| Set On Stun |

Sony people in the house wave your Move in the air!!

So everybody sitting around at GDC and then Sony starts their presentation ….

Tough year … blah blah, great games Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2 blah blah ….Mag blah blah … God Of War 3 system seller million unit release blah blah blah… more stuff coming at E3 blah blah …. and then we finally get the big announcement ….

The PlayStation …. Move?

All that buzz about it being called the Arc well that was just the rumor mill at high speed. It’s being called the PlayStation Move System — as it was pitched during the presentation “from the tiniest twitch to the strongest punch, it’s ahead of it’s time”  The folks at GDC got a chance to try out this new peripheral first hand and reports are so far so good. Forget kicking balls and painting things, this motion controller had  actual games to show off and not just any games, they brought  PlayStation staple, SOCOM to the party.

In the contest of show me your stuff, Sony didn’t just blow people’s minds — they kicked Microsoft’s ass.

kicking balls? Puleeze -- we so got that beat

Here’s the breakdown

It sort of looks like a Wiimote  except for the weird glowy ball (changes colors too)  but make no mistake — this aint no Wii

• The controller has less buttons and is more streamlined
• It charges using a USB connection just like it’s big brother controller — battery sucking? Not
• The main controller and it’s nunchuck counterpart (known as the subcontroller) are not tethered by a wire.
• The colored ball — that’s your motion detector.
• The report from those who played SOCOM say the functionality blows the Wiimote/nunchuck combo out of the water. What would normally be a clunky interface is now a seamless transition with weapon and movements nicely paired out.
• Depth sensing — if you don’t know what that is well then you haven’t had a chance to not experience that with the Wii. The Move pupports that the glowing  sphere at the end of the controller along with the PlayStation Eye camera work together to solve that issue.

If you’re wondering — those are actual games that you’ll be able to use this new peripheral with. Along with games like cheating golfer tour (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11) and Little Big Planet (retrofitted). Granted the promotional video is replete with cheese and then some but  this goes so far beyond what Natal showed us last summer.

Natal offers no controller at all but here’s the question — where’s your stuff?

PlayStation Move has

1. An estimated fall launch possibly ahead of Natal
2. A rumored starter package price of $100 (depending on if you already own a PS3 and what you’re planning to buy)
3. Titles that already look cooler than anything we’ve seen on Natal.

The path has now been paved. Come this holiday season the Wii will not be the only game in town and tapping into that casual gamer market when you already have the hardcore gamers as part of your core audience  will be a lot easier for Sony and Microsoft.  For Sony to use GDC to drop their Move bomb was a bold and absolutely brilliant move. These are the folks who you want to sell this system too more than anyone else because they’ll be the ones making games for it.

Tough act to follow? Without a doubt. So Microsoft — show us what you got.

Apparently, Set on Stun and every other blog on the planet has been writing (and writhing) furiously about the Apple iPad announcement.  In the past few days, my partner Shawn and I have produced a few of those articles as well.

While I’m hesitant to add yet another article in the current cacophony of critical and complimentary yet credible connoisseurs of computing culture, I feel that I have yet to put my finger on why I simultaneously love and hate the Apple iPad.  I hate it because of what it is, yet I love it for what it could potentially be.

Why I Love the Apple iPad:

As my friend, mentor and former boss Thom Kozik noted in a past article, about my skepticism towards the Apple iPad, the revolution of the iPhone was not in the technology, the same could be said (and is being said) about the iPad.  He makes the point that

There’s an old adage in product design & marketing that the mass market will never recognize they need and thus will not demand, truly innovative products. I would challenge anyone to argue that they would have specified in some 2006 survey or focus group that what they *really* wanted was the kind of capabilities/functionality an iPhone user takes for granted (nay, is *addicted to*) on a daily basis. Design by committee doesn’t work here.

He goes on to describe the nearly imperceptible learning curve and its ability to “just work”.  In a sense, he described the brilliance of the Apple strategy.  They make products that they control to give people technology that fits the way they consume media (games, blogs, the internet, music, movies and more).  With the nit-picking of the iPad due to its lack of GPS, media outlets, Adobe Flash capabilities and many more, I realized that in my mind, I am looking at this device with the perception of a media creator.  I create things all day long, analyses, spreadsheets, articles and more.  I sit at my PC and I think, I work and I create.  With those lenses, I have judged the iPad and found it wanting.

However, after a brief IM with Thom and reading his response, I took a look at how I use my badly damaged iPhone and realized that the things I create with my iPhone is minimal.  The emails, texts, tweets and updates are minimal.  However, the media that I consume compared to what I create is staggering.

I sent 12 emails via my phone yesterday, read 12 blog posts, viewed 20 pictures, played 6 games, listened to music for 7 hours and watched over 10 videos.  The iPad would allow me to do that, and more (multitasking aside).

The iPad as a Media Consumption Product is Amazing.

As a content consumption device, it has flaws, but what I think Apple has figured out is not just what people consume on a mobile device, but how they consume media on that device.  The iPad version 1 will always be a test, it will find out what works and what doesn’t.  Patches will be added to update and upgrade the firmware, apps will be created to supplement and work around some of the idiosyncrasies.  Don’t even start talking to me about hating the iPad because of the “walled garden”  each gaming console is itself a walled garden.  I agree in principle, but the reality is that every popular manufacturer of content consumption (games, ebooks, music and movies) have some level of that baked into their process.

Why I Hate the Apple iPad

Simply put, for me, it’s superfluous.  I have consoles, both mobile and static… I have an iPhone, I have a laptop and the iPad is just one more piece of beautiful technology that doesn’t replace any of these items, doesn’t really do anything that these things do significantly better and has some drawbacks that I just don’t have to live with in the context of my current digitally mobile life.  I hate it because I’m attracted to it.  I want it… I want to play games, experience what I’m sure will be a new way to perceive and experience games.

That’s the crux.  All I see now is potential, the iPad is a platform that has a beautiful, yet flawed architecture that holds an incredible potential.  I can see that potential and I can see how Apple has designed this product to be iterative, to blend in with digitally mobile lifestyle and I can see how good it can be.

Video game marketing, welcome to the 21st century.  For an industry that thrives on technological innovation to the point where it’s feasible to link PS3s together to simulate the work of a supercomputer, most of the marketing of video games seem to be in a digital rut.  The reliance on enthusiast media, review scores, print and TV media to promote their products are outmoded structures that betray the inherent interactivity that’s in the games themselves.

For their launch on February 2nd, Star Trek Online has joined with some of the bigger names in advertising, like the Ayzenberg Group, Dan Klores Communications and DKC Connect.   Their adoption into the social media blitz is fascinating to watch, eschewing more traditional outlets, they’re creating portals and campaigns that leverage the excitement of the fanbase and the uniqueness of the campaigns themselves to promote the game.

For example, on Twitter (over 2800 followers), they’ve created “Tweet in Klingon” which will translate your tweets into Klingon, simple enough… and of course, it’s attracting fanboys and haters all at once.  In this case, it’s a great way to leverage the unique history and richness of the Star Trek universe to digital promotion.

Also on the social media landscape is the game’s Facebook page, which allows a pretty standard application to turn your profile picture.. or a picture you upload into one of the iconic Klingon, Vulcan, Andorian, Borg, Bajoran or many other of the races in the Star Trek universe.  Overall, it’s pretty cool and it seems to be working with them capturing almost 28,000 fans at this point.

Another fairly unique avenue they’re exploring is the distribution and partnership route.  They’ve joined forces with Del Taco where they’re actively promoting Del Taco’s own Facebook page where you can get trailers, downloads and fun things like that.  While I wonder why they didn’t select a national chain, it’s unique for a non-movie to partner with a fast-food restaurant so early in the conception of the game.  World of Warcraft took several years to branch out into the food partnership marketing efforts.

Atari’s VP of marketing, Jonathan Anastas said :

“Other promotions have focused on ad networks and Google SEM/SEO, Anastas explained. “We’ve more than doubled our digital spend each month for the last three [months],”

This one quote seems to me like a significant shift in efforts.  With SEO, you use technology and good keyword research to get to the top of the search engine results page.  Something that would, on the surface, seem redundant for a video game.  After all, if someone is looking for Star Trek Online, wouldn’t they easily find it on Google?

The short answer is yes.  However, the keyword “Star Trek Online” is a very brand specific search, if someone is looking for a more general search like “star trek games”, as of right now, Star Trek Online is nowhere to be found on the first page, but it’s tucked back on the third page of search results.  The goal is to reach users through their searches that haven’t been reached by their traditional, social or partnership marketing efforts.  Unfortunately, I think they need some better SEO advice, looking at the Google text cache on Star Trek Online’s homepage, it reveals that Google & other search engines see absolutely zero content on the page.

Ultimately, while Anastas wouldn’t reveal the results so far of the pre-orders of the game, he said that he was “extremely pleased” with the digital marketing efforts.

It’s good to see the nearly completely social and digital launch go for such a highly anticipated game and they’re expecting the more traditional channels to be launched with in the next few weeks.

And for no other reason than that they’re completely cool, check out some of these amazing screenshots from the game distributed via the social media efforts.

Lately, the geekiverse has been all aflutter about Sega’s upcoming game, Aliens vs. Predator.  In fact, few movie franchise video games have really generated more excitement.  In my personal opinion, the first AvP game was probably the best AvP game to date.

With the release of the new trailer (be fore-warned it’s violent, with graphic mutilations, impalations, decapitations, evicerations and puppy-kicking) most of the major video game blogs have reported on it.  The comments on these articles range from excited “OMFG!” to “This is just over the top torture porn”.

As usual, this got me thinking about the marketing of this video game.  Is this blatantly over the top imagery designed to whip up the excited masses into a frothing heap of first day sales?  Does blatantly promoting the violence somehow make gamers look bad?  Is Sega’s marketing brilliant, reprehensible or just somewhere in between?

But first… watch the new trailer.

Got it?  Good.

First, the basics.  All marketing needs to start with an understanding of the target demographic.  Marketers do the research to figure out their audience, their purchasing habits and the desires they want fulfilled.  In this case, these are people (mostly male) who’ve consumed a considerable amount of sci-fi horror material.  They’ve seen the Alien and Predator series along with the AvP movies that followed them.  A portion of that audience reads the graphic novels, played the games and continue to debate in fan forums.

The second part of marketing that I want to focus on is the fact that marketers are tasked in describing what the consumer will actually get when they purchase the product.  Some games, like Brutal Legend were promoted as a kick-ass slash game through the “Metalverse”, some of them were visibly pissed off when they found out that there were significant portions of the game that were RTS elements… a genre that has yet to penetrate the console market successfully.  I can understand why Brutal Legend was marketed in the way it was marketed.  The reaction to a RTS console game is rarely well received.  From that angle, the marketing failed.  They pushed a product that didn’t give the consumer enough information to fulfill their expectations.

This looks a bit too well lit to be an Aliens vs. Predator game... but damn it's cool

In this case, the marketing of Aliens vs. Predator gives a tight group of the gaming demographic EXACTLY what they expect and what they desire.  This new trailer is probably one of the better trailers I’ve seen for a video game of that sort.  It communicates clearly, mixing what appears to be ingame scenes, pre-rendered scenes and actual gameplay footage into a bloody montage.

In fact, one of the quick scenes that’s stuck in my head is the part where you have the “mouth view” of the alien as it rushes in to separate a marine’s face from the rest of his head.

Yet is this a cheap attempt to gain media attention, to excite gamers by giving them what could be the bloodiest moments in the game?  Probably, but for the right audience, this is exactly right.  This is exactly what they want.  Fans of the Aliens and Predator stories (like me) have come to expect this over the top brutality in our comics, games and movies about this particular universe.

I’ve watched it dozens of times… and I don’t think I could get enough of this game.

However, Sega needs to watch it… if this game sucks, then this same trailer which is damn good video game marketing could become a touchpoint of fan anger if the actual game doesn’t live up to the standard that it’s presenting.  So even good pre-launch marketing could immediately turn into bad marketing if the product doesn’t live up to the hype.

I can control ... everything

2010 — The year of Motion — Control?

Nothing starts a new year of videogaming like rumors, speculation and possibilities of what might be exciting if it actually happens.  And if the companies behind these supposed stories actually deliver then strap in and get ready for a crazy new ride into the new decade of gaming. Going against the grain of launching entirely new systems what we see this year are new things you can add to your existing system or get an improved version of what you already own.

PS3 I see you!

The Big News – 3D

Gaming: Out of CES today the big announcement was Sony will allow you to play 3D games. Yeah you heard that right. They’re going to fix up the PS3 so that gamers can get the closest thing we have to a holodeck so far. Oh there is a catch — you need a 3d TV. Who makes those you ask? Wanna guess? Sony Bravias will come with 3D glasses and are slated to launch this summer.

Sony’s Motion Control and Blu Ray tweaks. Sony motion what? Well since the big E3 announcement last year they’ve been mum and considering they’re looking to one up Microsoft by offering 3D gaming  it’s a good guess this idea has been tabled. As for the Blu Ray tweaks well they’re definitely going to beef up the player to expand its disc storage capabilities.

Will we see more of this at E3? The 3D stuff ? We certainly hope so. Who needs to bring two Beatles out on stage when you have 3D games.

Remote? Man forget that

Natal — remember Natal? -The “we don’t need no stinking remotes” peripheral that wowed everybody at E3 ‘09 until we wanted to find out when it would be ready or how much it costs. Well the latest is that Microsoft plans to launch this device … sometime this year. We can only guess how they’ll market this but you can bet it will involve attractive families playing games together. As to how it will work with the existing library. Once again — we’ll have to wait for all the details.

Will we see more of this at E3? Yes but don’t expect any answers about the price point.  While all the talk has been about making the existing systems better rather than making a while new system, a high-price peripheral may just go the way of the power glove

Wave your DS in the air like you just don't care

DS Motion Sensors: Yeah right. No really. Not that the DS needs to make more money for the company but the latest innovation to grace the Ipod of video game consoles is apparently motion sensors. Counting on the fact that people will drop more cash to buy yet another version of the DS word from the folks over at HQ is that there will be a new Zelda, improved graphics and some sort of technology to somehow read players’ movements.  As to when this will happen? Suffice it to say we’ll see Natal before we see this.

Will we see more of this at E3? Maybe. July is a long way from now so who knows what to expect. The only thing we can expect is that whatever it is, it will be a big hit for Nintendo’s golden child.

One week into the new year and we’re already hearing about fantastical things like controller free gaming and gaming with 3D glasses on? It’s going to be quite a year.