More Jungle Gym Than Sandbox

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Open environments and over-the-top action are again part of the fare in the follow-up to Eidos action game Just Cause. Based on the video trailer for Just Cause 2, two key features the ability to parachute and grapple are what Eidos is pushing to set the sequel apart from other sandbox action games.

The video is a cinematic trailer, setting the stage with character and story positioning. Yet Eidos clearly wants to highlight updates to the game play. The trailer moves quickly into in-game footage showing the sequel’s move from jungle to city setting. It then showcases how the ability to grapple and parachute around the environment adds verticality to that urban sandbox. One nifty ability, grappling onto and commandeering helicopters, seems to channel a key feature from another recent open-environment bestseller, Activision’s Prototype.

 

Watch it at Kotaku.

Move Over Booth Babes

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A German ad agency has a new medium for trade show advertising: flyvertising. It’s the agency’s word for tying tiny paper ad banners to flies and letting them buzz around the show floor. Highlighted in AdFreak, the agency launched the effort at a Frankfurt book fair for a client whose logo is a fly.

The concept has kinks to work out. The encumbered flies seem to do more landing than flying, and people tend to shoo them away faster than a pop-up display. Yet [a]list daily wonders if this isn t a great idea for E3, both to get around the expo’s limitations on show floor ads and get more mileage out of that booth personnel budget.

Watch it at AdFreak.

OP-ED: Sony Could Sprint Past Microsoft In The Console Race

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Analyst firm DFC Intelligence sees PS3 primed to make up for lost time. In an editorial for Industry Gamers, the firm argues that Sony is positioned to boost sales and catch up with rival Microsoft.

DFC sees PS3 finally getting exclusive fare from powerful Sony game franchises such as Ratchet & Clank and God of War. As a $300 video game and Blu-ray device, it s also become the better purchase proposition in the high-end console battle with Xbox 360. The firm even pins PS3 being well-positioned as a surprising side effect of the Wii’s success, where Nintendo managed to draw console sales that otherwise might have gone to 360 and helped put it out of reach.

GenY Knows What You’re Doing

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David Fallarme’s blog The Marketing Student is an unabashed Generation Y viewpoint on all things marketing. In one of his recent posts, his epiphany in a convenience store candy aisle that marketing is a necessary evil is a window into just how savvy the current generation has become to the tactics marketers use. Fallarme is marketing professional and very much a student of the game. Yet the lens through which he looks at his own profession is indicative of underlying sentiments among today s youth. It’s a generation whose perception of marketing and branding has been honed through a lifetime of being targeted by products.

Get Schooled By Pro Wrestling

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Writing for Fast Company, MIT researcher Sam Ford takes a very serious view on how the product that is professional wrestling and the way its been marketed to the masses offers lessons for businesses. From building spectacle to connecting to and learning from the audience, professional wrestling has lessons applicable to any entertainment product. One of Ford s most interesting observations is that pro wrestling leverages people’s desire to be part of a community. Game marketers can certainly relate.

Read more at Fast Company.

Shack News Video Game Release List 11/1 — 11/7

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Shack News lists this week s releases for PC, Xbox 360, Sony’s PS2, PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo’s Wii and DS.

The big-billed broad console release for the week has to be EA’s Dragon Age: Origins,” with plenty of marketing and high-profile TV building up towards its November 3 release. Activision sneaks more big lizards into the line-up with the 1995-feeling shooter Jurassic: The Hunted.

Across the Pond, footie fans are gearing up for the 2010 version of Konami’s always stellar Pro Evolution Soccer. Other broad releases include two family-fare music titles in Activision’s Band Hero and Warner Brothers Lego Rock Band.

Check out the full list at Shack News.

Horror Games Scaring Up Sales

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Horror video games are racking up record sales in 2009 even as the rest of the industry sees revenues decline and popular genres such as music games shrink. Writing for Reuters, John Gaudiosi sees the horror genre faring well and continuing to do so with upcoming titles such as EA’s Left for Dead 2 and the latest sequel in Konami’s popular “Silent Hill” franchise.

Analyst firm Wedbush Morgan Securities says sales of horror games are up more than 12 percent as of September 2009 compared to all of 2008, already racking up $147 million in sales this year. A large part of the boost comes from Capcom’s Resident Evil 5, which has sold nearly 2 million units to-date. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter pinpoints Capcom’s franchise as the flagship of the genre, estimating that titles from the Resident Evil series make up half of all lifetime horror game sales. Read more from Reuters.

Display Ads More Effective On Social Sites

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A Europe study conducted by eBay Advertising has found that online shoppers are more receptive to display ads on social networks than web portals, reports Revolution. The study’s main finding is that people are most responsive to ads when and where they’re already shopping, with 60 percent receptive to advertising when they are on an e-commerce site. With display ads on other sites, it found only 5 percent responded to ads on web portals while 7 percent did so on social network sites. Read more at Revolution.

Nokia Says It’s Over For N-Gage

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Mobile handset maker Nokia is closing the door on N-Gage in 2010, including shutting down the online service it launched last year for the mobile phone and gaming device. As reported by Reuters, in making the move, Nokia is acknowledging that its effort in mobile games never moved beyond a niche market.

Nokia launched the original N-Gage in 2003 as part of a strategy to diversify its product line as the mobile phone market was reaching saturation point. Reuters cites how Nokia’s position at the time among top mobile phone makers attracted exclusive N-Gage content from major game makers such as EA and Glu Mobile. Last year, Nokia launched an online store and community site serving N-Gage owners, citing continued strategy to expand its business into music and games.  The company says that with no new games planned for N-Gage, the online N-Gage service will also be phased out by next year. Read more from Reuters.