AfterDawn.com

Limewire wants to share ad revenue with record labels

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:56:38 GMT

Limewire CEO George Searle has announced that the company hopes to share its ad revenue with record companies, with the record labels getting as much as 40 percent of the ad money.

Last year the P2P company said it was working on "integrating contextual text ads into its P2P client" and Searle tried to explain better. According to the CEO, "Limewire's 80 million users generate an estimated five billion search requests each month, putting the P2P client in the same league as search engine giants like Google and Yahoo. In fact, Limewire would be the third biggest search destination in terms of unique users, ahead of Live.com and Ask.com, if it was a website."

Limewire is definitely not a website though, and so far has not made one cent from its 5 billion searches. Searle hopes to change that now. "Limewire wants to incorporate contextual ads into its client within the next month. The ads will be at the top of the search results, but clearly marked as advertising. Ads will initially be used to promote Limwire's new music download store, but advertisers should be able to buy these spots soon as well."

Besides the new ad model, Limewire is also working on an interface redesign which will include a web browser.

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LG and Samsung want mobile DTV

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:52:24 GMT

Samsung and LG have announced that they plan to develop a new device that will allow for DTV on cellular devices.

"LG and Samsung are already world-class in digital TV and mobile communications. Through this collaboration, we also have an opportunity to lead the North American mobile DTV market," said Woo Paik, LG president and chief technology officer.

There were no details or specifications on the product presented and there was no word on which standard was chosen to either. LG said there would be more details revealed later this year.

The proposed mobile DTV system will use current digital TV broadcast bandwidth and will not require the broadcasters to invest in much equipment.

"We will step up our effort to provide a technology that will benefit both consumers and broadcasters," added Park Jong-woo, head of Samsung Electronics' digital media division.

The plan is to hopefully see a rapid adoption by the Advanced Television Systes Committee (ATSC) of a common standard. The ATSC is the organization that adopts voluntary standards for DTV systems and plans to adopt a mobile DTV standard for the U.S. market in 2009.

The year 2009 is important as well because American analog television will end and DTV will become required.

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Sony shows PS3 production costs are dropping

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:35:26 GMT

Sony has reported that the PlayStation 3 is seeing gradually declining production costs and growing popularity of the console has led to a strong improvement on the company's balance sheet. Sony also noted that the company shipped about 37 million game consoles and more than 267 million games during the year.

Sony's "PlayStation" unit posted a $1.2 billion USD loss for the year, an improvement from the $2.3 billion USD loss the division posted last fiscal year. According to Sony, the decrease was primarily thanks to PS3 hardware reductions and the increasing sales of PS3 software and accessories.

For the fiscal year, there were 7.24 million PS3 units sold, up from 5.63 million in fiscal 2006. The PSP was even more popular, selling 13.89 million devices for a total of 41 million PSPs to date.

PSP software sales declined but PS3 software sales made up the difference. Total game units were 267.4 million, compared to 261.5 million in fiscal 2006.

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Xbox 360 hits 10 million sold in the US

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:12:47 GMT

Microsoft has announced that it has moved over 10 million Xbox 360 consoles in the United States, being the first next gen console to hit that sales milestone in the States. Overall Microsoft has sold 19 million units worldwide to date.

The software giant also added that the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV has pushed Xbox Live memberships to over 12 million players worldwide.

IDC research manager Billy Pidgeon added that the service was "the largest community in the connected console games sector," and said it represented "the greatest growth opportunity in the console market."

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices VP Don Mattrick noted, "history has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry.

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Analyst predicts continued sales slump for Blu-ray in 2008

Wed, 14 May 2008 18:35:30 GMT

At last week's MEDIA-TECH Expo in Frankfurt, Germany, media analyst Richard Cooper of Screen Digest predicted that the struggling US economy will have a major impact on the growth of Blu-ray in 2008. During his presentation on the future of Blu-ray Cooper backed up his assertion with some interesting figures, largely from DVD sales, showing that US households have historically purchase more titles annually than those in Europe. Based in part on those figures he sees Blu-ray sales continuing to remain low during 2008.

As we reported last month, sales of Blu-ray players dropped significantly after the end of the so-called format war with HD DVD, and have yet to return to their January levels.

His presentation also included detailed analysis of the affect PS3 sales may have on the market. He pointed to a recent study showing use of the game console as a BD (Blu-ray Disc) player in the US increasing from the end of 2007 through the beginning of 2008 as good news for movie sales. Also of note, however, was the competition for consumer dollars between games and movies. Such competition could prove problematic for the Blu-ray industry as long as the game console dominates the player market.

Of course PS3 figures aren't quite as important in Europe where, as Cooper pointed out, the adoption rate for the console is much lower. He attributes this largely to its relatively high price. It will be interesting to see whether European prices change if the economy becomes a more significant factor in US sales over the course of this year - especially during the Christmas season.

It's also worth noting that if you were to combine major analysts' predictions over the last 2 years you'd find that both Blu-ray and HD DVD should have won and shut the other completely out of the market. Additionally the victory was predicted to occur at any of several points between 2006 and 2010. Such speculation is always based on educated guessing, especially where new technology is concerned.

You can find more information on the presentation at the the MEDIA-TECH Expo website.

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Circuit City challenges FCC authority for DTV related fines

Wed, 14 May 2008 14:59:04 GMT

Last month the FCC issued nearly $4 billion dollars in fines to various retailers across the US for failing to label TVs without digital tuners. The labels are required by a rule adopted last May requiring retailers to label TVs with only analog (NTSC) tuners as incompatible with digital television (DTV) broadcasts. Starting in February of next year such TVs will require a converter box to receive over the air broadcasts.

Yesterday Circuit City filed papers with the agency claiming their fines, which total $712,000, should be thrown out because the FCC doesn't have any jurisdiction to enforce the rule. The company also alleges the agency acted improperly by not asking for public comment prior to setting the policy.

According to the filing, "Circuit City made extensive and good faith efforts to comply with this unprecedented regulation despite lack of notice or baseline for compliance." It also goes on to complain that errors were made by regulators in assessing the fines.

Assuming the company's claims are rejected by FCC officials, which seems very likely, the next logical step would be a lawsuit to have the rule invalidated in federal court. This wouldn't be completely unprecedented either. In 2005 a federal appeals court struck down the controversial broadcast flag, saying the FCC overstepped their authority by regulating how a signal could be used after being received by consumers.

Although this case doesn't deal with the signals themselves, it seems legitimate to question whether the FCC has any jurisdiction over retail labelling, an area of law typically associated with the Federal Trade Commision (FTC).

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Finnish Pirate Party to be established - founder interviewed

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:45:19 GMT

Following the example of western neighbor Sweden, Finland is about to get their own Pirate Party. During 24th and 25th of May Finnish Pirate Party will hold their two day constitutive meeting. Rick Falkvinge, the founder and chairman of Swedish Piratpartiet, will deliver a speech as one of the guests.

After the meeting they will start gathering the 5 000 supporter cards necessary to officially register the party. The organizers said that there has been a lot of interest towards the party and they except plenty of attendees. Everyone attending has been asked to enroll to avoid organization problems.

Finnish Pirate Alliance has interviewed Matti Hiltunen, the founder of Finnish Pirate Party. Here are some quick snippets:

Hiltunen was satisfied how the building of the party has gone so far and claimed that Pirate Party and its ideas will definitely stand out. Hiltunen continued that he is not interested to follow his colleague Falkvinge for the chairman position. He calls himself more of a philosopher than a politician and would like to continue to contribute as a party secretary. The party is looking for active supporters all around Finland from all social classes and age groups.

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Nintendo launches WiiWare in Europe as well

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:55:49 GMT

WiiWare, which was launched in the US yesterday with six games, in Japan last month with nine games, is set to hit Europe on May 20th, with eight games, says Nintendo.

The games will be downloadable from the "WiiWare" section of the Wii Shop Channel and to purchase the games users will need to redeem Wii Points which can be bought online or at retail outlets.

There was no pricing details given but so far games have ranged from 500-1500 Wii Points ($5-15 USD).

According to the source, the European lineup will consist of the following eight games:

Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (Nintendo, Puzzle, 14 players, 3+ PEGI)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix, Simulation, 1 player, 7+)
LostWinds (Frontier, Platform Adventure, 12 players, 7+)
Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen Interactive, Action, 1-4 players, 3+)
Pop (Nnooo, Puzzle/Shooter, 1-4 players, 3+)
Star Soldier R (Hudson Soft, Shooter, 1 player, 7+)
Toki Tori (Two Tribes, Puzzle / Platform, 12 players, 3+)
TV Show King (Gameloft, Trivia, TV Quiz, 14 players, 3+)

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Wal-Mart carrying $298 Blu-ray players?

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:38:28 GMT

Take this with a grain of salt, but according to Blu-ray.com Wal-Mart has begun selling a $298 USD Blu-ray player in select stores, a price over $100 USD lower than current entry-level players.

The site says that the cheaper players are showing up on Wal-Mart store shelves under brand names such as Magnavox and Sylvania but that they are in reality coming from Japanese manufacturer Funai which has been rumored for months to be working on a low-cost Blu-ray player.

Funai is known mainly for manufacturing low cost electronics, which in turn pressures the industry to lower prices for their name brand electronics.

Not much is known about the new players but the site says it supports the Profile 1.1 BD standard.

More information as it becomes available.

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Circuit City moves toward serious consideration of buyout

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:34:39 GMT

The announcement earlier this year by Blockbuster that they were interested in buying the faltering Circuit City consumer electronics chain were largely greeted by skepticism over the video rental giant's ability to finance the $1 billion bid. But at least one major player, Hollywood Video founder Mark Wattles, is more optimistic about the deal's potential.

Wattles, whose Wattles Capital Management (WCM) holds more than 6% of Circuit City's stock, has a high opinion of Blockbuster's management. He told This Week In Consumer Electronics Ive competed against them and they have an exceptional employee hiring and training program. He also described Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes as an outstanding chief executive.

Last week Wattles reached an agreement with Circuit City executives that will give WCM a voice on the company's board of directors in exchange for supporting the board's other nominees, avoiding a very public fight that would almost certainly be damaging to the company, at least in the short term.

Meanwhile Blockbuster representatives are getting access to Circuit City's books in order to assess the company's value. Although this in no way guarantees a deal is iminent it does indicate a willingness to entertain serious offers, something Wattles had previously supported in a letter to the Circuit City board of directors.

At first glance it may seem odd that Blockbuster would be taking on the challenge of turning around a company like Circuit City in light of recent decisions to back away from attempts to unseat Netflix from their position as the undisputed leader in online video rental. After all, Circuit City's troubles have been largely tied to their own inability to compete with Best Buy in the consumer electronics market.

But a closer look at Blockbuster's recent move toward finding new brick and mortar outlets suggests a similar strategy that would allow Circuit City to immediately take advantage of an established DVD rental business. At the same time it would provide Blockbuster with strategic locations to expand beyond traditional rental operations and compete in the emerging kiosk-based video rental market.

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Libraries' video offerings on the rise but little interest for Blu-ray

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:15:12 GMT

Over the past few years public libraries in the US have steadily increased the number of titles offered in that format. Some of the nation's larger libraries have in excess of ten thousand titles available. Also on the rise is the availability of downloadable titles, which comprise a much smaller, but growing area of interest among library patrons. Despite all this interest in digital video, it appears that Blu-ray has yet to make an appearance on the shelves of most libraries, and in fact doesn't seem to figure into most institutions' short term plans.

The results of a survey conducted by Reed Business Information indicate that only 3% of public libraries currently stock high definition titles, compared to 33% already offering movie downloads.

If the responses from many libraries are an indication the key issue that still needs to be resolved is consumer confusion about Blu-ray, rather than an actual rejection of the technology. Several reportedly weren't even aware of Blu-ray's recent "victory" over HD DVD in the so-called format war. Most said there was simply no demand for high definition discs at this time.

Mary Getchell, communications director for the fourth largest library system in the state of Washington indicated that high definition discs are not on our radar at this time, despite enough interest in DVD and downloads to merit a budget of $585,700 for DVDs and $75,000 for downloads in 2008.

Although 80% of libraries surveyed said they expect to offer high definition discs in the future, only 5% indicated plans to make such a move within the next year.

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Nintendo launches WiiWare, six games available

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:45:17 GMT

Nintendo has announced the launch of the highly anticipated WiiWare and with it, the availability of six WiiWare titles.

The cheapest title available is the popular Internet flash game "Defend Your Castle" from XGen Studios which sells for 500 Wii Points ($5 USD). The most expensive game is "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King" from Square Enix which will sell for $15 USD. The other games available are Frontier Development's "LostWinds", Nnooo's "Pop", High Voltage Software's "V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack," and Gameloft's "TV Show King" which range from $7 to $10.

In its press release the company said that the release process for the new games would be the same as Wii Virtual Console games, which are released every Monday.

Back in February, Nintendo said in an interview that over 100 WiiWare games were currently in development.

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HBO may have its shows sell on iTunes for $1.99+

Tue, 13 May 2008 05:39:01 GMT

Although it has said for years that all digital downloads should have standard pricing, it seems Apple will finally acknowledge that not all TV shows are equal or will sell for the same price.

According to the NYTimes, the company will be selling some HBO shows on its iTunes platform for over its standard $1.99 price. The new deal may lead other premium media companies to ask for price changes for their digital content.

The deal is not official yet but could be announced as early as tomorrow, says a person close to the negotiations. The same person added that over time the complete series' Sex and the City and the The Sopranos will be added to the iTunes platform.

Representatives from both Apple and HBO declined to comment on the matter.

The HBO deal will also differ from Apple's current model with other content owners. Instead of having the episode hit iTunes the day after it airs, HBO episodes will be added to iTunes at the same time the retail DVDs of the seasons are released.

Some analysts feel Apple could simply be making an exception for HBO but if it isn't then the pricing model could come under scrutiny by other media companies when their contracts with Apple come up for renewal.

The big question is, will this start to trickle over to other areas of content?, asks Russ Crupnick, a senior industry analyst for the NPD Group. It could potentially have a huge impact on the music side.

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iPhone goes nonexclusive in Australia and India

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:36:32 GMT

SingTel has announced that is has inked a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines meaning that at least in two of those countries, the carrier will have to compete for iPhone sales.

Last week Vodafone made a similar announcement stating that it had signed an agreement to distribute the phone in 10 countries, including Australia, India and Italy. Later that day, Telecom Italia announced it was also selling the phone in Italy meaning Apple was moving away from its history of signing only exclusive deals with carriers.

It seems low sales in Europe and Asia have gotten Apple to rethink its model somewhat.

Although there was no word on when the carrier will begin selling the phone, they did say "SingTel Mobile will distribute the iPhone in Singapore, while the handset will be sold by Optus in Australia. Bharti Airtel and Globe Telecom will handle sales in India and the Philippines, respectively."

We will let you know when there is more insight into the availability of the phone.

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BioWare removes rolling DRM from upcoming games

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:12:23 GMT

Last week, PC game Mass Effect's producer Derek French confirmed that the game would have rolling DRM, meaning every 10 days you would need to activate the game again over the internet. If you couldn't, you would not be able to play the game.

According to a new Q&A on the company's official forums however, BioWare will be scrapping that type of DRM and giving gamers back their freedom to not phone home if they do not want to.

"BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them," says BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk in the post.

"To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us."

That "feedback" was of course, hostile reactions from every community that posted the news, including here at AfterDawn.

For the time being it seems Mass Effect gamers will only have to authenticate their game once (during original installation) and re-authentication will only be necessary to download extra content or official patches.

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