economics
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Online Trading With Macquarie Edge: Preview
If you’re curious about stock markets, or interested in making money through them, there’s good news. Macquarie Edge has some neat Web 2.0 features that can make online share trading loads of fun, unlike some things in life. More »
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EA Stock Soars On Microsoft Buyout Rumours
7:40AM Mike Fahey | Rumours can be powerful forces in the economy, as evidenced by an 8.1% rise in Electronic Arts stock today following unsubstantiated rumours that Microsoft was interested in buying the publisher out. More »
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Video Games Are One Of The 10 Things We’re Still Buying
5:20AM Mike Fahey | Financial publication Forbes takes a look at some of the things people are still willing to spend money on in the face of the recession, and of course, our favourite hobby makes the cut. More »
Video Games Are Not Recession-Proof, Says NPD
9:40AM AJ Glasser | GameDaily reports that Michael Klotz, senior account manager at the NPD Group, says the video games industry is already feeling the effects of the recession. More »
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MIGS Keynote: A Broken Business Model
6:30AM Maggie Greene | The Montreal International Game Summit recently wrapped up, and keynote speaker David Braben of Frontier Development really took the industry to task on everything from the business model (broken!) to retailers (killing longevity of games!) to the ‘online myth’ of the next gen consoles. He makes some interesting points, though I’m not at all convinced of the veracity of some of them. Here’s his take on the retail model: More »
Giant Online Revenue Falls, Still Rockin’ the Chinese Market
3:30AM Maggie Greene | Despite declining stock value, Giant Interactive — the company behind the intriguing MMO Zhengtu Online, which is a mix of MMO, gambling, real money transactions, and gold farming — is still tearing up the Chinese market. Steve of PlayNoEvil has some interesting analysis up of some recent numbers, which have indicated the the average revenue per player has dropped to around $US66 (RMB 282). Giant is moving to encourage ’steadier’ playing, instead of simply buying up cash shop items like there’s no tomorrow, so the drop was expected. Still, the money being made is pretty impressive for a domestic game (drop and all): More »
So You Wanna Be a Developer …
5:30AM Maggie Greene | Dave Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, sat down with Valve’s Gabe Newell to talk about how to shoehorn your way into the industry — and what’s the industry going to look like in a few years, anyways? Are game degrees a waste of time? Is specialisation going to be the name of the game, as in film ? And how can you avoid shooting yourself in the foot when trying to get said foot in the door? On specialisation, Newell had this to say: More »
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By the Numbers: Analysing the Global Market
3:30AM Maggie Greene | Gamasutra has an interesting — if dry — analysis of a variety of sales figures from Nintendo’s investor presentation. While targeted towards a particular audience, the variety of graphs and pie charts illustrate what’s going on in the global marketplace: handheld and console sales, as well as first- and third-party software sales, shed light on how Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are doing across the board. Of particular interest are the figures on the European market, which tends to be difficult to get a grasp on: More »
On the Headaches of MMO Billing Structure
6:30AM Maggie Greene | Gene Hoffman, CEO of Vindicia (a billing and fraud protection company), has some words of wisdom regarding the headache that is billing and payment for MMOs — be they the more ‘traditional’ subscription model or the free to play model. Obviously, there are benefits and downsides that come with each model, and companies are constantly trying to negotiate a balance between profit and player happiness. Even the vaunted subscription model comes with its own problems and a variety of structures within that model: More »
