Panasonic shows off BD-Live Blu-ray payer
Panasonic has showed off its latest BD-Live capable Blu-ray player, the DMP-BD50, finally letting some specifications out of the bag. The player was first introduced at the CES event in January.
After demoing the latest player it is easy to see that the main distinction between the player and its predecessor the DMP-BD30 is the addition of BD-Live. BD-Live simply means the player can handle BD movies that have Internet-enabled content, such as “interactive multiplayer games, and trailers and extra features you can download from the Internet to local storage, either in the player or on an external memory card.”
The latest model however, will cost $700 USD, a $200 premium over its older cousin. In addition to BD-Live, the BD-50 adds in-unit decoding for advanced lossless audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The primary advantage to this is that you can choose and control the secondary audio mixing within the player. Another new feature is support for 24p playback of upconverted standard-definition DVDs.
Of course there is a catch however. The BD50 “lacks the minimum 1GB of onboard memory required for BD-Live” and instead you will have to purchase an SD card to use the player’s SD card slot.
The lack of sufficient on-board storage is very surprising considering the player’s price tag and the fact that Sony’s upcoming BD-Live player, the BDP-S550 will retail for $500 USD and have 1GB on-board storage.
GTA IV hits $500+ million USD in sales
Take-Two Interactive Software has said in a press release today that the blockbuster multi-platform game Grand Theft Auto IV had surpassed all-time records for one day and weekly sales, even surpassing analyst estimates.
Released last Tuesday, April 29th, the game was a critical hit, receiving close to perfect reviews from most notable gaming outlets. It also seems that Take-Two has a monetary hit on their hands. The company says worldwide sales for the first week was about 6 million units with a retail value of $530 million USD. It shattered launch day records as well, selling 3.6 million units with a retail value of $310 million USD globally.
“We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player’s experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well. Grand Theft Auto IV’s first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date. We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two.
“Rockstar’s goal is to make each new title in the Grand Theft Auto franchise even better than those that preceded it, and Grand Theft Auto IV is a smashing success on that score. Grand Theft Auto IV makes full use of the power of next generation technology, and offers players an experience unique in the interactive entertainment medium. This game sets a new standard in the industry, with critics hailing it as both an artistic and technological masterpiece,” added Ben Feder, Take-Two’s Chief Executive Officer.
Summer Redstone loves copyright protection
Summer Redstone, the executive chairman of both Viacom and CBS has made remarks in the keynote speech to the Seoul Digital Forum 2008, in which he notes that “attitudes toward protecting entertainment copyrights internationally” are thankfully improving and he sees the glowing benefits of copyright protection.
“I am increasingly preaching to the converted in piracy-prone markets around the world,” Redstone said. “Governments in China and India are starting to take an active interest in enforcing copyright, if only to protect their own homegrown content,” he added.
Redstone then cited that China was looking to safeguard content it will be producing for the upcoming Olympic Games and that India was increasingly looking to protect its Bollywood film industry.
Redstone also added that film piracy costs the US economy at least $20 billion USD every year. Viacom, the giant corporation, owns Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central among others and is controlled by Redstone.
During a Q&A after his speech, Redstone even called YouTube a haven for piracy.
“We cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone, including YouTube,” he said.
Last year, Viacom sued YouTube seeking over $1 billion USD claiming that the site was full of copyrighted videos from Viacom shows and movies.
‘Mass Effect’ to have terrible DRM
According to a post in the Bioware’s forums, upcoming PC game Mass Effect’s producer Derek French has confirmed that the game will have rolling DRM, meaning every 10 days you will need to activate the game again over the internet.
“Mass Effect uses SecuROM and requires an online activation for the first time that you play it,” French says. “After the first activation, SecuROM requires that it re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez’d and gets banned). Just so that the 10 day thing doesn’t become abrupt, SecuROM tries its first re-check with 5 days remaining in the 10 day window. If it can’t contact the server before the 10 days are up, nothing bad happens and the game still runs. After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run.”
In case that didn’t sink in, to play Mass Effect you will need to re-activate your copy every 10 days, until the end of time. This of course, will lead to problems, there is no doubt about that. Firstly, if you don’t have internet you cannot play this game, plain and simple. That is probably not so big of a problem now that broadband prices are so cheap, but imagine moving into a new house and not having time to set up Internet for the first ten days. Say goodbye to your brand new $50 copy of Mass Effect.
The DRM gets even worse. You are only allowed to install the game on three machines before it locks up. If the activation servers go down, good luck trying to play your game at all. (Anyone remember Bioshock?) Thats not even mentioning if Bioware ever goes out of business, there will be no server to reactivate with every 10 days, effectively killing your game off.
[More]>>
Japan to start iPod tax, says report
According to Asahi Shimbun report, the Japanese government is set to propose a plan that will charge “copyright royalties on sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, as well as on digital hard disk recorders”.
The agency in charge, the Agency of Cultural Affairs has not made a decision on the amount of the fee but it expected to be low, about 100 yen (95 cents USD) per sale, for an annual total about 1 billion yen (about $9.5 million USD). All fees collected would then go to songwriters, artists, and the record labels. Older devices such as DVD burners and minidisk players are already subject to a similar copyright fee.
This is not the first time the Japanese recording industry has tried to get this “iPod Tax” passed. In 2005 the proposal was almost imposed but a government committee failed to reach consensus on the issue and it fell apart.
The MPAA wants $15 Million from The Pirate Bay
The MPAA has announced that is suing the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay for $15.4 million USD citing “damages suffered” from 4 movies and 13 TV episodes uploaded to the tracker.
The movies in question are “Harry Potter 5″, “Syriana”, “The Pink Panther” and “Walk the Line” and all 13 episodes are from the hit show “Prison Break”. The MPAA is demanding $37 USD for each download of “Syriana”, “The Pink Panther” and “Walk the Line”, $43 USD for Harry Potter and $68 for Prison Break.
The Pink Panther was downloaded 49,593 times by Pirate Bay users, making it the most popular, while Syriana was the least popular with 3,679 downloads, according to MAQS, the law firm which is representing the MPAA in the case.
Brokep, a TPB admin, had this to say about the matter; “They know they are losing, and try to make us look like big criminals by adding some zeros to a claim for a made-up crime.”
“The worst thing is that I lost 100 kronor on a bet on the number they would come up with,” Brokep added. “And, it sucks that they didn’t claim more than for Napster and the other sites. It’s cooler to break the record.”
When an MPAA lawyer was asked whether she really believed every download was equivalent of a lost sale, she replied, “We don’t know that, but the copyright law doesn’t care about that. It says that if you have downloaded something illegally, you must pay regardless, if you would’ve bought it or not.”
[More]>>
Apple brings iPhone to Latin America
America Movil SAB has announced that it has inked a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to 12 countries in Latin America.
The media company said it would be bringing the phone to all of its Latin American operations but would not go into more detail about the arrangement, not even explaining if it was the exclusive carrier in the nations.
Apple says it plans to bring further expansion during the Q4 2008 by partnering with America Movil which has 160 million subscribers in 16 countries including Mexico and Brazil.
Over the last few weeks Apple has helped expand its iPhone worldwide signing deals with Rogers in Canada, Telecom Italia SpA in Italy; and Vodafone for 10 countries, including Australia, India, Italy and Turkey.
Apple says it has sold 5.5 million of the devices worldwide and has a year end goal of 10 million.
“We’re excited to be working with America Movil to bring the iPhone to Latin America later this year, and we can’t wait to get this revolutionary phone in the hands of even more people around the world,” said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.
60 percent of GTA IV sales were for Xbox 360?
After Take-Two announced that the blockbuster hit GTA IV had hit $500 million USD in sales for its first week, Microsoft was quick to release data alleging that over 60 percent of those sales were for the Xbox 360 console and not the rival PlayStation 3.
The software maker claimed that 3.75 million copies of the 6 million sold worldwide in the first week were for the Xbox 360 console and even added that the games helped push 360 sales 54 percent week-on-week, a gigantic surge.
Microsoft also noted that in the UK retailers were reporting “a strong attach rate between the game and console sales”, claiming that at least 40 percent of new console sales were selling with a copy of the hit game.
“Grand Theft Auto IV has done phenomenally well this week with Xbox 360 version outselling PS3 in our stores,” said Gerry Berkley, trading manager at Woolworths.
“Xbox 360 console sales have seen a big uplift off the back of Grand Theft Auto IV launching. It’s clear our customers see Xbox 360 as a great console for this incredible game.”
According to data by Chart-Track in the UK, GTA IV led the software sales charts selling about 927,000 copies. The next closest game, Wii’s hit Wii Fit sold 103,000 copies for the week.
65nm Xbox 360s coming in August?
According to Taiwanese industry news source CENS, improved 65nm Xbox 360s should be arriving later this year, even as soon as August.
The report adds that Microsoft has “already begun contracting out the production of 65nm chips,” which in turn should form part of the consoles long anticipated “Jasper” revision.
There was also word that there was a depletion of the current chipset, dubbed “Falcon” and that Jasper could be pushed up if the other chips are depleted. The Falcon’s main processor uses 65nm technology just like the Jasper chip but all the other components including the GPU use 90nm manufacturing.
The Jasper revision has been long anticipated as Microsoft claims it will help to eliminate the “red ring of death” failures that plague over 15 percent of all current consoles. The new revision should be cooler, quieter and less power-consuming.
Let us hope this new report proves to be true, as it must be getting expensive for Microsoft to replace all RROD Xbox 360s at its own cost.
Microsoft Zune hits 2 million sold
Microsoft has revealed that its popular Zune media player has hit 2 million units sold since its launch in November 2006. What the figure also reveals however is low or flat growth for the device, especially compared to sales of the Apple iPod.
The company originally promised it would hit one million sales before June 2007 and it did so but since then has kept quiet on sales for its player or any predictions on it.
Despite the flat growth the sales still helped Microsoft move up a percentage point in overall US marketshare, from 3 to 4 percent. Those figures are courtesy of the NPD Group.
It seems, for now at least, that there is fragmentation in sales after the launch of the second generation of Zune players. The original million sales were from the original 30GB model but since November 2007, Microsoft has been selling two cheaper flash-based Zunes as well as two HDD-based players.
The slowdown in sales could possibly have nothing to do with Microsoft at all. The current US economic recession has staggered spending all across the board and non-necessities such as MP3 players are sure to see a hit. MP3 players are also approaching saturation in the market and there are fewer first time purchases being made, regardless of brand.
Apple continues to flourish however with their iPod lineup and still control the market handily. In the last quarter 10.6 million iPods were sold, over 5 times the amount of Zunes sold in almost 2 years.
