News and Analysis

Anime/Manga

An Iowa man is being prosecuted for owning allegedly obscene manga showing minors having sex. This case definitely merits keeping an eye on – a guilty verdict may mean American publishers of hentai and yaoi being a lot more cautious about what they bring over.

Video Games

World of Warcraft may be adding some optional features at an additional fee in the future, including character customization. Whether players pony up the extra bucks remains to be seen, but if it works, expect the other online games to follow suit.

The PSP is about to get a software upgrade that will allow it to connect directly to the Playstation Store and download games. Playstation 3 will get a software upgrade at the same time that includes an in-game screencap tool.

Wedbush Morgan analysts have declared the game industry recession-proof, saying it will continue to be profitable during tough economic times.

Atari Inc. has been acquired by Infogrames, a French publisher that was once its majority shareholder. Atari will now be a subsidy of the company.

Technology

MySpace is expanding its MyAds service, which allows advertisers to micro-target users for its Google-like ads by parameters such as age, sex and geographical location, combining it with user interest categories including specific keywords within each category.

Publishing

Long Island, NY tabloid newspaper Newsday, which was acquired by Cablevision in July, has suffered an 11% drop in revenues this year over 2007 figures. And the news continues to be gloomy for the traditional paper industry.

Film

More movies are being released directly on DVD nowadays, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the film is poor quality, according to U.K. paper The Guardian – a lot of it has to do with today’s "carpet bombing" approach to film releases and how a film has to guarantee a large amount of "butts in the seats" on the very first weekend. Interesting especially for what it says about changes in the entertainment industry over the last couple of decades.

Most of the news today comes from the gaming world, and much of that news comes from one company.

Anime/Manga

Even hentai is getting mainstream attention nowadays: MSNBC has done an article about how sexy anime and manga have influenced Western culture.

Video Games

Capcom is all over the news today. The company is warning that its catalog of violence-heavy games may be the target of a media smear campaign (alas, in today’s climate, producers of adult-oriented games have to expect that kind of thing). It is refocusing its marketing on European and North American regions, looking to have 80% of its sales come from the West. And the company has said it will no longer do platform-exclusive development, releasing versions of future games for multiple systems. The latter two are definitely smart marketing moves, with video games remaining hot in America despite the sluggish economy, and the console wars heating up with the Xbox 360 price cut.

However, there may be signs that game sales are slowing down a little — the North American game industry grew only 9% year-over-year in August, according to NPD. The top-selling game console in the U.S., by the way, is the Nintendo DS, according to the same survey.

GameStop’s Bob McKenzie is saying digital distribution will be no threat to traditional game sales until 2020. It definitely bears watching to see if his prediction is carried out, given that Wiiware seems to be a rather hot property right now.

Activision has acquired UK publisher FreeStyle Games as part of what it says is its commitment to music gaming. The company is best known for a hip-hop game that, so far, has only been released overseas. It seems that the best way to make it in the video game industry nowadays is to have the next Guitar Hero on your hands.

Microsoft may have pulled the plug on its Ensemble Studios, but the company says Ensemble’s signature title, Age of Empires, is not dead yet. The company has left the door open for the title’s revival in the future — which, hopefully, means they’ll still be retaining the crew that worked on the original.

Technology

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a new bill that would allow the Justice Department to bring civil lawsuits against intellectual property infringers on behalf of content owners. The bill was revised, though, after complaints from consumer groups noted that language in the legislation could, if broadly interpreted, apply to file-sharing services. This may mean that creators of fan products may have to watch their step a bit when distributing their works in public if the bill becomes law.

Economics/Geekonomics
Retailers are closing, and malls will be affected. Shopping, it seems, has a cascade effect. Video games may be a hot commodity at the moment, but how will GameStop be impacted by slower mall/shopping traffic? (GameStop itself, by the way, has reshuffled its senior management, naming Daniel DeMetteo, formerly COO, as its new CEO).

Some fancy stock options that people at top companies got are now worth less, or even underwater. Of course financial industries are the most affected, but just a reminder of how far this mess spread. Also as companies look at other forms of compensation, expect more public attention on that .. .

As noted before, the FDIC may need to borrow money if there’s a string of bank failures. Which means, your tax dollars. This also means if there’s more failure the recession/downturn will go on even longer and credit will be even tighter. The FDIC is also preparing by getting more space and employees – a good pre-emptive move, but not encouraging.

Publishing

American Media, which mainly publishes tabloids and muscle mags, is refinancing as they’ve got $570 million of debt to deal with. All I can say is “ouch” – and that yet another blow to publishing appears to be coming.

Technology
Do smaller gadgets mean more safety problems? – A little something rarely talked about in technology.

Yet another “No matter how big you are, watch your step” cautionary tale: Bloomberg was left with red faces after they accidentally uploaded an obituary for Steve Jobs. Given that the Apple and Pixar head has been battling pancreatic cancer, this created a flurry of concern.

Comcast has said it will set an official limit on the amount of data users can upload and download each month. This is huge technology news and could set off a ton of legal challenges.

Video Games
First in a series on the megatrends of game design – This article is interesting mostly for the economics and what it means for development. Modular and downloadable content actually lets companies apply faster, iterative development methods – so they can add more and fix things faster if they use methods like SCRUM/Agile. Fast software development methods also have more bang for the buck, so I expect that to encourage more modular design.

Will Wright blasts E3 as the walking dead – – He’s not alone, really. The question is what comes next? (Leipzing? Hello?)

Merger news in the gaming industry yet again: Mega-mega Square Enix is planning a friendly takeover of Tecmo.

Wedbush Morgan Securities predicts that Nintendo may develop a new handheld gaming system due to weakening sales of the DS in Japan. The DS is doing just fine here, though, so it’s questionable whether the company will want to ditch it on these shores. Something to keep an eye on for the future. Nintendo as a whole, by the way, is in very good shape, having increased its full-year profit forecast by 26%.

Najesco Entertainment has been warned by the New York Stock Exchange that it may be delisted due to falling profits. Its stock has, for the past 30 consecutive trading days, closed below the $1.00-per-share minimum required for continued inclusion.

Anime/Manga

The live-action Voltron movie, which was dropped by production company New Regency earlier this month, appears to be back on track. Television director Max Makowski, who is also preparing a big-screen adaptation of ’70s TV show “Kung Fu,” is set to direct.