Video Games
Electronic Arts is promising that the next version of The Sims will utilize digital distribution and user-generated content more than ever before. The company is launching a Web site, www.thesims3.com, to serve as a digital storefront. Very smart move on the part of the company, taking one of its biggest franchises into the lucrative world of downloadables and digital goods. The company's sports division also says it's going to work on improving its Wii games, which it claims are falling behind other platforms, and look for new ways to bring its games to PCs. Sounds like EA, which has had a bumpy road of it as of late, is looking to reinvent itself, which can only be positive for them at this juncture - they serve as an example for anyone who finds their business model faltering. Take a step back, take a long look and target very specific areas that need fixing.
Sony exec David Reeves is claiming Playstation 3 will dominate the market in three to five years, and still no mention of a price cut. If EA is the example right now of the right way to go, Sony, at least as far as the PS3 is concerned, is "Ur doin it wrong." Trash talk does no good without the action to back it up, and if Sony wants to make good on their word, they're going to have to cut the PS3 price in order to stay competitive.
Ubisoft reaped big profits during the last year, with sales up 14%, thanks to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. and Shaun White Snowboarding, and the company is already talking about followups to the latter title (which took advantage of the Wii Fit balance board technology in its Nintendo version). The company is also looking to secure its future by preparing for the next generation of hardware. They're looking like a smart, steady company at the moment, and a good career bet.
The Social Network Game Boom: A look at how MySpace and Facebook are changing the face of the gaming industry. The blogger here calls social networking games the biggest revolution since downloadable casual games, so it's definitely an area designers should take seriously.
Technology
Disney has taken a stake in Hulu, the streaming video site, which creates the unusual setup of a company co-owned by two competing networks (Hulu is part-owned by NBC, and Disney is the parent company of ABC). This may also hasten that made-for-Hulu programming that we've been predicting for awhile, since Disney is very big on cable and direct-to-video production, so new avenues for television production may be coming sooner rather than later.
If you're a software developer who wants to test your programs on Windows 7 before it comes out, you're in luck: The company is offering the Release Candidate, essentially a version of the upcoming software one step up from the beta that will be available for a year. Looks like they're going well out of their way to avoid a repeat of the Vista debacle and make sure all third-part software is compatable with its next OS.
Apple is assembling an in-house chip design team to work on in-house units for mobile devices. The company has worked with Samsung on phone chips in the past, but this looks like an effort to safeguard their secets and make sure they don't fall into the hands of competing smartphone makers. The chip team is said to be made up of "all-stars," but the company will doubtlessly be looking for support staff for them. The company also seems to be getting very serious about iPhone gaming, hiring Richard Teversham, formerly senior director of strategy for the Xbox.
Social Networking
IBM is converting its developers' site, MyDeveloperWorks, into a social network, incorporating LinkedIn-style features. The site has a library of 30,000 resources and an estimated eight million users, and this new development shows how much social networking has become incorporated into business culture. If you're not seeking it out now, you're going to fall behind – especially if your company adopts it in-house.
General Mills is scoring a big hit with MyBlogSpark, under which mothers with blogs who agree to review the company's products can have them for free. A look at how social media can be utilized for target marketing and how big business is embracing the geekosphere.
A Guide to Who's Hiring in Social Media This Week: As we so often say, you know what to do.
Publishing
Maplewood, a small town in northern New Jersey, is becoming a model for local news delivery of the future: the town has three hyper-local Web sites that cover it, as well as the New York Times site. This is definitely the wave of the future – the local newspaper isn't going to go away, it's just going to evolve into a pile of pixels. Young journalists just out of college, who used to get their training at the local weekly, will most likely be working at these sites now – providing a realistic glimpse of what their careers will be like in the digital-news world.
- Bonnie