...and the retailer will be forced to slash the prices. Take a look at what is happening in the video game market. No one is buying games and uber-maker EA Games has decided to slash prices by $10 in the hopes of spurring sales.

I am predicting this will be a successful strategy because they are doing it one week prior to the release of the XBox 360, which will be a huge seller and will dominate the video game market throughout the holiday season and well into next year when Sony releases its own next-generation system.

It's also no mistake that EA games has several titles on the backward compatibility list for the 360, so slashing titles should open them up to a new market of XBOX users (like me).

But beyond video games, this is just a good lesson in consumerism because basic economics dictates that people want to pay for something at the lowest price possible and that manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers want to sell it at the highest price possible. Where the will of these two sides meets determines the fair market value and millions of these negotations happen each second to allocate scarce resources to their most efficient uses.

Well, when consumers pull back on what they are willing to pay, the other side must either pull away completely and scrap the service or product being bartered for, or they must come farther over toward the consumer's demand and the price is lowered.

Of course, the flip side to this is that these price lowerings are generally temporary because basic economics also dictates that low prices are generally followed by higher demand for the product or service which puts a strain on the scarce resources which go into its production and cause a rise in price to curb consumer demand (look no further than the recent gas price spike and the choices we each made in our personal financial situations to demonstrate this).



So, if you want video games for $5, shut up about them and wait around. Of course, once all the profit potential leaves the industry, this means we'll all be sitting around playing pong again--but we'll do it cheaply!

• Here is a .pdf of the new XBOX 360 Owner's Guide
  

• And here is a list of Best Buy allocation sheets for the XBOX 360 around the country

Hat tip to Digg for these two links.

TAGS: Video, EA, XBOX, Marketing, Economics

Sony has chosen to cease with the XCP antipiracy software on its CDs and has buckled because of the pressure induced upon it by the online community.

The story was broken on the Internet.

The story bubbled and popped on the Internet and the heat was turned way up on Sony, you guessed it, on the Internet.

Blogs around the world just hammered the mega corporation after it was leaked that this malicious software not only invaded the consumer's right to privacy but opened PCs up to hostile attacks, spyware, spamware, and ruthless viruses that could lock out the CD drive or lock up the machine altogether.

Perhaps if Sony and the other labels in the recording industry would spend more time on producing quality music that actually highlights the art in artist, they wouldn't have to worry about people stealing their music beacause they would gladly be paying to support the vision of the artist.

Remember how many people owned multiple copies of Thriller back in the early 80s? That's because people bought into the vision of Michael Jackson. Today, no one even wants to steal a new Michael Jackson CD, nor would many take one for free.

It isn't about music being a commodity. It's about creating a vision that heals the world in some fundamental way and then gathering an audience of individuals to support your vision.

But how can you explain human nature and the proper role of mythological art to a empty-souled corporation?

I recently saw an interview with Michael Moore (not my favorite person in the world) where he was talking about this very point. He basically asked the audience to think about why these big media corporations continue to support and distribute his work when the fundamental message he's purporting is a complete attack upon the foundation of their business models and the society in which they operate. His answer is because the corporation is concerned only with profit and greed (the common response from a liberal but one which bears weight in this argument).

We need individuals of substance at the helms of our corporations, government, and families again--this is the only thing which can save our species from total and utter destruction.

Each of us has a civic responsibility to step up and become these individuals of worth in the eyes of the face that looks back at us in the mirror every morning. And this is the only earthly country and culture I am interested in creating through my relationships with those around me and the people I come across online each day.

This type of world is the only one worth dying for and, more importantly, the only one worth living for.

Sometimes when you're a frog in the pot, you lose perspective of how hot the water is getting until you're out and look back on the simmering bubbles.

Likewise, I had no idea how demoralized I had become working in the health insurance industry. Looking back on my five years in that wretched segment of our national economy, I can now see clearly that I so detested the industry that I had lost all the will to achieve within its borders.

Luckily, I got the chance to work for a very good leader (they had their flaws like we all do but ultimately it was a learning experience that I am very thankful for). But that being said, the health insurance industry is totally unsustainable because it is impossible to get people to buy into a vision that they are finally, in the end, actually helping others.

Because they're not. They're part of an obfuscation mechanism in the delivery of healthcare, despite whatever feel good slogans they devise to fool the world into believing that health insurance companies are actually making people healthier when they are, in reality, a pain in the ass just like government when it comes to patients getting quality care.

Let's just say that no one I ever met at either of the two health insurance companies I worked for was enthusiastic about the product/service they were delivering (except the high level executives who probably receive stock options in their bonus stockings each year).

People may have been happy with their function, they may have even been proud of the business accomplishments their area had performed, but no one was jumping up and down saying, "Healthcare, Yay!"

Well, that has all changed for me because I'm now working for the Sage of Omaha, one of my personal heroes, in a company whose product and service are superior to all. I'm now working for a company with a business model that makes every company I have ever worked for just cower in shame for lack of comprable vision.

The access to succeed and achieve has just been placed before me like a yellow-brick road and I am seizing the day with both hands and choking it--sucking the marrow from the bone. Like the Allman brothers said, "I ain't wastin' time more, 'cause time goes by like the pouring rain and much faster things."

Yesterday, at my new job, I was greeted at the door by a co-worker who told me how excited they were that I was there. I was checked in on several times by other co-workers. I was taken to dinner with my entire area at one of the nicest restaurants here in Columbus where I tried my first Woodford Reserve bourbon and I'm never looking back.

I feel welcome at this company in a way that I never have been made to feel at any of the big soul-sucking corporations in which ultimately I was just a number in the accountant's book and someone to be passed over and ignored by lesser minds with weaker spirits.

So, here's to a new day. I'm invigorated after months of searching for a home. I believe I can stay with this company for ten years and build the foundations of my early retirement and secession into full-time writing as my career.

God bless America and the Sage of Omaha!

What if overnight the world starting speaking a totally different language and moving at a much faster pace than you?

Well, that is essentially what has happened to artists all over the world. Most are still thinking in terms of gallery showings and call backs from publishers through agents.

But the reality is that the artistic audience is speaking a whole new language and is moving at a much more rapid pace. This is both a blessing and a curse.

It is a curse because this means that artists have to learn to speak this language and move at this much more rapid pace.

It is a blessing because learning this language and moving at this faster pace means that artists will become the gallery owners and the publishers. This means they will also be reaping the lion's share of the profits (with the lion's share of the operational and financial headaches). Another good thing is that the Internet is a medium where you fail fast for free; so while the learning curve is pretty steep, the cost is relatively cheap.

Let's imagine that a painter has just started a new project based on an experience he had on vacation. They first start a blog and make daily entries on their thoughts about the painting, their experiences in the creative process, and include digital photos each day to demonstrate the progress.

This artist purchases their name as a domain name and engages in effective online marketing to drive interested traffic to their site. Several of the surfers keep coming back each day, growing more and more interested in your work as time passes. Please note that it's not necessarily your work which attracts them; rather, it's the vision behind your work which unfolds over time that becomes attractive.

Eventually, your masterpiece is completed and you send a notice out to your newsletter subscribers and post an entry on your blog letting your readers know that the auction for this piece will be on e-Bay and will last one week and will include a bound copy of every blog post and newsletter that you put out regarding the piece (and which will, of course, be signed and dated by you the master artist).

You have just made what would have been one more canvas into a legend in the minds of your readers and possible customers. You have created value where there was none. And you used the Internet to open up a virtual gallery which allowed you to keep all the profits and continue the process with your next painting, gathering more and more readers who will be future potential customers.

This is a new age of opportunity for the artists driven enough to take advantage and the first ones to do so will be the most successful.