Project Butterfly???:… Project Cafe?

Hey guys, it has been a while, just finishing up *hopefully* with my degree with exams to come in May.  What does that mean, well it means that I’ll have some time after May to properly kick back off in this blog with what ever comes into my head.  I just wanted to give a wee update on my thoughts of a Wii 2.  Also for those wanting to keep track, any other random thoughts on this I may tweet about but I will hashtag it with #projectbutterfly because I by far prefer that to the ‘Wii2’ moniker. EDIT I could be using the hashtag #Projectcafe instead if LINK is to be believed.

Why Northern Ireland is the BEST location for game development!

So yesterday I attended a guest lecture by Declan Kelly the US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland, and lets just say it was inspirational and gave me the drive to come and create this blog post!

US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland Declan Kelly @ University of Ulster Jordanstown

Well this blog post is about the gaming industry, and why NI is the ideal location for developers to locate in the future.  I say this at a time where there are 0 games developers located here, there may be a small number of idevices developers that also provide other services like web design and marketing graphic design.  But in Northern Ireland there are no games developers here what so ever.  Now in Mr. Kelly’s speech he does identify that the Creative Industry is has a key role to play in the development of NI, and as what I see as the current leader of the creative media it is a shame that anyone who wants a job developing games has to move away from NI.  I would like to remind you that one of the old gaming developing greats David Doak who was studio head for RARE back when they were under the control of Nintendo is from NI, he set up Free Radical Design and the Timesplitters franchise.  Northern Ireland has such raw talent in its students, and it is recognised by American corporations as identified in MR. Kelly’s speech that they show more drive, fore thinking, ambition and they work harder to get what they want.  Northern Ireland it focuses on the creative industries, business and financial services as well as the high tech arena such as cloud computing and personalised health as identified by Mr. Kelly as well as having 2 world class universities, University of Ulster with its 4 campuses and Queens University Belfast.

So lets move into the reasons as to why NI should be the target location for game studios to locate in the near future.

iPlayer Stats 19-03-2010 (1 day late :p)

Well due to having absolutely no time what so ever yesterday I had to resort to doing the iPlayer stats for 4 months and 1 day.

Following my own logic for this data from last time. There are:
(807,028 / 6.68)

120813 (rounded) users reporting data on the BBC iPlayer channel. Each one viewing the channel for 6+ hours on average, this is almost double the amount of users and average usage time increasing by approximately 60% (401{mins} / 250{mins}). Each user has again increased the amount of times they’ve used the iPlayer from 3.75 times to 5.51 times (with the first month’s usages being 2.92 times).

My own personal usage of the channel has slowed this past couple of months in my own opinion but the tally for 4 months usage is a total of 54Hr(s) 52Min(s), and it has been booted 19 times, with much more content being added each week Rugby 6 Nations being hosted for a week after games have been played and with Formula 1 starting the season again I can see the iPlayer regional usage continuing to climb.

Again it seems that when I goto post my usage stats I’m beatin to it with even more in depth source data (from the BBC) so with news from MCVUK after the jump.

BBC iPlayer 2 Months in

Well the BBC iPlayer is officially 2 months old today, so lets see how things have shaped up since my last usage stats update a month ago!

Following my own logic for this data from last time. There are:
(263,536 / 4.16)

63350 (rounded) users reporting data on the BBC iPlayer channel. Each one viewing the channel for 4+ hours on average, this is a MAJOR jump in users and average usage time. With each user increasing the amount of times they’ve used the iPlayer from 2.92 times to 3.75 times.

My own personal usage of the channel has massively increased to a total of 22Hr(s) 17Min(s), and it has been booted 11 times, this is due to the fact that even more great content keeps getting added and has the convenience of I get to watch the television I want whenever I want (before it expires :p)

After the jump some record breaking news from the BBC about the iPlayer

BBC iPlayer usage stats – so far

If my understanding of this information is correct. There are:
(79205 / 3)

26402 (rounded) users reporting data on the BBC iPlayer channel.  Each one viewing the channel for 3+ hours on average, to me this speaks of a good but slow start, if I remember in January I will report the new details then.

My own personal usage of the channel tallies between the 8 and 9 hours mark and I find the channel very useful and intuitive.

4oD Coming To Games Consoles

For those who may or may not notice the interview below, maybe this post title will attract you to read said Interview Blog Post

And on my blog I posted about how the BBC commented on Nintendo releasing a Video on Demand Framework, would the 4oD team be actively going out to get this development platform to play with and hopefully build some sort of alpha version of a 4oD Wii player to test it’s viability?

> > We are actively exploring the opportunity in extending to new devices. That means that the business people are looking at them on the one hand and the tech team on the other hand. Behind the scenes the tech team has already been tinkering.

Ok well it’s not certainly set in stone to be coming but there’s no harm in wishful thinking. But the fact remains that they are exploring the opportunities, I don’t see the proposition to gain more revenue through advertising streams as something the network 4 will want to miss out on!

My Interview With Richard Davidson-Houston

So as my blog has exploded with activity over searched for 4oD on Wii possibilities (688 hits over 2 1/2 months for a single blog on 4oD!), I decided to hunt down the man in charge Richard Davidson-Houston and try to persuade him to give me a few words on 4oD’s console future, thing is Richard was more than happy to speak to you the gamers who want the services they provide on your system.

So click through for more!

It makes rational business sense…

Yes this is an article about Michael Pachter AGAIN… 😛

Ok in the latest GameTrailers Bonus Round episode (chapter 2, Pachter Vs. Reggie) Michael commented “It makes rational business sense for Nintendo to release it (HD Wii) and soon”. Well I refer you to an earlier blog of mine discussing Michael and his Wii HD rumors, it makes perfect rational business sense IF Nintendo was Sony or Microsoft.

BBC iPlayer – My Thoughts

Well I was originally planning on doing a video on this, maybe I will in the future but I thought it would be good to finally have time to write about it and update this blog.
The BBC iPlayer is everything I was expecting and then some, but still it has me wanting for more from the beeb in services. While the iPlayer channel does everything that the website does in a much smoother and a higher quality than the website was able to provide to the Wii through it’s Opera (internet) Channel, there were a couple of features run by the iPlayer tech that were external to the official website that I was hoping for implementation.

Nintendo’s Video on Demand Framework?

Well after finding out about the BBC iPlayer channel coming to the Wii I decided to look out for some information on this.
Well didn’t I step onto a nice juicy bit of info, for those of you hoping for a VoD service to come to your very own region, well I personally don’t think it will be too long until something comes along. Can I hear Netflix somewhere in the shadows?