Digital Media

Correction at 4:50 a.m. PDT November 18: Cammie Dunaway incorrectly described Wii's October sales figures compared with other next-generation game consoles. Wii sales were nearly the total of its rivals combined.

Stung by lower Wii sales and a couple of down quarters, Nintendo may be a bit off its game this year. But Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, keeps focused on the company's strengths and positive numbers.

The recession and a paucity of blockbuster titles have taken a bite out of the overall video game industry this year, with revenue down from record levels in 2008. Nintendo certainly hasn't been immune. For the first half of the year, earnings fell about 50 percent from 2008, while Will sales dipped.

Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's
executive VP of sales and marketing

(Credit: Nintendo)

In the midst of this atmosphere, I spoke on Thursday with Dunaway, known to many video game buffs for her high-spirited appearances at E3.

Though I asked Dunaway about the company's revenue decline, lower console sales, and potential competition, she continually championed Nintendo's assets, including its Wii and DS consoles and recent popular games like Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus, as well as new titles like Super Mario Bros.

Dunaway's optimism about Nintendo may have been borne out by the latest results. Though overall video game revenue fell in October, the Wii bounced back to recover its spot as the top selling console, according to NPD.

Last month, Nintendo sold 507,000 Wiis, compared with 320,600 Sony PlayStation 3s and 249,700 Microsoft Xbox 360s. Coming in second in video game hardware sales was Nintendo's portable DSi and DS Lite, with gamers scooping up 457,000 units.

Four of Nintendo's titles also did well in October, finishing in the top 10. The company sold 232,000 copies of Wii Fit Plus alone, and 209,000 of Wii Fit Plus bundled with the Balance Board. Wii Sports Resort scored with 179,000 copies sold, while Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the DS found 169,000 new customers.

I spoke with Dunaway by phone before before NPD released the October sales figures. But she certainly knew ahead of time that the numbers would look good for Nintendo.

Q: The question on everyone's mind is Nintendo's performance this year. For the first half, earnings were down about 50 percent. Sales for the Wii have dropped. Your president, [Satoru] Iwata, recently admitted that sales of the Wii have stalled. What do you pin as the reasons for this downturn, both for the company and for the Wii itself?
Dunaway: Let's talk about the U.S., and let's break it down into the separate platforms. So, speaking first about the Wii--what's important to understand is that in 2008, we sold 10 million units of the Wii, which was a record for any console ever in history. And so it's a high mark.

What's also important to understand is that the pacing of our software this year was quite different than it was in 2008. In 2008, our big titles were released early in the year. And this year's huge title, released a few weeks ago in October, Wii Fit Plus, is doing quite well. And then arguably, the largest title of the year, New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, only releases Sunday [November 15]. So we believe that going into the holiday season, consumers will continue to look for the products they see as representing the best value and the most fun.

Now on DS, we also had a record setting year last year, selling over 10 million units, and we are actually 16 percent above that pace year-to-date in 2009. So the combination of DS Lite and our new product DSi is really resonating with consumers.

Then on software, here in the U.S., our software for both Wii and Nintendo DS is actually up over a year ago. So despite the fact that our big titles are yet to come, we still have had a good year overlapping a tremendous year with our software.

Can you talk about some of the new titles Nintendo has in store for the holidays and next year? You mentioned Super Mario Bros. is a key title for the holidays. Are there others?
Dunaway: Looking to some of the additional titles for the holidays, New Super Mario Bros., for the first time enables four people to play a Mario game together. And it is going to be something that provides tremendous challenge to experienced gamers, and something a brand new gamer can jump in with their friends and family and enjoy. So that one will be a monster hit.

We also on the DS side have a new Zelda title--Zelda Spirit Tracks--coming on December 7. And Zelda titles are always strong performers, and it's a franchise that loyalists look forward to, line up to get copies of. And it's a title that we also think expanded market consumers will enjoy because of its heart. It's really about solving puzzles and going on an adventure, which is something that really anyone can have a good time doing.

Then as we go into next year, while we haven't announced timing, we have announced that we'll be launching a new Pokemon Gold and Silver, which has broken all records on its launch in Japan. [We're also launching] a title that will be great for loyalists called Sin & Punishment and a title called Endless Ocean that really provides a wonderful family experience on the Wii.

Boxing's popularity seems to have been overtaken by such pleasures as mixed martial arts and American Idol over the last few years. This doesn't seem to have discouraged Facebook users from forming groups around their love of expressing hate for certain boxers.

According to the Telegraph, WBA World light-welterweight champion Amir Khan, a Briton of Pakistani heritage, has decided to threaten the social-networking company with legal action over some of these Facebook groups.

Together with his manager, Frank Warren, Khan has employed legal counsel after so far failing to persuade Facebook to take down so-called hate groups aimed at him. These groups, in the view of Khan and Warren, made racist and defamatory comments about the boxer.

Khan and Warren complain that they have so far received only standard acknowledgments from Facebook and have therefore employed the law firm Lupton Fawcett.

"The problem is, when you search for a celebrity on the site, you also come across pages using the celebrity's name and image that have no official link but in some instances are full of defamatory and illegal content," according to a quote in the Guardian of Lupton Fawcett's Stephen Taylor Heath.

Khan is a somewhat-polarizing figure in British sports. However, it is perhaps surprising just how many Facebook hate groups there are aimed at him. I counted more than 20.

Does he know there appear to be 1,600 "Hate MySpace" Facebook groups?

(Credit: Cc Deneyterrio/Flickr)

Facebook's terms of service are very clear about hate: "You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence." So perhaps it's hard to understand how the company can allow so many groups that claim they hate Amir Khan in their very name.

One can, of course, argue that you can say you hate a sportsman, in the sense that the mere sight of them arouses unpleasant thoughts (for some, David Beckham, for others, the German national soccer team). One doesn't necessarily wish that person or those persons harm.

Indeed, when one goes through the Amir Khan hate groups, the vast majority seem to dislike Khan for his attitude, for only fighting (in their opinion) boxers of a poor level and for his lack of boxing skill.

Much of the tone and content, however, is undoubtedly abusive, and there are suggestions of racist overtones in certain comments. Khan's lawyers say they are specifically focusing on material that they believe is defamatory or racist.

This case lends further indication that many interpretations Facebook makes of content on its site are highly subjective. In removing some Holocaust denial groups and one Muslim-hating group, Facebook made it clear that it made its own judgments on what should be considered hateful speech.

It will be interesting how far Khan's lawyers are prepared to push their case. It will also be interesting whether other sporting personalities will join together in attempting to remove potentially defamatory content from Facebook and other sites.

While it seems almost comical that there appear to be 1,600 Facebook groups that profess to hate MySpace, there are only 54 that claim to hate David Beckham, and only one Facebook group appears when you search for "I hate the German football team."

For ESPN, the social-networking revolution will not be televised--or tweeted, blogged, or Facebooked. Not for now, at least, and not without ESPN's approval.

The sports network has apparently banned its workforce from posting any sports-related content on social-networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook without its permission. The news first came to light Tuesday when Ric Bucher, an NBA analyst for ESPN, tweeted that he had just received an network memo regarding tweeting:

The hammer just came down, tweeps: ESPN memo prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN. Kinda figured with was coming. Not sure what this means but

In a follow-up tweet, Bucher, who has more than 18,000 followers on Twitter, pondered the gravity of his tweet revealing the memo:

I'm probably violating some sort of policy just by telling you. In any case, stay tuned.

According to a purported copy of the memo posted on the sports blog The Big Lead, Bucher may just be violating the new policy (one point begins "Avoid discussing internal policies...").

In the memo, ESPN tells employees that it is "currently building and testing modules designed to publish Twitter and Facebook entries simultaneously" on ESPN Web sites and mobile platforms, and it plans to roll out the modules this fall.

"Personal websites and blogs that contain sports content are not permitted," according to the memo. But, it says, "If ESPN.com opts not to post sports related social media content created by ESPN talent, you are not permitted to report, speculate, discuss or give any opinions on sports related topics or personalities on your personal platforms(.)"

The memo seems to mirror efforts announced earlier Tuesday by the Marine Corps and the National Football League affecting their respective members and employees. And while one could argue that a military ban on using social-networking sites could ultimately save lives, the NFL is apparently just trying to save itself from some embarrassment.

Professional athletes ranging from Shaquille O'Neal to Lance Armstrong have long twittered about their observations on their respective sports experiences but not always with the approval or to the amusement of their coaches. In April, San Francisco Giants pitchers Barry Zito and Brian Wilson found their Twitter accounts getting the hook over some rather bizarre posts. But those posts paled in comparison to Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley, who last season posted a portion of his team's playbook on his personal blog--along with a photo of his penis.

So what is ESPN's angle? A spokesman for the network told The New York Times that, "we want to be smarter about how we do it," adding that Bucher's "interpretation of the policy is mistaken."

As for Bucher, he seems to have no plans to abandon Twitter. "My guess is I can still tweet about my vacation/car shopping, etc. Which I will do, if I can."

The Golden State Warriors don't play defense--except, perhaps, when it comes to the indefensible.

Please imagine you're a disgruntled Warriors fan. For two seasons, everything seemed to suddenly and strangely go well. After what felt like 20 seasons of desperation, playoffs were reached. No. 1 seeds were defeated.

Then, for reasons that seem all too evident to those who give the Warriors money (disclosure: myself included), there is a handbasket drifting downward from purgatory with a large Warriors logo printed on its side.

Naturally, fans voice their views on various sites. One of which is WarriorsWorld.net. Much of the commentary lately has been of a negative nature.

One shining beacon of light was offered by "Flunkster Dude." Commenting on a season-ticket holder conference call hosted by General Manager Larry Riley, President Robert Rowell and TV play-by-play man Bob Fitzgerald, he wrote: "I actually enjoyed the call and appreciate their honesty."

Which not so many other commenters did. Even fewer do now, as the WarriorsWorld.net chaps traced the IP back to a certain office. You're there already, aren't you? Yes, to the office of the Golden State Warriors.

Flunkster Dude is, in fact, Flackster Dude. Real name, Raymond Ridder, PR man for the Golden State Warriors.

We believe. Well, we did.

(Credit: CC Permanently Scatterbrained/Flickr)

The journalist who published the revelation this week, Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News, received a very quaint response from Ridder: "It was 100% me. And I'll take 100% responsibility, if anybody thinks I did anything wrong. It was completely on my own. I've never been told to do anything by anybody here. It was just me."

Naturally, I enjoyed his response and appreciated his honesty. Especially the part about never having been told to do anything by anybody.

However, Flunkster Dude was not done. He continued to offer his honesty in a most disarming way: "It was nothing malicious at all. I just wanted to get the conversation going in a positive direction-I thought we had a good conference call, I had some good conversations with some season-ticket-holders, then I got to my office and I looked on the internet and all I saw was negative comments, complaints, nothing positive."

So the obvious step for a fine PR chappy was to hide that he was a fine PR chappy, in the bizarre hope that, by leaving a positive comment, all like-thinking, enlightened fans, marveling at the Warriors 29 wins last season, would emerge from beneath some unseen parquet and toss more garlands on top of his.

Now here's the fun part. (You thought there wouldn't be a fun part?) This doesn't appear to be the first time Flunkster Dude has flacked his wings and flown.

He admitted to Kawakami that he had posted four other bonmots on WW.net. All, you will be overwhelmed to hear, were dunks on behalf of management.

One was even a negative comment about one of the better (but not, sadly, better-dressed) journalists who follow the Warriors, a tall man who plays a mean game of pickup (he's played and squashed some friends of mine), Matt Steinmetz.

You might think that Flunkster Dude has flunked the very first test of social media.

You might think that someone who posts anonymously about honesty, when himself being just slightly less than entirely honest about his interest in the matter, might just think about a career in politics.

However, I might think that you have never been a fan of the most maddening, ridiculous, disquieting, arrogant, ignorant and, just occasionally, sickeningly lovable mess that is the Golden State Warriors.

I will not hear anyone criticize their sublime fish and chips, though.

(Disclosure and, um, an ad: I appear regularly on Patrick Mauro's nationally syndicated show on Sports Byline USA, Sundays at 11 p.m. Honestly.)

I understand that not everyone loves soccer.

However, Wednesday saw one of the most important events in the annual soccer calendar--the UEFA Champions League semifinal between Chelsea and Barcelona.

Barcelona prevailed with an excellent goal in the very dying seconds. Which, unfortunately, has resulted in many Chelsea fans turning to Facebook and other media in order to suggest that the Norwegian referee, Tom Henning Ovrebo, should be doing some dying too.

In their somewhat warped view, he refused to award four penalties to Chelsea. And he should, therefore, suffer the consequences.

Here is a sample from just one of the many anti-Ovrebo Facebook groups that have sprung up. This one is called "I Hate Tom Ovrebo."

One poster to the group, Stephen Yang of Wisconsin writes: "I'm in. Let's track him down and hang him."

Perhaps you might think that these are merely the emotional words of a mournful, scornful fan.

Didier Drogba, a player known for his diving as much as his complaining.

(Credit: CC Ben Sutherland/Flickr)

However, Norwegian police are not so sure. An Oslo police spokesman told the London Evening Standard: "We are watching closely what is being posted on the Internet. Anything we believe would threaten his personal safety will be taken seriously."

One group, according to the Standard, that has already perhaps been monitored closely, had the endearing name "Kill Tom Henning Ovrebo." Its stated aim: "We group dedicated to the hunt for (and brutal murdering of) the second-leg champions league ref of Chelsea vs Barcelona."

I could not find this group Thursday (although I did find one called "Tom Ovrebo Must Die," but there are a couple of issues that make this nasty outpouring of hate more than usually disturbing.

In 2005, Chelsea also believed it had been treated unfortunately in a game against Barcelona, this time by Swedish referee Andres Frisk. Frisk was subjected to a level of threat that caused him to cease being a referee very shortly afterward.

At the time he said: "I have been subjected to things that I couldn't even imagine...I don't know if I even dare let my kids go to the post office."

However, this time, the Chelsea players themselves cannot escape a charge that they helped fuel this disgraceful reaction.

The Chelsea striker, Didier Drogba, known for wailing, diving, whining antics that overshadow any talent he might have, behaved like an adolescent with a distorted view of reality at the end of the game. He raged at a TV camera that the referee had been a "f****** disgrace." His eyes bulged as if sanity had left him and moved to another time zone.

Equally, Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack looked at one point as if he was about to either assault the official or eat him.

These players lost control to a degree that few can ever claim to have witnessed. Perhaps the most pathetic aspect of their behavior is that Ovrebo's worst decision by far was to red card Barcelona's Eric Abidal when the fact is he didn't touch Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka at all.

However, it will be interesting to see how quickly Facebook, which yesterday admitted to Technically Incorrect that it is hard-pressed to monitor all the hate spewed in its pages, can deal with the alleged threats.

As one poster, Adam Webster, to the same "I Hate Tom Ovrebo" group wrote: "Ok guys...i hate him and his descisions (sic) as much as you...but i think we should all stop with the death threats. Yes, it's clear he cheated, but i think we should calm down on that note before authorities get involved."

It will be interesting to see in the coming days which authorities do get involved and what their sanctions might be. One can only hope they are serious sanctions.

FanSnap announced Monday a $5.5 million funding round, which it aims to use on completing the build-out of its search engine.

FanSnap, which launched its ticket search engine beta in September, received funding from existing investor General Catalyst Partners, which led the round.

The FanSnap site is designed to allow users to search for tickets based on a number of criteria, from price range to number of tickets sought, as a well as an at-a-glance ticket price range based on the stadium section using a colored map.

The site gleans its data from 56 ticketing providers including StubHub, Ace Ticket, and TicketNetwork.

Google is making it easier to check up on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing from your mobile phone.

Searching for any Olympic sport on Google's mobile Web site will bring up, in addition to the regular search results that Google would normally offer, a timetable of Olympic schedules and results for that event. The search also works in 35 other languages, and Google has created an additional mobile Web site as a general repository of Olympic information.

When results start to come in, mobile searches for things like "swimming medals" and "French medal count" will bring up relevant Olympic data too.

The Olympics tie-ins are a little bit more extensive on Google's regular browser search; other search engines, such as Yahoo, are doing something similar. Google is also serving ads on NBC's online-video coverage of the Olympics using its DoubleClick technology.

If text-based mobile search just isn't fancy enough for your precious handset, NBC will be serving up mobile video to customers of Verizon's V-Cast service, thanks to a partnership between the two companies. Additionally, video-on-demand will be available to Verizon's Fios television service.

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

Yahoo and Turner Broadcasting System announced on Thursday a multi-year content and advertising alliance.

Under the agreement, Yahoo Sports will gain access to content from the league sites of the National Basketball Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing that are managed by Turner Broadcasting. And, in turn, Turner Network will be able to exclusively sell all display, sponsorship, and video advertising in Yahoo Sports' NBA, Nascar, and golf pages on Yahoo Sports.

On Yahoo Sports, Turner will provide live and on-demand video, leaderboards, and editorial content for the NBA, Nascar, PGA Tour and PGA pages. The league sites will also receive their own fixed location on the relevant sports pages.

The agreement is part of a publisher partnership strategy Yahoo began during the fall, which aims to create an interdependent advertising-reseller network.

"By aligning with Turner and enabling them to extend Yahoo inventory to sell to advertisers, we will engage the most targeted audience of sports enthusiasts available on the Internet, " Todd Teresi, senior vice president of Yahoo's Publisher Channel, said in a statement.