Subscribe- I’m surprised we didn’t see any announcement from Microsoft regarding a larger hard drive. If the last couple days are any indication, we sorely need it. Especially those poor users who have Final Fantasy IX installed on their hard drives. All two of them.
- Another surprising no-show is the alliance between Microsoft and DirecTV. Maybe Microsoft was holding out to see if Sony was going to say anything about their Live Connect functionality in the PS3. Since they didn’t mention any DVR functionality, perhaps Microsoft held off for a future announcement to counter anything Sony comes out with.
- A quick gaming press update. Gamespot is still the winner of the show, but it seems like the grind is catching up to them. Absent were any staff video blogs from yesterday. 1UP too, as there was no promised 1UP Yours podcast on my virtual doorstep this morning. Yeah, I know the press function was last night, but even in my line of work someone has to stay with the ship.
- An idea for the gaming press next year – mandate each of your staff to make a video blog every day of the conference; write a blog post every day of the conference; and participate in daily panel podcasts. Like I said yesterday, the sites are all set up to be organized by game title, which is good for reference, but like any book the index comes at the back. The table of contents actually tells the reader the central outline and flow. Create that table of contents in the form of highlights or show milestones (i.e, press conferences, chapters organized by booth/publisher/developer/platform). Make the blogs and podcasts an integral part of that outline – they are definitely required “chapters”. Don’t make me come out to L.A. next year and show you how it’s done.
- How the hell did Kotaku and Joystiq get to be so popular? They both report the same news in the same way – like they want to be Penny Arcade but can’t draw, so they just editorialize (yes, that’s a real word) each story. Ha ha, you’re funny. The real joke is that you get press passes to all the major gaming events and waited hand-over-foot by publishers because you get site traffic. The joke is on all of us, apparently.
- Lumines Live is a brilliant marketing move by Microsoft. Not only will they sell tons of copies over Xbox Live, but they can use it as a trojan horse to push advertising in the form of their partnership with Warner Music (and what happened to Epic? That’s a Sony company, by the way…). Want to plug that new Bjork album? Just release a skin as a new level over Xbox Live Marketplace. And remember, for those who played the PSP version, it’s not just about the backgrounds, music and block styles. Each action by the player solicits a sound that adds to the music. Like Rez, the player is essentially creating their own mix from a song template. So really, each skin can be completely personalized to a particular artist. Personally I can’t wait.
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