Blog Report: November 4th

Official U.S. Playstation Blog
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Celebrates Halloween with a Title Update and a Double Cash Weekend
Arne Meyer // Senior Manager of Marketing Communications, Naughty Dog
October 30th, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/uncharted-2-among-thieves-celebrates-halloween-with-a-title-update-and-a-double-cash-weekend/

Uncharted 2 has been on-sale since the 13th of October and with its positive reception, the community is currently thriving. Games are not always shipped to perfection and one good thing about the level of connectivity our consoles feature is that updates are relatively simple. Naughty Dog, the developer of Uncharted 2, has recently released an update to fix a few issues in the game. But, to take advantage of the upcoming Holiday, Developers are offering a bonus with this update. If you play the uncharted 2 multiplayer between October 30th and November 2nd, players will earn double the cash they normally would in multiplayer events. Also, cash is a determinate of Level, so more cash goes to increase your level, as well as provide funds to purchase the numerous things in the store. Also, the multiplayer battles will be infected with skeleton heroes and zombie villains all through Halloween. It is a great idea and excellent PR for their company. They are essentially providing early adopters extra content for free, as well as creating an incentive, to participate in the community. Naughty Dog employees will also be roaming around the game online, so users should watch out for the “red paws” next to gamertags. You may have the pleasure of dying at the hands of one of Uncharted 2’s creators. It is good to see active communities holding events and celebrating something the all enjoy.

Set on Stun
Rise of the Peripherals — Gaming Gadgets Galore for Serious Niche Marketing
Shawn Deena
October 29th, 2009
http://setonstun.com/2009/10/rise-of-the-perpherials-gaming-gadgets-galore-for-serious-niche-marketing/

Through the many generations of video game hardware, peripherals have been a major part of the market. Initially, peripherals were designed out of necessity for an input device, but have since changed to find unique ways to immerse users in the games. Let’s face facts though, not every peripheral was designed to immerse gamers and not every peripheral was a success. Our generation is no different since the fruition of the rhythm game had taken place. Now, living rooms across the world are full of plastic guitars, fake drum kits and microphones. But with the success of these, Activision would only find ways to increase this niche markets profitability. Starting this month and heading into next year Activision, Nintendo and Ubisoft are all planning on releases new peripherals. First, an expansion of the Rhythm genre with DJ Hero, a turntable based rhythm game. After that, a new way of skate boarding through your living room with Tony Hawk Ride. Nintendo, finally decides to release more software for the Wii Balance Board, but they too see more in the niche market of fitness gaming and plan to release a new peripheral with the Wii Vitality Sensor. What it does, well no one really knows, but it is certainly a unique venture into the market. It may be a dangerous gamble on some of these peripherals, since the economy is still down, how many $100+ games are people going to be able to buy. This doesn’t even account for the new James Cameron production Avatar, whose game, like the movie, will be playable in 3D. Of course to support that, you will need to buy a HD TV (and I think it needs to run at 120 hz.) which will most likely cost you an excess of $1,000.