, this could help drive up interaction on their sites. Connect isn’t just a distributed identity service, it shows your friends on Facebook where you’re … Continue Reading
MySpace's John Faith on mobile revenue and mobile data opportunities
MySpace has seen some impressive traffic growth for its mobile web site and its mobile applications over the last year. And the social network is capitalizing on it by developing new revenue streams and new ways to get its users’ data on more devices.
This is the second part of my interview with MySpace vice president and general manager John Faith from earlier this week at the Mobile World Conference. Below, he discusses how the … Continue Reading
See you at DEMO '09: Contest for free tickets!
As you may have read, VentureBeat will kick off our new strategic partnership with the DEMO conference in just nine days in Palm Desert, CA. The highlight for us will be the introduction of “DEMObeat” on the DEMO stage on March 3.
During this session, we’ll be discussing three of the most important trends in technology today: The spread of social data sharing services; tomorrow’s tools for building a sustainable, energy-efficient economy; and the Internet … Continue Reading
ShareThis: Facebook sharing is winning
Updated
Here comes even more data showing that Facebook’s redesign is working. ShareThis — which makes a widget for sharing news stories via social networks, social news sites, and even good, old-fashioned email — just revealed that among ShareThis users, Facebook sharing is on the rise while virtually every other channel is down.
Sharing via email still dominated in January, accounting for 57.1 percent of stories on ShareThis. But that’s down 6.9 percent since August, … Continue Reading
DICE Summit: Bruce Shelley on why Ensemble Studios was shut after 20 million games sold
One of the bittersweet moments of the DICE Summit is that Bruce Shelley, who spent decades making games, is going to get the lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.
But his Dallas-based studio, Ensemble Studios, was shut down last month by Microsoft, after selling 20 million games. Halo Wars, the studio’s swan song, will ship for the Xbox 360 in a matter of weeks. Shelley explained why that happened — … Continue Reading
DICE Summit: Why game entrepreneur David Perry isn't making any more single-player games
David Perry has made some of the biggest games played on traditional video game consoles, such as The Matrix and Messiah. But the creative officer at Acclaim said at the DICE Summit today that he’ll never develop another single-player game again.
The reason is that there are so many opportunities for small teams to make free online games (dubbed free-to-play) that are supported by virtual goods sales or advertising. This was just one of the … Continue Reading
Watching the Oscars? There's an app for that.
The 81st annual Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, take place on Sunday. People seem to love that award show above all others for a number of reasons: Some love the films, some love the history, some love the outfits and some just love the drinking games you can play while watching (a shot for every television shot of Jack Nicholson, etc). Not surprisingly, Apple’s App Store is filled with iPhone and iPod Touch … Continue Reading
Roundup: Yelp allegedly extorts, Twitter embraces its origins, Tesla CMO defects and more
Here’s the latest action:
The downturn finally hits HP — The company announced a 10 percent drop in earnings yesterday and plans to cut salaries. CNet has more.
Yelp accused of extortion, again — Local business owners report that the trendy review site offers to hide negative critiques in exchange for cash. And it’s not the first time Yelp has been called out for this.
TechCrunch reviews 2008 — Erick Schonfeld offers up insightful snapshots … Continue Reading
Forbes helps launch digital pretty picture mag FlipGloss
FlipGloss, a digital magazine devoted almost exclusively to fashion photography, has kicked off its public beta with the help of Forbes Media. While it also publishes photos of hotels, spas and lavishly designed kitchens and bathrooms, the site might be better described as an online luxury shopping mall (and a beautiful one at that — the site itself is about as swanky as its photographs).
Users can navigate through various categories, and when they hover … Continue Reading
