Re: Oct 09

1. Sony: We Will Not Have The PS3 Turned Into A Sex Den (SNE)

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   keepbeingawesome 01-Oct-2009
   

   A smart move by Sony (SNE) -- the company has just changed its Terms Of Use for the PS3, and gave itself free reign to eavesdrop on and censor its users at will. Already generating controversy : ^{link »}

   SCEA reserves the right to monitor and record any online activity and communication throughout PSN and you give SCEA your express consent to monitor and record your activities. SCEA reserves the right to remove any content and communication from PSN at SCEA's sole discretion without further notice to you. Any data collected in this way, including the content of your communications, the time and location of your activities, your Online ID and IP address and other related information may be used by us to enforce this Agreement or protect the interests of SCEA, its users, or licensors. ^{link »}

   Don't think so, because Sony won't allow the creation of adult-themed animations or avatars? Well that hasn't stopped sex from creeping into Google's Lively , a service expressly designed to be PG . If the exact same thing happened online via a PS3, the PR would be frightful for Sony. Parents have a (rightful) expectation that kids at game consoles require less oversight than those at an Internet terminal. And unlike Lively, people actually use and pay attention to the PS3. ^{link »}

   tags: oct 09, businessinsider.com, annotations

   www.businessinsider.com/2008/10/sony-to-eavesdrop · Original page

2. Microsoft Throwing Xbox 360 Tupperware Parties To Hook Women

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   keepbeingawesome 01-Oct-2009
   

   We've seen social gatherings of women to sell products -- so-called "tupperware parties" -- for everything from sex toys to botox . But this might be the strangest one yet: Is Microsoft (MSFT) using tupperware parties to sell the Xbox 360? ^{link »}

   That's what a report in Ft Myers, FL-based news-press.com (a Gannett (GCI) property) suggests. ^{link »}

   On a recent Saturday, about 1,000 women across the country moonlighted as marketers for Microsoft's newest Xbox services. ^{link »}

   "We've sold 20 million consoles to date globally since we launched three years ago," says Heather Snavely, Microsoft's director of interactive entertainment business global platforms. "In order to get to the next 20 million, we need to get a new audience of women and teens. We're going after them in ways that are different than ways we've done before." ^{link »}

   Up till now we've been seeing Microsoft and Sony in an increasingly bitter struggle for the hearts and wallets of so-called "hardcore gamers" (think socially awkward males aged 17-25). Meanwhile, Nintendo (NTDOY) has reinvented the wheel with its Wii, crushing both of its competitors in sales by discovering a new, and much larger, market in games that appeal to casual gamers and women with its pick-up-and-play simplicity. ^{link »}

   And what do women get for becoming Microsoft's ad-hoc sales force, and where does Microsoft find them? ^{link »}

   They got an Xbox party pack of freebies that included microwaveable popcorn, Xbox trivia game "Scene It? Box Office Smash," an Xbox universal media remote control, a three-month subscription to Xbox Live, and 1,600 Xbox Live points (used for game, movie and TV show purchases). ^{link »}

   Xbox found women including Maldonado and Chicago-area resident Danielle Jamil through a service called House Party, which sets up home parties for marketers. House Party has a database of 100,000 names of people who have provided a profile of personal information and who want to be "brand advocates." The advocates host a preplanned party to show off the marketer's brand to their friends. ^{link »}

   Read: The whole shebang isn't costing Microsoft very much at all. ^{link »}

   tags: oct 09, businessinsider.com, annotations, microsoft, marketing, business, ie, xbox

   www.businessinsider.com/2009/2/microsoft-throwing · Original page