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OnLive gaming plays nice with Xperia Play controls

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:32:10 +0000

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone, which is targeted directly at mobile gamers, has a new twist that could add even more appeal. The Android handset, which already supports Sony PSP titles and has slide-out game controls, is fully supported by the OnLive cloud gaming service. Xperia Play owners could already use OnLive with on-screen controls, but can now play OnLive games with the phone’s unique, dedicated hardware controls.

While playing games on a touchscreen certainly works, support for the Xperia’s Play hardware game buttons is a smart move by OnLive. The handset may not be the most popular Android handset available, but for hardcore gamers and fans of the PlayStation Portable, it’s a nice compromise between capable smartphone and portable game machine. I’m actually surprised that OnLive didn’t launch with such support for the Xperia Play when it released its Google Android app earlier this month.

For those not familiar, OnLive is a cloud gaming service currently available for Windows PCs, Mac OS X and, most recently, Google Android smartphones and tablets. The games are played on servers in the cloud and displayed on the host computer or mobile device. Essentially, gamers can get a console experience on a smartphone because the games run on a high-powered server.

I’ve played some OnLive games on my Galaxy Nexus and it works well, provided you have a solid, stable web connection. However, I’m not a huge fan of playing complex console titles on a touchscreen: They often require multiple buttons and controls, which can be difficult to use on a small screen.

That’s where the Xperia Play hardware support comes into play. And OnLive also has a game controller, similar to one you’d use with an Xbox 360. I’ve been testing one out along with a beta version of the OnLive client for Apple’s iPad, so stay tuned for a video review coming soon.

While I finalize my review, you can try the OnLive service with a holiday special. Between Dec. 28 and Jan. 1, OnLive is having a “Winter Three-For-All” promotion with free gaming hours and prizes; titles will include Borderlands, Super Street Fighter IV, and Saints Row: The Third.

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Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:01:08 +0000

Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically.

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As Millions of Videos Come to TV, How Will We Choose?

Chris Albrecht — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:00:57 +0000

Freedom of choice is great… until there are too many choices. And the Internet-connected televisions headed to market will soon open up millions of TV-watching options. Right now, most folks use the standard TV grid to scroll through channels and programming. But the move from linear TV to a new world of on-demand broadband television will require a fresh, more elegant user interface for navigating through an ocean of viewing options. “If a user sits down and says ‘nothing’s on,’ we have failed,” says Tom Woods, director of user experience for Rovi (formerly Macrovision), “I guarantee that out of hundreds of channels, Internet content and premium services, there is something of interest to them.” But finding what’s of interest is the key, and future TV user interfaces will need to rely on a combination of search, recommendations, content-centric thinking and better design.

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IPTV Market Snapshot

Steve Hawley — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:32:44 +0000

After a slow start, IPTV, or Internet Protocol Television, has become established as a legitimate pay TV alternative to satellite and cable. Now that several IPTV operators have each attracted more than 2 million subscribers, IPTV has begun to attract the attention of media companies and advertisers that are keen to bring content to any screen that happens to be in the consumer’s hand. And therein lies the rub.

Have we begun a period of fragmentation in which no single service provider owns the subscriber, or, just the opposite: Have technology advances made it possible for individual service providers to serve every screen via a unified service platform? Early indications are that both situations are likely to occur, as the largest operators deploy convergence and personalization tools, while consumers capture what’s missing via the Internet.

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How To Make Money From iPhone Games

Wagner James Au — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:00:42 +0000

Last year, a small Mac game developer called Pangea Software ported one of its titles to Apple’s iPhone. Pangea’s Brian Greenstone didn’t expect to make much from the iPhone version of its arcade-style game Enigmo; he expected that the company might sell 10,000-20,000 units over its lifetime. It sold that amount in a single day, and from July 2008 to January 2009, it sold a total of 810,000 copies, earning a profit of $1.5 million, even after Apple took its 30 percent cut.

Numbers like that help explain the burst of iPhone game/entertainment news here at SXSW 2009, from location-aware fun apps to the Facebook Connect function linking iPhone apps to the social network. But there are also challenges. Those were analyzed at a Saturday SXSW panel featuring Greenstone and three other successful iPhone developers; here are my five favorite takeaways.

Think Handheld Game Console, Not Mobile Platform

Moderator Raven Zachary laid out the playing field: On the market, there are now 17.4 million iPhones and an estimated 9 million iPods (which also run the iPhone OS.) There are 27,000 iPhone apps that have been downloaded a half-billion times; 1 in 3 are games or entertainment apps. While it’s not the most popular phone on the market, it’s easily the most Net-centric, accounting for nearly 70 percent of all mobile-based web usage.

For those reasons and more, the panelists consistently described the iPhone less as a mobile platform than a handheld game console. Stephanie Morgan of ngmoco argued that it’s actually superior to Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PSP, since the iPhone has better Net connectivity, and unlike either competitor, has finger touch, accelerometer, and location awareness functionality that can be integrated into gameplay. And since it’s also, you know, a phone, owners are more likely to have it on their person than a handheld console.

Keep Budgets Low By Sharing The Risk (And Wealth)

Notwithstanding blockbuster successes like Pangea’s Enigmo or ngmoco’s Rolando, most games get lost in the clutter of so many iPhone apps. Consequently, Greenstone expressed caution on development costs. “We don’t want to invest a lot of money, because we don’t know if we’ll make it back.” To keep budgets low, he doesn’t pay artists and other developers to help with porting Pangea’s games to the iPhone; instead he gives them a cut of the profits when the game sells.

Web 2.0 Marketing Is Key

The difficulty of distinguishing your game in a morass of 27,000 apps was a recurring theme. The panelists recommended building awareness through YouTube, social networks and other Web 2.0 channels. The big goal, they unanimously agreed, is getting your game in Apple’s top 100 apps. Once there, it gains self-sustaining momentum.

Play With Your Price Point

But how much should iPhone games cost? At first, Pangea tried selling titles for $10 each, but found itself in a price war against 99-cent apps. It now prices its games at $3-7 dollars, though Greenstone believes the average price point will trend back up to $10. Morgan said ngmoco is experimenting with introductory low prices, too; panelist Danielle Cassley of Aurora Feint (makers of an intriguing eponymous iPhone MMO) suggested lowering a game’s price to get it into the top 100, then beginning to increase the price. (Rumors that Apple will soon introduce a “Premium App” store, largely for iPhone games, could also help raise the acceptable price point.)

Don’t Worry About Piracy (Yet)

With software success comes piracy; an audience member asked if this was a concern with iPhone games. Pangea’s Greenstone said unauthorized downloads of its games did initially spike, but that it now represents about 5 percent of the total. Stephanie Morgan of ngmoco concurred, calling it a “negligible concern.”

During the audience Q&A, someone who introduced himself as a staffer with Nokia said he was interested in acquiring the rights to the panelists’ bestselling iPhone games, and converting them to their own mobile platform; though the Finnish company still dominates the handset market, none of the developers expressed much interest in the offer. The exchange struck me as an object lesson that Apple’s rivals could do well to learn from. If they have any hope of competing, they must not only contend with the iPhone itself, but the dedication of the app development community that’s sprung up around it.

Disclosure: I was an unpaid advisor for SXSW’s panel selection process.

Image courtesy Pangea

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Can Nintendo DSi Become the iPhone of Game Handhelds?

Wagner James Au — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:00:41 +0000

U.S gamers, rejoice: After months of hearing tantalizing tidbits about the Nintendo DSi, available in Japan since last November, we finally have word that it will go on sale here April 5th, for $169.99. The latest addition to Nintendo’s DS handheld console line bristles with new features, but in my opinion, its most potentially game-changing element is “DSiWare,” an online app/game store where DSi owners can purchase/download games via the handheld’s wireless connection. “Developers big and small are invited to create software” for DSiWare, Nintendo announced proudly today. Some interpret this feature as Nintendo’s direct response to the iPhone and its game-heavy App Store, and I agree.

But can Nintendo meaningfully compete with iPhone? As I complained last year, few of the company’s Internet services have impressed, and Apple’s smartphone has a tremendous head start. Michael Pachter, gaming analyst with Wedbush Morgan, thinks it’s just a matter of time: “Once there is a big [DSi] installed base,” he told me via email, “the number of apps should be comparable.” But I’m skeptical its download service will be anywhere as appealing as the App Store. In fact, analyst David Cole believes DSiWare is “just one of many features and is not necessarily a huge driver.”

Then there’s the DSi’s recession-unfriendly $170 price point — almost as costly as the iPhone (without also being a phone). Pachter thinks we may see price cuts across the DS line, announced perhaps as early as June’s E3 Expo, with the DSi’s MRSP lowered to $149. That would definitely make the DSi a competitive alternative to potential iPhone customers who are more interested in getting the phone for its game apps than they are for the AT&T plan that comes saddled with it.

Image credit: www.nintendodsi.com

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10 Potentially Game-Changing Games for 2009

Wagner James Au — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:00:20 +0000

What games stand the best chance of changing the broader industry in 2009, either by dramatically influencing what consumers play and purchase, or by demonstrating the commercial viability of new revenue models and genres? Below is a list of the 10 most likely candidates, culled from several experts in the field and myself. Keep an eye on these titles to see how well they perform — and whether they really do impact the future business of games. All are scheduled for 2009 release, but of course, dates are always subject to change.

The selection panel: David Cole, founder and president of game industry analyst firm DFC Intelligence; David Edery, Worldwide Games Portfolio Planner for Xbox Live Arcade and co-author of “Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business;” and K. Thor Jensen and Frank Washburn, both game developers and occasional GigaOM contributors.

The Games:

Allstate’s “Insight” Games
A series of “serious games” sponsored by Allstate that are designed to gauge reaction time and perception, the insurance company is currently testing them on older drivers, and may use them as a resource for offering discounts to successful players (who are assumed to be better insurance risks). As Dave Edery put it to me in email, the Allstate games may “change the way that auto insurance companies market their products and relate to their customers.” It’ll demonstrate ROI in spades — and encourage other major industries to begin incorporating serious games into their own products and services. (And the game industry, to begin expanding what has so far been a niche genre.)

The Beatles Video Game
The upcoming music game from Harmonix is set for a 2009 holiday season release, and will fully integrate music from the Beatles’ massive catalog, with creative input from Sir Paul McCartney himself. The enormous popularity of Harmonix’s Rock Band and Guitar Hero have already had a dramatic impact on both the video game and music industry. Harmonix is tight-lipped about the Beatles’ actual gameplay, beyond saying it’ll include “interactive performance of the music… and stuff you haven’t seen from us before,” but the consensus is that this means gamers will get to perform as John, Paul, George, and Ringo, Rock Band-style. In any case, imagine a video game showcasing pop music’s most famous group, beloved by teens and baby boomers alike, riding the crest of music games’ already huge popularity, and you have a phenomenon likely to impact the entire culture. (And in the process, become a killer app for many late adopters, convincing them to finally buy a game console.) Also look forward to more top pop bands demanding their own standalone video game.

EyePet
“EyePet uses augmented reality technology to insert a virtual pet into a live camera feed of whatever room the camera is pointed at, and advanced motion and shape detection to make it interact convincingly with its virtual environment,” notes Thor Jensen. It functions with the PlayStation Eye, a PlayStation 3 videocam peripheral that Jensen sees as Sony’s best chance to make their troubled console appeal to a casual game audience. Even if it ultimately doesn’t boost PS3 sales, enthusiasm over EyePet could encourage other developers to experiment with games using augmented reality — a technology futurists have been excited about for years, but consumers have been slow to embrace.

Free Realms
Now in beta, this is an MMORPG aimed at kids from Sony Online Entertainment, and “represents a new area both in terms of demographic and business model for SOE,” Cole said. That’s because Free Realms has a free-to-play, microtransaction revenue model, something major Western game publishers have previously been reluctant to introduce.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS
The enormously popular Nintendo DS generally skews to very young gamers or older consumers who enjoy Brain Training and the DS’s many other “eduplay” games. This game, by contrast, aims to expand these demographics to include the 18-34 hardcore gamer dudes who enjoy the GTA series. “It will be interesting to see the potential for this type of franchise on a platform like the DS,” Cole wrote me.

Killzone 2
Is the epic shooter and PS3 exclusive the last, best hope to revive Sony’s ailing console?

Washburn thinks so: “The console NEEDS a high-profile exclusive, a Halo-killer that will move consoles with its own release,” he told me via email. “And with 3 years of hype and anticipation behind it, Killzone 2 may well be that game.”

Lego Universe
Thor Jensen believes the upcoming MMORPG has the best chance to become the world’s most popular one. “The Danish toymakers at LEGO have crafted an online world centered around exploring and assembling the little plastic bricks that have a nostalgic foothold in pretty much every living human in the First World.” Considering the multigenerational appeal and name recognition of the product and the huge sales of Lego-themed computer games, yes, there’s a chance that Lego Universe, if well-executed, could become more popular than World of Warcraft.

Noby Noby Boy
A strange, nay, near indescribable game from the creator of the bizarre cult masterpiece Katamari Damacy, it’s a downloadable title for the PlayStation Network, and if it’s successful, Washburn foresees a renaissance for indie games, which usually earn far less significant profit margins than AAA mainstream games. “But if Noby Noby Boy proves to be both a gaming and a financial success,” he argued, “that could all slowly change.”

Scribblenauts
Developed for the Nintendo DS, Jensen described it as a traditional side-scrolling platform game that very cleverly incorporates the DS stylus control and word-recognition technology: write “ladder” on the touchscreen, for instance, and a realistic, usable ladder materializes in front of you. As he put it: “With a massive vocabulary (the game recognizes ‘Dialysis machine,’ for God’s sake), Scribblenauts looks set to capture a mix of gaming and creativity that so far has remained untouched.”

Wii Sports Resort
Sequel to the popular but modest Wii Sports, David Cole sees the follow-up as a consumer loyalty test for Wii’s many casual users. The first Wii Sports is generally sold bundled with the console, and a common industry belief is that it’s pretty much the only title many Wii owners buy. (Which partially explains some publishers’ reluctance to enthusiastically develop for Nintendo’s platform.) Sales of the follow-up, therefore, will gauge how accurate that assumption is.

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