7/30 Shortcuts

Another shortcuts from another day. We’ll probably have more on the Scrabulous, Blizzard, and Age of Conan stories in a later segment.

• Facebook pulls Scrabulous from US and UK servers.
• Gamepolitics has the court documents from Hasbro’s prior lawsuits over the game.
• Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) indicted in Alaskan court. The internet may be a series of tubes, but his bank account is a series of oil company transactions.
• Blizzard moves for a permanent injunction in the Glider case. Virtually Blind has the PDF of the motion.
• EA reports a $95 million loss this quarter (better than last year. Most companies post a loss this time in preparation for holiday sales). Smart investors know this is not a bad thing, and EA’s porfolio of upcoming games is as as strong as we’ve seen for any company. Also, Bad Company sells 1.6 million copies.
• Rob Pardo says: Raph Koster is wrong, PC gaming is not dying, it’s evolving. No offense Raph, but Rob’s got a better track record on this one, and the technological state of the PC gaming industry tends to agree with Pardo.
• EA acquires Shawn Fanning’s social networking site. Spore has 33% female fanbase. Battlefield Heros to integrate social networking, and EA to focus on strong launches for Heroes and Spore.
• Nintendo files for injunction in Tokyo District Court against R4 Revolution modchip sales. Gamasutra says the suit is limited only to Japan’s jurisdiction and is not aimed at western sales.
• Age of Conan developer Funcom’s stock drops by half. It’s misleading, because it’s now still above the levels it was shortly before Conan’s launch. This is both a non-issue and a big deal. It’s a non-issue because the stock price boom was the result of the Conan launch, clearly a temporary bubble, and due to correct anyway, and it recovered to a still-higher-than-pre-launch price. It’s a big deal, because it dropped by half, meaning some traders made it big on the stock, and others missed out on a big chunk of change. The drop was precipitated by SOMETHING, in this case, a huge exodus of players due to bugs, balance issues, and lack of end-game content.

That’s all for this edition of shortcuts. Tune in next time for “Son of shortcuts!”

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