• OnLive games service ‘will work’ - Founder Steve Perlman defends the service against an onslaught of recent criticism, citing a revolutionary video compression algorithm and a large lineup of publisher partners that have performed their due diligence.

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• GDC Notes: Advanced Data Mining and Intelligence from Large-Scale Game Data - Orbus Gamework's Darius Kazemi kept notes during Bruce Ferguson (SOE) and Dmitri Williams of (USC) session.
• Stardock’s Impulse Exceeds One Million Customers - It took Stardock onlu 9 months to reach a million users.
• Sony Doubts OnLive Approach - Sony wonders how multiple users in the same household will be able to play games on average home broadband connections.
• Sony trademarks ‘PS Cloud’ - My take is it has nothing to do with competing with OnLive's streaming gaming service. It's merely a cloud data storage repository.
• EA Rebels Against its own DRM - EA's new de-authorization management tool lets users remove a license from a specific machine, so they can use one on another machine without uninstalling the whole game.

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• Bigfoot Networks launches second-generation gaming network card - Is lag still really an issue for a lot of gamers these days?
• Solid State Launches Current Publishers’ Edition For Windows - Their Solid Axis Current Publisher Edition is a stand-alone plug-and-play patching solution for Windows games aimed at reducing the cost of delivering updates without implementing any custom coding or programming.
• New OnLive service could turn the video game world upside down - Steve Perlan’s new service allows you to offset your entire game logic onto a centralized set of online servers, effectively making the connecting system a thin client just in charge of rendering the output.
• XI Has Begun! - Sony launches an Alternate Reality Game from within PlayStation Home.
• GDC 2009: World of Goo creators call DRM a ‘waste of time’ - Ron Carmel recommending ditching digital rigjts management completely, stating especially indie developers don’t need DRM to stay afloat.
• Digital River And Playxpert Sign Joint Marketing Agreement - Their agreement allows both to “offer game publishers, resellers and studios a way to engage players of PC-based games in a branded in-game experience that integrates e-commerce with their online communities”.
• Microtransactions, Not Ads, To Have Highest Impact On Game Industry - 66% of respondents at the Venture Beat GamesBeat ‘09 event expect microtransactions to have a high impact on the games industry’s future.

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• GameSpy Technology on Twitter - The middleware tools and services group for connected gaming where I work now has a dedicated Twitter account.
• It’s personal: many gamers prefer local multiplayer to online - According to a dozen of their ‘fellow insiders and enthusiast gamers’ Ars Technica thinks gaming with your friends in the same room together is the ideal way to enjoy multiplayer.
• Sparkle: The iPhone Gets Its First Virtual World - Tokyo-based Genkii’s Sparkle is a virtual 3D world with its own economy, customizable personal spaces and avatars, social networking functions and virtual goods.
• ngmoco discusses DLC plans for LiveFire, Touch Pets - “With In-app Commerce, it’s important to point out that although it will be possible to purchase content and/or features directly within a game, ngmoco will always give the highest priority to game balance and the integrity of the core experiences of our games.” says ngmoco’s Chris Plummer.
• Ubisoft signs deal with Quazal - The ‘enterprise license’ adds long-term services and a consulting agreement to their standard online middleware tech.
• 30 percent of online gamers reportedly buy gold - It’s an anonymous, second hand figure though. Visit the Eurogamer story linked for further analysis on gold trading.

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• MindArk receives real world banking license - The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority has granted a license to ‘conduct banking activities’ in MindArk’s virtual world Entropia Universe.
• Far Cry 2 DLC on Steam, $4.99 - The second batch of content for a game to be released as premium downloadable content launches on Steam in the form of a pack of levels/vehicles and weapons.
• Gaming social network site Raptr redesigns -
• Sony Now Charging Publishers For PS3 Downloadable Content, An Unpopular Policy Shift - For the first 60 days of a release, publishers are being charged 16 cents per gigabyte for PlayStation Store distributed free content. Microsoft on the other hand don’t charge for similar service.
• Fun with Sony Home Numbers : Ozymandias - Microsoft’s Andre Vrignaud wants to know details about Sony’s recent 4 million / 55 minute PlaySation Home figures.

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• Blizzard Launches New Battle.Net - Not a lot of talk about new features, but the news account management web site links all previous Blizzard title logins together in anticipation of Diablo III and Starcraft II.
• PlayStation Home is a Sticky Business - Per Senior Marketing VP Peter Dille, the average Home session is 55 minutes long. How much of that time is spent waiting for new content areas to load?

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• iPhone Games Get DLC, Microtransactions, More Multiplayer - EA’s The Sims 3 and ngmoco’s Touch Pets will be among the first iPhone games to use it.
• Exit Games launches new multiplayer engine - Available on PC, Mac, browser, iPhone and Android devices, Photon is claimed to be the ‘market’s fastest multiplayer engine’. Whatever that actually means. Fast multiplayer?
• Capcom on RE5 DLC complaints: offering more is not cheating - Ars Technica - The publisher justifies their decision to charge $5 for their versus multiplayer mode.
• OnNet To Allow Players To Earn Microtransaction Currency In-Game In Manga Fighter - If you can get players to stuck around for a while first, you can try and extract real money later.
• Players use Third Party Applications to Unlock Achievements & get In-Game Items in TF2 - Valve thwarted the attempts and PlayNoEvil speculates on what happened.
• ARPU vs ARPPU - Raph Koster on the distinction between average revenue per used and paying user.
• Virtual Goods at SXSW: Hi5 Launching Currency API, OutSpark Reports $50 ARPU -

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• Microsoft Settles Online Gaming Patent Suit - Both parties resolved their $90 million dispute in an ‘amicable agreement’, with no details discussed.
• Epic China Adds Atlas MMO Solution To Unreal Engine 3 -
• Steam offers gamers in-game downloadable content - Twisted Pixel’s The Maw is the first title to offer DLC via the new Steam feature.

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• Greystripe raises $5.5M for mobile ads - Incubic Venture Capital, Steamboat Ventures and Monitor Ventures provide the latest funding for this ad provider for mobiles game.
• SOE Introducing LiveGamer RMT Service To Vanguard - The purchasing and selling of items against real money will be built straight into the game, but not be a part of Sony Online Entertainment’s own SationCash service.
• EA Tests New Virtual Goods Model In BattleForge Open Beta - Their full priced MMORTS will carry no subscription fee, but monetize its post-launch support through booster packs. And to sweeten the deal, players get some free virtual currency with the game (the first one’s free, kid).
• Only Virtual Goods Will Pay for Community Features -
• New Gears of War 2 experience system due 3/24 - Epic draw focus away from Microsoft’s TrueSkill system and introduce a leveling system for multiplayer matches as the public face of player’s success. Were gamers not understanding the TrueSkill value?
• Peggle on Live: multiplayer adds new level to the addiction - Multiplayer modes can add a new Twist to even the simplest of casual gameplay mechanics.

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• Independent MMO Game Developers Conference 3.0 - If you needed an excuse to go to Vegas on April 12th - 15th, IMGDC is a venue for Independent game developers to come together to share ideas and learn in all areas related to MMOGs, virtual worlds, and online games.
• Struggling in-game ad firm IGA Worldwide seeks investments or possible sale - Hit by the recession, IGA’s chairman Justin Townsend is seeking a third round of funding within weeks or may explore the option of a sale of the company.

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