Business & Games: The Blog

Video Games Make You Smarter... Really!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:10:04 +0100

Can video games make you a better air traffic controller? How about a better surgeon? And, for the huge demographic bubble of baby boomers, can video games keep you cognitively sharp into old age?

Ethics in Viral Marketing

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:30:53 +0100

by: Taylan Kadayifcioglu

It really bothers me when news like this shows us that people still don't quite understand what viral marketing is and what it is not. One might say a publicity stunt is not viral marketing. That argument, however, would not have been helped by the fact that it was a viral marketing agency staging all this and that they got media outlets reporting on it as real news.

Project Natal - MS Brings Motion Control to XBox 360

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:08:36 +0100

by: David Polinchock

The long rumored motion controller for the XBox 360 was announced yesterday and so far everyone seems pretty psyched with it. Much like our AudienceGames In-Cinema Experience, they are using motion capture to make you the game controller. Of course, Project Natal is a lot more advanced then what we've been doing in cinema, where we have look at a whole audience of people, and they also added facial & voice recognition, which should add some really cool experience options to what they're doing.

Augmented Reality Microsites: First Impressions

Sat, 30 May 2009 20:54:25 +0100

Since I got my webcam upgraded anyway, I thought I'd do a follow up on the Augmented Reality is The New Second Life post and spend a lunch break looking at a few recent implementations of augmented reality in promo microsites.

Augmented Reality Is the New Second Life

Thu, 28 May 2009 01:09:41 +0100

People have been comparing Twitter to Second Life, but I think "augmented reality" is a more accurate analogy, with most advertisers getting lured by the futuristic wow-factor, riding the hype cycle, and pretty much misunderstanding the potential of the medium. The thing has officially entered the collective industry consciousness, too, now that WSJ picked it up.

Twitter (Adver)games

Fri, 22 May 2009 23:30:00 +0100

The ongoing puzzle at @Resistance2018 (promoting the new Terminator movie) is probably the first -- and excellent -- attempt at advergaming on Twitter, but I'm anxious to see how people will explore the potential of this new medium further. While Resistance2018 is not really an ARG, it's easy to see how Twitter will become another tool for ARG gamemasters, like those behind the new rumored (but possibly unofficial) Lost game unfolding over at @Simeonhobbes.

Game Developer Submits Game of Resignation

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:13:05 +0100

A game developer submitted his resignation from a game dev shop by creating, what else, a game. (Play with arrow buttons).
- via Facebook geek friends

New Contributor - Taylan Kadayifcioglu [mini-interview inside]

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:45:23 +0100

After a short B&G break, we're back with a brand new contributor. Taylan Kadayifcioglu is young, is keen and writes mind-blowingly sharp posts on branding in video games. His posts are now available on business&games and his own blog The Selling Game: A Quest to Innovate. Mini-interview with Taylan and article links after the jump.

Future of Marketing and Advertising... Is Gaming?

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:30:37 +0100

by: Taylan Kadayifcioglu

I have exposed myself to a number of new ideas (and reminders of old ones) over the last week, all about the present and future of marketing and advertising; and they are beginning to converge nicely.

OnLive Will Kick Your Ass! No, Seriously

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:59:27 +0100

by: Taylan Kadayifcioglu

Will OnLive kill the console market? Will they put everyone out of business? Will they beat up your dad? Your mom?

As you can probably tell from the prelude, this is going to be about the recently announced gaming platform OnLive and its fortunes. Since reading about it for the first time, I have lost count of the blog posts explaining to me and everyone else why OnLive will fail, crash, burn, cry in the rain, and possibly regret ever being born in the first place.

Why Game Devs Should Rethink Marketing: The Need for B2C Branding within B2B

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:55:55 +0100

by: Taylan Kadayifcioglu

Now that it has been a while since my last branding related post, it is about time to put it all into perspective and think about what this means for a developer. To do that, I ask the question:

Is it possible that developers have been delegating/neglecting their marketing function a bit too much and unnecessarily, to the point of losing control over the value generated?

Tribalization, Socialized TV & Games: Seriously

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:49:12 +0100

by: Gary Hayes

With my Director of the Australian Laboratory for Advanced Media Production hat on I often front our workshops and seminars with a kind of ‘trawl’ across the area being presented by specialist speakers. This means a rather high level view of services, key examples and robust case studies that provide a foundation for the other speakers and also a taxonomy, a shared language, for any later workshop elements. There have been two in the last two weeks on TV 2.0 and Documentary 2.0: Serious Games and I have just put my slides up on slideshare - embedded below. The two below are an interesting pair.

IBM Service Management Serious Game

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:56:37 +0100

Serious Games changing the way we work and play

The IBM Service Management Virtual Simulator (IBM V Sim) is an immersive learning game where players learn through a variety of hands-on sessions, experiencing issues affecting service management and corporate profitability in a simulated, virtual organization.

Live From GDC: Serious Games Emerging Trends

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:23:05 +0100

The response to current market challenges reported by several presenters at the GDC’s Serious Games Summit, due to its high degree of commonality, could eventually configure emerging trends for the segment.

Live From GDC: Serious Games Connection 2010?

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:33:53 +0100

Following my previous post Live From GDC: Are Serious Games and Corporate Customers In Sync?, and having realized that Serious Games and Work-For-Hire have become practically entwined, I've started to explore the possibility of having Serious Games booths added to Game Connection, from 2010 onwards.