The News Review:

- It’s in the game: the rise of EA Sports microtransactions
- Tencent’s Q2 Revenues Up 80% Thanks To nline Games
- China Puts nline Games That Glorify Mafia on Its Hit List
- The secret to Ultima nline’s longevity
- NetEase faces H2 margin squeeze on cost of new games
- Will: Internet gambling ban a raw deal for poker players
- Game Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

It’s in the game: the rise of EA Sports microtransactions
USA Today
Users can also opt to buy the entire package of upgrades for $10. Players wishing to challenge online opponents using the tough All-Madden difficulty will have to pay for that privilege as well. Dubbed Elite Status the microtransaction provides a home for hardcore Madden fans allowing them to play online games using the most difficult gameplay setting. Currently the difficulty for online games is set to All-Pro. Madden NFL 10 is also borrowing a page from pro hoops counterpart NBA Live. wners of Madden NFL 10 must type a code to activate the new nline Franchise mode where players can create leagues with friends that span across 10 seasons. This is similar to how NBA Live 09 developers handled the Dynamic DNA feature.

Tencent’s Q2 Revenues Up 80% Thanks To nline Games
Gamasutra
5% from the second quarter of 2008. The company attributed part of this substantial increase to its online gaming revenues which saw a 17 percent boost even over the previous quarter — and an unspecified much larger year on year increase — to RMB 1241 million ($183 million). Popular PC MMs such as Dungeon & Fighter and Cross Fire as well as “organic growth” for multiplayer online games client QQ Game helped bolster Tencent’s profits in this sector. The company however says decreased revenues for “more mature MMs” such as QQ Fantasy QQ SanGuo and QQ Huaxia offset that growth. It will also postpone the launch of two planned MMs originally scheduled to release before the end of 2009 and the first of 2010. Tencent believes the postponed launches will affect its gaming revenue in the short-term but will benefit the operator’s long-term strategies.

China Puts nline Games That Glorify Mafia on Its Hit List
New York Times
n Monday the Ministry of Culture issued a notice banning online games that feature Mafioso kingpins marauding street gangs or any sort of hooliganism predisposed to organization. The decree which promises “severe punishment” for violators but fails to specify the penalties also prohibits Web sites from including links to Internet games that glorify organized crime. Such games the ministry said “embody antisocial behavior like killing beating looting and raping” and their availability “gravely threatens and distorts the social order and moral standards easily putting young people under harmful influence. ”By Tuesday a number of popular games including “Godfather” “Gangster” and “Mafioso Hitman” had been excised from the ether although scores of other violence-laden games were still available. The ruling is not entirely surprising given the government’s war against Internet pornography and other sites that can be construed as “socially disruptive.

The secret to Ultima nline’s longevity
San Jose Mercury News
But what’s even more impressive is the franchise’s longevity. At 12 years and counting it’s the world’s longest-running graphical mass-multiplayer online game. Hitting 12 years in the MM world is like being 140 in dog years. At a time when some MMs such as the.

NetEase faces H2 margin squeeze on cost of new games
Reuters
NetEase’s shares which have more than doubled since thestart of 2009 fell 1. 9 percent or 90 cents in after hourstrade. INTENSE CMPETITIN A KEY RISK China’s online game market is becoming increasinglycut-throat and industry players rely more on marketing andpromotional schemes to get the attention of Chinese gamers.

Will: Internet gambling ban a raw deal for poker players
Houston Chronicle
If Congress will acknowledge this distinction it will rectify one of its recent mistakes. In 2006 Congress effectively outlawed Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations. This was more than moral pork for social conservatives. It also blocked online competitors from poaching gamblers from the nation’s most aggressive promoters of gambling — state governments. They are increasingly addicted to revenues raised by lotteries — the 42 states that have lotteries spent $520 million in 2007 promoting them — and from taxation of other legal gambling. The law exempted Internet state lotteries and two powerful and vocal interests — online betting on horse racing and some fantasy sports betting online.

Game Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
andPP
See the genius is the EA Live account which logs you into their servers from there you are free to look for games and actually send chat messages to people you just played or people on your  Wii address book.   With the click of the 2 button you can navigate this organizer service and then decide to go forth and enjoy all the online game play you can handle. There is a drawback however while playing online you can’t see your opponent and are only treated with shot tracking and other statistical information such as strokes and running score.   This is what they call “simultaneous play” and it sort of  makes sense  yet  I just really wanted to see my opponent online and his avatar interacting.   It?s strange when playing some random person online and only being able to see their shot trails but that is the nature of the game online. By no means is the online play boring in fact its interesting and fairly competitive.
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