Friday, November 11, 2011

Call of Duty's New Sales Record(s) - Steam Hacked

It blows my mind when I hear things about a game pulling in $400 million by moving more than 6.5 million units on its first day in North America and the United Kingdom. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 did just that with news reports revealing the details just today - Perhaps more amazingly it broke its own sales records, set and broken in 2009 and again in 2010 (that must be a record in it's own right).


People talk about the video game industry being a billions of dollars per year industry...seems as though it's close to becoming a billions PER DAY industry.


In other news, Steam, the online video game provider/network, has been infiltrated by hackers reportedly leaving 35 million users vulnerable and potentially exposing their credit card details...


Finally recent analysis has shown that Nintendo and Sony's combined portable games revenue has gone from  81% (of all revenue from portable game software) in 2009, to an estimated 42% this year. (Source Macworld Australia/Flurry Analytics). News of this left me wondering what will result from this state of affairs. Steve Jobs of Apple once said something about integrating many functions into one device (i.e. e-books on an iPad rather than having a dedicated e-book reader device). Considering this one must wonder if portable games devices will become a thing of the past. 3D capable smart phones are already on the market...when games are made for them the 3DS is in deep trouble whilst SONY appears to be making a transition already, with their N*Gage-like PSP/Phone hybrid device.


Is it possible that exclusive Nintendo games may one day be affiliated with iOS or perhaps Android will land an exclusive relationship with Nintendo, afterall Google did give an approving nod to Nintendo game Starfox/Lylat Wars by including an Easter Egg associated with the games phrase/internet meme "Do a Barrel Roll"











Invitation to earn revenue from your YouTube videos

The title of this blog entry is the email subject received recently. It was good to finally see this particular email arrive in the email inbox - YouTube is great.

Unfortunately the ideas one may have about video content for YouTube may consist of content which would render the video ineligible for earning income with - Content including video game/software footage, favorite music and video scenes.

These restrictions are what some would call unfair. On one hand people are encouraged to 'share' YouTube content on popular online networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger etc promoting things like songs and movie/video game trailers...on the other hand, individuals don't have the rights to "use" the content to liven up their own videos.

One can 'favorite' items, subscribe, comment on videos, link to, 'share' and so on...but to include any content that isn't yours, and making money from it is out of the question.

As an individual, what chances would one person have in gaining permission from a major copyright holder to use their material in order to make a few extra dollars on the side? Extra dollars earned online, with the proceeds spent on internet access.

Apparently recording software (i.e. A video demonstrating what Apple iOS 5 is capable of/how it works/what it looks like) is deemed more 'commercial' than educational  and it is not permissible where one intends to generate income from the video (yet some people pay for private education all the time).

You'd hate to think that people that create good video content will stop because what they can and cannot do is controlled to the point where it's not worth the trouble in trying to do something good both for themselves, as well as for others.