Best Buy Has A White Streak

Like most electronics, the Dell Streak launched in a black color. Increasingly like other electronics, a white version will be available at Best Buy.

The white Dell Streak will be available both online and in-store. Supply is limited, so anyone interested in picking one up should call ahead.

Source: Engadget

Free-To-Play MMOs Comprise 90 Percent Of U.S. MMO Players

The Newzoo MMO Games Market Report 2010 says that 47.5 million Americans play MMO games. More telling, 90 percent play free-to-play MMOs, whereas 12.5 million people pay up front to play MMOs.

“The overlap is larger when comparing browser and client MMOs. 71 percent play both browser and client MMOs, that require you to download the game, commented Newzoo. Contrary to most European countries, more money is spent in total on pay-to-play MMOs than on free-to-play MMOs, due to a significantly higher monthly budget spent per person. Total spending on MMO games is up 30 percent compared to 2009.”

Encouraging for developers and publishers looking to push MMOs on consoles, 57 percent of Xbox 360 players also play MMOs, and 61 percent of PS3 players play MMOs; more than half of this group also spend money on MMOs. Overall, 53 percent of males between 16 and 25 play MMO games, compared to 81 percent for consoles.

Other stats suggest that two thirds of MMO players (age 10 and up) are male, and over 70 percent of those who spend money on MMOs are male. Still, over half of gamers are older than 25, and 60 percent of those who pay to play are above 25 years-old.

 

Gran Turismo 5 Pre-Order Contest Sees High Demand

U.K. retailer ShopTo.Net is offering a special contest for those that pre-order Gran Turismo 5. Everyone who pre-orders will be automatically entered into ShopTo.Net’s GT5 900 British Pound race day prize draw.

“Our forums, Facebook page, twitter and emails are awash with inquiries about GT5,” said ShopTo Marketing Manager Philip Driver. “A GT5 unboxing video emerged on the internet morning which we posted on Facebook and our blog, the response was immediate and overwhelming. Our market leading price of 34.85 British Pound and 900 British Pound race day give-away coupled with the general high levels of interest means that this might be our best title of the whole year.”

Zynga Getting More Social

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus recently rattled off some interesting statistics for Zynga at the Web 2.0 Summit. The company has 1,300 employees in 13 studios worldwide, but more than that, 320,000,000 million people have now played a Zynga game.

Pincus also noted that there are on average four people you know playing a Zynga game on any given day, and Zynga wants to make it easier for users to connect with each other. We have more than 3 million peak concurrent users, Pincus noted.

Source: TechCrunch

Need For Speed Shift 2 Gets Unleashed

While the newest Need for Speed Hot Pursuit has only just released, it’s never too early to start promoting the next game! Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed is heavy on slow motion and style and low on game details.

 

Netflix Set To Surpass Hulu?

Right now, Netflix and Hulu are competing in the digital content space, but things might be tipping very soon. While Hulu has generally dealt with newer content, NBCU has offered to put next day Saturday Night Live on the day after it airs on Netflix and Netflix also recently signed a $1 billion deal with Viacom Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM.

Netflix is writing bigger checks than anyone else in the market, said Justin Patterson, senior analyst, Morgan Keegan & Co.

Hulu is also at a disadvantage due to the conflicted nature of its partners in NBC Universal, News Corp. and Disney they ultimately may suffer from their own infighting and Netflix’s broarder distribution channels. Hulu may have become a nice experiment that was too successful for its own good, said Patterson.

Source: AdWeek

Yahoo! Teams With Zynga

Yahoo! has announced that they are launching a series of new social and local features. Zynga titles Maifa Wars and FishVille will be integrated into the site. Also, Twitter, Yahoo! Messenger Beta with new social features, and the launch of Yahoo!’s Local Offers program will all play a part in the revamp.

“Our job is to connect you with the people, places and things that matter most to you — whether that’s making a restaurant reservation, finding a discounted tee time, or playing popular online games with friends,” said Blake Irving, executive vice president and chief product officer, Yahoo!. “By enhancing Yahoo!’s most popular sites and services with social experiences like Zynga and Twitter, great local content, and a new platform for sharing your voice with the world, we’re making Yahoo! an even better place for everyone to stay entertained, productive, and informed.”

 

APB Play-For-Free

GamersFirst has announced that their subsidiary Reloaded Productions has purchased the IP rights to APB: All Points Bulletin. They will relaunch the franchise as APB: Reloaded, a AAA Free2Play title developed by Reloaded using Unreal Engine 3.

“The acquisition of APB is an important complement to our main Free2Play third-party publishing business,” says Joshua Hong, CEO of GamersFirst. “We believe in putting our gamers first by encouraging the community to tell us what they like or dislike and then incorporate that feedback into our evolutionary development process. The core principle is to completely eliminate all economic barriers for gamers to experience our games.”

APB’s long development time and flawed online business structure caused it to fail and bankrupt its developer in less than three months. The new developer, however, will launch the new game with a different business model in the first half of 2011.