EA Buys Game Studios from Bono's Firm
The private equity firm backed by U2 frontman Bono, which recently invested $325 million into Palm, has received a hefty return on its $300 purchase of game developers BioWare and Pandemic. EA has agreed to acquire the two studios from Elevation Partners, with 10 games in development, for $620 million in cash and another $205 million in stock.
The total price of $825 million is EA's largest acquisition yet, and the company says the deal will boost its market share in multiplayer online games by two percent. Interestingly, Elevation Partners founder John Riccitello was a former EA exec who rejoined the company as its CEO in April. Riccitello, who retains a stake in Elevation, did not vote on the deal but did endorse it.
Comcast Rolls Out TiVo Service -- Sort Of
Just days after its CEO admitted it was behind schedule in rolling out DVR service to Comcast customers, TiVo confirmed late Thursday that the first "non-Comcast employees" were now receiving the service. TiVo CEO Tom Rogers had said on Tuesday at an investor conference that the company was behind yet again in getting the TiVo service to Comcast customers. The result was a near immediate effect on the company's stock price.
Since that admission, TiVo's stock has fallen some six percent. Comcast's stock briefly dropped about 1.3 percent Tuesday, however it had recovered all of its losses by midday trading on Friday. In a move that seems to be more like damage control than an actual rollout per se, only "test customers" are able to receive the TiVo service via Comcast. The option will be more broadly available to those in New England "within the coming weeks," according to Comcast.
Nintendo: Wii Price Staying at $249
Despite price cuts coming from both Microsoft and Sony in preparation for holiday season sales of their next-generation consoles, Nintendo is opting not to follow suit. The company says it is selling every single $249 Wii console it makes, and thus has no reason to drop the price.
Microsoft has dropped the cost of the Xbox 360 by $50, while Sony has introduced a cheaper 40GB model in Japan and Europe. It is rumored that Sony will lower the price of the new 80GB PS3 once 60GB stock is depleted, but no concrete statement has been made. "We'll stay at $249 for the foreseeable future," Nintendo senior vice president of marketing George Harrison was quoted by Reuters.
Microsoft Goes to 1GB, Google Ups Gmail to 4GB
Microsoft late Thursday announced its Windows Live SkyDrive service was being upgraded to support 1GB of file storage - double what was previously available. Meanwhile, Google on Friday said it would "speed up" the counter increasing storage available to Gmail users, reaching 4GB by the end of the month.
Microsoft's SkyDrive will receive a number of other new features as well, including subscribing to a user's public folder via RSS, seeing who uploaded a specific file in your public folder, and more integration with Windows Live Spaces and Messenger. Windows Live SkyDrive is only available in the United States, UK and India for the time being.
Verizon Revises ISP Terms of Service
Following AT&T's lead, Verizon said Wednesday it will also change its terms of service policy to remove language that would have enabled the company to disconnect those who criticized it online. AT&T was roundly criticized for adding in a provision that would have allowed them to do so earlier this month, however it decided to rephrase it to indicate that the company wouldn't disconnect service due to a customer simply expressing their opinion of the company.
"We've decided to eliminate the language from the policy," Verizon's John Czwartacki wrote on Verizon's company blog. "The intent of this provision; which, as I mentioned, has been in our policy for nearly a decade -- has always been to stop anyone who might represent themselves as Verizon in an attempt to do harm." Regardless, the company wants to avoid any criticism similar to that experienced by AT&T.
iPhone Unlocked Once Again
For those whose iPhones became expensive "bricks" after upgrading to firmware version 1.1.1 due to running a hack that unlocks the device, a solution has arrived. iPhoneSIMFree, the first company that offered an unlocking tool, has released a paid upgrade that resolves the issue and unlocks the iPhone once again.
The new iPhoneSIMFree utility takes advantage of a TIFF image buffer overflow bug in Safari. iPhone hackers discovered they could use the flaw to once again run code on the device, managing to "jailbreak" it from Apple's lockdown. Making bricked iPhones activate again, however, requires first downgrading the firmware back to 1.0.2. Those who have yet to unlock their iPhones should be wary: Apple is likely to fix the Safari bug and re-lock the phone with a future software upgrade.
Nintendo Launching 'Wii Fit' in Japan for Holidays
Nintendo said Wednesday that it will begin selling its previously announced Wii balance board in Japan in time for the holiday shopping season. The device is bundled with a game called Wii Fit, which allows the user to perform a variety of fitness activities, including aerobics, yoga, skiing, and others which require a good sense of balance. The company is billing it as its most important product for the holiday season.
At a price of 8,800 yen, the device goes on sale December 1. Nintendo hopes that it will not only be a hit among current Wii owners, but also bring new customers to the console. The Wii has consistently outsold Sony's PS3 in the region, and Nintendo's success probably had a lot to do with Sony's announcement Tuesday that it was cutting prices in Japan on its PlayStation 3 console. The Wii Fit package is said to be on track for an international debut in early 2008.
Microsoft Preps Games for Windows Live Update
In anticipation for the holiday season, Microsoft plans to release version 1.2 of Games for Windows Live next month. The program enables PC-based games to tap into Xbox Live, and a number of titles including Halo 2 and Shadowrun fall under the brand.
The 1.2 update will bring a number of bug fixes, along with user interface improvements, support for offline Achievements, and the ability to see if you can join your friends in a game. According to Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc, the Redmond company can update the Games for Windows Live elements just as it does the Xbox 360 Dashboard.
Sony Unveils 4X Blu-ray Disc Burner
Sony on Tuesday announced its second-generation Blu-ray disc burner for computers, which doubles the speed of its predecessor to 4X. The BWU-200S can record a full 50GB disc in 45 minutes, and also improves upon standard DVD+R burning speed, which is now at 16X.
Like early-generation CD and DVD burners, however, Sony's new model won't come cheap. The BWU-200S carries a price tag of $600, which includes CyberLink's Blu-ray burning software, and 50GB BD-R discs run upwards of $30 a piece for 2X versions. The drive features a Serial ATA interface and works with Windows Vista and XP.
Sony Cuts PS3 Price in Japan, to Debut 40GB Model
While Sony has no plans to bring the 40GB PlayStation 3 to the United States, the model is making its way from Europe to Japan. The company said the mid-range model, which unlike its brethren lacks support for PS2 games, will go on sale November 11 for 39,980 yen ($342).
In the process, Sony will drop the price of its 20GB PS3 by 10 percent as of October 17, bringing the cost down to 44,980 yen ($384). The 60GB model will also become cheaper, selling for 54,980 yen ($470). Sony is phasing out the 60GB PS3 as part of the price drops, which are being made in preparation for the holiday season. The high cost of the PlayStation 3 has hindered its ability to compete with the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Sony Announces In-Game Ad Division
With the PlayStation 3 not generating the revenue Sony expected, it now appears that the company is looking at in-game advertising to turn its gaming division around. The new division will be headed by Darlene Kindler, a two-and-a-half decade veteran of the consumer electronics industry. She will assume the title of network advertising director, and report to Sales and Business Development chief Phil Rosenberg.
Kindler will be tasked with developing an in-game advertising strategy for all of Sony's PlayStation platforms, as well as advertising within the PlayStation Network. She had most recently worked with Adscape Media, an in-game advertising company that was acquired by Google in March, and previous to that had worked at Nintendo as part of the company's start-up team. Sony did not say when the advertising would begin to appear in its games.
Microsoft to Bundle Games with Xbox 360
Microsoft said Monday that it will begin bundling two free games worth $90 with its standard $349.99 USD package and the Xbox 360 Elite in order to entice new consumers to the console. The games include Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance when they begin appearing at retailers in October. While many are expecting Microsoft to also release its replacement for the Core system, called "Xbox 360 Arcade," no announcement was made as of yet.
The console, which has been out since November 2005, has one of the broadest game lineups of the three next-generation systems. Besides Halo 3, the console currenty has six other titles expected to sell over a million units, including BioShock, Project Gotham Racing 4, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero III, and Call of Duty 4. 21 of the top 30 best rated games on Metacrtic.com are Xbox titles, Microsoft added.
Trillian Set to Release Mac Client
Cerulean Studios said Friday that it was in the process of developing a version of its client for the Mac, encroaching on territory long occupied by competitor Adium. Trillian did for Windows what Adium does for Mac - allow the user to load one program for multiple instant messaging clients. Cerulean has released an alpha build of the client, which it says is roughly the same as a flash-based version of the client, which basically allows for simple IM.
With the new v4.x iterations of Trillian, the codebase was separated from the user interface, which was made platform-agnostic. Thus, the Mac OS X version will have all the features of the Windows version, however, it will be affected by the limitations of the UI. Cerulean said that as the UI is developed, these features will appear in the Mac client.
UK McDonald's to Offer Free Wi-Fi
McDonald's said over the weekend that it planned to offer free wireless access in its restaurants across the UK. The company already offers Wi-Fi in many of its US locations, however it is only free to those using the Nintendo DS - others are charged a nominal fee. All 1,200 restaurants in the region will offer the service, which would make it the largest provider of wireless access.
When complete, the restaurant's network will account for about 10 percent of all hotspots in Britain. The country currently has about 12,000 hotspots, provided by The Cloud, BT, and T-Mobile, along with other smaller carriers. The average price for an hour of usage is around 5 pounds ($10.18), so a free McDonald's service with such wide reach could have the effect of lowering access prices for other premium services.
iPod Nano Catches Man's Pants on Fire
A Georgia man has escaped injury after the iPod nano he owned caught fire inside of his pocket, the exact cause of which is not yet known. Danny Williams of Douglassville, Georgia said all that protected him from burns was a piece of glossy paper that he had in his pocket along with the device. The burning nano did, however, burn a hole in the man's pants.
Williams works at a kiosk Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He said the incident could have posed a big problem: "If TSA had come by and seen me smoking, they could have honestly thought I was a terrorist," he told WSB-TV. According to Willams' parents, Apple has said it would replace the unit. Apple has so far refused to comment on the incident.
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