"gaming" articles

After an exciting week at GDC Online, the online game developer's conference (Oct 5 – 8, Austin, Texas), I must confess that I am both exhausted (they are a very social set) and impressed with where the industry is headed. Although the misconception is still alive for some, online gamers do not all look like escapees from a Wayne’s World casting call. Au contraire; most online gamers look like, well, you and me. Depending on the gaming genre, you may now find yourself rubbing elbows...

Parks Associates will moderate a special session at the Game Developers Conference Online (GDC) , held October 5-8 in Austin, Texas. The session, “How economic context affects game development from start-up to grown-up companies,” will be held Thursday, October 7th, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m., and is sponsored by Canada at GDC, The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and represented by the Canadian Consulate General Dallas. The electronic entertainment industry...

PlayJam is a company that we covered in a recent report titled Gaming ARPU: Games & the Service Provider, and we concluded that there is a significant opportunity for games-on-TV as a value-added service through pay-TV operators and connected TV players. With DTT set-top boxes becoming hybrid, however, there are also opportunities in this space. PlayJam has expanded the availability of its network across UK digital-terrestrial platform Freeview through set-tops sold by retail...

Canal Plus has launched a range of on-demand movies and TV shows from its CanalPlay video-on-demand service on the Microsoft Xbox platform. The Canal Plus application is available for download free of charge from the XBox Live site. Users will be able to view movies including The Ghost Writer and Clash of the Titans sand series for up to 48 hours, with movies priced at €3.99 and series episodes at €2.99.

A 3D TV? A smartphone? A smart meter? Digital Lifestyles: Outlook 2010, a new industry report focuses on the consumer, with an emphasis on expanding and enhancing user experiences in communications, entertainment, support, and connectivity. This report provides analysis, forecasts, and industry and consumer drivers for a variety of digital lifestyle categories including: Access Services, Television Services, Mobile Services and Devices, Digital Media and Gaming, Trends in...

Parks Associates is supporting the 3D Gaming Summit 2010 on April 21-22 in Universal City, California. The first ever 3D Gaming Summit will attract the brightest minds in the gaming industry to define the market opportunity for 3D stereoscopic gaming and entertainment. Delivering two days of packed in-depth discussions, the summit will help steer your strategy to capitalize on the next biggest thing in gaming! More Info

There was an interesting article cited in the Minneapolis Star Tribune indicating a move by console manufacturers to expand their consoles beyond the video download boxes they have already become to host more original programming. Some examples cited in the article: * Microsoft is testing a remake of the TV game show "1 vs. 100," where players on the Xbox LIVE network compete and are represented by 3D avatars. * Sony is pushing two videogame-themed shows "Qore"...

Premium pay-TV gaming features do not currently maximize the market’s revenue potential, according to a new report from international research firm Parks Associates . Many pay-TV providers, including Comcast, Cablevision, DISH Network, and DirecTV, offer premium packages that include simple, single-player games. Gaming ARPU: Games & the Service Provider finds roughly 5% of broadband households in North America and Western Europe are willing to pay about $5 per month for a...