digital caravanSega!!! is assuming what didn't work so well for Free PC will work for them. They're talking about launching a new system that's free. Sort of. First off, you have to pay $21.95 a month for two years, which is like “free,” but twenty-four times $21.95 more expensive. This is ostensibly to pay for your Internet connection that would get you, free, onto all their game sites, and play head-to-head with other such lucky people who have totally free video gaming systems, all for only $528.80. Oh, you also get limited Web access, email and a keyboard to type on. As a bonus, the unit comes in a “box” and has “instruction manuals.” OK, that's a bit mean. $528.80 for an average PC, if this turns out to be one, isn't the worst deal in the world. It's not the best, either. And, it's miles away from free. But hey, good on ‘em for being progressive. They should charge for the boxes, then give away the Net time for free for two years. Even though it's the same thing, it sounds like a way better deal to a 14-year-old, and 14-year-olds do, after all, run the world. And all those 14-year-olds have basically told Mattel's Learning Co. educational software division to bite the big one, ignoring just about every title that the beleaguered beast unleashed (except, tellingly, “Barbie Fashion Designer”). Result? This week, Mattel announced that it plans to sell the software company, along with another educational software purchase, Purple Moon. Most analysts applauded, thumbing their noses at ousted Mattel chief Jill Barad, who was shoved overboard when Mattel stock performance sank like a well-fed lawyer, in parallel with Learning Co. quarterly losses. Yeah, Mattel paid too much for them, and yeah, the deal was destined to fail. But not for the reasons that analysts are citing. For example, Sean McGowan, a research director with Gerard Klauer Mattison said that “educational software is less interesting to kids than fun software” - proving that most analysts (and for that matter, many content creators) know nothing about either fun or education - at least when it comes to kids' software. Perhaps the reason the company sank was because the titles stunk, as does the “educational format” it and many other software companies blithely operate with. If “educational software” is less interesting to kids, it might be because it's so often so bloody boring. Why are “education” and “fun” considered separate categories anyway? Why are the two not seamlessly entwined in titles that enrapture children's minds, without preaching, pontificating and patronizing to them, under the guise of “education”? Well, enough pondering - I'm off to play the new Resident Evil release with our Web team. It's Online Entertainment Conglomerate Brain Drain Week, as Warner Bros.' Entertaindom, continuing its slow spiral into oblivion, lost President Jim Moloshok, EVP Jim Banister and VP of planning, development and admin Jeff Weiner (all undoubtedly unhappy that the spinoff-spigot was closed), and Sony Online Entertainment said goodbye to President Lisa Simpson (who is leaving for the COO spot at CBS Internet Group, in the wake of Sony Entertainment's reorg last week). |
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