31.01.10

Depending on whom you ask, you get a very different report about the health of the music game genre. Analysts, PR reps, and CEOs regularly cast around sales and revenue numbers that clearly can't all be right. It's enough to transform you want to smash a plastic guitar, Pete Townshend-craze. (Hey, at least replacing it would help out the genre. If it's in trouble. Which it isn't. Or is it?)

We know one affair for certain, at least: Music games are generating less money than they were even a year ago. Part of this is the conservatism, no doubt. But a bigger part is the fact that games have reached a crucial mass. We are most definitely at saturation point. Fans of music games already have instruments that labour with most newer games--so we're investing $60 in a new game rather than $200.

So where does that set off the genre? Bringing in less money, is where. But what's the alternative? Pundits and analysts have begun championing the objective that music games are due for a major reboot, with the idea being that new ideas will force new peripherals, which will bring new money into the genre. But there's a problem with this overtures. And its name is DJ Hero .

Source: PC World

02.02.10

Australian lawmakers late Tuesday approved legislation that will tighten the surroundings's foreign investment rules to prevent foreign investors from using complex takeover arrangements to ignore takeover rules to gain control of an Australian enterprise.

The law changes were unveiled in February last year in response to a since-rejected deal between Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP) and Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, that could finally have given the Chinese company an 18% stake in the miner through a mix of assets and convertible bonds.

The changes bad financial instruments such as convertible bonds will be treated as equity in taking into consideration whether a complex financing arrangement is being used to deliver power or control over an Australian company, either currently or in the future.

They command foreign investors to notify the Treasurer where there is a possibility that will crop up.

Australia has grappled in recent times with the issue of protecting its nationalist interest amid an uptick in foreign investment in its vast above resources sector, especially by Chinese state-owned entities, while also allowing townswoman firms to tap into the capital needed to fund their expansion and nick balance sheets damaged by the global financial emergency.

Source: Trading Markets (press release)

by Semantik

Today Exclusive Instruments announced the accredited availability of its Traktor Kontrol X1 controller.  In withal to being specifically designed for precise integration with NI’s Traktor, the Kontrol X1 is superior to command any of the heterogeneous MIDI-compatible software tools offered by other manufacturers.

NI Traktor X1 carries a suggested retail bonus of $229.  Befall Ethnic Instruments for more info.

Hit the be crushed for a video of Traktor Kontrol X1 in activity featuring DJ ’s Rafik, Klever, Obsession, and more.

Source: Traktor Kontrol X1 DJ Controller - Native Instruments

by lizkute9

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