I guess they should rename the company Blizzard Activision. In any case, Activision Blizzard scored big time with the launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Published by Activision Blizzard’s Blizzard Entertainment division, the online game expansion for WoW players sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours. That’s a big chunk of WoW’s 11 million subscribers, which suggests an unusually high enthusiasm for the game, nicknamed “Warcrack” because of its addictiveness. Activision Blizzard said this makes the expansion pack the fastest-selling PC game in history. The previous record was set in January 2007, when Blizzard...
Despite numerous examples of legitimate uses, most people still associate P2P with illegal file-sharing. That perception might be due for a change, according to a new report from research firm MultiMedia Intelligence. It predicts that licensed P2P transfers will grow 10 times faster than P2P piracy over the next five years. Granted, forecasts like these should always be taken with a grain of salt, especially since at least part of the online video space appears to be moving away from P2P right now, with Joost a prominent example of abandoning peer-supported streaming for traditional Flash streams. And one shouldn’t disregard...
LinkedIn on Thursday announced the launch of LinkedIn Surveys, a service from the LinkedIn Research Network that allows market researchers and investors to access the site's 30 million professionals for market intelligence by creating a survey and either opening it up to the entire LinkedIn community or targeting a select group. In order to increase the number of members participating in the surveys, LinkedIn will allow those who participate to choose from a variety of rewards, including gift cards from Amazon, Starbucks, or Best Buy. For those that don't want gift cards, LinkedIn is also offering participants the opportunity...
In one of the most anti-climactic announcements we can recall, Microsoft this week revealed that the official name of the operating system code-named Windows 7 is…Windows 7. Apparently Microsoft decided to spend its creativity trying to decide how to position the new OS, which is probably a good thing considering the size of that challenge. Do you need Vista or can you move straight to 7? The current version of Windows, Vista, hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm. It’s gaining market share because it comes installed on the vast majority of PCs sold to consumers. But businesses aren’t buying...
Here’s the latest action: Leading market researchers team up to report on video game sales – In a long overdue move, the leading research companies in the field — The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain — have released the Top Global Markets Report, with reliable data on worldwide games sales. The bestselling game of the year so far is Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto IV, according to the report. Microsoft introduces photosharing technology Photosynth — A “synth,” as Microsoft calls it, is a three-dimensional, 360-degree version of your digital photos. The service was so popular that Microsoft’s servers...
We’ve been waiting around for awhile for a laptop that uses methanol fuel cells. Finally, PolyFuel has finished up a working prototype for a fuel cell-powered laptop, the Lenovo T40 ThinkPad. The laptop runs on direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), and each methanol cartridge provides power for about 10 hours of use. There are some great features to this, and some not so great features. First off, the battery prototype is quite a bit lighter than the OEM battery the Lenovo uses, which is great, but it is larger, which is not so great. It offers three times the...
