www.interkarto.com

More importantly, the Broken Steel expansion makes it possible for characters to continue to gain experience and new skills in the game (if you’re conversant with RPG lingo, the level cap has been raised from 20 to 30). The open-ended design that removes the game’s hard ending also leaves the door open to further expansions.

Note: if you can’t get enough Fallout, Bethesda promises an entirely new game in the series sometime next year, called Fallout: New Vegas.

One of the games to best take advantage of this is Bethesda’s Fallout 3, a post-apocalyptic role-playing game that topped many best-of-2008 lists. To augment the game’s 50-plus hours of content, Bethesda has previously released two downloadable expansions, called Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, both of which add several hours of new storylines and characters to the game (both are available for around $10 on Xbox Live or the Games for Windows marketplace).

The near universal penetration of broadband Internet connections on home video game consoles is giving rise to a new business model for games. With publishers able to reach consumers directly through
Xbox Live, Nintendo’s Virtual Console shop, and the
PlayStation Network Store, there’s a growing trend toward offering small, variably priced, incremental content to expand existing games, rather than focusing on a handful of expensive tent-pole projects that can take years to develop.

Taking one of the biggest complaints about Fallout 3 to heart–the abrupt ending that comes after completing the game’s main quest–Broken Steel instead rewrites that ending, allowing players to continue to explore the game’s world at their leisure. The plot is an epilogue to the original game’s main story arc, and has you mopping up some of the left-over villains (remnants of the evil Enclave army), and adds the opportunity to go to new locations, find new weapons, and fight new monsters (such as the imaginatively named Super Mutant Overlord).

The third, and most ambitious expansion, called Broken Steel, will be available May 5, and we sat down with Bethesda recently for a preview to find out what we can expect.

From what we got to see of Broken Steel, it looks like the most ambitious of the three Fallout 3 expansions, and fans will be especially pleased that it takes place in the actual bombed-out Washington, D.C., ruins Fallout 3 is set in, rather than a smaller, stand-alone area, as in Operation: Anchorage (which took place in a virtual version of Alaska), and The Pitt (set in Pittsburgh).

Mobile Platform War participants:

Tatsuki Tomita, SVP of Consumer Product, Opera

Mary Ann Cotter, CEO Cooking Capsules

Mike Arrington, Bart Decrem, Jed Stremel and David Rivas debate iPhone vs. Nokia Symbian and other topics.

(Credit:
Dan Farber)

Marc Davis, chief scientist, Yahoo mobile group

The idea that the iPhone has invented or is reinventing the mobile Web is an overstatement, according to David Rivas, Nokia, vice president of Technology Management for S60 Software, citing Japan and Korea as far ahead of the U.S. in mobile usage. “The idea that there wasn’t a mobile before the iPhone is absurd,” Rivas said. He also defended Nokia’s recently open-sourced S60 platform, saying that it has applications similar to what are available on the iPhone. On the other hand, it doesn’t have the buzz or browser of the iPhone, but Nokia produces a phone every 14 seconds, garnering 60 percent of the market. Rivas was asked about a merging of Symbian and Android, and responded that there are no such plans.

Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt

David Hornik, partner, August Capital

In summary, developers are enamored of the iPhone and hope that Apple sells hundreds of millions of units, but they will spend their development time and dollars on whatever platforms have volume.

John Faith , GM and VP of Mobile for MySpace

Tom Conrad, CTO of music service Pandora, said that the iPhone is fundamentally better for streaming devices and as a multifunction device appeals to consumers in different ways than other phones. Regarding Google’s Android platform, Conrad said, “I need Android like I need a hole in the head. The last thing I need from a technology standpoint is a platform that sits on top of buggy firmware, with hundreds of phone manufacturers and different screens.”

Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media CEO

Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob

Tom Conrad, CTO Pandora

David Hornik and Tom Conrad

Gannon Hall, CMO of Kyte

But the iPhone is not the universal answer from a business perspective. Loopt CEO Sam Altman said his strategy is choose a single platform (the iPhone) and if a feature becomes popular bring it to other platforms.

Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous

Guy Ben-Artzi, Founder of Real Dice and CEO of Mytopia

Loopt’s Altman gave Android credit for being more open and capable of running background processes. Jason Devitt of Skydeck gave RIM (Blackberry) props for getting email right and noted that Android has serious challenges ahead. “The biggest challenge for Android is that it is totally dependent on hardware manufacturers and for the carriers to deliver,” he said. This is distinct from the iPhone and Blackberry approaches, in which the devices are completely controlled by Apple and RIM, respectively. Developers are taking a wait-and-see approach to Android, which lacks any user base currently.

Mike Rowehl, chief architect, SkyFire

Jason Devitt, CEO of Skydeck

Andreas Weigend, former chief scientist, Amazon

David Hornik of August Capital said that he is excited about iPhone because thousands of applications were distributed after it launched–living proof of the viability of the platform. Like Facebook applications, VCs see some potential in funding in iPhone developers. Having the iPhone app store and not having to go through the carriers to access applications is a bonus for distribution. Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob, said the value of ads on the iPhone served by his company is three times other platforms.

At a Mobile Web Wars Roundtable held by TechCrunch more than 20 mobile wonks discussed that state of mobile platforms (see the list of participants below). The purpose of the roundtable was to determine which mobile platform is best for developers. The iPhone has set a new standard for smartphones and most importantly developers are fawning over it, and iPhone users appear to be far more active users than those on other phone platforms. In the first few weeks of iPhone 3G more than 30 million applications have been downloaded.

If you weren’t aware, a war–more like a tug-of-war–is happening in the mobile space. The
iPhone is quickly rising as the development platform to beat, despite its paltry share of market versus Nokia (Symbian), Java BREW, Blackberry and Microsoft Mobile. In addition, Google’s fledgling open-source Android platform is also a challenger to the incumbents.

David Rivas, Nokia, Vice President of Technology Management for S60 Software

Another iPhone advantage is that it takes the iterative model of Web development and extends it to the mobile client, said Jed Stremel, director of mobile at Facebook.

Walt Doyle, CEO Ulocate

Richard Wong, partner at Accel

Jed Stremel, Director of Mobile at Facebook

But the iPhone doesn’t have a sizable market yet, compared to Facebook or Windows, Hornik said. “It’s not venture scale,” he said. Venture capitalist Richard Wong of Accel made the case that there aren’t any developers creating applications just for the iPhone today. “It’s about finding the largest addressable audience,” said Walt Doyle, CEO of uLocate. Yahoo supports everything under the mobile sun and reaches 600 million devices with its mobile services, according to Marc Davis, chief scientist for Yahoo’s mobile group.

(Credit:
Dan Farber)

She is an excellent manager. She is very good in building our international organization. I’m focused on the direction of the company, especially of the product development, and the overall strategy. I spend a lot of time working with engineers and product developers. We work together hand in hand.

On Friday, Zuckerberg will be taking part in a “fireside chat” at the Future of Web Apps conference in London.

For the full interview, including Zuckerberg’s take on Facebook’s Windows Live Search deal, its international growth, and the possibility of an IPO, see ” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Our focus is growth, not revenue.”

In an interview with a blogger for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO minced no words on the matter: “Growth is primary, revenue is secondary.”

He also made it clear who’s boss: “Me!”

How do the two executives divvy up their responsibilities? Zuckerberg said of Sandberg, who joined Facebook about six months ago:

Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg at the D6 conference in May.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said essentially the same thing over the summer–the social network’s focus is on growth.

But what every great Internet company has done is to figure out a way to make money that has to match to what they are doing on the site. I don’t think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did. But on both sites people find information valuable. I’m pretty sure that we will find an analogous business model. But we are experimenting already. One group is very focused on targeting; another part is focused on social recommendation from your friends. In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is.

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET News)

Maybe it’s advice he heard from a career counselor at Harvard and took to heart: Do what you love, and the money will follow. For now, what Mark Zuckerberg wants most for Facebook is to see it grow and grow and grow some more, without too much fretting over the bottom line.

Of course, it could be less a philosophical matter than a practical one for a site that’s still sketching out its plans for making money to match its popularity. And bless his heart, even in a tanking global economy, Zuckerberg suggests there’s plenty of time for that. He elaborates:

I’m trying to think of another area of technology that has more acronyms than SOA (service-oriented architecture) does…maybe networking? It’s amazing how many acronyms you can put into 10 questions.

I just took the SOA IQ test over at ebizQ and scored my way into the SOA boardroom.

Nice job by the ebizQ team in putting the quiz together. Anything that makes technology fun or interesting is a win in my book.

Am I the only one who thinks that’s ironic?

But let’s say you’re a movie buff, and you want to rent three films during a month. Those three films at Blockbuster will cost you $15 before tax. On Netflix, you’ll pay a fee of $20.99 before tax for a three-film plan. You’d have to replace two of the three films over the course of the month to beat the Blockbuster deal.

Predictably, many looked at the announcement as Netflix capitalizing on consumers. Those who are upset with the release say the increase is too high. And since Netflix doesn’t need to pay for packaging, and it probably gets a discount on media, given the number of copies it needs, they believe that the company is gouging customers.

Netflix is now the most affordable option if a) you return films to Netflix throughout a month or b) if you return films to Blockbuster late. Are those situations normal? Sure. But given the current economic conditions and the fact that we’re all trying to save some cash where possible, how long will it take before subscribers realize that they can potentially save money by going to Blockbuster to pick up that movie or by subscribing to TotalAccess?

Somewhere, someone is smiling at Blockbuster headquarters.

When Netflix announced on Monday that it has decided to raise the subscription prices for those receiving Blu-ray Disc titles–10 percent of its subscribers, according to the company–the predictable occurred: people lashed out, saying Netflix is gouging customers.

I never thought I’d say this again, but the brick-and-mortar option (from Blockbuster, no less) just trumped the by-mail rental business for me.

I contacted Netflix for comment regarding this contention. A representative responded to me within a few minutes. He said the cost of Blu-ray discs is 30 percent higher than that of DVDs, and more of the company’s customers are switching to Blu-ray, generating higher operating expenses. A $1 additional charge for Blu-ray access on all plans wasn’t cutting it any longer, he said.

OK, so maybe you can make the case that Netflix plans include streaming. But Blockbuster plans include in-store exchanges, and the company’s streaming plan calls for $4 per rental. Once again, if you rent just a few movies per month, it’s cheaper to use Blockbuster’s streaming service than Netflix’s.

Much to my surprise, Netflix might have committed an incredible blunder that it needs to address immediately: Blockbuster brick-and-mortar stores now have the more affordable option for standard Blu-ray rentals.

Check out Don’s Digital Home podcast, Twitter stream, and FriendFeed.

If we look at Netflix pricing and compare it to pricing at local Blockbusters (I called three stores to confirm Blu-ray prices), it quickly becomes clear that, assuming that you’re renting high-definition films, Blockbuster is more affordable.

Am I the only one who is vexed by Netflix’s new Blu-ray pricing scheme? The $1 surcharge for Blu-ray was understandable. But once Netflix started charging this much more for its plans, it turned into a mistake, in my estimation. The company just handed over price leadership (among its more run-of-the-mill users, at least) to its main competitor for no good reason. What gives?

But it gets better. If you want the top-tier Netflix deal, eight films at a time with Blu-ray access, you’ll be forced to pay $56.99 now. Assuming that you rent (just) eight films during a month on Blu-ray from Blockbuster, and return them on time, you’ll be paying $40. And that doesn’t take into account the fact that some of the films you might receive from Netflix will be regular DVDs, which are even cheaper at Blockbuster brick-and-mortar stores.

TotalAccess is just as convenient as Netflix’s service. You get your films delivered to your home, you don’t have late fees, you won’t need to pay for the cost of gas, and the films will always be available. In other words, TotalAccess provides all the same benefits as Netflix’s offering for a lower price.

But regardless of the motives behind this deal or the fact that some people are upset, we can’t look at Netflix pricing in a vacuum. Quite the contrary, we need to compare its pricing to the competition to determine if it’s still the most affordable option on the market.

Let’s say that you own a
PlayStation 3 and want to rent Blu-ray films. But instead of renting 10 films per month, you want only the occasional movie, so you rent about one film per month. If you want that movie in Blu-ray format, it will cost you $4.99 at Blockbuster. But if you rent a Blu-ray movie on Netflix, you’ll pay a flat monthly fee of $5.99.

Blockbuster’s by-mail service, TotalAccess, is now cheaper too. If you want three films (potentially in Blu-ray format) at the same time and no limit on the number of films you can rent during the month, Blockbuster’s plan is $19.99. Netflix’s comparable plan is $20.99, with Blu-ray availability.

The representative then directed me to the company’s official blog post on the matter for more information. So after all that, we still don’t know how much Netflix pays.

It’s true that after subscribers start sending films back, they will save money with Netflix. The Blockbuster prices also don’t account for late fees and the cost of gasoline used, as well as general inconveniences oriented with heading to a video rental store (i.e. not always finding what you’re looking for). Netflix eliminates annoying shoppers and empty shelves, offering predictability and convenience. But if you’re someone who wants to grab films at the local store without waiting for the mail, and you’ll watch about one movie per weekend, Blockbuster may turn out to be a much better deal.

In case you missed it, the new fee structure tacks on $1 per tier of the plan you’re on. So if you have a one-film-at-a-time plan (two-movie allowance per month), your monthly cost has risen from $4.99 to $5.99. If you want three films at a time (unlimited movie allowance per month), your cost has risen $4, from $16.99 to $20.99. Fees are up substantially on other plans too.