TiesMorskate.nl

Normally, Blizzard does not speak out about upcoming titles. The company, nicknamed ‘Fortress of Solitude’, did manage to slip some information to the public at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference; telling gamers to expect something with a broader appeal than World of Warcraft.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said:

What we’ve announced at Blizzard is that we have Starcraft II coming, Diablo has been in production… and a new, unannounced MMORPG that has a little more broad appeal

So the new title will NOT be a competitor to World of Warcraft, they will try to find an additional audience. To make sure this happens, Jeff Kaplan, the World of Warcraft game director, has been moved towards this brand-new property.

The upcoming changes to Battle.net; Battle.net 2.0, will also be incorporated in the new MMO, so the upcoming and current Blizzard titles; Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft and now the unnamed new title, will all be woven together on one platform. Adding cash play and more rewards and recognition systems will likely expand their audience even more, if they manage to integrate it all, it will make for one hell of a platform!

With just short of 22.000 games available on its App Store, the position of the iPod Touch as a gaming device is really taking off. With the two major competitors only having 3680 (Nintendo DS) and 607 (Sony’s PSP) Apple is taking the lead as one of the biggest mobile gaming platforms. The recent iPod Touch price cut only reinforces Apple’s position by allowing for more people to own their entry-level device. (more…)

The world is your playing field, and what do you do with it? Exactly, play one of the best known games on it, Monopoly!

Buy your own street? Nah, just buy the street with the White House on it for a mere $2.000.000! This is what more people then just you and me thought and the result was the following messageon the official blog at http://blog.monopolycitystreets.com/ (more…)

The gaming market promises to be even more of a major market than it already is. Consider this;

- To start gaming, someone only needs a computer in his house, something that’s seen as a requirement to function in this society
- The availability of games is only growing (iPhone, wireless internet, etc.)
- A greater variety of games is released every year
-  Game interface is ever changing; who could’ve imagined the Wii a few years back? or the Natal?
- Integration of gaming in our daily lives; friends meeting on WoW or for a game of FIFA is not strange or uncommon anymore

(more…)

The National Music Publishers Association has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against two companies, LiveUniverse and Motive Force, for allegedly operating Web sites and applications that offer users free lyrics. Reports MediaPost Publications.

While it was to be expected for this to happen sooner or later, the stated reasons are laugable and are very quikly taken apart; (more…)

Stunning article on one of the most out-of-sync websites of the net. And one of the biggest!

Read the entire Craigslist article on Wired.com!

And I think the word that leads to both is responsibility.

You are behaving responsible if the social profit of your business exceeds its cost.

You are behaving responsible if you minimize the footprint your business leaves behind.

Why is this something that people feel should be discussed? Because the laws and regulations were made before we had any awareness of the fact that pollution has a very long-term effect? It seems that way, and only when public opinion threatens to affect the bottom-line companies feel obliged to take action. The current green movement is just as much a marketing trend as the next thing but at least we are neutralizing our carbon footprint. It’s just too bad that there are all these other possible footprints that are not in the public eye.

For example, the electric company trying to sell me green power, but I still have a choice, when they’re convinced that is the best way, why leave us a choice at all? Or why doesn’t the government use the huge percentage of tax on our energy usage to make it ‘green’?

Same goes for social profitability; a business that can only thrive by exacting a cost on its social surroundings is not thriving at all; its costs are bigger than its  profits. The gambling industry comes to mind for example.

I do understand that it’s very hard to determine what the social profits and costs of doing business are, at least in some cases. The Salvation Army for example, probably has a bigger social profit than cost, while a gambling club does not gain anyone but the owners anything. For all the businesses in between things can be more grey, but it being grey is no excuse for exacting it anyway.