Right About Lively: A couple of months ago when Google launched Lively, their Second Life competitor, I speculated that they had gone outside the reach of their core business competencies. Most people did not agree with me. Turns out I was right. Google is closing down Lively next month.
PC Mag Closes: On a sadder note, PC Magazine is closing down the print aspect of their business. Call me soft, but I still feel nostalgic about magazines even though I rarely read them any more. Those of you that read MBG, know that magazines were an early source of knowledge for me, acting kind of as a dead tree, analog Internet before the real internet came along. PC Magazine, 27 years old, launched when the PC first came out. Within months it became is thick as a catalog, and I would read it cover to cover. Now, I can’t remember the last time I read a PC Mag, but it has been a long time. Still, I’m feeling a little sense of loss, kind of like then Bill Gates retired.
Corporate Speak: Ever notice that when a publisher loses money, like the recent loss reported by THQ, that the President of the company always say they will focus on:
“fewer, higher-quality games.”
Or they will be:
“Significantly improving our game quality against the core gamer”
While:
“aggressively aligning our cost to the market opportunity.”
And lastly, passing the blame:
“given the current economic environment.”
Seems to me they should have been doing all of that stuff all along. Does focusing on fewer higher quality games mean they were purposely making more, crappy quality games?
-Jeff Tunnell, Game Maker
Make It Big In Games