More info on Battlelog, the Facebook of Battlefield 3

A sneak peek at the upcoming Battlelog social-networking site.

(Credit:
EA/DICE)

Hungry for more details about Battlefield 3? DICE revealed a few details about Battlelog, an upcoming free social-networking site that will roll out in conjunction with BF3 on October 25.

While there’s no shortage of statistical sites for Battlefield games, the Battlelog service aims to be different with an infusion of social features. In an official blog update posted today, DICE describes Battlelog as a service where “players will be able to build a network of friends, communicate with other gamers, and compare their Battlefield stats with friends and foes alike.”

The main area of Battlelog will be Battlefeed and it will be similar to a Facebook feed. It’s a real-time area that displays your friends’ activities, such as ranking up, unlocking guns, or awards achieved. For example, instead of pressing “Like,” you would press “Hooah!” under a status update. Comments can be left on any action posted in the feed. DICE also mentions in the blog post that the service will offer a detailed stat-tracking system that features a “soldier progression section, bringing full stats tracking for every shot fired and every action performed in your Battlefield career.”

A teaser screenshot reveals that the stats site will look very clean, and detail factors such as rank, accuracy, K/D ratio, time played, score per minute, top weapons, multiplayer scores, latest awards, and much more. It’s assumed the service will be as detailed as the unofficial Battlefield Stats Web site.

As a potential BF3 player, will you use Battlelog often? What would interest you the most about the service? Perhaps it will be a place I can finally vent about people cheating in multiplayer mode.

A screenshot of the new Battlefeed within Battlelog. Now I will finally have an outlet for gloating about my headshots and knife kills.

(Credit:
EA/DICE)

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Investors again pay big for dot-com stocks

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Some analysts fear investors who have forgotten history are doomed to repeat it when it comes to Internet IPOs.

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  By Paul Sakuma, AP

  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Investors are eagerly anticipating a Facebook IPO.

By Paul Sakuma, AP

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Investors are eagerly anticipating a Facebook IPO.

Just 11 years after the dot-com bust, one of the biggest periods of wealth destruction ever on Wall Street, investors are paying rich prices for newly minted Internet stocks again.

The renewed furor was clear Wednesday, when real estate website Zillow jumped 79% in its first day of trading. That’s the latest sign of investors’ growing eagerness to get a piece of new Internet companies, including:

•Escalating valuations for recent IPOs. Investors are paying $135 for each $1 in profit earned by home rental service HomeAway, and more than $1,000 for each $1 in profit at professional networking service LinkedIn, says Standard Poor’s Capital IQ. In Zillow’s case, the company isn’t even turning a profit.

• STORY: Companies could see record profit — and double-digit growth

• COLUMN: Five stocks that could have made you $178M in 5 years

• COLUMN: Can you invest in Groupon before it sells shares in an IPO?

•Surging prices for companies yet to go public. Facebook isn’t expected to go public until at least next year, yet on private markets, the company commands a value of $82.4 billion, according to SharesPost. That exceeds the value of Disney at $74 billion.

•Rising supply of Internet stocks. So far, 25 of the year’s 79 IPOs are technology firms, IPOScoop says. And 14 of those tech IPOs are Internet companies with more to come, including coupon site Groupon later this year, Renaissance Capital says.

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Investors “don’t look at rational valuation metrics,” says Francis Gaskins of IPOdesktop.com.

The same thing happened in the tech bubble. Among 10 of the most high-profile Internet IPOs from the sizzling 1998-to-2000 period, none made money for investors, and some produced massive losses, My Private Banking says. For instance, shares of social-networking pioneer TheGlobe are down 99% from their IPO.

Some experts say the mania hasn’t reached 2000 levels yet. This year’s 14 Internet IPOs pale next to the 272 in 1999 and 152 in 2000, says Jay Ritter, professor of finance at the University of Florida. And unlike 1999 and 2000, when many dot-coms didn’t even have revenue, all the Internet companies that went public this year do, Renaissance’s Paul Bard says.

But while the latest crop of Internet stocks may not crash, investors still may be disappointed, Ritter says. When investors pay such rich prices, even if the companies succeed, “with such high valuations, the possibility of a big upside just isn’t there,” he says.

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