Slim is in: Onslaught of new digital goodies

▶ Motorola Korea yesterday unveiled the Motokrzr, left, which comes with Bluetooth wireless technology, and the Motoview, right. [YONHAP]

▶ Apple Computer Korea has a range of digital music players, including the iPod nano, above. A 2 GB iPod nano costs 165,000 won ($175). Eight-gigabyte iPod nanos are only available in black. [NEWSIS]

Just in time for Chuseok, foreign digital device makers are putting their products in front of Korean gadget lovers, placing emphasis on sleek design.
Yesterday, Apple Computer Korea presented a new line of products, including vamped up iPod music players, while Motorola Korea debuted two cell phone models. Last week, Sony unveiled a new slim digital music player.
Following the huge success of the Razr model, Motorola Korea announced yesterday that it would start selling two new models ― the Motoview and Motokrzr ― though it did not reveal any prices.
The Motoview has an internal antenna and external touch keys, along with a 1.3 megapixel camera that enables video-on-demand and music-on-demand. The camera’s upper “half” in its clamshell-type design swivels around for satellite television viewing.
The Motokrzr is what Motorola calls its “latest iconic handset.” The cell phone maker used new materials, such as high-gloss vacuum metal, which creates a mirror effect, for the surfaces.
Apple Korea will market the “iPod Family,” which includes an 80-gigabyte iPod with a brighter liquid crystal display screen, at 390,000 won ($413) including tax; an iPod Nano with twice the storage space as the previous model; and an upgraded version of the iPod Shuffle.
The iPod Shuffle, weighing 15.5 grams, stores up to 240 songs with its 1-gigabyte hardware capacity, and has a battery life of about 12 hours (89,000 won). Not only has the Shuffle gone on a diet, it has also made a major transition from white plastic to aluminum in several wild colors.
Also available now in Korea is a newer version of the iMac, which processes data 50 percent faster than previous iMac models. The iMac also now comes with a wider 24-inch monitor model in addition to the 17-inch and 20-inch models.
Although Apple launched its whole “family” of iPod products, the company admitted that its online music purchasing Web portal service iTunes ― which is available in most countries where Apple sells its products ― will not be available in Korea. When asked if the company plans to activate this feature in the near future, Tony Li, the Asia- Pacific director of product marketing, said that only podcasting features will be available for the time being, and that downloading of music or video files is currently unavailable. Mr. Li did not speculate on the company’s future plans regarding iTunes services in Korea.
The lack of iTunes service in Korea has been the subject of criticism. Users allege that Apple instigates circulation of illegal MP3 music files. Apple Korea, however, has said it never supported any illegal activity, and that Koreans using iPod music players can listen to music copied from their own CDs.
Reflecting the recent trend toward “slim” gadgets, Sony Korea’s cylinder-shaped MP3 player NW-S200 is slim and also targets customers who want to get thin. The device comes with a gravity sensor, which records how far a user has traveled or how many calories have been burned.

by Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily

Battle of the consoles at Tokyo Game Show

Although Nintendo was not an official participant of the Tokyo Game Show, which took place this past weekend, it still ended up being a three-way battle.
Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii, along with Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, were all competing for the attention of the crowds, which packed the exhibition halls in what was the biggest of all Tokyo Game Show events so far.
The main battle was between PlayStation 3 and Wii. Consumers had an opportunity to test Wii consoles, thanks to the developers of Wii games, who had brought in the machines as well. Xbox 360 has been available in Japan and the United States since last year and in Korea since early this year, and was relatively less popular, but some games exclusively for the Xbox 360 platform such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey had people waiting in line for hours.
PlayStation 3 and Wii are due to hit shelves on Nov. 17, targeting Christmas shoppers.
Heat at the game show was intense, boosted in some part by scantily-dressed young women in cosplay outfits (anime costumes). Adding to the hubbub, Ken Kutaragi, head of Sony’s video-game business, held a press conference while the show was taking place, and made a strategic announcement that Sony would cut prices of the 20-gigabyte PlayStation 3 console to 47,600 yen ($627), but only in Japan. Sony has never before announced price cuts before even releasing its products. This brings down the price of the console to about the same price range as a basic Xbox 360 that has an external high definition DVD player. (This HD DVD player also debuts on Nov. 17.) Even with the discount, however, Wii is still half the price of the PlayStation 3, and comes with a unique remote control that has a wand-like design that one can bang around like a tennis racket or “cast” like a fishing rod.
Analysts, however, believe that Sony’s price cut had to do with fear of the budget-priced, savvily-designed Wii and that it’s a local battle in Japan of Sony versus Nintendo. If you take a look at figures provided by Media Create, Microsoft sells between 900 to 1,100 Xbox 360 consoles per week in Japan. On the other hand, PlayStation 2, more fondly referred to as the PS2, sells even now at a rate of 20,000 units a week.

by Wohn Dong-hee

Spells and full houses – and real cash

Although this gets confusing, there’s a distinction in Korean law between online gambling for tokens or “cyber cash” that can be changed into real money ― that’s supposedly forbidden ― it also falls into a grayer area. Game players with more enthusiasm than skill often buy electronic gizmos other players have earned in the course of game play for real cash, re-entering the game with a new invisibility cloak or invincible sword. Is that illegal? No one seems quite sure. But despite the uncertainty, Web sites have sprung up to facilitate those sales as middlemen. Think of it as e-Bay for online gamers.
While authorities discuss how to make laws for this market, Item Bay, the largest item-trading Web site, is being wooed by foreign companies. Item Mania, the No. 2-largest site, was taken over by an American firm earlier this year. Together, Item Bay and Item Mania have cornered 90 percent of escrow item trading, and industry officials, no less nationalistic than other Koreans, are worried that a “huge market” is being sold not to space aliens but worse, to foreigners.
Increasing public attention on quasi-gambling pursuits because of problems uncovered at adult game rooms recently has drawn attention to the trading of cyber items for cash. And this is no small market: it is worth about 1 trillion won ($1 billion) annually in Korea, according to the Korea Game Development Institute, an agency of the Culture Ministry.
The institute based its estimates on reports from companies that pay taxes, so the underground market could be much bigger, the institute said.
IGE, a U.S. Web site that deals in the online game equipment trading business, quotes analysts as predicting that the global market for these services will be $7 billion in 2009. Games like Second Life, for instance, have their own economy and currency, which is traded through the developer’s currency brokerage or other third-party currency exchanges.
In Korea, item-trading Web sites act as middlemen, holding game tokens in escrow while sales are being arranged. Weapons or clothing used by game characters are the bulk of the items traded on Korean sites. Game characters themselves are also an expensive item ― high value game characters with “good equipment” can sell for about $2,000.
Online arcade poker or other gambling games are not considered gambling if the winnings cannot be converted into real money, but people who pile up cyber cash through those games sometimes sell the virtual currencies to others at lower prices, which blurs the line between entertainment and gambling. Because of these practices, some game developers have banned the trading of their currencies offline by disabling software functions that would allow one player to give cyber items to another. Despite these measures, some players still find ways around the restrictions by selling their identities on the Web sites. altogether.
While the government has been discussing what to do about these at least potential abuses, the second-largest item-trading site, Item Mania, was bought by IGE in July for a reported $50 million. IGE operates a global network of item-trading Web sites; its administrative offices are in Los Angeles, California, and Miami, Florida. It has currency exchange services managed by Internet Gaming Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Hong Kong.
Item Bay, currently the largest cyber item trading Web site in Korea by sales, is also being sought by foreign buyers.
Item Bay in 2001 was the first company to begin online services for offline trading of cyber items. Last year, about 310 billion won in such tokens were traded through the Web site. Item Bay earns a commission of about 5 percent on sales.
The company is unlisted; its president, Kim Chi-hyun, owns 55 percent of the company’s shares, and has reportedly been asked by three foreign companies, including IGE, to sell out.
Han Hye-jin, a spokeswoman for Item Bay, said, “Nothing has been decided yet, but it’s not like the president is going anywhere. Even if he sells his shares, it will be more like a payout on his private investments, and he will continue to keep his management post. It’s very unlikely that a foreign company will come in and take over management.”
Ms. Han declined to name the other two companies reportedly interested in buying Item Bay, but said one was Japanese.
Hong Yoo-jin, an official at the game development institute, raised the alarm. “The government and industry all agree that giving the rapidly-growing digital item market to foreign companies is a very serious matter, but with no regulations, there’s nothing the government can do about it right now,” she said.
Missed business opportunities are only one of the perceived problems, though. The absence of laws governing distinctions between play tokens and cash opens the door to abuse and perhaps criminal inroads.
For example, some people have complained that they have been cheated in transactions, paying cash but not receiving the cyber tokens they bought. Regulators and police scratch their heads about how to prosecute someone for swindling a buyer out of something as ephemeral as a magic spell.
In July, the cyber crime investigation department at the Seoul Central Prosecutors Office held a meeting to discuss the trading of game money and tokens and whether criminal punishment could be sought for crimes related to it.
They concluded that these activities could be regulated under vague legal clauses that prohibit interfering with the legitimate activities of a Korean company, in this case, the online games.
Prosecutors said in August that they would begin investigations of such trading in conjunction with their inquiries into the blossoming Sea Story slot machine scandal. They made a handful of arrests, but those involved only people who sold online tokens won in pure gambling games for cash. Those cases were easier to establish; gambling is in theory tightly regulated in Korea, and laws encompassed the conversion of what amounts to playing poker for matchsticks into gambling for cash.
A prosecutor refused to comment on whether companies operating cyber item-trading Web sites were subject to criminal investigation.
Companies in the business, though, say they have not received any visits from prosecutors.
And another sticky issue could arise if these item-trading sites are declared illegal; Item Bay and others have been operating openly and paying taxes on their profits to the government. Again, prosecutors declined comment.
The Culture Ministry convened a forum in April of academics, civic groups and business interests to look at the question, but has made little progress in coming up with definitions and policies.
Ms. Hong of the game development institute said the ministry may devise some detailed plans this year, after several years of effort.by Wohn Dong-hee

Game firms swoop down on Tokyo to show wares

Now in its 10th year, the Tokyo Game Show begins on Friday at the Makuhari Messe exhibition hall in Chiba, on the outskirts of Tokyo. The three-day event will be the largest in the show’s history and will feature over 130 exhibits from around the world. The show’s organizers attributed much of the increase to the spread of massive multiplayer online games. In comparison, E3, the world’s biggest gaming industry exposition, said that it plans to reduce its scale. E3 is held earlier in the year, in Los Angeles. The spotlight is now fixed on Sony Computer Entertainment’s upcoming console, PlayStation3, the release of which has been postponed several times. Sony, which has secured the largest booth at the event, says it will have about 27 PS3 game titles available at the show, including Devil May Cry 4 and Final Fantasy 13. Next in line with its own console is Microsoft Corp., touting its Xbox 360. The games for the Xbox 360 to be unveiled at the show include Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, an action role-playing game. Doubling their presence from last year, mobile phone service providers such as NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone will also be lording over a huge part of the pavilion. While NTT DoCoMo is a “special sponsor” that understandably has been given a large booth, the presence of the three major mobile carriers shows how much the mobile content industry has grown. Only a few Korean companies are participating, through their Japanese affiliates. Two examples are Neowiz Japan and NHN Japan. Despite the attention it is receiving for its Wii console, the Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. will not be attending the event. “Nintendo has never attended [the show] and this year will be no exception,” a Nintendo spokesman in Seoul said. Wii will still be in the air, however, as companies developing software for the console, such as Konami and Square Enix, will be displaying some games intended for the console, though visitors won’t be able to try them out. A journalist for a monthly computer game magazine who has been writing about games for the past five years said that he was disappointed in the Tokyo Game Show and did not plan to attend this year. “Before, the [show] was significant because the E3 was where makers unveiled their products for the industry whereas the Tokyo Game Show was more consumer-oriented, getting ready for reviews just before the Christmas season,” he said. “Now, it seems like an event for Microsoft and Sony.” For game players daunted by next-generation consoles, Japan’s TV Game Museum will also exhibit “relics” such as super phones, and earlier (playable) versions of Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. by Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily