Katy Perry’s Showtime With The Sims

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Electronic Arts has announced today that they have started a collaboration with Katy Perry. The pop superstar will be featured extensively in TV spots, online ads and retail marketing around the world.

“The creative collaboration kicks off with a Katy Perry-themed Collector’s Edition for The Sims 3 Showtime Expansion pack launching n March 2012,” wrote Nicole Morrison PR Specialist for EA. “The Collector’s Edition is available for pre-order today and will feature Katy Perry-themed, iconic content that celebrates the star’s personality, style and humor.”

Prototype 2 Comic Series Planned

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Radical Entertainment has announced that they have teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to create a new comic set in the Prototype universe. The three part digital comic series will tell original stories furthering the story of Alex Mercer, talking about survivors trying to escape New York, and giving background on Prototype 2‘s new protagonist Sgt. James Heller and will release at Digital.Darkhorse.com every other week beginning February 15, 2012.

“We’re always looking for meaningful ways to expand the Prototype universe, and Dark Horse Comics is an industry-leading creative powerhouse delivering best-in-class graphic storytelling that integrates deeply to the core of our IP,” said Ken Rosman, Studio Head, Radical Entertainment.  “With this partnership, our fans will finally be given answers to some dramatic loose ends from the first Prototype game, as well as the truth behind Alex Mercer’s descent and evolution into a twisted shadow of his former self for Prototype 2.”

“Sgt. James Heller’s heart wrenching backstory meshed with the sheer amount of over-the-top shape-shifting action in Prototype 2 lend themselves perfectly to a comic book series,” said Dave Marshall, Editor, Dark Horse Comics.  “We worked extremely close with Radical Entertainment’s story team for Prototype 2, and can’t wait to visually walk fans through the many dark secrets strewn throughout the tattered world of New York Zero!”

Facebook Getting Streaming Games From Gaikai

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David Perry, founder of streaming service Gaikai, talked about the importance of Facebook to his business at Cloud Gaming Europe. He confirmed that a deal is done with Facebook, which will put streaming PC game demos on the social network soon.

“Our next big launch is on Facebook and we’ve been working with them for some time,” confirmed Perry, who demonstrated World of Warcraft running on the service. “Facebook already owns the category of casual gaming, we’re going to help them own core games. A click and boom, you’re playing World of Warcraft.”

Perry noted that friction was a large impediment to consumers online. He gave an example of Steam, where he said that there were several hoops to jump through including answering questions about internet speed, signing terms of service and so on.

“Bring the game to the gamer, don’t move people, move games,” he noted. “Zynga has figured out that you put the customer first, very aggressively. You click once and you get to play for free, you share it with your friends and then you pay Zynga if you love it. It’s a pro-consumer as you can get and that why their valuation has skyrocketed. Some of the traditional publishers who have ignored all of this are falling off a cliff. Look at their stock prices, it’s not good.”

As for games consoles, he thinks that the smarter that TVs get and the more diversified game systems get with their abilities, their downfall may be inevitable. “Consoles are in an interesting place right now. If you look at Sony it has a saying that ‘It Only Does Everything’. I think that one statement says that consoles are going to go away,” said Perry. “This next cycle you’re going to see them turn into media devices, media boxes, I don’t even think they’re going to be called consoles. They won’t want to be associated with that word because it just means games. ”

“Steve Jobs showed that the trick is not to make money of the hardware but to monetize the devices. Everyone that pays for stuff on their iPhone makes more and more money for Apple. Why should I buy a $1000 TV and then a $500 box when all I need is a TV By revealing what their goals are they’re basically setting the end game for consoles as we know it,” he added.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

The Last Story Gets Collectable

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A collector’s edition for The Last Story has been confirmed for Europe. This is notable for the U.S. especially since the game has not been confirmed for North America, the European release is February 24.

This collector’s edition will feature a copy of the game a premium steelbook and a soundtrack CD consisting of 7 tracks. The packaging for this and the regular edition, notably, call out the game’s creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobuo Uematsu, both of whom collaborated on the Final Fantasy series as well.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Collector’s Edition Slices, Dices

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The Ninja Gaiden 3 Collector’s Edition has been unveiled. The limited edition version of the game will retail for $99.99 exclusively at GameStop and will ship March 20, 2012.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Collector’s Edition will feature a four-character demo of the anticipated Dead or Alive 5. The physical bonuses in the special edition include an exclusive Ninja Gaiden 3 ‘Unmask’ game art book, a soundtrack CD, and a unique ‘Duel of the Masked’ figure.

Minecraft Stop Motion Punch-Out!! Amazes

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The amount of user-created uses of Minecraft seems to increase every day, and here’s one of the best yet – a stop motion and highly accurate recreation of Punch-Out!! and Super Mario Land. The making of videos show a little bit of how much work was put into this.

Lollipop Chainsaw – Black Swan

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Every high school has social outcasts of one sort or another, though in the case of Swan, he’s turned everyone into zombies for revenge. It’s now up to Juliet to take him down!

Sumioni: Demon Arts Paints A Picture

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Japanese ink brush paintings are a very particular and unique art, and Sumioni: Demon Arts taps into that for this unique looking 2D platformer. Take a bit of Okami mix in some Crayon Physics and you have one interesting looking PS Vita game.

Your Mask Should You Choose To Accept It

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The IMF has been shut down after being implicated in a global terrorist plot. Try and clear your name by working off the grid and helping a fellow agent by meeting with one of your informants in the next hour . . .one the other side of the world . . . face-to-face. Move quickly and create a mask convincing enough that the fellow agent can pass as you so the meeting can proceed. Simulating the briefcase device from the film, upload a photo or use a webcam to capture the image of a face that you want to create a mask of and select key points for recognition. Ensure the dots are positioned accordingly and hit the ‘generate’ button to proceed. Once generated, hit the ‘fabricate’ button to see the mask in action through an IMF CCTV feed. Share an image of the mask, link or 3D model.

Digital Chocolate Expands To Finland

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Digital Chocolate has added two new personnel to its executive staff. Kaj Haggaman, a Nokia veteran, will be handling new general management of one of the company’s new Helsinki studio as a VP, with Emmi Kuusikko joining as the new product manager having previously worked at Habbo Hotel at Sulake.

“It’s rewarding that we can attract and retain great people and are getting continued support from the financial community,” said Trip Hawkins, CEO. “We are now well-positioned to leverage industry trends and growth.”

Additionally, the company announced that Zombie Lane and Army Attack have done well on Facebook, and Marko Lastikka is being promoted from VP of production to VP of regional sales as a result. Also, Digital Chocolate noted that during 2011 they secured a total of $12 million in equity capital financing.

“We’re pleased that our strategy and progress have attracted such experienced and talented executives,” said Marc Metis, President of Digital Chocolate.  “And it is a pleasure to promote our emerging leaders from within.”