A friend forwarded this to me today: a mobile movie. Drive-ins for the 21st century. Neat.

I hope this catches on and is sustainable, and becomes at least a small part of our cultural fabric. Sure, the drive-in idea is cute, quaint, and nostalgic (for those of us that are old enough to remember them). But more than that, experiencing a great movie in different settings makes the movie mean more. And isn’t that what is most important?

For all of the discussion, innovation, and brilliance in digital media, sometimes it’s nice to remember that the media–not the technology–are what iPods, mobile phones, THX, HD, etc. are all about.

For the past few years, we have heard everything aout theinfamous convergence between medias, and especially between the movie industry and the videogame industry. There have been some attemps, such as Dreamworks SKG, which its founders wanted to create as the first integrated contents creatore of movies, music and videogames – but finally only the movie studio came to light. And lots a movie companies talked about this convergence, but finally, except for LucasArts (as a part of LucasFilms), none of those is now a prominent videogame producer.

So are videogames companies will be those which will show us the way? Perhaps if you consider the fact that UbiSoft has just commited to invest $387 millions in its Canadian subisidiary to create 500 new videogame positions, but also to set up a new production center with 500 employees. This production center will focus on creating short computer-generated images (CGI) movies based on UbiSoft intellectual properties. And they don’t rule out to create “regular” movies on a later stage.

I have the feeling that more companies like UbiSoft will take that way. Some of them have the capacity to build movie studios based on their CGI knowledge, and most of them have interesting IP than can be leveraged to create interesting movie that will not be seen as a betrayal of the original content. If you have ever seen Doom, or Alone in the Dark, you will understand what I mean. If you haven’t, do not think one second to see those movies – it’s painful. I don’t say that all game-based movie have been an error, but most of them are.

And everything that I have said for the film industry is also true for the tv industry.

A long time, console market was not very big in Europe. They were more focused on computer, expecially with the Amstrad, Amiga or Atari (everybody there remember the Atari-Amiga war). So console makers were not very induced to be very active on this market. But those days are gone! Now consoles is a big market in Europe… and despite this, companies are still considering Europe as a remote market, and especially Sony.

First, there is the fact that the PlayStation 3 will be launched more than four months after its debut on the North American and Japanese market. Company reps tell us that it’s better to sufficiently serve one market than not to do well everywhere. OK, but so why serving Japan and North America at the same time. And why a company like Nintendo is able to offer its products everywhere? I agree that the hardware is much more simple, but it’s more due to proper planning and consideration for European gamers.

Second, the price: the PlayStation 3 will be offered in only one version, the most expensive price, at the cheap price of $787 (599 euros), compare to the $599 in the US (even including the sales tax, that does not make the difference). I did not know that Europeans were so much more wealthy than American.

And third, Europe will now have a stripped down version of the product. Sony has decided to not include in the Europe console the chip that made possible to play with PS2 games. They will include a software emulator instead (and therefore less backward compatible). Their argument is that acting like this, they will be able to focus more on next gen games! I am not sure to understand, as once the piece of hardware is there, you don’t have too much to do. While doing the emulation with a software will require much more work to improve the list of compatible games…

My view on this is that Sony has found an easy way to lower cost of the console, while selling it at a higher price. I am not against that. But I would like that Sony considers all its customers on the same level. Which is obviously not the case today.

I found this service the other day, Streamick.com- It’s basically a free online cable network with channels that include the BBC, Fox, CNN, ABC, Animal Planet, and others. Much like real cable, it’s ad-supported.

 http://www.streamick.com/index.php

 Now, this service also acts like real tv, in that you can’t pause, rewind, fast-forward or even select particular segments to watch. But for those of us who don’t want to pay $100 for cable AND internet, it could be a good choice.

I’m still exploring the service, and it has enough professional content right now to keep me entertained…but only time will tell if this service really will make the cable companies scared.

Now, it’s off to watch some good ol’ SumoTV…

Apparently Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are making a “historic” appearance at the Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference on May 30th. Gates and Jobs will be jointly discussing the history and future of the digital revolution on stage with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. It will supposedly be unscripted and unrehearsed.
Unfortunately tickets are long sold out and at almost $4,000 a pop ($1,000 more than DEMO!), they’re out of reach to poor students like me. But because past D videos are available at allthingsd.com , I’m hoping they’ll share this rare discussion with the rest of us later.