Keep this in mind the next time you’re thinking about buying a used XBox, or from some other third-party. From “Microsoft disconnects Xbox gamers“:

Online reports suggest that as many as 600,000 gamers may have been affected.

Microsoft confirmed that it had banned a “small percentage” of the 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide.

Microsoft said that modifying an Xbox 360 console “violates” the service’s “terms of use” and would result in a player being disconnected.

“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft has said in a statement.

Continue reading this post…

You may have remembered a couple of blogs I wrote a while ago about “Corpware.”

I’ll be honest, I’ve been in the middle of writing a third and final post to wrap it up but it’s been left on the backburner for a while. An article just popped up that is sparking my interest again.

Rather than go all out like my other Corpware blog series, I’ll post real quick about this gem:

From “Activision: if we can’t run a game into the ground, we don’t want it“:

On a conference call, Activision Blizzard CEO was pretty open about his thought process. Unless he can beat a horse into tatters, he doesn’t want to ride it. MTV Multiplayer has the story:

Kotick responded not by addressing any of the games by name, but by talking about Activision’s publishing philosophy. The games Activision Blizzard didn’t pick up, he said, “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.”

So let’s say you have a great game with huge potential. Unless Kotick can release a Wii and DS port and then create a sequel every year, he just doesn’t care. That sounds like a recipe for success, don’t you think?

But wait, there’s more… Continue reading this post…

In my first post, I defined “Corporate-Ware (CorpWare)” as “a gaming product which seeks to extract as much profit as possible at the expense of effort or quality.” I illustrated this in my first post using sports games as an example: how you could churn out the same game every year and somehow still get money.

I ended the post with:

Guaranteed money? Milking a franchise? Cha-ching! Where else have we seen something like this….something sort of like updating the same game…

If you haven’t figured out from the title, I’m referring to expansion packs. In this post, I’ll use “The Sims” series as my target. Here’s a pretty funny picture showing all games related to the series (click for bigger version) which puts “Street Fighter 2″ to shame:

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I want to separate the concept of a “regular” expansion pack versus one released as CorpWare. Keeping in line with my previous post, I’ll use Pong as an example:

Continue reading this post…

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

From EA does Apple folk a Sim-ple kindness:

Electronic Arts reported the results of its recently concluded fourth quarter on Tuesday as rumors fluttered concerning a possible buyout by Apple. EA also discussed the progress of its digital-delivery efforts, which company executives say are entering a new phase.

I say, good riddance either way. I hope EA crashes and burns in eternal fire. Or I can at least hope EA will start churning out shitty Corporate-Ware (CorpWare) on Macs instead of PC.

“Corpware” is a new term I’m coining to describe EA’s business model and gaming practice. It also applies for other companies and games, but for now EA shall be the target of my fury, seeing as it serves as the best model.

As the most generic definition, CorpWare is a gaming product which seeks to extract as much profit as possible at the expense of effort or quality.

Example 1: Madden NFL/NBA Live/FIFA Soccer

Continue reading this post…

*only select items
**up to a maximum of

Circuit City Customers Say Deals Are Sparse

Hey look at that: even when liquidating, Circuit City is still a rip-off. Good riddance.

Re:  Trent Reznor writes, “…it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while.”

The word came with the announcement of a final tour with Jane’s Addiction, which also marks Nine Inch Nails’ 20th anniversary.  Goddamn, 20th anniversary?  Does that make anyone else feel old?  My sympathy goes out to Su, Mikane, Luis, and any other ‘cents’ devastated by this news

Anyway, some bloggers are rebounding this message as the end of NIN forever, but its hard to see that really happening.  NIN is so centered around Trent Reznor, that a future ‘reunion’ tour would be as easy as gathering any capable musicians willing to accompany him.  As long as Trent is around and willing to make music, some part of NIN is going to stick around.  Of course, this does unfortunately suggest at least a hiatus from the amazing live performances they are famous for.  You can read his full statement here.

Speaking of NIN, one of their former drummers Josh Freese  is taking a page out of Trent Reznor’s playbook to sell his new solo album.  NIN had an impressive bundling scheme for the “Ghosts” album ranging from a free download to a $300 “Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package” which included CDs, DVDs and a Vinyl signed by Mr. Reznor.  Josh Freese’s scheme is way more ridiculous, ranging from $7 download to a $75,000 package which includes:

-Signed CD/DVD and digital download
-T-shirt
-Go on tour with Josh for a few days.
-Have Josh write, record and release a 5 song EP about you and your life story.
-Take home any of his drumsets (only one but you can choose which one.)
-Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from TOOL’s Lamborgini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while.
-Josh will join your band for a month…play shows, record, party with groupies, etc….
-If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4 day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm)
-Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here)
-If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a US resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks.
-Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robin’s place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna.

LOL!  I wonder if he’ll get any takers on that last tier, but either way its pretty creative.  Has anyone ever had raw lasanga?  Josh is also the drummer for The Vandals and A Perfect Circle.  More about the prices here.

Now of course not all musicians could get away with pricing strategies like that, but this kind of creativity is what the music industry really needs.  In a world where downloads have dropped the marginal costs of production to zero, its got to find other ways to sustain itself.   For a guy who has been so critical of corporate music, Trent Reznor is a pretty brilliant business guy.  While some musicians were whining and alienating their potential fans by cuddling up with the RIAA, he was capturing consumer surplus by offering products that identify buyers by their level of curiosity or obsessive fandom.

Maybe NIN is going away and maybe they’ll be back, but there is definitely something the music biz can learn from what they’ve already left behind.

Also, speaking of music downloads, Version Big-Fi, the hosts of the Stop That Train podcast, offer their albums on their website at whatever price you want to pay.  The Presidents of the United States of America are offering their whole discography for only $3 on iTunes.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing more and more new pricing strategies soon.

This is pretty fun and addicting. I’ve gone through some brands that I already dislike and have found that others have really made my opinion pop out as well. Check out BrandTags. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Type in the first word(s) that come into mind when you see a brand logo and check out the popular tags for them.
Some of my favorites are:
Southwest Airlines = crappy, sucks, cheap
Yahoo = not Google

Yes, short post. I have no interwebz at home and was told that I need to start writing differently if I want to start posting on here regularly. So no pictures for you either. Even though I did want to do a screenshot of Jenny Craig. You can only imagine the types of things people are saying about that brand. I was nice, I tagged it “Kirstie Alley” and spelled her name correctly. I think. Hmm… care to play a little game and see what kind of brand image NineCents would have on there? I can only imagine the tags we’d get.

Language learning social network LiveMocha tweeted a survey to its followers today asking for feedback on paid services they might offer in the future.  They even asked if users would be willing to make a donation to keep the site running if they weren’t willing to pay for their services.  Should I take this as a sign that they are in trouble financially?  Continue reading this post…