PlayStation 4 Firmware Update Planned

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The PlayStation 4 continues to be a hot seller in the video game market, and now an update (1.7) could be incoming that will make it even better.

Sony revealed that an update would be coming to the system soon, introducing a number of features, including the removal of the HDCP set-up that a lot of gamers aren’t too thrilled with.

Which other features, though Although he didn’t say specifically, English Community Manager of PlayStation Europe Chris Owen did tease a little bit on his Twitter account, stating, “Goodness, so much news coming out this week.” Sony has previously said that update 1.7 will add a video editor, the ability to save videos and screenshots to a USB drive, and will allow PS4 owners to turn off HDCP so that gameplay can be captured via HDMI.

When asked by interested gamers as to what the news would be, Owen simply stated, “News coming soon, hold tight!”

If any news does break about the update, we’ll certainly keep you posted.

Source: MP1st

Toshiba’s 4K Laptop Coming Next Week

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After seeing a successful launch in the United Kingdom, Toshiba’s latest laptop is about to make waves in the United States.

The company’s latest laptop computer model, the P55T, is a 15.6-inch laptop with a 3840 x 2160 resolution display, equivalent to 4K resolution. The core of the system is powerful, with AMD 2GB DDR5 Radeon R9 M265X discrete graphics, a 4th-gen Intel quad-core i7 CPU and 16GB DDR3L maximum memory.  It also features Technicolor certification, as well as a 1TB 5400 PM mechanical hard drive. In addition, a copy of Adobe’s Lightroom 5 will also be included, for would-be artists and photographers looking to do more with their computer. (For those who prefer gaming, this laptop should also be quite compatible on your end as well.)

The P55T will sell for $1,500, and hits stores on April 22. That’s certainly a far cheaper price than other 4K-compatible laptops are being projected for.

Source: Engadget

Google Losing In Mobile Game Ads

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When it comes to advertising in mobile games, some might think bigger companies like Google may be an ideal choice. However, according to a report from VentureBeat, that may not be the case.

Several game developers have begun choosing startup ad companies such as Vungle and AdColony for their monetization purposes, rather than Google. Some 176 game developers with 1,100 publishers games, 300 million collective downloads and over $600 million in annual revenue took the survey, and indicated that game developers tend to abandon Google after hitting 11 published games. In addition, developers who use any company besides them seem to make more money, along the lines of more than $50,000 per month.

The report shows several monetization models being used, with ads: interstitials leading the pack, followed by in-app purchases and both banner and video ads. Meanwhile, value-exchange ads and native ads round out the bottom of the list.

Source: VentureBeat

Microsoft Rolls Out Xbox One Update

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Microsoft continues to work to make its Xbox One console convenient and easy-to-use for owners. Today, the company launched a new update for the system, available free of charge, and applicable upon booting up the system.

The update will bring a number of new features, including a progress bar for downloading games, the ability to see friends sign in when they hop on their system, better video quality with the GameDVR component, and improved voice/motion support for Kinect.

In addition, controllers and wireless headsets now have better connectivity with the system, and the system has the option to power cycle itself automatically following an overnight update.

Source: TechCrunch

Graphene: The Wonder Material

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Those companies out there that are building tomorrow’s best innovations, take note – you might want to consider using graphene.

A new blog post on the New York Times explains how graphene could be the material of the future when it comes to innovation in product design. It’s a strong, thin material that’s capable of conducting electricity and heat better than most other materials.

Considered a “wonder material” by many scientists, it is only a single atom thick, meaning it can be used on anything from electronic clothing to supercharged quantum computers, all while serving the same purpose.

“Graphene is one of the few materials in the world that is transparent, conductive and flexible – all at the same time,” said Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, a lecturer at the University of Manchester. “All of these properties together are extremely rare to find in one material.”

Don’t be surprised to see graphene in more devices over the next few years.

Source: New York Times

This Week’s [a]list Jobs – April 16

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[a]list daily is now your source for the hottest job openings for senior management and marketing in games, entertainment and social media.

Here are this week’s [a]list jobs:

 

Mobile Games Make Money For Many

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Investors and game companies alike regularly question whether the mobile games space is dominated by one hit wonders. SuperCell, King and Kabam are proving this is certainly not the case. With a series of new games launched by these games-as-a-service specialists, the top 10 grossing games ranking in most countries is increasingly dominated by the big three.

Candy Crush Saga seems not to be cannibalized by King’s other titles as its revenues continue to rise while their latest games added tens of millions of dollars last March alone. This is quite surprising, considering the fact that 48 percent of mobile Candy Crush Saga players has also played at least one of Kings’ other mobile titles in the past few months. King’s strategy has always been to perfect their titles and gather huge communities on social and casual platforms before releasing to mobile. Using our latest franchise product, we can see that the PC remains the most popular platform on which the majority of King’s title are played, with only Candy Crush Saga being played more on the smartphone. This is likely because Candy Crush Saga has been available on mobile for a longer period of time, and we expect the other titles to follow the same trend in the coming months.

Farm Heroes Saga is King’s second best performing game, taking 6th and 7th place in the global grossing iOS and GooglePlay charts respectively. If this game continues to perform well it could add another $250 million to King’s revenues this year. Slightly more than half of mobile Farm Heroes Saga players, 53 percent, also play Candy Crush Saga.

SuperCell’s Boom Beach, launched globally mid-March, is expected to join Clash of Clans and Hay Day in the top 10 grossing list of many countries in our next monthly report. Its revenues are currently ramping up to more than half a million dollars a day.

Mobile gaming has the longest tail of any game platform
Even with such dominant players, the long tail remains the most attractive of any platform for game developers. Based on revenues generated in US appstores alone, 247 different game publishers made more than $1,000,000 last year, after deduction of the appstore fee of 30 percent. Of course, it is fair to mention the fact that the total number of developers targeting smartphones and tablets is much larger than relatively closed platforms such as consoles.

In the US, the top 10 grossing games take 25 percent (iPhone) to 36 percent (iPad) of revenues grossed by the top 1,000 games. For GooglePlay this share is 27 percent. In general, the U.S. has a relatively long tail while on the high side are the iPhone in Spain (59 percent), Brazil (55 percent), China (54 percent) and Korea (54 percent).

Empire: Four Kingdoms conquers Europe, Bingo games take the U.S. by storm
One of the most notable newcomers in the games rankings is Empire: Four Kingdoms from German publisher GoodGames. Their latest title entered the top 10 in most European countries last month across the iOS and GooglePlay stores. Actually, the majority of its several million dollars generated in March were through GooglePlay. The launch of Empire: Four Kingdoms was supported by an impressive TV campaign in key European territories with March revenues placing the German publisher in the global top 20 grossing publishers. Empire: Four Kingdoms is another example of a “mid-core” game that monetizes very well.

At the same time, social casino games are performing better than ever, particularly on the iPad in the U.S. Four out of ten top grossing games are bingo and social casino games published by DoubleDown, BigFish, GSN and BitRhymes. This likely relates to the changing demographic profile of typical iOS versus GooglePlay players, as more and more Android devices are attracting early adopters with a younger demographic that is not drawn to social casino style games as much. 

Monthly Top 20 Mobile Games — iOS
The top 6 games remained unchanged this month with Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga and Hay Day still topping the charts. Both King.com, with three of their Saga tiles, and Supercell have three games in the top 20 grossing iOS games.

This month there are four new entries: Line: Go to Disney by Naver Japan at position number 10, Monster Strike by mixi, Inc at position number 12, Line Cookie Run by Naver Japan at position number 19 and Battle in Warring States by Sumzap Inc. at position number 20. Notably, Minecraft – Pocket Edition (Mojang ) and The Simpsons: Tapped Out (Electronic Arts) dropped out of the top 20.  

Monthly Top 20 Mobile Games — Playstore
The top 3 games remained unchanged this month with Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga and Puzzle & Dragons holding onto the top spots. Both Hay Day and Black Cat & Witch Quiz jumped a spot in the ranking to numbers 4 and 5 respectively — at the expense of Line Pokopang which dropped from position number 4 to 6.

There are four new entries this month including Line: Go to Disney which debuted at number 10 and Monster Strike which debuted at position 12. The following games dropped out of the top 20: Dragon Quest Monsters Castle Clash and Professional Baseball Pride. 

Monthly Top 20 Mobile Publishers — iOS
The top 10 publishers hardly changed this month with the first 9 positions remaining the same. Colopl, Inc. climbed one place to number 10 pushing Gameloft down a spot. King.com is still topping the charts and Supercell is taking second place followed by EA. There are no new publishers entering the top 20 this month.

Namco Bandai Games Inc. made the biggest jump in the chart climbing 6 spots to number 12. Zynga climbed two spots and is now at number 17. Square Enix Inc. made the biggest drop in the chart, falling 8 places to number 20. Due to the continuing success of Game of War — Fire Age, Machine Zone, Inc kept the number 7 position despite having no other games in top 1,000 grossing games. 

Monthly Top 20 Mobile Publishers — Playstore
Compared to the iOS store a lot changed in the Playstore top 20 publishers this month — but King.com remain at number 1. Line Corporation and Supercell swapped positions with the latter now at number 3 in the charts.

CJ E&M corp. climbed two spots to number 4 while mixi, Inc climbed 5 spots to number 9. The success of mixi, Inc can largely be contributed to Monster Strike which entered the top 20 grossing Playstore games at position number 12.

There are two new entries this month, Goodgame studios at position 19 due to the success of their only game in the top 1,000 grossing games Empire: Four Kingdoms and Gamevil at number 20. Square Enix (14th last month) and Social Quantum (18th last month) dropped out of the top 20 publishers.

Lifesum Nabs $6.7 Million In Series A Funding

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Congrats Marcus Gners, Henrik Torstensson and the whole Lifesum team– $6.7 million in a first round of external financing is no small chunk of change! Investors in Lifesum are German multinational media company Bauer Media Group and SparkLabs Global Ventures.

It was one of the largest funding rounds for a mobile startup company in Europe so far this year. Finnish company Next Games, with CEO Teemu Huuhtanen, are among the others which recently raised $6 million.

You may have heard of Lifesum in its early days when it was still called ShapeUp Club.

I had skyped with its founders Tove Westlund and Martin Wählby in Sweden over two years ago and I remember being impressed by how many users they had amassed with their bootstrap approach and the potential to monetize the app and grow beyond the base in Sweden.

I then had the opportunity to meet the team in person a few months ago in Stockholm after CEO Henrik Torstensson and deputy CEO Marcus Gners had joined and was again very impressed by their dedication and focus.

The funding for Lifesum should be seen in the light of the rise of the The Quantified Self Movement, a growing cause to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person’s daily life in terms of inputs (such as food consumed), states (like blood oxygen levels), and performance (both mental and physical). It is also referred to as “Lifelogging” and includes self-monitoring and self-sensing combining wearable sensors and computing like those found in a smartphone. Some other examples of this movement includes apps such as SleepCycle, Nike Fuelband and RescueTime which is a productivity app.

The Quantified Self movement and the hardware and software that go along with it have successfully taken a lot of cues from the gaming industry. Many on the management team at Lifesum have experience working in gaming companies, such as Stardoll.

On the console gaming side, there are cameras like Microsoft Kinect, which have the capability to accurately track body movements, heart rate and more, which allows online fitness and gaming will be able to merge like never before.

On the mobile side, the key to success for Lifesum, as well as for many of the other Quantified Self apps out there, is to make it fun for the user as well as giving clear rewards for inputting as much data as possible using smartphone functionalities such as a GPS. The ultimate goal is to get the user to keep checking the app to see progress towards certain goals such as weight loss. Those rewards can be virtual like online trophies, but also social, like posting to your Facebook timeline to get recognition from your peers.

Lifesum has been very successful with more than 6.5 million app downloads across Europe on iOS and Android to date– but it’s not all fun and games. The long-term success for Lifesum will depend on its ability to build a brand, showing that it has real positive impact on its users’ everyday lives and turn users of the free app into premium users with a paid subscription.

There is a lot more to come in this exciting field which combines consumer electronics, digital media and technology.

If you want to find out more, the best way is to download and try it out for yourself. Lifesum’s app can be found here for iOS.

Image Source: The Connectivist

‘Civilization’ Boldly Goes Beyond The Stars

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Vodafone Sends Two Retirees Flying

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Vodafone is letting people experience a series of firsts, which might conjure up images of bungee jumping and deep-sea diving, but in this case its a simpler dream of two old ladies who want to fly on a plane. The efficacy of the message and the genuineness of the emotion shows that it doesn’t have to be a grand dream to make an connection. Source: Gizmodo.com