What Did They See?

BY

Check out a terrifying new URL destination at whatdidtheysee.com {link no longer active} to find out more about the mysteries of The Woman in Black, the new horror film starring Daniel Radcliffe. Start by peering through the doorway into a young girl’s room and use your webcam (or mouse) to shift the perspective within the room to see what’s behind the door and in the shadows. Pay attention and be brave and receive a custom photo that can be shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Bejeweled Relaunches On iPhone

BY

PopCap has announced that they have rolled out a freemium edition of Bejeweled Blitz for iPhone. The older edition of Bejeweled 2 for iPhone will be retired and the new Bejeweled for iPhone will be available for $.99.

“With nearly 40 million mobile units sold over the past eight years, Bejeweled is the second best-selling mobile game of all time, behind only Tetris,” noted Giordano Bruno Contestabile, Bejeweled franchise business director at PopCap Games. “As we strive to reach virtually everyone with a mobile communications device, PopCap will continue to make games that are even more accessible to that ever-expanding global audience. We’re taking a critical step toward this goal with the introduction of these new Bejeweled titles that will enhance our offerings on the iPhone for years to come.”

Sci-Fi MMO Gamers Prefer Free-To-Play

BY

Newzoo has released the results of a new survey that estimates that there are 24 million sci-fi MMO gamers in the Western world, with 14 million in the U.S. and 9.5 million in Europe. Of these players, 84 percent play free-to-play games.

“You will not catch me making any predictions about Star Wars: The Old Republic,” said Peter Warman, CEO of Newzoo.  “But I am very curious to see how much F2P Sci-fi gamers EA will be able to convert to P2P gamers and what part will come from outside the current pool of sci-fi gamers, being complete newcomers as well as the subscribers to Eve Online, WoW, Rift or any other triple-A P2P MMO game. With big F2P sci-fi titles also scheduled to launch pretty soon I expect to see significant differences in uptake of the various sci-fi titles in U.S., Europe and emerging markets.”

“Sci-Fi games have been disproportionally under-represented historically in the MMO sector but this research reaffirms our confidence that the appetite for new and compelling Sci-Fi games is not only significant, but growing. To provide for this audience we have two F2P Sci-Fi MMO’s in development, Transformers Universe and Stellar Dawn, so the future is looking much brighter for Sci-Fi fans,” added Rob Smith, VP of Stellar Dawn at Jagex.

QR Codes Becoming More Common In Print Ads

BY

Interactive bar codes are increasingly seeing use in magazines, and they’ve even begun getting traction in mainstream publications. Meredith Corp. has used Microsoft tags in publications like Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, and Family Circle, and claims that of people who snap on the ads, 10 percent to 20 percent view or use the ad in some way.

MRI reports that from January to August, five percent of 72,000 ads had QR or snap codes, up from 1.3 percent in the second half of 2010. Five percent of those that saw the ad snapped a picture with their cell phone.

14 percent who saw an ad visited the advertiser’s website and 20 percent of readers who saw an ad with a scent strip tried the strip, to compare to QR code engagement. Those sorts of engagements are more established, however, while QR codes are relatively new and may require the user to download software to access the code.

Pure engagement and benefits of QR codes is difficult to measure, however. 52 percent of readers read or saw an ad with a mobile barcode, which below the 54 percent who saw any ad.

Source: AdWeek

Gears Of War Designer Teases New Game For 2011 VGAs

BY

Epic Games lead designer Cliff Bliszinski has revealed that there will be a major announcement from the company during the Spike VGAs. While he helmed the Gears of War series, it seems this new game will not be something Gears of War related.

“While we’ve been busy supporting Gears of War and Infinity Blade, we’ve got something new for you,” said Bliszinski. “It’s an entirely fresh, new experience we’ve been crafting here at our North Carolina studio.”

Source: Spike.com

 

MLG Posts Record Numbers For 2011 Season

BY

Major League Gaming has announced that 2011 was the company’s biggest year ever. The championship in Providence, Rhode Island saw a peak of 241,000 concurrent viewers from over 175 countries.

“Our viewership numbers this year have been staggering and MLG now pulls in larger audiences than several traditional television cable networks,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO, Major League Gaming. “Our Live streams of the Pro Circuit National Championships garnered more 18-24 male viewers than Comedy Central, MTV, TBS, and FX draw in an average quarter hour and nearly as many as Adult Swim.”

The MLG National Championships had 16,000 attendees during the finals, with over 97,000 attending throughout the season. Web traffic for majorleaguegaming.com increased 225 percent over 2010, with 641,000 unique visitors each weekend.

eBay Taking TV Shopping To Next Level

BY

Television has not traditionally been a seamless way to buy goods, but eBay is looking to change all that. ‘Watch with eBay’ is a new app that lets users buy items related to the program they’re currently viewing.

“The idea is to provide a new form of TV watching entertainment that includes the possibility of shopping and discovering interesting products people never would have discovered otherwise,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay. “We’ve seen that guys sitting around watching a sporting event will buy jerseys for the team they like. And normally when you’re sitting around watching a sporting event on TV, you’re not really thinking about being in shopping mode. But that’s because no one presented it to you in a frictionless and pleasing way.”

Eighty-six percent of smartphone and tablet owners will use the devices while watching television, with a quarter searching for info from the show. “There’s already a natural thing happening where people are using their device like a companion to TV watching,” explained Yankovich.

While it doesn’t allow users to purchase particular items from particular shows, that could change if content providers tag video frames with those items. “It will get down to actual product. It could literally be the brand name of clothing that each person is wearing in the scene, including the actual stock-keeping unit (SKU) for the piece of clothing,” said Yankovich.

Yankovich said the app will provide recommendations based on shopping interests, with items related to the current watched show being featured. “We will be your personal shopper paying attention so you don’t have to. You just lean back, watch TV and we show you stuff you care about on the app,” Yankovich said.

Source: Reuters

Xbox Live Gets Blind Wink Kinect Game

BY

Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink has announced plans to produce video games and other content for Microsoft platforms. The first such game to result from the union will be an Xbox Live Arcade game that will release in late 2012 and use the Kinect.

“We are thrilled to be working with Blind Wink to bring its cinematic production quality to our platforms,” said Matt Booty, general manager at Microsoft Studios. “Xbox 360 gamers can look forward to innovative and creative games from the mind of Gore Verbinski that explore new and exciting gaming territory and take full advantage of our platforms.”

“Audiences consume content very differently today. As an idea house, we at Blind Wink are looking forward to our partnership with Microsoft,” said Gore Verbinski of Blind Wink. “Their various platforms give us access to new methods of distribution, allowing us to extend into emerging markets and connect more directly with the audience.”

Samsung Teams With Rovio For Angry Birds Promotion

BY

Rovio has announced that there will be 25 more holiday themed levels for Angry Birds in Chrome. There will also be an Advent challenge on December 5 where players can play to win Samsung Galaxy mobile devices, watch a new video, and send Angry Birds themed holiday e-cards.

“The holiday season is all about giving back and giving thanks, and this year we wanted to thank our millions of fans by giving them some great Angry Birds experiences,” said Peter Vesterbacka, CMO and Mighty Eagle of Rovio. “Not only are they receiving 25 new levels in our Advent game, but they’re also getting a chance to win the best Samsung products around and participate in a fun advent challenge.”

“It’s so good to team up with Rovio again. Samsung has had a brilliant year and our Galaxy devices are popular all over the world, so to be able to launch a holiday experience inside the most popular mobile game in the world, is awesome!” said YH Lee, SVP of Global Marketing at Samsung Mobile Communications Business. “To all those Angry Birds fans out there: enjoy yourselves and check out the Galaxy Note for an even better mobile gaming experience!”

Machinima Reaches Billion People In November

BY

Machinima announced that their lineup of shows like Bite Me, Mortal Kombat: Legacy and Dragon Age: Redemption has led them to over 1 billion video views during the month of November. Viewers average over 65 minutes per month, the highest per viewer out of the top ten channels on YouTube, and males aged 18- 24 average over 20 Machinima video views each per month.

“As we expand our base of core gaming-oriented programming, by producing and distributing more long-form, premium content, our global audience of millions of highly engaged young males continues to grow and spends more time watching Machinima,” said Allen DeBevoise, Chairman and CEO of Machinima. “Our reaching one billion monthly video views is a watershed event in the growth of online video. This scale, coupled with our deep audience engagement, has shown that we’re leading a third wave of video programming brands that are emerging online.”