- A refresher from The Escapist on the cost/benefit of “boutique MMOGs”. Though by boutique, they really just mean “low budget.”
- Time Warner acquired a 10% stake in SCi Entertainment/Eidos, then inked a distribution deal with Codemasters. Oh big media, you do love your games.
- A Japanese economic website estimates that the Wii costs just $158 to produce. (I’m not aware of a fully-translated version of this article, sorry.)
- Burger King’s advergames have sold 2M copies. Given that they’re being sold for $4, that’s a pretty big win. Assuming a reasonable development cost, Burger King is advertising for free or even advertising at a profit. :-)
Hate to say it Dave, but that’s a PRC website, not Japanese. =p
Language aside, the tip off is the “.cn”
I leave the intelligent comments to those on vacation. ^_^
> Hate to say it Dave, but that’s a PRC website, not Japanese
Meh; the newsletter I pulled that from called it Japanese. Maybe it quotes a Japanese website or magazine? Engadget mentions a Japanese source, too.
Funny, I read ’boutique’ as ‘niche’. (Low budget may be a fact of life given the volume of a niche, but not necesarily).
This topic always results in muddled language. They clearly wanted to talk about ‘niche’, but they mentioned low-budget MMOGs that have audiences rivaling WoW. AT that point, we’re not talking about niche anymore. (Let’s avoid the religious discussion about whether WoW itself is ‘niche’ or not…)
PS. Aren’t you happy? I changed the spam-preventer just for you. ;)
I’m happy, Dave!
Thanks :)