The Guitar Hero franchise has taught us many things. First being that the millions of people dream of living the life of a rock star, standing on stage and belting out tunes to screaming fans. Second great graphics are not all that is needed to sell games. Third people will buy special peripherals. Over at Achievement Junkie Nelson has been on his soap box preaching the wonders of light gun games for months. In Podcasts and in blog posts he relentlessly tries to rally gamers, developers, and publishers to bring light gun games to this new generation gaming consoles.

Peripherals almost seem like second nature for some gaming genres. There always seem to be driving wheels and petals for almost every console and PC ever made, but many other genres seem to have a very hard time getting acceptance of additional hardware to enhance the gaming experience. PS2 had some flight custom flight controls for Ace Combat 5 and PC games have very elaborate flight controls. Where are these custom controls for flight games on the XBox 360, and Playstation 3? The Nintendo Wii seems to be doing its own thing with plastic snap on devices that assist the user in utilizing the Wiimote. But I would gladly pay for a specific Wiimote that looked and felt like a golf club grip so that I could play Tiger Woods or any golf game for the Wii.

Gamers are not just kids anymore, many adult gamers will not think twice about dropping $80 - $100 for a nice driving wheel, guitars, or dance pads or other accessories. Showing there is definitely a market for add on peripherals as long as they are useful and high quality.

I hope manufactures take note of the success of dance pads, microphones, guitars, and steering wheels and try new ideas to make game play even more immersive in the future.

List of top selling games in Europe for the week ending 2 June 2007.

1    PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END
2    TOMB RAIDER: ANNIVERSARY
3    SPIDER-MAN 3
4    MARIO STRIKERS CHARGED FOOTBALL
5    COMMAND & CONQUER 3: TIBERIUM WARS
6    SHADOWRUN
7    TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 07
8    FIFA 07
9    SPONGEBOB & FRIENDS: VOLCANO ISLAND
10    POKEMON RANGER
11    NEED FOR SPEED: CARBON
12    TMNT: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
13    NEW SUPER MARIO BROS.
14    PONY FRIENDS
15    THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION
16    VIRTUA TENNIS 3
17    SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS
18    FINAL FANTASY III
19    BRIAN LARA INTERNATIONAL CRICKET 2007
20    GUITAR HERO II

Via Press Release

Everyone get your TIVO’s or any other DVR (I sure hope none of you are still using a VCR, but if you are set that) set for CNN’s Virtual Worlds. Virtual worlds have enabled breathtaking vistas on movie screens, heart-pounding action in computer games, bought millions of people together and transformed the way we communicate with each other. Broadcast from Stanford University and Singapore, the latest ‘CNN Future Summit’ program gets to the heart of these remarkable developments with the biggest global players leading this digital revolution.

CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout hosts the hour-long program, looking at the blurring lines between reality and imagination and how these technological developments are shaping our communities and the lives of our children. Distinguished panelists include the founders of Wikipedia, Second Life, Flickr and EA in addition to renowned academics and psychologists who together form a vision of our future, today.

And what will this future look like? The ability to always be in touch with friends and family will be greatly enhanced when we’re able to see each other in absolute clarity, anywhere, anytime. We’ll find ourselves living, shopping and working more and more inside online worlds. And in the future, you won’t be sitting on your couch being passively entertained. Films will become more interactive and more immersive, while games will become more cinematic and realistic. Indeed the program itself also utilizes many cutting edge techniques used in modern film and television production in order to capture the fascinating future of virtual worlds.

‘CNN Future Summit’ is a two-year multi-media program produced in association with the Singapore Tourist Board (STB), which aims to stimulate global discussion. Through www.cnn.com/futuresummit, viewers around the world are invited to explore the views and interactive with the remarkable list of leading explorers, scientists, philosophers, designers, entrepreneurs, futurists, authors, and journalists.

‘CNN Future Summit’ can be seen on Wednesday 13th June at 1500 BST / 1600 CET, Saturday 16th June and Sunday 17th June at 2000 BST / 2100 CET.

Via Press Release

BXB’s 2007 Community Day will be taking place on Friday August 31st at Willoughby near Rugby in Warwickshire just a few miles away from J17 of the M1 and will begin at 9:30am and run until 4:30pm. The event is the chance to have a go at the latest war simulation as well as putting faces to the names of people in the community you visit every day.

The day will cost £49.99, which includes a £10 discount on the full price and for your money you’ll get a whole day of combat action without any of the hidden costs of paint ball or the bruises.

Michael Rossell, Editor and Events Manager said: “So, I bet you’re asking why there aren’t any Xbox 360s at this event? Well, to be honest, we got fed up of lugging massive TVs around; getting funny looks from attractive female sports students and decided to do something a bit more exciting than camping out in a darkened room for 11 hours.

“Warfighters is a great experience. I was lucky enough to go to the recent Ubisoft GRAW 2 press day at Warfighters and was treated to a short taster of what it’s like and I’ve got to say I really enjoyed it.

“The idea behind this Community Event is that it’s like one of those annoying “Team Building” days you get sent on with your job except it’s more exciting because you actually want to spend time with the people you’ll be going with. It’s a chance to put a face to the voice of your best Xbox Live buddy and secure ultimate bragging rights by shooting them in a very realistic combat scenario.”

Dave Thatcher, from Warfighters said: “Prepare for a challenging day of GRAW like missions and team objectives that will test your online gaming skills in the real world to the max!”

Location: http://www.warfighters.eu/locations.asp

Warfighters FAQ: http://www.warfighters.eu/warfighters_info_centre.asp#q14

 

In the year to March 2007, consumers spent £83mn on mobile games, compared to £76mn on ringtones and just £23mn on music. GfK M²’s figures reveal that the mobile gaming market is worth nearly four times the current market value of full music tracks, and eight times the current video download market. 

Mobile Network Operators are dominating the market, with nearly 90% of games in the last year sold through this channel. Furthermore, the top 10 games account for a third of the total revenue of the mobile gaming market and just three games published in the last year accounted for 60% of total sales of games, according to GfK M²’s research. 

UK ANNUAL £ SPENDING ON

 Segment - Value1. Games £83m2. Ringtones £76m3. Music £23m4. Video £11m5. Wallpapers £10m 

Aaron Rattue, Business Group Director GfK M² said “A year ago there was less activity in the mobile gaming market as well as poor phone functionality, limited game offerings and perceived high prices. In the last year mobile gaming has really taken off and now leads the mobile content market in terms of the amount of money consumers are spending. Clearly, gamers are happy to pay to download, with half of all the games downloaded to a mobile phone in the last year costing £5 or more.” 

Via Press Release