Gaming and Culture

Starting Monday, Electronics Arts will sell its popular video game Spore free of any digital rights management restrictions.

It's part of a slew of titles which EA will offer on Valve's Steam distribution platform, according to a report by Ars Technica. Besides Spore, the collection will include Warhammer Online, Need for Speed Undercover, Mass Effect, and FIFA Manager 09. Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, and SiN Episodes: Emergence are already available on the service, and there are more on the way.

Prices for the DRM-free versions are said to be on par with what the games would sell for in a box in a retail store.

It's a move likely to win EA some points with gamers after the disastrous public response to its DRM policy for Spore. Originally the company locked the game using DRM software called SecuROM to no more than three machines, which it later upped to five.

Updated 8:02 a.m. PST with more information about EA's decision to increase the size of its layoffs and with Friday's share price performance.

Game publishing giant Electronic Arts announced Friday that it is expanding the scope of its previously announced layoffs and will cut 10 percent of its workforce, as well as close nine studios and publishing operations and reduce its product lines.

The bulk of the now approximately 1,000 layoffs are expected to be completed by March 31, with the company hoping to save $120 million in annual costs.

In late October, EA had said it would be cutting 6 percent of its workforce, but it boosted that figure as its outlook for 2009 grew bleaker.

EA is also slimming down its product line, as it focuses on its more profitable hit games. That said, however, the company noted it will continue to invest in new games, as well as games for mobile devices and online play.

As part of the restructuring, EA also plans to close its Black Box Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, and move the development teams and related game franchises to its studio in Burnaby, British Columbia. In total, the company plans to close or consolidate at least nine studio and publishing locations.

EA expects to take a restructuring charge of $55 million to $65 million over the next several quarters as a result of the layoffs and office closures.

The move by EA to trim its operations come as the game publisher finds its financial performance for 2009 will be challenged, as sales in Europe and the U.S. fall short of its earlier expectations.

When it lowered its 2009 expectations earlier this month, EA's chief executive John Riccitiello said in a statement:

While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations. Given this performance and the uncertain economic environment, we are taking steps to reduce our cost structure and improve the profitability of our business.

EA rose more than 4 percent to $17.52 a share in Friday morning trading.

Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software posted a wider quarterly loss on Wednesday and forecast a sharp drop in sales revenue for the current quarter.

For the quarter that ended October 31, the company best known for its Grand Theft Auto franchise reported a net loss of $15 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $7.1 million, or 10 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue increased 11 percent to $323.4 million on the sales strength of its Midnight Club: Los Angeles, NBA 2K9, and Grand Theft Auto IV titles.

The company predicted a fiscal first-quarter loss of 70 cents to 85 cents a share on revenue of $175 million to $225 million, falling short of Wall Street estimates of $310.75 million.

Executives blamed weak consumer spending amid a global economic downturn. Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick said the company had "witnessed significant softness" in retail sales and noted the 2009 forecast factors in the recent bankruptcy of electronics retailer Circuit City.

Take-Two fended off a $2 billion hostile acquisition bid earlier this year by rival game publisher Electronic Arts.

Shares of Take-Two fell to $9.56 in after-hours trading.

The space shuttle Discovery touching down at Kennedy Space Center on June 14, 2008. NASA now says it is going to solicit proposals for how to display the shuttles once the program ends in 2010.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Want your very own authentic space shuttle?

Well, if you're part of the community of "educational institutions, science museums and other appropriate organizations," NASA just might have something for you after the shuttle program ends in 2010.

On Wednesday, the space agency issued a request for information (RFI) soliciting ideas for what to do with the shuttle orbiters and main engines once the program ends.

Sponsored by NASA's Office of Infrastructure, the RFI seeks input from appropriate officials and decision makers from museums, science centers, institutions, and other organizations dedicated to education or educational outreach with experience in public display of space hardware and nationally-recognized historical artifacts," NASA said in a release. NASA will use information gained from this RFI to develop strategies for eventual placement of two space shuttle orbiters and a minimum of six unassembled space shuttle main engine display "kits."

The agency said the purpose of the initiative is to decide whether institutions or other members of the community have the appropriate wherewithal to display a shuttle or engines, including the ability to fund such efforts.

Interested applicants have until March 17, 2009 to respond.

It's probably safe to say, however, that NASA doesn't intend for the recipients of the shuttles to fly them, and as such, probably won't be providing astronauts with the delivery of the spacecraft.

A team calling itself Next Giant Leap pulled back the wraps Wednesday on the participants--individuals and their companies--who will attempt to win the Google Lunar X Prize competition.

(Credit: Next Giant Leap)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--There are now 16 announced teams registered for the Google Lunar X Prize competition, with a so-called "mystery" team unveiling its participants Wednesday.

During a press conference held at NASA Ames Research Center here, the Next Giant Leap team--which had actually been the fifth team to register for the competition--finally pulled the wraps on its team members and the companies or institutions they work for.

The Google Lunar X Prize is a $20 million purse that will be awarded to the first privately-funded team to land a rover on the moon, travel at least 500 meters across the surface, and then send two packages of video, data, and images back to Earth. If no one completes the mission by December 31, 2012, the first prize drops to $15 million.

The Next Giant Leap team is led by its founder Michael Joyce, and among its members are former space shuttle astronaut Jeff Hoffman, currently a professor at MIT.

Joyce said he was ready to reveal the team's participants now because of progress it had made, including coming up with the design for the lunar lander pictured above.

The companies and institutions involved in Next Giant Leap include MicroSat Systems, which builds satellites, among other things ; Draper Laboratories, a specialist in space guidance navigation and control; and MIT's department of aeronautics and astronautics.

Lunar X Prize senior director for special projects William Pomerantz said on January 1, 2009, the application fee for the competition goes up from its current $10,000 to $30,000. Therefore, he expects a flurry of registrants to materialize before the new year.

That means, he said, that he expects the total number of competitors to go up from 16 today to around 25 or 26 in the end.

To Hoffman, one of the exciting aspects of getting involved in an effort to send a private team to the moon is evolving from what NASA learned from its lunar missions.

"The big challenge," Hoffman said, "is to learn how to do it affordably. The other big challenge, even if it is 'affordable,' we still have to raise the money to do it."

That may be a particularly difficult task, given today's economic environment.

But Pomerantz said while Lunar X Prize officials recognize the tough conditions, they're still optimistic that enough teams will follow through on their participation in the competition to make it worthwhile.

That's because, Pomerantz suggested, sponsorship money is still strong for such efforts because companies still have to advertise, and some are seeing the value of putting resources into high-profile things such as this competition.

And to Joyce, the Next Giant Leap team founder, the fund-raising issue boils down to his hope that there are people out there with resources and vision.

"We see that there is a long-term business plan beyond the prize," Joyce said, alluding to the hope that the winners of the competition can begin to commercialize their success.

At Macworld 2008, Apple fans got their first hands-on look at the MacBook Air. Without participation by Apple at Macworld after 2009, scenes like this will be a thing of the past.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Apple's decision to make January's Macworld its last offers fodder for endless speculation. But another big question is how this will go down with the Mac faithful who have flocked to this annual event through good times and bad.

To be sure, there will be official Apple events in the future, like the Worldwide Developers Conference. But most fans--the civilians--likely won't be able to gain access to such events, which are usually reserved for press, analysts, VIPs, and developers.

So, as one colleague of mine put it, Macworld has long been the public carnival for Mac fans, and Apple's decision to get out after the 2009 version doesn't bode well for Macworld's future or for the future of a single, mass event for the hardcore Mac community.

"It's a big disappointment," said Leander Kahney, the author of The Cult of Mac and Inside Steve's Brain. "A lot of Mac fans will be royally bummed. It's a huge part of being an Apple fan--looking forward to what Steve (Jobs) will unveil at Macworld. It's like Christmas for grownups."

For Mike Leeds, a Mac technician at a Portland, Ore., college, one of the biggest losses of an Apple-free Macworld will be the chance to hobnob with the company employees who staff the event.

"I got to wander around and talk to the Apple employees that are on duty manning the show," Leeds said. "With luck, you manage to find a particular employee that actually knows the particular issue that you might have, and can give you some background on a) what their plans are for addressing the issue or b) other ways of dealing with it. Half of the time I'm down there...I'm walking around and talking to Apple employees, and that's going to be gone."

For Leeds, then, not having Apple participate in Macworld means he likely won't make the annual trip to San Francisco for the event. And he's not alone.

"It matters a lot that people get to see Jobs," said Kahney. "This is the big show for Jobs' fans. People look forward to this all year. They camp out overnight and take a vacation to go to Macworld and travel from all over the world. It's the big gathering of the tribe."

Further, Kahney pointed out that for many Apple fans, Jobs' keynote speeches have provided a regular sense of spectacle, something worth traveling to San Francisco for, and which will be sorely missing both next month--when Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, gives the keynote speech--and in the future, when Apple doesn't participate.

"Jobs is hugely entertaining," Kahney noted. "There's nothing like it, in tech or anywhere else. It's marketing theater at its best. And with concerns about Jobs' health, people want to see him in the flesh--see if he's OK."

For its part, Apple had no comment related to Jobs' health.

Of course, Mac fans aren't the only ones who would be disappointed by an Apple-less Macworld.

"What a bummer for everyone," Kevin Mathieu, a Bay Area artist who has been going to Macworld for 17 years, said about the news. "From Mac fans to local union workers and local bars," which will undoubtedly lose business.

Still, Kahney pointed out that the faithful will still have places to congregate.

"Luckily, there's the local Apple stores," said Kahney, "which have a ton of community events. They're not just stores. They really are community gathering places, especially the flagship ones in New York and Los Angeles."

But to some, the end of Apple's involvement in Macworld spells trouble for the continuity of the cohesiveness of the Mac faithful community.

At Macworld, Kobi and Ron Shely, two Israeli filmmakers, will be debuting their documentary, MacHeads, which is about the Mac and Apple community. Kobi Shely said a big part of the movie is an exploration of just the issues raised by Apple's Tuesday announcement.

"Apple is on an ongoing process that started back in 1998 when the Internet started to take over," Shely said. "The Mac community was based on in-person meeting places such as the Mac users groups. What's holding it all together is the hundreds, if not thousands, of communities across the world spreading the passion and creating the myths. Their meeting place is Macworld."

But Shely added that while making MacHeads, he found that Apple and its community, while deeply connected, are indeed separate.

"And today I think...is the most significant sign (of) that relationship," Shely said. "The Internet has changed the community. Today the young generation doesn't need to get together in groups. They can get online. But at least they had Macworld. In my view, the Mac faithful will have difficulties continuing the fandom without that direct contact. I hope Macworld will continue to be the gathering place of 'Mac heads' and the shelter for Mac users all over the world."

'MacHeads,' a movie about the Apple and Macintosh culture, is set to premiere at MacWorld on January 7, 2009.

(Credit: MacHeads)

For the faithful planning to attend MacWorld 2009 next month in San Francisco, there's one more reason, beyond the usual iPhone, Mac and iPod news, to get excited.

That's because the producers of the Mac and Apple culture documentary, MacHeads, say they are going to debut the film at the show.

The film, which takes an in-depth look at the evolution of the so-called "cult of Mac," is scheduled to premiere on January 7, 2009, at Moscone Center's North Hall.

The producers noted that showing MacHeads for the first time at MacWorld is an appropriate thing to do, given that they shot the film's first reel at MacWorld 2007.

MacHeads features, among others, former Apple chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki, early employee Daniel Kottke, DigiBarn computer museum co-founder Bruce Damer, Inside Steve's Brain author Leander Kahney. and an introduction by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Just how reliant are you on the Internet?

Nearly half of the women questioned by Harris Interactive said they'd be willing to forgo sex for two weeks, rather than give up their Internet access, according to a study released Monday by Intel, which commissioned the survey.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

While 46 percent of the women surveyed were willing to engage in abstinence verses losing their Internet, only 30 percent of the men surveyed were willing to do likewise.

The U.S. survey, which queried 2,119 adults last month, found that the gap grew even wider for both men and woman who were 18 to 34 years old. For woman, the percentage of those willing to skip the sheets in favor of the Web rose to 49 percent, while it climbed to 39 percent for men.

And for women 35 to 44 years old, the figure jumped to 52 percent.

(Our poll, right, lets you weigh in on the issue, although we've upped the time-frame from two weeks to one year, just for kicks.)

These figures were just some of the tidbits that came out of the Intel's broader commissioned study on Americans' reliance on the Internet in today's economy.

Though not as sexy but equally interesting, the survey also found that 87 percent of respondents said the Internet saves them money.

Specifically, 84 percent of those surveyed found the Internet saved them money by comparing prices online and searching out the best deals, while 65 percent said it aided them in finding coupons, discounts, and special promotions.

And TV, which has been losing its share of eyeball time to the Internet over the years, found that the majority of adults would be willing to go two weeks of watching TV, verses losing one week on the Internet.

Of course when it comes to TV, perhaps size matters, at least according to a different survey earlier this year of Britons conducted by electronics retailer Comet. Almost half of the men polled said they would give up sex for six months in return for a 50-inch plasma TV, according to Reuters. That compared with just over a third of women who were willing to make the same sacrifice for the big-screen television.

In a tiny California town town within sight of Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen is the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, home to the Allen Telescope Array--the only large-scale telescope fully at the disposal of the SETI project.
Click on the image for a related photo gallery.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

HAT CREEK, CALIF.--From the perspective of an extraterrestrial, I wonder if there would be much difference between a human and a deer.

You might think that's an odd question, but on Wednesday, as I stood in an open plain here, at around 5,000 feet, with Mount Shasta visible far off to the north, a stunning blue sky, I watched a deer poking around at the base of what on its own would be an odd piece of astronomy equipment.

In fact, though, the 20-foot-diameter antenna the deer was investigating was just one of 42 identical units that make up the Allen Telescope Array, currently the world's first large-scale telescope meant for the full-time use of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project.

The ATA, as it's called, opened in late 2007 with these first 42 antennas. Designed to work in pairs, the antennas are intended to work together to mimic the stellar investigatory capacity of far larger single dishes. And the ATA is hardly finished. In fact, it is planned to eventually be made up of 350 of these antennas.

And while the famous Arecibo uber-antenna in Puerto Rico, with its 73,000 square meter size, has seven times the collecting area of the full ATA, the telescope here--the array in its entirety is a telescope--will be able to look at 2,500 times as much sky as Aricebo.

For my visit, resident astronomer Rick Forster took me around, explaining the history of the facility, as well as how it is used today.

Originally, the Hat Creek Radio Observatory--the official name of this facility--was a joint effort by UC Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana, and the University of Maryland, called BIMA. It had ten 20-foot-diameter antennas that operated in concert to create a millimeter-wave radio interferometer.

A deer investigates the ground around one of the 42 antennas in the Allen Telescope Array.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

But eventually, that project moved on, and now, Hat Creek is the home to the ATA, and for the same reason that BIMA was here: it is one of the few places in North America that provides astronomers hoping to scan the skies with little-to-no terrestrial radio interference.

That's because the facility is bounded by the Cascades on one side and a fault scarp to the east.

Of course, for the folks who live here, that means no cell phone service, and they're pretty much out of luck for listening to the radio or watching broadcast TV.

But since what these scientists want is to do serious astronomy, it's fair to say that's a trade they're willing to make.

To be sure, however, their hope for radio silence is dashed by the ever-present broadcast satellites that scream overhead. And those mean that there are a series of frequencies that simply aren't available for scanning.

The Allen Telescope Array has been funded so far mainly by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and it's hoped he will be the benefactor for the future, as well.

Forster said that the original 42 antennas cost around $25 million to put up, and that while no additional funding has yet been acquired, they are in negotiations for the money to expand the array to about 128 antennas.

You may be familiar with other large-scale radio observatories. Perhaps the most famous is the Very Large Array, in New Mexico, which comprises 27 giant dishes.

Like ATA, SETI makes use of the Very Large Array. But the chief difference is that the SETI folks only get to use VLA once in a while. At ATA, however, they are always on. And that means, the SETI folks think, that their goal of tracking down E.T. is now getting a serious jump start.

The full array of 350 antennas, as imagined by Isaac Gary. The ATA needs more funding in order to reach the goal of 350 antennas, and it is likely to be several years before reaching that goal.

(Credit: Isaac Gary)

Forster explained that at the full 350 antenna capacity, the SETI project will have the ability to "see" transmissions from something as large as Aricebo from as much as 1,000 light years away, meaning that if there are aliens within that distance and they have their own SETI projects going on that are broadcasting signals like we are, there's a much better chance we'll meet up eventually, now that a tool like the ATA is available.

Of course, the array here is also available simultaneously for other astronomy, but thanks to Allen's interest in finding extraterrestrials, SETI is the bread-winner here.

"Without SETI, it would never have happened," Forster said of the ATA's creation. "Since BIMA left, this luckily came along. So, yeah, it's hugely important for the existence of the observatory.

When the funding comes in for more antennas, Forster explained, the facility has a team of two techs that can put them together at a rate of about two a week. They cost about $150,000 each, a number that is cheap in the business. And they're provided by a guy in Idaho Falls, Idaho, who specializes in making large-scale satellite dishes.

Radio waves that come screaming in from outer space are captured by a receiver called an ultra-wide band log periodic feed. Forster said that electrons in the radio waves bounce off the main reflector, then bounce again off the sub-reflector and arrive at the focus of the receiver, a spot about 80 percent or so along its jagged length.

The receiver of one of the antennas in the Allen Telescope Array. Electrons in radio waves from outer space bounce off the antennas' main reflector, then again on their sub-reflector, before being captured on the focus of the receiver.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Then, through a multi-step process, those radio waves are transmitted to the scientists' computers nearby for analysis.

Ultimately, said Forster, the entire array is about doing exactly this job.

"The whole telescope is just to get that reflective surface...pointing in the right direction."

And while many large-scale telescopes require complexities for analyzing and collecting data, the ATA is quite simple, and thus, elegant, Forster said.

Eventually, the full 350-antenna array will cover about 90 acres, and be much denser than it is today, at 42 antennas.

Until then, the search for E.T. will have to make do with what is available here. But once Allen, or other benefactors come through with the money, we may just discover once and for all that we are not alone.

While you may think that the economic news is totally bleak, the video game industry seems like it may well be one very bright exception to the worldwide gloom.

Bolstering the theory that the industry may be recession-proof, or at least better positioned to weather the storm than most, the video game business posted a startlingly strong November, according to figures released Thursday by the analyst firm, NPD Group.

NPD reported that overall, the industry posted sales of $2.91 billion, up 10 percent from $2.64 billion in November 2007. And for the year, sales stand at $16.04 billion, up 22 percent from $13.14 billion through November a year ago.

This is good news, clearly, for those in video games, but also a rare ray of sunshine on an otherwise destitute economy, particularly, NPD pointed out, because the November sales numbers included seven less post-Thanksgiving days than last year.

Once again, the biggest winner was Nintendo, which sold an astounding 2.04 million Wiis, as well as 1.57 million Nintendo DS handhelds. By contrast, Microsoft moved what it said was a company November record of 836,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold just 378,000 PlayStation 3s and 421,000 PlayStation Portables.

November, therefore, was a major vindication for Nintendo, whose Wii far outsold the Xbox 360, despite Microsoft's having dropped the price of its lowest cost console to $199, lower even than the Wii's sticker price of $249.

However, Microsoft can smile about the fact that the two top-selling console games SKUs in November were for the Xbox, Gears of War 2, with 1.56 million units sold, and Call of Duty: World at War, with 1.41 million moved. The PS3 version of Call of Duty sold just 597,000 copies.

Activision Blizzard also has bragging rights, however, as its World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King sold a record 2.8 million copies on its launch day, November 13, alone. Figures aren't available for the full month.

So, it's clear that video games are doing well right now. The question that faces the industry--now more so than other sectors, though--is whether it can sustain its success in the face of a global recession the likes of which haven't been seen since the Great Depression. It's one thing to sell well before the holidays. It's quite another to do well once the gifts have all been opened and people are realizing they have no jobs and their houses are worth less than their mortgages.

Still, it's nice to see a sign that consumers are still willing to spend their hard-earned and dwindling dollars. Let's hope that continues to be true.

Stay tuned.