Month: November 2010

In lieu of Mario’s birthday, one of the most historic and well-known figure in the gaming world, Nintendo is beginning a huge marketing campaign. To celebrate 25 years of success and having Mario considered one of the biggest faces of video games, Nintendo is planning on several different advertisements, including many commercials, ads, and live events. In late September and early fall, Nintendo released many different 30, 60, and 90 second clips commemorating Mario. http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/81987/marios-25th-birthday-marked-with-huge-marketing-campaign/. Nintendo  also released a video, which is a virtual time-line of the major Mario games. The 25th anniversary will not just be celebrated in North America as Europe and Asia have both came out with many new games, toys, and products for the celebration. In Japan, Nintendo’s official site has details for an anniversary campaign, where over 10,000 people will win Mario merchandise through a Club Nintendo raffle. As an avid fan myself, it was really cool to see such an innovational franchise last this long. The Super Mario Franchise has been a staple in the video game industry and has really helped develop the industry as a whole. They have been able to roll with the times, as they seem to come out with a new Mario game every single year. Congrats Mario!

The European Commission have launched a formal investigation into the search-engine super power. The investigation comes after many different complaints from other search engines, believing that Google is abusing their dominant position. Two of the search engine that filed the complaint; Foundem and ejustice.fr., believe that Google has been treating their search service providers unfavorably, with many of Google’s services being placed preferentially. Google denies any of the accusations, but wants to work with the Commission in order to fix any sort of problem that may have arose. Google offers two types of search results. The first one are unpaid results produced by the firm’s algorithms that are displayed on Google’s main page. The other result comes in the form of an “ad”. This investigation will try to determine whether Google’s method of generating unpaid results adversely affects the ranking of other firms. This is not the only accusation Google faces, as the Commission will also look into allegations that Google manipulated elements of its system that determine the price paid for ads from these sites. The investigation will be underway for the next few months, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11876443.

The North American shopping season has started on a very high note. American figures suggest that sales in the “first week of the shopping season” reached 45 Billion USD.  An analyst of the Wall Street Journal suggests that this year, “Shoppers aren’t just out looking for bargains, they’re buying impulse items.” An Financial Post article http://www.financialpost.com/news/investing/Cyber+Monday+sales/3901863/story.html, claims that the average consumer is spending 6% more than last year. This is great news for the corporations, and it also may reflect positively on the economy. More money is being put back into the market, and the economy is being stimulated. This trend suggests that as an economy, Canada and USA are slowly pulling away from this recession. But it isn’t just the retailers that are benefiting from these impulse buys, the online stores and retailers have seen huge improvements in sales. This same article explains that this weekend’s online sale reached $1 Billion compared to $900 million from the previous year. This comes as no real surprise considering the rising popularity of online shopping, and considering our economic growth from last year. As the shopping season begins, we will see sales figures rise significantly from years passed. This same analysts claims that, “While things are still not great, they are a lot less worse.”

Casinos make their appeal by focusing on enticing the public and creating an atmosphere of fun and games, but the reality is, Casino’s are in it for the profit. Casino’s are an extremely profitable business that relies on the gambler’s incentive to win. For some that is the case and they do end up winning, but for most, losing money is usually the outcome. Las Vegas, known to most as “Sin City” and “The biggest gambling spot on earth”, represents the epi-centre of gambling. The music, the drinks, the lights, the money, and the thrill of it, get the people in the casino doors. But these are mere distractions until these people realize their pockets are soon empty.

A casino generates different profits depending on many different variables. For example, a Las Vegas strip casino will likely make a lot more money than a rural Canadian casino, but the Vegas casino will have much higher costs of running the place. Different casinos have different consumer targets. If casinos are successful at meeting the wants and needs of their target gamblers, then the casino will earn the desired profit.