The PS3 Song - how the community dominates

Great example of how the community will dominate your brand. This critique of Sony's refusal to listen re the PS3 has now scored more than 1million views and 7000+ comments on YouTube.



As noted on the Social Customer Manifesto (see recommended blogs)

Microsoft's knockout blow for online gaming

With the launch of the Playstation 3, and Sony finally attempting to integrate Playstation online games into a service equivalent to that of Microsoft's Xbox Live, the Bill Gates gaming squad has announced a major step with the introduction of Windows LIVE.

Put simply, PC gamers will now be able to compete with the six million members of Xbox Live, with cross platform compability via a simple interface and two membership options, one of which is free.

So the online gaming community will now become more integrated under the MS banner, with a huge number of Windows Vista machines now being able to talk to the 'PC in a console disguise'

It's a sign that Microsoft remain committed to the online service they launched with the original Xbox and see it as their biggest weapon against the new online services launched by Nintendo and Sony. Plus it now makes more sense for gamers to invest in Windows Vista PCs alongside their Xbox 360, and HD-DVD drives as all forms of home entertainment converge into one Microsoft entity.

See more discussion at http://thewayoftheweb.blogspot.com

Sony suffers viral disaster

(Excuse the lack of caps but due to my wrist injury, I’m trying not to strain my remaining good hand)

Sony has really scored an own goal with their new attempt at promoting the psp. Creating a fake blog was bad enough, but they've even accelerated into the car crash by doing it badly, and moderating comments in such an obvious way.

http://www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com/blog/

It’s all round the web.e.g.

http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/2006/12/sonys-latest-internet-lie-blog-goes.html

And in an era when bloggers will openly admit to receiving free gadgets for reviews, it's just so stupid.

The future has been delayed

You may recall a previous post here regarding Sony and the flagship racing game for the Playstation 3, Gran Tourismo.
The reasons it was so newsworthy was the concept that it would be released without the selection of 400 cars previous games had featured, and instead you could select which cars you wanted to buy.
Maybe it was a bit pre-emptive:

"November 30, 2006 - Sony and Polyphony Digital's experiment in download-based gaming has come to an early end. Sony announced today that it has cancelled the retail release of Gran Turismo HD in favor of a full-fledged Gran Turismo 5 product."

Excerpt taken from ign.com

There will be a free download of a Gran Tourismo HD demo of some sort, but any features considered worth keeping will be in GT5. It could be a sign that Sony has realised the effort it's taken for Microsoft to own online console gaming and transactions, or it could be a sign that despite the experience of develoeprs Polyphony Digital, they were being stretched just that bit too thin.

Either way, the fact the 5th installment is being describe as an "Online Car Life Simulator", rather than the "Real Driving Simulator" of previous games has been undermined somewhat by the arrival of Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360 a couple of months ago, which has already had two packs of extra cars available for sale at around £3-4 each.

I'm searching for figures, but indications still suggest that the market for add-ons for specific games only work for a very select number of very, very popular games, as most have faded by the time downloads are available. The big draw for the Xbox 360 is Xbox Live Arcade, with complete vintage arcade games and modern games which offer quick excitement for between £4-£10.

And fromt he feedback I've had, it seems like the 360 is scooping up the more hardcore online gamers, while the Nintendo Wii has the interest of those looking for something different. It remains to see how much of the mass market are still around and waiting when the PS3 finally arrives in the UK, and until then, all we have to guage excitement is a huge number of Chinese people paid to queue inf ront of Japanese department stores.

Yahoo goes shopping...

Yahoo has been on a multi-million spending spree, investing in MyBlogLog, a social netowrking site and tracking site for bloggers, and Bix, a site which lets anyone set up their own online content (see previous post on this blog HERE).
More on the buying spree, here.

And just to keep David happy here's Movidity.....who plan to launch movy.tv in January, allowing users to upload audio or video content, which gets converted in formats for most smartphones and PCs...but like the report writer, I'm not sure that a new start up will get people using the service, rather than waiting for youtube....unless an opportunistic Mobile operator gets involved, of course.

Race game with no cars and no place to race!

You may have heard that the new Gran Turismo game will be available in two versions. One comes with no 'content' ie no cars and no tracks. You buy these for micro payments and play rivals online. It's a great example of the money in MMRPG and the ease with which users can be converted to buy content via their mobile.
Pricing and more details: HERE