So most of you know by now that I’m a huge dork. Some of you don’t. For those of you skeptical, I’ll prove it. I made personal business cards that look like an NES controller for fun. I mostly give these out when I attend gaming conventions or computer game events, but also to friends.

I made these because I wanted to come up with a creative and memorable business card that everybody could appreciate. What do you think?

This holiday season was shaping up to be an epic lineup of intense AAA titles. Within the past few weeks, many of those titles have been pushed back to early next year, many still within the 2009 fiscal year for publishers, but in the 2010 calendar year. Though the general statement given is “we need a little more time to finalize the game”, this also may help many titles increase their sales by splitting the field in two. Here are some of the games that have already been delayed until 2010:

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Bioshock 2

MAG

Bayonetta

Red Steel 2

“Project Natal” was announced on Monday at Xbox 360′s E3 Press Briefing. For those unfamiliar, Natal is a camera peripheral with motion sensing capabilities, depth perception and programming with facial and voice recognition. However, Natal isn’t just a game peripheral – it’s a game changer. Natal cannot, and should not be limited to games either. The great thing about Natal is it has the potential to truly revolutionize the living room experience, far beyond allowing you to play your favorite racing games without a wheel or playing Halo without a gun.* The vision for Natal can be about creating an entirely new experience for consumers, allowing them to manage all types of media and content.
*I would not be excited about either experience. In my opinion, driving needs a wheel, and FPS games need a controller, content and graphics, not a gimmick.
Full disclosure: For those that do not know, I work for Xbox 360. The views and opinions I represent are absolutely not views and opinions of Microsoft or Xbox 360. Additionally,  I’m biased here. So just take these as caveats.

First off, depending upon the precision of the camera, the whole Minority Report-esque ability to flip through programs easily and seamlessly could allow users to easily and quickly browse through music libraries (Zune?) and DVD libraries (Zune HD, Netflix?). Not to mention, innovative use of voice recognition could allow you to say “Play The Beatles” and have it start your music library immediately.* But that’s not even a fraction of the implications that Natal has.
*Alternatively I suppose it could start The Beatles: Rock Band I suppose

One of the most intriguing uses of Natal is Milo – a virtual human that can interact with the user and recognize verbal and emotional cues. Not only that, but in the demonstration, you can give Milo a sheet of paper that gets scanned through the camera’s interface. Milo was created by Lionhead Studios, the creators of Black & White and Fable. Peter Molyneux, founder of Lionhead Studios and a lead designer for Project Natal has had plenty of experience developing worlds that truly interact with a user and environments that change based on user input. Imagine beyond just creating an RPG-type game using this virtual human. Imagine Milo as a French or Spanish tutor that you could spend hours with a day learning a language. Or, imagine this tool as a babysitter that can interact with children and play games while a parent is away. Yes it’s futuristic, and might be a little creepy, but you cannot deny the potential.

One thing I learned recently is that Johnny Chung Lee is involved with Natal. Famous for his research work in creating some incredible uses for the Wiimote, he has the type of innovative and creative mindset that could be perfect for realizing Natal’s potential. In his blog, he said: “We would all love to one day have our own personal holodeck. This is a pretty measurable step in that direction.” That should give you an idea of the breadth and ambition that the team is going for.

For Project Natal to reach its potential; for Natal to succeed, it needs to be much more than a gaming experience. For a project that was described by lee as exceeding “anything that I’ve seen in academic research, never mind a consumer project” and as a “miniature ‘Manhattan project’”, it would be a disservice to the technology for it to remain solely a gaming product. I hope that the joint knowledge and expertise of the Xbox, Zune and Windows teams can put their heads together to provide the best living room experience possible.

I missed last week’s update, so here is the past two weeks’ Tweetstream links.

Category	Site	Description
Gaming	http://bit.ly/bEenu	Tiger Woods PGA Tour iPhone review
Gaming	http://bit.ly/p7BIn	Mass Effect 2 teaser video
Gaming	http://bit.ly/pjH3B	inFAMOUS comic-style marketing campaign on IGN
Gaming	http://bit.ly/17QPkW	Lionhead Studios to present at Microsoft's E3 presentation
Gaming	http://bit.ly/13RcTF	Team Fortress 2: Meet the Spy
Gaming	http://bit.ly/f7iIH	Duke Nukem Forever's development team canned
Gaming	http://bit.ly/envQQ	E3 Floor Plans
Gaming	http://bit.ly/37ovm	PopCap VP heads to Blizzard
Gaming	http://bit.ly/1aw8sO	Trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Gaming	http://bit.ly/XYi38	Natural Selection 2 trailer
Gaming	http://bit.ly/1aBrqq	Dell exits the gaming scene
Gaming	http://bit.ly/W3nZN	Leaked videos for Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction
Technology	http://bit.ly/11ybwv	Apple considering enabling background apps on iPhone
Technology	http://bit.ly/iJTNY	You can close apps in Windows 7 with Mouse3
Technology	http://bit.ly/tNvbn	Google Wave preview - revolutionary or just cool?
Technology	http://appft.com	There's an app for that - very funny Apple parody website
Technology	http://bit.ly/4Ri5M	Google automatic email message translation
Technology	http://bit.ly/18xIHd	Fans trying to bring back Polaroid film
Technology	http://bit.ly/169McC	Zune HD official announcement
Technology	http://bit.ly/Uvb8n	Microsoft Bing hands-on
Analysis	http://bit.ly/11BpEL	Master your own social media data flow
Analysis	http://bit.ly/19AJOe	Randy Johnson has won 249 games since turning THIRTY years old
Miscellaneous	http://bit.ly/1PD46	Danger Mouse's new album will be released entirely online (through torrents)
Miscellaneous	http://bit.ly/XZtTn	RunPee website tells you when to pee during movies
Miscellaneous	http://bit.ly/1as8iH	A mug for pessimists
Miscellaneous	http://bit.ly/kOPpj	Watch MST3000 24/7 at Justin.tv
Miscellaneous	http://bit.ly/FpIxG	Former employees' recycled business cards

Technorati Profile

Here are some caveats for this list: This list was made purely from blind hope. None of these are confirmed, and many of the rumors may be wildly far-fetched. That said, these are things that would be great for gamers and would make me extremely happy. I’ve separated it into two categories: The Big 3 (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) and Games. I’ve inserted links to the stories/rumors for each.

The Big Three

1. Price drop for PS3 to $299
2. Xbox 360/Zune hybrid will be released as a gaming device and MP3 player to battle the iPhone
3. Hideo Kojima’s next project will be exclusive to Xbox 360
4. A full body motion camera for the Xbox 360 will be released this year
5. A motion sensing controller will be released for the Playstation 3

Games

1. Final Fantasy XIII will be released during Holiday 2009
2. Diablo III will be released within the year, as well as Starcraft 2 (now you know I’m just plain hoping)
3. Alan Wake will be released during Holiday 2009
4. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be released for Xbox 360
5. A new team has been put together for Duke Nukem Forever

What rumors are you waiting for at E3 2009?

Here are some of the links I wanted to save from this past week’s Tweetstream.

Over the past couple of years, gaming in America has reached a pivotal point in its life cycle. The gaming industry is currently caught between the new gaming adopters and those that have played for years, not quite mainstream, but no longer something to be shy about. Though it gives developers access to a much larger audience, it makes for an interesting catch-22: how do you create games that are easy enough for the newest (or casual) gamers, but hard enough to challenge the core gamers?

Game developers have approached this problem in a number of different ways to date. With difficulty settings, a game’s “Easy” mode can be adjusted – for example, in Street Fighter IV you can beat the game on easy mode by solely using high kicks. Though it might be a good stop-gap measure, it’s also an approach best paired with other techniques.

So what’s the best way to appeal to both core and casual gamers? I’ve come up with 3 broad-stroke solutions that have had success so far this console generation:

1- Even the playing field. Using a new control scheme or gameplay mechanism (see: Guitar Hero, Wii controls). By creating an entirely new control scheme, it evens the playing field for all gamers (at least at the beginning). It also adds the factor of newness and new game formats and styles (if publicized well) have had great success. It should be noted that of late, titles that have tried to capitalize on the success of music titles have flopped (see: Lips), but that may be based on quality more than the mechanism.

2- Simplify gameplay. Make the actual gameplay (and controls) simpler, while keeping a premium on intellectual puzzle solving (ex: Braid, Lego Indiana Jones). When you simplify a game to only a few buttons, it can either make the game far too easy, or it forces you to challenge your user intellectually. Using logic as opposed to reflexes or button control allows users of all kinds the ability to compete at the hardest difficulty.

3- Keep it old school. Continue to use and abuse tried-and-true intellectual properties like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario (ex: Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros). It helps that both games simplify gameplay and use the Wii control scheme, but a big reason for the Wii’s success have been due to the success of big IP games such as Mario. There have been very few exclusive titles for the Wii that didn’t involve a very popular long-standing IP (though one of those titles is Wii Fit).

These are just three techniques that seem to work well in the current market, but when you think about it, even the most popular game on any platform is only purchased by ~25% of the gaming population (except for Halo 3). It shows that there is tremendous room for expansion for games if they are truly able to hit a large demographic.

Ryu's Ultimate Combo

It is extremely difficult to convince a customer to use a product, let alone to be a brand ambassador for it. It’s a process that takes time, money and forces the product’s creator to often forego revenue with no guarantee that you’ll ever make that money back. However, if you’re in it for the long run, the benefits of brand loyalty will far outweigh your losses in the short term.

Though there are countless examples, let’s take a look at the gaming world for a case study. Recently Capcom released a downloadable game add-on for the game Resident Evil 5. Less than 2MB of content was actually downloaded to disk, yet it cost $5. The small download led to speculation that the downloadable content (DLC) was just a key to unlock what was already on the disc. That, in turn, brought up discussion of whether gamers should be entitled to everything on a game disc or not. Ben Fritz from The Cut Scene believes it is “a rather ridiculous attitude of entitlement that gamers need to lose“.

I think this is exactly the problem at hand. Even if it comes from a selfish sense of entitlement, why are we looking to blame gamers? For developers, the added benefit of appeasing gamers should offset the monetary reward and knowledge that you’ve incensed a community of users who have already spent $60 on your product. Two biggest software developers, Blizzard and Valve, are well known for their product support. In fact, there have been nearly 100 updates for Team Fortress 2 since launch. And Left 4 Dead is coming out with a big multiplayer update within the next month. The best news? None of these updates cost a cent after the original purchase. Blizzard still supports Diablo II, a game that’s coming up on 10 years old.

Resident Evil 5 is a title that has shipped 4 million units since launch, but some of its biggest fans are turning sour on the franchise. With a little more attention to customers and a little less focus on the short-term bottom line, this might not have happened. Right now there is a turning point in the industry, where game developers are supporting games more than ever, but some choose to do it for free (often PC developers), while others do it by offering game add-ons and paid downloadable content. If you have the ability and opportunity to build brand loyalty and create uberfans and brand loyalists for your product, why not forego extra profit in order to create long-lasting relationships with your customers? Yes, it’s a scary thought, but if you’re in it for the long haul, isn’t it worth it to your brand? When a map pack is a $4.99 purchase, and a game is $59.99, wouldn’t you rather have an extra 200K people buying your next title at launch than an extra 1M people downloading your PDLC? Software developers need to look at the long run. It’s time to stop nickel-and-diming consumers and to give them what they want. Not only does releasing additional content for free make ethical sense, but five years down the line, shareholders will appreciate it too.

Since the launch of the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, the two devices have sold 100 million and 50 million units respectively. Though a large portion of gamers still remain in that 13-24 sweet spot, as gaming becomes more mainstream, the technologies appeal to more and more people. (In 2008 we saw casual games explode, and some great TV ads featuring the playable games on the iPod Touch.) Over the past few months, however, we’ve seen Apple begin to take a foothold in handheld gaming.

At this point, Apple is the ultimate Jack of All Trades, providing a decent, slightly above-average experience for all of its features. Now imagine if the were iPhone a specialist in each, with market-leading capabilities in all of its technologies. The DS’ market share has to do with its ability to deliver a superior handheld device. The Blackberry’s is because it’s the best smart phone. Apple has started slow, but is gaining momentum in every field. The iPod Touch already has many of the tools to become a superior device (easily-accessible app store, unique gimmick: accelerometer), but just needs to capitalize on some of its flaws. That’s why I’m extremely worried if I’m Nintendo or Sony.

The great thing about the iPod Touch is that its games are not even limited to children. I’ve seen people of all ages playing Tap Tap Revenge on the bus. Over the past year, Apple has made it clear that gaming is a priority, and that they’re working hard to have games developed for the device.

The two big issues that still present for competition are
1) price point; and
2) software development.

On Amazon, the 16GB iPod Touch still runs at $285, whereas the DS Lite goes for $129 and the PSP 3000 goes for $169. (Though the 8GB is closer at $239, for someone to be a heavy music and game user, they’ll likely go for at least the 16GB model.) That makes the price difference over $100 for the PSP and over $150 for the DS Lite. The price point will remain a looming factor for those looking for a simple gaming device. Especially considering both devices are adding, or have added audio playback. Besides, you can always use the DS to make a homebrew iPod.

Since the price point of the iPod Touch or iPhone (which is considerably more expensive) are unlikely to truly compete with the DS or PSP, the next most important thing for them to work on is software development. Currently the vast majority of games available for the iPhone are more casual/puzzler-type titles. (read: Shovelware) One big problem is that it’s very difficult to maintain quality control in the App Store. However, when game systems like the DS and PSP have much more in-depth titles for the more “core” audience, it’s certainly hard for the iPhone to compete on that level. As Apple decides what its audience is, and what it wants its audience to be, I believe that getting core games developed for sale at the App store will be crucial for Apple to break into this market. They’ve already had a couple more complex titles released (like X Plane), but there is still great room for growth. Additionally, there are a couple emulators available for the iPhone, but when developers like SEGA, Bungie or Rockstar start putting out games for the iPhone, things will get really interesting. In fact, that would be a great way for Midway to turn their business around. Make a Mortal Kombat port to the iPhone for $10.

Also, casual gaming doesn’t have to mean bad gaming. If games like Audiosurf come to the iPod Touch, it’ll give real gamers a real reason to play. Right now my iPod Touch is an MP3 player that happens to also play some games. Why can’t it be the other way around? The iPhone/iPod Touch is now at 30 million units sold and counting. It’s time for developers to start taking advantage.

Rather than give a longer, drawn-out bio and reasoning for why I started Techshots, I figured it’d be easier to digest a few bite-sized facts about me, and a few facts about Techshots. For you Twitterati out there, don’t worry – none of these facts exceed 140 chars.

A Few Facts about Jaremy

-    I can be creative to a fault.
-    I am an entrepreneur.
-    I am a PC and Xbox 360 gamer.
-    I played baseball in college and love the Yankees.
-    I lead a tribe of gamers.
-    I am much more productive in the evening than I am in the morning.
-    I like lists. Something about them is just extremely aesthetically pleasing to me.
-    I read a lot of blogs.
-    I can be excessively verbose.
-    I worry that if we don’t take advantage of the opportunities available now, they may be gone by tomorrow.
-    I believe in social networks. But I think they should be smaller, not bigger.
-    I worry too much for my own good.
-    I always respond to emails. Contact me if you need to get a hold of me.

A Few Facts about Techshots

-    This space will be used as an outlet for my ideas and thoughts on technology, gaming and marketing. In no particular order.
-    All information mentioned and used in this blog is available publicly
-    If I don’t cite a number or fact, just ask in a comment and I’ll give you my source.
-    I want to hear your feedback. Really, I do.
-    I hope to post on a regular basis, but if I have a number of side projects going on, I cannot guarantee that it won’t affect my update frequency. (edit: I will try to update Techshots at least 2-3 times per week).
-    This is a career blog.
-    Techshots may have guest authors from time to time. Contact me and I’d be happy to discuss letting you be a guest author.
 

Also, here’s a picture of me from a trip to Maine: