Barnes & Noble Pulls Back From Tablets

JUNE 26, 2013 • After posting a $118.6 million loss for the quarter ending April 30th, including a $18.3 million impairment charge on a 34% drop in sales of its tablet hardware, Barnes & Noble has made the decision to cease manufacturing its Nook Color devices. This follows a $133 million fourth-quarter write-down for unsold tablets, and a total $222 million write-down for the entire 2013 fiscal year. Unable to boost sales during the holidays, Barnes & N.....

Amazon Coins Arrive

MAY 14, 2013 • Much like FaceBook and Xbox Live before it, Amazon.com introduced its own virtual coin currency. Amazon Coins can be employed to purchase apps, games and in-app items in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire. Existing Kindle Fire owners received 500 coins fr.....

Nintendo eShop Gains Traction

APRIL 17, 2013 • During a press conference held in San Francisco, Nintendo of America executive vice president Scott Moffitt said the 3DS title Fire Emblem: Awakening had sold 240,000 units in the U.S. since its Feb. 4 release. Moffitt went on to say that 80,000 of those sales had been digital through Nintendo’s eShop. More than 40,000 of those eShop customers came back to purchase a map pack. Furthermore, Moffitt says 11% of all Nintendo first-party 3DS t.....

GameFly Digital Client Launches

Nov. 9, 2012 • Eleven months after the open beta inauguration of its PC digital content client, game rental retailer GameFly officially launched the service with a free download of 2K Games’ Bioshock. The company entered the digital distribution business in August of 2011 with the acquisition of the Direct2Drive service from IGN. Using the Direct2Drive platform as a foundation, GameFly was intent on creating an online portal where its subscribers can manag.....

Toys “R” Us Launches Tablet

SEPT. 11, 2012 • Toys “R” Us is bringing its own kids branded kids tablet to market on Oct. 21. The $149.99 Tabeo will arrive with WiFi connectivity, an HDMI port, 1GB of RAM, front and rear cameras, 4GB of storage memory, a 7-inch screen, and 50 pre-loaded games and apps that run on the Android 4.0 operating system. An SD port allows for additional storage memory to be added. Some of the games featured are Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, Tem.....

OnLive’s Radical Restructuring

AUG. 20, 2012 • Cloud gaming service OnLive Inc. invoked a little known California process similar to bankruptcy called Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) on the 17th.  ABC is used by companies to sell their assets more swiftly than in a typical bankruptcy in order to pay creditors more promptly. In OnLive’s case, all assets were sold for an undisclosed amount to Gary Lauder who runs technology investment fund Lauder Partners. In the process al.....

Technology Supports Digital Resale

AUG. 13, 2012 • Back on July 3rd the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled in UsedSoft GmbH v Oracle International Corp. that software distributed by digital download could indeed be resold to a third party. “Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy – tangible or intangible – and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a license agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlim.....