VentureBeat

Dell is partnering with Paramount Pictures on a promotion that can only be described as pointless. The computer maker will give consumers the option of pre-loading a digital copy of the film Iron Man onto their new computers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That’s all well and good — Iron Man is a fine movie — but exactly what either company hopes to gain is beyond me.

The stated goal is to make consumers more comfortable with digital film content. Dell apparently wants to do more of these deals, and perhaps even assemble a service to compete with Apple’s iTunes store, The Hollywood Reporter notes. That’s the best part: This is a first move in a broader strategy for Dell.

The computer maker hopes to convince even more studios to pre-load their movies on systems before sale. But will this little extra lure buyers? Sure, dumb ones. Why would you spend $20 (yes, you have to pay extra for it) to get a movie pre-loaded on a computer when you can get it for cheaper on DVD or through other Internet distribution portals? Through iTunes, for example, you can download Iron Man for $14.99.

Oh yeah, did I mention you have to buy a whole computer on top of it?

Undoubtedly, the digital version sold through Dell will be chock-full of digital rights management (DRM) protections. It can only be burned once to DVD, and will only be available in standard definition. The two-disc special edition Blu-ray (high definition) version is only $25 on Amazon.

It’s intriguing that this deal between Dell and Paramount may also involve Zing Systems, a company Dell bought last year founded by Tim Bucher — who used to work at Apple. Bucher filed a wrongful termination suit against Apple in 2005, Hollywood Reporter points out. You have to wonder if this is some weak attempt at payback.

Will this boost PC sales? No. Will this boost digital film sales? No. Is this pretty much just an inane sales ploy that will soon fade? Yes.

[photo: Paramount Pictures]

It’s a little late from the point of view of its rivals, but Paramount Pictures has finally decided to take a plunge into video games.

The Hollywood studio is expanding its video game division with a slate of games that will start coming out later this year, according to Variety.

Most movie studios have seen why this makes financial sense. A movie might cost $90 million to make and gross $100 million. But a video game costs $30 million at the most and can still generate $100 million. For a few years now, video game console hardware and software sales have trumped movie box office receipts. (Yes, we know that games cost $50 or $60, and movies about $10).

Warner Bros. has expanded its presence in games under well-known developer Jason Hall and Disney is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on its own video game expansion. Sony, of course, has had both a motion picture and video game business for years.

Variety says that Paramount wants to invest in all types of games but is particularly interested in casual, handheld and mobile games. As we’ve reported, these are some of the hottest areas for start-ups these days. The rest of Viacom, which owns Paramount, is also active in video games. The MTV division owns Harmonix, creator of the hit game Rock Band. MTV also has a deal with famous Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer to make a series of video games. Viacom chief Sumner Redstone has also had an investment in Midway Games, which recently named a new CEO, for some time.

What else could Paramount be working on? Well, this reminds me of Star Trek Online, a massively multiplayer online game that has been in the works for a while. Read the rest of this entry »

1. WSJ Digital Network hires Microsoft for ads
2. Paramount Pictures, live in virtual world Habbo
3. Tim Draper raising fund for entertainment startups
4. MPAA downplay claim of movie piracy at colleges
5. Southern Cross first Aussie VC firm to open Silicon Valley office
6. How to find private photos on SmugMug
7. Redpoint Ventures does well with Fraud Sciences
8. Sprint and Clearwire revive WiMAX plan
9. VCs showed best returns of 2007 in Q2

Wall Street Journal Digital Network hires Microsoft for ads — The Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, AllThingsD.com and other sites will have their contextual and paid search advertising ads provided exclusively by Microsoft’s adCenter. Strange that The Wall Street Journal isn’t using the advertising services of its parent company News Corp., which has also been experimenting with contextual advertising that makes use of Myspace user data (our coverage). Ashkan Karbasfrooshan’s explanation is that this is actually being orchestrated by News Corp’s Murdoch. By recruiting Microsoft, he’s playing the software giant off against Google. You’ll recall Google has already cut a $900 million deal to serve ads on News Corp’s other properties, Myspace and other Fox Interactive Media sites. So why not keep the two giants honest, creating a little competition for News Corp.’s business?. Meanwhile, Microsoft also places ads on Myspace rival Facebook.

More than 20 million unique users visit the Journal’s network of sites per month, generating monthly 330 million page views. Microsoft now claims to have one of the largest vertical ad networks focused on financial readers. Other properties it runs ads on include MSN Money, CNBC.com and EDGAR Online.

Paramount Pictures, live in virtual world Habbo — Habbo (sample, left), formerly Habbo Hotel, has won “merchandising rights” to sell virtual goods to its users in North America, that feature items from the movies Mean Girls, the forthcoming The Spiderwick Chronicles and Beowulf. Habbo’s eight million monthly visitors will be able to buy virtual clothes, virtual furniture and other accessories (press release here). Paramount is the latest movie studio to start inserting its content into a virtual world. Sony and Time Warner have been doing the same thing. Both of those studios have had their movies and other content playing in the background of virtual rooms in virtual world Gaia Online (they also both invested in that company).

Tim Draper is reportedly still raising a fund to focus on entertainment startups — Or so recent reports suggest. We heard the same thing back in August.

MPAA admits movie piracy by college students not as bad as previously claimed — The Motion Picture of Association of America has come clean. The MPAA’s 2007 study will show that motion picture industry losses due to college students pirating movies amount to 15 percent. That’s down from the MPAA’s 2005 number of 44 percent, which the MPAA now says was due to an “isolated error.”  For a brutal breakdown of this announcement, read this.

Southern Cross Venture Partners is the first Aussie VC firm to open up an office in Silicon Valley — The Australia-based firm has already made investments in four companies of Australian origin: Xerocoat, Mantara, M&MD and UIactive. It closed a $150 million (AUD$170m) fund in the middle of last year. It plans to deepen relationships with US VCs, to help fund startups that begin life in Australia and New Zealand, and introduce them to the US market. The firm’s new office is in downtown Palo Alto, so I’ll be keeping my ears tuned to overhear Aussie-accented conversations while I write articles at Coupa Cafe.

How to find private photos on SmugMug — Is the popular photo-sharing site keeping your private photos private? Google Blogoscoped and others have discovered it’s not, apparently. Read here for more.

Redpoint Ventures cashes out Fraud Sciences six months after investing in it — EBay is buying Fraud Sciences for $169 million, which had received $8 million in funding from Redpoint, BRM Capital and undisclosed investors last year. It tracks online buyers to pin-point suspicious behavior, and is supposed to be particularly good at detecting fraudulent overseas transactions, a particular pain point for Paypal.

Sprint and Clearwire revive plan to build high-speed wireless network using WiMAX — The mobile carrier and the internet service provider are looking at forming a joint venture that could include Intel, Google and even retailer Best Buy, The Wall Street Journal reports.

VCs showed best returns of 2007 in Q2 — That’s according to the latest private equity performance index put together by Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association. Take a look at this table for more details.