Video Games

'Negative Approach' is now 'Software, Interrupted'

You may have noticed that the name of this blog has changed from "Negative Approach" to "Software, Interrupted."

Why the change? First of all, Negative Approach is the name of a highly influential punk band from Detroit, and I was always going for a play on the name with the subtext that I was writing with a lot of cynicism, but most techies are not punk rockers, and the connection was pretty much always lost.

More importantly, this is about focus. The traffic that my blog receives is truly shocking, and I'm making a concerted … Read more

GameStop CEO: Amazon will fail at game trade-ins

Earlier this week, Amazon announced a new program for customers to trade in used video game titles in return for credit at Amazon.com.

This program should be able to work for Amazon thanks to their superior inventory and distribution system. Expanding into a realm such as used games is probably a relatively low-cost endeavor that should will squeak enough profit to be worth it.

Nonetheless, it didn't take long for GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo to call the program a failure in an interview with Edge:

"I give the probability of this working at zero," DeMatteo told … Read more

More popular games coming to a browser near you

Several announcements today further cemented the fact that the Web browser is the new game console.

"Quake Live" will enter public beta on February 24, offering players a stripped-down version of the full game. (Side note: interesting use of social-media tools Twitter and Facebook to promote the launch.)

Square Enix announced a deal to offer some of its games on Steam's Valve platform.The first Square Enix game to be available to Steam users will be the Unreal Engine 3-powered role-playing game, "The Last Remnant." It will release on Steam on April 9, days after … Read more

Widgetbox introduces integration with Confluence

Widgetbox is making its widgets compatible with Confluence, a business wiki product from Atlassian.

Widgetbox widgets "componentize" applications and Web sites, making them portable and transferable across any Web site. To date, the focus has been on consumers, but the integration with a clear enterprise business product like Confluence is a good step behind the firewall. The company also recently introduced Blidgets, which take any feed and turn it into a widget.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Confluence wiki and Atlassian's bug-tracking tool, Jira, they provide free versions to open-source projects and … Read more

The changing face of 'games-as-a-service'

Speaking at the Dice Summit in Las Vegas, Valve Software Chief Executive Gabe Newell provided some pearls of wisdom that are as applicable to gaming as they are to pretty much any kind of software.

Fundamentally, the Steam on-demand gaming platform is so successful because the service disintermediates middlemen and allows the platform developers to engage directly with customers. This strengthens not only the social networks but also the core platform.

Newell says the future will be "providing ongoing value." Once you start thinking from a service perspective, he continues, "It starts to help you understand the … Read more

Making money with "free-to-play" games

Free-to-play games are looking more and more like open source products as commercial entities behind the development and operations figure out ways in which to add value and monetize their user base.

In the open source world this typically consists of a split between "Community" and "Enterprise" versions of the products. For casual and free-to-play games, the split tends to be associated with some kind of premium offering or a payment mechanism like micro-transactions.

David Chang, Executive VP of Business Development and Marketing at online game publisher Gamescampus discusses the challenges of "free-to-play" in … Read more

Game sales buck the recession with 13% growth in January

While it's clear that nothing is truly recession-proof, video games are doing a heck of a job trying to buck the trend.

Market research firm NPD Group reported that software and hardware combined reached $1.33 billion in revenue for the month, a 13 percent jump over $1.18 billion in January 2008. Nintendo continues to dominate with Xbox 360 making a very impressive showing.

January Software Statistics: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 777K 2. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 415K 3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 292K 4. Left 4 Dead (Valve/EA, Xbox 360) - … Read more

World of Warcraft is the new Starbucks

An education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison education believes that MMOs like World of Warcraft (WoW) can help to produce better real-world citizens.

Professor Constance Steinkuehler outlined her views at a recent campus event.

With about 12 million people playing World of Warcraft alone, MMOGs have become a new "third place" like "Cheers," where everyone knows your name and all that, Steinkuehler said.

Players "hang out and engage with one another in informal social ways," she said. "Most people go for the game and stay for the people."

The "third-place&… Read more

Subscriptions driving MMO game revenue

Massively multiplayer online, or MMO, games are generating serious dollars these days and doing so in a way that suggests that revenue opportunities are still nascent.

Counter to what we see with console games, the bulk of the revenue appears to be coming from subscriptions. Generally speaking, subscription revenue for MMOs and MMPORGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) is better than license revenue for console games because it has a longer life span. Call it support, maintenance, or whatever you like, but a recurring revenue stream is what drives every software-as-a-service and open-source company.

GigaOm has reported on the Top 10 money-making MMOs of 2008 and the ways in which they all make money.

A few interesting points it makes:

The top MMOs all require a piece of software to be installed to the local machine Subscriptions and prepaid cards are clearly working well Microtransactions are picking up

Microsoft looks for Xbox love from the ladies

Microsoft recently started recruiting women to throw Xbox soirees as part of a branding effort to get women to start playing the Xbox, according to the Gannett news service.

They got an Xbox party pack of freebies that included microwaveable popcorn, Xbox trivia game "Scene It? Box Office Smash," an Xbox universal media remote control, a three-month subscription to Xbox Live, and 1,600 Xbox Live points (used for game, movie and TV show purchases).

I do think this is a great marketing strategy but as with all Microsoft marketing efforts it feels a bit off. Women have … Read more