EA’s Peter Moore Talks Used Games, Star Wars Going Free-to-Play

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Many AAA game companies have come out and bashed used games as a method retailers use to get more life out of the products they sell. EA COO Peter Moore, however, sees opportunity in used games.

“Used games were a bigger issue for the industry – I wasn’t resigned to it, but I recognized that it was the right of gamers and the right of our retailer,” said Moore. “To be very fair, GameStop has always been very public about the fact that [they] keep the ecosystem moving with revenue that comes in, and it’s not like they go and take their game credit and go to McDonald’s and buy burgers. They re-up into new games.”

“Our job is to take that consumer and say, you’ve got a used game consumer and embrace that guy rather than shun him and say ‘no, not a penny of what we spent on this we get from you.’ It’s kept GameStop to be a thriving retailer unlike a lot of bricks and mortar. They’ve got 6,600 doors. I’m not sure they’re there without having a real digital strategy and a used games strategy.”

Moore also addressed the issue of switching Star Wars: The Old Republic from subscription-only to free-to-play. “As we get closer [to release], you realize the world is changing around you. We have to change accordingly,” he explained. “Now you’ve got a hybrid model, which is the way I like it, because I’d rather say ‘give me all you can eat for 15 bucks a month and I’ll play the game if you give me everything,’ which is still available. But this fall there will be, we open up the funnel at the top, look, come on in, there’s no cost to play, if you want to progress it gets better quickly.”

“Price was always the issue. You talk to people on their way out and say, can you tell me why you’re leaving [They say] ‘I just didn’t want to pay $15 a month. I felt kind of locked in. I love the game, but I’m locked in,’ and for a lot of people 15 bucks a month is a lot of money,” he added. “So when we looked at the data that was streaming out of it. It was very clear to us that if we could knock down that initial barrier to entry that is price, that we could blow out the funnel and instead of dealing with several hundred thousand people on a regular basis we could get into millions. That was the plan. The world moved very quickly around us, and we had to react.”

Source: Wired

Nexus 7 Selling Over 500k Per Month: Asus

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Google has not publicly reported on the sales of its Nexus 7 tablet, even though it has been well received. However, Asustek indicates that the tablet is approaching the magical milestone of a million units per month.

Asustek CFO David Chang says that the company was selling 500,000 units a month initially when the Nexus 7 launched in July, bumped up to 600,000-700,000 in the following months. This would potentially make the device the most popular Android tablet on the planet, even more than the Kindle Fire HD and the Galaxy Tab.

Source: WSJ.com

Amazon Strikes Out At IPad Mini On Homepage

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Amazon has used their front page to tout their own tablets over the range of iPad products. They claim 30 percent more pixels than iPad mini, the ability to watch HD movies, and dual stereo speakers.

The company is consciously leaving off certain features on the iPad that you won’t find on the Kindle Fire HD, including a rear-facing camera, a 64GB model, a 3G/4G LTE option and Apple’s lineup of 275,000 tablet-optimized apps. Kindle Fire HD retails for $199, whereas the iPad mini begins at $329 for the 16GB, Wi-Fi version.

Source: PCmag.com

Wikipad Launch Pushed Back

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The Wikipad will not release in October as was originally planned. The gaming tablet is being pushed back for refinements, which could mean anything from a upgrade to the latest version of Android to perhaps an upgrade of the screen or processor in the face of heavy competition in the tablet sector.

“There is a last minute opportunity to enhance the Wikipad bundle as well as a minor refinement needed to ensure our first customers are completely satisfied with the Wikipad,” said the company in an official statement. “We have informed our retail partners about this delay. For those who pre-ordered the Wikipad at GameStop through today October 31, we will deliver the refined and upgraded bundles as well as a special bonus gift with the pre-order. We are in the final stage and will be announcing the new date soon.”

Twitter: 500 Million Tweets A Day

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Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has announced that the micro-blogging service is now processing half a billion tweets a day. Costolo revealed this at the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Engage conference in London, which is up from 400 million daily tweets that Twitter had publicized in June 2012.

Costolo also confirmed reports that Twitter is testing out “like” and star buttons to potentially replace the “favorite” tool the service has used for years. The company had previously declined to comment on the issue and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Costolo’s reported remarks in London.

Source: CNET.com

God Of War: Ascension Prepares For Glory With 300 Skin

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Pre-orders of the Standard and Collector’s Editions of God of War: Ascension at GameStop will receive a multiplayer character skin in the form of King Leonidas. This will be the version of the historical figure from 300 played by Gerard Butler.

“Donning King Leonidas’s red cape, iconic helmet, and armor you will stand apart as one of the ultimate warriors of Sparta. King Leonidas also comes with his iconic spear, which has its own set of unique combat moves,” said Sony.

Pre-orders will also get a double-sided God of War: Ascension poster. God of War: Ascension will release March 12, 2013.

Focus On Sociability In Social Games, Says Facebook

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Facebook says for social games to succeed, developers need to make their games more social and embrace targeted sharing tools such as Open Graph. Speaking at a meeting with press at the company’s headquarters, Facebook director of user growth Alex Schultz said games on their platform need to be “fundamentally better with friends, and fundamentally impossible to play without your friends.”

Schultz pointed to Open Graph as the perfect tool to spread the word about games to friends, given how it promotes “shares that are intentional by the user.”

With the way Open Graph functions, once a user adds an app to their Timeline any actions within the app are shared with their friends. In-app actions become woven into users’ activity on Facebook, constantly prompting friends to join them.

“If people are visiting their friends’ profiles — which they do — you have these aggregation units that say ‘Alex defeated five enemies this week’, or whatever. That kind of data — seeing what their friends like to play, and the progress they’re making — gets users excited to try a game,” said Schultz.

He also pointed to mobile as an increasingly important platform to drive Facebook app adoption. There is now a seamless transition between Facebook apps played online or on mobile apps.

“Mobile is bringing this, too,” Schultz said. “Mobile platforms can drive a delayed bump in users — and increased engagement — if, for example, a previously iOS-specific game is ported to Android. Players’ friends can see via Facebook that a game that they were interested in is now on their mobile platform of choice, and help boost engagement for everyone by joining in.”

Source: Gamasutra