February 2012 | Page 17 of 28

PS Vita Will See $50 Million Marketing Spend

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

To market the PS Vita in the U.S., Sony is reportedly spending $50 million on marketing the portable console. Sony senior director John Koller indicates that the campaign is “the largest platform launch in terms of marketing investment we’ve ever had.”

The tagline for the PS Vita campaign is ‘Never Stop Playing’ and Sony said it will be supported with ad placement during TV programs, POS retail partnerships, social media events, and Vita Social Clubs where users can try the system out.

“Gaming is no longer playing alone in a basement by one person with one machine; it’s all networked,” said Jason Elm executive vice president & creative director at Deutsch, the marketing firm working with Sony on the PS Vita launch.

Source: New York Times

Mitt Romney: Advice On Social Engagement

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

Mitt Romney is right now confronting an issue of image on the campaign trail, and his level of engagement on social networks like Facebook is considered to be lacking. Considering the emphasis that President Obama and his team put on social engagement of this sort, it could be a major failing for Romney while he’s trying to communicate what’s important to him in becoming President.

“For Romney, his entire social media strategy is lacking the most important ingredient for social media success – genuine engagement,” wrote Amy Porterfield. “Romney is stuck in the traditional media rut where the focus in on pushing out messages. Because of the rise of social media, it’s no longer acceptable to solely push your own agenda online, but rather more about getting involved in the conversations. Unfortunately, right now Romney’s social media platform is completely one-sided.”

A major issue is the fact for all of the posts, there is no direct feedback from Romney or his team. Amazingly, they haven’t responded to any of the messages on their Facebook page or to any tweet one of their followers has sent them.

“On Facebook, Team Romney is notorious for posting and ditching. Specifically they post something, and then let everyone else “talk amongst themselves” without ever jumping back into the conversation,” noted Porterfield. “On Facebook, the way you create a fan for life (or in his case, a loyal supporter) is by getting involved in the back and forth conversations. That’s where it really counts! Engagement is where the real relationships start. By posting and ditching, it looks as if Romney is not interested in his fans opinions or feedback.”

“A great way to create a connection with users on social media sites it to have a little fun. Romney’s posts tend to be stiff and lack a conversational, friendly tone. One surefire way to show the human side of his campaign is to pull back the curtains and post more pictures from the campaign trail, fun stories about people he meets and short quips about his experiences. Of course, he needs to get his message out there, but on Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media sites, if you focus completely on business, you lose your audience fast,” Porterfield added. “Step away from the political soapbox and mix it up to have a little fun with your social media audiences. The more real you come across, the stronger the support.”

“I hope those points raise some interest in the Romney camp. But if not they should help anyone who is tempted to use Facebook to develop a personality fronted-brand,” concluded Haydn Shaughnessy. “The message is clear – engagement takes something extra, like a busy leader, or in this case candidate, showing himself willing and humble enough to mix it with his fans.”

Source: Forbes.com

Xbox 720 To Have Tablet-Like Controller

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

According to sources, the new Xbox will have a controller that will have a touchscreen in addition to buttons and analog sticks. The HD screen is described as being similar to the Wii U controller, although the form factor will be different.

The console itself is described as a media hub, oriented towards “augmented reality, directional sound, and a four-player, finger-tracking Kinect.” While the CPU and GPU will apparently not be drastically more powerful, but the other features may push the console into the $600 range.

Source: CVG {link no longer active}

Namco Bandai Boldly Goes With Star Trek Game

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

Paramount Pictures and Namco Bandai Games America announced a co-publishing and distribution agreement for the upcoming Star Trek video game. The game is an independent story where Kirk and Spock must work together to stop an alien race from conquering the galaxy, and will release in the first quarter of 2013 before the next Star Trek movie on May 17.

“With our Namco Bandai partners leading the distribution effort, we are confident that we will meet an overwhelming demand to get this exciting console experience into the hands of gamers and Star Trek fans worldwide”, commented LeeAnne Stables, Paramount Pictures Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Partnerships and head of the studio’s video game unit. “The positive response from our initial unveiling at E3 last year was unprecedented, and we are fortunate to have the highest level of production and creative talent on our team that will bring this incredible game out to market next year.”

“Star Trek continues to be one of the most beloved entertainment properties around the world, and Namco Bandai Games America is extremely excited to be teaming up with Paramount Pictures to create the definitive Star Trek interactive experience,” said Carlson Choi, VP of Marketing for Namco Bandai Games America Inc.

Last Guardian Making ‘Slow Progress’ Says Yoshida

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

While the lack of news on the anticipated Team ICO project The Last Guardian has been discouraging, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida says that it is still in development. There’s reason to hope that the game will release… but perhaps, not for many more months.

“The project has been making progress, but slow progress,” detailed Yoshida. “So that’s tough, but we haven’t changed any focus. It’s still a really important project and a vision we want to see realized, and Fumito’s vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there’s some scrapping and rebuilding — iteration in the process. That’s why [it’s taking so long].”

Yoshida was also quick to emphasize that Fumito Ueda is dedicated to finishing the game. “You know, we discussed an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side. But his work and his presence on that team never changed, so it was just more a contractual rearrangement, and that was taken [by many] as ‘he left’,” said Yoshida. “He comes in every day, and he’s probably one of the people who works the longest hours.”

Source: 1UP

Unreal Engine 4 Will ‘Shock’ At Its Profound Effect

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

Epic Games vice president Mark Rein indicates that the Unreal Engine 4 will be revealed in 2012. The middleware is apparently running on “systems we can’t name yet,” according to Rein.

“People are going to be shocked later this year when they see Unreal Engine 4 at how much more profound an effect it will have,” Rein said.

Source: G4tv.com

Zynga Signs Deal With Hasbro

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

Hasbro and Zynga have announced a partnership for Hasbro to develop toys and games based upon Zynga’s social games, such as FarmVille, CityVille and Words With Friends. The first products as a result of this deal are expected to be available beginning Fall 2012.

“It’s exciting to partner with Hasbro as we share a common vision for play and a mission to connect the world through games,” said Mark Pincus, founder, CEO and chief product officer of Zynga. “This partnership is so special because it represents an exciting leap forward in enabling people to connect their virtual and real worlds. Hasbro has inspired play through their famous toys, games and action figures and we look forward to working with a company that continually creates meaningful and fun brands.”

“Hasbro is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Zynga’s immensely popular social games to life in a variety of creative and new expressions that reflect consumers’ growing desire to surround themselves with gaming brands they love anytime, anywhere together with their friends and family,” said Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro. “Zynga is bringing more games to mainstream culture and is redefining how people play. At Hasbro, we’re proud to help bring their games to even more people around the world. This strategic alliance plays off of both Hasbro’s and Zynga’s proven strengths and is emblematic of the new innovations and new platforms we are creating across our entire gaming portfolio.”

Activision’s Hirshberg Talks Call Of Duty Elite’s Hard Birth

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

February 13, 2012, 12:00AM

Call of Duty Elite is most assuredly a success, given its 7 million members and 1.5 paying subscribers. However, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg acknowledged that there were some issues with the launch of the service.

“I hesitate to talk about Elite, because even though we’ve had some early success with the numbers, it’s far from time for us to be doing any victory laps on Elite,” said Hirshberg at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. “We had some technological stumbles at launch and that frustrated some of our fans. We’re still making that right. But if we only talk about the things that go as planned then we miss some of the most valuable dialogue that can come out of this.”

Talking about the inspiration, he said the idea was that, “there’s this massive community of people, all passionate about the same thing, with remarkably few ways to communicate and interact with one another. Overlay that with social network and connecting over digital spaces with the things we’re passionate about is the zeitgeist trend in our culture. We wanted to create a way of unlocking Call of Duty‘s community as a real network.”

Even before launch, there were serious messaging issues. “There was only one problem: we wanted to do a beta. None of the features were going to demonstrable in the beta because they were all tied into the code of Modern Warfare 3 and the beta was going to be Black Ops multiplayer,” noted Hirshberg. “With the launching of Elite we had a marketing Sophie’s Choice. Do we do the beta, which is the right thing to do from a development standpoint, or do we make the best possible first impression, which was probably the right thing to do from the marketing standpoint.”

“We chose to tell people right out of the gate that while the vast majority of features would be free, there would be a premium membership. A lot people thought we should have waited and show people what they get for the premium membership before talking about its existence. But we knew this question about whether it would be free would immediately be asked. We’d be put on the spot. We chose to be transparent and tell people our intentions from the beginning. The words ‘Call of Duty‘ plus the word ‘subscription’ equals ‘unleash blogger hell’,” he recalled.

Dealing with the backlash was “the most painful summer of Google Alerts I’ve ever lived through,” indicated Hirshberg.

Still, the community event Call of Duty XP was a good place to announce the full features and Hirshberg indicates that Elite is headed in the right direction. “Both Elite and XP were both experiments in how willing people are to enter a relationship, to treat it more like a brand or a lifestyle. Like I said, we’re a long way from doing victory laps but we’re in it for the long haul. We made it for the right reasons and believe its’ right for a players and if we get it right we can change the relationship, make the game better and more fun for players.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz