Game Wars 2 - Battle for the Living Room

securitas writes "The New York Times' John Markoff writes about the fight to own the living room in the next-generation game console wars, with a digital divergence predicted instead of the much-hyped convergence. With games historically being a driving force in consumer PC growth, Intel is pushing PC-based systems as the dominant platform while the videogames industry is looking to the next generation of consoles as media hubs. Sony, Nintendo and IBM are firmly in the console camp. Microsoft has one foot in each of the PC and console camps, cooperating with Intel on the PC front while looking to IBM for the next Xbox. Meanwhile, Apple is taking its own tack, buoyed by the phenomenally successful iPod. Steve Jobs has been highly critical of iPod clones with video and gaming features, and some are looking to Apple for the next home entertainment revolution. Markoff also talks to WildTangent's founder Alex St. John, who predicts the PC makers and Intel have a losing strategy."

Comments

Apple's already been there

[detritus`]

Apple's entered this arena once, with the Pippin Dont expect them to return anytime soon after the large amount of $$$s lost on that debacle.

WildTangent == spyware.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just recently played this FoxSports online game and had to install some of their crap just to play this stupid game. I then was informed by someone that WT's plug-in is spyware ridden. Well after running AdAware, I found 400 pieces of infestation from these fuckers. Luckily AdAware fixed this shit.

Avoid anything from WildTangent.

Re:WildTangent == spyware.

[Evergreen98]

Hose it. My first submission, and I ruin it. :( Unmangled text from _privacy.txt:

THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A CONTRACT, LICENSE AGREEMENT OR LEGALLY BINDING
IN ANY WAY.

Hello, this is an open letter from Alex St. John, CEO of WildTangent
Inc. This file is for the benefit of folks out there who may have
missed the WildTangent privacy statement when they installed our
product, and later discovered that our Web Driver updates itself
automatically. If you are worried about what kind of information our
product is collecting and reporting to us, or delivering to your
computer, please check out the privacy statement on our web site at
www.wildtangent.com. We are not "big brother" or a Trojan horse, we
have the utmost respect for your privacy, we don't know who you are
unless you tell us, and our updater has essentially no impact on your
computers performance.

WildTangent is working very hard to pioneer game and multimedia
content delivery over the Internet, but there are two enormous
challenges associated with this problem that our updater resolves.

1) Support: DirectX drivers, which we depend on, are frequently
broken or unstable. Support problems associated with DirectX drivers
are typically 3-7% for most video game developers. Game developers
have large support staffs to deal with these issues but the web
developers using our technology will not have the same resources. In
order to make it practical to enable web developers to author leading
edge multimedia content and deliver it online WildTangent must try to
cope with the support problems associated with DirectX. Our updater
is part of a sophisticated support automation system that allows us
to detect driver problems and fix them automatically.. hopefully
before a user ever encounters them. We track system configuration
and driver information in an effort to detect problems and fix them
before our users ever encounter them in content.

2) Size: Multimedia applications are usually huge. The updater
allows us to deliver content users request in idle bandwidth rather
than forcing users to wait for a long download. We keep our driver
current with new technology using the updater to avoid asking users
to take a download hit every time they want to see WildTangent
content. We also stream content. If our servers know your system
configuration then they can tune the content they are delivering to
suit your bandwidth and multimedia capabilities. All of this makes
our multimedia content delivery much faster and more reliable.

Lastly we track information about how WildTangent content is used.
This allows us to bill publishers that are using our technology for
commercial applications. This billing mechanism also makes it
possible for us to make the technology available to a large community
of small content developers for free, while generating revenue from
the larger folks who use our technology to make money. We don't know
who you are, nor do we try to figure it out unless you want to tell
us.

We try very hard to make our technology as reliable, responsible and
unobtrusive on your machine as possible. An interesting side effect
of our effort to be unobtrusive is that some folks think that there
is something sneaky going on because we don't plaster our logo all
over the desktop or start menu. Our sincere intention here is to
avoid cluttering your desktop with stuff you shouldn't have to deal
with.

That said, the updater can be disabled at anytime from the
WildTangent control panel applet.

If you found this file and have any questions about its contents,
please email us at info@wildtangent.com. I hope this letter has
successfully addressed any concerns we may have raised, and I hope
you will continue to enjoy our content. If you are computer savvy,
then you may be interested in learning how to create WildTangent
content yourself.

WildTangent?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean this WildTangent? I have no interest in the views of this builder of adware.

Lack of modding ability?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can (with difficulty) mod console games. I admit that it's not an ability of any signifigance, due to its difficulty. However, I know that in Xbox Morrowind, it is possible to use a minor hack to use most mods for that game on the Xbox. It's just that you can't author the mods on the Xbox.

Re:Why do the consoles have to do EVERYTHING?

[bigman2003]

Your comments might carry a little more weight, if they were accurate.

That '$40 remote' the Xbox uses to play DVD's is actually only $30. And yes, an Xbox arguably does have more functionality than your DVD player- because it DOES play games too.

On one hand, you want to bust on the Xbox for charging for the ability to play DVD's. Then you say that a device that plays games AND movies isn't a great idea. Well- then don't buy the DVD adapter! It's an option. It costs money because it gives people the choice- if you want the functionality, you pay the money. If you don't want the functionality, don't pay the money.

So...are you against the fact that you have a choice?