Monthly NPD sales data paints one picture of how the video game industry is faring in this economy. Tracking firm Nielsen has crafted an alternate perspective. In a new study, Nielsen turned the lens on the recession’s impact by measuring how much time is being spent playing and how many used games gamers are buying. Not surprisingly, the survey found both game engagement and used game purchasing have been trending up.
The printers are probably still warm from running off copies of last week’s announcement he was stepping down as the CEO of Joost, but former Cisco star Mike Volpi is wasting no time updating his resume. Not a week removed and he’s already on to his next venture, literally.
Index Ventures (which is an investor in Joost) announced Monday that Mike will join their London office as a venture partner.
While a new entrant to the VC world, Volpi is anything but inexperienced when it comes to evaluating companies. The former Cisco Chief Strategy Officer oversaw a business development team that acquired more than 75 companies during his thirteen year stint at the networking equipment maker.
At Index, Volpi will focus on familiar territory: Telecom and Networking startups. He’ll also try his hand at picking future stars from the Media and Internet sectors.
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. But if “Plan B” doesn’t work either? Then what? Do you call it a cautionary tale? Chalk it up to the nature of the game? Or do you try a new course yet again? For the once high flying internet video startup, Joost, which has been spiraling toward trouble, it’s door number three.
On Tuesday, the company announced in a corporate blog that it will restructure its business model to incorporate a white-label service aimed at providing video distribution technology. (The video site will remain but no longer be the company’s singular focus).
Joost cited the economy as a key factor in its decision. On the company blog, CEO Mike Volpi wrote that it had become “increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform…. We have built a solid technology platform that there is demand for in the marketplace, and look forward to this new chapter for our company. At the same time, we’ll continue to operate Joost.com and its associated video applications.”
While the challenges of earning a living off advertising had to figure into the calculus to shift focus, Joost’s problems run deeper and have been apparent for a long time. Simply put: the company’s service never matched up to the demands and behaviors of the consumer marketplace. Timing, programming, and concept never fully came together.
Cycle back the calendar to May 2007 and Joost was a hot, hyped peer to peer video platform still in an invitation only beta. The founders were coming off of huge success in the creation and sale of Skype. Click to Read More
Log in to Netflix and rate a movie you watched on a scale of one to five and Netflix’ computers will try to suggest other titles you’re likely to rank the same way. This algorithmic pairing process has been marketed as a key differentiator between Netflix movie rental service and that of competitors. It’s been touted as an achievement.
For two and a half years, Netflix challenged the public to try and create a better mousetrap. A million dollar prize was dangled as bait for the first person (or team) to create a program capable of beating Netflix’ Cinematch algorithm by a margin of ten percent or better. Nobody succeeded. Developers inched close but couldn’t quite hit the mark. Seven percent, eight percent, nine…but not ten. The so called "Netflix Prize" went unclaimed. Until now, that is.
On Friday, a group created from a combination of four independent teams that had been vying for the prize submitted a solution that they claim resulted in a 10.05% improvement over Netflix’ Cinematch ranking algorithm.
In the hit or miss world of video games, the last fiscal year was an unequivocal miss for Agoura Hills based THQ. The company came up $431.1m short on a GAAP basis (or lost $101.8m in Non-GAAP terms) when it reported its full year results in May (release). It was a “challenging” year as CEO Brian Farrell called it, to say the least.
The current fiscal year may be shaping up to be a little more positive. In November 2008, the company announced a multifaceted plan to refocus on a narrower slate of premium titles and reorganize its business structure to allow more efficient operations. 24% of the company’s workforce (600 jobs) was cut in the following months and approximately $220m in expenses were pared off. The company also added a new credit facility in May to provide a safety net for any working capital issues.
Today, in what likely completes one of the final steps left in the business realignment, THQ announced it will reorganize its development units into a new structure. Click to Read More
As newspapers continue their efforts to squeeze out revenue from their online properties, one of the questions editors are asking is what differentiation they should have between print and dot com. Some argue that online being free; print should offer something special to add value to those paying for delivery. Others counter that the Internet is the industry’s future and to be out in front requires putting richer content there – online where there are no page space restrictions and a bigger audience to capture.
In late May and early June, the Washington posted irked some readers and fired up the debate by taking a course seemingly supportive of door number two. On May 31st and June 1st, the paper ran a large two part investigative report on an unsolved Washington, D.C. murder mystery. The story was published only online leaving some print readers frustrated and others unaware they’d even missed a story until they saw the backlash.
In the weeks since passed, the paper has been criticized by some and lauded by others for its choice. The decision’s been justified by the scope of the article and its size (its narrow subject and long length argued to be ill suited for print), and castigated for the same reasons.
Newspapers are fighting in an increasingly competitive online global arena and it’s clear there is no easy answer for how to succeed. There’s so much information beamed at audiences. To stand out from the volume (below cost and consistently) is a difficult task. It doesn’t take much more than a passing glance at a newspaper’s financial statements to see that. But new Nielsen data seems to add even more color to how complex the marketplace has become, and for that matter, how difficult the editorial decisions are that editors face.
For a top game publisher to abandon a console platform before the midway point in the hardware’s lifecycle is extremely unlikely. Hardware makers and software publishers have a sometimes conflicted but always mutual need for each other’s services. It’s symbiotic; especially once they’re both invested. Even so, the two aren’t above venting frustrations.
That happened Friday. In an interview with the UK Times, Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick went to the press for leverage. Like a diplomat threatening war (with no real intention of starting one) he fired a shot at Sony to let the company know in no uncertain terms there’s concern about the PS3 platform’s anemic sales.
According to Kotick, Activision paid Sony in the neighborhood of $500m last year in fees and he wants a better, make that much better, return on investment. He wants Sony to cut the price on the console to help stimulate demand. He thinks it’s too expensive to develop for and too expensive for consumers. He wants change.
