Wii-ing in Hotels

It took its time coming, but Nintendo has finally opened another distribution and monetization channel.  Now, you can play Wii games in your hotel room - starting with some Marriott chains and a few other select hotels. 

So if you're staying at the Renaissance hotel on Times Square in New York (check out the view from the hotel, below), and figure out that all the distractions that garishly lovely city can offer are not enough for you, well, pull out the Wii !  Or if you want to go and watch Spamalot and don't want the kids to watch anything remotely British, well, pull out the Wii !

Two things are interesting:

a) That the Wii is still not easily available in stores, but Nintendo decided to go ahead with this strategy anyway.  This is good - hopefully once they have enough data, they will realize that not only do they need to ramp up production for the average Joe's out there, but that there are vast untapped reservoirs of moolah just waiting for their itchy little fingers

b) The second fact is that Nintendo is bringing some of their blockbusters to the hotels, including Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart.  These are their premium properties; given the captive audience they would have in the hotel rooms, I am not sure if the lift in effective revenue per customer (via a higher sell-through/ percentage of people paying for this option) will be worth it.  But on the other hand, this will help them serve these games up to whet the taste buds of potential buyers, as well as keep a strangle-hold on their current fanatic players

Well played, Nintendo

Finally, some Page Rank for this blog!

This blog finally has some Page Rank.  It is at PR = 2 right now.  Good enough to start with.

New Nintendo DSi Software Region Locked?

Nintendo is going where Sony showed a game company should not go.  There are rumors circling (and reported on X-Play) that new DSi software is going to be region-locked. 

Sad. 

When will companies stop trying to put artificial blocks to manage their own supply chains and region-based pricing?  Stop region-coding.  I would have bought multiple family members in India PS2's, PS3's or XBOX's in the past had it not been for region-coding and region-based issues.

Its not as bad as DRM (Spore!), but this isn't good to know

Zecco, the Great Equalizer

How am I dealing with the stock market crisis?  With optimism, of course!  I sold all my stock positions (whew, just before today's crash, but still late enough to take a nice hit).  And now I'm going to take full advantage of Zecco's unlimited free trades in October to buy and sell as many times as I can, even if each stock trade makes me only a dollar. 

Each dollar counts, eh?  Thanks Zecco!

Signs of a Downturn - eBay, Yahoo layoffs coming?

A former eBay employee is a friend, and is reporting potential layoffs.  This is completely unsubstantiated so far, but it would make sense - eBay has been losing its clout, and its business model changes haven't been received too well this year.  They also probably have more people than they need, from what I've seen - even to just keep operations going as-is.

And Yahoo might slash up to another 3,500 positions in Q4.  The funny thing is, with the huge number of defections from Yahoo each month, the true effect is much deeper than the layoffs indicate. 

Signs of a downturn indeed.

Signs of a Downturn - Gawker Media, Valleywag

In yet another sign of the times, Nick Denton of Gawker Media is cutting 19 of 133 editorial jobs.  The worst hit is Valleywag, one of my daily sources of information.  The 'wag will be losing associate editors Nicholas Carlson and Jackson West and reporter Melissa Gira Grant, which leaves only a couple of guys to run the ship.

Does this make sense?  My thoughts - yes, it definitely does.  Couple this with Denton's other move - to stop bonuses, but increase everyone's base salaries - and you realize that he might be an early mover, but one who is moving in the right direction.

Consumer spending will be down in the first half of next year - all indications are leading to this.  Ad budgets, specially for less mainstream media forms and outlets, will be slashed.  As such, positioning your company for such an outcome in advance is the right move.

Personally, I've been on the receiving end at Onetta, after 9/11.  But thanks to their strategy of cutting workforce early, Onetta stayed in business longer than most other dot com companies during the 2000 - 2003 time (yes, it did finally go down, as a disadvantageous sale to Bookham, but the fact remains that people did have jobs longer, and some people did get some level of bonuses).

Hope the laid-off folks find better opportunities very soon.

982 Visits on Wednesday!

Wow, my main blog got 982 visits yesterday!  The 1K barrier is close, I can feel it!  I'm racing towards it!