Disney Buys Lucasfilm for $4.05 Billion, Star Wars: Episode 7?

I had a different idea for today's post, but I'll now save it for next week or perhaps later this week, as today's news is big and I wanted to get to it quickly.

The Disney corporation announced this afternoon that they will be buying Lucasfilm, the composite company owned by Star Wars creator George Lucas, for $4.05 billion.  The terms of the deal apparently state that Lucas will receive roughly half in cash and half in Disney stock.  This essentially seems to be Lucas' retirement letter as an owner, perhaps devoting his attention to rest and directing a few more films.  Bear in mind that Lucasfilm, as previously stated, includes not only the movie studio, but LucasArts, Industrial Light and Magic, and Skywalker Sound, all of whom have a pretty significant stamp in the entertainment industry.  Luckily, Disney claims that all current Lucasfilm employees will remain in their positions.

Coupled with this announcement was the further promotion of the idea of Star Wars: Episode 7, announced to be released in 2015.  George Lucas seems to be detaching himself from the franchise, stating that he "always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me" and it is "now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers."

I've been a Star Wars fan for a long time.  In terms of fantasy and science fiction, Star Wars may be the lore that I've invested the most time and effort in, as the characters and the underlying culture of the movies has always fascinated me.  Though I felt that episodes 1-3 of Star Wars were half-hearted and low quality, I am actually quite excited and hopeful for episode 7.  2015 is soon enough that the current trends should maintain, and I believe that the trends are positive for the reboot of an older franchise.  Credit for this hope goes to one franchise: Batman. 

We miss you, Luke Skywalker.

The most current Batman movies have been spectacular, bringing us away from the campy and cheesy generation of super hero movies (cough, Fantastic Four) and helping to usher in a generation of deeper quality (like the new Spiderman film compared to the older ones).  I believe that because of this newer generation, as well as the harsh criticisms given to episodes 1-3, episode 7 has the potential to be a good movie that helps to bring another generation of people to the expansive Star Wars universe.

Will Disney's presence affect Star Wars: Episode 7?  Possibly, but I can only see that being a positive.  If you think about it, Disney has done a great job as of late catering to a wide range of audiences with their films.  They generated emotional moments while understanding how to capture the light-heartedness that makes Disney movies, well, Disney movies.  And come on: Disney owns ABC, ESPN, and others; they know what adults like too.

For my next entry, I will attempt to dissect the biggest trend of the Fall, "Gangnam Style", and why it appeals to the American masses.  Til then!

Stop Looking Up to the Superstar Athlete

You may have heard that earlier today, Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles for his role in a massive doping scheme during his run as cycling's biggest star.  He also recently stepped down as chairman of Livestrong and his endorsers have been letting him go one by one, with Oakley being the latest company to let him go.  Look at this quote I pulled from ESPN:

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," said Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union.  It's almost unbelievable.  I lived through the Lance Armstrong years, when his recovery from cancer was an inspiration for many.  Until we learned of his cheating, many considered his seven straight Tour de France titles as one of the greatest achievements in sports.  Look where we stand now.

This is only the latest case of the bungled decision-making of the superstar athlete.  More and more, it's becoming clear that Charles Barkley's famous words from a 1990's commercial, "I'm not a role model", actually should hold true for the majority of the athletes we follow.  Luckily, there are those stars who hold their image and their stature, held up by their strong morals, but we're coming upon too many big names making too many big mistakes.  Lance Armstrong.  Tiger Woods.  Roger Clemens.  Michael Vick.  These guys have been showing some dark colors along the way, and though some, like Vick, appear to have gotten past their errors, we'll never forget what they've put us through as fans.

My favorite athlete growing up was Michael Jordan.  His pure skill, his competitiveness, and his superstar stature made him the object of heroism for many around the world.  He may have been the greatest basketball player ever but beyond that, he may have had the strongest influence on culture of any athlete in the history of sports.  Michael Jordan the basketball player was spectacular, and I'll always carry those wonderful memories of his ventures.

He believes he can fly.

Michael Jordan the human being, however, has proven to be anything but a hero.  He's well known now for his gambling addiction, and his Hall of Fame speech had "cocky jerk" written all over it.  It's difficult for me to keep the two separate in my mind now; how can I think about Michael Jordan and his exploits without including both the good and the bad?

As I said, not all athletes stumble in this way, and you can't blame these stars too much for having faults.  They're human and beyond that, they're put under a tremendous amount of pressure.  The biggest mistakes seem to occur when these guys know how big of a star they are.  They think that they are gods and can do anything and everything they want to.  If I had that much power, I'd like to think that I'd hold to my morals, but who knows: maybe these guys thought the same thing before they got to the top.

Anyway, Lance Armstrong's downfall merely reminds me that kids today need better role models.  Other upstanding athletes or entertainers could step up but in reality, it's each of us that needs to act as those role models.  If I had simply followed Michael Jordan's footsteps while growing up, where would I be now?  Probably not writing this post in the comfort of my home.  Winning is desirable, but winning doesn't count when you cheat, and Lance Armstrong has finally faced the consequences.  Thanks be to God for that.

Game Companies Prep for Holiday Season

Time to go back to my bread and butter for this week's post.  We all know that Halloween is just a few weeks away, meaning that Thanksgiving is a few more weeks away.  Most importantly, this means that Black Friday is a few more weeks plus a day away, and this day usually marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season.  This time of year is when all things of all types start to fly off the shelves, but my focus today will be on what I know.  Believe it or not, video games have probably become one of the primary purchasing categories of the holiday seasons, for all ages, due to their relatively cheap price point and entertainment value.  Let's look at what companies are doing to prepare for the holiday season.

Many of you know (or many of you may not know) that Nintendo is planning to release its next system, called the Wii-U, this holiday season.  Here's what it looks like:

So what's the story with this guy?  Well, on the left is the big sell of this new system: the tablet controller.  Nintendo has already shown us examples of how this device will be implemented: for example, in the flagship Mario game for the new system, 4 players will use normal Wii remotes to play, while a fifth player can assist by using the tablet to draw helpful items; this will be translated onto the TV screen so that the other four players can see and use it.  The Wii-U tablet will also allow users to play games on the tablet, in case someone else wants to use the TV.

The Wii-U will finally bring Nintendo's system technology into this generation (that's right, THIS generation, not next), with hardware comparable to a slightly improved Xbox 360.  With this product, Nintendo sticks to their mantra of making games that sell by being engaging, not by being pretty or "hardcore".  The Wii-U will release with models selling at $299 and $349.

However, with the release of this new system, other companies (and Nintendo themselves, more on that in a second) are implementing price cuts to try and maintain the pace.  The Xbox 360's selling price will be cut by $50, allowing folks to also buy packages that include the system and a game or two.  The Xbox 360 has always been the cheaper of the "power" systems, and this price cut ought to really give it a nice push in this year's holiday competition.  If only it weren't for...

Nintendo.  The Wii (without the U) will still be on the market, even though game development for it will soon come to a halt.  The Wii's price will drop to $130 (I add an underline because of how epic this is), which includes a controller and two very popular games, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort.  If I didn't already have a Wii, this package would be highly enticing, and I'm sure that families all over the world will be tempted by this price cut.  I mean, if you can wait a bit on the Wii-U, why not just buy the Wii now and play it for a while, and you can take most of the equipment you purchase for the Wii and transfer it to the new version, whenever you get it?  Sounds like a pretty simple plan to me.  The Wii still has a pretty strong lineup of games to play for all ages, so I won't be surprised if the elder Wii at the cheaper price point has itself another strong selling season.

So beyond the surplus of good games that come out during the holiday season, the price cuts we'll see for the older systems, and the brand new Wii-U, a lot is happening this holiday season to entice gamers and non-gamers alike to spend their money on this brand of entertainment.

Oh, and what got me started on this article?  Dance Central 3 is out soon and is receiving solid reviews as usual.  The Kinect has surprised me in how well it's done and how solid the product is.  I will certainly be tempted to buy one, with Dance Central 3, this holiday season.  What games/systems are you looking forward to?

Have a great day and I'll see you next time!

The Value of Your Purchase

Sorry for not writing last week, but this entry has been frustrating to write.  I've mostly done it to myself: I had an idea to present, but realized that it had no purpose or value.  So I molded the idea a bit to attempt to present something worthwhile, but it still wasn't coming to me.  Finally, I've arrived at a conclusion for this post and it's much simpler than my original idea.

Suppose, for example's sake, that you are sitting in your room on Friday night at 5pm and have no idea what you want to do that night.  Your tendency will be to go to your fall-back activity, like reading, watching TV, or playing video games.  Sometimes that's sufficient, but sometimes you wanna do something else.  However, in our cash-strapped economy, it can be hard for us to feel OK spending a little more money to do something else.  Whether it's your fall-back activity or something new, there's usually a monetary value tied to it.  Different realms of activity present different costs, so how do we compare one from the other?  It's simple: cost per hour.

Take the cost of whatever your activity of choice is and simply divide it by the number of hours you think you will spend (or the number of hours you have spent, if you're looking at something you've already done) to find the cost per hour.  Using this value, you can get a gauge of the monetary value you're extracting from the activity.  For instance, the average movie in the theater is roughly 2 hours long.  The average price of a ticket these days is probably around $10; thus, a movie costs $5/hr.  Again, nice and simple.

So what does this number mean?  Really, it means what you want it to mean.  It always depends on how much value you put on the activity; for instance, how much fun you think you'll have (or have already had) with the purchase.  If you're sitting in your room on Friday night and trying to decide between a few activities, the cost per hour is a great place to start, to give yourself a base numeric value for each activity.  You can use this base value in combination with your perception of the "value" of the activity to figure out which activity you think will be most "worth it".

I feel blessed when I can look back on some of my purchases and find that I got incredible value out of them.  For instance, the Popcap game Plants v. Zombies is a popular tower defense game available on almost every system imaginable, including phones.  I paid $2.50 on Steam (a game organization service, for those who are unaware) for the game and ended up spending roughly 45 hours on it (with perhaps more to come).  I enjoyed those hours I spent too, as I have always enjoyed the mild strategy of tower defense games.  It makes me feel better to think about Plants v. Zombies from the cost per hour perspective: $2.50 at 45 hours is roughly $0.05/hr.  Let's be real here: there aren't a lot of things that'll keep you entertained at $0.05/hr, for 45 hours.

There's a zombie on your lawn.

You can also use these values to make yourself a more conscious spender.  I purchased Assassin's Creed: Revelations for roughly $30 last year on Black Friday.  I enjoyed the previous Assassin's games and felt that Revelations was a sure bet.  I was wrong: the game was too thick, attempting to incorporate too many activities and becoming a slow, monotonous experience.  I played that game for maybe a total of 5 hours before I traded it in.  That means that AC: Revelations was about $6/hr.  Still not a terrible number, but nowhere near as valuable as the $0.05/hr presented by Plants v. Zombies.  Now, Assassin's Creed 3 is releasing very soon and though it looks like an even surer bet than Revelations, I will do my research online before I purchase it, remembering my previous failed purchase.

Fail, Ezio.  Fail.

Let me remind you once again that this number, the cost per hour, is up to your own interpretation.  If you really enjoyed a certain movie, then $5/hr was well worth it.  If you purchased a book for $2.50 but couldn't read it for more than 30 minutes, then the roughly $5/hr you spent there seems like a failed purchase.

In conclusion, a number like cost per hour could be useless but within your interpretation could be very useful as well.  Calculating numbers like the cost per hour will, at the very least, slow you down and make you think through your purchases a little more carefully.  That's why, among other reasons, people keep budgets.

I hope this was helpful to you and I will try to write again this week to make up for missing last week.  Enjoy your day!