The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

[JonCole]

Since we're talking about Ouya here and I don't want to revive the month's dead Ouya thread, I'd just like to throw this out there:

 

http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?8264-The-OUYA-Tweet-a-thon-Part-3-Let-s-all-Participate

 

Yeah, this is just pitiful.

[Henroid]

  Quote

Patent troll haters, take heart: Reuters reports the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill explicitly designed to punish companies for abusive use of patents today, clearing the way for a similar bill to go before the Senate and potentially become law.

Bill H.R. 3309, a.k.a. the Innovation Act, was sponsored by Representative Robert Goodlatte (R-VA) in October and approved this week by the House, 325 to 91. Senate Judiciary Committee member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is bringing a similar bill before the Senate on December 17; if it passes the two bills will be gently edited and combined into new legistation that will hopefully provide clearer rules for distinguishing when a patent is applicable -- what counts as initial discovery, for example -- and require people filing patent abuse pleas to provide more information up front about specifics like what patents are being infringed and how, exactly, they're being infringed.

Small changes like that could hamper companies who try to abuse the system by buying up patents for the purpose of suing other companies for potential patent infringement, as when Treehouse Avatar Technologies tried to intimidate a number of smaller MMO developers into paying a licensing fee earlier this year.

This isn't the first anti-troll bill to make news in Washington -- there are a number of similar propositions languishing in Congress, including the "Stopping the Offensive Use of Patents (STOP) Act" proposed back in July -- but Reuters reports that Goodlatte and Leahy's bills are believed to have the best shot at actually being written into law.

These changes could also potentially hamper folks seeking reparations for legitimate patent infringement, as the Innovation Act affords more power to defendants in patent lawsuits and makes such lawsuits more difficult to initiate.

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/206391/Patent_troll_crackdown_measure_approved_by_House.php

[Henroid]

Video games by tangent: Penny Arcade is shutting down the PATV and PAR portions of their site at the end of the year.

 

I'll miss PATV for sure. PAR is another story. I'm not exactly Ben Kuchera's biggest fan. To put it mildly.

[TheLastBaron]

I liked him at Ars a lot, haven't read anything he's done since.

[Gormongous]

  On 12/7/2013 at 1:21 AM, Henroid said:

Video games by tangent: Penny Arcade is shutting down the PATV and PAR portions of their site at the end of the year.

 

I'll miss PATV for sure. PAR is another story. I'm not exactly Ben Kuchera's biggest fan. To put it mildly.

 

That's interesting. Since I'm not following the Penny Arcade network very closely anymore, can you tell me if they're giving a reason for shutting down the more outward-facing of their sites?

[Henroid]

  On 12/7/2013 at 1:35 AM, Gormongous said:

That's interesting. Since I'm not following the Penny Arcade network very closely anymore, can you tell me if they're giving a reason for shutting down the more outward-facing of their sites?

Jerry's post pretty much comes down to what he wants to do vs. what they did for the sake of doing it. Which is actually pretty understandable; just because a site can grow into a huge network doesn't mean it should. It'll demand more of the owners.

 

Some folks are suggesting this is related to the recent LinkedIn job posting they had, which I only now found out about in typical Henroid fashion, and wow I wouldn't be surprised.

[tegan]

I think it might be for that the best that the people who worked on PATV and PAR are being distanced, even forcibly, from the increasingly hostile face of PA. I know I'd go back to watching Checkpoint if it didn't mean visiting Penny Arcade.

[Henroid]

  On 12/7/2013 at 3:40 AM, tegan said:

I think it might be for that the best that the people who worked on PATV and PAR are being distanced, even forcibly, from the increasingly hostile face of PA. I know I'd go back to watching Checkpoint if it didn't mean visiting Penny Arcade.

That's something I can understand. I feel awkward being so attached to the PA forum community but getting increasingly fed up with Mike. I'll do anything for the former, but for the latter I'd rather not support them.

[Roderick]

It seems like a completely logical and human step, doing what you most want to do. It's easy to get lost in corporate planning. I did use PAR every now and then, so it'll be weird to have that go.

[Henroid]

So this showed up in Canadian Wal-Mart flyers today.

 

 

It's more Wal-Mart's error than anything but it's the shit that doesn't help Nintendo at all. Granted it could happen to any of them.

[SecretAsianMan]

As a bit of follow-up to PAR shutting down, Ben Kuchera is now the Senior Editor, Opinion at Polygon.

[jeremywc]

Well, he *IS* pretty damn good at sharing his opinions. :-P

[SilentBtAmazing]

I thought of this thread when feeling guilt and shame over getting screwed by micro transactions in NBA 2K14, just wanted to flag this Kotaku article which has it exactly right. I will say though: when it works NBA 2K14 is arguably the best sports Video game of all time. It is just pure gameplay mechanics bliss ... which gets ruined by unnecessary micro transaction -driven DRM bullshit.

http://kotaku.com/if-you-combined-battlefield-and-forzas-outrages-youd-1492456387

[Merus]

  On 1/2/2014 at 6:37 PM, SecretAsianMan said:

As a bit of follow-up to PAR shutting down, Ben Kuchera is now the Senior Editor, Opinion at Polygon.

 

I don't much care for Ben Kuchera's opinions and Polygon isn't really doing it for me any more. Can anyone suggest a good quality general gaming news site? I subscribe to RPS but it's niche.

[Justin Leego]

Giant Bomb has a pretty good reputation for games news, largely thanks to the work of Patrick "The Other Scoops" Klepeck.

Joystiq usually goes to the trouble of enclosing the relevant press release, vertabim, with each news post.

 

Would be interested in other Thumb's preferences too.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Blue's News, RPS, and twitter are where I get all my gaming news.

[Justin Leego]

Oh, I've been enjoying USgamer in the last year or so. Its own news items are further supplemented by a sidebar feed of selected picks usually taken from Eurogamer and VG247 if you're after a more comprehensive coverage.

[tegan]

I wish Nintendo would hurry up and release Pokémon Bank and Transporter already. This many eshop problems and indefinite scheduling are not inspiring a lot of hope in their first-ever paid subscription service.

[tegan]

Nintendo's considering a new business structure. I know they haven't been doing so hot lately, but this is the first time in a while where I've felt kind of legitimately worried for Nintendo.

[Bjorn]

Saw that news about Nintendo, they seriously failed to anticipate the reaction to the Wii U.  Revised anticipated sales down by something like 6 million.  I don't know what role they are playing anymore, other than delivering platforms for their own games.  They don't feel like a real competitor to Sony, MS or PC anymore, just this company off to the side that does their own thing.  But it would really weird to live in a world where I could buy Zelda for a PS4.  Not bad, but weird. 

[Sno]

It does sound pretty bad, it also sounds like they had some pretty ludicrous expectations of how well the Wii U would do over the holidays. (My understanding is that it actually sold comparably to the PS4 and the XBO over the holidays.) Nintendo talking about looking at the smart phone market is pretty unprecedented though, they've previously been completely insistent that it wasn't necessary and would in fact be bad for them. (I'd be inclined to agree.) I certainly don't believe smart phones will be the magical fix-all for Nintendo though, considering they've had a lot of frustrating blind spots that pose much bigger questions about who they'll be going forward.

[tegan]

  On 1/18/2014 at 1:35 AM, Bjorn said:

Saw that news about Nintendo, they seriously failed to anticipate the reaction to the Wii U.  Revised anticipated sales down by something like 6 million.  I don't know what role they are playing anymore, other than delivering platforms for their own games.  They don't feel like a real competitor to Sony, MS or PC anymore, just this company off to the side that does their own thing.  But it would really weird to live in a world where I could buy Zelda for a PS4.  Not bad, but weird. 

The 3DS was the best-selling console of the year, which is part of why this was kind of a shock.

[Frenetic Pony]

On the one hand I'm sad for Nintendo employees that their company is clearly mismanaged.

 

On the other I'm happy for myself and my prediction that Nintendo was about to stab itself in the liver with the Wii-U, a prediction made publicly on a Gamasutra blog several weeks before the Wii-U even came out. If I could give my past self a high five I would.

 

Now if they can just make a new portable, except with ultra modern high end components, you'd end up with a portable machine significantly more powerful than a 360/PS3. Add into the box a wireless HDMI stick to output the thing to your tv, and you get a portable triple A console. I'd estimate with a 20nm process, and DDR4 and etc. you could probably go 3-4x the respective CPU and GPU power, and sell it for $300-350. Kick ass! They're probably not smart enough to do so, but it's still a really cool concept.

[Gormongous]

  On 1/18/2014 at 2:42 AM, Frenetic Pony said:

Now if they can just make a new portable, except with ultra modern high end components, you'd end up with a portable machine significantly more powerful than a 360/PS3. Add into the box a wireless HDMI stick to output the thing to your tv, and you get a portable triple A console. I'd estimate with a 20nm process, and DDR4 and etc. you could probably go 3-4x the respective CPU and GPU power, and sell it for $300-350. Kick ass! They're probably not smart enough to do so, but it's still a really cool concept.

 

I'm not sure about the particulars, but I think Nintendo is probably strongest in the portable market, however much the last generation might lead everyone to believe otherwise. I mean, isn't the entire design of the Wii U a concession to that reality, since it's basically a (not terribly) portable system that has a traditional console "home base"?

[Sno]

The 3DS is doing extremely well by most measures, it is not the source of Nintendo's woes, but it's also not a market that is growing exponentially like the smart device space is.

A more powerful handheld is certainly not the answer, as evidenced by Sony's struggles.