November 13, 2003
Academics Can Be Fun and Games
Wired News: Academics Can Be Fun and Games
Creating compelling games involves more than just developing a shoot-'em-up,' said professor Anthony Borquez, director of the Information Technology Program at the USC School of Engineering. 'Consumers are demanding the type of games that require game developers to be more creative. They need to be broader thinkers.'
The USC School of Fine Arts, School of Cinema-Television and Computer Science department are collaborating with Borquez on the proposed interdisciplinary gaming minor. Instructors from the game industry are also lending their talents.
Posted by richard ting at November 13, 2003, 11:06 AM
Smile, gamers: You're in the picture
Smile, gamers: You're in the picture | CNET News.com
By moving the wand in a circle, he can produce a trail that turns into a ring of fire on the screen. By flicking the wand toward the TV, he can make a fireball sizzle across the monitor. Other geometric shapes conjure tornadoes or make the player invisible. 'I actually had my son draw up a list of spells he thought would be good,' Marks said.
Don't put in an emergency call to the Ministry of Magic just yet. Marks, a special-projects manager for research and development at Sony Computer Entertainment America, is only recounting his exploits with EyeToy, a miniature camera he invented that attaches to the PlayStation 2 and translates body movements into a video game. Peripheral devices for video game consoles generally do not sell well, but more than 1 million of these set-top cameras have been sold in Britain since they were introduced there in July.
Posted by richard ting at November 13, 2003, 11:06 AM
November 06, 2003
GAMING'S NEW FRONTIER
OCTOBER 2ND 2003
Mobile phones are bringing video games to a broader audience
"BIGGER than Hollywood"--that is how people in the video-game industry like to describe their business. Worldwide sales of games software, they note, were worth $21 billion last year. Global box-office takings were a mere $19 billion (though Hollywood also gains from DVD and video sales and rentals).
Yet gaming is still not truly mainstream. Gamers are mostly young and male, and they must have sufficient disposal income to buy a console, costing around $200, and games, around $50 each. That may soon change, thanks to technology's new Trojan horse, the mobile phone.
Around 450m mobile phones are sold every year, and most people upgrade
their handsets every couple of years. The latest have colour screens, internet access and powerful processing chips. As well as logos and ringtones, it is now possible to download on to them small pieces of software--such as games.
According to the Mobinet study of 5,600 mobile users in 15 countries by A.T. Kearney, a consultancy, and the Judge Institute of Management at Cambridge University, the number of people playing games on their handsets has doubled during the past year to 6% of the world's 1.3 billion mobile subscribers, and will soon outstrip the number of people gaming on consoles. As if to underline the growing interest in mobile play, Nokia, the world's leading handset-maker, will next week launch the N-Gage, a hybrid mobile phone and gaming handset. Has the games industry finally found a way into the hearts, and pockets, of a broader
audience?
PLAYING TO WIN
That certainly seems to be the case in South Korea and Japan, the world's most developed mobile markets, where handsets that support downloadable games have been available for two or three years. The proportion of users who play games on their handsets has risen to 15% in South Korea and 35% in Japan, spreading gaming beyond its traditional user base.
New gamers want something different from existing players. They want not an immersive experience, but a time filler, akin to doing a crossword, says Ben Wood of Gartner, a consultancy. Classic arcade games, such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders, are particularly well suited to mobile play. But Asian trends suggest that while such "retro-gaming" classics appeal to early adopters, the balance shifts towards simpler games, such as card games, as women and the middle-aged start to play.
The usual model is that users pay once to download a game, costing around $3. Some games are subscription based, and multi-player games, which are starting to appear, also involve extra charges. The market, worth $587m this year, is forecast to reach $3.8 billion by 2007, according to Informa Media Group; within four years 500m people--25% of mobile subscribers--will play on their phones.
Where does Nokia's new N-Gage fit in? With more processing power than other phones, it can run 3-D games such as "Tomb Raider", first designed for Sony's PlayStation console. Indeed, the N-Gage is not so much a phone optimised for games as a gaming device that happens to have a phone in it. Yet rather than aiming at the new, broader audience of mobile gamers, it is for "hardcore" users who want to play complex games on the move; a direct challenge to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, the top handheld games console.
Moving into an entirely new market in this way is risky, even for a giant such as Nokia. Worse still, Sony, which dominates the household-console market, has announced plans to launch its own handheld console, the PlayStation Portable, in 2004. But Ilkka Raiskinen, who runs the N-Gage project, insists that Nokia has a unique advantage: its understanding of mobile communications. N-Gage users
will be able to take part in multi-player games--with people in the same room via a short-range radio connection and with other mobile users via the cellular network. "Mobile and online gaming are the key trends in the industry," says Mr Raiskinen. The N-Gage is aimed at the intersection of the two. The Nintendo and Sony consoles, in contrast, will only allow wireless gaming with players in the same room.
But Nokia is in for a fight. The N-Gage costs twice as much as the Game Boy Advance and has far fewer software titles, notes Nick Gibson of Games Investor Consulting. Consumers may not regard the phone and multi-player capabilities as worth the higher price. Nokia must subsidise game development for a year or two, as games are not profitable until there is a large installed base of users. Finally, says Mr Gibson, Nintendo will fight hard to keep its lead in the handheld-console market, since it is in third place, behind Sony and Microsoft, in household consoles.
Nokia is simply getting into new markets while it can, reckons Mr Wood. Motorola, the number two handset-maker, is flailing, and Samsung, the number three, is growing fast but is still behind. "Nokia has a window of opportunity to take some gambles, and try to open up some new segments," says Mr Wood. It is strong in high-volume electronic devices. As well as the N-Gage, it has also launched a hybrid music-player handset. Last month it even unveiled a range of jewellery, to which users can beam images from their camera-phones. Of these
various bets, says Mr Wood, Nokia only needs one to succeed.
Nokia's move into the handheld gaming market, from an adjacent market which it dominates, is strongly reminiscent of Microsoft's decision to launch the Xbox console to challenge Sony. Like Microsoft, it is about to discover that the gaming market is deadly serious.
Posted by richard ting at November 06, 2003, 07:51 AM
Ghettopoly
Posted by richard ting at November 06, 2003, 07:44 AM
EA SPORTS FIFA FOOTBALL 2004
Mobile football just got better. EA SPORTS FIFA Football 2004 Mobile International Edition is stacked with the latest player data for 2004 and exciting new features including in-game training, red and yellow cards and a penalty shoot out.
FIFA Football 2004 M.I.E is an advanced football simulation featuring real players from sixteen international teams. There are four game modes; training, polish your skills before the big match and practice passing, dribbling, shooting and crossing. In friendly mode, play in a friendly match against any of the teams in a one off match to get some practice. In tournament mode, your selected team participates in a full-on football tournament with 15 other international teams. There is also a quick-fire penalty shoot out, both single and two-player, where you can pick-up and play and get some target practice against any of the featured teams. The angled viewpoint giving a greater feeling of height, 3D penalty-taking and first class graphics maximise the realistic gaming experience.
