The Week in Review

This week we learn that OnLive still has a chance, EA is standing up the industry and Facebook says that your cat isn’t a real person.

Venture Capitalist Bails Out OnLive

Following last week’s string of rumors over the future of games streaming service OnLive, its new holding company has clarified some details in an official statement. On August 17, technological investors Lauder Partners bought out all of OnLive’s assets and transferred them to a company intending to trade under the same name. The assets include all of the service’s intellectual property and technology, but not stocks and shares. The company expects users to remain unaffected by the changes, stating that all of OnLive’s game rights will remain with the new company, and there should be no interruption to the service. (Link)

EA “Standing Up for the Industry” by Suing Zynga

One of the recurring themes in “monster vs. monster” movies is that no matter which terrifying creature wins, humanity will lose. Whether it’s Alien vs. Predator or King Kong vs. Godzilla, there’s always the sense that once the big monster brawl has concluded, the victor will turn its hungry eyes back towards a battered human race who championed it only because it was their last hope. Some gamers will no doubt feel the same way about EA’s current lawsuit against Zynga. Electronic Arts states that Zynga borrowed too liberally from The Sims Social in order to create TheVille, and by taking the social gaming giant to court, EA can strike a blow for all original, serious-minded game designers. (Link)

Ubisoft Puts PC Piracy Rate at 93-95%

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot claims that the percentage of people who bother to pay for their games is such that it makes as much sense to go free-to-play as it does to sell boxed product. According to his figures the PC piracy rate is 93-95%, which means that the same amount of people pay for their boxed game – about five to seven percent – as contribute in a free-to-play model. Given that fact, there’s no sense in hanging on to a physical product business model when boxed games are more expensive to produce and ship. “[Free-to-play is] a way to get closer to your customers,” said Guillemot, “to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it’s only around five to seven percent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. (Link)

DoA Dev Says Jiggle Physics Are Part of Japanese Culture

In a recent interview the head of Team Ninja, Yosuke Hayashi, talked about Dead or Alive 5, and what players could expect from the most recent addition to the franchise. Dead or Alive has been notorious for its portrayal of female characters, and naturally the conversation turned to their portrayal in the latest game. What could players expect? Hayashi was unrepentant, claiming that the representation of women in DoA was a part of Japanese culture and Team Ninja wasn’t about to change its ways. “For us, within our culture,” said Hayashi, “we’re showing women like that, and we’re trying to make them look attractive. (Link)

Facebook: Your Cat Is a Public Figure, Not a Person

Cats are amazing creatures. They play nasty pranks, escape from dogs on surfboards, and really, really like treats.Perhaps that’s the reason why millions of cat owners have decided to feature their beloved felines on Facebook with profiles of their own, often complete with way too many pictures, aribitrary political rambling, and non-stop torrential updates of what they’re eating for lunch. Well, Mark Zuckerberg, it seems, is not amused. According to an updated regulatory filing, soon, Facebook will be closing down over 80 million fake accounts, a large portion of which to be what the site considers “misclassified” pet profiles. (Link)