Valve continues to have problems in the wake of Epic (and now Discord) giving developers more of the earnings pie, as the year draws to a close. Meanwhile, T.J. explains his gamertag.
This week’s episode includes the following news items:
Let us know what your favorite game of 2018 was.
Although PlayStation 3 is still third in worldwide sales, behind the Xbox 360 by about 5-million units, the PS3 community services now have as many online gamers as Xbox 360 says Sony. Sony posted on their blog saying, “with 14 million active accounts and 273 million pieces of content downloaded, we know that you’re thirsting for this digital entertainment.”
Although US sales of the 360 are killing the PS3, the community membership does give gamers a reason to get online with the PS3. Nobody wants to buy into a console that has very few active online games or an easy way to find friends (*cough* Wii). Having 14-million users helps them bridge the sales gap by building gamer confidence. Social networking is the new term; gamers want to socialize with each other online and with their consoles.
Microsoft recently announced their 14-million subscriber base and continue to update folks when they hit big milestones. The main difference, LIVE is a subscription system — those 14-million gamers are also paying for the service (we’re not sure if silver memberships count in that figure) and this means income for Microsoft while Sony does their service for free.
Although Microsoft is making money on their service, no doubt Sony will bypass their total membership because it has no cost barriers to play. The biggest cost barrier to get on Sony’s network is the PS3 itself and many gamers hold out for price drops which aren’t coming anytime soon (so says Sony). However, building a larger community on a free network allows Sony to siphon gamers to buy downloadable content, games, music, movies and all the goodies that go with these services.
It seems a better idea to triple your audience with a free service knowing a large amount of “hardcore gamers” attach themselves to the easy to buy content on said service. So, is it better to make US $50.00 a year on half the population or give triple that population an opportunity to spend more money on content?
“Thanks to all of you, PS3’s momentum is stronger than ever. There are nearly 17 million PS3 systems around the world, and in the United States, PS3 hardware sales are up nearly 100 percent from where we were at this time last year. Software sales have tripled from a year ago. Yes, we’re proud about everything we’ve accomplished, and we’re even more psyched about where we’re going with our holiday software lineup” (playstation.com)
Eventually gamers may have access to Sony’s Home project, which could raise the community figures and give Xbox 360 something less to brag about. Although, we’re sure Sony would rather be boasting “number one” console again, at least they’ve finally got a win on their side because 14-million users is only the beginning for them.
Plus, it’s hard to argue free.
It seems as if this is the third time, but SCEE has announced a new PSP design with eight different bundles being offered. This fall we should see the PSP-3000, which sounds much like a fake Acme cartoon toy, but it’s for reals.
This version will have a built-in microphone, a redesigned (brighter) LCD screen with out-of-the-box Skype abilities. The Swiss Army knife of hand-helds will keep the current outward design with inner tweaks and each bundle will cause 199 Euro.
Is the market really looking for a re-design with these features or is this Sony’s way of competing with “color DS lite” designs. Nintendo re-releases the same product with brighter colors a few years after its release while Sony seems to push a few new hardware features or enhancements.
The end result, DS still beats all expectations in unit sales month after month.
(Thanks, Kotaku)
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The news this week: Elon Musk’s estranged daughter weighs in on his pro gamer claims: ‘He was a Bronze Torbjörn main. He was fucking dogshit’, Palworld decides it wasn’t April fooling after all, is actually making a visual novel dating sim where you can, uh, ‘dismember and eat’ some of its cast, Death Stranding has crossed 20 million players since launch, If the Switch 2 stumbles, Nintendo has no Plan B, Final Fantasy 9 Anniversary celebration begins, Star Wars XCOM game on the way?, and Shuhei Yoshida believes Nier: Automata was a turning point in modern Japanese games.
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