Nintendo’s Wii is dominating the current generation of video-game console sales, but in targeting the broader consumer market, it looks like the company has ended up with a decidedly casual level of engagement. A new Nielsen report puts the Wii behind Sony’s PlayStation 2 and 3 and both of Microsoft’s Xbox machines in the amount of time people spend using the consoles.

The accompanying chart, from the Nielsen report, shows average usage patterns for December 2008, based on a Nielsen sample. The company defines the "active user percentage" as "how often a person used their console out of the total amount of time the console could have been used during the measurement period." Read the full report here: PDF, 9 pages.

In a lot of ways, the numbers make sense. By definition, many of the people fueling sales of the Wii are not hard-core gamers. But the usage trends are notable in that console makers and game developers count heavily on follow-up sales of games, accessories and online downloads in the months and years after purchase.

"The Wii and its predecessor, the GameCube, have  "the smallest numbers in terms of daily average number of sessions, average usage
days, and active user percent," Nielsen says in the report. "Predominant users of the Wii and GameCube are likely to use these consoles at most once a week and for fewer minutes and the fewest number of sessions compared to the other two groups of consoles." 

READ MORE and COMMENT, more 
and Is Barnes & Noble working on its own Kindle-like device?  Barnes & Noble has been playing a rapid game of catch up to Amazon.com in the electronic book market, buying e-book seller Fictionwise and announcing plans for its own e-book store. Now, speculation is growing that the bookseller is planning a Kindle-like electronic reading device. TheStreet.com explores rumors that Barnes & Noble is working with an unidentified device maker and Sprint Nextel on a new reader.

Could that unidentied device maker be Plastic Logic, the Silicon Valley company that is developing a large-screen electronic reader? Fictionwise, now owned by Barnes & Noble, has a partnership with Plastic Logic, which is scheduled to release its reader in 2010.

Sprint Nextel already powers Kindle’s wireless downloads, and is reportedly looking to provide wireless internet for other gadgets. TheStreet.com reports Barnes & Noble talked to Verizon about the project, but the discussions ended. Both Verizon and AT&T signaled their interest in e-books at the recent CTIA Wireless conference.

Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said the company had no comment. In a recent earnings conference call, however, Barnes & Noble CEO Stephen Riggio alluded to future plans in the e-book arena:

We plan to return to the business of offering customers digital content inclusive of e-books, newspapers and magazines.  We have a large number of assets in place to enable us to sell digital content, our e-commerce platform is solid and scalable, we operate a world-class in-house customer service center.  And a recent acquisition of Fictionwise has enhanced our ability to conduct digital transactions.
 
Of course, we understand investors are anxious to hear more specifics about our plans in this arena, we do have a wide range of initiatives in development but due to the highly strategic nature of this fast evolving market, we will announce each of them as they launch.

If Barnes & Noble can marry its book content to a proprietary reading device, it would make for an interesting matchup with Amazon.

READ MORE and COMMENT, more 

and Amazon selling Xbox Live games for good old-fashioned money  

One of my least-favorite parts of Microsoft’s otherwise very good Xbox Live online gaming service is its points-based purchasing system. Yes, there are no doubt reasons for it, but I wish I didn’t need to make a conversion from Microsoft’s fictional currency just to figure out how much I’m actually paying for Pac-Man Championship Edition.

The ability to avoid that pretense seems like the best reason to check out a new Xbox Live digital store launched on Amazon.com this morning. The store lets Amazon shoppers spend real-world money to buy downloadable Xbox Live games. The bad part is that it adds its own extra step to the process, providing a download code to enter later into the Xbox 360 interface.

The partnership between the two Seattle-area tech companies marks the first time Xbox Live games have been available for purchase outside Xbox Live or xbox.com, according to the news release announcing the launch of the store.

Video-game blog Kotaku cites rumors that Sony and Nintendo will soon be hooked up with Amazon stores of their own. Greg Hart, vice president of Video Games and Software for Amazon.com, seems to hint at that possibility in the news release, saying Amazon "will continue to drive innovation that will provide our customers with the widest selection of video game platform downloads.”

Amazon.com launched its own store for PC game downloads in February.

At first glance, the new arrangement doesn’t seem likely to result in a huge spike in sales of Xbox Live games, because it’s catering to Microsoft’s existing audience. People will still need own an Xbox 360 (or buy one) to play the games. But maybe the extra exposure, and the ability to download games from a PC using an Amazon account, could boost sales in some incremental way.

Apart from game downloads, the Xbox Live store on Amazon also is selling Xbox Live subscriptions and (ugh) Microsoft Points cards.

READ MORE and COMMENT, more 

Report: State’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund on the brink  

When Gov. Chris Gregoire created the $350 million Life Sciences Discovery Fund four years ago, the idea was use to tobacco settlement money to help transform the state into a biotech hub. But now Xconomy reports that the fund could be "gutted" under budget bills now moving through the state legislature, with LSDF executive director Lee Huntsman telling the online publication that the fund could be left with as little as $5 million to spend over the next two years.

Government operated funds have a mixed record of success, with the LSDF receiving its fair share of criticism over the years. In 2007, award-winning scientist Leroy Hood lashed out saying the Life Sciences Discovery Fund had "made every single wrong decision a fund can make."

The state is now trying to patch a $9 billion shortfall that is predicted in the state budget over the next two years, with a proposal this week to increase tuition at state universities 14 percent. 

According to Xconomy, the Senate Ways and Means committee is considering allocating $38 million to the LSDF over the next two years, which would be a 41 percent cut. Meanwhile, the House is looking at reducing allocations to just $5 million, which prompted Huntsman to say that they couldn’t realistically make grants at that level.

Last December, the fund announced $18 million in funding for health research projects at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Seattle & King County Department of Public Health; Washington State University and the University of Washington.

The grants covered research projects ranging from "accelerating vaccine development to targeting better drug delivery methods inside human cells, to studying point�of�care resuscitation technology, and to reaching out to rural, underserved populations to improve mental health and substance abuse services."

"We are proud to award the LSDF program grants to such valuable scientific and public health research endeavors,” Huntsman said at the time.

You can look at the Senate operating budget proposal for 2009-2011 here.

UPDATE: Seattle attorney Stephen Graham, who works extensively with biotechnology companies in the state, said it would be unfortunate to pull the plug on the fund before it really had a chance to succeed.

"This is just the sort of thing that this state does not need if it is going to be a serious about competing with other states to attract players in the industry," said Graham, who co-chairs Fenwick & West’s Life Sciences practice. "What it really does, is it undercuts the promise."

But he also echoed some of Hood’s criticisms, saying that the fund has focused on small research grants rather than new companies.

"Our biggest need is to figure out how to fund these emerging companies, especially now as the opportunities for funding for seed-stage companies are less and less," he said. "If we had a real viable fund in there to come in and fill that gap so these companies –that otherwise aren’t getting funding — then you really have a chance to attract companies to the area and start building new companies."

While the LSDF has not fulfilled its promise, Graham thinks there is a way to reposition it in a way so that the state does support the industry.

"You got to look at the problems that you are trying to solve, and even figure out a way to solve them or decide that they can not be solved," he said. "I am not prepared to say that the state can’t come up with a way to fund these companies."

If the state doesn’t figure it out, Graham said states such as California and Massachusetts would love to open their doors to the opportunities.

"Just to say that: ’Hey, I support this and this is great and thank you people in the life sciences industry for all you do.’ That’s not going to get us there," he said.

READ MORE and COMMENT, more