Pag on Games

Gamespot reports on a presentation by venture capitalists Stewart Alsop and Gilman Louie in which they discuss the “next billion-dollar opportunity in gaming“. Their point of view is that the next big thing in gaming is a better usage of the internet and a development model closer to TV than to movie-making.
It seems these venture capitalists believe gaming needs more creativity:

“It fundamentally revolves around new gameplay,” Louie said in closing. “Without new gameplay, shinier and shinier graphics will reduce and evaporate larger and larger amounts of shareholder value.”

An interesting interview with Kathleen Gasperini, a marketer specializing in understanding youth culture. Her expertise makes her understand very well people 13 to 25 years old — still the core market for videogames. From the article:

A 15-year-old today in North America, for example, is much different than a 15-year-old was five years ago. […] They don’t just expect control of their entertainment, they create it themselves. Very DIY culture.

Not about videogames per se, but insightful nevertheless.

Atari’s having terrible financial problems. Bruno Bonnell, CEO and Chief Creative Officer was quoted as saying (emphasis mine):

The Atari brand has stood for innovation and pioneering spirit for more than 30 years. As Atari executes on its strategic objectives, we must recapture what made Atari an iconic brand. During fiscal 2007, we will focus our efforts on established franchises, new major motion picture licensed IP with significant marketing campaigns, online products and titles for portable devices.

“Innovation” and “pioneering spirit” — you keep using these words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

(via Intelligent Artifice)

Looking for an affordable image editor? Pixel is a new piece of software — still in beta — that’s very similar to Photoshop. While not quite as fast and as complete as Adobe’s flagship product, it seems pretty complete. There’s a free demo and the full version is only 32$. Worth a look.