EA chief creative director Richard Hilleman has said the App Store payment model is "essentially in freefall", arguing that increasingly people want to pay for content "in-game versus out of the game."

Speaking to trade mag MCV, Hilleman shared some of the publisher's experiences from the digital marketplace, seemingly playing down the future of digital stores like Apple's.

"Our current experience is that the App Store model is essentially in freefall. That increasingly people in that context need to pay in-game versus out of the game," he told MCV.

"The good news is that our experience with DLC has been that if we do those strategies successfully, that we get payment rates that are far superior to almost everybody else in the online commerce space."

Apple moved last night to re-balance international prices on the App Store, with some territories seeing welcome price cuts while others - including the UK - saw the cost of apps increase.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...n-freefall-ea/ ...

VLC Media Player is a popular, useful, and free-as-in-beer piece of software. Unfortunately, its open source nature makes it easier for people with bad intentions to repackage it in nefarious ways. Not only do some of these folks claim that they're the originator of the software (a violation of trademark law and the license), but they often bundle it up with crapware and malware, which is a real dilemma for open source developers who play by the rules

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/07...o-Push-Malware ...

A nation of children break up for school holidays next week. And they are breaking away from games, too.

Disney and THQ warn that retailers and publishers won’t attract the next generation of gamers. Kids are switching off from consoles in favour of mobile, online and social games.

“For younger demographics, both the pricing and poor economy has had a major impact in delaying the adoption of next-gen platforms to a more mass market audience,” Matt Carroll, UK country director at Disney Interactive, told MCV as part of an investigation into the kids’ games market.

“Kinect and Move are welcome innovations, but they do not replace lower prices to drive penetration. The danger for the ‘traditional games industry’ is that younger consumers turn to new formats, above all mobile, as they feel these next-gen consoles remain out of reach.”

THQ says it now sees social and mobile games – not consoles – as key to reaching younger gamers.



“Facebook and iPhone is going to play a key part of our strategy moving forward. We want to use these new gameplay patterns to reach a broader market,” said Martin Good, EVP of the publisher’s Kids, Family and Casual Games division. “Kids are gravitating towards these platforms.”

Good said the once-trusted movie tie-in can no longer be trusted, either: “The days of ‘go see the movie, now go buy the game’ is limited. We are seeing people falling away from that category.”

The man behind the UK’s biggest online kids games property, Moshi Monsters, said that publishers need to switch their mindset to engage with this new generation of gamers.

“Games companies have decades of very valuable skills in creating characters and stories, they just need to switch their mindsets from a product-based mentality to one that is more service based,” said Mind Candy CEO Michael Acton Smith. “Almost all kids have access to a PC at home or school but buying consoles and games is a much harder thing for them to do.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/are-w...on-game/082266 ...

Online retailer Gameseek has warned other boxed game retailers that it’s too late to join the digital download market.

The website – which has been online since 2000 – scrapped its download service earlier this year due to low demand.

MD Stephen Staley told MCV that the success of established services such as Steam and Xbox Live means the digital window of opportunity has closed for physical retailers hoping to crack into that space.

“It’s too late for traditionally boxed game retailers to start thinking about a download service, as known services such as Steam and Xbox Live are way ahead,” he said. “The downloads only accounted to about 0.1 per cent of our business so it was not a big loss. However, we expected it to do better.”

Gameseek went live with game downloads in January 2008 in parnership with specialist online service Metaboli, before scrapping the offering this year.

“We tried to push the service but there just was not enough demand for downloading games. We receive a lot of traffic to our site so we thought it would have been more successful than it was, but the service never really took off.”

The news comes after a host of independent retailers – including ShopTo and Barkman Computers – told MCV they wanted to add downloadable games to their product range.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/its-t...wnloads/082272 ...

LulzSec gained instant notoriety by targeting the CIA, multi-nationals and government websites. Then, at the height of its popularity, it disbanded. One of its founders tells why

Its audacity was brazen and apparently fearless. Among its high-profile victims were Sony, the CIA, the FBI, the US Senate and even the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency. Exposing frailties in government and corporate networks, the group leaked hundreds of thousands of hacked passwords, and in the process garnered more than a quarter of a million followers on Twitter. But after just 50 days, on 25 June, LulzSec suddenly said it was disbanding.

Just hours before this announcement, the Guardian had published leaked internet chat logs revealing the inner workings of the group, which appeared to consist of six to eight members. The logs showed that authorities were often hot on their heels, and that after an attack on an FBI-affiliated website two hackers had quit LulzSec as they were "not up for the heat". As media attention mounted, Ryan Cleary, an Essex-based 19-year-old suspected of affiliation to LulzSec, was arrested in a joint UK-US "e-crime" investigation. Had the pressure simply got too much to handle?


'High-quality entertainment at your expense' . . . the LulzSec logo
To find out, the Guardian tracked down one of LulzSec's founding members, "Topiary". A key figure in the tight-knit group, he was revealed in the logs to have managed LulzSec's Twitter account and to have written their press releases. After verifying his identity by asking him to send a direct message from the account – "This is the captain of the Lulz Boat," he confirmed – we began a long conversation by Skype.

"I know people won't believe this, but we genuinely ended it [LulzSec] because it was classy," he says. "The leaks we promised happened . . . 50 days were reached, we just about hit 275,000 Twitter followers, things were on a high, so we redirected our fans to [hacker collective] Anonymous and [hacking movement] AntiSec and wrapped it up neatly . . . A high note, a classy ending, a big bang, then a sail into the distance."

LulzSec's jovial public image undoubtedly helped it achieve unusual popularity within a short time. Its stated aim was to provide "high-quality entertainment at your expense," and the word "Lulz" is itself internet slang for laughs. The group's popularity spiked after it planted a fake story on US news outlet PBS.com in protest over what it claimed was a misrepresentative WikiLeaks documentary made by the broadcaster. The story falsely reported that rapper Tupac Shakur, who was killed in a shooting 15 years ago, had been found alive and well in New Zealand.

"What we did was different from other hacking groups," says Topiary. "We had an active Twitter (controlled by me), cute cats in deface messages, and a generally playful, cartoon-like aura to our operations. We knew when to start, we knew when to stop, and most of all we knew how to have fun."

But the group's mission, Topiary explains, was not calculated. Almost everything LulzSec did – from choosing its name to its next target – happened spontaneously. "We made it up as we went along. We were originally @LulzLeaks on twitter, but I forgot the password so we became @LulzSec. My first name was The Lulz Train, then The Lulz Cannon, then The Lulz Boat. I had no idea what The Love Boat was, it was a complete accident . . . I wrote every press release in Notepad without planning. That's what made us unique, we just came out and made stuff up out of nowhere . . . We released when it felt right, we tweeted what felt right, we wrote what we felt needed to be wrote. We weren't burdened by plans or board meetings, we just did it."

The leaked chat logs also revealed the hackers appeared to revel in the international attention they received. However, Topiary says it wasn't that LulzSec was media-hungry, but that the media was LulzSec-hungry.

"We didn't contact a single media outlet for at least the first 40 days, they just kept reporting on our humble tweets," he says, though he admits the attention "gave us more reasons to leak more. It was a thrill, sure, and it did play a role. We enjoyed occasionally confusing and pranking media with weird tweets, or giving exclusives to certain journalists to piss off other certain journalists. It was another aspect of the situation that helped us leverage the entertainment."

Yet although many of LulzSec's attacks were perpetrated "for the lulz", the group was accused of attempted extortion by one US security company, Unveillance – a charge Topiary staunchly denies. It was also criticised after it hacked and dumped thousands of Sony Pictures Europe customers' usernames and passwords online, some of which were reportedly later used in scams by fraudsters. But Topiary is unapologetic.

"It's Sony's fault for not defending – and encrypting – its customers' data," he says. "Similarly, in a perfect world, we'd have dumped said data and nothing would have happened. These scams simply prove that other people (our fans/spectators) are more evil ...

THQ boss Brian Farrell expects the next hardware generation - "if there are consoles" - to be less centred on raw power and more focused on accessible services and user interfaces.

Speaking at GamesBeat 2011, the exec also said he thinks Apple and Google will be in the mix competing with established platform holders Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.

"We believe Apple is going to be there, Google is going to be there," he said, according to VentureBeat. "Our view is that the next generation of consoles, if there are consoles, are going to be less about technology and more about service orientation of the gamer."

Farrell suggested last October that the best strategic move for the industry is to extend the current hardware cycle with Move and Kinect. You look at the games coming out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 now and they look stunning," he said at the time. "Frankly, the last thing I think the industry needs now is new hardware."

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EA founder Trip Hawkins thinks developers need to focus on open platforms like the web browser if the industry is to emerge from what he describes as the "dark age".

Hawkins, now CEO of social gaming company Digital Chocolate, believes developers are too reliant on platform holders who "lure [them] in with false promises of freedom" and assume ownership of "the land that they are tilling".

Speaking at GamesBeat 2011 (via Gamasutra and VentureBeat), he said: "I think we actually had our golden age when game development was using floppy disks and it was an open free platform when we could all make games like we wanted to make. Nintendo came along and software licensing came in and we've been in a dark age since then.

"How many great companies have been built on the world-wide web, which is an open platform," he added. "The list just goes on and on, and Nintendo's been doing things this way for 25 years and there are no great companies that have been built on the back of Nintendo.

"There is no question that there is a war going to win the hearts and minds of the developers. They will decide which feudal lord wins or loses. The days of floating your boat on one platform are over. The question is, do you as a developer, own the dirt?"

Last year, Hawkins predicted the death of the traditional games console's dominance, forecasting that all future gaming will be cloud-based.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...the-dark-ages/ ...

Titles impacted by the move include Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360, Skate for PS3 and 360, Madden NFL 10 for PS3 and 360, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for PS3, 360, Wii and PSP. The full list can be found below.

"The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy," EA said in a statement. "But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles below a point - fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles - where it's feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running.

"We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games."

August 11, 2011 Online Service Shutdown
Army of Two for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Army of Two Demo for Xbox 360
Battlefield 2142 Demo for PC
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for Xbox 360
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Demo for Xbox 360
Medal of Honor Airborne for PlayStation Portable
Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii
NASCAR 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (North America)
NCAA Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360
Need for Speed Undercover for PlayStation Portable;
Skate for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
October 1, 2011 Online Service Shutdown
Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NHL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ultiple-games/ ...

In this brave new age of enlightenment, video games are getting a better rap than ever.

We haven't had slap a WRONG badge on anyone for months. (Well, except the Daily Mail. But if they stopped, surely the apocalypse wouldn't be far behind.)

Politicians, newspaper columnists, TV personalises - at last, they just seem to be 'getting it'.

... oh, wait. We didn't reckon on the rigid-cheeked co-hosts of NBC's Today Show, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb - nor their gesticulation-happy guest, Donny Deutsch.

Deutsch, author of a get-rich-quick book - The Big Idea: How to Make Your Entrepreneurial Dreams Come True, From the Aha Moment to Your First Million - was on the show last week to contribute to The Other View, the episode's relationship advice section.

The curiously frown-free Gifford and Kotb were sent a question by one of their 5 million viewers, Elizabeth, who asked: "What's up with men and video games? Do you think it's okay for men to play video games in their 30s and over?"

Gifford quickly replied: "No, that's weird... Xbox."

Deutsch, who has something of a history within the anti-gaming camp, added: "No. The answer's no... When you're in your thirties, there should be something more on your mind, your attention, than video games."

All three then agreed that playing games with your kids is fine, but, as Kotb put it (complete with prom-queen-eating-cockroach disgust): "But what about those guys... [I'm] talking about those weird ones in the basement."

The trio then held hands and sung Kumbaya - in a ritualistic scene far more surreal than anything you'll find in Deadly Premonition.

Now, according to ESA research, the average US gamer is 37 years old. That's a lot of basements.

Meanwhile, the most frequent game purchaser is 41 years old.

Even more exceptionally, 42 percent of all gamers are women - and females over the age of 18 represent a bigger segment of the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13 percent).

In addition, Gifford, 57, and Kotb, 46, will surely be thrilled to hear that 29 percent of Americans over the age of 50 play video games. There's time for you yet, ladies.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...in-a-basement/ ...