Video Games are very popular in today’s society. Just in the month of November alone there was an estimated 2.7 billion dollars spent on video games.

Video Games are very popular in today’s society. Just in the month of November alone, there was an estimated 2.7 billion dollars spent on video games. There are many different video game systems on the market today and most of them have been successful. The two biggest video game systems are Xbox and Play Station. But with the economy were it is today, video game sales are slowing starting to decline from previous years.
In October, there was an estimated 19 percent decrease in software accessories sold from the same month last year. Anita Frazier believes that this month will help video games sales a lot. Her reasoning behind this is because of the holiday. November and December are always the two biggest months for video games sales. The recession cut into flexible spending and there were fewer hit game launched than in 2008. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 brought in an estimated 550 million dollars over 5 days. This was a record in sales for any video game every made. The most popular video game system right now is surprisingly the Nintendo. With the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS this company has had overall good success. Software sales are down 3% from last year and sales of accessories re down 6%.
Video games are very popular amongst college and adolescents today. I play about 30 minutes of video games a day. The most beneficial part of the article has to do with how much video game industries are struggling with sales and coming out with a profit. I think most companies are having problems today with staying positive and making a profit. This sudden decrease in sales won’t stop video game companies from coming out with new games, and new equipment to better their numbers. That should be the work ethic of all companies. One day I will like to own my own business and I know if my company is ever struggling I will have to do whatever it takes to get it back on track.

Facebook Must Woo Investors Before Any IPO

Google has become one of the most preferred tech stocks this decade, but sometimes it wasn’t always considered to be a sure bet. Facebook is a very popular Internet system that is used by an estimated 350 million users across the country. Some shareholders are not convinced that Facebook is a stock that they want to own. I think that Facebook stock is a good idea and also a good investment. Facebook is by far the most popular social network of all time, but will it be a bust like myspace and friendster?

In September, the company announced it was cash flow positive. All the money that Facebook generates from various advertisements and other revenue sources exceeds the cost of services and other capital expenditures. Marc Andreessen believes that the company will generate about 500 million dollars in 2009. The biggest concern is that Facebook lacks a business model. Google relies on Internet advertising for its sales, most people don’t use Facebook to shop or research products. Today Facebooks biggest competitor is Twitter. In my opinion more college students use Facebook than Twitter. I think Facebook will last for along time as well. It is very popular among adolescents today and it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends that are at different schools.

Facebook has a lot riding on their shoulders. Most social networks that have come out in this decade have been a failure, or something better came out that grabbed the attention of people. Facebook is by far the most popular social network of all time but can they continue to that status for years to come. I think the answer to that is yes. Every month it seems that they change something on the site, or make something that is new and fun. In my opinion, Facebook will be around for along time and I don’t see any new social networks coming out that can match the success of Facebook. Facebook has been very successful already and it will only get better. Investing in Facebook would be a risky investment, but I think in the long run you will see a lot of production.

Ask any young child, going to Disney Land is always something that I looked forward to. Whenever it is time for the family to take a trip to California to Disney Land, or to Florida to Disney World I was excited beyond belief. Disneyland’s are now not only popular in the United States but in another big countries like China. With the economy the way it is today, even though it is getting better is it worth all the money and risk to build a theme park like Disney Land.

In Shanghai there is going to be a Disney Land built and the estimated cost will be 24.4 billion yuan. That is 3.6 billion American dollars. To this date, out of three overseas Disneyland’s in the World, only the Tokyo Park has seen any type of profit. Reports have said that this Disney in Shanghai will be the mother of all Disney Lands. In Hong Kong Disney Land is growing. They have reported to have agreed on extending the park by wanting to add three new lands onto the existing four that are already there. Hong Kong Disneyland today has denied that there are plans for even more expansion, but for now that’s not necessary. After many years of worrying about competition, Hong Kong’s Disney Land has been one of the most productive out of all Disney Land’s.

This article has given me the idea that even though something can be a risk, you have to understand the risk and look beyond it. Shanghai will be taking a big risk when they come out with their new theme park, but that is something that they are willing to face and hopefully they will be successful in doing so. Someone that doesn’t take risk in my opinion will never be as successful as they could be. I am a person that is willing to take a risk and I know I will do whatever it takes to be successful in whatever I do.

At General Motors, Loss Reduction Is a Good Start

Today General Motors CEO Fredrick A Fritz is scheduled to give the companies first update since it emerged from bankruptcy in June. Sources close to GM say that they will show much improvement in the third quarter earnings and cash flow. General Motors will show improvements in cash flow because of lower costs and better net pricing on its cars. “GM is stabilizing, but it’s not stabilized”, says longtime industry watcher Joseph Phillippi who is the principal of Auto Trends. Also the company’s earnings and cash flow will be helped in the quarter by the fact that it shut down many plants in June when it was in bankruptcy. On July 10, the new GM emerged and the old GM that consisted of unwanted plants and other assets was split from the company. Vice-Chairman Robert Lutz told reporters in October that GM's cars had an $8,000 increase in net pricing in September. General Motor sales have risen in September and GM's market-share losses have leveled off in recent months to about 20%. To me it seems that General Motors is not giving up and is continuing to make strides to get out of bankruptcy.

Power From Pond Scum

Kevin Berner is a 52 year old CEO and founder of Phycal. He believes that algae is the cure for America’s fossil-fuel addiction. Algae plants are said to be able to produce up to 100 times more oil per acre compared to corn the nation’s favorite biofuel. Berner has loved the idea of algae from 2004 when he stepped down from a three year stint at McKinsey Co and now he turned to renewable fuels. If the algae business blooms Berner won’t have it all to himself. “In the past two years, the number of players developing algal fuels around the world has tripled, to more than 70”, says Harry Boyle, lead biofuels analyst at London-based consultants New Energy Finance. Some of these companies include BP, Exxon Mobile, and Shell. Berner is building a pilot plant using natural algae strains in Hawaii. It's on track to open in 2010 and should deliver biofuel at about $4 per gallon. This is on par with the state's high oil prices.

Buddy, Can You E-Mail Me 100 Bucks?

The article starts off by saying what if you could send money to a friend that you owed money to through a phone rather than going to an ATM or mailing a check. Having something like this would be awesome but to me it sounds a little unrealistic. People in Japan and Europe can already do this. U.S. consumers have embraced online shopping and e banking. Americans will soon be ready to move to person-to-person mobile payments.
To me it still seems that payments done on a mobile phone will be hard to do. “A recent poll by Mercatus, a financial consulting firm, showed that the proportion of people ages 26 to 34 who had used a cell phone to buy goods or pay for a product or service had doubled, to 14%, in the past year.” This could be a reason why banks and different financial companies are trying to add this person-to-person payments on mobile devices. People are on their phones everyday and having a feature like this could be very effective. Companies like PNC Financial, Bank of the West, and the Boeing Employees Credit Union are teaming up to make this happen and this will hopefully be launched in 2010. The one question is how is this going to work? It works by signing up for a service through your bank or another provider. Enter an e-mail address or phone number to send money to anyone you know. Your bank's person-to-person payment system will be included with your regular online banking, and the funds will be debited from your account. At the other end, the recipient may get the cash deposited directly into an account or have it posted to an existing credit card or a prepaid card.

This just shows how lazy people are these days. People are lazy as it is, and having something like this on your phone will allow people to sit around more and not have to make there payments in person. The idea of this is cool though, it just shows how technology is changing the world today.

Last weeks Essay: Dangerous Days for Video Games

Video Games have become a way of life for most teenagers today. When people don’t know what to do with there free time video games is always something they can do to keep them busy. I probably play on average 4-5 hours of video games a week and I would say that is low for most college students. Even with this being said, video games are not being sold as much as they used to and a lot of video game companies like Xbox and Playstation are struggling right now.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare came out last week and this was one of the most anticipated releases for a video game in a long time. Even with this being said, companies like Wal-Mart and Amazon are handing out $20 discount coupons to lure in buyers. “As of October, according to the research firm NPD group, sales were off 12% in the U.S.” Anita Frazier believes this is coming from the economy. Call of Duty coasted the company about 200 million to launch the game and about 40 million to develop says Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst. Predictions say the Call of Duty will still be down money unless Christmas bring a surplus.

Video games are very popular but the companies are still struggling. I think maybe it is because on how expensive it costs to buy them. Most video cost 60 dollars when they are popular and for most college kids that is very expensive. When I am working there will be obstacles that will come my way. If what I am doing isn’t working I will need to try something else to be successful and do whatever it takes to get done what needs to get done. In the case of these video game companies they need to find a way to get sales back to what they were. Decreasing price is a possibility but they are spending a lot to make the game so that may not be the answer.