Village Halloween Parade

   Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see someone I recognize at the annual Village Halloween Parade but I never do. The disguises and costumes are too well-done and elaborate to pierce their intended veils. I'm headed down there later today with a girl I've been dating. Well, it's more of a physical thing than anything else but for the sake of her parents, we're dating and she's my sweetheart.

   Later today at 7PM, the 38th Annual Village Halloween Parade starts on the corner of Broome Street and 6th Avenue. The revelers will wind their way up to 16th Street where everyone mills around for a few moments before dispersing into private parties, gatherings, and dinner. We're going to dinner at a diner we always go to because they welcome costumed-freaks. Can you imagine going to Balthazar or Daniel dressed up as Spiderman or Black Widow? Well, maybe you can.

Keiji Inafune deserts Capcom

   The man responsible for designing Rockman and giving him that natty blue suit is leaving Capcom, effective immediately. Keiji's been at Capcom for 23 years where he oversaw the production of the Rockman series of games and most recently, Dead Rising 2.

   Keiji was promoted to the title of "Global Head of Production" in April 2010 where he managed underlings and gave them direction. He was living the life of a corporate manager but apparently, that's not the kind of job that a designer necessarily desires. Based on some of his comments, it's my opinion that working in a huge corporation like Capcom is rife with politics and internal strife that can wear a manager down. His comments about the lack of innovation in Japanese game design may have also played a part in Keiji's departure.

   That's why I want to work in small and nimble firms where the hours are flexible and the workers have independence and autonomy (for the most part). A large corporation moves slowly and deliberately since there are multiple layers between upper management and the working stiffs. When there are that many layers, elements of mediocrity like politics, backstabbing, ass kissing, nepotism, and all that other crap gets shoveled into the mix.

Halloween Costume "Oooootiinniiii"

Take Two Rallies on Acquisition Speculation

   Shares of Take-Two rose 4.71% today to $10.67 on speculation that the company could be a takeover target. How did traders get the idea that TTWO was in play? The company announced earlier this morning that CEO Ben Feder would be leaving his position at the end of the year. Sounds like a bunch of hokum. Back in 2008, EA attempted to take out Take-Two at $25.74 per share which valued the company at about $2 billion. As of today's close, TTWO's market cap is $906 million. At the lows of March 2009, TTWO was worth about $450 million. Amazing how the value of companies can bob like a jetty in rough surf in the space of 2 short years. 

   I don't put much stock in the takeover talk. Trigger-happy traders jump on a lot of shit which usually doesn't pan out. EA's market cap is about $5.5 billion so if they were to make a play for TTWO again, they'd probably have a pay at least a 30% premium to TTWO's closing price for today. That's $1.2 billion and in my opinion, unlikely to pass. Who else could make a run for TTWO? Activision is one possibility and maybe Ubisoft - I'm bearish on Ubisoft so an acquisition announcement would be good fodder for the way I'm thinking on UBI since they'll get smashed.

One of those WTF moments

   Don't think she'll be getting the Mother of the Year award this year. Maybe next year. 

Jacksonville mom who shook baby for interrupting computer game pleads to murder
http://jacksonville.com/david-hunt/2010-10-27/story/jacksonville-mom-who-shook-baby-interrupting-computer-game-pleads-2nd

   A Jacksonville mother charged with shaking her baby to death has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called Farmville on the Facebook social-networking website.

   Tobias entered her plea Wednesday before Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud. A second-degree murder charge is punishable by up to life in prison. Prosecutor Richard Mantei said Tobias' sentence could be less because of state guidelines that call for 25 to 50 years. Soud offered no promises on what he'll order during a sentencing hearing scheduled for December.

   Outside the courtroom, Mantei said Tobias' plea will help avoid the family reliving the tragedy during a jury trial. Tobias told investigators that she shook the baby, smoked a cigarette to compose herself and then shook him again. She said the baby may have hit his head during the shaking.

Nintendo posts first loss for seven years

   Nintendo announced earnings today and posted a loss of JPY2 billion (US$24,616,899) for the six month period ending September 2010. As a comparison, Nintendo posted a profit of JPY69.5 billion (US$855,437,257) in the same period last year.

   So, is this the end of Nintendo like some writers are probably going to state as absolute fact? Y'know, just like someone declared Microsoft a dying consumer brand yesterday? Nah man. It's just the natural cycle of the video game industry. The Wii peaked last year and the Nintendo DS is getting old. Both gaming machines are mature now and they only have a few more years left in their respective life-cycles before the next generation is introduced.

   One analyst had this to say, which revealed his ignorance about the gaming industry which he covers:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-28/nintendo-quarterly-profit-falls-15-on-wii-ds-demand.html
“It’s been harder than people realized for Nintendo to make the transition between the DS and the 3DS,” said Jay Defibaugh, a games analyst at MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. in Tokyo. The 3DS is cannibalizing sales of its predecessor, Defibaugh said.

   You mean the 3DS which hasn't been released yet and won't be released until next year in Japan? That 3DS? The word "cannibalizing" is an active verb which insinuates that the 3DS is an available product that is already eating into sales of the earlier DS models. Where do they get these guys? From the same Businessweek article - Yoshihiro Mori of Nintendo sets the record straight:

“I don’t think the announcement of the 3DS had much effect on second-quarter earnings,” Nintendo’s senior managing director Yoshihiro Mori said in a briefing in Osaka today. “We decided not to release the 3DS this year because we didn’t have enough.”

   What he said and the fact that the games probably aren't ready for public consumption yet are why the 3DS won't be released until February 25, 2011 in Japan and a month later in North America and Europe.