Grand Theft Gamestop

April 25th, 2008 Davis

Over the last year, I’ve been drooling over the new GTA and with less then a week before the launch, I’m starting to really get fired up. I’ve been playing GTA since it was a PC download only and with every new release the game gets better and better. When Rockstar ran their first trailer for the game, I immediately went to their site to reserve a copy. When I saw that overnight shipping was an extra $20! I canceled the order and decided to go the retail route instead.

I don’t buy a ton of games, but when I do it’s almost exclusively from Gamestop. Normally, I care more about price then brand recognition, but over the years certain brands have won my loyalty and Gamestop is one of them. Whenever I visit their stores, the employees are always really friendly and give great advice on which games to buy. Gamestop is one of those rare places where an employee will actually try to talk you out of a sale, if you try to buy a game that blows.

Since getting to Gamestop can be a bit of a hassle for me, I wanted to reserve a copy over the internet and then pick it up at a local store on the street date. Unfortunately, when I visited the Gamestop website, they were happy to let me pre-order the game, but only if I wanted it shipped to me. When I called my local Gamestop, they told me that I had to physically visit the store if I wanted to reserve a local copy.

Given that Gamestop’s core demographic is hyper connected to the web, I’m surprised that they would be so technologically backwards. It could be that they sell more games when they make people visit the store twice, but it’s not a very customer friendly strategy, especially with gas prices being what they are. Since I’m not willing to take two trips to a store (even for a brand I like), I ended up going to Best Buy’s website instead. From there I was not only able to pre-order the game, but I was also able to find a store near my home where I can pick it up. All without having to unplug from the internet.

Shopping at Best Buy always makes me feel scuzzy because they treat me like a shoplifter when I try to buy video games there, but in this digital age, I’m willing to give up brand loyalty for the convenience of the web. Losing my transaction won’t hurt GameStop, but I can’t help but wonder how many other people choose a competitor over a separate trip to Gamespot.

Gamestop told me that they have their in store pre-order policy in place for “security reasons”, but that doesn’t really make any sense. They allow you to purchase things with a credit card off of the internet, but they won’t allow you to put down a $5 deposit for pre-orders? If Best Buy can offer this type of convenience then GameStop should be able to come up with a better solution too. I still plan on stopping into GameStop when I’m itching for a new game, but they’ll miss out on the games that I know I’m going to buy, long before they even come out.

Posted in Video Games | 2 Comments »

Stage6 Part Deux?

April 24th, 2008 Davis

Over the past few days buzz has been building over the possible launch of a Stage6 clone. According to the DivxIT.net website, a Stage6 “alternative/clone” will be revealed on April 29th. If this is true, it would be an exciting development for fans who still crave the high quality Stage6 experience.

This isn’t the first time that someone has tried to hype the launch of a Stage6 replacement. As soon as Stage6 announced their shut down, there was a flurry of fake Stage6 clone announcements. Most of those sites fizzled out before they even got started.

NewStage6.com was the first “replacement” to pop up on my radar. Initially they had a timer counting down until their launch, but today, the site is all but empty. Highlol.com was another website that tried to create buzz around the Stage6 collapse. They promised free HD DivX downloads, but there still aren’t any videos on the site today.

Having already been burned a couple of times, you can understand why I tend to be skeptical about these sorts of promises. With DivX Inc. having come out and denied any affiliation with the site, I can’t help but wonder how far they will let this get before they try to shut it down. On the other hand, because DivX benefits from having more of their content out there, maybe they are really better off ignoring it. Still, if DivxIT does gain traction, DivX might not be so happy about someone copying their site, especially when they don’t seem willing to sell it to begin with. If DivX does try to go the hostile route, I think that they may be up against more than they realize.

According to my sources, the creator of DivxIT is a part of the social revolution group, Anonymous. I wasn’t able to confirm whether DivxIT is the brainchild of a solitary fan or if it is part of the larger movement, but I do think its worth noting that Stage6 was hacked earlier this year. Whoever hacked the site posted membership information online, but I don’t know whether or not they would had access to the GUI. April 29th may still end up being a bust or just a cheap knock off, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this turns out to be an exact replica of the Stage6 website.

I was also able to learn that prior to setting his sights on web video, DivxIT’s mystery founder also created the MyVideoTab.com website. MVT looks like a great resource for anyone who is interested in learning how to play cover songs off of the internet, but its ownership is also shrouded in mystery.

Even before Stage6 shut down, there was already a Stage6 clone in China, but trying to watch videos from the US brings back terrible flashbacks of 26k dial up connections. If I was going to launch my own clone, I would have gone with the 6egats.com domain instead, but someone beat me to that one already. We may end up getting punked with some wacky Scientology video on the 29th, but it will be interesting to see how this ends up playing out.

Update - So much for my conspiracies about black helicopters. It looks like DivxIT and DivX have worked out a deal for the new site. DivX must have asked them to change the name to something less confusing though because the new site will now be launched at Vreel.net. The launch was also postponed until May 6. On the Vreel website they have a FAQ where they say that their “database will be built from the ground up from day one onwards.” They also thank DivX for being cool about working out a deal with them.

Posted in SA, DivX, VOD | 2 Comments »

Inmate Sues Over No HD TiVos

April 11th, 2008 Davis

On the same day that TiVo was celebrating another legal win over Dish, they also learned of new lawsuit against them. Jonathan Riches has sued TiVo and some mysterious entity know as “HDTV” over the lack of HD TiVo in his jail cell. TiVo may end up needing to take Dish all the way to the Supreme Court to win their feud, but don’t bet on Riches suit getting quite as far. He’s already sued TiVo once before and had the case quickly dismissed. In fact over the last year, Riches has seen over 1,000 of his bogus lawsuits thrown out of court. I can understand how the losing access to TiVo’s sweet HDTV goodness might be uncomfortable, but I’m not convinced that it rises to the level of unconstitutionality.

What do you think is life without TiVo cruel and unusual punishment? (for dramatic effect)

Posted in TV, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 2 Comments »

Don’t Follow Leaders Watch The Parkin’ Meters

April 4th, 2008 Davis

Posted in Music | 3 Comments »

Redbox Quitely Testing Hand Gun Kiosks

April 1st, 2008 Davis

After pulling their R rated movies from all McDonald’s locations, Redbox has come up with a creative solution for filling the inventory void left behind. Instead of stocking their popular Redbox kiosks with more G rated movies, they’ve decided to jump into a new market and will begin renting 9mm hand guns at their popular $1 per night price point. In a statement to the Inside Redbox blog, Redbox PR spokeperson Tommy G describes the program as a way to make Redbox customers feel safer at some of their “rougher” Redbox locations.

“with recent reports of violence at some of our ‘rougher’ locations, Redbox wanted to help ensure our customers’ safety so, we added this option in some of these areas to test out the idea. It is unfortunate that this customer found out about this before it was ready to be released to the public. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can to make our customers’ experience at Redbox the best it can be.”

It’s hard to know how popular handgun rentals will be, but if Redbox has success with the program, I bet we’ll see Netflix work out a loaner program with the post office to compete.

Posted in Kiosks, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Netflix | 1 Comment »

The Moon Rises On TiVo Japan

April 1st, 2008 Davis

As someone who lives in the United States, it’s easy to forget that TiVo isn’t available everywhere. Over the last few years, we’ve seen TiVo support expanded to Canada, Mexico, China and pretty soon Australia, but TiVo’s international expansion hasn’t come without its fair share of head fakes.

Early on in their history, TiVo tried to bring the TiVolution to Britain, but the initiative proved too costly and they later withdrew support to focus on North America. For a long time, I thought that TiVo would stick exclusively to the US market, but about three years ago, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun announced that TiVo was trying to form a Japanese partnership and had plans to launch a version of TiVo in Japan, beginning in early 2007.

2007 came and went and while TiVo has achieved significant progress on their international expansion, they never mentioned the TiVo Japan partnership again. After failing to launch the service in 07′, I had given up all hope of seeing TiVo in Japan, but after a long slumber, it appears that the sun the moon has once again risen on the TiVo Japan website.

Instead of announcing new plans for a Japanese service though, the website has apparently been hacked by a group who is upset about an upcoming advertising program by TiVo. If you go to the TiVo.jp website, they’ve posted a warning about plans by TiVo to disable fast forwarding capabilities on their sponsors’ commercials. In a statement condemning the program, the hackers have vowed to retain control over the site until TiVo agrees to a forthcoming list of their demands.

“We at the Japanese branch of the Television Internet Video Organization (TIVO.jp) believe that fast forwarding through bad content is a fundamental right that every human being should have access to. It shouldn’t matter whether you live in Alviso, California or Yamanashi Japan, we dream of a world where ad skipping is available to everyone.

With TiVo silently plotting to take away our fast forwarding capabilities, we felt that we had no choice, but to strike back by taking control over the TiVo Japan website. Our hope is that TiVo will reconsider their anti-ad skipping stance and will agree to reinstate our ability to blow past bad commercials.”

While I applaud TiVo for trying to come up with an innovative way to reward their shareholders, I can’t help but wonder how popular fast forward blocking will be with TiVo’s customers. It’s likely that this may be an April Fool’s joke by TiVo and that they may be having some fun with their own website, but somehow I doubt that they would Goatse their customers with a faux protest. The site has an RSS feed and I’ll be tuning in for more announcements. I don’t think that we’re any closer to seeing TiVo DVRs in Japan, but at least the website has new content.

Posted in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 2 Comments »