- Virgin Radio (UK) is streaming music to PS3 and Wii consoles via a Flash applet that can be accessed via the console web browsers.
- The Chinese government has formalized rules around “anti-addiction” restrictions in MMOGs. Playtime of more than three hours a day must be discouraged with gameplay penalties, and players must register their real identities to play at all. Unrelatedly: EA may or may not have bought 19% of Chinese MMOG operator, The9.
- Interesting stats about Amp’d mobile subscribers. In particular: “original content accounts for only 5% of all Amp’d Live content offerings but 30% of the overall downloads.” Original content does well on XBLA, too. 🙂
- Wired.com’s Chris Kohler complains about control issues in Wii games. This is something that I’ve worried about since last year’s E3 (before I joined Microsoft, btw). I’m still willing to chalk this up to “expectable developer ramp-up issues.” In a year from now, if these complaints are still frequent, my outlook for Nintendo will be more gloomy. And such an outcome would be bad for everybody in the long-term (since it would be mis-interpreted as “proof” that a novel controller is a “short-term gimmick.”)
- Note to Intel, and all marketers: don’t waste money advertising in Second Life (or any virtual environment) if you don’t understand that environment’s limitations.
- A controversial report concludes that, of the most popular YouTube videos, less than 10% were pulled for copyright violation (accounting for just 6% of views.) Interestingly, “the bulk of views to removed videos consisted of music videos and short clips from comedy sketches and unique sporting events.”
- The first episode of the new season of South Park is available in HD in Marketplace — the first time major TV show content is available in this format via Xbox before it is available anywhere else.
- A huge federal study concludes that current educational software has no impact on student performance. IMO, it’s time to stop deploying uninspired “learning tools” and start focusing on novel edutainment experiences that inspire children to learn more, on their own time, after they stop playing the game.
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