So I have been bad. I meant to focus on these articles on a weekly basis and have been slacking this past month. It is not that I have not been busy, but I have neglected my blog for the most part. I did get out an announcement of my new book, Random Battles, and write an open letter to my Congressman and Senators. So there is that. Plus this month had a whole lot of articles on Techdirt. So here we go.
Netflix Kills Qwikster Before It Has A Chance To Live
Netflix made the mistake of trying to break its DVD by mail service from its streaming service without taking into consideration what their customers actually wanted. That turned out to be a bad idea and they backed out.
Barnes & Noble Doesn’t Get Digital DC Comics, Throws Hissy Fit
Barnes & Noble and Amazon are in a bit of a war over digital comics. Amazon won exclusive rights to a segment of DC’s digital line. So in retaliation, B&N removed all the physical copies of those comics form their shelves citing a policy of “make available any book, anywhere, anytime” Yeah, I don’t get how tis move complies with that either.
Universal Backs Away From Planned $60 VOD Release Of Tower Heist
Who knew that charging $60 to watch a movie one time was a bad idea? Oh, right, everyone except Universal.
Lady Googoo Gone Gone After Lady Gaga Gets Injunction Against Parody
Lady Gaga hates parodies of her and attaks a childre4n’s game for having a character that resembles her too closely. The courts sided with her in the UK because the UK is backward and has no protections for fair use parody.
Mojang’s Trademark Application Rejected: Too Many ‘Scrolls’ For The USPTO
With all the hubbub over Bethesda’s lawsuit against Mojang over scrolls, it went mostly under the radar that the trademark application for “Scrolls” in the US was rejected. Once for being to close to Bethesda’s “elder Scrolls” mark, which I still don’t see, and the other for violating the trademark of a t-shirt company in California. That one at least makes sense as their company is called “Scrolls”.
Court Rules Gamers Are Not Idiots And Not Likely To Be Confused Over ‘Scrolls’
Speaking of Scrolls, the Swedish courts refused Bethesda’s injunction because customers are not likely to be confused. It seems that not all gamers are idiots.
New Research Brings Much Needed Objectivity To Game Piracy Numbers
Finally we some objectiveness in piracy research. This group of Danish researchers found some hard numbers for game piracy and are hoping to change the landscape of such research. Perhaps this will show the world that yes there is piracy and it may not be as bad as those in the industry think.
Nintendo Fans Hijack Twitter Hash Tag Meant For Nintendo Of America CEO And Are Promptly Ignored
Nintendo had Reggie Fils-Aime talk with fans through Twitter, but that is not what happened. Reggie ended up tweeting a total of 7 times, repeating some information twice. All this while completely ignoring the fans of Nintendo. So what happened? A group called Operation Rainfall took the opportunity to hijack Reggie’s hash tag and try to spread the word that Nintendo is not bringing some highly anticipated games to the US, because it doesn’t want to.
Want Revenue From Used Games? Just Have GameStop Buy DLC Codes For The Customer
Warner is trying a new tactic in the fight against used sales. It has contracted with Gamestop to buy the Batman online codes for used game customers. It will be interesting how this works out even though it is harmful to the myriad of other used games stores that don’t have such a deal.
ABC Affiliates Blocked From Interviewing Johnny Depp Because He Is Promoting A Film Not Produced By Disney
This one is just brain dead. ABC affiliates can’t interview Johnny Depp unless he is promoting Disney movies.
Don’t Complain About Piracy When You Create Crappy Games
This one really needs no explanation. a Mobile developer complains about piracy of his Android version of the game while at the same time confessing about how crap the game was.
Angry Birds CEO At Peace With Chinese Counterfeit Merchandise
Angry Birds CEO doesn’t really care about counterfeit merchandise in China. He is also using this as an opportunity to open the first Angry Birds retail outlet in China rather than somewhere else.
Nintendo Stomps Motiva’s Patent Infringement Claims
Nintendo has one of a plethora of patent infringement accusation tossed its way. All this is because the Wii is successful while these other products aren’t.
Despite Publisher Apprehension, Good Old Games Proves A Market For Old DRM-Free Games Exists
GOG is awesome. Enough said.
Lessons Learned From ‘Pay What You Want’
Proun developer Joost explains what he learned from his ‘Pay What You want’ sale and I add a few more lessons to be learned.
Epic Games On The Future Of Triple-A Game Development Marketing And Pricing
Mike Capps of Epic explains what is wrong with AAA game development and how the focus on those games is bad for the market and for the gamer. It was a pretty cool presentation given by one of the leading AAA development houses in the games industry.
