PS3, PS4 DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

Archive for the ‘PS3, PS4’ Category

Game Consoles – July 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

July figures are now available from NPD for US video game sales, and there are a couple of surprises, although probably only one good surprise for one company in particular. June figures showed some year on year improvement by the likes of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, which offset the bad news about the decline for the DS and the worrying figures for the PSP. July is traditionally not as good a month as June, so all eyes will on which consoles can do the business this month, and which are in serious trouble. The figures are from NPD, a marketing research firm that releases games console sale data every month.

The figures for US sales in July 2010 are below, ranked in order of number of sales (July 2009 figures also shown, including percentage change):

Xbox 360: 443,500 (Total: 21 million; July 2009: 202,900 – up 119%)
DS: 398,400 (Total: 43 million; July 2009: 538,900 – down 26%)
Wii: 253,900 (Total: 29.8 million; July 2009: 252,900 – up 0.4%)
PS3: 214,500 (Total: 12.9 million; July 2009: 121,800 – up 76%)
PSP: 84,000 (Total: 17.4 million; July 2009: 122,800 – down 32%)

NPD July 2010 Game Console US Sales Figures

NPD Game Console Total US Sales Figures (as of July 2010)

My prediction from last month was:

Time to make a prediction. The new Xbox 360 Elite fever continues, and there’s a good chance it will outsell the Wii (and PS3) yet again. So my guess is that the order of the hardware sales will remain the same for July, but with hardware sales generally down a bit compared to June as historically has been the case. As for games, Super Mario Galaxy 2 to rule in the absence of any real quality new releases. NCAA Football 11 should make the top 10, the Xbox 360 version outselling the PS3 version. How can I forget Crackdown 2, the sequel to the very first Xbox 360 game I ever owned. It should do well, but topping the chart? I don’t know about that (it’s already 39th in the sales charts on Amazon, and that doesn’t look like a rank that belongs to a number one title).

I was I was close to the mark, but I just couldn’t see the Xbox 360 outselling the DS, not just the Wii, but that’s exactly what happened. Although the Xbox 360’s number one was earned with much help from decreasing DS sales, but when most consoles saw month to month drop in sales, the results were still remarkable. As for games, I think what I predicted mostly came true, but otherwise it was a slow month for game sales.

The Xbox 360, thanks to the new “Slim” or we’ll just refer to it as the Xbox 360 250GB, has done wonders for Xbox 360 sales, but that’s really not a surprise. The DSi, PS3 Slim all helped to post what proved fairly temporary sales increases, and the 250GB model may run out of steam next month. But of course, Microsoft has the new Arcade replacing 4GB, matte “Slim” version out in August, and so that might help keep hardware sales up. And then in September, Halo Reach is released, and a Halo title will always help push hardware sales, so it looks good for Microsoft until Kinect hits the market. Whether Kinect will prove a hit or not, that’s still too early to say, but early signs are encouraging.

For Nintendo though, decline in DS sales and an almost negligible year on year growth for the Wii is starting to look a bit worrying. Of course, with the 3DS on the horizon, Nintendo won’t be too concerned with the year on year comparison (which saw a 26% drop in sales), last year’s figure boosted by the DSi. The Wii numbers are slightly more worrying, since the numbers are starting to look like one for a console that’s running out of ideas. Price cuts can help, but with Sony and Microsoft’s own motion gaming systems on the way, the Wii looks quite last-gen in the face of the competition.

For Sony’s systems, the PS3 is still getting a healthy year on year result every month, but remember that the PS3 was doing extremely poorly this time last year (although next month’s figures for 2009 should start to reflect the Slim and price cut’s effects, at least partially), and large growth means nothing if you’re comparing it to a poor period. But compared to the Xbox 360 or the Wii, it still isn’t doing what it is capable of, and despite the poor Wii numbers this month, the PS3 numbers were still lower. And this is with the stock issues cleared up. The PS3 numbers for July 2010 are actually lower than the PS3 numbers for July 2008 (225,000), and that’s not a great sign despite price drops, new form factor, and many many more games being released since that time. The PSP, well, the less said about that the better. Pretty soon, the NPD will have to remove the PSP numbers just like they did with the PS2 numbers, because frankly, it’s just not competitive with the DS, even with the poorer than usual DS sales numbers.

Let’s move onto software. As expected, the two versions of NCAA Football 11 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 topped the sales charts, but the gap between the two console versions has narrowed considerable compared to last year. NCAA Football 11 sold slightly less than NCAA Football 10 on the Xbox 360, but the same comparison saw more PS3 sales. While the Xbox 360 holds a 1.6:1 sales ratio to the PS3, in terms of hardware, the software margin seems to be much closer. The Xbox 360 exclusive Crackdown 2 managed to get third place, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 is still the best selling Wii title for the month (New Super Mario Bros. was the only other Wii title in the top 10, at 9th). The DS version of Lego Harry Potter Year 1 – 4 managed to grab 5th place. For the Xbox 360, there were two more titles in the top 10, Red Dead Redemption (the PS3 version has dropped out of the top 10 for this title), and an oldie, but goodie, Call of Duty: MW2. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for the DS was the remaining title in the top 10, at 8th.

Here’s the complete list of the top 10 software sales:

NCAA Football 11 (Xbox 360, EA) – 368,000
NCAA Football 11 (PS3, EA) – 298,000
Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360, Microsoft) – 208,800
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, Nintendo) – 193,000
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (DS, Warner Bros.) – 141,700
Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360, Take-Two)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Wii, Warner Bros.)
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS, Nintendo)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii, Nintendo)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360, Activision)

It’s time to make the usual predictions. Looking at the Amazon charts, the new Xbox 360 4GB isn’t actually doing fantastically, and it’s being outsold by the 250GB. So while most people are predicting that it would be another month where the Xbox 360 rules, I’m not as certain. I think sales will do well, but it might be the case of things being very close, with the new 4GB probably just allowing the Xbox 360 to sneak to top spot. In games, NCAA Football is usually followed by Madden NFL, the 11th version, and that will always do well. But otherwise, it’s another slow month before the busy holiday period begins, so the top 10 should look pretty familiar.

See you next month.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 1 Comment »

Weekly News Roundup (8 August 2010, or thereabouts)

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Sorry for the late posting of this WNR. I was feeling a bit ill yesterday and couldn’t really get any work done. Still not 100% today, but as they say, the roundup must go on (I think I’ve used this “joke” before). Luckily, this week is very news lite, so it won’t take too long to get through this WNR.

Starting with copyright news, Australian ISP iiNet is back in court to fight the AFACT’s appeal of a Federal court verdict early in the year that basically let iiNet off the hook when it came to its users’ copyright infringement.

AFACT vs iiNet, Part II, started last week

While iiNet also has a few points of appeal in the case, it is mainly the AFACT that is severely unhappy with the verdict handed down earlier by Justice Cowdroy. The AFACT, for those that don’t know, is basically Australia’s version of the MPAA, representing the interests of movie studios. iiNet is Australia’s third largest ISP, and has increased in size since the court’s decision in February due to its acquisition and proposed acquisition of several competitors. The AFACT still believes that iiNet is liable for copyright infringement because it did not do all it can to prevent unauthorised downloads on their network, but iiNet argues it’s not really for them to decide what is authorised and what is unauthorised, without there being a court order to back up either claim. Since the notices that the AFACT sent to iiNet, which iiNet failed to pass on to subscribers, did not come with a court order, iiNet believe they were in the right to not take action. Regardless of the verdict in this appeal, it is likely the case will move to the highest court in the country before a final verdict on this issue can be made.

There was further development in the RIAA’s lawsuit against file sharing website LimeWire, with the RIAA’s request for LimeWire’s assets to be frozen denied. The judge did not feel LimeWire was engaged in any activities to hide their assets, and so found no need to freeze them. This may only be a temporary reprieve for LimeWire, as experts agree that the judge is likely to rule in favour of the RIAA, and order LimeWire to be shut down, in the near future.

The EFF is providing resources and links for people being sued by the US Copyright Group

For those unlucky individuals fighting lawsuits of their own, against claims made by the US Copyright Group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has now launched a new website section with resources on how to fight the charges. The new section, titled “USCG v. The People”, contains links to attorneys that can help represent defendants, as well as FAQs on the lawsuit and how to fight it. The EFF believes that current copyright laws, mostly written to target commercial offenders, not home users, is pretty lopsided when it is used against people who normally don’t have the means to defend themselves. The $1,500 to $2,500 being asked by the USCG is just enough to make retaining a lawyer too expensive, and so many people are paying up without seeking legal advice, even though some firmly believe they are innocent. Readers of this roundup will know my opinions as to the bias in current copyright laws, so it is not surprising at all that enterprising firms like the USCG will take advantage. The real question is whether paying $2,500 is justified when pirating a movie that doesn’t even cost $25, and while there are legal costs involved, there’s no way to prove any real damages has even occurred. Statutory damages works fine for commercial piracy cases, but when it comes to home users, it seems a little excessive. This is why we had the outrageous six and seven figure damages being awarded against individuals in the two infamous RIAA cases, one against a single mother, the other against a student, because statutory damages are too inexact to approximate real damages. A settlement fee of say $250 would serve the same purpose, and would seem a more normal amount for a “fine”, which is essentially what the USCG is asking for. Of course, a settlement fee of $250 will dull the USCG’s, and other firms’, enthusiasm for such mass lawsuits, but perhaps these mass lawsuits just shouldn’t exist.

Hadopi wants to put spyware in people's computers to monitor their Internet usage and software usage

But then again, compared to what the French are planning, these mass lawsuits may seem quite fair. Hadopi, the French agency set up to handle their three-strikes law, has proposed some changes which will make the law more effective. You’ll have to read my linked post to find out the full madness of what is being proposed, but the basic jist of it is to imagine the worst invasion of privacy and destruction of civil liberties that can be undertaken by a so called democratic government, and then apply that to stopping music and movie downloads, and that’s pretty much Hadopi’s plans. Hadopi plans not only to ‘tap’ your Internet connection, but also your *personal* computer, with spyware like software, just to make sure you’re not even thinking about piracy. It’s so outrageous, that you would think the plan is made up, but it is real. And the funny thing is that even during the height of the fear in regards to terrorism, it didn’t produce this sort of nonsense in terms of Internet surveillance. But I guess music labels and movie studios, with their vast *increasing* incomes, can produce moral outrage and cash (via lobbyist) in equal amounts, and their “argument” can be quite persuasive. This all sounds like something that comes out of countries like North Korea, not France, except North Korea will be doing this to preserve state authority, while the French are just doing it to protect the revenue stream of one particular industry (and at the expense of many other). In terms of the world’s problems, or France’s, Internet piracy should not even rank in the top 100.

There’s actually some more copyright related news stories, but they also fit into the other regular sections, so I’ll cover them there to make this WNR seems more varied than in actual fact.

High Definition

In 3D/HD news, Kaleidescape, which got into trouble with the MPAA for daring to offer some innovation in the field of home theatre usage, is tempting fate again, but this time using a safer method to let people access their movie library without having to get up and change the disc in the player every single time.

... and just to make sure all the images in this WNR aren't all logos again, here's a pictures of the Kaleidescape M500 player

Kaleidescape’s old system relied to “ripping” the DVD to their media server hardware, which was why the MPAA and the people responsible for DVD copyright protection, were not pleased. Kaleidescape argued that their system was closed, that once the disc was ripped, there was no way it could be shared with anyone else, but the DVD CCA/MPAA didn’t agree, saying that their system could lead to a rent, rip and return process. The funny thing was that people who could afford Kaleidescape’s system were unlikely to the be the sort that pirate DVDs. The solution to this potential legal problem that Kaleidescape came up with for Blu-ray was to make sure people had the original disc in the tray before being allowed to access the digital version on their server, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of having a digital version (other than faster loading times). Kaleidescape aims to solves this problem by offering a Blu-ray disc vault system, a basically old idea of having a disc carousel system, so that users no longer have to insert the right disc, while still be able to access their movie collection that is stored digitally on the Kaleidescape server. Of course, if people made copies of Blu-ray and DVD movies to into the disc vault, then I think it would still all work, so one only needs to add a “burn” step to the usual rent, rip and return process, if one wishes to make the MPAA angry. But will the MPAA take offence at this new Kaleidescape system? Probably not, since many Blu-ray players can play copied Blu-ray movies and all can play copied DVD movies, so if the MPAA were to sue Kaleidescape, they would have to sue every manufacturer, including some that are the parent company of its members. And as for Kaleidescape’s system, I guess a disc vault makes sense since you do have to store the disc somewhere, if not in the covers that adorn endless rows of bookshelves. It’s a neat solution to people’s ever growing Blu-ray libraries.

Speaking of Blu-ray’s popularity, the recent Blu-ray sales result that I posted in the Blu-ray sales analysis thread seems to indicate otherwise, or at least point to some rather conflicting results. On one hand, the week ending 25th July saw, for the first time ever, a weekly result that was worse than the same week a year ago, in terms of Blu-ray market share. The simple explanation, however, was that it was comparing a fairly average/poor week in 2010 with the best week up to that point for Blu-ray, in 2009. But look deeper and you’ll find that the week’s top ranking Blu-ray movie managed to sell more copies than the DVD version. This isn’t rare, especially when Blu-ray versions are being sold at lower prices than DVD versions due to sales and whatnot, but this was the first time that this had happened for a new release movie, I think (well certainly true for a new release movie that was also top of the sales rank, because a movie that sold only 50 copies on Blu-ray compared to 40 copies on DVD, doesn’t really suggest much). It was just a shame that it had to happen with a movie called The Losers. Or perhaps it’s signalling that the DVD format is soon to become the loser, although I doubt that.

And finally in gaming, but still somewhat related to copyright, is that the PS3 is possibly using a new anti-piracy feature.

New is probably not the right word to use, since apparently, this feature has been around since a couple of firmware updates ago (but a couple of firmware updates, in Sony terms, is not that long). The new system scans the audio of the movie, compares it with a online database of movie audio files, and if it matches, it either means you’ve ripped your own DVDs or downloaded a copy, and it will prevent playback (or prevent audio). So far, it seems to be limited to selected movies, possibly those that are copied from when the movie was showing at the cinema, but the same technique could be easily adopted to prevent playback of your own ripped DVDs. Converting the audio files, which contain inaudible watermarks, doesn’t appear to defeat this copy protection measure. Regardless of what’s true or not, the fact is that movie studios don’t like people ripping their own DVDs even for personal use. It has nothing to do with piracy, it’s just that you’re using your own legally purchased product in a way they don’t like, and if they could stop you, using anti-piracy as an excuse, then they will do just that. Somehow the idea of having movies without some sort of DRM scares the studios silly.

And for the 3.41 firmware problems reported by users, that has been fixed by Sony, through an updated version of 3.41. Somebody failed (again) to properly test the firmware before releasing it, it looks like. It’s interesting to note that the version number remains the same, so no 3.42 or 3.41a. If Sony were really keen to own up to their mistake, they would have released a new version number, with the changelog indicating the SNAFU they made. And this again shows why one shouldn’t become Sony’s beta testers so willingly whenever a new firmware update comes out. Let those who need it urgently install it and test it for you, and wait a week or so before attempting it yourself. It’s just a shame that some of the PS3’s online services require absolutely the latest firmware, which shouldn’t really be the case since most of these services don’t require the new elements of the new firmware. There should at least be some kind of grace period or non mandatory updates, where online services continue to function with older firmware for a certain period, or that only certain updates are mandatory when it comes to certain online features (so if a firmware update only corrects a couple of typos, then not installing it shouldn’t prevent me from playing games online). This is the sensible trade-off if Sony insists on releasing so many firmware updates without apparent proper testing, as was the case with the last one.

And that’s all I’ve got this week, in terms of news, and in terms of energy, since I’m pretty tired from being slightly ill. So tired that I can’t think of something funny or witty to say at the end of this WNR. Not that I usually write anything funny or witty in the outro anyway. See you next week.

Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Video Technology | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (8 August 2010, or thereabouts)

Weekly News Roundup (1 August 2010)

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Still busy with the move I’m afraid, it’s not the big things that’s the problem, it’s always the little things that you have pack carefully, and then move over bit by bit. So not a lot of time left to do any real work unfortunately, and it was a pretty light news week anyway. So we can get through this WNR pretty quickly it seems, sparing you of the pain of reading through a bunch of badly written crap nobody cares about. Or something.

Let’s start things with the copyright news, which in a week with few news items, actually produced two quite important pieces of news.

Jailbreaking the iPhone is now legal, thanks to new exemptions in the DMCA ...

First up is The Library of Congress’ announcement of newly added exemptions to the DMCA. I’ve gone through the exemptions in the linked post, so you should read up on that, but the two biggies are the allowing of of iPhone style jailbreaking, and the exemptions to filmmakers in regards to DVD ripping. For DRM hacking on phones, as long as you do it for interoperability reasons, and not for piracy related reasons, then it’s now allowed. Of course, Apple will have something to say about this, but their attempt to stop jailbreaking has never really been about copy protection, even by their own explanations (which are more to do with protecting the integrity of the platform, blah blah blah). It’s an interesting fact that the US Copyright Office, who made these changes, acknowledges the role DRM now plays in not stopping copyright infringement, but actually preventing interoperability in order to allow companies to gain a financial advantage. In other words, it’s anti-competitive.

The other biggie is that filmmakers and educators can actually break DRM on DVDs (and I suppose Blu-ray movies as well) in order to use clips for use in education, criticism or comment. The exemption had existed for educators, but the new exemption has the MPAA pretty riled up. And even with educators, remember when the MPAA demonstrated how teachers can record sections of DVDs and Blu-ray movies without breaking DRM (either the digital kind, CSS/AACS, or the analogue Macrovision kind), by using a camcorder to record a TV playing the DVD/Blu-ray? But now with filmmakers able to rip to their heart’s content, it’s no wonder the MPAA isn’t happy. But the basis of a free and democratic society is that there should be no barriers to genuine criticism and comment, and unfortunately, DRM is a barrier created by corporations, some of them the very target of the criticism that DRM prohibits. That the MPAA even has the temerity to question such an exemption, just shows how out of control and out of touch they really are. They’re bullies, nothing more.

... Filmmakers also benefit from new exemptions that means they can break DVD/Blu-ray DRM to use clips for comment or criticism

The other exemptions were all in a similar vain, an attempt to fix some of problems created by the DMCA, the consequences of which meant that fair use was prevented. It’s a step in the right direction, and there are still many steps to take before the DMCA can be truly called fair. But the message is clear – don’t use DRM for anything other than protecting the rights of license holders, and even when doing this, make sure you don’t infringe on the existing rights of consumers.

And almost at the same time, we have a court ruling that gives hope that further steps in the future will be taken to ensure the above. A judge has ruled that merely breaking DRM is not enough to trigger the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA. The DMCA was created as an extension to existing copyright laws that did not properly deal with copyright protection in the digital era. The fact that *any* DRM breaking is considered as breaking the DMCA is too wide an interpretation of the anti-circumvention provision, and I’m very glad that a judge has finally made a ruling that takes this into account. As the DMCA is an extension of copyright laws, then anti-circumvention should only be prohibited if copyright laws are broken as a result. Once again, it’s the idea that DRM should only be used to prevent copyright abuse, and that breaking DRM isn’t illegal if it’s not used for an illegal act. To use an analogy, it’s the difference between buying a knife and using a knife to stab someone. Breaking DRM, buying the knife, should not be illegal unless it leads to a crime, that is to stab someone with the knife. But the industry wants to ban not only knives, but people who make knives, talk about knives, or anything that even remotely looks or functions like a knife (everyone look out, it’s a fork!). In other words, copyright holders want to make the act of DRM breaking illegal, even if you’re doing it for completely legal purposes.

And if we interpret the anti-circumvention clause in the same manner as Judge Garza, then the DMCA makes much more sense from a consumer point of view. If making a copy of your legally purchased content, a backup, is not illegal, then breaking DRM to do so should not be illegal either. If I want to break DRM just for the heck of it, then I should be able to do so, as long as I’m not hurting anyone else’s commercial interests. And in fact, if DRM prevents users from exercising their rights, then that DRM should be illegal. And this make sense, because no individual has ever lost a court case just because they broke DRM to make a backup, and if the MPAA tried to sue, they will lose each and every time. And even the MPAA and anti-piracy agencies will admit to the fact that they would never go after anyone breaking DRM for personal, non commercial reasons. So why not put this in writing by adding further exemptions to the DMCA (or rather, just clarify the mess that it is)? All of this show just how ridiculously flawed the DMCA is as a piece of legislation, but at least there appears to be hope that something fairer will exist someday.

But then the industry will say, yes, many people will use Blu-ray rippers, for example, to make backups, and many more will use the same software to pirated movies. And a new study does show that there are increasing numbers of people doing the so called rent, rip and return, and now with Blu-ray, as opposed to just DVDs. Well my response to this is that, let’s take a look at the people not breaking the law but still breaking DRM, and see why they’re doing it. If they’re doing it to protect their legally purchased goods, for example backups, and if DRM prevents them from doing that, then the implementers of the DRM should provide tools that allow backups to occur, but not piracy. If people are breaking DRM so they can play games without the original disc inserted into their drive, then make something that will allow them to do this, but without enabling piracy (Steam, anyone?). And you know what? If they do it right, they may actually make money out of providing these solutions to the problems that DRM creates. And then there’s the piracy problem, which according to the same study, is becoming more of a casual piracy problem (ie. people copying movies they buy so they can share it with friends and family). But the industry’s response will be the introduction of more and more complex and “fool proof” DRM systems. It’s like watching Wile E. Coyote goes after The Road Runner, the industry versus piracy, and instead of ACME products, it’s DRM. And just like the cartoons, not only will the industry certainly fail to stop piracy, they’ll probably end up hurting themselves in the process. But like most of society’s more complex problems, one should always try to examine the cause and find solutions, most of them not easy, not quick fixes. There is no magic bullet to the piracy problem, no magical DRM that will prevent all copying forever, not without seriously impacting on the usability of the product, so stop looking there. Instead, look at why people are participating in casual piracy – and don’t say because they don’t know it’s wrong or illegal, they do (most of the time) – but seriously examine why people, knowing it’s wrong, still do it. Is it because it’s fun? Or because it’s easy? Or perhaps it’s because people can’t afford to pay the money that’s being asked of them for the goods in question. And if stopping piracy means dropping prices, possibly reducing revenue in the short term (but probably good for the long term), is that a solution the industry is willing to adopt? Or if the alternative is that high prices with higher (short term) revenue, but with some piracy to be expected, then is this not good enough? The MPAA can’t have its Roadrunner, and eat it too.

R4 and similar carts to receive banning in the UK

In gaming piracy news, the UK is set to ban R4 style DS carts that allow pirated games to be played on the portable console, after a recent court ruling in favour of Nintendo. There’s no question that R4 style carts are predominantly used to pirate DS games, but these types of carts also have other uses. Primarily, it allows gamers to carry hundreds of games store digitally in memory cards, as opposed to carrying their purchased carts everywhere. Also, there’s almost always some multimedia function built in that otherwise does not exist for the console, and lastly, it enables development of homebrew software. While the ban is understandable, because DS piracy is rife, but just like Sony’s recent decision to pull Other OS/Linux support for the PS3, there are unintended consequences that hurt the platform. Nintendo will introduce the ability to store games on memory cards, but without an apps platform, homebrew development and the development of non gaming software for the DS will be severely hurt. This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about finding solutions to the problems that DRM creates (or in this case, the problems created by a legal decision to ban these carts), and then profiting from the solutions. Look at Apple and Google with their apps platforms, and don’t you think the DS needs something like this too?

High Definition

There’s a surprising lack of HD or 3D news. Those that follow my weekly Blu-ray sales analysis will notice a slight drop off in Blu-ray market share in recent times.

There’s no need for panic (yet), as most of this is due to the lack of A-list releases. The overall trends is still of positive growth, but growth may be slowing down. The biggest enemy of Blu-ray is that the fact that DVDs are still pretty darn good value, and that a lot of movies and TV shows won’t really benefit from the full HD treatment, not at a considerable higher price. But if studios drop prices, then Blu-ray loses its ability to earn more revenue for studios, because it’s definitely not cheaper to produce and manufacturer a Blu-ray movie compared to a DVD one.

Studios will hope 3D Blu-ray can keep the format at a higher price premium, but people want their stuff and want it cheaper than before, and this has always been the driver behind the ever dropping price of movies. Ironically, I think dropping prices may be the key to increasing revenue – instead of having people buy a few movies at high prices, how about getting them to buy tons of movies at low prices. For that though, possibly some kind of digital distribution is needed, because if my recent house move has told me anything, it’s that having hundreds of discs to pack, ship and then store at the new place is a lot of trouble.

And finally in gaming, another firmware update for the PS3 and another round of problems being reported. What was supposedly a simple update, firmware version 3.41, to add a “recommend” feature to the PS store has turned out far more complicated.

Apparently, the new firmware stops people upgrading their HDDs, a feature that Sony has often promoted as being superior to the Xbox 360’s use of official hard-drive accessories (and they’re right, the Xbox 360 hard-drive accessories really are a rip off). It’s very likely just a bug, as opposed to another “Other OS” situation where firmware updates actually remove previously supported features.

I’m not a big fan of the PS3’s firmware update schedule. It’s a good idea to add new functionality to the console, but it’s a bad idea to update every couple of weeks, because there’s always a risk with every update, with software of firmware. Imagine if Microsoft released a service pack every month for Windows, and you get the reason as to why there are so many problems with the PS3 updates. Do a major update every 6 month or so, with small patches to fix bugs and issues in between, and that’s more than enough. If firmware releases come too frequently, there’s no way Sony can do any sort of comprehensive testing to ensure bugs are not present.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got this week. There *has* to be more next week, I hope, so until then, have a good one.

Posted in Copyright, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4 | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (1 August 2010)

Weekly News Roundup (25 July 2010)

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Hello. I’ve finally completed moving house, by completed, I of course mean that there’s still tons of stuff that needs to be moved over. But this is the first WNR at the new place. But the roundup must go on, as they say, despite aching limbs and a sleep deprived brain. One good thing about the move was that I was finally able to test Blu-ray 3D playback via PowerDVD 10 Mark II to my Samsung 3D plasma. More on that later.

Let’s start with copyright news. The US Copyright Group is in the news again this week as they step up their campaign targeting thousands of web users accused of downloading pirated movies.

The latest development sees the USCG hiring the services of smaller law firms signalling the next phase of their plans – going to court. It was always understood that firms like the USCG would avoid going to court whenever possible, since the costs are higher and so are the risk (of losing, and hence, setting a precedent that could hurt future business). But it appears the USCG is pressing ahead anyway, no doubt going after those that are easy to beat in court. It may also be their way of showing that they do intend to go to court, a criticism that critics have used in the past to attack similar actions, and if they can get a few easy victories under their belt, maybe a high profile one, then this can be used to scare more people into paying up. And as for working with the EFF to draft a user friendlier notice to send to suspected pirates, it seems the two sides just can’t get along and both may have to go and see the judge again to see how they can get things moving. This isn’t the biggest surprise in the world, as one side wants to make the notices are serious as possible to get people to pay up, while the other want the notice to be informative enough to allow people to defend themselves – it was always difficult, if not impossible, to meet both objectives.

The Last Vegas Review-Journal is suing those that use its articles without permission

While the USCG aren’t winning friends with web users, ISPs and rights groups, they are making friends in other media circles, and at least one law firm is now copying their strategy, except going after those who pirate newspaper articles, rather than movies. Suing hundreds of websites and blogs is Las Vegas based Righthaven, representing the owners of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. While most newspapers use DMCA takedown notices to get their full articles removed from forums and blogs, there is no money that can be made by taking this approach. But if the threat of a lawsuit, and the request for a pre-trial settlement works for the USCG on movie downloaders, then the thinking is that website owners will do the same as well, even when the offending content was posted by one of its users, not the website itself. The recent Viacom versus YouTube action showed that user generated websites do have protection from the safe harbor provisions under the DMCA, as long as they have a clear anti copyright infringement policy in place and enforces this policy consistently. So one might think this would apply to forums where users have posted full articles against forum rules, or blogs where users have made the same post in the comments. But the fear of an expensive lawsuit means that many will simply pay the settlement fee to avoid the trouble, although others are willing to challenge the claims in court. If this model works, expect all other newspaper owners to follow suit, as most of them are struggling to keep profits from dropping in what many calls a dying industry.

Irish ISP UPC is going to court to fight three-strikes

Moving to Europe now, it appears ISPs in many countries are not happy at their respective government’s three-strikes policies, and are going to court to fight it. Three-Strikes, or similar laws, may appear to be aimed at users who download pirated content, but it is in fact aimed at ISPs, making them responsible for monitoring and “sentencing”, for want of a better word, their own subscribers. The cost of the operation will have to be absorbed by the ISP, and mistaken identifies or other errors could even see the ISPs sued. The ISPs argue that since the music labels and movie studios are the one that will supposedly benefit from piracy being reduced, they’re the ones that should play a more active role in enforcing three-strikes. The content owners, however, will argue that they’re the victims in this and that ISPs should just pass on the cost to subscribers. The big question is if this wasn’t about the Internet, would government, who are normally clueless about Cyberspace, be so willing to give in to the demands of copyright holders? If people were committing copyright infringement via the telelphone, let’s say something silly like reading out loud books or newspaper articles to the person on the other end, should the telephone company then be tasked with spying on users’ conversations so they can put a stop to this illegal practice? Should the government then help to make spying legal and part of the copyright laws? ISPs are nothing more than utility companies, like the gas, electricity or telephone companies, and making them responsible for what their subscribers do with the service just doesn’t seem right. And if there are any technical advantage that make ISP level “spying” easier, then it would still be unfair to make ISPs bare the entire cost of the operation. It’s forcing one industry, and tax payer money, to protect another industry’s revenue stream for no reason other than it’s the easy thing to do.

The Swedish Pirate Party wants to do something about ISP snooping though, and they are planning to launch their “Pirate ISP”, which will ensure no data about users if kept, so that their privacy is protected. The idea is nice, but I can already see the lawsuits and search, arrest warranty being typed up, probably before the ISP is even launched.

And when Hollywood is finished getting the government and ISPs to do their bidding, for free, they will turn their targets on those that try to innovate too much. Because innovation could eventually lead content being published without having to be controlled by publishers, and that spells bad news for revenue. Google TV is next in Hollywood’s cross-hairs it seems, as the new proposed system which aims to present a common interface for viewing media, online and offline, on TVs may just be too innovative for Hollywood’s liking. In their submission to the FTC, Hollywood studios claims that Google TV could potentially allow users to interact with both legal and illegal media, in the same interface, and that’s will encourage users to all become pirates. Instead of seeing how such an innovation could revolutionize the way people buy content on the Internet, and instead of supporting Google, a company with a history of knowing how to get money out of the Internet and its users, they yet again focus on the piracy issue and the issue alone. Just like how music labels refused to work with digital music retailers and instead focused on more and more complicated layers of DRM, and then having the likes of Apple iTunes swallow up a huge chunk of Internet related profit that otherwise would have gone to the labels, Hollywood appears to be making the same mistake.

DECE has a new name and logo: it's now UltraViolet, but it's still an new, annoying DRM

Instead, their solutions is, you guessed it, more DRM. Hollywood’s new fairer DRM scheme, supported by pretty much all the studios expect Disney (who have their own proprietary system in the works), is now called UltraViolet. How is it friendlier? Well, it plans to make DRM protected files more portable, working in more players and systems, but it still has the stench of DRM all over it, and thus, all the same usual problems: lack of universal compatibility, the need for online authentication, and don’t expect the files to work forever as there is no guarantee whatsoever that any DRM system will be kept supported and updated (at high cost by the DRM operators) forever. The IEEE is also working on their own “fairer” DRM, which will make digital files more like physical objects, in that ownership can be transferred, so sharing something with a friend could mean that you lose the ability to use the file forever if your friend do not return ownership back to you. The scheme, called P1817, could even work in conjunction with the monster that is UltraViolet, to make everything a bit fairer you see. The funny thing is that by acknowledging the need to make things fairer, content owners have just acknowledged that DRM, at least in past forms, have not been fair to users. I would go one step further and say that DRM is always unfair to users, so if you want them to accept it, make sure you give them back something in return. Whether’s that lower prices, better services, or even just less hoops to jump through, it is needed. Content owners should not take users for granted, as they may just go elsewhere (and if there’s no legal alternative, guess where they will be, and have been, heading to?)

High Definition

In HD/3D news, as mentioned in the introduction, I managed to get PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D with the Mark II patch to play a Blu-ray 3D movie and have it display as proper 3D on my new Samsung 3D plasma TV.

It took a bit of work trying to get it to work, but I’ve posted the instructions here for those that want to give it a go. The 3D effects are great, even if you’re not getting full 1080p resolution, but that will only be possible when updated drivers are available for my ATI Radeon HD card. For now, it means I can play Blu-ray 3D movies in 3D without a standalone Blu-ray 3D player (although my free bonus one, part of a promotion Samsung were running here in Australia, should be on its way from Samsung, hopefully arriving before the PS3 gets its Blu-ray 3D update).

And sticking with the theme of logos ... BDXL won't play on existing Blu-ray players

But while I wait for my Blu-ray 3D player to arrive, it may already be obsolete, thanks to the idea of “upgradeable hardware” introduced by the Blu-ray format. The idea says that, like software, there may be a new version out every year and you would need to pay to get the new version, if you want the latest features. We’ve already had Profile 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 players, and I guess Blu-ray 3D counts as 2.5 or something. And when BDXL movie discs arrive (if they arrive), then we’ll all need new players again (4.0, since 3.0 is already taken by the fairly unused Blu-ray audio format). It’s nice having 128GB capacity, but not so nice when I have to yet again upgrade my Blu-ray player, despite how cheap players have become. Even the always versatile PS3 won’t be able to support BDXL, since the only thing that the PS3 can’t update through software, the Blu-ray drive itself, will need to be updated. And soon after Blu-ray 4.0, we’ll have Super-Blu-ray 1.0, with Sony promising a 1TB disc using an even more powerful laser. Downloads, streaming, storage lockers … if only everyone had the bandwidth to make download a Blu-ray quality movie a matter of minutes, rather than hours (or weeks, in certain Internet backwaters, like Australia), then we could get rid of the disc altogether, or burn our own discs by only replacing the optical drive in your computer, as opposed to an entire standalone player. It’s bad for the environment, bad for our wallets, and it’s just annoying.

But at least one thing to do with Blu-ray is going disc-less. Netflix streaming on the PS3 will finally work without a Blu-ray disc, and it only took a year after Netflix was first available on the PS3, and several after the Netflix was originally launched on the Xbox 360 (which had disc-less streaming from the get go). Better late than never, I suppose.

And finally in the ever rarer gaming section, Microsoft has finally revealed the official Kinect pricing. Which is exactly the same as the unofficial pricing all the retailers have been using for months.

The only surprise, and a good one, is that the $149.99 price includes a free game, Kinect Adventures. But it was Microsoft’s other announcement which were a bit more interesting, like the new “Arcade”, the Xbox 360 4GB, which is basically the same piece of hardware as the new “Slim” Xbox 360 250GB, except without the 250GB HDD of course. The price for this new console is $199, but if you buy it with Kinect in a bundle, it will be $299, so that’s another $50 off Kinect’s pricing if you buy it with the new console. Some will say that this attempt to compete with the Wii is doomed to failure, because the Wii will be much cheaper. But the Xbox 360 doesn’t need to be the same price as the Wii, since it’s a much better console (certainly plays more types of games than the Wii, in HD too). There’s no Xbox 360 250GB Kinect bundle, which is a shame because that’s the one I would like to buy. Kinect pre-orders on Amazon jumped back to the top 5 after the pricing announcement on Wednesday, but has since dropped down to 21. The Move bundle is at 49th.

And that’s the news I have for this week. Sorry about the rushed nature of this WNR, what with all the mistakes and mindless rambling, moving house takes a lot out of a person. You didn’t notice any differences? That’s good then. What do you mean “it’s same crap as usual”? Huh? Anyway, here’s to a less crappy WNR next week.

Posted in 3D, Computing, Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS4, Video Technology, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (25 July 2010)

Game Consoles – June 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

Well that was a short break. Thanks to the May figures being released late, and the June figures being released on time, we have a new NPD video game analysis for you only two weeks from the last one. May wasn’t anything to write home about in terms of sales, despite Red Dead Redemption and Super Mario Galaxy 2. June had some interesting developments, namely the mid month release of the new Xbox 360 Elite, you know the new slim version (even though Microsoft don’t ever use the term “slim”). The PS3 stock shortage issue seems to have cleared up, and Sony even managed to create a 250GB bundle early in June. So with all these happenings in mind, the hardware sales race heated up in June and it will be interesting to see if the stock shortage issue, which has been holding back PS3 sales, will finally allow the console, the “original” Slim if you will, to beat the “new” Xbox 360 slim. The figures are from NPD, a marketing research firm that releases games console sale data every month.

The figures for US sales in June 2010 are below, ranked in order of number of sales (June 2009 figures also shown, including percentage change):

DS: 510,700 (Total: 42.6 million; June 2009: 766,500 – down 33%)
Xbox 360: 451,700 (Total: 20.6 million; June 2009: 240,600 – up 88%)
Wii: 422,500 (Total: 29.6 million; June 2009: 361,700 – up 17%)
PS3: 304,800 (Total: 12.7 million; June 2009: 164,700 – up 85%)
PSP: 121,000 (Total: 17.4 million; June 2009: 163,500 – down 26%)

NPD June 2010 Game Console US Sales Figures

NPD Game Console Total US Sales Figures (as of June 2010)

My prediction from last month was:

It’s time to make my usual predictions. With the PS3 stock shortage crisis over, PS3 sales should rise. The Xbox 360 would otherwise have been relegated to third place amongst the home consoles, but the new “slim” Elite may save the day, and maybe even sell enough to keep it above the PS3. I keep on expecting either the PS3 or Xbox 360 to outsell the Wii, but it hasn’t happened very often, and June is probably the same, although it has a greater chance than previous months. Not a huge month for new game releases though, so RDR may remain in the charts, with Super Mario Galaxy keeping up sales and possibly stealing a march on the RDR games.

So pretty spot on I would say, not hard though considering I only wrote the above two weeks ago. PS3 sales did improve, actually 97% better than in May, and very likely thanks to the end of the PS3 stock shortage crisis of 2010. Although I still don’t understand why the stock shortage had to occur in the first place. It seems to have cost the PS3 several months of beating the Xbox 360, and just as the stock issue cleared up, in comes a new Xbox 360 that again outsells it. And outsell the PS3 the new Xbox 360 did. And it even outsold the Wii, which I had semi-predicted above I suppose. Overall, it was an impressive 132% increase compared to last month, and the best non Holiday sales period for the console in some time. And even now, the new Xbox 360 SKU is still in the top 10, which is good news for Microsoft I guess. In fact, all hardware numbers were up compared to May, and historically, this has been the case in June. And software was almost exactly as I had predicted – a slow month still dominated by last month’s new releases.

Speaking more on the PS3, it seems the stock shortage was responsible for low sales, as once it cleared up, sales are way up. But I think a lot of the momentum from the release of the PS3 Slim has been lost in the last few month, and I don’t know who is to blame for it. It could be be because Sony underestimated the demand for the Slim (and the demand after the price cut) back in 2009, and sold all their future inventory during that time, and they’ve only been able to get supply to meet demand some 6 months into 2010. That’s the most believable scenario, but it still seems strange. Anyway, with stock no longer an issue. the PS3 is “expected” to outsell the Xbox 360 and maybe even the Wii, but that won’t happen until the excitement over the new Xbox 360 “slim” Elite dies down, probably just in time for Sony to launch Move. For Sony’s other console in the NPD data, the PSP, the news is less good. While it was up against the dismal May numbers, it’s still down 26% from a year ago, not as bad as recent results, but still bad. A PSP2 with some more innovation is what Sony needs right now.

For the Xbox 360, it was a very good month. The whole release process has been very well engineered by Microsoft. From the almost surprise announcement of the new form factor itself, to the really surprising announcement that it will ship within a week of the announcement, and the well designed nature of the new console (testing shows that it’s even more durable than the PS3 Slim), and the result is that it’s the second most popular console, the first most popular home based console, of June 2010. Let’s just hope Microsoft have plenty of stock of the new console, and won’t make the same mistake as Sony with their stock issues. And with news of a new Xbox 360 Arcade “slim” on the horizon, the momentum could carry the Xbox 360 all the way until Kinect is released, and that’s probably what Microsoft are counting on. I said at the start of 2010 that the Xbox 360 had to hold on to the lead it has over the PS3 until Project Natal, as it was known back then, was ready and Microsoft has done this and some extra. Of course, the PS3 stock did help Microsoft in this regard.

The Wii had another month of year to year growth, but that’s like comparing a poor month to a really really bad one. Well, not exactly, since it’s hard to say just what constitutes a good month or bad month. Compared to the PS2 lifecycle, the Wii is still doing very well. It’s only doing badly compared to itself two years ago, but Wii sales were never going to hold steady at those levels. So Nintendo will look at the year on year growth as a positive, not to mention the still healthy software sales (see below). The DS suffered another month of year on year sales drop, but this is like comparing a good month to a really really great one. When the 3Ds is released, Nintendo have another “great” month, I expect.

For software, not a great month for new releases as I had “predicted”. So we have lots of titles from last month still in the top 10. Interestingly, the only two new entries in the top 10 were all Wii titles, and both were third-party games. This is exactly what the Wii needs, for third party publishers to get a bite of the lucrative Wii trade, instead of always relying on Nintendo to come up with the goods. In fact, there are three non Nintendo produced Wii titles in the top 10 this month, although the best selling one was still a Nintendo production – Super Mario Galaxy 2. The continued success of Just Dance for the Wii actually bodes well for Microsoft I think, because Kinect will be able to do these types of games without breaking a sweat (unlike the people that are actually playing the game in question). Red Dead Redemption for the Xbox 360 held on to top spot this month, as did both of the UFC 2010 games. 6 of the top 10 were Wii titles, with two for Xbox 360 and two for the PS3. As usual, only sales figures for the top 5 are provided, and figures for the two new Wii titles are provided by Nintendo separately (hopefully Microsoft and Sony will catch on and also start releasing figures for the ones that don’t have it in the top 10).

Here’s the complete list of the top 10 software sales:

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360, Take-Two) – 582,900
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, Nintendo) – 548,400
Red Dead Redemption (PS3, Take-Two) – 380,300
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii, Nintendo) – 200,900
Just Dance (Wii, Ubisoft) – 174,800
Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board (Wii, Nintendo)
Toy Story 3 (Wii, Disney) – 164,000
UFC 2010: Undisputed (Xbox 360, THQ)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Wii, Warner Bros.) – 136,000
UFC 2010: Undisputed (PS3, THQ)

Time to make a prediction. The new Xbox 360 Elite fever continues, and there’s a good chance it will outsell the Wii (and PS3) yet again. So my guess is that the order of the hardware sales will remain the same for July, but with hardware sales generally down a bit compared to June as historically has been the case. As for games, Super Mario Galaxy 2 to rule in the absence of any real quality new releases. NCAA Football 11 should make the top 10, the Xbox 360 version outselling the PS3 version. How can I forget Crackdown 2, the sequel to the very first Xbox 360 game I ever owned. It should do well, but topping the chart? I don’t know about that (it’s already 39th in the sales charts on Amazon, and that doesn’t look like a rank that belongs to a number one title).

See you next month.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Game Consoles – June 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

Archive for the ‘PS3, PS4’ Category

Game Consoles – July 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Weekly News Roundup (8 August 2010, or thereabouts)

Weekly News Roundup (1 August 2010)

Weekly News Roundup (25 July 2010)

Game Consoles – June 2010 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Pages

Links

Categories