Weapons of Mass Disruption #3: How and Why Consoles Will Die

By Ben Cousins

Many people (me included) have been saying publicly that they think the ?console'?dedicated hardware designed primarily for gaming?is on its way out.

I used to keep a list of famous developers and executives who shared my view, but it got too big to maintain!

Anyway, here's just two whom you might care about: David Jaffe and Hideo Kojima.

For many people, the idea that the mighty console will die out is too radical to comprehend. It sounds so outlandish that it requires further explanation than I was able to put across in a 26-minute Game Developers Conference presentation. So how about I go through the mechanics and the economics of it?

I base my view on a bunch of Assumptions and Data Points. Assumptions would be things I believe are true, but that we have no data for, and Data Points are things that we know are true. You can argue with assumptions, but it's pretty much impossible to argue with data.

1. Data point?Consoles like Xboxes, PlayStations & the Wii U are sold at a loss. It costs more to manufacture and distribute the device than it is sold for. Console manufacturers do this because they hope to make back the money from the license fee they charge for every game sold on the system. In order to offset the huge cost of hardware production, distribution, R&D and marketing, a hardware platform holder must sell vast quantities of hardware, and even bigger quantities of software. So much needs to be sold, in fact, that the data points to PS3 and Xbox 360 having made huge losses, despite having sold 70+ million units of hardware each.
2. Data point?Of those 70 million Xbox 360s sold, a large proportion (approx. 40%) were bought after the most recent price cut of August 2009. Of the 70 million PS3s sold, a large proportion (approx. 42%) were bought since the introduction of the PS3 Slim.
3. Assumption?The large proportion of sales of these consoles coming so late in the cycle, and at low prices, indicates a large proportion of the console user base that isn't looking for the most advanced system (indeed, a custom gaming PC is the most advanced in terms of CPU and GPU this late in the cycle). This mainstream sector of the market bought a console because it offered them the best balance of price/performance/convenience. Let's call these people "mainstream console gamers." They are the types of people who buy hits only?Madden, FIFA, Call of Duty, Halo only, i.e. not Kotaku readers. In fact, they probably don't visit any gaming websites.

   Without this huge group of people buying consoles or console games, the console platform holders will no longer be able to make enough money to justify developing, marketing and manufacturing the devices.

4. Data point?Eighteen months ago our research, at my mobile gaming company, told us that 50% of console owners also owned a smartphone or tablet and that this number was growing fast.
5. Assumption?For these "mainstream console gamers" mentioned in (3), a high-end tablet or smartphone actually suits their gaming needs better than a console in terms of the balance of price/convenience/performance. From a performance point of view it may be below console, but the device is more convenient to use, the software is cheaper or free, and the device has a low or zero perceived cost, because the user owns one anyway or pays for it in instalments via a carrier.
6. Data point?Mobile developers and publishers are starting to target these "mainstream console gamers" aggressively. I work for a mobile publisher just slightly smaller than EA, and we are targeting them aggressively.

Given those data points and assumptions, what I think will probably happen is that, as smartphones and tablets continue to get more and more powerful (and they are increasing in power faster than any other class of device), and as more and more publishers start to actively target those "mainstream console gamers" with mobile games, more and more of those people will gradually move their gaming hours and dollars away from console gaming to their mobile devices. Without this huge group of people buying consoles or console games, the console platform holders will no longer be able to make enough money to justify developing, marketing and manufacturing the devices.

It doesn't matter that there will "always be a market for consoles" among the hardcore, because the console model as we know it relies so much on the money from the "mainstream console gamers."

In the future, I see gaming as having two main markets:

1. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets will serve the biggest market?covering kids, casual gamers and the mainstream console people.
2. The core and ultra-core gamers would be served by PC gaming, which will be smaller than mobile, but that will continue to grow. Many of the old-school PC gamers I know that moved to playing games on Xbox over the last 10 years are coming back to PC because of free-to-play and indie games, controller and TV support, as well as incredible digital distribution on platforms like Steam.

If you are a console gamer and can't ever see yourself playing games on a mobile device, then I expect you will be one of the 10s of millions who will move more and more of your hours and money to playing PC games.

Many people often dispute my position on the matter by arguing, "he would say that, he's a mobile developer!" but those people are getting cause and effect mixed up. I spent eight years of my life working on console games for companies like Microsoft, Sony and EA. The reason I moved to mobile a year and a half ago is precisely because I came to the conclusion the consoles were on their way out. I bet my career on it. That's how much I believe in it...

Ben Cousins (@benjamincousins) is a 13-year veteran of the games industry who's worked at Lionhead, Sony and EA among others. He currently runs Scattered Entertainment, a studio in Stockholm owned by Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNA. where his team are working on disruptive AAA mobile FPS The Drowning.

Top image: A scene from the movie Minority Report.

Weapons of Mass Disruption #1: It's The Best Time To Be A Gamer, And Here's How That Happened

As a gamer, you've probably noticed a bunch of really interesting stuff happening in the games industry over the last few years.
It seems like only a while back, we were stuck in a situation where, as gamers, our options were limited and frankly, boring. More ?

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Weapons of Mass Disruption #2: Why Is (Almost) Every Video Game Suddenly Free?

There are three main gaming platforms. The PC, the mobile or ?smart' device, and the dedicated games console. Looking worldwide, two out of three are now dominated by free-to-play. More ?

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Source: http://kotaku.com/5973498/weapons-of-mass-disruption-3-how-and-why-consoles-will-die

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Janette Miller's Blog: About Death - Something to Tell Your Family

I wish I could find a happier way to start 2013 but over the past 18 months I have had four close deaths of people very dear to me and in three cases I nearly didn't find out! The plea is Please friends, let your family know I exist so that I can grieve and come to your funeral!

Life has changed! Families now do not play the important part in many people's lives than they once did. Many families have split up and live countries apart and so friends and next door neighbors start to occupy a more important place in one's life than perhaps they once would have done.

I was told immediately in fact the same day as death on the family member but in the case of my dear friend above who I saw at least twice a week and with whom I spent many happy hours, I was not informed. I nearly missed his funeral and as he was a mason and the church was full I nearly didn't get in. He forgot to ensure that his other friends, like me were told. The Masons were not to know. What he needed to do was to make a list of people to be told.

Few do this. In the case of my neighbors I too was the last to know. I had lived next door to one neighbor for 38 years. I knew he was dying but not one member of the close family thought to tell me that the man I spoke to daily, who banged about doing up his house, who helped me repel intruders and picked me up when I fell off the ladder was dead. I learned exactly five days later from another neighbor, his?niece. ?I was very upset at the death of a friend I had come to well the word may be misconstrued if I say love but to me he was almost my family.

38 years is a long time but I was reminded that I was NOT family. Again ?a list of friends would help. I was not the only one to be disappointed at not being told. Nowadays few read the death's column of local papers that families rely upon. I could easily have missed the funeral and then the family would be annoyed that a next door neighbour of 38 years had not turned up.

It happend again when another neighbor died. I only knew her for two years but as she was terminally ill and we did spend a very meaningful time together. The family in their grief closed rank. All outsiders were kept at bay. I was told nothing. I did not know she was dying and when I asked was told that a mutual friend?in Christchurch would let me know. ?They did not think that a woman across the road mattered. I was told of the death by a mutual friend in Christchurch.

Again it seems friends however close do not count.

This seems to be the modern way of death. Family who may not have been around for years takes over and close friends are excluded. I do not think this is done on purpose it is just that they have no idea of their relation's lives. I was guilty of this myself when I had to go to Bournemouth on my father's death. I did not invite friends to his funeral because I had no idea who they were. A close friend of his soon put me right and she was quite right to do so!

So my friends please leave a list of people you want informed of your death to avoid this unpleasantness. I shall tell my daughter! Make this your New Year Resolution. It is a good one!

Source: http://janetteheffernan.blogspot.com/2013/01/about-death-something-to-tell-your.html

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Study: Men Find Penises To Be Shorter After Prostate Cancer ...

A man with prostate cancer is wheeled into an operating room for a bracytherapy operation. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) -?A new study has found that some men who undergo treatment for prostate cancer have, upon its completion, complained of having a seemingly shorter penis.

One patient in particular expressed shock at the diminished size of his penis after treatment.

?I specifically asked my doctors before the surgery multiple times about possible complications and cosmetic outcomes and never once was possible penile shortening mentioned,? the 32-year-old man was quoted as saying on MedHelp, an online support forum. ?Stroke, heart attack and death were mentioned as risks during surgery and failure, recurrence, and ED were mentioned as possible side effects of the procedure [as well as scars.]?

He added, ?Erectile length probably?shouldn?t?matter if the surgery is otherwise successful, but I would?ve [sic] preferred at the very least a warning about the risk of shortening ? even if temporary ? so I could?ve at least psychologically prepared for the possibility or perhaps opted for another treatment.?

Upon noticing repeated incidents of such complaints ? as many as 25 patients out of a total of 948 surveyed patients whose insights contributed to the study ? researchers concluded that doctors should discuss the possibility of seeing a decrease in penis size post-treatment with their patients.

Prostate cancer affects hundreds of thousands of men ? 214,633 in one year alone, according to the Centers for Disease control and Prevention in Atlanta. And of those men, a reported 28,471 lost their lives to it.

The American Cancer Society additionally states that prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men, the website Common Health is reporting.

?Some people might think this is frivolous ? who cares about a slightly shortened penis? But it really does affect people?s lives,? Lead author Paul L. Nguyen, M.D., a radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women?s Cancer Center in Boston, was quoted as saying. ?If guys [in the study] had this bad result they were much more likely to regret the path they chose. This is important to talk about up front when people are making their decisions.?

The website additionally learned that complaints of a shorter penis were made most by men who either had their prostate surgically removed or those who used a combination of hormone inhibitors and radiation therapy to eradicate the cancer.

The study was published in the journal Urology last year, and was presented at the 2012 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Source: http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2013/01/06/study-men-find-penises-to-be-shorter-after-prostate-cancer-treatment/

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BeeWi's Ghost Bee Bluetooth headphones also stream music to your stereo (hands-on)

BeeWi may not be a well-known name in the audio world, but the company's bringing some innovation to the space with its new Bluetooth headphones. Called Ghost Bee, the cans have capacitive buttons on the right earpiece that serve as music and phone call controls. The Ghost Bee also comes with a base station that connects to the headphones via micro-USB and hooks up to any home stereo's 3.5mm audio-in jack. That base station is what really sets the Ghost Bee apart from other wireless headphones on the market. You see, using the free BeeWi iOS or Android companion app, you can dock the headphones and stream both locally and cloud-sourced tunes from your phone wirelessly to the stereo speakers.

We got a chance to see the thing in action, and works quite well. Once you've paired the headphones to your phone, its simply a matter of spooling up some tunes in the app, and you're good to go -- return the Ghost Bee to its cradle and the music starts coming out of the speakers. Easy peasy. Unfortunately, given the cacophony of the show floor, we can't speak to the sonic quality of the headphones, but the system did work well in our brief time with it. Though its functionality is quite clever, we weren't enamored with the Ghost Bee's glossy plastic exterior. Aside from giving it a smudgy look when handled, the plasticky build lends it a cheap appearance -- not good considering the $180 asking price. The Ghost Bee is set to go on sale in the next month or so at retailers nationwide, so you'll be able to see (and hear) it for yourself soon.

Gallery: BeeWi Ghost Bee Bluetooth headphones hands-on

Jamie Rigg contributed to this report.

Continue reading BeeWi's Ghost Bee Bluetooth headphones also stream music to your stereo (hands-on)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/06/beewis-ghost-bee-bluetooth-headphones-hands-on/

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Freemium Customer Care - CRM Magazine

The freemium business model is meant to deliver benefits for both business and customer: For the business, it's a strategy to foster loyalty, product or service awareness, and long-term revenue potential, and for the customer, it makes discovering a product or service effortless and worry-free. However, this business approach presents a series of unique challenges?and customer service is one of them. As career-long customer care specialists, we've seen that one size doesn't fit all. Freemium model customer care must include a distinct approach.

Taking care of freemium customers requires thought and a personal touch, or you run the risk of creating more problems than solutions. Generally, dialogue about freemium customer care deficits pivots around the fact that customer service departments aren't adapting for this model, which thrives on live, customized interaction between agents and customers.

The difference between the freemium and subscription model?that the former offers customers a scaled-down set of product or service features for free before, or instead of, purchasing a subscription, the latter not offering a free level of product or service at all?is what defines the difference between customer support strategies for the two models. Because customer retention isn't built in to the freemium model, customer care agents for freemium businesses have an incredibly high standard to meet and ultimately drive business success.

Over the years, we've observed that specific best practices hold true time and again in freemium customer interactions. They may confirm that what you're doing in freemium customer care is on track, or inspire you to uplevel the way your agents communicate with your customers. There are five such practices.

Don't just serve, care. The number one mindset shift that needs to be made with freemium customer interactions is that the goal is to establish personal relationships, not isolated transactions. The idea of customer service connotes a certain flatness and mechanical response. Caring for the customer and keeping him at the center of the dialogue is crucial in a freemium support capacity because there is no reason that a customer must continue using?or paying for?your product or service. If a customer is experiencing a technical issue or upset about another aspect of the service, an agent's personalized approach to solving the problem can be the difference between retention and attrition.

Rethink success. The freemium-based business should center success metrics around its customer-centric mission, not necessarily pure sales or length of calls. Of course revenue and conversion play a role in a freemium organization's success, but at the forefront of measurement should be customer happiness. Satisfaction surveys and random call monitoring are ways businesses can track this, the most critical of all metrics.

Crunch?and use?the numbers. The call center inherently holds tons of rich qualitative and quantitative data. The successful freemium business finds ways to leverage that data and package it in a way that becomes meaningful throughout the organization, including marketing, product, and technology groups. At MyLife, we implemented a feedback mechanism that gathered data around customer usage of our Web site and presented findings and trends to our entire organization. As a result, we implemented a new service that helps customers manage their online presence, something that was an expressed need directly from customers and which became a new revenue stream for our organization.

Expect more from agents. The onus is higher on the freemium company to continue delivering value, so the business' challenge is to build a customer care team that broadens traditional call center boundaries. Freemium models include paid options that expand on the free service set. Bring on board agents with sales backgrounds, who are skilled at confidently educating customers on the value of the product or service, leading a call, and reselling a customer on the value. In addition, incorporate formal personality profiling to identify what top performing agents have in common and work to assimilate those characteristics throughout the team.

Make it personal. We cannot stress this enough?your customer care agents need to have a passion for forming personal connections with your customers. If you're scripting your agents, every call will feel like the same call, every customer will be treated like the one before, and true listening and problem solving cannot occur. The freemium call center is not there for the sole purpose of solving technology issues or resolving billing concerns, but it is there to make customers feel comfortable enough with your company that they want to keep spending their valuable time and money on what you sell. To keep care agents focused on the individual customer, do away with scripts and measuring agents on the duration of their calls. Without these constraints, true customer care can flourish.

When supporting freemium customers, businesses must recognize the long-term value of each and every person on the customer support line, and vouch to listen as though he or she is the only customer. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to freemium customer service, and if businesses align their practices to this philosophy, they won't just meet the high customer care bar, they'll clear it outright.

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Aaron Taylor is the vice president of customer care at MyLife, a Web site that enables more than 60 million members to connect to and manage all their social and email accounts, monitor their online information, and make new connections all in one place. For more information, visit www.mylife.com.

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Source: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/Freemium-Customer-Care-86944.aspx

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Britain's top tabloid scolds Argentina over the Falklands

BUENOS AIRES/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest-selling newspaper had a simple message for Argentina in an editorial published on Friday in the South American country: "HANDS OFF" the Falkland Islands.

The seven-paragraph epistle, penned by the populist Sun tabloid and published in Argentina's main English language newspaper, came in response to fresh demands from President Cristina Fernandez to open talks over the sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago.

The two countries fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the remote islands, which are part of Britain's self-governing overseas territories and are known in Argentina as Las Malvinas.

Britain won the war but Argentina started pressing its sovereignty claim anew last year after oil exploration began in waters near the islands.

"British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765, before the Republic of Argentina even existed," the Sun said in its open letter to Fernandez, published in both Spanish and English in the Buenos Aires Herald.

"In the name of our millions of readers," the Sun said, "HANDS OFF!"

The Sun, part of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire, has a long history of publishing fervently patriotic articles. One of its front pages during the 1982 war it marked the news that British forces had sunk the Argentine warship General Belgrano with the banner headline "GOTCHA."

As the extent of Argentine losses began to emerge, the Sun changed its headline in later editions. A total of 323 Argentines lost their lives in the attack on the Belgrano.

While the rhetoric has yet to reach such levels, tensions have flared between London and Buenos Aires against the new backdrop of oil prospects.

Crude was found to the north of the Falklands in 2010 by Rockhopper Exploration, drawing interest from hedge funds and other investors despite threats from Argentina to disrupt the activity.

In an open letter from Fernandez to Prime Minister David Cameron published in British newspapers on Thursday, the fiery two-term Peronist leader accused Britain of breaching United Nations resolutions calling for a negotiated solution.

Cameron rejects negotiations, saying the approximately 3,000 people of the Falkland Islands have chosen to be British.

In its Friday edition, the Sun used less moderate language for its own British readers than in its open letter to Fernandez, labeling her country a "banana republic."

"Stirring up trouble over the Falklands creates a convenient sideshow for Argentina's tin-pot leaders as they battle problems at home," the Sun said in its editorial, referring to economic woes in Argentina punctuated by slow growth and high inflation.

"But they are wasting their breath. And they should remember what happened last time."

(Additional reporting Estelle Shirbon in London; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britains-top-tabloid-scolds-argentina-over-falklands-152825428.html

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