There are murmurs of surprise that videogame retailer GameStop has made its way onto the S&P 500 index. More than a decade ago, it was bankrupt. Now it’s eaten not just its competitors’ lunch, but its entire competition, consuming Babbage’s, Software Etc, NeoStar and Electronics Boutique. It’s one of those great adversity-toppling stories business writers love.

One analyst remarks, “Everyone argued that games would be distributed online … but these guys stuck to their game plan.” That’s true, but GameStop’s success is mostly due to the nascent state of digital distribution. Broadband is still too slow, and console hard drives are still too small. Those limitations hinder the sale of full-length, multiple-gigabyte games. GameStop’s success has been a matter of luck as much as timing. Playing videogames has grown as a mainstream obsession even faster than the broadband pipes that were supposed to make GameStop’s business model obsolete. That, and it’s still really hard to download a Wii. (Photo by maulleigh)

Mike Shaver, an executive at Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox browser, promises a ten-day turnaround on bugs, and then backpedals furiously. [ha.ckers.org]

Source:Valleywag
videogames BBC “Simon Nelson”

Simon Nelson, the BBC’s new-media guru, is delivering a keynote at next week’s Edinburgh Interactive Games Festival. His speech, as described in the official literature, is why “the [BBC] had something to learn from games and how games will figure in the Beeb’s new media folio in the future.” The Internet interpreted this as a pending announcement of a BBC videogame strategy — the rumor strengthened by BBC’s current portfolio of downloadable games based on its TV shows. And it’s not like it would be that strange. Even the New York Times has started using newsgames to illustrate everything from the oil crisis to the E. coli outbreak. But the BBC is now denying everything. More’s the pity.

Beeb spokesreaders quickly shot down such rumors. The keynote, they claim, will focus on the convergence of media and what games and television can learn from each other — not a new game strategy. Idiots. The fusty Beeb could use something to spice up its offerings. If PBS can run an alternate reality game, why not launch the British Broadcasting Company into the virtual world?