Archive for the ‘Digital Content’ Category

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Finishing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

It’s been quite a while since my last post.  I took a much needed vacation to California and was able to drop by GDC for a day.  At the conference I had some time to kill and was able to play Uncharted for a little while.  At first, I didn’t know what it was.  There is a scene at the beginning where pirates on boats rush past you.  The player is able to zoom in and shoot at the pirates.  The effect is impressive and so are the graphics of the game.  I later played through the U-boat scene and was hooked.  Upon arriving home I quickly picked up a copy of Uncharted at my local Best Buy.

For the following week I was immersed.  The game itself has 24 levels and takes about 10 hours to complete.  It is what I would call a mid-length game.  (20 hours is long and 5 hours is short)  That said, I feel that I absolutely got my money’s worth out of the game.  The graphics are great and the game play is a lot of fun.  Some of the early fighting scenes can be a bit tough until you grasp the heavily cover-based combat system.

One of the unlock-able items is a video on the making of the game.  The Naughty Dog team was trying to recreate the themes of some classic movies.  I really think they achieved their goal.  The action is fast, furious, and fantastical.  It feels like you are in a movie throughout.  Even my wife commented on how it sounded like a movie although she thought the characters still looked a bit surreal.

It turns out that Naughty Dog actually had the voice actors doing mo-cap for most of the scenes.  The female lead looks almost identical to the actress who played her.  Some of the developer’s early sketches has a slightly different look for her, but they obviously changed it.  The two male leads weren’t copied as exactly, but the characters did look somewhat similar to the actors.

There is one questionable move that the script-writers made about 3/4 of the way through the game.  There is the introduction of a supernatural element that seems incongruous.  I couldn’t help wondering if the move was really necessary.  They made it through almost all of the game staying with an exaggerated reality.  There were ways to finish of the game demonstrating that the characters had a concern about the supernatural, but having it merely be unfounded fear.  In retrospect, I think the developer made the decision in order to add a new element to the game play that would have been missing otherwise.  I can understand why they might have made that decision.  In the Indiana Jones movies, which this game obviously borrows from extensively, there are some supernatural elements even though the core of the movies are based in exaggerated reality.

Overall, I think the game was great and would recommend it to anyone who likes movie-like games.  I had a blast playing it and can’t wait for the upcoming sequels.  The game was my first PS3 purchase in quite some time.  Hopefully it will encourage the development of more high quality PS3 games.  Uncharted:  Drake’s Fortune is definitely my PS3 Game of the Year for 2007 releases.

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Call Your Cable Company For a Better Rate Right Now!

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

I’m serious.  I put off calling the cable company for way too long.  My bill for Television and Internet had spiraled to $163.35 a month.  I have been complaining about Comcast and lamenting the lack of an alternative high speed Internet provider in my area for quite some time.  Since I’m about to take a 2 week vacation, I decided that it was time to call.  I won’t be using cable for half of the next month, so reducing my cable package would not be that big of a deal.  They will always let you add it back.

I was paying for a silver premium package.  That gave me all of the channels over #100 and HBO.  We never watch HBO.  I hadn’t removed it because all of the unbundled package costs were just as high without it.  We rarely ever watch a channel over #100.  While I would love to choose a couple of those channels to keep, the extra that we paid for them far outstripped the limited value.  For reducing my digital cable to just the standard channels and eliminating HBO, I was able to save almost half on my bill!  My monthly bill will now be $80 for both Internet and Cable.  If I return my second cable box, the rate will be even lower.  The CSR on the phone was extremely helpful and informative about the packages that were currently being offered.  He didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate it very much.  If you are and existing Comcast customer, call them and tell them you want to downgrade your service.  Tell them you saw a $59.99 high speed Internet and Digital Starter cable deal that was good for 12 months.  You too can cut your bill.  Please pick up the phone now.  You owe it to yourself and your wallet.

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Sensationalism and The Gaming Industry

Friday, January 25th, 2008

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you’ll probably be as appalled as I was. Fox News does a jaw-droppingly amazing job of simply creating a controversy where none exists. What a slimy news outlet. The sad part is that this is the type of coverage is indicative of the coverage that the video gaming industry typically gets. I commend Geoff Keighley for doing a tremendous job of refuting the reporters points while not appearing defensive. One point that I would have added is that it takes about 16 hours of gameplay to get to that scene. You can’t fast forward. It isn’t exactly a quick fix. Grabbing one of Dad’s DVDs would be a much quicker fix. The gaming industry will continue to see more stories like in the future, particularly with the release of the next Grand Theft Auto installment this year.

What can the industry do to help itself in the short-term?

#1 – Always point at the DVD-player

#2 – Adopt the movie industry ratings system.

The reporter and panel point to the content in Mass Effect as “wrong for kids.” The content is wrong for kids, but it isn’t supposed to be purchased for kids. A quick response is:

Q: “Do you have a DVD player?” A: Yes

Q: “Do you own or ever rent any R-rated films?” A: Yes

Q: “How is an R-rated game any more difficult to keep away from your kids?”

How much sillier would this Fox segment sound if they pointed at how bad it was that an R-rated game was released? A bit of the issue here is that the game probably would have only warranted a PG-13 rating as a movie.

What can the industry do in the longer-term?

#1 – Scene-It?

#2 – Wait it out

What the industry needs to do is make more games like Scene-It?. Regardless of the profits from that individual title, the industry benefits are long-lasting. Everyone has a TV. Why not replace the family board game? Why does Fox’s target audience look for games and not movies to be vilified? Generally, it is because they all watch movies, but never play games. People fear what they do not know. By simply getting a Mom or Dad who would never otherwise play a game to turn on the system or even join in playing a game has far-reaching transformational impact. Video games are quickly de-mystified. The idea that they are only the domain of adolescent boys is debunked. If more of Fox’s audience played a game at least occasionally, the network would not have run a segment like that. They certainly didn’t talk about the R rated movies that came out that week. The industry will have won when the game system is simply considered a glorified DVD player.

Certainly Nintendo’s Wii has brought in more non-gamers. Games like Scene-It? and Microsoft’s other forays into casual gaming are working to displace the family board game. Long-term these types of games will serve to make video gaming a more acceptable part of everyday life.

The final item isn’t something that the industry has to do anything about. The passage of time will help. When the older demographics in the country become people who grew up with exposure to video gaming, this industry won’t have nearly as much of a reputational issue to worry about. That is a long time to wait though. I hope that this segment serves as a rallying cry for the industry. An image improvement campaign only means more sales for all games.

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Sony, Please Revamp Your Playstation Store

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Dear Sony,

I really want the Playstation store to be the answer. You’ve built a device that is exceptionally powerful, albeit difficult to develop for, gaming device. You’ve included the ability to even install other operating systems and a user-upgradeable hard drive. The Playstation 3 is screaming to be that digital entertainment hub that you envisioned. So what is this poor excuse for an online distribution system called the Playstation Store?

I can forgive, at least temporarily, the lack of downloadable video on the site. It takes a while to craft agreements with all of the different content owners. Just remember, your console has been out for a year already and we haven’t seen anything yet. Microsoft has plenty of content. Please tell me that you are playing nice with the other providers. Youc could at least give me some Sony titles to download in the meantime. You do want my download $s don’t you?

I’m not terribly enthused with the way that content takes so long to download. Microsoft’s systems are much faster. A great first step would be to allow the content to download in the background. Why do systems updates need to be in the foreground to download? Why do game demos require me to leave my Playstation 3 on? Microsoft simply pops up a message on my Xbox 360 while I’m playing to let me know that it is done with a download.

The major, unforgivable item, is the atrocious interface design. The icons are tiny and tough to read. There is too much going on in each screen. The navigation is confusing. “Next” doesn’t work on the homepage to scroll, you have to use the arrow. The back button on the remote actually exists the application, it doesn’t go back to the previous screen. Some downloads are in the major categories, others are in subcategories that show up as icons within categories. For example, games are a category, but themes are a subcategory.

On my projection screen the store is ugly, slow, difficult to navigate, but legible. On my 37″ 1080i/720p family room LCD it is impossible to read. Unfortunately, that television is not one that we sit close to. I like having my Playstation there, but I can’t read a thing on it. Please see a recent post that I wrote on resolution independence.

Microsoft’s store by comparison is easy to navigate. There is far less on the screen. The scroll down with a split-screen blow-up of the selected item on the right works much better. Even if you can’t come up with a compelling innovation, please just copy the state of the art. Your store is essentially a webpage, so a redesign isn’t difficult. I recognize that some of my other requests might require a firmware update, but this one could be pulled off with simply a server change. I’m waiting.

Sincerely,

SD

P.S. – I really do enjoy my PS3. I just want to help you make it better.

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Halo 3 Legendary Edition Redux

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

No sooner do I post that the $79.99 Halo 3 Legendary Edition isn’t selling particularly well on Amazon then they drop the price to $59.99. The price is now the same as the standard edition!  If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, now is the time to do it.  This just further strengthens the argument that Microsoft over-estimated.

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Was Microsoft Wrong About Halo 3 Legendary Edition?

Monday, November 26th, 2007

I think they were. When Halo 3 was launched I saw comments that the limited edition “legendary” Halo 3 bundle would be expected to sell out quickly. Well, here we are at the end of November and the legendary edition (the one with the helmet) can still be found at retail and online without much trouble. Did Microsoft way overproduce them?

I’m thinking that they might have. Here is why: Amazon announce that they would sell the normally $129.99 product for $79.99 on the day after Thanksgiving. The deals went live at 12:01 AM Pacific, which was the unwelcome hour of 3:00 AM Eastern. One of the odd benefits of having very young children who aren’t really into sleeping all night long was that I was able to buy one at 3:15 AM. The $50 discount on the bundle was just what I was looking for, and I expected that they would sell out relatively quickly. They didn’t.

As of the end of the day on Black Friday, they were still available at Amazon for $79.99. Even checking through the weekend and today, they were still available for $79.99. As of this writing, the Halo 3 Legendary Edition is still available for $79.99 on Amazon’s site.

Surely, Amazon must have cut a special deal with Microsoft to sell these items on Black Friday without taking a huge loss. Maybe they even cut a deal to move some excess inventory for Microsoft. I would have expected that three days later, the discount stock would have all been sold. Alas, the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, even at a $50 discount is still number 140 on the list of top selling video games. That’s an abysmal performance.

There are two things going on here. First, anyone who was set to buy this game has already done so. For them, the Legendary Edition, while interesting, is redundant. You don’t sell $300MM+ of games in the first week and leave a lot of people wanting. The second thing is that the Legendary Edition is just too expensive. As interesting as the helmet and extra content are to gamers, there is a limit to what they will pay in excess of the game itself. For $129.99, the extras cost more than the $59.99 game. Microsoft has tested the outside limit of what gamers are willing to pay and seems to have passed the outer limit.

I’m not sure if this will mean no more “Legendary Edition”-type moves by publishers or simply smaller production runs for the super special editions. Even with a low production run, high margin collectors editions could be well worth it for the publisher. Too bad Microsoft seems to have over estimated the demand.

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Why Doesn’t iTunes Integrate Bit Torrent?

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

No, I’m not writing about Apple allowing you to download trackers from The Pirate Bay directly into iTunes. That will never happen. Apple isn’t looking to enable piracy.

I listen to a lot of podcasts on my long drives to and from work. Each time I sync my iPhone I make sure to update my podcasts. Often the downloads can take upwards of 1o minutes for a slow server. Apple isn’t hosting the downloads, but simply linking to them. Why can’t or won’t Apple integrate Bit Torrent technology into iTunes and enable the podcasts to be downloaded without requiring the podcasts to be served directly? Bandwidth fees for large amounts of downloads can really add up. Apple knows this from all of the money they pay Akamai to serve songs.

Here is the model:

  • Apple integrates Bit Torrent into iTunes
  • Podcaster distributes content to iTunes Bit Torrent network
  • iTunes Subscriptions pull the tracker link rather than the direct download URL
  • The downloads happen quickly and with “free” borrowed bandwidth

This structure would help podcasters who may have to pay for their bandwidth. There is also a logical extension for Apple itself. Why not distribute Apple’s own songs and more importantly video content via a torrent network? There are definitely DRM-related issues around the files themselves. It may be impossible to transfer protected files via the network. However, as we have seen with iTunes Plus, much of the content is moving to a DRM-free format. Apple could keep part of the download coming from the main server in order to tag the file with the individual’s name, but the majority of the download could be offloaded to the torrent network. Apple could always backstop the network with servers to make sure that thinly downloaded songs are served appropriately. I would think the bandwidth cost savings would be well worth it.

If Apple could figure out a way to distribute their video files this way, they would have an absolute winner on their hands. Likely a large obstacle to HD content (other than the content providers) is bandwidth costs. If Apple could substantially reduce the bandwidth costs, we might see HD content sooner. I think podcasts and iTunes plus music offer Apple a fertile playground to test and perfect an efficient torrent network. I just don’t understand why Apple hasn’t tried it.

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2007 – Video Gaming’s Best Year Ever?

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Here is the question: Is 2007 Gaming’s Best year ever? Yes.

The case for it:

Within 3 months we are likely to have 7 games with Gamerankings averages above 95%:

  • Bioshock (360 & PC)
  • The Orange Box (360 & eventually PS3)
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360, PS3, and PC)
  • Assassin’s Creed (360, PS3, and PC) – only a few rankings, but in at 97.5%
  • Mass Effect (360) – only a few rankings, but in at 97.5%
  • Crysis (PC) -only a few rankings, but in at 95%
  • Mario Galaxy (Wii)

In the entire history of Playstation 2′s domination of the last generation of consoles, it only had 3 games score greater than 95%. Even then, the games were only barely above 95%.  None of them were above 96%. The three games were Resident Evil 4 and two of the Grand Theft Auto series games. In the last 7 years, no prior year has ever had more than two titles rank above 95%.

Amazingly, the list above doesn’t even factor in the undoubted best-selling game of the year. Halo 3 scores 93.3%, which is still a spectacular score. Neither Guitar Hero III or Rock Band show up on the list, but both are poised to be important and fun games. In my opinion, this is gaming’s best year ever from a quality standpoint. I still have some issues with the first-person shooter bias in top games, as well as the lack of quality child-appropriate titles. On the upside, more than half of the titles on the list are not sequels. The industry has a bad habit of churning out sequels as a sure thing. The trend toward new IP is promising. Hopefully 2008 will be an even better year.

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Could Content Aggregation Be The Future Of Digital Video Content?

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

With RSS feeds and online video, I’ve started to wonder whether the solution to digital video distribution isn’t aggregation at the customer’s level. iTunes provides aggregation at intermediate level. Apple deals with the distribution and makes sure that all of the media is available the same way. The argument against studios performing the service themselves is that consumer selection would be limited. Is it possible that a solution lies somewhere in the middle?

Here is the setup:

  • Content providers are paranoid – They all assume piracy or no profit whenever the content gets out of their control (see RIAA suing everyone and NBC pulling their video from iTunes to launch Hulu)
  • Consumers demand timely access to content from the couch- No one wants to watch only what’s on. They want to watch what they want, when they want. (see Tivo, OnDemand, and Bit-torrent)
  • Network-connectivity on devices is becoming standard - HD-DVD players have online connectivity and game systems are networked.

Issues

  • Ease of Use – without mandated consistency, the broadcasters can choose the video format that they want. It could lead to consumer confusion.
  • Bandwidth is increasing slowly - Although High Definition over the internet is slow, bit torrent has demonstrated the easy of transferring large files quickly. There might be a happy medium here, but gaining bit-torrent’s considerable bandwidth requires relinquishing some control.
  • Consumers don’t get it - Still, half of the network-ready game systems aren’t actually hooked up by the consumer, but digital content might be the enticement.
  • Who makes the device? - Anyone who wants to. I’m wondering if the device could be a standards-neutral network node. Anything that could run web technologies like RSS, download, cache, and play back video content would be capable. This could include any sort of dedicated device or computer.
  • How is money made? – I think this would work with any traditional online advertising model. Since the broadcaster controls the feed, they control the content. It could probably also be adjusted to accommodate a purchase model like iTunes or maybe a subscription.

Under this model, the device is like the antenna. The content is controlled by the broadcasters and “beamed” from individual broadcast “towers.” In this case they will be servers. The neutral standards will indicate the format in which data is transmitted (NTSC is replaced by Internet technologies in this case). The devices will be configured to use the standard transmitted data.

The RSS feeds or other indexing files that tell how to get to all of the video are essentially just a meta-data level that provides the appropriate contextual indexing information about how to get the files. The Xbox Media Center has something similar that allows the user to use RSS feed data to get to things like Comedy Central’s online content.  The control scheme is a little quirky and getting XBMC set up certainly takes a level of sophistication and interest that escapes the typical consumer.

Don’t believe that this is the future?  Take a look at NBC’s decision to launch Hulu.com and take their content off of iTunes.  The content providers don’t want a third party to have control.  The first device that *may* provide this environment is the announce but not released SlingCatcher from Sling Media, who was incidentally purchased by Dish Network’s Echostar parent.  Other devices that could be updated to perform the same function include the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.  The lack of standard metadata in online video distribution may create some issues for Sling.  They may have to write code to specifically interface with each video distribution site and update it when the format changes.  Yuck.

Final Word 

I would love to see someone develop standards for the indexes and access methods for online video distribution.  It would create great opportunities for format-agnostic display devices like the yet unreleased Sling Catcher to process a vast array of different content with a single interface.  The content providers would keep control of their content, and the consumers would be able to watch TV from their couch rather than the PC.  The cable companies would simply get paid for bandwidth and consumers could turn off their cable TV subscriptions.

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Comcast Opens The Pandora’s Box of Net Neutrality

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

ComcastA few weeks ago, I posted about Net Neutrality, its arguments, and its impact. My conclusion was that the Spectre of legislative action should be used to scare monopoly providers like Comcast into behaving. Comcast rarely seems to remember that its entire dominance is hinged on the regulated monopoly structure around cable in most states. It certainly isn’t customer satisfaction that keeps them on top. They are constantly rated at the bottom of almost every customer satisfaction survey that I have seen.

Now Comcast has been caught traffic-shaping. I’m not opposed to traffic shaping altogether. I use it in my own home. VOIP traffic is more important than download traffic, so I set the quality of service level on my DD-wrt Buffalo router to make sure that VOIP isn’t impacted. The problem with Comcast is that when the get an inch, they’ll take a mile. You don’t know what they are doing or how much of it.

To make matters worse, Comcast is effectively spoofing you and sending reset commands to your outbound connections on Bittorrent and some other applications. I think it is this last item that will get them in the most trouble. It may actually run afoul of some online impersonation laws in certain states.

I’m sure that Comcast understood what they were doing by throttling bit torrent traffic. The contracted with a company called Sandvine to actually perform the service. It is unclear to me if Comcast truly understood how Sandvine was achieving its results. I wonder if we’ll find out.

Of course, with anything that impacts Comcast, a PR debacle is sure to follow. Word has come out that Comcast has told employees that they will be fired if the talk about peer to peer sharing. Ars Technica has a story about Comcast’s communication to employees. I absolutely love the PR speak. “We do not block any applications.” “We do not track individual user activities.” The claims against Comcast are that they throttle customer activities not block it. Through this obvious intentional omission we have tacit admission that Comcast is guilty of the accusations.

Whether or not Comcast’s actions are actually illegal, the firestorm that they have kicked up may result in legislated net neutrality. More likely, congressmen and women will be able to scare Comcast enough with legislation. Comcast will agree to stop the traffic throttling in exchange for dropping the legislation. Problem solved. Or is it? I don’t trust Comcast at all. Every time I see that my download or upload speeds are well below the purported maximums of my connection, I’ll have to wonder if it is really because of the Internet or because of what Comcast is doing to me. I really wish I had a high-speed option other than Comcast and Dial-up.

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