Ad Age Viral Video Chart For Week Of Feb. 15

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Ad Age lists the top 10 viral videos for the week of Feb. 8.

Super Bowl ads shuffled in and out of the chart, in what Ad Age calls a sign of TV’s power.  An Old Spice spot entered at number two with about 1.7 million views, while above it Doritos Super Bowl ad held on to the top slot with nearly 4.9 million views.  A Bud Light spot from the game also entered the chart.  The third new entry for the week is a bit more current.  A Puma viral for Valentine s Day hit the middle of the chart by drawing more than 762,000 viewers.  Replacing the Super Bowl ads that fell off are three of the chart s stickiest campaigns.  Ad Age cites that with their return, Microsoft’s Natal video, Evian’s dancing babies and DC Shoes Gymkhana display have each spent 30 or more weeks on the chart.

The chart is compiled by Visible Measures.  Check it out and watch the videos at Ad Age {link no longer active}.

Rejiggered robots

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Activision and developer High Moon Studios are giving the first glimpse of game play in Transformers: War for Cybertron.   The title is Activision s retake on the license, as the first one not tied to the Michael Bay films or developed by recently shuttered studio Luxoflux.  This first look paints it as a frenetically paced, and decidedly pretty looking, third-person shooter.  Watch it at GameTrailers.

Pachter’s Podium Touches On Natal Price, EA’s Super Bowl Ad

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Industry Gamers is featuring its periodic question-and-answer session with Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter.  This go around Pachter answers questions about Natal pricing, Nintendo systems, social games and whether EA did good by the Super Bowl ad buy.  Read it at Industry Gamers {link no longer active}.

Sony’s PS3 Strides

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Writing for FastCompany, Kevin Ohannessian features an upbeat interview with Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony s US game division.  The pair talk about Sony’s game division reorganization in Japan, then move on to PlayStation 3 s recent sales surge, how its motion controller stacks up to Microsoft’s Natal, and the system s rosy first quarter outlook on games such as God of War III and Heavy Rain.   Read it at FastCompany.

‘Tron’ Sequel Starts With A Virus

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Disney is kicking off the campaign for its sequel to the 1982 film Tron with a global viral effort.  MTV reports the studio just executed a viral campaign running in 25 cities around the world where participants were led on scavenger hunts.  The hunts led to an online site where Disney promoted exclusive IMAX events for the film in New York, LA, London, Toronto and Sydney.  The sold-out events are scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday.  MTV guesses Disney could be planning anything from first glimpses to a full screening, though the latter seems a stretch for a film not scheduled to bow until the holiday season.  Read more at MTV.

Rumor: Valve’s Stirring Up Steam For Mac

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Kotaku reports that Valve may be preparing a version of Steam for Apple computers based on data found by forum members who use the digital game download service.  Valve launched an open beta to an updated Steam earlier this week.  Steam forum members have since found files for Mac operating systems in the updated version.  The outlet says while the existence of some Mac files could be related to Steam’s new interface using WebKit, there are files specific to Mac OS X graphics and menus.  Read more at Kotaku.

MySpace Testing In-Stream Ads

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MySpace is testing a new in-stream ad format that embeds sponsored messages directly into users personal feeds such as status updates.  Adweek reports that the social site is quietly testing the format and has already served ads for Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble products.  MySpace chief executives speaking at the Interactive Advertising Bureau annual meeting described that the ad unit is designed to leverage MySpace s position as a place people go to find new entertainment.  The executives said just as users interact with friends on the site to hear about new music and movies, now they ll discover and pass along sponsored messages.  Adweek cites comScore data that MySpace has seen two straight months of growth to reach just under 70 million unique visitors in January.  The usage represents the social site’s highest since July 2009.  Read more at Adweek {link no longer active}.

New Lip Service For Localized Games

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Videogame outsourcer Babel Media and facial animation studio Image Metrics are pairing up to bring better animation and lip synching for localized games.  Industry Gamers reports that, as part of the partnership, Babel will use Image Metrics software to synch the dialogue it records for localized games with facial and lip animation.  Image Metrics executive VP Brian Waddle told the news outlet that the “solution eliminates poorly dubbed titles and makes quality localization more affordable.”  Waddle added that Babel’s 400 translators based abroad and local recording studios will help his company improve on the quality of localizing work it does for its clients.  Read more at Industry Gamers {link no longer active}.

Survey Compares iPhone, Android And Palm Usage

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Business Insider reports on results from an AdMob survey of about 1,000 people on mobile device usage between Motorola’s Android, Palm’s webOS based smart phones, and Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.  The news outlet highlights findings including the heavily male-skewed user base for Motorola s iPhone competitor Android.  The survey found 73 percent of Android owners are male compared to 56 percent for iPhone.  It also looked at device usage to find the most prolific app users are on iPod Touch.  Among respondents, iPod Touch owners downloaded twelve apps per month, compared to nine for iPhone and Android.  They also spent an average 100 minutes per day on apps versus 87 minutes for Palm owners, 80 minutes for Android and 79 minutes for iPhone.  But when it came to device loyalty, iPhone won hands down with 91 percent of respondents saying they would recommend the device.  That’s compared to 84 percent for Android and 69 percent for Palm webOS.  Business Insider provides more highlights then links to AdMob’s brief on the survey.  Check it out at Business Insider {link no longer active}.