Saturday, January 11, 2014

How my predictions turned out.

In my last extensive post in May, I made a number of predictions. A lot of them were spot on, some were spectacularly wrong.

I was right to favour the PlayStation4 over the Xbox One for a number of reasons. Kinect was never a selling factor (certainly not one that would warrant paying a $100 / €100 premium), the name did not suggest a great advance from the previous console, Microsoft's emphasis on television content did not excite anyone (nor did the appointment of former CBS president Nancy Tellem as their newest executive) and things have been very quiet on the 'Halo' front.

As far as the PlayStation4 is concerned, I called the touchpad on the controller a gimmick with little use. And, owning a PS4 since its German launch, it really feels like that.

I was very wrong about Microsoft's and Sony's ability to launch their respective console on time. Although neither manufacturer was able to supply a large amount of stock. Xbox One being readily available despite of this (at least in Germany) speaks for itself. However, both manufacturers claim to have sold around three to four million units or so. My predictions regarding the continuing slump of Wii U sales materialised. So it is a neck-on-neck race at the moment, with Wii U apparently at around five million units, which is still about a million ahead of PS4, which in turn is about a million units ahead of Xbox One, according to VGChartz. It is going to be an exciting year.

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Big news: The return of Falafelkid

Dear readers.

First of all, I wish you all a happy new year. After a long and painful hiatus, I have some big news for you. You may have asked yourself what I have been doing since I last posted here in May. I have, of course, been very busy in the videogame industry. I have presented the gamescom congress in August, fulfilled my duty as a member of various important juries, wrote a number of articles for print magazines and, most recently, wrote my very own deck of top trump cards about videogame scandals.

Most importantly of all, though, I have been trying hard to change jobs again and finally, I have done so, again for the better. As of this week, I am working for the heute journal, the ZDF network's daily news magazine. It is perhaps somewhat comparable to the BBC's Newsnight or the NBC Nightly News, certainly in terms of reputation and viewing figures. To be invited to work for a newsroom like this is a great honour and privilege. For someone like myself, whose main field of expertise lies within the area of consumer electronics in general and videogames, specifically, it feels unreal.

This new job will entail a number of changes to my personal life. And, as a result, I will be able to reinvigorate this blog. My new job will require me to keep a close eye on all developments in my area of expertise, more than ever before. So, here on this blog, I will be able to share both news, rumours and commentary, which I will trace up as part of my research routine. It will remain to be seen whether I will write shorter posts almost on a daily basis or whether I will continue to write longer articles, perhaps one every other week or so. I may even decide to ditch written text for shorter video clips. But my new job will definitely bring my professional work back in line with this blog. So I thank you for sticking around this long and looking me up again. I promise you I will do my best to make it worth your wait.