Mobile Gaming

David Gosen CEO of I-Play ahs predicted that the gaming console industry will be left with a 'niche audience' to target as mobile gaming becomes ever more popular.
the number of mobile subscribers is forecast to reach 2.8 billion in 2008 and that sales will reacg double that of consoles

Game Console Development

The gaming industry has come a long way since its humble beginnings more than thirty years ago. From a time when people were thrilled to see a square white block and two rectangular paddles on the screen to today, where gamers explore realistic three-dimensional worlds in high resolution with surround sound, the experience of being a gamer has changed radically.
The Article in Full

Moral Panics & Issues

The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts.
Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.
Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, "media effects.If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences — which can contribute to anti-social behavior."But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.
Children are the primary market for video games.
The centre of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing.
Video game play is socially isolating.
Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially.Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen.

My Source

Using your wider knowledge of NMT's, discuss how far young people's use of media technology differs from that of their parents?

There is undoubtedly a divide between parents and their children in terms of media technology. This can be put down to the rapid development and growth within new media technologies. the parents generation of technology involved the introduction of compatc discs, where as the music industry now is focused on digital downloading, parents are likely to be content with buying news CD's than downloading new music. With this comes the issues of piracy and illegal downloads, Children are likely to participate in illegal downloading as it is seen as part of the culture that NMT's have created. Parents are unlikely to follow this trend. This is reinforced in the mobile phone industry as younger people are more likely to upgrade phones as they are seen as a fashion item and there is competition betwen youths to have the best phone. However, parents are likely to be content with phones for a longer period of time.

Reviews

Playstation 3
"Excellent system. Graphics and interface are amazing and innovative. The PS3 features free online service along with game play along with full HD and a blue-ray player. This is definitely a better buy then other systems."

"The console is way too expensive at the present time. The graphics are no better than the Xbox 360. The controller is poorly designed and has a cheap feel to it. Sony's online service is clunky at best and comes no where near Xbox Live."

Xbox 360
"Game Library, Live Marketplace, Best online support bar none"

"Overheats, the cooling fan gets real loud. When it does overheat, the system will lock up or crash some other way"

Nintendo Wii

So which is Best?

I have concluded that it is impossible for anyon to say which is best. The Xbox has a wide range of games and its online play is excellent. The PS3 provides internet browser, boasts a free online service and has Blu-ray capabilities. The Wii is a unique interactive way of gaming and is lowest in price and has totally new experiances for the consumer.
This is down to the fact that personal aspects play a key part in the gaming industry. Items such as customer loyality and personal choice.

Handheld Gaming or Second War

Both Sony and Nintendo have released handheld gaming devices in which their sales trounce the games console sales.
Game Boy Advance: 81.06 million
Nintendo DS: 70.6 million
PlayStation Portable: 25.39 million (Wikipedia)
Does this mean that handheld gaming is better than games consoles or is it merely a combination of lower prices and a desire to fulfil peoples drudgery of modern day living. It is clear that the graphics and features of these systems are much lower but the sales dont reflect this. It remains evident that these consoles are key in the gaming industry.

The Console Wars

"Console wars" is a term used to refer to periods of intense competition for market share between video game console manufacturers. The winners of these "wars" may be debated based on different standards: market penetration and financial success, or the fierce loyalty and numbers of the fans of the system's games. Although it is almost impossible for anyone to confirm which is best, there is a huge competition for the gaming manufacturers to out do eachover. There are various pros and cons and all consoles boast there own unique qualities.
It has been suggested that in fact thereis no major difference in peerformance of these consoles.
Bill Gates: "We have a Ferrari, they have a Ferrari….but ours will leave first"
This most definately suggests that Microsoft feel that they have the advantage purely because there console was released first.

Case study feedback #2

Mark - well done, this is a solid start. You have found some useful statistics, but you must cite their source if you want to use them in the exam.



While this is a start - you do have some way to go yet to complete the case study by Monday.

Good luck

CF

Output and Graphics

One of the most important aspects in the seventh generation of gaming is the graphics output of the systems, this is particularly relavant to the Xbox 360 and PS3. There has been a major battle between the systems to obtain the best output capabilities which has involved a massive gamble by Sony to include BLU-RAY rather than Microsofts HD DVD which is provided by Toshiba.
BLU-RAY vs HD DVD
It would appear that the gamble has payed of for Sony as the Xbox has now abandoned the use of HD games and instead released an adapter for the console. Although it has been suggested that this will play a major role in the downfall of Xbox in the console wars. This article explains how Microsoft see it differently.
The company reiterated in a statement that it does not believe Toshiba's conceit to Sony's Blu-ray format "will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace."HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers," said the statement, referring to its Xbox Live Marketplace digital download service, "and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own."
Although they seem to suggest that it will have no impact on there position in the marketplace it is clearly 1 nil to Sony and the PS3.

Internet and Social Networking

All three seventh generation of consoles offer some kind of Internet games distribution service, allowing users to download games for a fee onto some form of storage, typically a hard disk or flash memory. Recently the console manufacturers have been taking full advantage of internet distribution with arcade games, television shows and film trailers being available.

• Sony's online game distribution is known as the PlayStation Network (PSN). It offers free online gaming, downloadable content such as classic PlayStation games. A networking service, dubbed PlayStation Home, is due for release in Spring 2008. They have also announced a video/movie service and music service for some time in 2008.
• Microsoft's Xbox Live service includes the Xbox Live Arcade & Xbox Live Marketplace, featuring digital distribution of classic and original titles. These include arcade classics, original titles, and games originally released on other consoles. The membership cost around £30 annually.
• Games are currently being emulated on the Nintendo Wii console through Nintendo's Virtual Console service. Nintendo also plans to have original content available for download in the future through their WiiWare service.

Sales and Prices

The Sales of a games console will determine its success

• The Sony Playstation 3 has sold 10.49 million units worldwide as of January 2008 since its launch in November 2006.
• The Microsoft Xbox 360 has sold 18 million units as of February 2008 since its release in November 2005.
• The Nintendo Wii has sold 20.13 million units as of December 2007 since its worldwide release in November 2006.

Based on sales figures from Enterbrain, NPD Group, and GfK

• The Playstation 3 was originally sold in two configurations, one with a 60 GB hard disk drive for USD $599(£400) and the other a 20 GB HDD for $499(£300). This has now changed as the 60gb and 20GB modeld no longer in circulation and a 40GB model now being introduced and sold for $499(£300).
• The Xbox 360 2oGB is sold for $299(£200) and this is the only model available without upgrades which cost vary greatly for.
• The Nintendo Wii will cost $499 (£266), while a premium model will sell for $599 (£320). These prices are upon release of the Wii prices have now dropped around £50 on each

The 3 consoles

The three consoles i have chose to investigate are Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. There are key areas of debate within these consoles and vast competition between them.
Here is a breif outline of the consoles

• The PlayStation 3 is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment
• Xbox 360 is the second video game console to be produced by Microsoft
• The Wii is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo

They all compete as part of the seventh generation of video game systems.

There are key areas of involved in these consoles which i will investigate.

• Price
• Hardware and Storage
• Output and Graphics
• Internet and Social Networking
• Features
  

Questions

1.Citizen Journalism
Citizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism, is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media. as well as user generated content.

2.Emily Bell
In her article Emily Bell empresses key opinions and views about citizen journalism. In particular she shows concern for lack of quality information, as well as concerns for the possible use of bias and lack of truth in the article or digital media. It is also a risk from the impact of exaggeration. This is also a major concern becuase of the fact that the information is not checked or edited so the information could be opinion rather than fact. She also writes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks begain the infatuation with blogging with the use of digital media and personal accounts of the events

3.GoogleZon
This video is clearly expressing the power that the internet has and also predicts the future of growth that the internet will have. The idea that merges will continue to happen between ig internet companies and technogies until it is at the point where these groups no everyones personal details. It predicts the merge of Amazon and google which entail would make the details of people public

New Media Technology-Gaming

I have chosen to investigate gaming and in particular a key number of specific factors in this particlar area.

• I will begin by researching the different platforms of gaming and getting a strong knowledge of the competition in the market.
• The facts and figures of gaming including sales, profits, etc.
• The effect gaming has had on people's lifes and in particular online gaming
• The end of HD and rise of Blu-ray gaming and television

Newspapers-In Decline?????

1.Fourth Estate is a term given to the press. The first three states are courts, parliamant and religion in that particular order. the fourth estate is beleived to be able to reflect and report abuse of the other states.

Digital technology and the Film Industry

Production
The use of digital technology and in particular CGI has enhanced film-making and has enabled directors to move films in a new direction. The digital editing allows film to appear more beleivable. This article explains the benefits of digital technolgy, during the production the most common benefit is the time saved as previous editing would have been accomplished using a workplate and manual editing. The new age of digital editing allows the use of CGI and other editing techniques to be used extremely easily. post production advantages allow effects and techniques such as colour grading and various mise-en-scene effects such as editing lighting on faces for example.
Distribution
the most obvious advantage with digital technology is the savings in distribution costs. An average length feature film print costs around £700 .Encoding it and delivering a hard drive to the cinema works out at a fraction of that. In future, the possibility of delivering the movie by satellite or over the net has got the bean counters salivating. One of the other great costs to the movie industry is piracy, which Hollywood claims has cost it $6bn (£3.2bn).Distributing movies digitally means they can be encrypted before they even leave the studios, and then unlocked by software at the cinemas themselves. The release prints of movies arrive in projection rooms as 10,000 feet of film printed as a copy of the original.
Exhibition
Although the cinema experience may be better the cost prevents alot of people going, the better quality sound and picture which most people will not have at their homes. it is no doubt superior at this current time but the cost has to be taken into account. People would prefer to save money than particpate in the 'cinema experience'.The current situation sees cinema ticket prices rising whilst the cost of home cinemas continuos to reduce, the result of this is sales of tickets reducing and forcing cinemas to further raise their prices for tickets as well as other products such as food, which further pressures the customers away from the cinema. The cinema industry is most certainly under threat from home cinemas because of the money saving factors that come with purchasing home cinemas, and in the long run no doubt save people money.
Film piracy is a major concern in the industry. although quality of sound and picture is dramatically decreased the cost is extremely low and they are widely accesible on the internet or dvd so people are likely to purchase such films, this is why there has been a steady rise in the number of counterfit dvd's found.

Moral Panics and Concerns with Online Technology

There are various social concerns that arise with digital technology evolution and that the threat of a divide between people who have regular access to these technologies and people who are not able to. An article i found that expressed its concerns over the threat of class divide. Not only in less developed countries but within the the poorer part of the developed countries who don't have access to the Internet or a computer. it also explains the fact that it can be conceived as an invasion of privacy and that the sites can give away important information and the fact the military has banned myspace because it can put them in danger. and also the threat that military information can be leaked.
Another more common concern is the threat to younger people who are more vulnerable to other threats. This article that i found explains some key points for concern with the ever growing threat to younger people who are a large audience for the social networking industry.
It explains why teenagers in particular are drawn to these websites and the various threats posted to them because they are going public. The primary threats are unsafe disclosure of personal information, risky sexual behaviour, 'cyber bullying', involvement with dangerous communities and groups, and posting 'cyber threats'. One of the most famous cases is of course the 'MySpace killer'.
On the basis that the world wide web is so massive that it is impossible to monitor everything that everyone is doing. The threat is becoming a problem on a worldwide scale. Certain aspects are very difficult to monitor and even though most aspects can, the possibility of hacking and ways to get around the moderaters and sensories and is commonly known now were days.

Podcast

The teacher spoke of various media terms and describes there definitions. She also describes how they will affect the audiences lives. Here are the key terms that i took in.
digitality- Is a relatively new way of encoding, it consists of two stages(1 or 0, on or off)
interactivity- New technological abilities that can be worked with
convergions- How some companies merge and work together to make new technology.

The teacher also discusses issues related to audience, control and regulation, and ownership.
Here are some short questions that she mentioned could affect the audience.
Do new technologies change the audience?
Have audience demanded these changes?
Who doesn't have access?

The Guardian Article and Questions

1. Who is Chris De Wolfe and what does he say is the future for social networking? What impact will portable hardware have on this area of technology?
Chris DeWolfe (born 1966) is one of the creators of MySpace (along with Tom Anderson). He is the current CEO of MySpace. He beleives that the industry is becoming closer and people are becoming more likely to form relationships. The network is continuing to grow and more and more friendships will be formed along with more and more networks being created. He also beleives that because more than ever more people are logging onto social networking sites it is affecting other industries.

2. Who is Chad Hurley and what does he say is his company's goal? Is he a positive or negative technological determinist?
Chad Meredith Hurley (born 1977) is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the popular San Bruno, California-based video sharing website YouTube, one of the biggest providers of videos on the Internet. In October 2006 he sold YouTube for $1.65 billion to Google. He aims to provide a simple way in which people can share and is most certainly a postive technological determinist because he is happy with his company and is always looking to improve it for the benefit of its fans and members.

3. What does Maurice Levy say is the challenge for advertisers and what is 'liquid media' compared to 'linear media'?
He compares digital and analogue media and claims that digital media has a much wider range of possiblities. He defines the old way of advertising with no interactivity as 'linear media'. the new age of advertising which he describes as 'seamless' which involves interacting, changing settings, chaning and skipping parts of playlists and various other options.

4. What parallels does Norvig draw between Edison inventing electricity and the development of online technology in terms of searching for information?
He compares Edisons invention of electricity as a similar start to the development of online technology, metaphorically speaking they both opened the 'flood-gates' to a new range of ideas and possibilities.

5. What are the issues for the developing world? How is this evidence of a 'digital divide'? (socio-economic divide due to access to technology)
The economic divide between 1st world and 3rd world countries means that poorer countries are less technogical advanced as the richer countries. Whilst technology continues to move forward in the developed world the threat that developed countries will fall further behing is a very real possibilty.
The developing world will not have technological assess that the developed world has got.