http://finance.sharpnews.info Daily Finance News Your Great Way to do Investment! Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:28:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Following the success of Firaxis’ 2007 Civilization IV, the PC-centric developer showed a real-time gameplay demo of this fall’s Civilization V, today at the Game Developers’ Conference. Civilization is deemed by many fans and critics as the ultimate game in the long-running strategy series, so the question many pundits have for ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/civilization-v-often-makes-peace-a-better-option Social game makers took the stage this afternoon at our GamesBeat@GDC event in San Francisco, where much of the discussion revolved around how building social games differs from people’s preconceptions. John Vechey, co-founder of Bejewled maker Popcap Games, said building social games is not “the easy path to riches” that some ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/social-game-makers-our-job-is-harder-than-you-think With social and online gaming exploding with hundreds of new startups, developers and titles, it would seem that bold, small-scale innovation is where the game industry is headed. Not so, according to Electronic Arts Chief Operating Officer John Schapper, who — while remaining supportive of social gaming development, particularly in ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/ea%e2%80%99s-john-schappert-game-industry-all-about-big-games-getting-bigger Here’s why I’m excited about the upcoming DEMO conference: Some 62 new companies or products will launch on stage March 21-23, and they look better and more disruptive than in previous years. As executive producer of the event, I’ve been talking closely with Nathan Gold, who is the speaking coach for ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/demo-disrupts-on-march-21-23-and-latest-speakers-buchheit-chan-davis-sternberg-brown Steven Klebe is senior VP of business development at on-demand billing company Vindicia and writes regularly about mobile payments on his Payment Talk blog. The tech industry’s been talking about mobile payments for years, and I find the whole discussion fascinating. Not just the potential and ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/what-will-it-take-to-make-mobile-payments-mainstream-in-the-us Consumer electronics portal Retrevo conducts lots of surveys in hopes of charting out its marketplace. The most recent asked parents to list the age range within which they felt it was appropriate for a child to have his or her first cellphone, TV, or computer. I wish they had split up ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/should-a-nine-year-old-have-a-cellphone As social network hi5 refocuses on gaming, president and chief technology officer Alex St. John has been happy to criticize his giant competitor, Facebook. He elaborated on that criticism today at our GamesBeat@GDC event, where he shared the stage with Facebook platform manager Gareth Davis. St. John said he’s sympathetic to ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/hi5-cto-facebook%e2%80%99s-game-strategy-is-schizophrenic Dean Wright of Reuters writes Wednesday about the social media standards that the news organization just published for its reporters and editors. The guidelines, which can be read here, state in part, “The distinction between the private and the professional has largely broken down online and you should assume that your ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/reuters-lays-out-social-media-guidelines Kansas and Vermont have become the two latest casualties of record unemployment insurance claims. Both states have exhausted their unemployment insurance trust funds and have turned to borrowing from the federal government to keep unemployment benefits flowing. The 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands operate ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/vermont-and-kansas-exhaust-unemployment-insurance-funds If you’re wondering which games-on-demand company is the real one, today’s news isn’t going to help you out. While Steve Perlman’s OnLive has revealed concrete plans to launch its service today, another rival, Otoy, is revealing today that its video compression technology will be the foundation of a new kind of ... http://finance.sharpnews.info/otoy-says-supercomputer-will-enable-revolutionary-games-on-demand-service-2