slice of koh

So I probably should’ve seen this coming.  Actually, I am disappointed in myself for not creating something like this by now.  Gamecrush.com sets up online game dates” to play with girls.  Guys are Players, and girls are Playdates.  Players pay to play with Playdates, and the fee is $6.60 for 10 minutes.  Pretty expensive to chat up with a girl you may or may not like for 10 minutes.

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It looks like the global recession is finally catching up to the dominant Nintendo.   Nintendo recently released its quarterly earnings, and they are only making 1/3 of what they made a year ago.  Sales across their portfolio has declined.  The biggest surprise is Wii sales have decreased nearly 50% compared to last year.   It also doesn’t help that the value of the Japanese yen rose significantly in recent months, affecting Nintendo’s earnings overseas.  (This also goes for Sony as well who may be in worse shape than Nintendo.)

However, as much as Nintendo could try to point its finger at the lagging economy.  When you think about it, 2009 will only be remembered as the year of lackluster titles.  Many video game publishers and studios are pushing their flagship 2009 titles to 2010.   The only titles I can remember this year is Infamous for PS3.  The 2009 holiday season also looks bleak.  The only “big” games coming out this holiday season are the usual music games from Rock Band and Guitar/DJ/Band Hero franchises.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is also on track for its November release.   In this economy, consumers are going to be more selective about their game purchases.  This is especially true if consumers own multiple consoles (like me).  The last video game I pre-ordered was Fable 2.  Currently, I acquired most of my games used or via trade.

There is always a silver lining.  Nintendo sold 5.9 million DSi units and 2.2 million Wii units.  I’m sure Sony would love to sell nearly that many units of PSP and PS3.

Farhad Manjoo of Slate.com wrote an article claiming that “the amazing Amazon Kindle is bad news for the publishing industry.”  I actually don’t know if it’s all bad news.  It could be bad news for print, but it could be gift for digital publishing.

Why is Kindle 2 attractive to the consumer?  One advantage for the consumer is the ability to have a large library of books in one small form factor.  The Kindle 2′s internal storage capacity is 2 gig where about 1.4 gigs would be available for user content.  This is enough room for at least 1500 titles.  Additionally, the Amazon Kindle has the biggest selection of titles (240k+) compared to #2 Sony Reader (100k).  Many of the e-books are affordable and often cheaper than the print version.  The Kindle makes its easy to search, buy, and download e-books and other media content as it pre-syncs to your Amazon account, so you don’t need to hook up your device to a computer.  The Kindle connects through Sprint’s 3g network, and Amazon will pay for the connectivity fees.

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After dropping the price for the PC version of Left 4 Dead by 50% via Steam this past weekend, the resulting explosive growth in sales led Valve Software President Gabe Newell to claim that games may be too expensive.

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A little more than 2 years ago, I was in the midst of many job interviews and presenting my case on why I should work for the company I’m interviewing for.  There was one interview that I still remember because I got into a heated debate on the viability of satellite radio.  My interviewer was a senior analyst at a consulting firm, and he was working on a case about the growing satellite radio industry.  He claimed that satellite radio was the next big thing.  I actually disagreed and pointed out that consumers want their music and entertainment on demand and can do so with their mobile devices.  My interviewer was not convinced, and I obviously did not get a second round interview with that firm.  After the acquisition of XM, Sirius XM struggles to be profitable and pay their creditors, and some dumb investor (Liberty Media) gave them a lifeline of $530 million.  

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