Squenix's Business Plan - Ownership Over Customers

[zurich]

(VERY GOOD READ!)

http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6093314.html

Snip:

Customer ownership, says Otobe, is the first key to prepping Square Enix for the game industry of tomorrow. Once the console makers' hold on its vertical market share is broken, the ability to control customer ownership becomes elusive--and the firefight for share starts anew. "My hypothesis is that once the consoles connect to the network, because of the open nature of the network, maintaining the vertical is very difficult."

An open network, according to Otobe, will break the model that sees the customer, the terminal, the network, and the content aligned in a single manufacturer-owned vertical.

"In the new ecosystem, platform technologies will not be controlled by the console provider but by many platform-technology companies. We need to have close relationships with such companies to foresee where the technology is going." Recent agreements with Intel and UIEvolution are Square Enix's first attempts at such alliance-building.

"Microsoft, with Xbox Live, is naturally trying to keep their closed vertical. They are not [in favor of] an open network, right? But I think it's a very difficult model to sustain."

When the console makers lose their hold, "the relevance of terminal and network differences diminishes, and customer ownership shifts to the content provider."

 

[Guden Oden]

It feels weird seeing that guy talking about customer ownership though, even if it is in the sense of people who play their games.

I don't want any softcos thinking they actually own me. That feels rather fascist, to be quite frank.

 

[Farid]

I don't want any softcos thinking they actually own me. That feels rather fascist, to be quite frank.

Whoa! we can't invoke the Godwin's law with someone that can't actually respond...
Or this might be some kind of "deferred Godwin's law" , try to patent it Guden , imgtech might use it in PVR6 and you'll make dineros with it

j/k

edit: typo