I’ve been critical of President Obama’s attitude toward the industry in the past, so I have a responsibility to point out that the administration seems to be getting it. Last week, he announced the National STEM Video Game Challenge. It’s the latest in a line of very worthy programs that challenge young students with designing [...]
Archive for the ‘The biz’ Category
Dangerous Minds
Posted in Culture, serious games, The biz, tagged college, education, Obama, Stem challenge on September 26, 2010 | 8 Comments »
I’ll send an APB to the world
Posted in Marketing, The biz, tagged APB, Bakc to the Future, EA, Grand theft Auto, Lemmings, LittleBigPlanet, Mass Effect, Super Mario Brothers on July 12, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I quite often get official word of marketing campaigns for new and soon-to-be-released games. They’re second only to architectural trade stories in “things I’m most often pitched.”* Anyways, EA is taking a novel approach to promoting their supercops-and-unsavory-characters MMO, APB. They’re making one fan put his money where his mouth is, literally turning him into [...]
Love, marriage, and Kratos
Posted in Culture, Sony, The biz, tagged Bioshock, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, Kratos, Mass Effect 2, MLB 10: The Show, parenthood on March 22, 2010 | 2 Comments »
God of War 3 will have been out for a full week by the time I post this, and I still haven’t bought it. It’s a big change for me. I love that series. I picked up the first one early on the strength of Dave Jaffe’s development chops, and wasn’t disappointed. GoW2 was the [...]
Filling the Void
Posted in Marketing, Old school, The biz, tagged 8-bit, Capcom, Dark void, Playstation 3, retro, Xbox 360 on December 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Just like last year, this Christmas’ new games slate went lighter than planned, as quite a few high priority games’ release dates slipped into the first quarter of next year. Hardly anyone wants to delay a project release, especially when you consider how long the development cycle on current gen games can get. But sometimes [...]
There’s No Crying in Baseball?
Posted in Marketing, Sports games, The biz, tagged 2K games, 2k sports, baseball, EA Sports, Major League Baseball, MLB 09: The Show, MLB 2K9, RBI baseball, Triple Play on December 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you haven’t been reading Kotaku’s awesome weekend sports series, Stick Jockey, do yourself a favor and head over there immediately. These weekly thinkpieces are consistently fascinating, especially considering that 99% of the sports game coverage out there is a very paint-by-numbers affair. This week’s is no exception, as columnist Owen Good really shows his [...]
Business in the front, party in the… front
Posted in Culture, The biz, tagged Child's Play, First Party, PAX, Penny Arcade, polo shirts on November 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
While this year’s Black Friday sales numbers should be trickling in over the next few hours, I just had to point out First Party, the new clothes-for-professional-nerds venture from the Penny Arcade guys. They won’t win Cyber Monday or anything (thanks to teenage girls, anything that doesn’t involve vampires is at a huge disadvantage this [...]
“You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!”
Posted in Marketing, Sony, The biz, tagged Batman Arkham Asylum, Blu-ray, Dsitrict 9, God of War III, NHL 10 on October 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
It must be marketing week around here. Only a few hours after I hit “publish” on my developers-are-the-best-marketers post, Sony announced a completely on-target concept: including the God of War III demo on the District 9 Blu-Ray movie disc. I’ve seen a few fairly lame attempts to market games via home video, and vice versa. [...]
When the Lunatics NEED TO Run the Asylum
Posted in Marketing, The biz, tagged Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, Marketing, Modern Warfare 2 on October 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Industry Gamers ran an interview snippet (via MCV) that as a brand marketer, gamer, and marketer of game brands really caught my eye. In the runup to Modern Warfare 2‘s release, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling talks about how developers need to be as hands-on as possible with marketing their game. It makes complete [...]
Know your NPD’s: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Posted in Marketing, Microsoft, Sony, Sports games, The biz, tagged Batman Arkham Asylum, Madden 10, Microsoft, Nintendo, NPD Group, Playstation 3, Sony, Wii, Wii Fit, Xbox 360 on October 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The NPD Group’s US Video Game Report for September just hit my inbox last night, and it may be an early indicator of the exciting fourth quarter predicted by some pretty smart cats. We saw increases across most categories from September ’08′s numbers, but not enough to pull the year-on-year numbers out of their recession [...]
Wii’re going crazy and slashing prices
Posted in Marketing, Nintendo, The biz, tagged Balance board, christmas, holiday 2009, new super mario bros. wii, Nintendo, Wii, Wii Fit on September 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »
After Sony and Microsoft both announced hardware price cuts a few weeks ago, every podcast, analyst, fanboy, and even some Wall Street types focused on what Nintendo still had in its hand (other than some million dollar bills). As of this writing, a Wii price drop is finally, officially confirmed. And really, I think everyone [...]
