Nintendo is extremely secretive. They haven't properly unveiled their new handheld so there's no advertising for it, no news to talk about. By keeping the ideas secret for as long as possible they prevent competitors from reacting in time. Look at how badly Sony screwed up when they tried to clone the Wii's motion sensing with the Sixaxis on short notice. Only now are they getting anywhere with their cloning efforts and by now it's already too damn late.
I can see DSi but why the hell is the DS Lite on your list? That thing came maybe one year after the original DS and coincided with the first big sales boost that lifted the DS over the PSP.
That would benefit the makers of those universal devices much more than Nintendo. People buy special hardware just to play Nintendo games, that is how valuable these games are. Why let the competition take a share of that value?
I just don't see the iDevices capable of competing for my gaming money, even if I made them my main gaming platform the games are so cheap it's hard to rack up a significant bill and maybe I'd spend enough in a whole year as I do on one DS game. Of course competing for my gaming time is a different matter, the only game I really want to play for longer periods of time (for most I don't even want to spend a little time on them because they suck as bad as a random grab out of a PC bargain bin) drains the iPod's battery in maybe three hours so when I'm on the commute the iPod gets relegated to playing audio. I can't imagine how much it'd suck to have my phone tied to the same battery.
The DS is almost dated now, its lack of sales should suggest that Nintendo release a NEW handheld, and not a rehash like the DSi or DS lite.
They announced it already, the only feature they found unimportant enough to let people know about before the great unveiling was glasses-free stereoscopic 3D. Most likely the real meat is still secret, the DS got a similar pre-announcement that only mentioned two screens but nothing about touch screens.
Honestly, in gaming the iPhone is not even remotely competitive for anything but the most casual gaming and even there it often gets beaten by DS games (and the controls aren't even the worst problem iPhone games have even though they are a very severe one, you can't even play something as simple as Mega Man properly!). iPhone game development operates on a tiny budget because exposure is limited and prices are unsustainably low for anything that goes beyond a fart button. A scant few breakout hits are used to draw everyone into that market before they realize they have no real chance and all they do is prop up Apple.
The drop is two components: 1. A weakening core market. The iDevices have no impact here because they fail completely at the things this market values (compare the App Store games with the games consoles get at retail). No CoD-level megahits for this market ATM so sales are expectedly low, otherwise the sales decline as people lapse from the market (casual core gamers may pick up the famous standout titles but won't bother searching IGN for the latest news anymore) and the influx of new gamers is limited. 2. Generational decline for the hardware, this generation has gone on pretty long and the drop is expected. The Wii is still outperforming the PS2 at its corresponding point in its life.
Also this whole thing hinges on the premise that "it is understood that Iwata said this". What does "understood" mean here? Rumors going around? The iPad is simply not a console (especially not one for 4 players on one system) so it's not hurting the Wii and last I've seen the marketshare movements (of course all they're telling us is percents but I doubt the total market of DS+PSP+iP has a constant size over the years) look like the DS isn't losing much to the iPhone/iPod, the share Apple took came in roughly equal parts from new gamers (honestly, I don't expect everyone who buys games for their iP to own a DS or PSP) and the PSP market.
In other words, you don't get to claim copyright for stuff you violated copyright law to produce. The idea is absurd.
No, it's not absurd. Take a more benign example: Fan art. That stuff is infringing on copyright (most companies don't have an explicit fan art license) but it's still copyrighted by whoever wrote it. The end result has a composite copyright where the original characters or whatever was used are owned by the company and the concrete implementation by the fan. The fan could be sued for copyright infringement (in practice that's rare) but the company that made the base IP doesn't get sole rights to the fan art either, if they take it and use it as their own the fan has a legal claim against them (again it's unlikely that the fan would sue but it's possible). In order to reproduce that fan art legally both the original IP owner and the fan would have to agree to allow that copy.
Now a crack may be shaky not because it's illegal but because it could be argued to include no creative content. With old C-64 era cracked versions that come with intros that show off some pretty effects and music it would be pretty clear that the cracker would own the copyright to the crack intro but simply removing a CD check may not be enough.
I think it's fine, if you sell software that doesn't do what you advertise it to do you should be held accountable. After all you can't sell someone a physical product that doesn't do what's advertised so why should software get special treatment here?
Most protestant beliefs state that Jesus absolved all believers from the original sin and since we're talking about the USA I don't think catholic beliefs are carried by many.
The standard is that you can be reasonably expected to know that the goods are fishy. Stores are supposed to make sure their goods are legal so the buyer can reasonably expect that they're clear.
They're going for money laundering, i.e. schemes set up to hide the origin of illegally gained money. No matter what crap banks pull with their money, it's at least legally gained and not relevant for money laundering investigations. Checking financial markets is a different department.
I think WoG did at least 1.5 million sales, that was the number they threw around some time ago when talking about the performance of the WiiWare version (it was the total number, I think the WiiWare one sold something like 800k).
Slashdot Mirror
Try 1$ games, people already get extremely cautious about 2$ games, only 1$ passes for an impulse buy.
Nintendo is extremely secretive. They haven't properly unveiled their new handheld so there's no advertising for it, no news to talk about. By keeping the ideas secret for as long as possible they prevent competitors from reacting in time. Look at how badly Sony screwed up when they tried to clone the Wii's motion sensing with the Sixaxis on short notice. Only now are they getting anywhere with their cloning efforts and by now it's already too damn late.
I can see DSi but why the hell is the DS Lite on your list? That thing came maybe one year after the original DS and coincided with the first big sales boost that lifted the DS over the PSP.
I believe it's Flash and Java you want dead then, not Apple and Nintendo. It's not the console companies who made Farmville!
That antenna will eat a ton of battery. Nintendo wants a long battery life, not something that apes the Game Gear.
That would benefit the makers of those universal devices much more than Nintendo. People buy special hardware just to play Nintendo games, that is how valuable these games are. Why let the competition take a share of that value?
I just don't see the iDevices capable of competing for my gaming money, even if I made them my main gaming platform the games are so cheap it's hard to rack up a significant bill and maybe I'd spend enough in a whole year as I do on one DS game. Of course competing for my gaming time is a different matter, the only game I really want to play for longer periods of time (for most I don't even want to spend a little time on them because they suck as bad as a random grab out of a PC bargain bin) drains the iPod's battery in maybe three hours so when I'm on the commute the iPod gets relegated to playing audio. I can't imagine how much it'd suck to have my phone tied to the same battery.
The DS is almost dated now, its lack of sales should suggest that Nintendo release a NEW handheld, and not a rehash like the DSi or DS lite.
They announced it already, the only feature they found unimportant enough to let people know about before the great unveiling was glasses-free stereoscopic 3D. Most likely the real meat is still secret, the DS got a similar pre-announcement that only mentioned two screens but nothing about touch screens.
Honestly, in gaming the iPhone is not even remotely competitive for anything but the most casual gaming and even there it often gets beaten by DS games (and the controls aren't even the worst problem iPhone games have even though they are a very severe one, you can't even play something as simple as Mega Man properly!). iPhone game development operates on a tiny budget because exposure is limited and prices are unsustainably low for anything that goes beyond a fart button. A scant few breakout hits are used to draw everyone into that market before they realize they have no real chance and all they do is prop up Apple.
The drop is two components:
1. A weakening core market. The iDevices have no impact here because they fail completely at the things this market values (compare the App Store games with the games consoles get at retail). No CoD-level megahits for this market ATM so sales are expectedly low, otherwise the sales decline as people lapse from the market (casual core gamers may pick up the famous standout titles but won't bother searching IGN for the latest news anymore) and the influx of new gamers is limited.
2. Generational decline for the hardware, this generation has gone on pretty long and the drop is expected. The Wii is still outperforming the PS2 at its corresponding point in its life.
Also this whole thing hinges on the premise that "it is understood that Iwata said this". What does "understood" mean here? Rumors going around? The iPad is simply not a console (especially not one for 4 players on one system) so it's not hurting the Wii and last I've seen the marketshare movements (of course all they're telling us is percents but I doubt the total market of DS+PSP+iP has a constant size over the years) look like the DS isn't losing much to the iPhone/iPod, the share Apple took came in roughly equal parts from new gamers (honestly, I don't expect everyone who buys games for their iP to own a DS or PSP) and the PSP market.
In other words, you don't get to claim copyright for stuff you violated copyright law to produce. The idea is absurd.
No, it's not absurd. Take a more benign example: Fan art. That stuff is infringing on copyright (most companies don't have an explicit fan art license) but it's still copyrighted by whoever wrote it. The end result has a composite copyright where the original characters or whatever was used are owned by the company and the concrete implementation by the fan. The fan could be sued for copyright infringement (in practice that's rare) but the company that made the base IP doesn't get sole rights to the fan art either, if they take it and use it as their own the fan has a legal claim against them (again it's unlikely that the fan would sue but it's possible). In order to reproduce that fan art legally both the original IP owner and the fan would have to agree to allow that copy.
Now a crack may be shaky not because it's illegal but because it could be argued to include no creative content. With old C-64 era cracked versions that come with intros that show off some pretty effects and music it would be pretty clear that the cracker would own the copyright to the crack intro but simply removing a CD check may not be enough.
As long as the game has an awesome chiptune demo intro it's fine by me.
I think it's fine, if you sell software that doesn't do what you advertise it to do you should be held accountable. After all you can't sell someone a physical product that doesn't do what's advertised so why should software get special treatment here?
I applaud your astute ability to detect sarcasm. Well done!
After all, we are born guilty with original sin
Most protestant beliefs state that Jesus absolved all believers from the original sin and since we're talking about the USA I don't think catholic beliefs are carried by many.
The standard is that you can be reasonably expected to know that the goods are fishy. Stores are supposed to make sure their goods are legal so the buyer can reasonably expect that they're clear.
He had a vacant account and figured, 'what do I have to lose?' so sent them the details.
I think that's where this plan is going, give them a good answer to "what do I have to lose?"
The FBI only has authority in the US, they cannot go after Russian mob bosses.
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They're going for money laundering, i.e. schemes set up to hide the origin of illegally gained money. No matter what crap banks pull with their money, it's at least legally gained and not relevant for money laundering investigations. Checking financial markets is a different department.
But HTML entities work!
I think WoG did at least 1.5 million sales, that was the number they threw around some time ago when talking about the performance of the WiiWare version (it was the total number, I think the WiiWare one sold something like 800k).
I believe the courts have already smacked down weasel-words like that, if it smells like a sale it is a sale.
I think EA is already doing "freemium" with Battlefield Heroes.
Also doesn't every recipient of the binary+source get permission to redistribute that?