Will Wright Embraces Penis Monsters

I've mentioned the problems games developers and publishers can face with user generated content before. This discussion around Spore and Little Big Planet was more focussed on the design challenges but there are also issues around censoring the content.

One of my favourite examples of the impossible challenge of embracing open-ended user experiences while still controlling the ways in which they can do this is covered on Habitat Chronicles. Here one of the most basic forms of user generated content - communication between players - is 'abused' by a 14 year old and the control the publishers tried to implement to protect users fails miserably and very entertainingly. I think any form of censorship in games will ultimately be overcome, human beings are amazingly creative and the ways in which we communicate are constantly evolving. This means that no static (or even basically dynamic or evolving) control mechanisms will last long.

So back to Spore. When the Creature Creator was released what wonderous and imaginative creatures would the world create with the most advanced game customisation tool yet seen. Within a short time the 'net was full of youtube and flickr posts of penis monsters (I'm sure there's a few hitlers in there too). This was inevitable.

So what did Will Wright, the man behind Spore have to say on this? Was there questioning of his design? Outrage and the abuse of the tools he'd given people? A frantic attempt to cover this up and push for the 'friendly' side of Spore? Not reallly..

Over on the website of a mainstream US newspaper - the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, yes it is an interesting name - Wright discusses Spore and gives his reaction to the phallus inspired creatures:

"Some of it's really good for what they were shooting for. It's amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren't messing up the experience for others."

A refreshingly realistic view. But the questions remains, how will Wright, Maxis and EA stop people from 'messing up the experience for others'. With versions across both traditional computer and mobile platforms combined with connectivity options allowing players to share their creations ingame and post videos for community comment this is a big question. How will these be controlled and who will make the decisions of decency and lay down what is acceptable for the Spore universe and what is not? EA/Maxis do not have the best record and the problems within The Sims Online have been well publicised, not least by Peter Ludlow - part time Professor of of Philosophy and Linguistics, part time MMO/online community sociologist/journalist/muckraker and commentator - on the Alphaville Herald (now the Second Life Herald). Ludlow fell afoul of EA for criticising how they both policed the virtual world (or failed to) as well as calling them out on wider issues relating to the rights and responsibilities of participants and organisers of virtual worlds. This lead to his eventual banning from the Sims Online. He has since moved onto Second Life.

Wright and no doubt EA's hope of spreading the Spore brand beyond a game or two and building an empire bigger than that which they tripped over in the Sims will have to deal with more than the current crop of monster cocks if they are to succeed. And they will likely face more and more scrutiny over the coming months. How long before someone decides Spore is the root of all evil and blames the companies behind it for exposing their children to smut, or fires a lawsuit in their direction? After all, anything as successful and mainstream as Spore is hoped to be is certain to get the anti-game and litigation crowd excited.

With Spore out this week and Media Molecule/Sony's Little Big Planet to arrive in under two months it will be interesting to see how things pan out for the communities of both games and the companies behind them. Their experiences and reactions are sure to help mould the landscape for other developers and those who seek to play and create within their worlds.

Happy WWDC day!

Well, it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but today there are a few good reasons too. It's that time of year again... WWDC.

So what are the main things in the 'developers' Stevenote. After reiterating most of what was said last year, not a huge amount to be honest.

EA coming to the Mac.

This is an interesting one. The biggest games from EA (in terms of popularity not gaming-geek factor) have generally come to the Mac via third party publishing deals. Aspyr alone have steadily brought over the Sim's, Battlefield, Medal of Honor (sic) franchises as well as some of the Harry Potter games and classics like Alice. Today's announcement brings some positives for Mac gamers in that it looks as if EA will be going for simultaneous releases of more titles. But the negatives are that Mac dedicated publishers who know the platform will likely lose out on deals and end-users will quite possibly see shoe-horned ports utilising middleware such Transgaming's Cider.

In fact, this is what the company has announced today. Now, all credit to the company for their technology, but frankly, it leaves developers too much opportunity to be lazy. There are certain things that Mac users expect. Certain ways an application should behave when loading, when jumping in and out of fullscreen or even choosing which display to play on, when interacting with the rest of the system. Data files, save files, etc should be in certain places. While the core game, once you are in it, is pretty much the same on any platform and upto the game designer, it's packaging and interaction with it's parent OS is a big deal. Especially for Mac users expecting certain behaviour usually adopted by Mac developers. Sadly from what I've seen of Cider ports so far, they don't do this. You only get the polish from knowledgeable Mac developers.

Update:
A couple of other points brought up relate to customer and EA's expectations. Beyond the 'look and feel' people who buy these games will expect a certain level of platform specific support and timely patches. Aspyr and others have always been very good at this, are EA geared up to deliver? From EA's perspective, are they really prepared for low sales? How will a company that it used to selling hundreds of thousands if not millions of units cope with selling thousands or tens of thousands? In the past this is what caused them and others to pull out of direct support of the market. And these cheap 'ports' are focussed purely at Intel based Mac's missing out the large installed base of PPC machines. It does look as if EA is taking a sensible balance here though. Aspyr are still working with and bringing across big sellers like the Sims, while Cider is being used for games which may not have otherwise made it.
End Update

Having Carmack on stage showing of, albeit briefly, the new engine that id have had in development for some time was nice, and not something he's been averse to doing in the past. The teaser of more announcements at E3 for multple platforms including the Mac was as close to anything news-worthy that was said though.

Safari 3
New Safari Beta available for OS X and Windows XP/Vista.

I've tried this out under both OS X 10.4 and Windows XP under Parallels and apart from some differences in title-bars, both generally behave the same are work very nicely.

The combination of having an updated Webkit (AppleWebKit/522.10.1 compared to the previous AppleWebKit/419) as well as a core updated Safari application (unlike Webkit Nightlies) yields a lot of improvements. On top of the clearly defined features such as the awesome inline find/searching a whole slew of improvements to the underlying WebKit frameworks have been properly exposed. Compatibility and performance is better, for example the Safari Beta works great with Google Apps and launches a lot faster on my laptop.

Interestingly it seems as if the Windows version has a slightly later Webkit version included, as Safari for XP/Vista reports AppleWebKit/522.11.3.

Some may ask why Apple have done this. In my mind it's a great move. It proves the portability of their frameworks (the KHTML based Webkit framework now runs on Series 60 phones, Intel and PPC Macs, Intel PC's and soon the iPhone) and helps evangelise the Safari platform itself. The more people on more devices that use Safari and Webkit, the better for Apple and it's core devices. Web developers will be forced to take Safari seriously and not consider it a 'minor' inconvenience when creating web applications. After all we all know that Web 2.0 is where it's at (apparently). Not only that but if your average PC user is using iTunes to manage their music and Safari for all their surfing (which these days can mean everything from traditional browsing, through social networking to creation of complex spreadsheets) then maybe they'll take the final leap and buy a Mac next time around. Most of us spend a large proportion of our time in our web browsers and more and more 'serious' applications are being used and accessed through a browser.

Other
There are long awaited and significant changes to the Finder and the desktop organisation paradigm. Much as I like iTunes I'm not so keen on it being the main interface to all my files but the 'Stacks' (previously known in patents as 'piles') approach to organising files and folders looks promising.

Then there's the partial opening up of the iPhone to external developers. It's not much and not a full SDK but having the ability to make Web 2.0/AJAX applications for the device will allow room for customisation. There must - in my mind - be some hooks into lower level API's to allow for access to address book data and so on, even if it's only in a read only basis. I guess only time will tell how this pans out. It's certainly not what some developers were hoping for and may be described as jumped up widgets, but it's better than nothing.

There was talk of Leopard of fully supporting 64-bit. finally 32-bit and 64-bit applications living side by side with complete support from all Cocoa libraries. There wasn't any firm word on whether this would be for Intel and PPC but I can only assume and hope both architectures are covered here. After all, the transition to 64-bit started with the G5 and a few core low level libraries, before stumbling with the move to 32-bit Intel CPU's and has only now taken the bold steps forward now that platform has allowed across the board 64-bit.

So a few things to think about but nothing earth shattering. Leopard is on it's way and will be welcomed by Mac users the world over, but that would likely happen whatever. Interestingly the biggest pushes from Apple seem to be along the lines of making the company strong on the desktop but also in 'the Cloud'. While Google want to be the company running all the web-based applications that we all use every day, Apple want to be providing the devices and tools we use to access those services. Be they the iPhone in our pockets, the MacBook on our laps or the AppleTV in our front room. Not a dream that different from Microsoft, but a very different approach.

Another Console Patch Patched

Just a quick update to follow my previous post on the Console Patch Culture spurred on by reports of serious issues with downloadable content for 360 title Crackdown. Some people who have downloaded this new content have suffered probably the most annoying type of bug that gamers come across, loss of their save game data. From what has been said on the official forums the problem is not with the downloadable content pack itself but with the associated Title Update - that is, an update for the game itself intended to fix known issues, provide new core features or otherwise update the core game. Players who download the update and immediatly go online in co-op mode may lose their save game data, the current workaround is to go into single player mode and save immediatly after updating. So it sounds as if something isn't being flagged as it should in multiplayer co-op mode on first run of the new core executable. An entirely new Title Update will be available 'soon' with a fix.

So it looks like another example of post-release patches/updates not being as thoroughly checked as they could have been. And another example of the dangers inherent with this approach. Again, I'm not against updates, it seems to be the way things are going and there are positive aspectes for games and gamers. But I'm sure we'll see more of this before solid approaches to resourcing for and provding solid development and QA of post-release content are the norm. I'm not implying anyone here was particularly lax, just that this is all new to the console world and the I don't think the new challenges presented have been fully addressed yet.

DMCA madness as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real attacked

El Reg is reporting on an American company who have issued cease and desist letters to Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real citing the DMCA. The company is Media Rights Technologies and their press release on the matter seems to claim that by not using the DRM solutions they provide Apple's iTunes, Adobe's Flash Player and Microsoft's Vista wilfully allow circumvention of copyright protection and are therefore in breach of the DMCA. As they say "Under the DMCA, mere avoidance of an effective copyright protection solution is a violation of the act" so in not using MRT's X1 SeCure Recording Control these companies are liable. A crime of omission one could say.

It's almost crazy enough to be an anti-DMCA ploy, but this is far from that. MRT are attempting to get their product licensed and gain recognition. Whether they feel they have a real chance of using the DMCA against any of the targets is beside the point. As well as providing some publicity for the company, hopefully the strategy will show more people how absurd and frankly dangerous the DMCA really is.

Playing Into the Hands Of The Scaremongers

Over the weekend the early stages of the latest moral outcry over the gaming industry began to rear it's ugly head. The Daily Mail revealed that the UK's Official PlayStation2 Magazine contained an article on the just-released game God Of War 2 covering a launch event which took place last month in Athens.

Taking cues from mythology and classical greco-roman themes and adding modern day hedonism resulted in the sort of OTT party many in the PR/marketing industry will be familiar with, although possibly with more goats. Copy from the original article hyped up the myth rather than the factuality of the party itself, talking of "eating still warm intestines uncoiled from the carcass of a freshly slaughtered goat". It was showmanship and PR at it's best and worst. I can't imagine that any goats were sacrificed or many attendees - no matter how drunk on free booze - would gorge themselves on the innards of a freshly culled carcass. But the themes, combined with the hype gave the Mail and many others exactly what they wanted. And no doubt Sony the publicity they craved. The result, a Mail journalist - no doubt a subscriber to the OPM hence receiving it before it hits the shelves - jumped on board and started a tirade.

Since then the article has been pulled from the magazine, animal rights activists have got involved and before long a slew of other anti-games protesters will use this to get on their soap boxes once more. The PR company behind this stunt may well pat themselves on the back but it's exactly this sort of thing that the games industry needs to avoid. Already the lines are being drawn and opinions polarised. Nobody cared when this happened, but a month later those who see games as a violent depraved medium that damage children and must be controlled have exactly what they want. And what for, a bit of free publicity for a game which would sell wildly anyway?

Between the 'This is Living' campaign which made no sense and this farce it's time that Sony took a long hard look at those who make their marketing decisions.

Update: GI.biz is reporting that Sony are to conduct an internal enquiry into the event. They are also claiming that the theatre of the the event was taken too literally by the writer of the OPM article and in turn by the Mail.

Whose Data Is It Anyway?

A story on Network World linked from Slashdot discusses recent glitches with Google's hosted services. The latest problem appears to effect the Personalized Home Page service with users reporting they've lost their customisation and settings. Google have admitted a problem and are working on resolving it and hope to get people's content back but do not know if they will be able to yet.

The angle taken by Network World - and it's an important one - is that this issue and previously reported ones with Gmail, Blogger and Google Apps highlight the risks with relying on hosted application providers. The world of Web 2.0 and the increasing decentralisation of data infrastructures does bring up important questions about your data. Do you trust the provider? Do they have adequate guarantees and backups? Can you retrieve your data if you choose to move provider?

There have been a catalogue of problems with companies losing data, leaking data or otherwise having problems. But when these things occur they get a lot more press than if the computer systems of the individual companies/people involved had failed. It's partially a matter of scale in the same way that plane crashes get huge press and yet overall far more people are killed in many smaller incidents on the road. But this is no excuse for avoiding the issue of securing your data and no excuse to let these companies off the hook. Having everything in one place is a Bad Thing™ and relying completely on your application provider or data host is equally dangerous.

Back to Google. There is a professional version of Google Apps where paying a fee provides extras including basic SLA's but no guarantee's of data protection or retention. Thankfully for the more established or data-intensive applications (Calender, Spreadsheets, Blogger etc) have open API's which mean while you can take advantage of Google's expertise in web-centric applications you retain complete control over your data. And this is the key to me and something which unfortunately many commerical application hosts do not provide. Many lock away your data and you are completely at their mercy and locked-in to their system. This is not the case with Google.

Perhaps though this open approach needs to be extended to some of their other offerings, although they are already available for some of the services people have had problems with. While Google do have a responsibility for the data they host for people that does not mean those individuals can forget their own responsibility.

Console Patch Culture

Discussion of whether it is good for developers and publishers to have the option to patch games post release have been well covered. The argument over whether the pros of being able to update when problems arise, add content and respond to community desires outweigh the cons of opening the doors for a 'we can patch that later' attitude during crunch will rage on. But what of the dangers that patches themselves present?

Guitar Hero II has been wildly popular on the Xbox 360 even after last years release on the PS2 but problems quickly emerged. It was decided that to overcome these apparent production and QA problems a patch would be released, which it was within 2 weeks. Great, a quick turnaround for software to address a hardware problem that would otherwise need a recall! Isn't this what network connected consoles and a solid infrastructure like Xbox Live! are all about? Well, no.. as one quality control problem would appear to have been replaced with another worse one. Eurogamer is reporting that the patch is bricking some customers consoles.

A turn around of under two weeks for any software leaves very little room for development, QA and passing through Microsoft's (or Sony's or Nintendo's) hands for certification. I'm not saying this was necessarily rushed out, I don't know what happened within RedOctane. But the situation raises interesting questions that have to be addressed.

For a patch to completely stop a console from working is an extreme case, but compatibility between different versions of the same title during online play as well as the introduction of new and unknown issues are big risks. The culture of post-release patching and the desire to respond quickly to limit bad press from issues that when found are reported throughout the world in hours present new problems of their own. Problems which the wider software and game development world has learnt to deal with - although not perfected - but the console world is only just beginning waking up to. And the need for patches can go on and on, just look at Blizzard, a company that's still patching titles for closing on a decade after their original release.

Once you start to release patches and depend upon them you have to have frameworks in place to ensure things don't go wrong. After all, if you have Production and QA problems in the first place, rushing out a patch is likely to fall foul of those same problems and is at best a huge gamble. Once a team has submitted and a title is released often only a skeleton staff will be left, with tired developers taking much needed holiday and companies moving resources to new productions. As time goes on expertise and knowledge of the inner workings of a product will dwindle. This isn't the case everywhere, but it is a common scenario within the industry.

Chances are that without a solid plan, the quality of post-release patches will be worse than when everyone was on the ball and focused. Even if they hadn't slept for two weeks. And if you couldn't get the time and resources and talent together the first time, god help you second time around. Although sometimes a publisher will be more willing to pony up and pay if they see a PR disaster on their hands, the job won't be as good as if it was part of the original plan.

So is post-release patching a good thing? Yes, there are definitely positive aspects and great possibilities open to developers. But this approach cannot be an alternative to solid production, project management and QA in the first place, if anything it depends upon it even more.

Background updating AWOL in Leopard?

Well, it looks as if Apple have found a way to avoid the prebinding problem previousy discussed. Unfortunately it's not what I'd call elegant.

According to leaked screenshots at ThinkSecret a much loved feature of OS X is going away. When Software Update is run, it's like the bad old days of single tasking OS's, everything must be quit. I really hope this is only a temporary 'feature' as it looks to be a worse solution to software updates in terms of usability than that in any modern OS I can think of, including Windows XP and Vista.

Hardware Sales ≠ Software Sales

According to GI.biz figures 'leaked' from Chart-Track have been backed up by confirmation from Nintendo, the Wii outsold the PS3 and Xbox 360 in the UK last week. And by some margin too. From personal experience there are PS3's and 360's available in most high-street shops here while Wii's are still hard to come by. Demand it seems is staying high with the 'little console that could' being snapped up as soon as stock appears on shelves. Nintendo have - in what some may see as a very deliberate move to get this headline so soon after the PS3 launch and others will put down to co-incidence or making the most of the school holidays - shipped more Wii's than in previous weeks over Easter.

Meanwhile, software sales show quite a different picture. Looking at the latest Chart-Track All Format sales, shows a PC game at number 1, then the top of the charts largely filled with PS2 titles (or cross platform titles with the largest percentage expected to be from PS2 sales). TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes on at number 2, being the second highest PS2 seller but also shifting units on the 360 and Wii being the 12th and 15th best sellers respectively for those platforms. Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 and Medal of Honour Vanguard are next up, being strong PS2 and 360 sellers as well as making a showing on the Wii. Guitar Hero II is clearly doing well during it's first week on the 360 after it's previous success on the PS2 coming on overall 5th and 360 best seller. Then we have Virtua Tennis on the PS3 and 360, GTA Vice Stories for the PS2 before hitting another PS2/360 crossover in the form of UEFA Champions League 2006-2007. This is followed by more PS3 and Wii available but cross-platform franchises from EA in the form of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 and Need for Speed: Carbon. PS3 exclusive Resistance: Fall of Man comes in at 11th and is the PS3's top selling title.

So we don't have a title even available on the PS3 until 5th and the top seller on the platform doesn't get a look in in the top 10, appearing 11th overall. While on the Wii there is TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at 2nd overall and Sonic And The Secret Rings - the platforms best seller - not making a showing until 18th in the all format charts.
When we compare that to the 360 (3rd and 5th) and PS2 (2nd and 4th) showings it's clear that the newcomers to the race have a way to go yet before they become entrenched and solidly selling mass market propositions. Publishers it seems are as focused on the 360 and PS2 as consumers, for now.

It's looking like the 360 has a steadily growing and pretty large installed base, the PS3 launch went well but demand is now slow, while the Wii while continually in demand is probably not as prevalent in homes as the 360. But hard figures are difficult to come by with companies doing whatever they can do get their turn in the headlines. On the high street PS3 and Wii titles are at a premium while PS2 titles are comparatively cheap and heavily discounted and the 360 even getting to that point (I saw some sub big name but sub-£15 games for the console in Easter Sales).

Not much of this is new or even news, but I think it's worth saying (obviously). Looking at the charts and trends it's clear that while the posturing appearing in the press is over hardware sales, the long term key that is software sales are a completely different story. It will also be some time before we can tell how everyone has played their hands and who if anyone has taken the jackpot.

Clutching at Straws

Nearly two weeks on from the launch of the PS3 and after what looked like a brief respite for Sony things are once again looking pretty bad. Even after all the PR blunders and the growing tide of media criticism perhaps we'd all got it wrong and everyone still did love Playstation. There were some good announcements at GDC and a solid first weekend of sales.

But then this week two things happened and news of an older but never the less representative publicity blinder hit the web.

Firstly Chart Track have confirmed that after the estimated 165,000 sales during the launch weekend, hardware sales have plummeted by 82% for the second week. This means that as little as 30k units could have been sold, which wouldn't be so bad, but there is no strain on supplies. This is clearly going to be a slow burn at best. Of course, despite the huge publicity budgets being blown on the PS3 this is exactly what some guess Sony want on order to retain the long tail of PS2 sales.

Secondly prices on the PSP have been slashed in the US. Sales of both hardware and software have been lacklustre since this console had its' own record-breaking launch. But while this was hailed as being a DS killer with it's increased power and media features, it's failed to follow through. Software for rhe handheld is often hidden away in shops in the UK and heavily discounted. Meanwhile DS software fills shelves in key positions and prices rarely shift. So this move, making the PSP in effect cheaper than a DS Light could be seen as being good for consumers, but it's nothing but more bad news for Sony. They're desperately trying to shift units of this thing - especially as there are so many plans for integration of the PSP and PS3 - rumours of a new and updated iteration being true or not. Expect a similar but possibly not as deep reduction in price on this side of the pond soon.

So what's the final part of this unholy trinity. Over on Mr Biffo's Blog is a sad tale of Phil Harrison's failed and cynical attempts to garner interest and publicity for the PS3 at a Marillion festival in Holland. The abridged version of this tale begins when a fan won a signed t-shirt in a raffle and selflessly auctioned it off for charity (raising a cool €650). Then friend of the band and Sony's head of Worldwide Studios appeared and offered to auction off a console paid for out of his own pocket. Nice gesture, if he'd have then shut up and let nature take it's course. Instead he restarted the auction - which had previously begun at €100 - with an opening bid of the full retail price of €600. As the deluded exec got into stride pimping up his wares and the audience went quiet it appeared as if the band, their entourage and all the fans just wanted him to go away and stop Clutching at Straws. What adds interest is that the article - in itself an interesting personal account of something most of the gaming press would have missed or not been aware of - was deemed too personal and critical to be published by Edge. A shame as I think it gives a better picture of a company than any press conference at an 'industry' event or any discussion of sales figures.

Apple, EMI embrace DRM-free music

In what many will see as a left-of-field and bold move, EMI has just announced it will make it's music available DRM Free. The move is a real win for consumers and will hopefully show other media companies that their restrictive model is fundamentally broken. Many were wary - to say the least - of Jobs when he released his own missive on DRM earlier in the year.

We all know Apple makes a lot of money from it's iPod/iTunes business, but that their slice of the cake is the hardware so in some way the lock in is good for them. Others said the move was just a reaction to criticism from within Europe. Frankly I wasn't bothered either way, DRM is bad and that's why I have never bought anything from the iTunes Music Store despite owning an iPod and loving all my Macs. But I did think Jobs was being serious and discussed why I thought he would be willing to risk it all.

Then EMI came out and said they were willing to investigate DRM-free offerings, but that it would cost the gatekeeper companies like Apple, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Yahoo Music, Napster a lot in up front charges. Again this was seen as posturing more than anything else, including by myself.

But today things have changed. I must admit I didn't expect this and we still don't know how it will pan out. Sure, these DRM free tracks will be at a premium but christ they listened to people! Proof if ever it was needed that companies can be made to change their short-sighted ways with enough pressure, enough incentive and some supporters from the inside. I'm not follower of the Cult of Jobs but he has undoubtedly helped this happen and will be there pushing the other players to join in. It's not a completely altruistic move, Apple will make money and get a lot of publicity for this. Hopefully EMI will too so they can justify this to their bean counters and the rest of the industry.

- DRM-free and 256kbps AAC for $1.29/€1.29/£0.99 per track.
- DRM crippled 128kbps AAC still available at $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 per track.
- Ability to upgrade your crippled purchases by paying the difference ($0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track).
- All EMI videos on the iTunes Store will be DRM free at the same price.

EMI are not abandoning DRM, just offering DRM-free and higher quality encoding in AAC, WMA and MP3 formats available to resellers at a premium.

It will be very interesting to see how this pans out over the coming months and even years. The battle for the gateways to media consumption and for advertising revenue are if anything just beginning.

But I shall repeat this: Content is King. Don't Let Creativity Be Restricted.

Update:According to EMI's PR people and via gizmodo it was EMI that appproached Apple about this rather than the other way around. Whether this was before or after Jobs spoke out against DRM is not clear. The reasoning from EMI's side is purely a business one. Research showed consumers want it and would buy more music if it was DRM free. They are doing this to increase sales and marketshare. Also, apparently full album's of DRM-free music cost the same as the DRM'd ones, I'm not sure if this means free upgrades of entire albums. The deal includes other forms of music distribution including on mobile phones, this is a big market in many countires and makes the FairPlay controls seem trivial by comparison.

Why Brits don't like foreigners

It's simple, their food gives us STD's.

Nearly two-thirds of Britons think the fiery Italian sauce Arrabiata is a sex infection, according to a survey on Friday. The survey, of 1,015 people and released on World AIDS day, also showed nearly half were unable to identify a range of common sexual complaints. "What is very worrying is the lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases [STDs] revealed in the survey," sex therapist Emily Dubberley said. "Sixty-three percent in the UK thought an Italian sauce was an STD and over 43 percent couldn't identify any of the common sexual complaints we asked about."

Sounds like something from a Hale and Pace sketch, sadly it's not. And we in the UK have the cheek to talk about the problems with sexual health and education in other parts of the world.

Use the Force..erm.. Postman Pat

Worried about your letters getting to their destination on time? Concerned about the increase in postal charges in the US? Fear not, just remember to use the force. Yep, the US Postal Service is releasing a special set of Star Wars themed stamps. And this follows the R2-D2 clas postboxes. What's next, a C3PO uniform for postal workers?

Sony rep pimps up Aus PS3 sales..

..but fails to realise context.

Maybe this Sony Australia representative didn't get the memo about not talking about sales numbers to the press. It would be unusual for a console manufacturer to play down their sales numbers, so lets assume that 20k consoles were indeed sold (or shipped.. or whatever) during the launch weekend in Australia. To put this in perspective, the 360 sold just over 30k during it's 4-day launch period and the Wii bested them all with over 32k. Even the PSP manage 27k.

Maybe the excuse will be the same as given to GI.biz by Sony UK boss Ray Maguire. That's right America, did you realise the reason the PS3 isn't doing so well across the pond is because of us Brits?

The truth of the matter is that we've stopped the supply to the US because we're making PS3s for our launch. The reason sales are low is because I've just put in loads of product to the UK in order to have the largest launch of a console in UK history.

And there was me thinking it was just because people weren't buying them. I'm sure the 'truth' will be different next week though. Although 20k isn't too shoddy considering many have been predicting total doom and gloom. Let's hope for Sony's sake that they are close to the mark with their guess, we'll find out later in the week when the official figures drop.

It's also good to see that even the mainstream press reads UK:Resistance.

Update: Meanwhile early reports appear to show that the launch in the UK was in fact a huge success. And on that note I'm off to the pub!

Wii Browser delayed.. but improved

Seems I missed this last week but Nintendo have confirmed that the Opera web browser for the Wii has been delayed until April. This is no big surprise at March is almost passed and there's been no sign of a flashing blue slot on any consoles to signify a present from Japan.

The original plan when the trial version was released before Christmas was to have the final version out in late March, remaining as a free download until the end of June. So why the delay?

Over on the US Wii site the latest in a series of interviews with the developers behind various aspects of the Wii has been posted. Included are discussions of the challenges of developing a browser for a console in contrast to those for a home computer or when developing games. Some insight into how the Japanese team at Nintendo worked with the Norwegian team at Opera are also given. Finally the reasons behind the slip and the announcement of the delay itself are explored. Basically it seems it was decided that some extra time was needed to add features, improve compatibility and add polish. So what can we expect in return for our patience?

- Increased search features. A Search button on the Start page as well as the toolbar (presumably linking to Google, Opera's own search, I doubt there will be much customisation here).
- Multiple cursor support. While only one Wiimote controls, others can point at things on the page, this should cause chaos!
- Zoom and display changes. There is now a multi-levelled zoom option as well as the restrictive auto-zoom in the trial. Also some font changes and a page width limitation of 800 pixels (even in widescreen modes) has been implemented to try to make text easier to read.
- Scroll improvements. There have been changes to how scrolling works dependant upon on-screen position and movement of the cursor. Additionally the +Control Pad can be used to scroll.
- Responsiveness. Loading the channel itself and the favourites screen should be much faster.
- Auto-hide for Toolbar. Pretty self explanatory, should give that extra bit of real estate needed. Unfortunately the delays and so on are not user configurable.
- Improved compatibility. More websites should work, although they explain the ever changing nature of the web. No mention is made of planned updates after release, but I expect this is a possibility.

They also received a lot of requests for keyboard input support but it's not in there yet. There is no confirmation that it ever will be but allowing keyboards and mice via the USB ports would be great. Adding basic USB HID support shouldn't be a big deal, you never know it may already be in the OS somewhere.

The issue of custom-made sites for the Wii is discussed and they seem grateful for the involvement of the community. One interesting aspect not touched on is that this is really the only way end-users can 'develop' for the Wii. Many have taken advantage of say the support for Flash to make games designed around the Wiimote or media streaming solutions and YouTube-like interfaces. The ability to extend and enhance a console is popular and hopefully this aspect hasn't been lost on Nintendo. Although I never expect them to 'open up' their platform to user generated content in the way Microsoft and even Sony toy with.

They finish off with the usual discussion of using the net in the living room. Of having the family around the tv, allowing those new to browsing the web to have a go and of content developed for tv's rather than PC's. It's all a good insight into what the companies goals are for the browser and indeed the console. I've not ended up using the browser that often after the initial excitement. It's been fun toy and hacking together some streaming of my music library using various open source tools and a home web server was cool. But having plenty of machines more adept and flexible while online, including a powerful laptop, the Wii is used for well, playing games. That said the release of the final version will again pique my interest and I can see it being something many will use in their living rooms.

Within an a discussion with the developers behind the Wii Broswer posted on the US Wii site last week it's been revealed that the release date has been pushed back a few weeks. Rather than arriving before the end of March it will land sometime in April. The good news, they've made a nice collection of update to improve functionality and compatibility. It's still as locked down and un-customisable as you'd expect form Nintendo, but it looks like the wait may be worth it.

There's no word yet on whether this delay will translate to an extension of the free download period.

Socially engineering a story?

There have been some interesting stirrings within the world of Xbox Live over the last week. It all started with a post by a security researcher Kevin Finisterre reporting that people's Live accounts were being hijacked. This was in turn covered by numerous websites with varying degrees of scaremongering and hype. Cnet's early report appears to be the most balanced while others quickly spread FUD throughout the 'net. Microsoft's Major Nelson posted a response stating that:

"...we have looked into the situation and found no evidence of any compromise of the security of the Xbox Live Network or Bungie.net"

and that

"There have been a few isolated incidents where malicious users have been attempting to draw personal information from unsuspecting users and use it to gain access to their LIVE account."

This is turn brought some vitriolic responses including some claiming a Microsoft coverup. Others started to believe that their credit card info had been stolen and so on. A couple of days on the headlines had also moved on as Major Nelson updated readers with a post once again confirming that Live had not been hacked and re-affirming that this was a limited case of retrieving account information via social engineering. Microsoft seemed to be taking this seriously, being humble and admitting they have a problem that needs addressing. Their surprising (for MSFT) openness indicates they are doing something about it, which indeed they were. Perhaps the rest of the company could learn a few things from the gaming division.

What is interesting to me is how this has all been reported. Reading some articles it could look as if an issue was clearly and concisely reported, the issue was denied, then there was a step-down and a flaw admitted to. Now, while there was clearly a security breach and Microsoft's 'systems' were abused, there was at no time a purely technological problem and no data was stolen wholesale. As if often the case the systems that were compromised were organic not silicon based. When it is reported that a service involving payment information has been 'hacked' many assume all their personal details and their credit card information have been stolen, as sadly, this is often the case. But the real flaw throughout be it with the compromise itself, the desire to take advantage of it or the handling and reporting is sadly people not technology. And this is a much harder and less abstract thing for people to admit to.

There are a number of problems I can see with the scaremongering that occurred. Firstly, it's just the nature of the 'net that information travels very quickly with often little verification. Reports are bounced around and stories change subtly through a packet-based game of Chinese Whispers. Also a hyped story is a good story, it gets more page views, simple as that. Judicious use of terms - such as hack - that people don't fully appreciate or which have different meanings to different people is always a good trick. Secondly is Kevin himself. Now, while undoubtedly a talented fellow he is no stranger to using high-profile companies to publicise himself and his startup in ways not everyone would consider completely altruistic or even ethical. Whether you agree with this or not he's certainly as adept with the publicity machine as he is with security tools. From the looks of things Kevin knew this was not a widespread computer system security breach but instead a security breach in support staff behaviour and training before the story broke. But a cynic would say it's better for his own profile if he didn't reinforce that knowledge too much and instead let hysteria and uncertainty cascade. You see, social engineering can be used in many ways.

But to sum up, all credit to Kevin for getting this clearly important issue some attention and props to Microsoft's senior types for being up front, admitting a problem and taking steps to deal with it. And perhaps we should all step back from time to time instead of jumping on the juicy headlines.

UK PS3 launch a bit of a mess

The big launch has arrived in the UK and throughout Europe, the PS3 is finally here. While there was a sellout in Japan and the US launch was the normal ebay success albeit somewhat marred by violence things are starting off with a crawl in Europe.

There was of course the early-launch in Italy and the well publicised midnight opening cancellations in London, but what of the remaining big-name shops in the capital? Well it's pretty much down to Virgin so you'd expect their in-store campsite to be the focus of desperate gamers throwing cash around if you believed Sony's spin. Instead you get a mere 100 people (some report less actual purchasers) and they are all bribed with Hi-Def TV's costing 5 times as much as the console they've just bought. This is known in the biz as the "We had planned to give the first lucky few out of the thousands we expected a special gift.. but since nobody turned up.." technique. It's quite similar to the "Here's a free Hi-Def TV" trick that Microsoft pulled with the press when launching the 360 in terms of pushing HD and ensuring your product is seen at its best.

There have been some other amusing give-aways at the launch mind you. While ebay sellers haven't learnt that the PS3 profiteering angle stopped long ago I expect a few of those TV's to be changing hands over the coming days.

Even the Beeb's World Business Report (on BBC News 24) is questioning Sony's strategy and asking if the 40% premium being paid in the UK means the Japanese giant has priced themselves out of the market. Of course things may go well this weekend and beyond into the 'launch period'. I expect Sony will sell a lot of consoles throughout the country but the launch will not be the unmitigated success Sony really need and they won't ever reach the dominance they had with the PS2. There will undoubtedly be questions from gamers when they can't play their favourite PS2 titles on their shiny new kit and the rest of Europe may not be as faithful to the brand as us Brits.

Update: So what do Virgin have to say about how things were looking when they started their own version of Eurocamp on Wednesday?

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Virgins promotions and PR manager Stephen Lynn said he wasn't disappointed by the level of turnout on Wednesday. "I'm delighted that we've got anyone at all, to be honest.

A review of Catholicism

I began to read a review of Virtua Fighter 5 for the PS3 over on Eurogamer recently. Within it I found one of the better and more succinct reviews for anything that I've seen in while.

I'm not reviewing a game. I'm reviewing a religion.

(Catholicism: Venerable stalwart of the genre. Fantastic art style, and memorable, catchy music. Addition of the Virgin Mary as a playable character alongside Jesus gives it the edge over competing Abrahamic religions in terms of variety, although consistent oppression and a relentless focus on guilt and self-loathing as a core gameplay mechanism could make it tough for this one to break out of its hardcore niche. Brilliant hats, though. 6/10.)

Rob Fahey - Eurogamer

Mario Kart Scarelectrix

This may actually be rubbish to play and not have a spot on any of the games, but I want one. While growing up I always lusted after scalectrix kits but never owned one. Now I can combine those childhood desires with those for Mari..erm yes...

Italy jumps the gun on PS3 sales

It appears the Italians are so keen on getting PS3 units to customers that retailers throughout the country have decided to break the official release by a full two days.

Is this an attempt to placate insurmountable demand. An undertaking made to avoid an expected mad rush (as in the UK). Or are they simply trying to shift units they fear they won't sell. It could just be that one outlet jumped the gun so the rest have to follow, but that's not nearly glamourous enough for a console launch..