The Godfather II PC X360 PS3
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
The second game based on the classic Mafia films will incorporate both top-down strategy and Grand Theft Auto-style street-level action.
WarioWare: Snapped! DS
Release Date: Apr 5, 2009
WarioWare: Snapped! features several fast-paced mini-games and is available for download at the Nintendo DSi Shop
Elven Legacy PC
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Elven Legacy is a fantasy strategy game set in a world filled with elves, orcs, and magic.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena X360 PC PS3
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena takes Butcher Bay to the next generation, with additional single-player content and multiplayer action.
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor PC
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor is the second stand-alone expansion to the series featuring new campaigns, units, multiplayer modes, and maps.
Rhythm Heaven DS
Release Date: Apr 5, 2009
If you can snap your fingers in time to music, you're ready to play this simple but infectious rhythm game. Just tap your stylus on the touch screen to the beat of the music.
Ninja Blade X360
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Ninja Blade is an action adventure game set in modern day Tokyo.
Dragon Ball: Evolution PSP
Release Date: Apr 8, 2009
Dragon Ball: Evolution is a fighting game based on the live action movie of the same name.
Flock PC X360 PS3
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Take control of a UFO as you herd farm animals to its mothership through a variety of puzzle-filled interactive levels.
Hannah Montana: The Movie X360 WII PS3 DS
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Live the best of both worlds by taking on the role of Miley Stewart or Hannah Montana in Hannah Montana The Movie.
Hammerin' Hero PSP
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Hammerin' Hero is an old school beat 'em up game for the PSP featuring 2 player wireless play.
Helldorado PC
Release Date: Apr 9, 2009
Helldorado is a western themed tactical action-strategy game that starts off in a quiet town in the Southwestern desert. Its universe features a full cast of intriguing characters (both good and evil.) Players will be able to immerse themselves into several challenging missions that include bar room brawls, a great train heist, showdowns, a jailbreak, just to mention a few.
DCS: Black Shark PC
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Play through ten new single-player missions and two full campaigns in a combat helicopter--the Russian Ka-50 Black Shark.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus PSP PS2
Release Date: Apr 7, 2009
Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic PS3
Release Date: Apr 9, 2009
Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic is a fast-paced combat game featuring exaggerated ragdoll physics and high definition visual effects.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Star Ocean: The Last Hope for X-Box 360
As much as I wanted to say this game is fantastic and it is everything that I ever hoped Star Ocean: The Last Hope could be I can not. The rollercoaster of emotions that this “game” drug me through has got to be a first for me. The game started off slow, but quickly became a lot of fun, until the system-crashes began and then it was a whole different story.
Square-Enix has not had a very good track record with their JRPG releases for the Xbox 360, but this one was on the right track. The story alone was very intriguing, a celestial journey in search of habitable planets for a struggling human race, although, that story-line does not last very long and you are all of a sudden thrown into tangent after tangent which eventually becomes a save the universe tale.
I did however have a problem with the presentation of the story. The character's animations were far from polished and at times reminded me of the marionettes that children used to watch at parties. They were robotic and jerky in nature and the similarities to puppets do not end there. The expressionless faces, blank stares lacking emotion just waiting for their batteries to run out. Then there was the terrible voice-acting and writing that left much to be desired.
Not all of the voice acting is horrible, on the contraire, Arumat and Myurial’s voice-overs are quite well, it is all the other voicing that is devoid of character. On top of all this there is the undesirable writing that plagues my ears with the overuse of words like okay and more importantly "‘kay" (which is not even a word). Also, the long-winded cut-scenes that can last upwards of 45 minutes can be tiresome; luckily skipping past them is as fast as the press of the start button which brings you to a synopsis of the scene you skipped. Still, if you skip the cut-scenes you will miss some of the idiosyncrasies the scenes have to offer.
But, aside from the hit or miss voicing and writing follies, the battle-system is a real treat. Not your typical turn-based RPG, this game sets you in a small area in which to do real-time battle. All the characters have their own special abilities and attacks which can lead to beautiful chaos on the screen. And changing characters while in battle-mode can be done on the fly. (NOTE: Other sites explain that you can get through this game simply by pressing the “A” button, but trust me that is not the case. The game becomes quite a bit more challenging the further you get and there is a difficulty setting at the start of the game.) Boss battles tend to be quite hectic (some last over forty-five minutes) and switching out dead teammates for live ones will be a necessity.
In addition to the battle-system the adventuring can be enjoyable. Whether you are on the ground hunting for harvest and mining points or visiting different planets the questing is entertaining. I spent a lot of time grinding by simply running through areas killing monsters and harvesting materials (which can be used to make items)…but, there is something more discerning that must be addressed.
I wish I could have slapped an 8 on this review (because I thought it was that good) but I can’t. There is a fatal flaw in the “game” and that is the system crashes (Note: not all people are having this problem). How would you feel if your gaming time depended on how long it would take for your session to freeze? Playing from save point to save point, hoping, no… praying that the game will not freeze when you are two hours in and still have not found a place to save. Or, battling a boss that has taken 45 minutes and you think he is almost dead, only to have the game suddenly halt. Welcome to my world! I tried everything to stop the freezing, from downloading the game to the HDD to clearing the cache to switching Xboxes altogether but to no avail.
Plus, I thought that I could look past the freezing issues, maybe I can only run the game for less than four hours at a time. WRONG! I am about 30 hours into the game (on the second disc) and I am fighting some big bad bug. Yet, 35-45 minutes into the battle... tires screech to a grinding stop, my brain swells, eyes turn red, smoke spews from my ears as the death-grip on my controller begins to show stress fractures from sheer pressure. I played the same match six times with the same outcome, which means I can not progress the game any further. BROKEN!
So, understandably there are many people out there thoroughly enjoying this title and I am not one of them. Regrettably, I do not even want to score this “game” but I must. Because this game is broken with a bug that will not let me progress I have to give this game a 4 out of 10 and I think that is being lenient.
Square-Enix has not had a very good track record with their JRPG releases for the Xbox 360, but this one was on the right track. The story alone was very intriguing, a celestial journey in search of habitable planets for a struggling human race, although, that story-line does not last very long and you are all of a sudden thrown into tangent after tangent which eventually becomes a save the universe tale.
I did however have a problem with the presentation of the story. The character's animations were far from polished and at times reminded me of the marionettes that children used to watch at parties. They were robotic and jerky in nature and the similarities to puppets do not end there. The expressionless faces, blank stares lacking emotion just waiting for their batteries to run out. Then there was the terrible voice-acting and writing that left much to be desired.
Not all of the voice acting is horrible, on the contraire, Arumat and Myurial’s voice-overs are quite well, it is all the other voicing that is devoid of character. On top of all this there is the undesirable writing that plagues my ears with the overuse of words like okay and more importantly "‘kay" (which is not even a word). Also, the long-winded cut-scenes that can last upwards of 45 minutes can be tiresome; luckily skipping past them is as fast as the press of the start button which brings you to a synopsis of the scene you skipped. Still, if you skip the cut-scenes you will miss some of the idiosyncrasies the scenes have to offer.
But, aside from the hit or miss voicing and writing follies, the battle-system is a real treat. Not your typical turn-based RPG, this game sets you in a small area in which to do real-time battle. All the characters have their own special abilities and attacks which can lead to beautiful chaos on the screen. And changing characters while in battle-mode can be done on the fly. (NOTE: Other sites explain that you can get through this game simply by pressing the “A” button, but trust me that is not the case. The game becomes quite a bit more challenging the further you get and there is a difficulty setting at the start of the game.) Boss battles tend to be quite hectic (some last over forty-five minutes) and switching out dead teammates for live ones will be a necessity.
In addition to the battle-system the adventuring can be enjoyable. Whether you are on the ground hunting for harvest and mining points or visiting different planets the questing is entertaining. I spent a lot of time grinding by simply running through areas killing monsters and harvesting materials (which can be used to make items)…but, there is something more discerning that must be addressed.
I wish I could have slapped an 8 on this review (because I thought it was that good) but I can’t. There is a fatal flaw in the “game” and that is the system crashes (Note: not all people are having this problem). How would you feel if your gaming time depended on how long it would take for your session to freeze? Playing from save point to save point, hoping, no… praying that the game will not freeze when you are two hours in and still have not found a place to save. Or, battling a boss that has taken 45 minutes and you think he is almost dead, only to have the game suddenly halt. Welcome to my world! I tried everything to stop the freezing, from downloading the game to the HDD to clearing the cache to switching Xboxes altogether but to no avail.
Plus, I thought that I could look past the freezing issues, maybe I can only run the game for less than four hours at a time. WRONG! I am about 30 hours into the game (on the second disc) and I am fighting some big bad bug. Yet, 35-45 minutes into the battle... tires screech to a grinding stop, my brain swells, eyes turn red, smoke spews from my ears as the death-grip on my controller begins to show stress fractures from sheer pressure. I played the same match six times with the same outcome, which means I can not progress the game any further. BROKEN!
So, understandably there are many people out there thoroughly enjoying this title and I am not one of them. Regrettably, I do not even want to score this “game” but I must. Because this game is broken with a bug that will not let me progress I have to give this game a 4 out of 10 and I think that is being lenient.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for Nintendo DS
At first glance Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars looks like a “dumbed-down” GTA game for the DS. This is far from the truth. The top down perspective will remind you of Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2, but there is one key difference between those titles and Chinatown Wars is the fact that almost everything in the game is 3D like buildings, cars and other miscellaneous objects in the environment. Rockstar has done something that not many other developers have; they have bested Nintendo on their own turf.
Chinatown Wars is easily the best-looking DS game to date. The art style makes it feel like a Grand Theft Auto graphic novel or a cartoon movie based on GTA. Not only is it impressive graphically, but there is also a lot going on in the city. For instance, you have the same amount of traffic and pedestrians on the streets that you would expect from a console GTA game. Chinatown Wars takes advantage of the DS hardware and appears to get more out of it than any Nintendo game on the platform.
Rockstar did not give DS owners a “dumbed-down” story either. The story is just what you would expect from a GTA game, which can be good or bad depending on your opinion of GTA story lines. The main character of Chinatown Wars is Huang Lee, a member of the Hong Kong Triad. He comes to Liberty City to bring his Uncle the sword Yu Jian, a family heirloom. Things go bad for Huang, he is ambushed, the sword is stolen and he is left to die, which starts the game.
Also, this is the start of Rockstar’s fantastic use of the DS touch screen. Huang is trapped, he is in a car that was driven into the water and to escape you tap the back window with your stylus to break it and swim to the surface. This little “mini-game” will be triggered each time you drive into the water. The touch screen is also used in other instances such as filling bottles with gasoline to make a Molotov cocktail. Rockstar knew what they were doing here. None of the touch screen elements feels forced. It has the perfect mix of touch screen mechanics and traditional buttons + D-pad game play.
One of the features of Chinatown Wars is a drug dealing mini-game. However, it is not as bad as it sounds. The drug deal is similar to trading stocks except instead of shares of a company you are trading weed and acid. Okay, so maybe that is not a good comparison, but that is all I got. You buy drugs from dealers at low prices (if you are smart) and then sell it back to other dealers in order to make a profit. The game also sends you emails via your PDA, complete with graphs that show how profitable your drug trading has been. It adds something new to the franchise and it is a good way to make money in the game. Because let’s face it, driving people around in taxis to make extra cash isn’t fun.
Chinatown Wars is a great Grand Theft Auto game. The transition from console to handheld is nearly perfect and the “sandbox” style game-play is left intact, although the game pushes you to a more structured path for the story. If you only have a DS and want a well-made mature game then this is something you have to pick up. Nevertheless, even if you have a next-gen console and GTA IV, this is still something to check out. It is a fantastic game in its own right that pushes the DS hardware farther than I thought possible. Hopefully Chinatown Wars is a success and we’ll see more efforts in the future to appeal to the core gamer on Nintendo’s handheld. 9/10
Chinatown Wars is easily the best-looking DS game to date. The art style makes it feel like a Grand Theft Auto graphic novel or a cartoon movie based on GTA. Not only is it impressive graphically, but there is also a lot going on in the city. For instance, you have the same amount of traffic and pedestrians on the streets that you would expect from a console GTA game. Chinatown Wars takes advantage of the DS hardware and appears to get more out of it than any Nintendo game on the platform.
Rockstar did not give DS owners a “dumbed-down” story either. The story is just what you would expect from a GTA game, which can be good or bad depending on your opinion of GTA story lines. The main character of Chinatown Wars is Huang Lee, a member of the Hong Kong Triad. He comes to Liberty City to bring his Uncle the sword Yu Jian, a family heirloom. Things go bad for Huang, he is ambushed, the sword is stolen and he is left to die, which starts the game.
Also, this is the start of Rockstar’s fantastic use of the DS touch screen. Huang is trapped, he is in a car that was driven into the water and to escape you tap the back window with your stylus to break it and swim to the surface. This little “mini-game” will be triggered each time you drive into the water. The touch screen is also used in other instances such as filling bottles with gasoline to make a Molotov cocktail. Rockstar knew what they were doing here. None of the touch screen elements feels forced. It has the perfect mix of touch screen mechanics and traditional buttons + D-pad game play.
One of the features of Chinatown Wars is a drug dealing mini-game. However, it is not as bad as it sounds. The drug deal is similar to trading stocks except instead of shares of a company you are trading weed and acid. Okay, so maybe that is not a good comparison, but that is all I got. You buy drugs from dealers at low prices (if you are smart) and then sell it back to other dealers in order to make a profit. The game also sends you emails via your PDA, complete with graphs that show how profitable your drug trading has been. It adds something new to the franchise and it is a good way to make money in the game. Because let’s face it, driving people around in taxis to make extra cash isn’t fun.
Chinatown Wars is a great Grand Theft Auto game. The transition from console to handheld is nearly perfect and the “sandbox” style game-play is left intact, although the game pushes you to a more structured path for the story. If you only have a DS and want a well-made mature game then this is something you have to pick up. Nevertheless, even if you have a next-gen console and GTA IV, this is still something to check out. It is a fantastic game in its own right that pushes the DS hardware farther than I thought possible. Hopefully Chinatown Wars is a success and we’ll see more efforts in the future to appeal to the core gamer on Nintendo’s handheld. 9/10
Wii Fit a major hit?
Nintendo's forthcoming Wii Fit title for the Wii game console is was an odd thing to showcase at the Electronics Entertainment Expo of 2007. While the software and hardware package due include games, it is not really a game in the traditional sense, but a tool that one uses to lose weight, while "hopefully" having fun at the same time.
Nintendo has over a year of development behind the title, and an additional year of development around the balance board they introduced with the system.
If we make a large assumption that the Wii Fit title is indeed fun, and it helps people to lose weight. Nintendo could stand to make an unbelievable fortune.
Almost since the adoption of the VCR have people purchased work-out video after work-out video to try and find inspiration to get-up and exercise in front of the TV. Not only has this been a lucrative business for the companies that produce these videos, but it has been a stable business as well, since there are now entire cable channels devoted to getting fit.
Add to that the market value of exercise equipment that people purchase in the home, from ab-rollers, to fitness flyers, to bowflex workout systems. And the market potential for a "fun" workout device is immense. Huge.
Take something as simple as the George Foreman Grill. The catch-phrase being, "Knock Out the Fat" and imagine how many grills the company sold from inception to today. It wasn't because it was a grill. There have been electric grills since the dawn of electricity. It was the potential to lose weight that drove sales of the grills to preposterous heights.
The Wii could very-well exceed the sales of all of this fitness and health based equipment and then some. And be able to hold their market position against all outsiders for an extended period of time.
I see this happening because, first, Shigeru Miyamoto is the man behind the title. While he has had a few less-than-stellar titles under his belt, the vast majority have been nothing short of A list. If anyone can make working out "fun" it is this man. Add to that his comments about building it for his family, and you know this is more than just an assignment given to him by the Nintendo brass, and something he honestly is working towards as a fun way to exercise.
Few outside companies will be able to compete with that. They'd have to offer their own high-tech way of making exercising fun, and after decades of trying, have largely failed. Nintendo will have the cheapest and best form of workout equipment available, hands down.
Plus, the Wii Fit can (Supposedly at press time) support more than one player. Instantly creating a more diverse form of entertainment by making exercising co-operative and competitive. Anyone can join the routine at any time and start participating and having fun at the same time.
Kids won't understand it, but adults will love it. Primarily the female workout club circuit ones that head to the gym in sweatpants with a water bottle.
The overseas market potential is even larger and more dramatic. As countries in Europe and South America are much more in-tune to their health and group participation in games will only bolster sales of the Wii further where it stands to dominate this generation without much in the way of competition.
I fully expect to see giant televisions in health clubs with Wii Fit stations setup for people to use and exercise to. I expect to see groups of people forming Wii Fit schedules to do their workouts together. And I expect Nintendo will follow up with online stat tracking and even competitive workouts over the Internet through Wii Fit improvements.
If the title becomes as huge as I expect it to be, there will be additional exercise packs that follow with more tuned exercises and different attachments for different types of workouts. Eventually taking your old exercise equipment and adding it into your Wii Fit experience.
Wii Fit could just be a couple hundred thousand sold title and vanish into the nether with a passing thought like the Power Glove or Rob the Robot. And that won't hardly matter to Nintendo who stands to clean up nicely on the next Mario Kart title and Pokemon. But if Wii Fit is the success that I predict it to be, than Nintendo will make a financial killing. An amount of money so great that the face of the gaming industry would completely change to a Nintendo dominated future.
Get your mind around how much exercise, diet, and healthy cooking materials there are in the world, and imagine a product that the critics love, people proclaim as truly revolutionary, and everyone can own for a reasonable price in the home. Like it or not, I think this will happen, and I think Nintendo stands to reap an amazing amount of revenue once it does. They could very-well change the face of the fitness industry.
Nintendo has over a year of development behind the title, and an additional year of development around the balance board they introduced with the system.
If we make a large assumption that the Wii Fit title is indeed fun, and it helps people to lose weight. Nintendo could stand to make an unbelievable fortune.
Almost since the adoption of the VCR have people purchased work-out video after work-out video to try and find inspiration to get-up and exercise in front of the TV. Not only has this been a lucrative business for the companies that produce these videos, but it has been a stable business as well, since there are now entire cable channels devoted to getting fit.
Add to that the market value of exercise equipment that people purchase in the home, from ab-rollers, to fitness flyers, to bowflex workout systems. And the market potential for a "fun" workout device is immense. Huge.
Take something as simple as the George Foreman Grill. The catch-phrase being, "Knock Out the Fat" and imagine how many grills the company sold from inception to today. It wasn't because it was a grill. There have been electric grills since the dawn of electricity. It was the potential to lose weight that drove sales of the grills to preposterous heights.
The Wii could very-well exceed the sales of all of this fitness and health based equipment and then some. And be able to hold their market position against all outsiders for an extended period of time.
I see this happening because, first, Shigeru Miyamoto is the man behind the title. While he has had a few less-than-stellar titles under his belt, the vast majority have been nothing short of A list. If anyone can make working out "fun" it is this man. Add to that his comments about building it for his family, and you know this is more than just an assignment given to him by the Nintendo brass, and something he honestly is working towards as a fun way to exercise.
Few outside companies will be able to compete with that. They'd have to offer their own high-tech way of making exercising fun, and after decades of trying, have largely failed. Nintendo will have the cheapest and best form of workout equipment available, hands down.
Plus, the Wii Fit can (Supposedly at press time) support more than one player. Instantly creating a more diverse form of entertainment by making exercising co-operative and competitive. Anyone can join the routine at any time and start participating and having fun at the same time.
Kids won't understand it, but adults will love it. Primarily the female workout club circuit ones that head to the gym in sweatpants with a water bottle.
The overseas market potential is even larger and more dramatic. As countries in Europe and South America are much more in-tune to their health and group participation in games will only bolster sales of the Wii further where it stands to dominate this generation without much in the way of competition.
I fully expect to see giant televisions in health clubs with Wii Fit stations setup for people to use and exercise to. I expect to see groups of people forming Wii Fit schedules to do their workouts together. And I expect Nintendo will follow up with online stat tracking and even competitive workouts over the Internet through Wii Fit improvements.
If the title becomes as huge as I expect it to be, there will be additional exercise packs that follow with more tuned exercises and different attachments for different types of workouts. Eventually taking your old exercise equipment and adding it into your Wii Fit experience.
Wii Fit could just be a couple hundred thousand sold title and vanish into the nether with a passing thought like the Power Glove or Rob the Robot. And that won't hardly matter to Nintendo who stands to clean up nicely on the next Mario Kart title and Pokemon. But if Wii Fit is the success that I predict it to be, than Nintendo will make a financial killing. An amount of money so great that the face of the gaming industry would completely change to a Nintendo dominated future.
Get your mind around how much exercise, diet, and healthy cooking materials there are in the world, and imagine a product that the critics love, people proclaim as truly revolutionary, and everyone can own for a reasonable price in the home. Like it or not, I think this will happen, and I think Nintendo stands to reap an amazing amount of revenue once it does. They could very-well change the face of the fitness industry.
Sony's Gamble
Sony’s gamble to put Blu-Ray into the PS3 was a risky one. When Sony’s other product lines have done poorly, the gaming division was there to produce enough profits to keep the stock holders happy. However, the PS3’s final design was so expensive that Sony was having a hard time justifying selling it at all. They didn’t have much choice though. Microsoft was already in the market with a game console of similar power and Sony risked losing the next generation race entirely if they launched any later than they had. Even still, it took them a full year to launch after the Xbox 360. Traditionally, a console will be more advanced by a year due to the way technology becomes better year on year. But in Sony’s case the PS3 wasn’t delayed because of a need in new hardware, but that the hardware that they had chosen hadn’t been finalized yet. Specifically Blu-Ray, which hadn’t been finalized by the Blu-Ray Group, and CELL which was not being produced in sufficient quantities to make it affordable enough to sell.
This meant launching an expensive game console with similar performance to one that was much cheaper to produce. Sony had to close the gap with Microsoft by taking heavy losses on each PS3 sold. While no one knows the true numbers, the figures that Sony released in March of 2007 said that the PS3 Manufacturing had given them a loss of 2 billion dollars. As technology has become cheaper, the month to month loss has shrunk, and Sony hopes to start profiting on the hardware sometime in fiscal 2008. It’s safe to assume though that Sony has lost somewhere between 2 and 3 billion on PS3 hardware alone.
Any investor will tell you that a loss of this size will be very difficult for a company to make up. Especially one in last place against well entrenched consoles. You would have to sell a massive amount of games to make up the losses. While certainly possible if Sony is expected to sell 120 million units of the PS3 over its lifetime like the PlayStation 2 sold. It comes into question if they’ll be able to do that now with such stiff competition from Nintendo and Microsoft.
Sony’s management knew that going into this. They knew the PS3 would take huge losses. They’ve gone to great lengths to keep the game division running and pushing the PS3 out the door regardless of the cost. They sold off their CELL chip manufacturing division to Toshiba (Their enemy in the High Definition Disc war) to regain profit and stop the massive losses their hardware divisions continue to take. And they’ve worked with Nichia to cut costs on the violet (blue) lasers for the Blu-Ray players and the PS3. Finally, after taking a terrible beating in sales, they reworked the PS3 to strip out any pieces they could (Backwards Compatibility, Memory Card Reader, USB Ports, etc) to get the console into more people’s hands and sell it at an attractive price in comparison to Microsoft and Nintendo’s offerings.
In many ways Sony’s manufacturing had given them a lot of bad luck in trying to keep prices down. But they were not alone here as Microsoft had their own string of bad luck that gave Sony some breathing room. Because Microsoft had rushed out the door with the Xbox 360, the manufacturing process had been subpar at best. A massive 1 billion dollar write-off came to the Microsoft games division to cover the expensive of warranty repairs and expanded warranties for three years on all 360’s sold. This added replacement and repair cost was now part of the profit and loss cycle of Microsoft’s games division, and in order to make a profit, the company would have to slow down their ability to cut their own prices and make the 360 more attractive to buyers.
To look at it another way. Had the warranty repair issues not happened, and Microsoft followed a similar price reduction as the PS3. The Xbox 360 Pro edition would be selling for $250 today. Unfortunately the system is still close to its original launch price of $399. With only a mild $50 price cut in two years of sales. Microsoft chose to go for profit rather than market share, and that gave Sony a chance to get the PS3 out of last place.
Sony’s management isn’t trying to win the console war for this generation. They never have been. Had they really wanted to win this thing, they would have dropped Blu-Ray and launched the PS3 earlier and much cheaper. That would have seriously crushed Microsoft’s attempts at gaining market share over Sony, and possibly derailed Nintendo’s impressive adoption numbers for the Wii. But that was not to be. Sony figured they could forgo the console war, the PlayStation 3 losses, and lack of profits, if they could get Blu-Ray to become the new High Definition Disc standard among movie watchers.
There is far more money to be made in licensing Blu-Ray technology than there is in winning a console war. The markets aren’t even close. If the PlayStation 2 sold 120 million units in its lifetime, the DVD player has sold well over a billion units in almost the same amount of time. Every DVD player sold today has an added fee strapped to it that goes to the creators of the DVD. (Most notably Philips) And Sony has always wanted a piece of that money. Think of it this way. If Sony received $10 for every Blu-Ray player sold, and they manage to sell 1 billion Blu-Ray players worldwide, they’ll have made 10 billion dollars. The losses from the PS3 are inconsequential when looked at from those numbers. And that’s not including the profits made from the sale of each disc, Computer attachments and Discs and the future growth potential of the same technology that they’d also get a piece of. The amount of money involved could easily reach into the hundreds of billions over the lifetime of the format.
The PlayStation 3 being the sacrificial lamb for greater profit and strength. As it turns out, Sony’s gamble appears to have paid off. Blu-Ray is all but assured to be the new High Definition format. With that, the interest in the PS3 will only increase as more homes look for a way to adopt a High Definition disc player and choose the PS3 to be that device. Blu-Ray’s added cost will now be PlayStation’s added benefit. The marketshare lost will be gained back, primarily because Microsoft failed to aggressively lower their prices as much as Sony had, and didn’t have the taste to keep losing money with the same expectations towards profit that Sony could realize. It would take the 360 a lot longer to make their lost money back, because they don’t have a licensed technology like Blu-Ray to make up for the losses. They had to draw the line, and that allowed Sony to catch up and they’ll soon surpass Microsoft’s console in sales unless Microsoft has an ace up their sleeve.
That’s always possible. However, removing speculation, what we do know is that Sony’s apparent game line-up is stronger for 2008 than Microsoft’s. Blu-Ray has established itself as the next generation format of choice. And Sony’s aggressive price reductions have made the PS3 very competitive for the consumer to choose when comparing systems. Their only missing piece has been a spartan library of good titles, and a lack of system software that compares with Xbox Live. For most consumers, however, that won’t be persuasion enough to ignore it. Most people will see the PlayStation name and choose it based on the past two generations of quality gaming they had with the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2. That market will be enough to catapult the PS3 into a second place position by 2009.
The end has not been written yet. Sony is still in last place as of this writing. And Nintendo appears to be unstoppable in the #1 position. And Microsoft may yet choose to aggressively lower their console’s price. All of which could impact Sony’s ability to reclaim their former glory. However, it appears that a bit of luck, a lot of financial loss, and an ability to make it work regardless of what the nay-sayers have shouted has allowed Sony to persevere. Whether or not the PS3 manages to become the #1 game console in units sold or overall profit matters not. At the end of the day, Blu-Ray has won. And so too has Sony’s gamble on the PS3.
This meant launching an expensive game console with similar performance to one that was much cheaper to produce. Sony had to close the gap with Microsoft by taking heavy losses on each PS3 sold. While no one knows the true numbers, the figures that Sony released in March of 2007 said that the PS3 Manufacturing had given them a loss of 2 billion dollars. As technology has become cheaper, the month to month loss has shrunk, and Sony hopes to start profiting on the hardware sometime in fiscal 2008. It’s safe to assume though that Sony has lost somewhere between 2 and 3 billion on PS3 hardware alone.
Any investor will tell you that a loss of this size will be very difficult for a company to make up. Especially one in last place against well entrenched consoles. You would have to sell a massive amount of games to make up the losses. While certainly possible if Sony is expected to sell 120 million units of the PS3 over its lifetime like the PlayStation 2 sold. It comes into question if they’ll be able to do that now with such stiff competition from Nintendo and Microsoft.
Sony’s management knew that going into this. They knew the PS3 would take huge losses. They’ve gone to great lengths to keep the game division running and pushing the PS3 out the door regardless of the cost. They sold off their CELL chip manufacturing division to Toshiba (Their enemy in the High Definition Disc war) to regain profit and stop the massive losses their hardware divisions continue to take. And they’ve worked with Nichia to cut costs on the violet (blue) lasers for the Blu-Ray players and the PS3. Finally, after taking a terrible beating in sales, they reworked the PS3 to strip out any pieces they could (Backwards Compatibility, Memory Card Reader, USB Ports, etc) to get the console into more people’s hands and sell it at an attractive price in comparison to Microsoft and Nintendo’s offerings.
In many ways Sony’s manufacturing had given them a lot of bad luck in trying to keep prices down. But they were not alone here as Microsoft had their own string of bad luck that gave Sony some breathing room. Because Microsoft had rushed out the door with the Xbox 360, the manufacturing process had been subpar at best. A massive 1 billion dollar write-off came to the Microsoft games division to cover the expensive of warranty repairs and expanded warranties for three years on all 360’s sold. This added replacement and repair cost was now part of the profit and loss cycle of Microsoft’s games division, and in order to make a profit, the company would have to slow down their ability to cut their own prices and make the 360 more attractive to buyers.
To look at it another way. Had the warranty repair issues not happened, and Microsoft followed a similar price reduction as the PS3. The Xbox 360 Pro edition would be selling for $250 today. Unfortunately the system is still close to its original launch price of $399. With only a mild $50 price cut in two years of sales. Microsoft chose to go for profit rather than market share, and that gave Sony a chance to get the PS3 out of last place.
Sony’s management isn’t trying to win the console war for this generation. They never have been. Had they really wanted to win this thing, they would have dropped Blu-Ray and launched the PS3 earlier and much cheaper. That would have seriously crushed Microsoft’s attempts at gaining market share over Sony, and possibly derailed Nintendo’s impressive adoption numbers for the Wii. But that was not to be. Sony figured they could forgo the console war, the PlayStation 3 losses, and lack of profits, if they could get Blu-Ray to become the new High Definition Disc standard among movie watchers.
There is far more money to be made in licensing Blu-Ray technology than there is in winning a console war. The markets aren’t even close. If the PlayStation 2 sold 120 million units in its lifetime, the DVD player has sold well over a billion units in almost the same amount of time. Every DVD player sold today has an added fee strapped to it that goes to the creators of the DVD. (Most notably Philips) And Sony has always wanted a piece of that money. Think of it this way. If Sony received $10 for every Blu-Ray player sold, and they manage to sell 1 billion Blu-Ray players worldwide, they’ll have made 10 billion dollars. The losses from the PS3 are inconsequential when looked at from those numbers. And that’s not including the profits made from the sale of each disc, Computer attachments and Discs and the future growth potential of the same technology that they’d also get a piece of. The amount of money involved could easily reach into the hundreds of billions over the lifetime of the format.
The PlayStation 3 being the sacrificial lamb for greater profit and strength. As it turns out, Sony’s gamble appears to have paid off. Blu-Ray is all but assured to be the new High Definition format. With that, the interest in the PS3 will only increase as more homes look for a way to adopt a High Definition disc player and choose the PS3 to be that device. Blu-Ray’s added cost will now be PlayStation’s added benefit. The marketshare lost will be gained back, primarily because Microsoft failed to aggressively lower their prices as much as Sony had, and didn’t have the taste to keep losing money with the same expectations towards profit that Sony could realize. It would take the 360 a lot longer to make their lost money back, because they don’t have a licensed technology like Blu-Ray to make up for the losses. They had to draw the line, and that allowed Sony to catch up and they’ll soon surpass Microsoft’s console in sales unless Microsoft has an ace up their sleeve.
That’s always possible. However, removing speculation, what we do know is that Sony’s apparent game line-up is stronger for 2008 than Microsoft’s. Blu-Ray has established itself as the next generation format of choice. And Sony’s aggressive price reductions have made the PS3 very competitive for the consumer to choose when comparing systems. Their only missing piece has been a spartan library of good titles, and a lack of system software that compares with Xbox Live. For most consumers, however, that won’t be persuasion enough to ignore it. Most people will see the PlayStation name and choose it based on the past two generations of quality gaming they had with the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2. That market will be enough to catapult the PS3 into a second place position by 2009.
The end has not been written yet. Sony is still in last place as of this writing. And Nintendo appears to be unstoppable in the #1 position. And Microsoft may yet choose to aggressively lower their console’s price. All of which could impact Sony’s ability to reclaim their former glory. However, it appears that a bit of luck, a lot of financial loss, and an ability to make it work regardless of what the nay-sayers have shouted has allowed Sony to persevere. Whether or not the PS3 manages to become the #1 game console in units sold or overall profit matters not. At the end of the day, Blu-Ray has won. And so too has Sony’s gamble on the PS3.
Video Gaming
Summer 2008 is just around the corner and the casino and video gaming industries are definitely heating-up. In fact, the next couple of months are going to see some of the most impressive game releases in years. Meanwhile, one all-time classic is proving age is no barrier to sustained gaming popularity. Check it out….
Grand Theft Auto IV ready to smash records?
It’s got to be one of the most eagerly awaited video game releases seen in the last decade – and as Take-Two’s GTAIV gets ready to launch, the industry is talking of a $400M success in just one week.
So – will the latest installment in the PS3 and Xbox 360’s finest gangland video gaming compilation make the most dramatic debut ever seen?
Well, according to industry insiders, the Rockstar labeled game is probably going to be the most popular console launch of all-time – when it finally launches worldwide on April 29.
During the telling ‘pre-sale’ period, retailers have shelled-out for a staggering 6,000,000 video game units.
If the projected figures are correct, GTAIV could realistically blow the top off Halo III, which sold 5 million copies within 7 days. Even more impressive – the game could conceivably smash the $404,000,000 figure grossed by the hot movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The existing record gross for any Grand Theft release is held by GT Auto: San Andreas, standing at 22 million video game sales over all console and PC genres, but the new edition will smash that figure in weeks.
Ironically, with Electronic Arts' recent takeover attempt – GTAIV needs record breaking success to save Take-two.
Video gamers ready to strike gold in 2008
It’s that time again – another Olympic Games and a new generation of video games ready to celebrate the big occasion.
Sega’s Beijing 2008 has the benefit of hitting our screens powered by the best gaming hardware that’s ever existed. For lucky video gamers, that translates into a game that promises to deliver 35 different events and photo-realistic Olympic venues including the Beijing National Stadium and the National Aquatics Centre. However, perhaps the most exciting aspect of the gaming package will be the fact that for the first time, the official Olympic game will include online multi-player contests! Expect to see an interesting range of ‘spin offs’ with Olympic themes in a variety of online destinations, such as Video Slots and free-play websites.
The Sims Hits 1 million
Some video games are just classics – and Electronic Arts’ The Sims is a perfect example. Such is the longevity of the Sims’ concept, that it has now sold over 1 million copies since 2000. This staggering statistic makes it the number one PC franchise ever. Of course, The Sims has had several expansion packs and re-vamps, but the essence of the game is what has made it such a popular video game. The latest Sims craze is fans posting their own Sims videos on YouTube, while over 10% of European households are estimated to own a copy of the Sims.
Tomb Raider and Hitman make their mark in Online Casinos
The legendary video games, Tomb Raider and Hitman have made their way into the worlds online casinos. Based on the action packed console driven games, these new casino games offer a similar thrill and are sure to go down as two of the most popular games available at online casinos.
Grand Theft Auto IV ready to smash records?
It’s got to be one of the most eagerly awaited video game releases seen in the last decade – and as Take-Two’s GTAIV gets ready to launch, the industry is talking of a $400M success in just one week.
So – will the latest installment in the PS3 and Xbox 360’s finest gangland video gaming compilation make the most dramatic debut ever seen?
Well, according to industry insiders, the Rockstar labeled game is probably going to be the most popular console launch of all-time – when it finally launches worldwide on April 29.
During the telling ‘pre-sale’ period, retailers have shelled-out for a staggering 6,000,000 video game units.
If the projected figures are correct, GTAIV could realistically blow the top off Halo III, which sold 5 million copies within 7 days. Even more impressive – the game could conceivably smash the $404,000,000 figure grossed by the hot movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The existing record gross for any Grand Theft release is held by GT Auto: San Andreas, standing at 22 million video game sales over all console and PC genres, but the new edition will smash that figure in weeks.
Ironically, with Electronic Arts' recent takeover attempt – GTAIV needs record breaking success to save Take-two.
Video gamers ready to strike gold in 2008
It’s that time again – another Olympic Games and a new generation of video games ready to celebrate the big occasion.
Sega’s Beijing 2008 has the benefit of hitting our screens powered by the best gaming hardware that’s ever existed. For lucky video gamers, that translates into a game that promises to deliver 35 different events and photo-realistic Olympic venues including the Beijing National Stadium and the National Aquatics Centre. However, perhaps the most exciting aspect of the gaming package will be the fact that for the first time, the official Olympic game will include online multi-player contests! Expect to see an interesting range of ‘spin offs’ with Olympic themes in a variety of online destinations, such as Video Slots and free-play websites.
The Sims Hits 1 million
Some video games are just classics – and Electronic Arts’ The Sims is a perfect example. Such is the longevity of the Sims’ concept, that it has now sold over 1 million copies since 2000. This staggering statistic makes it the number one PC franchise ever. Of course, The Sims has had several expansion packs and re-vamps, but the essence of the game is what has made it such a popular video game. The latest Sims craze is fans posting their own Sims videos on YouTube, while over 10% of European households are estimated to own a copy of the Sims.
Tomb Raider and Hitman make their mark in Online Casinos
The legendary video games, Tomb Raider and Hitman have made their way into the worlds online casinos. Based on the action packed console driven games, these new casino games offer a similar thrill and are sure to go down as two of the most popular games available at online casinos.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
UNIVERSITY COURSES
Now that creating games is accepted as a proper industry and job, a lot of universities offer courses on the subject. If you are seriously considering a job in this field then this would give you a good grounding and give you a taste of the different roles available. Also, most courses will have a program where by at the, they will try to give you connections or at least point you in the right direction for getting your first job. If you are looking at journalism then of course there are courses on this and you will also need to attain a good level of language.
SALARIES
The range of salaries for jobs within gaming can vary greatly and there is quite a huge gap salary wise between the junior and senior jobs. At one point I looked becoming a tester and found that the salary was £3000/$6000 less than what I could get working in a supermarket. You could probably only do this if you were still living at home or were getting extra support somehow.
Once you have been there a while then you can start to move up the ranks to Team Leader roles which would bump you up a few thousand more. Programming jobs will always start you at a good salary but in some cases the programmer could get more working within a business area rather than the gaming industry. This is a job people do largely because of a passion for gaming rather than a passion for money.
Something else that people overlook is the amount of hours and late nights (possibly weekends) that can be involved with jobs like these. It’s not enough to just like playing games or to be interested in them, you almost have to be obsessed with them and live and
breathe them. This is an important consideration as it could be something that could put you off gaming altogether. I don’t want to scare people but I just want people to think about it and make sure they find out as much information as possible so they get the FULL story of what’s involved.
Once you have been there a while then you can start to move up the ranks to Team Leader roles which would bump you up a few thousand more. Programming jobs will always start you at a good salary but in some cases the programmer could get more working within a business area rather than the gaming industry. This is a job people do largely because of a passion for gaming rather than a passion for money.
Something else that people overlook is the amount of hours and late nights (possibly weekends) that can be involved with jobs like these. It’s not enough to just like playing games or to be interested in them, you almost have to be obsessed with them and live and
breathe them. This is an important consideration as it could be something that could put you off gaming altogether. I don’t want to scare people but I just want people to think about it and make sure they find out as much information as possible so they get the FULL story of what’s involved.
JOURNALIST
If you love writing and you love computer games, then this sounds like the perfect job. You get to preview games before they come out, play games in order to review them, go to gaming exhibitions and more. OK, so what’s the catch? Well, if you are working for a magazine which has to hit the shelves at the same date every month, then right from day one, you are going to be working to a deadline.
Sometimes, there can be a lot of pressure when there are many new releases which have to be reviewed, and it’s normally not just a case of playing the game for an hour or two to get the feel of it, you may have to get over halfway or even complete it so you can asses every aspect of the game. After all that, then you have to put pen to paper (well, hands to keyboard) and write a review which is interesting but informative. This can mean a lot of late nights, especially as the magazine publication date draws closer. However, if you respond well to deadlines then this may be a bonus for you.
Sometimes, there can be a lot of pressure when there are many new releases which have to be reviewed, and it’s normally not just a case of playing the game for an hour or two to get the feel of it, you may have to get over halfway or even complete it so you can asses every aspect of the game. After all that, then you have to put pen to paper (well, hands to keyboard) and write a review which is interesting but informative. This can mean a lot of late nights, especially as the magazine publication date draws closer. However, if you respond well to deadlines then this may be a bonus for you.
MUSICIAN
Anybody who has seen the movie Jaws, Pulp Fiction or Starwars will know just how important the sound and music can be to a film. Somebody with a musical talent and background can find themselves in a very interesting job within this field.
The great news is that thanks to the Internet, the music scene has opened opportunities for many home grown musicians around the world.
Although some musicians in this field might have been technically trained, there can also be opportunities for those that can demonstrate a talent or unique style which would add value to the game.
The great news is that thanks to the Internet, the music scene has opened opportunities for many home grown musicians around the world.
Although some musicians in this field might have been technically trained, there can also be opportunities for those that can demonstrate a talent or unique style which would add value to the game.
DIRECTOR
This is a role that most people in the gaming industry would aspire to get. In the same way that a director of a movie gets to call all the shots, the same can be said for a director of a game. You can safely assume that you are going to get a pretty big cut of the profits but you will also be working flat out for the duration of the game’s creation process. As games become more and more like movies, having a background of directing movies, even on a small scale could be an advantage.
To get this job, you would have almost certainly have had to climb your way from the bottom of the industry to the top in order to fully appreciate what is involved with every aspect of the process. You will need to be a person who lives and breathes computer games and is also able to handle pressure, especially when deadlines start looming as millions of dollars can be riding on its timely release. Having said all that, it is probably the most creative and satisfy job to have within the industry, and certainly most profitable.
To get this job, you would have almost certainly have had to climb your way from the bottom of the industry to the top in order to fully appreciate what is involved with every aspect of the process. You will need to be a person who lives and breathes computer games and is also able to handle pressure, especially when deadlines start looming as millions of dollars can be riding on its timely release. Having said all that, it is probably the most creative and satisfy job to have within the industry, and certainly most profitable.
LEVEL DESIGNER
As games become bigger and more advanced so does the work involved with designing levels and the general structure of the game. This could involve creating an area as vast as landscapes as seen in Oblivion or it could be enclosed areas as you’d see in first person shooters. People that excel in these jobs will quite often have a general designing background as well as a gaming background. In some cases, you may need to have architectural skills to create unique features within the game.
3D GRAPHICS MODELLING / PROGAMMING
Nearly every game in this day and age is going to involve 3D graphics at some point or another. This can require a skill of using art applications but it can also get quite mathematical unless you are purely working on artwork. Let’s make no bones about it; to do this you would probably need a certain amount of natural ability and a lot of determination. If you do find you have a talent for art or programming, then this is a good way to make good money within the industry. This is probably the most ‘hands on’ job you can do within this field.
TESTER TEAM LEADER
With a large scale game, there won’t be just one tester as it would take far too long to test every function of the game. So typically there will be a team of testers who need to be co-ordinated to make sure everything gets covered in a timely fashion. Once you have gained enough experience and have had a degree of success as a tester, then the role of Tester Team Leader would normally be the natural progression.
TESTER
Ever wanted to get paid to play games all day long? Well this could be the job for you. However, there are a few misconceptions I want to dispel first. Many people think that testing a game just involves playing the game as you normally would at home for a few hours a day to see how the game performs and to see how good it is. Although part of this is true, the main task of a games tester is to try and ‘break’ the game and find any bugs that may be lurking.
Quite often this can involve following a test script / set of instructions to make sure that the game is tested in a systematic way. In a driving game for example, this could mean driving round and round the track hundreds of times deliberately crashing into walls, trees, or trying to make the car go places where it shouldn’t be able to. If you do something that causes and error then you have to document the error message and report it to the programmers / debuggers.
Quite often this can involve following a test script / set of instructions to make sure that the game is tested in a systematic way. In a driving game for example, this could mean driving round and round the track hundreds of times deliberately crashing into walls, trees, or trying to make the car go places where it shouldn’t be able to. If you do something that causes and error then you have to document the error message and report it to the programmers / debuggers.
JOBS IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY
If you have a real passion for computer games, then you may want to consider getting a job within the industry. The gaming market is the fastest growing area in recent years and it’s an exciting time to get into this field. Long gone are the days of the one-person bedroom programmer doing all the graphics, sound and animation for the whole game. Nowadays, there can be a team of up to 200 people working on one game over a period of years. There are many different types of jobs within the industry but I’ve listed a few of the main ones which would put you in direct contact with the creation process of the game itself. The following posts will give a brief idea.
PLAYING GAME CASHBACK WEBSITES
Very similar in concept to Kwari but on a much simpler scale are cash back gaming websites. These typically involve playing basic racing, puzzle or shooting games and the like. You start off by topping up an account which is then deducted each time you play, this money can then be won back along with the other people’s money that you are competing against. This can be as little as 30p/60 cents upwards to big cash prizes.
The good news is most of these sites will let you practise the games for free!! So the more you practise, the more likely you will win the game and gain some cash. If you perform a search on the Internet for “cash skill game websites” or a similar phrase, you will find hundreds of options.
The good news is most of these sites will let you practise the games for free!! So the more you practise, the more likely you will win the game and gain some cash. If you perform a search on the Internet for “cash skill game websites” or a similar phrase, you will find hundreds of options.
TOURNAMENTS
Some of the really big cash prizes can be earned playing tournaments. At one point these generally only took place in America and Asia but now there is a large and ever growing scene in Europe as well. Much like Kwari, these tournaments are generally feature first person shooters such as Half-Life, Halo, Unreal Tournament and the like.
Of course, you will have to be top of your game to amount any serious amount of money but at the same time, it can be a lot of fun just to take part.
If you have a particular favourite first person shooter (or other similar games) which is popular at the moment then do a search on the Internet for gaming events which you can attend. Some of the top prizes for these tournaments can run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands. There are people that actually make a living out of this by flying around the world to attend all the events being held.
Of course, you will have to be top of your game to amount any serious amount of money but at the same time, it can be a lot of fun just to take part.
If you have a particular favourite first person shooter (or other similar games) which is popular at the moment then do a search on the Internet for gaming events which you can attend. Some of the top prizes for these tournaments can run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands. There are people that actually make a living out of this by flying around the world to attend all the events being held.
KWARI
Kwari isnew and exciting concept because each player submits a small amount of money for each game which then gets put into a pot. This total can amount to quite a nice sum which the winner of each match will pocket as a prize. The game itself is also free to download from www.kwari.com
The game itself looks like first person shooter such as Halo, but unlike many death match tournaments where you can hide in places and then jump out to get the kill when it suits, in Kwari you will need to dash into open spaces to pick up items and weapons which in some cases can amount to extra cash. This is one of the first games that actually states upfront that it’s all about winning money.
Another great feature about this game is it keeps a close track on whether you are on a winning spree or a loosing one. If you keep loosing then it will enter you into matches with lower ranking players and do the opposite if you are winning. This basically means that each person will get a fair crack of the whip and have a chance of winning some money.
The game itself looks like first person shooter such as Halo, but unlike many death match tournaments where you can hide in places and then jump out to get the kill when it suits, in Kwari you will need to dash into open spaces to pick up items and weapons which in some cases can amount to extra cash. This is one of the first games that actually states upfront that it’s all about winning money.
Another great feature about this game is it keeps a close track on whether you are on a winning spree or a loosing one. If you keep loosing then it will enter you into matches with lower ranking players and do the opposite if you are winning. This basically means that each person will get a fair crack of the whip and have a chance of winning some money.
MMORPG – MASSIVELY MULTI-PLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAMES (World of Warcraft, Ultima Online etc)
Probably the most fun to be had making money playing games is playing Online RPGS such as Ultima Online or more recently World of Warcraft. These games are great fun but can take more time to play than what a lot of people have. In short, people who don’t have the time are prepared to pay real money to take short cuts.
I first heard of this concept a few years ago from my Brother-In Law who told me about an online RPG from Korea called Ragnarok.
I couldn’t believe my ears when he told me that a friend of his had spent many hours playing it to the extent where he was able to acquire magic items that were so rare, there were people will to pay over $100 for these items. I told a friend this who in turn told me about Ultima Online and asked me to do a search on “Ultima Online” within eBay.
I couldn’t believe what I saw, pages and pages of virtual properties which you could buy to keep your virtual items, going for hundreds of dollars; one was going for $600 and another for $1,500!!! I had to laugh when I read the descriptions, one read “Great house in a perfect location with lots of rooms for storing special items”. It sounded like something you would read on a property web site from an estate agent.
For anybody unfamiliar with the game, you can spend days, weeks or even months farming / mining for gold to save enough money to buy weapons and armour. Again, some people just don’t have the time to do this so others would build up characters or attain items and then sell them on Ebay. This game is still played today but is slowly being superseded by World of Warcraft.
As with Ultima Online, World of Warcraft is all about Gold, without this, you are going to find it very hard to buy the weapons and armour you need to make your character strong enough for large scale battles. You may see adverts on the Internet of people or companies selling gold which you can simply buy with real money and then transfer to your World of Warcraft account. There are also various guides you can buy which you can buy to help you attain gold and level up your character much quicker.
I first heard of this concept a few years ago from my Brother-In Law who told me about an online RPG from Korea called Ragnarok.
I couldn’t believe my ears when he told me that a friend of his had spent many hours playing it to the extent where he was able to acquire magic items that were so rare, there were people will to pay over $100 for these items. I told a friend this who in turn told me about Ultima Online and asked me to do a search on “Ultima Online” within eBay.
I couldn’t believe what I saw, pages and pages of virtual properties which you could buy to keep your virtual items, going for hundreds of dollars; one was going for $600 and another for $1,500!!! I had to laugh when I read the descriptions, one read “Great house in a perfect location with lots of rooms for storing special items”. It sounded like something you would read on a property web site from an estate agent.
For anybody unfamiliar with the game, you can spend days, weeks or even months farming / mining for gold to save enough money to buy weapons and armour. Again, some people just don’t have the time to do this so others would build up characters or attain items and then sell them on Ebay. This game is still played today but is slowly being superseded by World of Warcraft.
As with Ultima Online, World of Warcraft is all about Gold, without this, you are going to find it very hard to buy the weapons and armour you need to make your character strong enough for large scale battles. You may see adverts on the Internet of people or companies selling gold which you can simply buy with real money and then transfer to your World of Warcraft account. There are also various guides you can buy which you can buy to help you attain gold and level up your character much quicker.
SIMMS ONLINE – EARNING SIMOLEANS
Arguably, The Simms was the forerunner of Second Life. There have been many people who have become addicted to this game and spent hours a day playing it. I think the main difference is when people play this, they tend to be more detached from the character they are playing, and in Second Life some people play it to the extent where they think they ARE the person in the game. However, there are many similarities; one of note is the fact that
people can construct their own items and more importantly, houses. The Simms has much more of a family appeal to it as you can get married and have children, so naturally you will want a nice place for them all to live. Again, this is where a designer can step in and create properties that are so elaborate; people are willing to spend real money buying them. The currency within The Simms is known as Simoleans.
One thing to bear in mind, whereas in Second Life, it is almost encouraged to make money playing the game, with The Simms, making real money wasn’t something the developers of the game intended. This also applies to other games such as World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and other RPGs which I’ll detail later.
Although some software houses will turn a blind eye to people making money from their games, they also don’t exactly promote it. Most of the items sold from these games such as houses are normally sold on eBay but on occasions, eBay will have a sweep and remove the items on sale (For more details you can visit eBay Profits Revealed http://ebayrevealed.blogspot.com). However, there are now many sites devoted to selling items for various games. One such site is www.ige.com
One game that does permit users to officially sell items is EverQuest2; this can all be done through an official Sony site. Maybe their policy is “If you can’t beat, them then join them?”
people can construct their own items and more importantly, houses. The Simms has much more of a family appeal to it as you can get married and have children, so naturally you will want a nice place for them all to live. Again, this is where a designer can step in and create properties that are so elaborate; people are willing to spend real money buying them. The currency within The Simms is known as Simoleans.
One thing to bear in mind, whereas in Second Life, it is almost encouraged to make money playing the game, with The Simms, making real money wasn’t something the developers of the game intended. This also applies to other games such as World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and other RPGs which I’ll detail later.
Although some software houses will turn a blind eye to people making money from their games, they also don’t exactly promote it. Most of the items sold from these games such as houses are normally sold on eBay but on occasions, eBay will have a sweep and remove the items on sale (For more details you can visit eBay Profits Revealed http://ebayrevealed.blogspot.com). However, there are now many sites devoted to selling items for various games. One such site is www.ige.com
One game that does permit users to officially sell items is EverQuest2; this can all be done through an official Sony site. Maybe their policy is “If you can’t beat, them then join them?”
REAL ESTATE
Probably the most famous character in Second Life is a Real Estate business woman called Anshe Chung (Ailin Graef in real life). In her first year she made $100,000 from buying land and properties and then selling them to other gamers, normally for a hefty profit. She then set her sight to be the first virtual millionaire; however, the money was VERY real!
There are many other ways to make money in Second Life, so if any of the above is of interest, you may want to investigate further on the net...
There are many other ways to make money in Second Life, so if any of the above is of interest, you may want to investigate further on the net...
ARCHITECT
Similar in some ways to designing items, people actually design and ‘build’ houses where your avatar can live in luxury. These can be sold for an awful lot of Linden Dollars which can equate to a tidy some of real money. Again, many of the real people behind these designs are real architects but who knows, you might have a natural flare for this sort of thing but never got the chance to try for yourself.
DESIGNER
So, where do these unique items that are sold in the shops come from? In many cases, people have actually designed them within the game using the graphic tools and some coding. For your character to look different and cool, you may want to buy items of clothing or various accessories, which again have been designed in the game by real people.
Of course, to truly make something unique, you can’t really reply on just the tools that are provided, it’s possible you will have to have some programming experience to get the most out of it. Also note that some of the real people behind these shops are in the real world. However, if you have the determination, then you can make a go at this and earn some good money. Uncover your hidden talents!
Of course, to truly make something unique, you can’t really reply on just the tools that are provided, it’s possible you will have to have some programming experience to get the most out of it. Also note that some of the real people behind these shops are in the real world. However, if you have the determination, then you can make a go at this and earn some good money. Uncover your hidden talents!
SHOP ASSISTANT
There are businesses within the real world that have set up shops within Second Life. It’s mostly a way of advertising but it’s like a 3D version of browsing items on the Internet. There are also businesses that have been set up purely within the game selling items which I will talk about in a moment.
Like any shop, you need people to work in them and talk to the customers. You may even try some sales techniques to shift the goods quicker. You may not make big bucks doing this but it’s a really easy way to start earning some pocket money.
Like any shop, you need people to work in them and talk to the customers. You may even try some sales techniques to shift the goods quicker. You may not make big bucks doing this but it’s a really easy way to start earning some pocket money.
PRIVATE DETECTIVE
This to me is one of the craziest jobs within the game. Some people use Second Life as a way of having an online relationship, so, can you believe that some of these people playing the game may cheat on their virtual partner? Well, you could argue that they are not virtual because there is a real person behind them. This is where the private detective comes in. There are people willing to pay real money for you to follow their virtual partner to make sure they are not getting up to any mischief. Like the bouncers job, you will get paid by the hour and who knows, you might get a bonus for any juicy information you discover.
BOUNCER
This may sound crazy but despite Second Life being a virtual world, as long as there are real people playing it then it will present real life problems. For example, it is possible that there may be a party or event being held at a night club, you would think that people will just happily turn up to dance and chat without any disturbances…wrong! There are people playing the game who like nothing more than going along to cause havoc and smash the place up. So, if you’re built for the job then you could get paid Linden Dollars (therefore, real dollars) to stand outside the club and make sure any wrong doers don’t get it.
SECOND LIFE
The first game I’m going to outline in which you can make money is technically not a game. It is more like a way of life where you create your character / avatar and interact with other people by moving around and chatting with text or speech. The best thing about this platform is it is completely free to join, there are no monthly fees and you can be earning money within hours of creating your character.
The game is currently only available on the PC and you can visit their site to download the software from www.secondlife.com In the game, you earn money in various ways which I will detail later. The software house is Linden Labs; therefore the game’s own currency is Linden Dollars. These dollars can then be exchanged for real dollars in the real world. There are people right now spending as much as 14 hours a day ‘playing’ this and making money. At the time of writing, the exchange rate was around 300 Linden Dollars to 1 American Dollars but this can fluctuate.
What you do in the game is completely up to you. There are people who just use this as a way of chatting to friends, some people like to role-play within the game, but there are many others who really see this as a second job and do things within the game that they couldn’t in real life, possibly due to their culture, body size, location or whatever.
The next few posts are some examples of jobs you can do within Second Life...
The game is currently only available on the PC and you can visit their site to download the software from www.secondlife.com In the game, you earn money in various ways which I will detail later. The software house is Linden Labs; therefore the game’s own currency is Linden Dollars. These dollars can then be exchanged for real dollars in the real world. There are people right now spending as much as 14 hours a day ‘playing’ this and making money. At the time of writing, the exchange rate was around 300 Linden Dollars to 1 American Dollars but this can fluctuate.
What you do in the game is completely up to you. There are people who just use this as a way of chatting to friends, some people like to role-play within the game, but there are many others who really see this as a second job and do things within the game that they couldn’t in real life, possibly due to their culture, body size, location or whatever.
The next few posts are some examples of jobs you can do within Second Life...
WANNA BE RICH PLAYING GAMES?
Ok, let me be honest with you right from the start. If you are thinking of doing this so that you can give up your day job or become a millionaire, then it’s possible you will be Disappointed.Many people will only make a few dollars/pounds a day but if you are already playing games for pleasure, then why not do it and earn some nice pocket money which can supplement your existing wage. If you’re still living at home with the parents and you don’t currently have a job, then this is a great way to get extra cash, even if it’s so you can buy more games ;-)
Having said all that, you may have read about people that ARE making thousands a year playing games, although this is true, you have to bear in mind that those people are top of their game or field. However, if you have the determination then that could be you.
Having said all that, you may have read about people that ARE making thousands a year playing games, although this is true, you have to bear in mind that those people are top of their game or field. However, if you have the determination then that could be you.
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