January Housekeeping

Last month was surprisingly strong for the site. I was expecting a big dip from an excellent November and December, but it didn’t pan out that way. Let’s break it down.

– Traffic in January 2011 was up almost 50 percent from January 2010. Thanks for all the visits and comments! My Sony NGP stories performed really well, which is nice since that’s some of the best writing I’ve done for the site in months.

– Amazon sales held steady too. I was expecting a huge drop-off from the holiday shopping season. Thankfully two of you bought consoles in January. Ha! I can’t count on you guys and dolls to buy consoles every month, but I appreciate all the purchases you make through my site. With some luck, February won’t be too big a drop-off from January.

– February should kick off an interesting few months for the site. I’ll be attending DICE, GDC, and PAX East. I’m hoping to serve up some fun video content from these events. I’ll be telling you about my DICE interviews shortly. I have some cool people lined up and hope to confirm a few more this week.

– I was wondering how you guys get to the site. Do you just have it bookmarked? Do you use the site’s RSS feed to get updates? Maybe it’s a channel on your iGoogle page? Please let me know, as there are some things that I might tweak depending on your usage habits.

Coffee Talk #296: Where Do You Buy Your Music?

Google is holding a press conference today and one of the strong rumors is that it will finally reveal more details on Google Music. The company’s music service will differ from Amazon’s MP3 store and Apple iTunes in that…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, 20+ hours on an airplane in two days becoming a cold, where you’d go if you had a time machine, or your favorite element, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Google is holding a press conference today and one of the strong rumors is that it will finally reveal more details on Google Music. The company’s music service will differ from Amazon’s MP3 store and Apple iTunes in that it will store music on the cloud. Last year at Google I/O, the company showed some cool functionality that allowed you to stream music from your desktop to your phone; this could be part of the rumored service too.

The rumor made me wonder about your music purchasing habits? Where do you buy your music from? Do you still buy physical CDs from a store? Do you buy mostly through iTunes or Amazon (and really, you should buy all your MP3s from Amazon, *snicker*). Perhaps you don’t “buy” music at all and resort to…Captain Jack Sparrow behavior. Kindly take today’s Coffee Talk poll and let me know (please)!

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MLB The Show Trailer Has Me Psyched for Baseball

I can’t wait for baseball season to start. In a few weeks, pitchers and catchers will report to spring training. I just feel better about the world when MLB baseball is being played. This trailer for MLB 11 The Show has me even more psyched for this season. Yeah, my Yankees aren’t as stacked as they usually are, but hopefully a strong bullpen, some good defense, and a surprise fifth starter (Freddy Garcia, Mark Prior) will make the season awesome. At the very least, I’ll be able to trounce the league in MLB 11 The Show.

Who’s psyched for a new MLB season? Any takers for the RPad.tv Fantasy Baseball Invitational?

Farmers Insurance Pays $700 Million for LA NFL Stadium Rights

Football is definitely coming to Los Angeles. Do you know how I know this? Farmers Insurance has agreed to pay $700-million to have its name attached to a downtown Los Angeles football stadium. I wouldn’t expect an insurance company to dish out that kind of money for something that isn’t a sure thing. Here’s the word from The Examiner:

Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, it was announced that Farmers Insurance has agreed to be the naming sponsor for a football stadium in the downtown area of the city.

The deal is valued at $700 million over 30 years, starting with $20 million for the first year and gradually increasing over time. The proposed name of the stadium is Farmer’s Field.

The rumor is that part of the Los Angeles Convention Center will be destroyed to make room for the new stadium. My secret wish is that this will lead to E3 moving from LA to Las Vegas. The industry has grown up so much in the last five years. It needs to regress a bit…well, at least I want it to. Ha!

Source

Kinect Halo on the Way?

Microsoft has registered the domain name KinectHalo.com. So in addition to the rumors of the original Halo being remade with the Halo: Reach engine, there’s a chance that Halo will be retrofitted with Kinect controls. It’s exciting and scary all at once.

It’s exciting because millions of gamers love Halo and would be thrilled to play the game with revamped graphics. It’s scary because…well, I’m pretty sure that it would be impossible to play Kinect Halo without looking like a complete tool.

What do you make of Kinect Halo? Is it something that you’d be interested in? Do you think that the game would get more “hardcore” Xbox 360 players to buy Kinect?

Source via Gaming Reloaded

Infamous 2 Duality / Morality Trailer

The fine people at Sucker Punch have released a new Infamous 2 trailer and revealed more on the game’s duality/morality system. Here’s the word from Sucker Punch’s Ken Schramm:

Karma moments from InFamous are now represented by character-driven dialogue and 3D mocap cutscenes. Your conscience comes into play with the introduction of Kuo and Nix, two NPC characters. Kuo is a NSA agent working to help Cole defeat the Beast. Nix is a New Marais native that grew up in the swamps around New Marias, whose hatred for Bertrand stems from witnessing him kill her family. She is your hedonistic guide that coaxes Cole into not thinking about the consequences of his actions.

As with most Sucker Punch products, I’m looking forward to this game. That said, I still can’t stop thinking of The Three Amigos whenever I hear its name. Hmmmm, perhaps my next DCUO character will be named “InFamous El Guapo”.

If you have a chance, please check out the trailer and share your thoughts.

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Android Overtakes Symbian in Q4 2010…Kind Of

Tech nerds were going gaga over this Reuters story that proclaimed that Google (Android) has toppled Nokia (Symbian) as the leading seller of smartphones. Certainly the numbers can be interpreted that way, but it’s a bit of an apples-and-oranges comparison. First of all, Google doesn’t make smartphones; it makes a smartphone OS. Nokia actually sells and makes smartphones. This fact was later added to the article, but the headline is still misleading. Putting that important distinction aside, the numbers are still impressive:

In the fourth quarter, phonemakers sold 32.9 million Android-equipped phones globally, roughly seven times more than the year-earlier quarter, compared with Symbian’s sales of 31 million, according to Research firm Canalys.

Although Samsung and Sony Ericsson offer Symbian phones, the majority of Symbian smartphones are made by Nokia. Compare that to Google Android, which is used in a wide variety of smartphones from a wide variety of manufacturers. The business models are entirely different.

Android vs. Symbian is a boring fight. Depending on your point of view, Nokia is either confused or being glacial with its smartphone strategy. While the company still ships more phones than anyone else in the world, it looks like it will keep losing more and more ground in the immediate future. What’s more interesting — and a juicier topic to debate — is the Apple iOS vs. Google Android battle. Here’s more from Reuters:

The numbers also highlight Google’s success in battling Apple, whose shipments of its popular iPhone increased to 16.2 million from 8.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, when it almost doubled Android’s 4.7 million shipments.

Again, it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison since Apple makes the hardware and software for iPhone. However, there’s no denying that 2010 was a breakout year for Android. In my opinion, the Motorola Droid (released in late 2009) was the first Android phone that truly competed with the iPhone. From there, the Android market snowballed. With a variety of models from numerous manufacturers available on different networks, I knew that Android’s numbers would be gaudy, but I don’t recall anyone predicting that it would grow so much in a short amount of time.

I’m excited to see how 2011 pans out. The iPhone will be available on more carriers than ever before, but will that be enough to slow down Android’s growth? How do you think the smartphone market will play out in 2011? Are people making too big a deal about Android vs. iOS? Will HP WebOS and Microsoft Windows Phone 7 make an impact this year? Can RIM reinvigorate consumer BlackBerry sales with an updated OS? Gaze into your crystal ball and let me know (please)!

Source

Yvonne Strahovski Confirmed for The 3rd Birthday

In addition to announcing that The 3rd Birthday for PSP will be available on March 29, 2011, Square Enix confirmed that Yvonne Strahovski will be the voice of Aya Brea. This is exciting news on multiple levels. As you know, I’m incredibly psyched for the next chapter in the Parasite Eve saga. Strahovski is also hot. Here’s a clip from the press release:

Square Enix also revealed a celebrity voice cast for The 3rd Birthday, including Yvonne Strahovski of NBC’s Chuck as the voice of Aya Brea. “I was immediately interested when Square Enix approached me with the opportunity to play Aya Brea in The 3rd Birthday. I love Aya — she’s strong, driven and ready to take on the world,” said Yvonne Strahovski. “My goal was to bring all of her characteristics to life to really tell her story and create the best experience for all gamers.” Additionally, the mysterious Kyle Madigan is voiced by Jensen Ackles of the CW’s Supernatural. “The 3rd Birthday will pull players in immediately with its incredible graphics and character-driven story line,” said Jensen Ackles. “I felt like I was creating a movie.”

I bet you anything that those quotes are from the actors’ publicists and not the actors themselves. *snicker*

Seriously though, this is a great time to get excited for this game and look at pictures of Yvonne. Enjoy!

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Do You Care About Cloud Storage on Consoles?

Kotaku posted an interesting rumor that PlayStation Plus users will be able to store PS3 game saves on the cloud. Saves would be tied to a PSN account, allowing users to access saves from various consoles. Assuming there will be games that work across the PS3 and the upcoming NGP handheld, this would allow gamers to access save files from different platforms too.

Storing game saves on the cloud would be useful on several levels. Obviously it would help gamers save some hard drive space. It also ensures that save information will remain even if a hard drive dies. Gamers that play on multiple consoles (perhaps their own and a friend’s) would have an easy way to access their save information. Lastly, it encourages developers to work on games that are compatible with the PS3 and NGP. Being able to start a game on a PS3, save, and continue on an NGP (and vice versa) would be a powerful feature.

While I find this rumored feature fascinating, I wanted to get your thoughts on the matter. Do you ladies and gents care about cloud storage on consoles? Is this a feature you want in the immediate future? Or is it just a curiosity to you?