Daniel.Hjelmtorp.com

Apple iPad

Okey now that the biggest hype about Apples new product have cooled down, here are my thoughts. It was hard to noticed or know anything about it if, like me, you had didn’t watch the key note and wanted to see if with your own eyes. It seems that for each new product Apple announces the crowd who follow it live over the web increase. The day after the unveiling of the iPad, even our Swedish tv news reported about it. Even a gaming site like Kotaku had what seems like 10-15 post in a row about the iPad directly after or during the announcement.

It seems the reaction wasn’t that positive as previous product announcements, like the iPhone. It feels like people still try to figure out if they really need an iPad if they already own an iPhone, iPod and probably an Mac. Those mixed reaction is understandable, as the bigger Apple gets, the pressure increases on each new innovation to top the previous one. I think many just don’t think this announcement really cut it.

I watched the key note presentation, haven’t read that much about it (didn’t need to thanks to the web were everyone talks about it) and tried to feel inside what I think. And in the end… I probably want one! I am not completely clear on why I want one, or if I have a need for it. I would probably use it as a portable computer were I can do some basic work with as well as what movies and have all my contacts in. And I can accually see myself playing games on this one.

One of the big thing that people have been discussing is if this will be a real competitor for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP regarding the hand held game machine market. I think Apple have an advantage regarding their brand. Regular people know Apple better than Sony and Nintendo. On the other hand, the iPad isn’t that cheap. So the installbase will probably not be that big, to begin with at least. One of the best moves they made is that all iPhone / iPod Touch games works on the iPad.

Not as innovative or revolutionary as previous Apple products, but I still want one

Today’s nice surprise! Since I have pre-ordered God of War 3 (but not just any version, the God of War 3 Ultimate Trilogy Edition!), today i recieved a redeem code to download the demo. This as a part of me pre-order a special edition of the game. So this evening I downloaded and played the demo.

If I was to name one game I look forward to more than other (see my previous post about games 2010 I wait for), God of War 3 would be at the top. And now I have finally tried it. And I am really excited now! Recently I replayed the first and second instalment of the series on the PS3 remake. The graphic in GoW3 is really something special. The style and feel of the first games is there, same goes for controls. Exactly the same as before. The core seems to be even more crazy from the older titles, but that’s most due to the more realistic graphics. All in all it was God of War, but more and better! The only thing that bugged me was the annoying chain sound when he uses his blades, and knowing God of War, it will be played alot!

Tomorrow I will pick up my copy if Dantes Inferno. In my opinion EAs answer to God of War and also available for Xbox 360 users. After playing the demo and following the stories and new screenshots, I think it will have a very hard time against God of War. The control are exactly the same as GoW, but they were still not the same. Something I can’t touch wasn’t there. As a game journalist friend said after playing it “Its okey, but its not God of War”. That sums up my expectation on Dantes Inferno quite good. Hope I still will enjoy it. Its from the makers of Dead Space and I really enjoyed that one. But the God of War team have had 2 games before really perfecting everything. It kinda feels more like the biggest competitor with Dantes Inferno right now is Bioshock 2! And thats only cause they will be released at the same day in North America. For us Bioshock 2 comes out next week and have asked 2K Games for a 360 copy.

God of War 3 is due to come out in March so I have some time to play through many games I have in the pipe to play before that. Just a two weeks before GoW3 Final Fantasy XIII comes out. Don’t know what to expect from the thirteen instalment.

GGod of War 3 Ultimate Trilogy Edition

Now that 2010 have started and I have done a list of what I found was best in 2009, I have a new list of what I look forward to this year. As for movies and music its hard to say. Games on the other hand I have a few favourites that I look forward to play. Here are some of the titles I wait for:

• God of War 3
• Bioshock 2
• Mafia 2
• Final Fantasy XIII
• The Last Guardian

Also what I really hope for in 2010 even if its only an announcement it would be Warhawk 2.

And this list is only of the titles that I know of.

As for music I don’t know what albums will be coming out this year, I can only wish for new albums and great music from:

• Equilibrium
• Heaven Shall Burn
• Neaera
• Anterior
• Children of Bodom

Movie is even harder to predict. Don’t know many movies that will come out soon. I would like to see a new Harry Potter movie this year, but don’t think this will happen. One I know I look forward to is Iron Man 2, after viewing the trailer I had to watch the first movie and really liked it. Other than this not many movies I am excited about.

Now 2009 have come to an end. And its been a good year, I thinks so at least. Much have happened, and can’t remember everything. When looking back on it, many memories comes to mind. Travelling, holidays, parties, games, festivals and many more things. As with every year I like to do list of what was the best from the year that was in certain categories. I can’t talk about everything from 2009, here is my favourite Games, Music albums and Movies from 2009:

Games:

• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
• Assassins Creed 2
• Machinarium
• Resident Evil 5

Comment: It was a good year regarding games. My only problem was finding time to play them all. Still haven’t finished or started some that I am interested in. Some games lived up to expectations, some didn’t while other just surprised me. After much thought I must say that Batman Arkham Asylum was the best game of 2009 for me, due to the awesome game it was, and that it just came and blew me away!

Music:

• Threat Signal – Vigilance
• Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage
• Nightrage – Wearing a Martyrs Crown
• Five Finger Death Punch – War is the Answer

Comment: Here I really had to think hard. New music and albums this year was kinda weak and no album that really stood out. Many okey albums. Hope 2010 holds many nice surprises!

Movies:

• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
• District 9
• James Cameron’s Avatar
• Zombieland

Comment: As with music I had to think about this one. One movie was already in my mind, Transformers 2 that I really enjoyed and nominated to movie of the year for me. It isn’t the best movie in terms of story or so, but damn entertaining and COOL!

Other than this 2009 was a lot of work, were I really got into everything on GamersGate, and have felt how I have developed. I still have much more to learn (no we can never stop learning). Its been some frustrations, suprises and laughter. As life should be, a roller coaster.

As for the personal stuff, things have been really good, when I have had time for it. Maybe haven’t taken the time for myself or my friends as I would have liked. And definitely to little blogging… really feel that I haven’t had time or energy to work with this blog. Hope that I can find more time and energy next year.  But that can be improved in 2010!

Now finally Facebook and Twitter on Xbox 360 have gone live. Downloaded them today and just briefly tried them out, and I don’t feel that blown away. How I understood it you have to enter the both services separately, and you can’t do anything else when you use them. Thats okey I guess, but it would be much more powerful it they accessable also when playing games. We don’t want to exit the game to access social services. For example wouldn’t it be great to be able between matches in Modern Warfare 2, to tweet the result, or tell everyone on Facebook the score? I haven’t explored the Xbox version completely and to connect with Xbox Live friends, it seems they have to “activate” the applications.

And along side this we also got confirmed today that Facebook will also hit Playstation Network with the new 3.10 firmware update.

Its interesting to see how the social sites like Facebook, Twitter and even Last.fm is expanding to new territories such as the video game consoles. Companies start (or already have) understood the power of working with the social sites. For example at GamersGate I created our Facebook group and our Twitter feed (@Gamersgate). Its a great tool to communicate with our fans and followers. And its wonderful how we can connect all the services together. For example how every time I write a Tweet (which doesn’t happen often) it automatically generate a Facebook “what am I doing?”. And I am just learning more about Facebook Connect and the possibilities it offers. I look forward for the time when we only need one account that’s connected to all different services.

Today Ubisoft launched its new digital service Uplay. Going out in a press release (I created an account earlier today) that the first game using this will be Assassins Creed 2, released today in North America. Before the press releases I was in and watched the video describing uPlays features. In a nutshell its Ubisofts own centralised digital platform, connecting their games and the players.

To begin with it will be focused on four services:

• Uplay Win
• Uplay Help
• Uplay Share
• Uplay Shop

And the services isn’t dependent on platform, but will span through the three important ones, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. It will offer players community features, achievements and possibilities to shop (I would view as DLC ). I kind a like it. I mean, the platform owners already have this in place. But this gives Ubisoft more control, and if they can break this to create a huge community it can really be something big. I think this is the first step for the big publishers to do their own thing and not give away control to Microsoft, Sony or say Steam.

The Press Release details:

Ubisoft announced today that players of Assassin’s Creed II on PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360® will be able to use the in-game interface to connect directly to the Uplay beta.

Uplay is Ubisoft’s online destination where gamers are at the center of a connected gaming universe that will be developed around four primary services: Uplay Win, Uplay Help, Uplay Share and Uplay Shop. The Uplay Beta is only launching with Uplay Win so far.

Uplay Win enables players to collect units based on their actions in the games and exchange them for rewards such as exclusive in-game content or goodies.  Uplay Win’s Units can also be gathered cross platform: PC,360, PS3.
In Assassin’s Creed II, a real Altaïr costume and exclusive in-game content such as access to the Auditore Family Crypt are among the rewards offered through Uplay Win. For those who don’t want to redeem their units right away, they can save them to use on other games such as the upcoming Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction and many more to come.

Players will also be able to access Uplay Share, Uplay Shop and Uplay Help from www.uplay.com.

And first out is Assassins Creed 2, so its gonna be very exciting to see how it works! Got news that Ubisoft sent me a PS3 copy today

In conjuction with the release of the new Left 4 Dead 2, Kotaku have noticed this video. A fan made video on how a 8-bit version should be like. This is nothing new, we often see videos on demade on how new games would look if they were 8-bit.

But if I were Valve (the ones behind Left 4 Dead), I would try to pick this 8-bit version up and sell it. Cheap that is, but I think people would buy it. And it would be a great way to market and expand the Left 4 Dead IP.

We have had some really interesting releases the recent weeks on the site. Especially two games have stood out, Torchlight and Machinarium. Both games are developed by smaller studios and only released online. Both review and sales wise they have done really good! Just looking at the numbers on our site I see it. What makes me even more proud is that I signed both titles.

We have been discussing the success of those titles, and one thing that we see in both, is pricing. They have fairly low prices. Machinarium is a bit shorter than Torchlight, but then the price is lower on that one. Torchlight you can get for around $19.95 and you get many hours of playing out of it. This is a great example for good pricing. At the end of the day its about value for money, and Torchlight is definitely that. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to play it (played through Machinarium), but once things cool down after Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands and Assassins Creed 2 I will get to it.

Once example of a game that goes the other way is the recently mentioned Modern Warfare 2, that instead of lower the price have raised it. Just in UK the game will go for £54.99!!

This more than anything made me realise the important of right pricing, regardless of the kind of product. After looking through many seasons of Dragons Den it hit me even harder, were many of them complain about bad pricing. At the same time its really hard sometimes when you will introduce a product on the market. There is many variables taking into consideration when deciding price. Development cost, margins, profit and ultimately what customers is ready to pay. I starting to learn more and more about it and see the importance. And damn, what a difference it can make!

This week one of this years biggest game is released, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, and the controversies have been quite many, as expected for a big title like this. But the issues have mostly been around the PC version, and its Multiplayer functionalities. The first was the lack of dedicated servers, which allow players to host their own servers. The game is basically locked to Infinity Wards (IW) own system. This also prevent Moding of the game,  limiting the customers/players to modify the game and creating new “version” of it, basically improving and evolving the life of the game.  For hard-core PC players, dedicated servers is a must! Some have even started a petition against IWs decision to skip it, and its growing fast.

And with the news about the dedicated server come the biggest problem, according to me, it has complete Steam Works incorporation! What this means is that it have the full Steam technology in the game, and it requires a Steam account to be played. This is bad for us at GamersGate, since we will never be able to sell the game, as our internal policy is to not accept games that require Steam to be run. It doesn’t make sense from a business perspective, giving our customers away to Steam automatically which would happen. It would be like stating that we Support Steam, a competitor, which is madness. And now even Direct2Drive have gone out, stating that  they won’t sell the game at all due to the Steam incorporation, along side us and Impulse. This have really spawned a storm on the net around this. Cause D2D have before sold games that have the Steam in them. But its great that we are many putting pressure on developers and publishers not to support the Steam software, that lock the customers to Steam and strengthening their potential monopol. Its unfortunate that some new really good games have the Steam implementation, such as Empire: Total War, Serious Sam HD and of cause Valves own games Left 4 Dead 2.What Steam does is locking in its user in their network, something that some find okey, but I think most really doesn’t like.

And after the news about dedicated servers and no modding capability, then its revealed that the number of players in multiplayer have been reduced, from 32 vs 32 in Modern Warfare 1, to only 9 vs 9! Its seems like they didn’t want to do the PC version at all… Just focusing on the console ones. I heard on the Kotaku podcast were a guy called in and said that he had checked his nearest Gamestop regarding pre-orders, and I believe he said around 400 Xbox 360, and merely 10 PC pre-orders. And Call of Duty grew up on PC!

But the thing that interest me most about this controversy with dedicated servers and lack of modifications of the game, is how its a step backwards. IW claims that they have made it “eaiser” for people to just start playing online, that players don’t want to config or setup their own servers. Its like smacking all hard-core players in the face. I don’t think they realise what a mistake this is. The big problem is how they lock the game for people and removing features that is essential for it to be longed lived. Just look at Counter Strike, one of the worlds most played games, that started as a mod. If it weren’t for the openess of Half Life, it probably would have been borned on the Quake or Unreal engine. Then Valve and Steam would probably not be as big as they are today. Many great games, not to mention development studios have been spawned from this open culture. And instead of supporting this, IW and Activision decides to look their most important release this year completely tight! Its like taking a step backwards!

Last weekend I was in Karlstad, and I spoke with some students about this, and they said that now Modern Warfare 2 is something for them to play until Battlefield Bad Company 2 comes out, which will have dedicated servers. Also very interesting is how the founder of id Software (Doom and Quake series) John Carmack have gone out, defending IW decision to scrap dedicated servers.

Its gonna be very intersting to see the sales numbers for the PC version vs 360 and PS3 after all those controversies. Personally I will pick up my 360 copy on the day of release. Though it seems that several GameStop stores in North America started selling it many days before… Oh well!

*UPDATE

And now that the game is released a new Steam controversy have surfaced. Those who bought or pre-purchased the game on Steam have to wait 2 days extra to play the game. I bet many of their customers are really pist about this!

Modern Warfare 2

In recent weeks I have spent quite a lot of time watching my new favorites tv-shows The Apprentice (US) and Dragons Den (UK). “Its all about business”. Not only do I watch those cause they are entertaining, but I find them worthwhile. For the Apprentice a group of individuals is competing against each other for a job for Donald Trump. Here they have to show how great they are in a number of tasks and showing their skills.

And in Dragons Den aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to the “Dragons”, successful business men and women who really are inverters. They have to prove that their business ideas and products are worth investing in. And often that they as individuals are investible.

Both these shows had made me think quite a lot of the basics in everything. How we must never forget or underestimate the basics of every business and theories. I have read many books in recent years about the development of business models, the web, new media and marketing. Everyone claim to show how things have changed and how to utilize the new tools to reach the new, hard do reach, audience. Many seems to think that we have to rethink how we work completely. But I think its more important as ever to remember the basics. Just because we shop on the web, doesn’t mean the basic retail theories doesn’t apply. They have just taken other forms. Its still about working with  the shop, products, prices, getting people in the shop and get the to purchase, and then get back. We have better tools to work with, but the basic principle still apply.

In the Apprentice it often seems like the candidates complicate thinks in their task, ignoring the basics. And therefore fail in some of their task, sometimes there i just lucky and it works out for them either way.

The same can be said about the entrepreneurs in Dragons Den. They have really good time to prepare for their, not to mention working on their core business. And yet, when they come to the Den they often fall flat under the interrogation from the Dragons. They don’t know their number, their markets or the basic fundamentals of how to run a business. Not to mention, lacking some common sense. And this have made me even more interested in the basic of business.  To start with, then I can always expand my knowledge. As my new vision is to eventually be a Dragon.

Even as new business theories and areas is introduced, the basic is still true in everything. Its just that they have evolved. Even though I work with E-retail on GamersGate, I still bought a book in regular retail basic theories and practices. To not forget the basics.