Britons spending nearly £200m on MMOs

Post Courtesy of Sways Innovations

 

 

imageBritish gamers spent nearly £200 million on MMOs like World of Warcraft according to the latest research. The Today’s Gamers MMO Focus Report by TNS and Gamesindustry.com suggests that 1.5 million people in the UK spend an average of £10.50 a month on massively multiplayer online games, such as Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Runescape, Lord of the Rings Online, AION Online and Heroes of Newearth. The Britons such as us reportedly spend over £200 million on the subscription fees to play the game alone, let alone the other costs there is involved such as character renames, server migrations, faction changes, race changes etc. So there could be a lot on top of that!

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The total of £195 million is more than Germany (£165m) and France (£145m) but a drop in the ocean compared to the US – where $3.8 billion (£2.55bn) was spent. Around £79 million, 41 per cent of the total was spent in monthly subscriptions, £16 million in annual subscriptions and £24 million on buying games and expansion packs. Micro-payments accounted for £38 million, the same amount spent by people buying up virtual currency (aka cheating).

"Micro-payments on the free-to-play games plus subscriptions for the rest make MMOs lucrative – if you can convince gamers to pick your MMO over the others," explained MSN’s Jane Douglas.

"They only have so many hours to sink into games like these, so competition is tough."

CVG’s editor Tim Ingham believes that the UK’s obsession with MMOs sends out a strong message, and is intrigued by the impact of the free-to-play Runescape .

"Okay,so this doesn’t paint a picture of us as the globe’s sexiest nation," he said, "but look on the bright side – at least, for once, we’re top of a European league table that doesn’t feature binge drinking, obesity or teenage pregnancy.

"Despite Lord Of The Rings Online’s best efforts, there’s really only One MMO To Rule Them All in Blighty: Warcraft’s domination of the market is still colossal.

"However, it’s very interesting to see Runescape rise through the ranks of WoW’s wealthier pretenders to woo the British public.

"It’s a free-to–play MMO: The perfect tonic for a skint nation with plenty of unemployed hours on its hands."

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Google adds wiki-like features to Google Street View

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imageGoogle is to give users of Street View the chance to edit the service to make it that little bit more accurate. An ‘edit marker’ feature has been added, which would allow you to change where businesses are. So, if you look at Street View and find that the marker for a shop or pub nearby you isn’t quite right, then you can lift it up and change its location.image

"Sometimes you may find a place in Google Maps that isn’t quite positioned where it should be," says the blog.

"Let’s say you know that your favourite pizzeria is near the corner but the marker for it appears further down the block. You want all hungry pizza-cravers to be able to find this great spot, so you want to make sure the marker leads them directly to the storefront."

The blog continues: "You could use our map editing feature (the ‘move marker’ edit) to move it to the right place, but moving the marker to the right location is not always that easy, especially in denser urban areas, if the only reference you have are maps or satellite images because you can only get a view from above.

"So now we have added one more very handy reference for making a map marker edit: Street View images. It makes the edit much easier."

This wiki approach is something that Google seems to be embracing more for its services like StreetView. Just last week, Google also announced that you could also edit the information given to businesses flagged up on Street View.

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Posters & Bloggers wanted!

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We’re currently looking to get more content on our web site, to enable us to have full functionality and control the news and reviews sector, with our very exciting future as a company and as partners with Tech Ticker, we are now asking our viewers, readers and fans to get involved! In a short sentence, ONET Alliance – the online network consisting of top web news and reviews companies in the UK; require new posters to post their content, directly onto Sways Innovations, Tech Ticker, TGC and other sources in the coming months!

We’re now looking into this persistently, and we’re very excited for the future content that this partnership may bring. What we’re asking from you, is that you post at least 5 posts every 7 days. We will be happy to offer you free advertisement on the web site, possible revenue, gained from our adverts, a total amount we will guarantee you every month, if you become a poster.

If you’re interested in posting on our network, please feel free to contact me directly via e-mail to: scott@swaysinnovations.com – and let me know some information about yourself, why you want to become a writer for our site, and past experience. From there, we will let you know if your application is successful and we’ll give you logins as an author on our ONET Alliance server. Thus giving you access to post your content directly to our servers and it will appear right here.

What we require from you: Dedication to our network, giving us brand new content *at a minimum of 5 posts a week, over a 7 day period. You must have past experience in posting for sites, giving content etc. You also must have the top Blogging tools installed on your computer, this list includes Windows Live Writer; and the full plug-ins required to catch your audience, this may be the Twitter Announcer, Facebook Updater and Digg and of course any others you may feel important to post.

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Google prepping search for TV?

Post courtesy of Sways Innovations

 

 

imageGoogle is testing its search algorithms for television, it has been revealed, with the trial of a new service in association with the Dish Network. The trial uses a Google search engine inside a set-top box, which helps users to find show on the web. According to the WSJ, testing has taken place since last year and has been limited to people within Google.

Although unknown in the UK, the Dish Network has 14 million subscribers in the US. It hasn’t commented on the trials and neither has Google but set-top box search would certainly be a viable option for Google – considering a similar technology has been employed in new TiVo boxes in the US. Web-enabled set-top boxes and TVs are becoming more and more present in homes and it with Project Canvas in the UK set to bring IPTV to the masses, some sort of organised search for programmes via a set-top box, which broaches satellite, terrestrial and internet would be more than welcomed.

You only have to look at the primitive search options of Sky’s HD boxes to know that this is one are that could be greatly enhanced. Couple this with Google’s close ties with YouTube – which already houses a number of TV shows – and the potential for decent programme search is definitely there.

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Sony announces 3D glasses and emitter price

Post courtesy of Sways Innovations

 

 

image Sony has unveiled the prices of its 3D glasses and emitter package – an add-on which will make the latest batch of Sony Bravias 3D Ready. Sony’s latest Bravia TVs will be 3D compatible but only one of these will be 3D Ready, and that is the LX900.

The LX900 is Sony’s flagship model of the company’s Monolithic range, one which will have an emitter inside. The television will also come with two Sony active-shutter glasses. The active shutter glasses can also be bought separately, although this is currently available in Japan.

Each pair of glasses will set you back 12,000 Yen, which is around £90. Even though this is around about the price that we thought for the specs, it does mean that a family of four will have to fork out an extra £180 when buying a 3D TV. As for the emitter, this will cost £5,000 Yen, which is £33. The emitter can be added to Sony’s NX900, HX700, HX800 and HX900 to make the 3D-capable TVs 3D compatible. Sony hasn’t officially announced when its 3D TVs will be coming to the UK market. But, with Samsung and Panasonic’s launching this month, we can only assume that a launch is imminent.

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