The problem that you've got is that it's very difficult to register a trademark on a common word. That's the reason that the didn't use Revolution, and also the unusual spelling for the Wii (instead of We).
Beem, if it is that, would still be pronounced 'Beam', but it would be more likely that a patent or trademark would be granted because it is not spelt like a real word.
I think that's more to do with the high value of the Yen at the moment. It's the reason that many Japanese companies who do a lot of business outside Japan are reporting lower profits (or even loss) because when it's converted back into Yen, they don't make as much.
In terms of the relation to Japan's income, it's probably more on par with the price of games in the US or UK.
I can't wait for this. Played all the AC games, and they keep getting better. Recently finished ACB, and I am dying to find out what happens after that cliffhanger.
I actually wonder how much of an impact that the tsunami had on their financials.
When you consider that the figures we have are from 1st April 2010 to 31st March 2011 (their whole financial year), and the tsunami happened just under 3 weeks before the end of their year end, would it have had time to have a severely negative impact into production and sales in Japan to affect the financials that much?
I would have thought that the majority of any fallout from...
"Sony has seen plunging sales of flat-panel TVs and other gadgets, and was likely to remain in the red in its TV business for the seventh year straight.
Sony has also taken a beating in music players and other portable devices to Apple's iPod, iPhone and iPad.
The company booked a 40.8 billion yen ($439 million) loss for the fiscal year ended March 2010 after a 98.9 billion yen loss the year before- Sony's first annual red ink in 14 years." ...
The PSN hack is not counted in these figures, as this is their end of year financials as of March 2011. The PSN hack happened a month after the end of their fiscal year, and will therefore be factored into next year's results.
It's probably better to have the Zelda team working solely on the new Zelda than split them up to handle a port of an older game.
I'm actually glad that this is finally come to fruition. It's like Ubisoft have taken the potential of the GH games and took the risk that Activision were not prepared to do because it would impact their bottom line.
We've all heard both sides of the argument about the GH games as to whether or not they actually increase the desire to play an actual instrument, and now we seem to be getting the proper evolution of the music game genre.
The reason...
I find it encouraging that companies from all over the world are pulling together in the wake of this disaster, and also how they are trying to find different ways of spreading the message and raising money.
This, however, is no different to the now famous Tweet that Bing followers received on Twitter, and there was enormous backlash to that.
I genuinely hope that there is no backlash on companies doing this from now on, as despite its roots being advertising...
MS gave a fairly decent $2 million, and that was before the additional $100K.
Slightly misinformed there. Click on the link in the tweet and you'll see that it states MS donated $2 million already. The $100,000 was just an added donation for people spreading the word (via retweets).
EDIT - Who disagreed? Just stating the facts - they can't be denied.
EDIT 2 - @Tombstone: The tweet was a direct reference to the link on that tweet linking people to the MS page that contained all the information of the stuff MS was doing (suc...
Nintendo also donated 300 million Yen, and Microsoft donated $2 million.
@Technologymob: Microsoft donated $2 million in addition to the $100,000 from the Twitter thing. And they donated the $2 million BEFORE the whole Twitter 'scandal' too.
EDIT - Why the disagree? MS DID donate the $2 million.
I agree. In fact, my comments on this very page have been in defence of MS and their actions.
If you actually read the whole thing, they are saying that they will donate up to $100,000 for the retweets of the status only. Actually click on the link in their tweet and you will get a better picture:
"While it may be some time until the full impact has been assessed, Microsoft has activated our disaster response protocol to determine where our support can be of greatest benefit to the community. We are also taking a number of steps including ensuring the safety of ...
And what have you done to help in the wake of this disaster? At least MS is showing people the best way to help, and are putting money there themselves.
I'm not going to repeat myself, as I have made comments above addressing the issue, but needless to say, I feel that is a rather immature comment from you.
I don't think it was a PR goof at all - it has been unfairly criticised.
Let's look at what they have actually done - they provided a link to a page which shows many different ways you can help and donate to the Japanese Earthquake Fund. Usefull information to many, especially considering all the scam charities that have popped up as a result of the disaster.
They also said that for every RT of their link, they would donate money. This isn't exa...
If you read the actual Tweet, there is no mention at all of the 'Try Bing....' part you quoted:
http://twitter.com/bing/sta...
It's clear that the status was simply copied and pasted from whatever Twitter reader that they were using, because some Twitter feed readers put info from links underneath - as evidenced in the 'Mentioned in this Tweet' part which quotes from B...
As a Viking Direct customer for years, the price displayed on the Viking site is EXCLUDING VAT, so when you add the 20% tax to it, the price is closer to £99.
Still cheaper than many retailers, though, but I have seen better prices and deals elsewhere.
3rd party games will always be developed for the lowest denominator graphically, so obviously, they will be on par with 360/PS3. It's the exclusives that will make the difference graphically.
All hands-on impressions of the controller say that it is very light and comfortable to hold.