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27th
JAN
Comparing the Big 4: Google vs. Microsoft vs. Apple vs. Yahoo!
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Tech
It’s no secret that Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo are always expanding their reaches, slowly but surely adding new products and services into their line-ups. The New York Times’s Nick Bilton took a step back and surveyed their empires.
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see how much these four behemoths overlap, and I doubt anyone will be surprised when these companies continue to fill in this grid in 2010.
Looking at the empty spaces reveals where we might look for these companies to grow. There have been grumblings of a Google music store for a while, and it seems entirely possible that Apple’s Tablet will at least in part emphasize its capabilities as a gaming device.
As the companies stretch and grow, some of their endeavors will prove more successful than others, but until then this chart is an interesting reminder of how vast their reaches already are.
Tags: Apple, Google, Hardware, Internet, Microsoft, Search, Software, Technology, Yahoo!
18th
JAN
Vids #31: Gates vs. Jobs II
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Vids
“I’m tea-bagging. That’s the best part of playing Halo.”
Tags: Apple, Bill Gates, Humor, Microsoft, Steve Jobs, Videos
12th
JAN
70 To 80 Percent Of Publishers Making Natal Games [Really??]
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming
Whether you think motion-controlled gaming is the wave of the future or a gimmicky trend that will soon phase out, it’s going to be around for the foreseeable future, so you’d better get used to it.
Case in point, Canada’s CBC News reports that between 70 and 80 percent of publishers are currently developing games for Microsoft’s Project Natal.
“Our first party studios are [also] very focused on this,” said Microsoft’s entertainment and devices divisions’ president Robbie Bach. “We want to have a few titles from Microsoft that show the way and then we want the breadth and power of the ecosystem from our partners to bring lots of new ideas, new innovations, new concepts to the marketplace. Xbox games don’t go away; you have to think of all this as additive. I think it adds to the beauty of what’s going on.”
Microsoft has been talking a lot lately about sticking with the 360 for the time being, rather than fully looking ahead to the next generation of consoles. The company has said that extending the console’s life through hardware and software improvements is the current strategy, and with the kind of support Natal is receiving from publishers, it appears that the strategy has the potential to be a very worthwhile one. That is, assuming the Natal-powered games can deliver the kinds of groundbreaking experiences Microsoft is promising. Which I know I’m fairly hesitant about…
23rd
SEP
Microsoft Considering Electronic Arts Takeover??
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming
Though it’s still just speculation at this point, it’s still rather stunning. The word floating around New York is that Microsoft is apparently interested in buying mega game publisher Electronic Arts, Reuters reports.
Now, this “unsubstantiated claim” will most likely remain so until for the time being. Nevertheless, EA’s stock saw a 4 percent boost today when word of this potentially industry-shattering deal started to spread. This deal would be so insanely massive and wide-reaching that I really can’t even comprehend what this would mean for the gaming world. I mean, EA games as Xbox exclusives? How crazy is that?!
Don’t get too worked up over this news though. There will be plenty of time for that if this thing actually ends up happening. And given the relationship between Microsoft and EA, specifically on the corporate side (John Schappert, Don Mattrick, Peter Moore), it might not be as unlikely as some might think.
22nd
SEP
No More Heroes 2 is last installment on Wii, next game on new Nintendo platform [Bwah?]
Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming
Clarifying an earlier statement that No More Heroes 2 would be the franchises’ last installment on the Wii, creator Suda 51 told 1UP that the upcoming sequel is “the last iteration for this current platform.” Suda believes there will be a “Wii 2,” and he’d like to do another “game in the series on the next Nintendo platform.”
This is interesting not because of No More Heroes, but because there have been a lot of rumors circulating about a possible Wii 2 appearing around 2011. Nothing conclusive has been revealed, but as most leaks go in the gaming industry, there tends to be some truth to it. So I guess Nintendo is going to go ahead and release a new gaming system in the near future while Microsoft and Sony are attempting to lengthen their consoles’ life cycles by releasing their motion-sensing add-ons.