New GTA to Have Drug Dealing

I’ve written a lot about video games, but Rockstar is taking it to a whole new level, bringing drug-dealing into the new version of Grand Theft Auto for the Nintendo DS.

Rockstar Vice President Dan Houser explained to Edge magazine why the company included this feature in the game:

“We wanted to have a drug-dealing mini-game in lots of the GTA games,” Houser said. “We played with it a little in Vice City Stories, because it worked really well juxtaposed with the main story. It works well with what GTA is, with driving around the map, and it gives you another thing to think about–another layer or piece of the puzzle to keep you motivated…It does intersect with the main story and things you learn from it work with the story, but it mostly runs on its own.”

If nothing else, you have to admire the guys at Rockstar for their willingness to do pretty much anything to make GTA interesting and controversial.

Norway Pressures Apple to Remove iTunes Music DRM

Norway’s top consumer advocate said Monday that he will ask a government court to force Apple to open the iTunes music store to users who own music players other than the iPod.

“It’s a consumer’s right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use,” said Bjorn Erik Thon, Norway’s consumer ombudsman. “iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law.”

He has been pressing Apple for more than two years to drop its anti-copying digital rights management (DRM) technology from all iTunes tracks so that the music can be loaded onto rivals’ devices. “I’ve been quite happy with the progress [with Apple] on other issues, but not on the one regarding DRM, which is the most important to consumers,” Thon said.

He last met with Apple in February, when the company told him it shared his aim of interoperability. Since then, however, there has been no progress, said Thon.

“So we will ask for a prohibition of the practice that you’re only allowed to play music from iTunes on an iPod,” said.

By submitting the case to Norway’s Market Council—a governmental court that has the ability to issue binding rulings—Thon hopes to pressure Apple into opening iTunes. The Market Council would likely reach a decision by next summer after collecting written briefs from both parties in January and hearing oral arguments in March or April 2009.

The Market Council could fine Apple if it did not comply with its ruling.

Thon declined to specify the size of the fine he would request, but said it would probably set a Norwegian record. “Size matters when it comes to the amount of the fine, and Apple is by far the biggest company that has been involved in a case,” he said. “It should be a significant amount, but whether it’s 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000 Euros, I couldn’t say.”

The case could have an impact beyond Norway, Thon added, noting that consumer agencies in Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries are behind him. He said he would reach out to others, including colleagues in Italy and Sweden, to get their support as well.

“I’m quite optimistic that if we win this case, the European Union will have a look at this and make this EU policy,” said Thon. In July, he met with Meglena Kuneva, the EU’s consumer commissioner, who expressed interest in the Norwegian effort to get Apple to open iTunes. “I will follow up with her, and keep in close contact in the months to come,” he promised.

Apple has made some moves to free iTunes-purchased tracks from its iPod line of players, including selling some DRM-free music starting in May 2007, however, people are pushing for ALL DRM free files.

App Store Tweaking

Apple over the weekend instated a series of changes to the way its App Store operates in an effort to knock out loopholes that were being exploited by some developers seeking an unfair advantage.

Reviews

In particular, the store now requires that users purchase or download an application before they able to post a review of that particular application.

Users attempting to post a review of application that they haven’t downloaded are now met with a dialog box stating: “In order to write a Custom Review for this item you must have purchased or downloaded it.”

Apple hopes this move will mitigate the number of bogus, or agenda-driven reviews that have been used to raise or lower an applications overall rating, sometimes at the hands of developers themselves.

App Updates

Similarly, and more critically, the company also made changes to the way applications appear on the App Store after receiving a minor update.

In the past, all applications were categorized based on their ‘release date.’ However, Apple had been determining release dates based on the last date the application received an update, rather than the first time it appeared on the store as a 1.0 application.

As a result, applications receiving updates would be pushed back to the first page of their respective category listing, often appearing on the App Store home page within iTunes as well, and the first page of category listings viewed on an iPhone or iPod touch.

The result was an immediate jump in sales, as noted by Krishna Vegesna, whose company TouchMeme offers three applications on the App Store. He posted the graph (below) illustrating this behavior, where each spike in sales coincided with the release of one of his app updates.

“With the latest update to the AppStore, the above behavior is no longer holds true (and I am glad it doesn’t),” he said. “This is because the applications are now categorized according to the ‘Actual Released Date’ rather that the last updated date.”

Given Apple’s changes, new version 1.0 applications will have a longer shelf life on the first page of category listings, as they won’t be bumped down in the listings as quickly due to an influx of minor app updates.

The moves should also allow developers to shift their focus to “real innovation in functionality rather than focusing on who pushes the update first,” Vegesna said. At the same time, however, he raises the concern that tactical developers may now focus on rolling out new apps to generate high profits rather than improving their existing ones.

Oil Prices Fall

Oil prices dropped sharply on Monday as the House voted down a $700 billion bailout plan for the financial markets, raising the specter of slower economic growth and depressed demand for petroleum products. The House leadership, however, plans a second attempt to pass the bill.

Crude oil futures fell $10.68 to close at $96.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. They have lost nearly $25 since last Monday, and dropped sharply as the House voting began.

In the last two weeks, commodity markets have been shaken by the turmoil on Wall Street while still recovering from the impact of two powerful hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. After reaching $145.29 a barrel in July, prices had slumped to nearly $90 a barrel earlier this month as the nation’s economic prospects dimmed. But in a wild market, they spiked back up last week on the back of tremendous uncertainty in the financial markets.

Anxiety once again gripped investors on Monday after Congressional leaders failed to garner enough votes to pass a compromise bailout agreement that was reached over the weekend. The plan, the biggest bailout in history, would have allowed the Treasury Department to buy back troubled assets held by banks and other financial institutions. It is unclear when the House can reschedule a vote, or whether it will pass this time.

Before the vote, investors were also reminded that the financial crisis was far from over. In the latest episode of the unfolding meltdown, Citigroup will buy the banking operations of the Wachovia Corporation, the government said Monday. Meanwhile, the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments partially nationalized the European financial conglomerate Fortis, another sign that the crisis that began because of sour home mortgages in the United States could be spreading.

Analysts at Barclays Capital said the frantic weekend negotiations that led to the bailout agreement “appear to have failed to revive market sentiment.” As the economic situation deteriorates, the demand for commodities, including oil, is expected to slow.

“The outlook for global equity, interest rate and exchange rate markets has become increasingly uncertain,” analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a note to investors. “We believe commodities will be unable to escape the contagion. From a commodity perspective our most pressing concern is to what extent the U.S. virus spreads globally and specifically to China.”

The bank’s analysts pared their expectations for next year as oil consumption drops because of slowing economic growth, reducing their oil and gas price forecasts by about 20 percent for 2009.

Concerns that the crisis might be spreading to Europe helped push down the value of the European common currency. The euro dropped against the dollar to $1.43 on Monday from $1.46 on Friday.

The weaker economic outlook could further push down oil prices in the coming months if demand for oil in developed countries keeps falling, according to Ben Dell, an analyst at Bernstein Research. He expects oil consumption could fall by 1.3 million barrels a day, or 2.6 percent, in the fourth quarter this year. That is much more than the 470,000 barrels a day drop forecast from the International Energy Agency.

S&P 500 Loses -8%

Stocks took a dramatic plunge on Monday afternoon after the government’s bailout plan — touted by its supporters as a balm for the current market stress — failed to pass the House of Representatives, setting off a fresh wave of anxious selling.

In yet another day that has shaken the embattled canyons of Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 725 points after it became clear that the legislation could not muster the support it needed to pass the House. points shortly before 3:45 p.m.

A more holistic measure of the American stock market, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, was down by -8.79% at closing, after the House defeated the bill by a vote of 228-205. The Nasdaq was down -9.14% at closing.

The fear was most pronounced in the world’s credit markets, considered gauges of anxiety among investors. Yields on Treasuries plummeted after the House rejected the plan, with the one-month Treasury note yielding virtually zero.

Banks are charging enormous premiums for short-term financing; the difference between the cost of a three-month loan from a bank, and a three-month loan from the government, rose to the widest point since at least 1984. Other lending rates stayed high.

On Wall Street, the drops were sharp and swift, catching many investors and stock strategists on Wall Street by surprise. Many had expected the measure to be passed in the House, and lawmakers in Congress had suggested as much in comments earlier on Monday.

Instead, traders around the world turned to their television screens to see the votes opposed to the bill adding up, and eventually surpassing those in favor. The banal image broadcast on several television networks — a no-frills table of ‘yay’ and ‘nay’ votes — contrasted with the expressions of increasing concern on the faces of workers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

“The bottom line is that everybody seems confused,” Ryan Detrick, a strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, said just moments after the initial plunge. “When that happens, you get selling, you get panicky, you get selling.”

The sell-off reinforced the fear coursing through Wall Street as investors wondered, first, whether the bailout plan would pass Congress, and second, what would happen if it did not.