Imitation might be flattery, but that doesn't make the Romantics any happier about it.
The Detroit rock band has sued the publisher of the popular video game Guitar Hero, claiming the game infringes the group's rights by featuring a sound-alike recording of the hit What I Like About You.
The lawsuit against California-based Activision, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, seeks unspecified damages for use of the sound-alike recording. It's one of about 30 hit tunes featured on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, released in July for Sony PlayStation game consoles.
The band is also seeking an injunction against the game, which could take the bestseller off store shelves in the thick of the holiday shopping season. In the game, users try to play along to songs with a guitar-shaped controller. Activision has used a mix of original band recordings and cover versions in its Guitar Hero series, an award-winning line that debuted in 2005.
Copyright isn't the issue for the Romantics. The band's attorneys said Activision properly secured permission to use the song What I Like About You, which allowed it to record a cover version. But by creating an imitation so much like the Romantics' original, they said, the company has infringed the group's right to its own image and likeness.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Sony Playstation Activision Guitar Artists Bette Midler Tom Waits Romantics What I Like About You
Guitar Hero representatives did not return calls for comment.
Artists such as Tom Waits and Bette Midler have won legal victories on similar grounds for sound-alike recordings used in TV commercials. In those cases, the imitation recordings were ruled to have infringed the artists' rights to publicity by leading consumers to associate the artist with the advertised product.
What I Like About You was recorded for the game by the San Francisco music firm Wavegroup Sound, also named in the suit.
"It's a very good imitation, and that's our objection," said Troy attorney William Horton. "Even the guys in the band said, 'Wow, that's not us, but it sure sounds like us.'"
Horton said Activision should have secured a master license for the Romantics' original 1980 recording, then paid appropriate royalties. He said the band became aware of the issue when fans said they'd heard the song in the game but members saw no accounting for it on their record-label royalty checks.
"I was very upset because the band had worked very hard over many years to develop and use its distinctive sound," the Romantics' Wally Palmer said in an affidavit.
Jessica Litman, a University of Michigan law professor and copyright specialist, said the Romantics' suit may be different from the Waits and Midler cases in a few key ways.
Though she had not yet read the Romantics' complaint, Litman said that in general, "putting something in a game is quite different from putting it in a commercial."
The Waits and Midler cases hinged on the fact that the sound-alikes were used in advertising, potentially causing viewers to think those artists were making a commercial endorsement.
"Here it's being used as an intrinsic sound in the gameplay," Litman said. "That seems to me to be a loser on state law grounds and trademark grounds, because no one is going to be confused and think that they're endorsing Playstation or Guitar Hero. "
Horton said he thinks the Romantics' case is actually stronger because of the recording's use in the game.
"The music is integral to the way this product works," he said. "You have to have songs to play."
The attorney would not put a specific figure on potential money awards for the Romantics, which would likely be based on the number of Guitar Hero Encore units sold to date. The game, like the other three Guitar Hero titles, topped U.S. sales charts when it was released.
"The sales of this game are huge," said Horton. "We're all for good commerce. We just want to share in it."
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Online games meet social networking tools
Jo Ann Hicks doesn't identify with gamers, but she spends hours online every day playing Kaneva.
The 41-year-old homemaker likes the shopping-and-partying game — where she operates a virtual nightclub and hosts parties — because it helps her interact with people, not provide escape from them as traditional games often do.
Social and gaming networks, once considered polar opposites, are cross-pollinating as online interactions replace prime-time TV and other, more traditional media experiences. Games like Kaneva are attracting players that games like Super Mario Brothers never did.
"I run around and act like a 40-year-old person. I have my little clan we hang with. What people will say is more interesting to me," Hicks said of her preferred game. "As opposed to Mario, who's only going to jump."
Game developers say there's money for both sides in this convergence.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Myspace Facebook Video games Warcraft Online games Kaneva Stephen Prentice
Social networks that incorporate more features of "massively multi-player online games" could enhance their already-substantial earning power. And gaming sites would benefit from increased membership and broader acceptance.
David Dague, a 34-year-old executive in Chicago who runs a website called tiedtheleader.com, said games have changed fundamentally since the early days of Space Invaders.
"I've seen gaming go from a solitary thing to where there really is a cinematic experience going on in front of you that you can share in a social capacity," said Dague, whose site coordinates matches in Xbox Live games like Halo 3 and hosts forums about gaming.
"Video games have become the ultimate party line," he said. "The question is, who are you sharing it with?"
Played in virtual worlds with advertising and goods for sale, games like KartRider and Kaneva now go beyond the scope of early interactive games. They're less about skill levels and escapism and more about joining friends and strangers in virtual spaces where chatting, comparing fashions, going dancing — and, yes, slaying monsters — are all options.
For their part, networking sites are encompassing more interactive features that consume increasing amounts of users' time — long considered a defining feature of computer games.
MySpace and Facebook are massively multiplayer games in disguise, says Gabe Zichermann, who is developing "rmbr," which he says will make a video game out of tagging and sharing digital photos.
"The reason why Facebook is a really compelling MMO is because it's fun and you get something out of it," he said.
There are interactive titles like Scrabulous for Facebook, and MySpace is rolling out a games channel early next year.
"They're going to be able to monetize their users at the same level (as the games do)," Jessica Tams, managing director of the Casual Games Association, said of the social network sites. "That's a lot of money."
If each of Facebook's 33 million and MySpace's 72 million October users — according to figures from comScore Inc. — paid a dollar each visit for a new outfit for his or her avatar in a game, that would have produced a lot more revenue than the fractions of a penny the sites got for each click on an ad.
Nexon, which has offered free, socially rich video games for years in South Korea, introduced its English-language version of KartRider for use in North America in September.
In October, the year-old North American version of Nexon's Kaneva had 84,000 members, according to comScore. Once players download the game, they see advertising and can buy all sorts of virtual clothing and upgrades for a few dollars apiece.
It's a substantially different business model from online fantasy games like World of Warcraft, which tend to require subscriptions, at $15 or so per month, and usually don't allow users to buy things for real money, online or off.
"Think of World of Warcraft as kind of closing the book on this generation of games," says Christopher Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management. "Those folks who are developing the next generation of massively multiplayer games really need to raise the bar anew."
Venture capital, technology and media firms invested more than $1 billion dollars in 35 virtual worlds companies between October 2006 and this October, according to a study by Austin-based Virtual Worlds Management, a company that organizes conferences to discuss emerging online trends.
Second Life— where users can buy their own plots of land to build stores, castles or anything else they can imagine — is creating a game within a game with CBS, called The Virtual CSI: New York, that melds networking and gaming. Avatars will be able to go to crime scenes and figure out what happened.
The lure of interactive online games is so strong it can cut into users' sleep and boost the time they spend playing, according to a month-long study by Syracuse University psychology professor Joshua Smyth.
Smyth found that MMORPG players spent on average 14.4 hours a week playing — twice as long as video game players who don't interact online.
Stephen Prentice, a senior analyst for the Gartner Group in the United Kingdom, believes the time is right for such online social video game services to take off. The big question is who will succeed first.
"The huge opportunity is for a lightweight, three-dimensional environment, a virtual world equivalent of Facebook," Prentice says. "Trying to predict who that is going to be is difficult. Anything could happen here."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The 41-year-old homemaker likes the shopping-and-partying game — where she operates a virtual nightclub and hosts parties — because it helps her interact with people, not provide escape from them as traditional games often do.
Social and gaming networks, once considered polar opposites, are cross-pollinating as online interactions replace prime-time TV and other, more traditional media experiences. Games like Kaneva are attracting players that games like Super Mario Brothers never did.
"I run around and act like a 40-year-old person. I have my little clan we hang with. What people will say is more interesting to me," Hicks said of her preferred game. "As opposed to Mario, who's only going to jump."
Game developers say there's money for both sides in this convergence.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Myspace Facebook Video games Warcraft Online games Kaneva Stephen Prentice
Social networks that incorporate more features of "massively multi-player online games" could enhance their already-substantial earning power. And gaming sites would benefit from increased membership and broader acceptance.
David Dague, a 34-year-old executive in Chicago who runs a website called tiedtheleader.com, said games have changed fundamentally since the early days of Space Invaders.
"I've seen gaming go from a solitary thing to where there really is a cinematic experience going on in front of you that you can share in a social capacity," said Dague, whose site coordinates matches in Xbox Live games like Halo 3 and hosts forums about gaming.
"Video games have become the ultimate party line," he said. "The question is, who are you sharing it with?"
Played in virtual worlds with advertising and goods for sale, games like KartRider and Kaneva now go beyond the scope of early interactive games. They're less about skill levels and escapism and more about joining friends and strangers in virtual spaces where chatting, comparing fashions, going dancing — and, yes, slaying monsters — are all options.
For their part, networking sites are encompassing more interactive features that consume increasing amounts of users' time — long considered a defining feature of computer games.
MySpace and Facebook are massively multiplayer games in disguise, says Gabe Zichermann, who is developing "rmbr," which he says will make a video game out of tagging and sharing digital photos.
"The reason why Facebook is a really compelling MMO is because it's fun and you get something out of it," he said.
There are interactive titles like Scrabulous for Facebook, and MySpace is rolling out a games channel early next year.
"They're going to be able to monetize their users at the same level (as the games do)," Jessica Tams, managing director of the Casual Games Association, said of the social network sites. "That's a lot of money."
If each of Facebook's 33 million and MySpace's 72 million October users — according to figures from comScore Inc. — paid a dollar each visit for a new outfit for his or her avatar in a game, that would have produced a lot more revenue than the fractions of a penny the sites got for each click on an ad.
Nexon, which has offered free, socially rich video games for years in South Korea, introduced its English-language version of KartRider for use in North America in September.
In October, the year-old North American version of Nexon's Kaneva had 84,000 members, according to comScore. Once players download the game, they see advertising and can buy all sorts of virtual clothing and upgrades for a few dollars apiece.
It's a substantially different business model from online fantasy games like World of Warcraft, which tend to require subscriptions, at $15 or so per month, and usually don't allow users to buy things for real money, online or off.
"Think of World of Warcraft as kind of closing the book on this generation of games," says Christopher Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management. "Those folks who are developing the next generation of massively multiplayer games really need to raise the bar anew."
Venture capital, technology and media firms invested more than $1 billion dollars in 35 virtual worlds companies between October 2006 and this October, according to a study by Austin-based Virtual Worlds Management, a company that organizes conferences to discuss emerging online trends.
Second Life— where users can buy their own plots of land to build stores, castles or anything else they can imagine — is creating a game within a game with CBS, called The Virtual CSI: New York, that melds networking and gaming. Avatars will be able to go to crime scenes and figure out what happened.
The lure of interactive online games is so strong it can cut into users' sleep and boost the time they spend playing, according to a month-long study by Syracuse University psychology professor Joshua Smyth.
Smyth found that MMORPG players spent on average 14.4 hours a week playing — twice as long as video game players who don't interact online.
Stephen Prentice, a senior analyst for the Gartner Group in the United Kingdom, believes the time is right for such online social video game services to take off. The big question is who will succeed first.
"The huge opportunity is for a lightweight, three-dimensional environment, a virtual world equivalent of Facebook," Prentice says. "Trying to predict who that is going to be is difficult. Anything could happen here."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
In Germany, iPhone will sell without contract
BERLIN — Deutsche Telekom AG's mobile unit said Wednesday it would offer Apple's popular iPhone without a contract to comply with a court injunction issued after Vodafone challenged T-Mobile's exclusive lock on the handset.
T-Mobile will start selling the phone for euro999 ($1,477) immediately as well as continuing to offer it for the discounted euro399 ($590) in combination with a two-year contract, the company said in a press release.
The iPhone made its German debut on Nov. 9 — available only with the two-year contract from T-Mobile. The German unit of rival Vodafone protested that practice at a state court in Hamburg.
The court issued an injunction, dated Nov. 12, barring T-Mobile from offering the iPhone exclusively with the minimum 24-month contract, and also from selling it only with a so-called SIM lock that prevents users from switching the device to any other operator's network.
T-Mobile said any customer can now also have the SIM lock on their phone removed — including those who have already purchased the iPhone.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Germany Mobile Nov Deutsche Telekom AG
T-Mobile said in its statement that it would abide by the conditions "until the legal situation is resolved." The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, T-Mobile said it would appeal the injunction and it also said it reserves the right to consider seeking damages.
The new phone is not operating on Europe's fastest, so-called 3G networks, but is relying on a different technology called EDGE. T-Mobile argued that it is the only carrier to offer EDGE across Germany.
The iPhone is a combined cellphone and iPod media player that also can access the Internet wirelessly.
Vodafone could not immediately be reached for comment.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
T-Mobile will start selling the phone for euro999 ($1,477) immediately as well as continuing to offer it for the discounted euro399 ($590) in combination with a two-year contract, the company said in a press release.
The iPhone made its German debut on Nov. 9 — available only with the two-year contract from T-Mobile. The German unit of rival Vodafone protested that practice at a state court in Hamburg.
The court issued an injunction, dated Nov. 12, barring T-Mobile from offering the iPhone exclusively with the minimum 24-month contract, and also from selling it only with a so-called SIM lock that prevents users from switching the device to any other operator's network.
T-Mobile said any customer can now also have the SIM lock on their phone removed — including those who have already purchased the iPhone.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Germany Mobile Nov Deutsche Telekom AG
T-Mobile said in its statement that it would abide by the conditions "until the legal situation is resolved." The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, T-Mobile said it would appeal the injunction and it also said it reserves the right to consider seeking damages.
The new phone is not operating on Europe's fastest, so-called 3G networks, but is relying on a different technology called EDGE. T-Mobile argued that it is the only carrier to offer EDGE across Germany.
The iPhone is a combined cellphone and iPod media player that also can access the Internet wirelessly.
Vodafone could not immediately be reached for comment.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Bookmarks better in new Firefox 3
NEW YORK — A new version of the Firefox browser, now available for testing mainly by developers, offers improvements on finding frequently visited websites and tools for running Web applications without a live Internet connection.
The Beta 1 version of Firefox 3 released this week still has problems, including the inability to run newer Web-mail programs from Yahoo and Microsoft, and a final version for consumers isn't expected for several months.
But it offers a window on what's to come.
Many of its new features concern bookmarks, an area typically slow to change in the browsing world. You can now add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. And a new "Places" feature lets you quickly access sites you recently bookmarked or tagged and pages you visit frequently but haven't bookmarked.
There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list — similar to what's already available on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Microsoft Firefox Web applications
Offline Web support — for example, letting you compose Web mail while offline to send after you're back online — is bound to come in handy as more software developers design programs to be run completely over the Internet, eliminating installation complexities.
But Web developers must add the Firefox offline functionality to their sites, so the usefulness of this feature will be limited at first.
Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.
Versions for Windows, Mac and Linux computers were released Monday by Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people collectively develop free products, mostly as volunteers.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Beta 1 version of Firefox 3 released this week still has problems, including the inability to run newer Web-mail programs from Yahoo and Microsoft, and a final version for consumers isn't expected for several months.
But it offers a window on what's to come.
Many of its new features concern bookmarks, an area typically slow to change in the browsing world. You can now add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. And a new "Places" feature lets you quickly access sites you recently bookmarked or tagged and pages you visit frequently but haven't bookmarked.
There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list — similar to what's already available on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Microsoft Firefox Web applications
Offline Web support — for example, letting you compose Web mail while offline to send after you're back online — is bound to come in handy as more software developers design programs to be run completely over the Internet, eliminating installation complexities.
But Web developers must add the Firefox offline functionality to their sites, so the usefulness of this feature will be limited at first.
Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.
Versions for Windows, Mac and Linux computers were released Monday by Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people collectively develop free products, mostly as volunteers.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Philadelphia Wi-Fi network hits snags
PHILADELPHIA — Alfred Zaccaria was finally going to leave the world of dial-up for high-speed access to the Internet without having to pay a lot more for service.
Or so he thought.
A 63-year-old landlord in northeast Philadelphia, he signed up for EarthLink's Wi-Fi Internet service in June for $6.95 a month, a rate that would rise to the regular price of $19.95 after six months. Five months later, he still can't get it to work despite moving his wireless modem from room to room and closer to windows to get a better signal.
HOTSPOT FINDER: Find a wireless service near you
"I'm paying them and they're not giving me the service," said Zaccaria, who's stuck with a one-year contract and a $70 modem whose return date has passed. "It seems unjust."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Wi Philly Internet access Earthlink Earthlink, Inc.
Three years after Mayor John Street announced Philadelphia would be the first major U.S. city to have its own network for wireless Internet access, the project is nearly a year behind schedule and beset by cost overruns.
Technical problems and restructuring at EarthLink Inc., the Atlanta-based Internet service provider that won the 10-year contract to set up and manage the network, slowed the process. But its future grew much murkier Friday, with Earthlink's announcement that it is considering "strategic alternatives" — in other words, a possible sale — for its municipal Wi-Fi business.
"Making significant further investments in this business could be inconsistent with our objective of maximizing shareholder value," the company has decided, Chief Executive Rolla P. Huff said in a statement.
Shares of EarthLink rose by 13 cents, or 1.8%, to $7.27 amid heavy trading Friday, then climbed another 85 cents, or 11.7%, after-hours.
Earthlink, which did not disclose what other paths the unit could follow, said the division is worth about $40 million.
The company has struggled to generate revenue as its dial-up customers have turned to high-speed services. It brokered a joint venture with SK Telecom to form wireless company Helio and launched its municipal wireless service.
Terry Phillis, Philadelphia's chief information officer, said his city's 135-square-mile network is 75% complete and EarthLink is committed to finishing it. Earthlink vowed Friday to continue working with its municipal partners.
It's not clear who will own or run Philadelphia's network once it's built, though the city could take it over and find another company to operate it.
Consumer complaints have reached the office of City Councilman Frank Rizzo, who said he also had trouble connecting to EarthLink's Wi-Fi hot spots around the city and has called for a hearing on it.
"I started to get e-mails from people complaining the service doesn't work well, and that bothered me," Rizzo said.
Jerry Grasso, a spokesman for EarthLink, declined to disclose subscriber figures. But municipal officials have said they were disappointing there and in other cities.
Wireless Philadelphia, the non-profit overseeing the project, has signed up only 440 households for the "Digital Inclusion" program for low-income residents, well below the goal for June of 1,000. Participants would get a refurbished computer, training, Internet access for a year, wireless equipment and tech support.
The network initially was to be finished last spring. Now, Wireless Philadelphia said it will be completed early next year.
Some delays were technical. EarthLink had to nearly double its number of Wi-Fi nodes to more than 40 per square mile to improve connectivity. And the company didn't require residents to buy or rent equipment to boost the signal indoors as necessary.
Then, in August, EarthLink announced it would cut 900 jobs, nearly half of its workforce, and reassess the business model for its municipal broadband projects.
"We will not devote any new capital to the old municipal Wi-Fi model that has us taking all the risks," Huff told analysts then. "In my judgment, that model is simply unworkable."
Earthlink pulled out of San Francisco's Wi-Fi project in August, and Chicago and Cincinnati abandoned their efforts about the same time. The company paid Houston $5 million for missing the starting deadline for that city's Wi-Fi project and was mulling whether to walk away.
The announcement on Friday puts in limbo the investment in Houston, which Richard Lewis, that city's chief information technology officer, estimated at $40 million to $50 million.
EarthLink agreed to foot the bill for Philadelphia's network, give free accounts to the city, lease spots from the city for its Wi-Fi nodes and subsidize Internet access for low-income residents.
The company's decision was "long overdue," Anthony Townsend, a research director at Silicon Valley think tank the Institute for the Future, said Friday.
"It was pretty clear that it was going to be a long road," he said. "It's a fragmented market. You're dealing with clients and governments that move slowly and are very risk averse. They really didn't have a lot of options, and it turned out to be a lot harder than they expected."
Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
Or so he thought.
A 63-year-old landlord in northeast Philadelphia, he signed up for EarthLink's Wi-Fi Internet service in June for $6.95 a month, a rate that would rise to the regular price of $19.95 after six months. Five months later, he still can't get it to work despite moving his wireless modem from room to room and closer to windows to get a better signal.
HOTSPOT FINDER: Find a wireless service near you
"I'm paying them and they're not giving me the service," said Zaccaria, who's stuck with a one-year contract and a $70 modem whose return date has passed. "It seems unjust."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Wi Philly Internet access Earthlink Earthlink, Inc.
Three years after Mayor John Street announced Philadelphia would be the first major U.S. city to have its own network for wireless Internet access, the project is nearly a year behind schedule and beset by cost overruns.
Technical problems and restructuring at EarthLink Inc., the Atlanta-based Internet service provider that won the 10-year contract to set up and manage the network, slowed the process. But its future grew much murkier Friday, with Earthlink's announcement that it is considering "strategic alternatives" — in other words, a possible sale — for its municipal Wi-Fi business.
"Making significant further investments in this business could be inconsistent with our objective of maximizing shareholder value," the company has decided, Chief Executive Rolla P. Huff said in a statement.
Shares of EarthLink rose by 13 cents, or 1.8%, to $7.27 amid heavy trading Friday, then climbed another 85 cents, or 11.7%, after-hours.
Earthlink, which did not disclose what other paths the unit could follow, said the division is worth about $40 million.
The company has struggled to generate revenue as its dial-up customers have turned to high-speed services. It brokered a joint venture with SK Telecom to form wireless company Helio and launched its municipal wireless service.
Terry Phillis, Philadelphia's chief information officer, said his city's 135-square-mile network is 75% complete and EarthLink is committed to finishing it. Earthlink vowed Friday to continue working with its municipal partners.
It's not clear who will own or run Philadelphia's network once it's built, though the city could take it over and find another company to operate it.
Consumer complaints have reached the office of City Councilman Frank Rizzo, who said he also had trouble connecting to EarthLink's Wi-Fi hot spots around the city and has called for a hearing on it.
"I started to get e-mails from people complaining the service doesn't work well, and that bothered me," Rizzo said.
Jerry Grasso, a spokesman for EarthLink, declined to disclose subscriber figures. But municipal officials have said they were disappointing there and in other cities.
Wireless Philadelphia, the non-profit overseeing the project, has signed up only 440 households for the "Digital Inclusion" program for low-income residents, well below the goal for June of 1,000. Participants would get a refurbished computer, training, Internet access for a year, wireless equipment and tech support.
The network initially was to be finished last spring. Now, Wireless Philadelphia said it will be completed early next year.
Some delays were technical. EarthLink had to nearly double its number of Wi-Fi nodes to more than 40 per square mile to improve connectivity. And the company didn't require residents to buy or rent equipment to boost the signal indoors as necessary.
Then, in August, EarthLink announced it would cut 900 jobs, nearly half of its workforce, and reassess the business model for its municipal broadband projects.
"We will not devote any new capital to the old municipal Wi-Fi model that has us taking all the risks," Huff told analysts then. "In my judgment, that model is simply unworkable."
Earthlink pulled out of San Francisco's Wi-Fi project in August, and Chicago and Cincinnati abandoned their efforts about the same time. The company paid Houston $5 million for missing the starting deadline for that city's Wi-Fi project and was mulling whether to walk away.
The announcement on Friday puts in limbo the investment in Houston, which Richard Lewis, that city's chief information technology officer, estimated at $40 million to $50 million.
EarthLink agreed to foot the bill for Philadelphia's network, give free accounts to the city, lease spots from the city for its Wi-Fi nodes and subsidize Internet access for low-income residents.
The company's decision was "long overdue," Anthony Townsend, a research director at Silicon Valley think tank the Institute for the Future, said Friday.
"It was pretty clear that it was going to be a long road," he said. "It's a fragmented market. You're dealing with clients and governments that move slowly and are very risk averse. They really didn't have a lot of options, and it turned out to be a lot harder than they expected."
Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
Sony encourages outside PS3 game designers
TOKYO — Sony halved the fees it charges for a software development kit for the PlayStation 3 video game machine Monday to encourage outside designers to make more games for the struggling console.
Sony's gaming unit, Sony Computer Entertainment, said prices for the development package for the PlayStation 3 will be reduced to $10,250 in North America, 950,000 yen ($8,600; euro5,900) in Japan and euro7,500 ($11,250) in Europe.
The move follows the price cuts on the PS3 around the world that the company announced last month in an attempt to woo buyers.
Tokyo-based Sony will also strengthen backup support for making new games for the PS3 in an effort to make the machine more popular, it said in a statement.
Although its predecessor the PlayStation 2 dominated the gaming market, the PS3 has struggled against the hit Wii console, the rival offering from Nintendo, which makes Pokemon and Super Mario games.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Japan Microsoft Europe Tokyo Sony Xbox Nintendo Playstation Wii Playstation 2 Wiis
Boosting PS3 sales is crucial for Sony's overall business strategy because it also supports the Blu-ray disc next-generation video, which is vying with the rival HD-DVD format.
The Wii has succeeded in drawing people not usually accustomed to playing electronic games, including the elderly, by offering easier-to-play games that use a wandlike handheld device for the remote controller.
Sony has said that sales have improved since the price cuts on the machine in the U.S., Japan and Europe. The 80-gigabyte version PS3 now sells for about $499, down from $599.
There have been no price cuts on the Wii, which sells for about $249.99 in North America, euro249.00 ($370) in Europe and 25,000 yen ($230; euro160) in Japan.
It is generally more difficult and expensive to create games for sophisticated machines like the PS3, which is packed with cutting-edge technology and is driven by the powerful Cell chip. But machines won't sell unless there is a variety of games that can be played on them.
Game developers that had previously designed products for the PlayStation 2 are now increasingly making Wii versions of the games.
By October, Nintendo had shipped 13.2 million units worldwide of the Wii, which went on sale late last year. Nintendo is expecting to sell 17.5 million Wiis by the end of this fiscal year, or March 31, 2008.
Sony had sold 5.6 million PS3s worldwide as of the end of September, company spokesman Daisuke Nakata said. The console went on sale late last year in Japan and the U.S. and in March in Europe.
The PS3 has also lagged behind the Xbox 360 machine from U.S. software maker Microsoft. Microsoft has sold 13.4 million Xbox 360 consoles over the last two years.
Last month, Microsoft slashed Xbox 360 prices in Japan by about 13%. The 39,795 yen ($360; euro246) Xbox 360 now sells for 34,800 yen ($310; euro210).
Sony's price cuts have helped PS3 sales in recent weeks, raising hopes the machine may be catching up ahead of the critical holiday shopping season.
Japan sales of the PS3 beat the Wii for the first time in the week from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11, with 55,924 PS3 machines sold vs. 34,546 Wiis, according to Media Create Co., a Tokyo think-tank that tracks such numbers.
Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer said last week that U.S. PS3 sales more than doubled in the weeks after the price cut.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
Sony's gaming unit, Sony Computer Entertainment, said prices for the development package for the PlayStation 3 will be reduced to $10,250 in North America, 950,000 yen ($8,600; euro5,900) in Japan and euro7,500 ($11,250) in Europe.
The move follows the price cuts on the PS3 around the world that the company announced last month in an attempt to woo buyers.
Tokyo-based Sony will also strengthen backup support for making new games for the PS3 in an effort to make the machine more popular, it said in a statement.
Although its predecessor the PlayStation 2 dominated the gaming market, the PS3 has struggled against the hit Wii console, the rival offering from Nintendo, which makes Pokemon and Super Mario games.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Japan Microsoft Europe Tokyo Sony Xbox Nintendo Playstation Wii Playstation 2 Wiis
Boosting PS3 sales is crucial for Sony's overall business strategy because it also supports the Blu-ray disc next-generation video, which is vying with the rival HD-DVD format.
The Wii has succeeded in drawing people not usually accustomed to playing electronic games, including the elderly, by offering easier-to-play games that use a wandlike handheld device for the remote controller.
Sony has said that sales have improved since the price cuts on the machine in the U.S., Japan and Europe. The 80-gigabyte version PS3 now sells for about $499, down from $599.
There have been no price cuts on the Wii, which sells for about $249.99 in North America, euro249.00 ($370) in Europe and 25,000 yen ($230; euro160) in Japan.
It is generally more difficult and expensive to create games for sophisticated machines like the PS3, which is packed with cutting-edge technology and is driven by the powerful Cell chip. But machines won't sell unless there is a variety of games that can be played on them.
Game developers that had previously designed products for the PlayStation 2 are now increasingly making Wii versions of the games.
By October, Nintendo had shipped 13.2 million units worldwide of the Wii, which went on sale late last year. Nintendo is expecting to sell 17.5 million Wiis by the end of this fiscal year, or March 31, 2008.
Sony had sold 5.6 million PS3s worldwide as of the end of September, company spokesman Daisuke Nakata said. The console went on sale late last year in Japan and the U.S. and in March in Europe.
The PS3 has also lagged behind the Xbox 360 machine from U.S. software maker Microsoft. Microsoft has sold 13.4 million Xbox 360 consoles over the last two years.
Last month, Microsoft slashed Xbox 360 prices in Japan by about 13%. The 39,795 yen ($360; euro246) Xbox 360 now sells for 34,800 yen ($310; euro210).
Sony's price cuts have helped PS3 sales in recent weeks, raising hopes the machine may be catching up ahead of the critical holiday shopping season.
Japan sales of the PS3 beat the Wii for the first time in the week from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11, with 55,924 PS3 machines sold vs. 34,546 Wiis, according to Media Create Co., a Tokyo think-tank that tracks such numbers.
Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer said last week that U.S. PS3 sales more than doubled in the weeks after the price cut.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Wal-Mart gives online shoppers extra day for holiday deals
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) on Monday unveiled Thanksgiving holiday sales plans that focus heavily on its website to publicize its discount prices and kick off the extended holiday shopping weekend.
The world's largest retailer has said it would post online-only deals on the website on Thanksgiving, which can be purchased the same day.
On Monday, it revealed some of those deals. For example, it will offer a Zune 30 gigabyte MP3 video player for $98.87, which it says is about 25% off, and a Garmin Nuvi 650 Portable global positioning system for $298.87, a savings of more than 30%, it says.
Wal-Mart also said Monday that it will post special "secret" deals on its website on Thanksgiving Day that can then be purchased in stores on Friday — commonly referred to as "Black Friday," which kicks off the holiday shopping season.
Those "secret" deals are not published in its advertising circulars.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Reuters Monday IPTC Wal-Mart Stores Thanksgiving Shop
The online push comes as Wal-Mart works to incorporate its website more closely with its stores, and boost lagging sales in the United States.
This year, it rolled out a "Site to Store" program, which allows customers to order products on the website and have them shipped to a local Wal-Mart store for free. When the merchandise is picked up, Wal-Mart said customers wind up spending more money in the store.
In an interview earlier this month, Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez said that while overall U.S. online holiday sales this year are expected to rise about 20%, Walmart.com's sales should jump 40% to 60%.
The world's largest retailer has said it would post online-only deals on the website on Thanksgiving, which can be purchased the same day.
On Monday, it revealed some of those deals. For example, it will offer a Zune 30 gigabyte MP3 video player for $98.87, which it says is about 25% off, and a Garmin Nuvi 650 Portable global positioning system for $298.87, a savings of more than 30%, it says.
Wal-Mart also said Monday that it will post special "secret" deals on its website on Thanksgiving Day that can then be purchased in stores on Friday — commonly referred to as "Black Friday," which kicks off the holiday shopping season.
Those "secret" deals are not published in its advertising circulars.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Reuters Monday IPTC Wal-Mart Stores Thanksgiving Shop
The online push comes as Wal-Mart works to incorporate its website more closely with its stores, and boost lagging sales in the United States.
This year, it rolled out a "Site to Store" program, which allows customers to order products on the website and have them shipped to a local Wal-Mart store for free. When the merchandise is picked up, Wal-Mart said customers wind up spending more money in the store.
In an interview earlier this month, Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez said that while overall U.S. online holiday sales this year are expected to rise about 20%, Walmart.com's sales should jump 40% to 60%.
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