AllThingsD » movie theaters

Gyrating at a Theater Near You: D-Box's Moving Movie Seats

Michelle Kung — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:30:00 +0000

This summer, viewers of movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Super 8″ and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–Part 2″ won’t just see explosions, creature attacks and other bone-jarring scenes on screen. At 50 specially equipped theaters, they will be able to feel actors’ movements right in their seats.

In the latest attempt to make moviegoers feel like they are part of the action, D-Box Technologies Inc., a Montreal-based maker of custom-designed seats, is introducing physical motion to the movie-viewing experience.

Motions range from being pitched forward, backward and side to side, to experiencing a momentary freefall when a character, say, leaps off a cliff. Seat-side controls let squeamish viewers dial down the intensity level of the experience–which on the highest setting can reach up to two times the acceleration caused by gravity.

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Gyrating at a Theater Near You: D-Box's Moving Movie Seats

Michelle Kung — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:30:00 +0000

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New Set-Top Box Promises to Bring 3D to Television

Sarah McBride — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:00:11 +0000

3D technology is coming one step closer to home with the development of a new set-top box system that will allow consumers to browse through and access 3D offerings from their cable or satellite TV company.

The prototype, developed by digital content security company Nagravision SA, based in Cheseaux, Switzerland, and 3D company 3ality Digital LLC, Burbank, Calif., will be shown at the 3D Entertainment Summit this week in Los Angeles. It’s called the Nagra Media Guide for 3D.

Although no cable company has yet committed to the set-top technology, the prototype offers a window into the evolution of 3D home technology, which is getting much closer to what is available in movie theaters. Consumers will be able to access 3D programming using today’s set-top boxes, but the Nagra Media version will show the information using 3D graphics.

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The Mystery of the Vanishing Videogame Boom Solved: Gamers Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Peter Kafka — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:47:16 +0000

As we lurched into the recession a year ago, pundits predicted that the videogame business would do fine during the collapse. When times are tough, they argued, people might not go out to see movies, but gamers would huddle in their basements and play Grand Theft Auto over and over and over.

But game sales have been weak in 2009, even as movie theaters set box office records. What gives?

I’ll let someone else try to explain the movie side of the ledger (although those box office numbers aren’t always what they seem to be). But it turns out that there’s a simple explanation for game slump: It’s that gamers are huddled in their basements playing Grand Theft Auto over and over and over.

Gamers are indeed spending more time playing videogames, say new data from Nielsen. It’s just that gamers aren’t spending more money on games. Instead, they’re playing the games they have, buying used games, and increasingly turning to game subscription services.

Here’s the argument in chart form–you can get a summary here or download the full report here (PDF). Click on the charts to enlarge:

Hours played:

Used games purchased:

Subscription rate:

All of which explains why Best Buy (BBY) and Wal-Mart (WMT) are both getting into the used game business and why Blockbuster (BBI) and GameFly are expanding their game rental business. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my game of Hover Kart.