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Domain: gamemarketwatch.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to gamemarketwatch.com.

Comments · 10

  1. Does ANYBODY find it suspicious that... by StandardCell · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Mod Chips Up, Game Industry Revenues Down?

    ...revenues are down because of "pirate" chips, yet there's a marked decline in originality and an increase in sequels?

    This is almost starting to sound like the flailings of the RIAA.

  2. Re:Nintendo's the SCO of the gaming industry by pla · · Score: 1 · on Nintendo Patents Handheld Emulation, Cracks Down
    My recollection is as follows:

    I think time has dulled all of our memories somewhat. So, I found a few relevant links. You have the end results correct, but the way we got there has quite a lot of relevance to the present topic...


    1. Sony sue Connectix over their PS1 emulator. Settled out of court: Sony buy Connectix's emulator and promptly bury it.

    Gamespot has an article covering the last actual case resolved in court on this issue, from 05/17/2000...
    A San Francisco Federal Court judge, The Honorable Charles Legge, today dismissed copyright and trademark infringement claims initiated by Sony Computer Entertainment against Connectix Corp and its Connectix Video Game Station.

    Now, the very next day Sony filed another suit, and Connectix settled. However, remember that Connectix, as a commercial project, had profit as a goal, not the good of the retrogaming community. So, Connectix didn't settle because they feared loosing (every indication, right down to the USSC refusing to entertain Sony's claims, suggested Sony had basically no case), the settled because Sony gave them far more than their cute little toy emulater would have ever made them.

    So on this one, I would say we both have it right - Connectix did sell-out, in the context of settling the suit against them, but they basically won their day in court (the more important event here, in the bigger picture, since it set a legal precedent).


    2. Sony sue Bleem! over their PS1 emulator. Bleem! go bankrupt defending the case, case dropped.

    This one seems a tad less clear (plenty of articles out there about the case, but the timeline seems very muddy). However, I did find evidence that Bleem! at least survived Sony's initial onslaught, at Game Marketwatch, from 05/23/2001:
    Bleem has filed suit against Sony in U.S. District Court, Northern District, California charging the company with using its market power to discourage retailers from carrying the Bleemcast.
    So, at the very least, Bleem! didn't go under directly from Sony's initial suit - They went under because Sony pulled an MS-like tactic, using their market dominance to prevent anyone from making or selling Bleemcast.


    Additionally, MobyGames has a brief introduction to emulator case history, discussing both the Connectix and Bleem! suits, as well as Nintendo's attack on UltraHLE. It includes the delicious quote (bolding mine),
    In its opinion, the high court deemed the development and release of an emulator to be non-infringing provided that no patents were violated and that the final product itself did not contain any infringing code; furthermore, it also ruled emulation itself to be protected fair use of computer software.
    I find it particularly interesting that Nintendo has taken a new approach, since the courts have repeatedly decided that emulation counts as fair use - They've opted to approach the patent issue (the first phrase in bold above) as this very topic addresses.

    I suspect they will have some serious problems, however. With this current patent, filed for in 2000 and just now granted, prior art most definitely exists - On February 5th, 1997 Nicola Salmoria released MAME v0.1, which by the very nature of what it does (and its very name), it needs to decide what system to emulate based on the ROM set presented. Several other emulators (usually within a product family, such as SegaEMU for SG1000/SMS/Genesis/SCD, or VisualBoy Advance, for GB/GBC/SGB/SGB2/GBA) also support selecting a different emulation core based on the ROM, but I do not know offhand if any of those predate 2000. MAME, however, most certainly does.
  3. Bachus Left MS in 2001 by superultra · · Score: 1 · on Phantom Gets Insider Bonus, Ex-Xbox Bigshot

    Good question (Ed Fries, for example), but with regards specifically to Bachus, he left MS quite some time ago (mid 2001).

  4. Microsoft by jnguy · · Score: 1 · on NBC Merger Leaves VU Games, Blizzard, Sierra In Cold

    Wasn't there speculation that microsoft would be buying vivendi's game unit, for a lot more than 800 million. I don't think microsoft would affect the production of PC titles, except, maybe delay it for EXTREMELY long periods of time (halo)
    Since I'm a console gamer, and I do own a PC, I think a microsoft purchase would have nice potential. It'll be a major plus to microsoft.
    Link

  5. Article is wrong about sales figures by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Informative · on Games and the 'Geek Stereotype'
    Video games are already MORE popular than movies, and neck-and-neck w. music. For the last couple of years, video-game sales has beaten movie box-office totals and are competing dollar-for-dollar with music sales

    figures for 2002 (US)

  6. Where's Zelda? by andrew · · Score: 3, Funny · on Spider-Man Becomes Greatest Hit, Drops Price
    According to this article from GameMarketWatch, Nintendo presold over 500k Zelda GCN titles. So, it should show up in that list any day now.

    Yep, any day.

    Yep.

    Sigh.

  7. Re:Great comment from article... by shut_up_man · · Score: 1 · on Nintendo Confirms New Console In 2005

    I know you were just estimating, but the actual figure is pretty big anyway: Sony apparently hit the 50 million mark for PS2 production just recently. Worldwide PS2 sales for Nov/Dec 2002 were 8.5 million units, which suggests they're still going strong. I think people people like sitting in front of the television playing games for hours and hours JUST FINE.

  8. Though, some things can be corrected. by threc · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft to Buy Vivendi Games Division?
    I think what you meant to say was, "For those of you who are spectulating about Nintendo being bought out-- The GAMECUBE (not Xbox) is tanking in Japan."

    Brand loyalty is still very much a factor in the minds of people who have, for thirty years, watched Nintendo go from being an infant struggling company to a leader in the game console market.

    Quite a few people treat their consoles the same way other people stand behind their sports teams. The same way Apple has it's loyalists and Linux has it's advocates, Nintendo can continue to survive by catering to it's diehard following as long as it stays true to what the company represents to those fans (assuming they don't do anything immensely stupid).

    That all aside, it's true that Nintendo isn't the leader in the States, but sales are still strong! If you can put the US market share aside, and look at operations over in Japan, one can quickly see by searching any of the major game news sites that the GameCube is kicking major booty, taking second and third place in sales early november! The proofs in the pudding.

    'nough said.

  9. Re:PC market is still bigger than the Xbox Market by pixel_bc · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft to Buy Vivendi Games Division?

    > PS2 has like 2million.

    PS2 has *way* more the 2 million units in north america -- the world wide installed base is up to 50 million, with 43% in the North American Market, 32% went into Europe, and 25% remained in the Japanese or South Korean markets.

    Here's a report with the numbers... google searches will find many other such sources.

    You're correct that the PC is still bigger then Xbox -- that will eventually change.

  10. Re:Seriously... by mcc · · Score: 2 · on Xbox Live Goes Online

    I know it is hard to put away the anti-microsoft bias for just a few minutes, but really - think about what your getting here.

    I don't have to put away my anti-microsoft bias at all.

    Online adapters for the gamecube and playstation are already available.

    Moreover, as it is, the playstation adapter has one game available that makes me drool violently (Tribes Arial Assault.. especially since, as a mac user who loves Tribes, i spent two years waiting for the mac port of Tribes 2 and never actually got it) and one game available that i would consider buying (Frequency), and i haven't looked at all the PS2 games currently available. The gamecube adapter, i'm not really certain if any games are available for it yet (are they?) but the one game that is at the least *coming* (Phantasy Star Online) makes me drool violently.
    The x-box adapter, meanwhile, has one game that i would consider buying (Ghost recon) and i've looked at everything available. So i can see where yeah, the x-box adapter would be a really good deal if you are the kind of person who likes Mechwarrior and Sports games.. but this does not apply to me.

    I don't have to put away my anti-microsoft bias to get this. I can get about this exact same thing from non-microsoft sources, and i like what the non-microsoft sources are offering better, (although i do consider the telephony feature of the x-box extremely extremely neat and the only real microsoft innovation i can think of in recent memory.. i'd rather type to communicate).

    Anyway, i'm getting a gamecube for christmas, and perhaps i can convince my brother to buy the internet adapter and Tribes for his PS2 when i visit my parents over christmas.. i can't think of anything in the x-box world that i'm missing that's worth having. i'm happy :)