Late last week, the Entertainment Consumers Association’s Facebook friends and members received a note from the ECA asking them to personalize and send this form letter to President Obama, outlining the merits of our hobby and urging him to stop saying “parents need to put away the videogames” anytime he addresses moderation for America’s youth: [...]
Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
the id and the ego
Posted in Culture, Old school, The biz, tagged adrian carmack, bethesda, DOOM, id software, john romero, PC games, zenimax on July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been meaning to write a reaction to last week’s sale of id Software to ZeniMax, but it’s honestly taken me this long to figure out how I felt about it, exactly. For anyone that was an avid gamer in the mid 90′s, id (and particularly the DOOM series) represented a very specific division between [...]
Why?
Posted in Culture, Indie games, tagged A life well wasted, Jason Rohrer, Passage, Robert Ashley on May 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »
If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, be sure and spend some time with Robert Ashley’s unbelievably good podcast, “A Life Well Wasted.” His third episode explores why it is we play games, with interviews from folks on the floor at this year’s Game Developers’ Conference. There’s also a fascinating in-depth piece on Jason Rohrer, [...]
Know Your NPD’s: Don’t Panic! Edition
Posted in Culture, The biz, tagged Easter, Grand Theft, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Halo Wars, Mario Kart, NPD Group, Pokemon, Resident Evil 5, Smash Bros Brawl, Wii Fit on April 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As has become the monthly norm around here, we’re diving into the latest NPD numbers and reading the tea leaves so you don’t have to! Liquid Architecture is not afraid to be servicey. The March report shows a 17% decline in overall sales from March of last year, which brings the total sales number for [...]
If it’s in the game… it’s in the game?
Posted in Culture, Marketing, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Sports games, The biz, tagged Jackie Robinson, Madden, Major League Baseball, MLB, MLB 09: The Show, MLB 2K9, Mother's Day, NBA Live, Pink Bats on April 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Today marked the 62nd anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historic first Major League Baseball game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Throughout the league, MLB teams honored Jackie in their own way, from a dedication at the new Citi Field to scholarship awards and Jumbotron retrospectives. And every single player in every game today wore #42, with no [...]
Wright left
Posted in Culture, Marketing, The biz, tagged EA, Electronic Arts, Maxis, Microsoft, Playstation, Sony, Spore, The Sims, Will Wright, Xbox on April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Following the always-timely Stephen Totilo’s Multiplayer Twitter feed, I caught the news just a couple minutes ago about Will Wright leaving EA Maxis to commit fully to his multimedia IP think tank, Stupid Fun Club. For the record, Totilo was seven minutes ahead of EA’s official Twitter. I’m not entirely surprised with the move. DRM [...]
Sony: the Industry’s Weird Art Collective?
Posted in Culture, Indie games, Marketing, Sony, The biz, tagged Damien Hirst, Flower, Gears of War, Grand Theft, Grand Theft Auto IV, GTAIV, Halo, Little B, Little Big Planet, Playstation 3, Resident Evil, Ridge Racer, Sony, Tekken, Wipeout on February 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »
As I’ve written before, Sony’s big draw for me (and many others) during the original Playstation era was the level of respect they had for the audience. Ridge Racer, Tekken, Wipeout, and the Resident Evil series all made their home debut on the system, and all elevated their respective genre to new heights. Sony marketed [...]
Investor calls and Twitter: two great tastes that go together!
Posted in Culture, Marketing, The biz, tagged EA, Electronic Arts, Harry Potter, investor relations, investors, Madden, Mirror's Edge, Rock Band, Twitter on February 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Earlier this week, EA held it’s quarterly call for investors, where they recap the previous quarter’s results and share their short- and long-term outlook for the future. These calls tend to be packed with juicy details on release dates, new IP, and what platforms the developers are focusing on for the future. They are also [...]
Bobby Kotick is a Shameless Knockoff of the Monopoly Guy
Posted in Culture, Marketing, The biz, tagged Activision, Ars Technica, Bobby Kotick, CEOs, Forbes, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Tony Hawk on January 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In case you missed it, this month’s issue of Forbes features none other than Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on the cover. It’s a weird, weird feeling to see a guy like Kotick on the cover of such a popular mainstream business mag. On the one hand, it’s a validation of how important the industry is [...]
“I got my first real six-string…”
Posted in Culture, Marketing, Sony, Sports games, The biz, tagged Dragonforce, Guitar Hero, MLB, MLB 09: The Show, Music Games, New York Yankees, Plays, Playstation 3, Rock Band, Sony, Xbox 360, Yankees on January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Fellow marketer and WordPresser Doug Meacham tied together some stirring evidence to back up a thought I’ve been chewing on for quite a while: popularity of music games will lead to greater interested in playing actual musical instruments. It makes perfect sense. While there were a few sky-is-falling critics of the genre early on, Guitar [...]
