Happy Holidays!

Need a gift for the person who already has everything? Trying to decide on a great family gift that rises above the hype surrounding a gimmicky toy and teaches the true meaning of the holidays? Consider giving a gift that is not only thoughtful but a gift that keeps on giving.

This past summer I received a Kiva gift from a friend of mine. After logging on to the Kiva site and spending hours reading about all the entrepreneurs featured on their website, I used my gift certificate to loan money to a woman in Peru so that she could buy cattle, and then gave three gift certificates to friends so they could pick their own worthwhile microloan recipients. This holiday season I am asking all our friends to join our team LOGIN lending group and make a $25 loan. You pick who you lend to and once the loan is paid back you can re-lend the money to someone else or simply your loan back!

To make this even more exciting, for each $25 loan that team LOGIN members give between December 1st and January 30, 2009, they will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a LOGIN 2010 All Access Pass. The first drawing will be held when we reach our benchmark of $2500, the second drawing will be held when we reach our $5000 milestone, and the final drawing with be held in early February 2010, before our registration opens!

From the LOGIN team lending page you can see current members and who they are lending to. You can pick to lend to anyone you choose. When making your loan please click the drop down box (count for, team LOGIN) so we can track  the loans and how much we have loaned as a group! To check out the LOGIN Kiva group, go to http://www.kiva.org/team/login!

Let the lending begin and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Cynthia Freese Executive Director LOGIN Conference

The Path to Speaking at LOGIN 2010

To speak at the LOGIN Conference is a mark of distinction and accomplishment in the game industry — but it's not necessarily easy. Speakers and their abstracts are vetted through peer review, and are carefully matched to our attendees' needs. The Call for Speakers is open to all online game industry experts worldwide, whether for console, PC or mobile platforms. Candidates are asked to review the topics of interest and session submission tips on the LOGIN 2010 website and then submit a completed session proposal form with 1,000 word abstract and biography before the deadline of January 25, 2010.

Top 5 tips for getting your proposal accepted at LOGIN

1. Submit a proposal on one of the many identified areas of interest. The advisory board has put a good deal of thought identifying areas that we feel are relevant to attendees. If your proposal is the only one for an area we are interested in, it will have priority over all the proposals outside our identified topic ideas.
2. Avoid any marketing slant in your proposals, particularly if you represent a service or technology vendor. LOGIN will host no sponsored or commercial sessions, and proposals which appear to be sales pitches in disguise will be rejected.
3. Focus on areas of your expertise. The audience of LOGIN consists of experienced industry leaders who want to hear from experts. Avoid areas where you aren't experienced or recognized as an expert. Give stories about your own experiences, rather than theoretical ideas.
4. Spend time writing a quality abstract. A poorly written or overly terse abstract indicates that you aren't willing to prepare in advance. The abstract is the most important part of your proposal and the basis on which it will be judged.
5. Submit your proposal well before the January 25 deadline. By the end of the call for speakers, we will have selected many of the sessions already and your proposal will be competing with every other proposal for a shrinking number of speaker slots.

Visit the LOGIN Speaker Submissions Page

The Upsides of the Downturn

The worldwide economic recession that's affected everything from mortgages, solvency of major companies, the availability of jobs to credit flow has slowly but surely taken root in the world of game development and publication. That's right, the sobriety of autumn has finally reached what was widely thought to be an evergreen business. The evidence is hard to miss:

Electronic Arts has closed Pandemic Studios, and in doing so cut 200 jobs as part of its goal to trim 1,500 employees from the payroll by April 2010. Not coincidentally, Electronic Arts lost $391 million dollars in the fiscal second quarter of 2009. Take-Two Interactive, behind the wildly successful Grand Theft Auto series, has lost 70% of its share value from recent highs, while THQ has lost a whopping 90% of its share value. Funcom, creator of the struggling MMO game Age of Conan, anticipates layoffs and cutting operating expenses after a loss of 9.6 million in the third quarter. Falling video game sales are helping to fuel this plunge, as consumers apparently lose their appetite for even some of the blockbuster games leading up to the holiday season. In spite of this gloomy glimpse at some leading indicators in the business, there are definite silver linings to be found here for companies with a little flexibility.

Many companies are seeking to reduce costs as a means of staying lean and mean -- or even staying afloat. Aside from cutting down on server costs, outsourcing segments of operational costs like customer support outside the United States, some companies are starting up entire studios outside the US. Other companies have paid the price for what they felt like was too much overlap. 'The EA boss described California as a "bloody expensive" place to employ workers, saying it costs the company two to three times more to employ developers in that state than it does in Montreal, the U.K., eastern Europe or China, all regions where EA has developers and artists at work,' Kotaku blogger Steven Totilo wrote. Totilo was describing a recent interview with EA's CEO John Riccitiello, explaining what he felt was a key reason why Los Angeles-based Pandemic was shut down. Most recently THQ will be launching a new studio in Montreal in mid-2010, enticed by tax benefits designed to lure companies to Canada. Over 400 jobs should be created over 5 years. Who benefits? The regional economies and workforce where these outsourced studios take root, and of course it does help to preserve the parent company itself.

Another alternative is to adapt or diversify to rapidly changing customer needs in the marketplace, especially those needs that reflect the economy. This is usually an important strategic consideration in the business development plans for most companies, especially in the quickly evolving online game industry, but for some it's crucial in this economy. With their profit losses, job cuts and stock falloff in mind, Electronic Arts has purchased British social games developer Playfish for up to $275 million. Such a move is tacit recognition their company quickly needs social games that can be created with little overhead and relatively quickly. Digital games, those on mobile and web platforms, are simply becoming a bigger player compared to retail product -- a trend accelerated by an economy filled with consumers who have less disposable income for $50 boxed game titles. Granted, it's easier for Electronic Arts to do this than a fresh-faced start-up committed to a certain platform or a genre of game title. For smaller companies, if such diversification is impossible, adaption through partnership with rising stars in the social gaming space should always remain at least a tantalizing possibility.

For quality companies that can't outsource or easily adapt and are foundering and looking for a lifeline, there's still hope. Consider Disney and its CEO, Bob Iger. Hot off pursuing the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, Iger has seemingly left subtle hints Disney may be in the market for companies, or at least partners, to round out their development on different platforms. In terms of partnership, many larger companies would rather rely on smaller developers to handle game development projects on platforms they don't have the resources to handle, instead of acquisition. But, that doesn't mean acquisition isn't on the table if a company is undervalued or well-positioned enough. Bringing up THQ and Take-Two Interactive again, there are simmering rumors in some circles they may be the next companies to be acquired. Acquisitions of struggling companies can bring fresh gaming brands into a company's stagnant portfolio, save at least some jobs and bring value to shareholders.

No doubt about it, 2009 has been a roller coaster for the games industry. But the fallout is revealing a look at what the future will look like for the online games industry. Whatever platforms these companies may be invested in, the most successful among them will be lean, agile and adaptable that can create content that reflects changes in the demographics of their players. Luckily, some companies like Electronic Arts are learning these lessons, even if they're a little late to the party.

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Paul Philleo Contributing Editor LOGIN Beat

Industry Highlights

G*: NCsoft 'Thinking And Planning' For Console MMOs

In a discussion at the G* game trade conference in Busan, South Korea, NCsoft PR team leader Jin-Won Yun has told Gamasutra that the company is looking into bringing a multi-platform MMO to console. “After we finished [PC MMO] Aion,” he began, “we started thinking about what it would take to make an MMO come to consoles. We’re testing that possibility. We’re not in the development process yet, but we’re in the thinking and planning stages,” Yun admitted. »

Story on Gamasutra

EA's Ricciatiello: Pirates are a Marketplace Opportunity

In an interesting departure from conventional wisdom embraced by triple A game publishers, in a recent interview Electronic Art's CEO John Ricciatiello frowned on, but conceded, piracy is an unavoidable fact of life for companies like his. Moreover, Ricciatiello feels that even if a pirate may download a boxed copy of a title they would be engaged enough in the game experience to purchase post-release content and downloadable content (DLC), therefore converting a pirate into a paying customer. Playing off the the "long tail" concept, EA's CEO also expressed hope that once a pirate is a customer, he or she would be willing to consider paying for the game itself. »

Article on Kotaku

FTC Issues Measured Praise for Video Game Industry

The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a report how effectively the various entertainment industries are enforcing their self-imposed ratings for violence or sexual content. Using underaged mystery shoppers, eight of ten of these shoppers were prevented from purchasing Mature games, which was better than the music and movies industries fared. Thanks to prolific signage in stores and reminders in the cash register systems when Mature games are purchased, it's limited underage acquisition of such content through the retail channels. However, the FTC was still critical of all entertainment sectors of contradicting their enforcement efforts by making violence and sexuality appealing to a younger demographic. »

Story on LA Times

Classic Multiplayer Strategy Game M.U.L.E. Reborn Online

If you've been in the game industry, or playing games long enough, chances are you've heard of one of Electronic Art's 1983 multiplayer title for Atari, PC and Nintendo systems of that era, M.U.L.E. With the blessings of family of Dani Bunten, the original designer of the game, the Swedish developer Turborilla launched a free version of the game for the PC, Mac and Linux version on the way. This updated version of the game will probably look familiar to fans of the original, with only modestly updated graphics. In definite tip of the hat to the modern age of gaming, this version of M.U.L.E is enhanced with online and LAN multiplayer capability. »

Story on GamePro

GRAVITY and SoftStar Entertainment Arrive at Agreement

Before a lawsuit pending in the High Court of the Republic of Singapore could go to trial, the plaintiff, SoftStar Entertainment, and the defendant, GRAVITY, reached a settlement. Through this settlement GRAVITY will pay SoftStar Entertainment $2 million USD. SoftStar Entertainment, a former licensee in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao for GRAVITY's game, R.O.S.E. Online, alleged that they were provided a different (and inferior) version of the game for open beta testing than the one they were provided for closed beta testing. »

Article on CNN Money

AION Bans Gold Spammers With Giant Bunny

As with any MMO, spammers can be a real issue. With most games, they just ban the perpetrators, but in Aion, the GMs go that extra step further… Recently posted by Kotaku, it seems that the GMs of NCsoft’s MMORPG Aion have decided to get creative with the way in which they ban abusers in game. Wrong-doers are banned through the process of getting their faces melted off by a cute, harmless looking rabbit. »

Story on Kotaku

Study: 20% of U.S. Game Spending Devoted To MMOs, Portals

Twenty percent of total video game spending in the U.S. goes toward MMOs and game portals, primarily for monthly subscriptions and online credits, according to a new international study. Home and handheld consoles comprise 57 percent of the nation's gaming budget, including second-hand trade and digital distribution sales. Market research firms TNS and Gamesindustry.com surveyed more than 13,000 respondents aged eight years and older across the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S. for release, titled "Today's Gamers Online Spending & Payments Report." The groups say they were able to calculate and analyze consumers' total gaming budgets based on information provided directly by the surveyed consumers. »

Article on Gamasutra