https://youtube.com/watch?v=cm_3dplw9YQ
This spot makes great use of Prohibition imagery, using that era’s black and white films as a starting point for a scenario where color itself is banned. By using color to suggest happy emotions and connoting it with one’s home, the spot manages to connect the themes with the paint company.
Source: AdWeek.com
While the main story of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 finishes the Lords of Shadow trilogy, that doesn’t mean that the content for the game has ceased. Check out this official trailer for the “Revelations” DLC, which will focus on the unique skills of Alucard.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Go9rf9GmYpM
Pepsi Max set up an AR experience at a bus shelter on New Oxford Street in London, showing events like a giant robot crashing through the street to a passer by being abducted by flying saucers. It’s a clever use of the technology, and they even show people figuring the trick out and having fun with it.
Source: AdWeek.com
With this past week’s release of the action-packed Infamous: Second Son, the PlayStation 4 has a huge new exclusive title to get gamers excited – and the sales certainly indicate that.
MCV has reported that sales of consoles have jumped a whopping 106 percent in the UK over the last week, following the release of the Sucker Punch-developed sequel.
That’s a slightly bigger jump than the Xbox One got with the release of Titanfall last month, which led to an increase in sales around 96 percent in the UK.
US numbers aren’t in yet, but it’s likely that the release of Infamous: Second Son has also boosted PS4 sales here as well. Exclusive titles are making the sales race between the Xbox One and the PS4 more interesting, and next month’s NPD numbers should be revealing.
Source: MCV UK
Major League Gaming has already scored big with gamers on the PC front, but now it’s looking to expand even further on the Xbox 360.
Earlier this week, the company launched a new application for the Xbox 360 console, which introduces content from its MLG.tv gaming network to the system. Viewers will be able to take part in the action, checking out streams and tournaments as they would appear on the network.
The app is free of charge, though programming does vary depending on what tournaments are taking place around MLG. No doubt viewers will definitely have a lot to take in, though.
Source: TechCrunch
FIFA Ultimate Team, the virtual tie-in to the FIFA video game license, celebrates its fifth anniversary this week, and to commemorate, Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore has revealed some stats about the program — and players may want to take notice.
Shared through Twitter, Moore explained that 64 percent of all FIFA players utilize Ultimate Team, with a total of 21,849,017 unique users racked up in that time.
For good measure, 1.46 billion transfers have been listed through the program, with 13 million per day and 542,000 per hour. 725 million matches have been played, with 1/3 of that occurring per day, and 11,000 per hour.
Expect these numbers to rise with the next FIFA game, which should be announced over the next few months.
Source: MCV UK
With digital music sales on the decline, Apple is trying to find a way to revitalize its iTunes service. However, one of its ideas could see the service end up in the most unlikeliest of places – with its main competition on the mobile market, Android.
While speaking with record label executives, the company may have suggested a launch of a Spotify-style music subscription service for Android devices, as well as the creation of an app for use on the devices, which could open up a new flow for revenue.
Digital song sales have dropped 11 percent year-over-year, according to a report from Nielsen SoundScan, forcing Apple to consider moving towards a subscription service – an idea that the company’s founder, Steve Jobs, has always railed against, since he felt that people didn’t want to “rent” music.
Apple declined comment on the matter, but official confirmation could be coming soon.
Source: GigaOm
It’s hard to believe that the Nintendo 3DS has been on the market for three years already, but that isn’t stopping the company from seeking out new game ideas for the system. In an interview with Siliconera, Nintendo of America licensing department senior manager Damon Baker stated that the company is heavily considering using the Unity engine on the mobile platform.
“We’ve had those discussions and we are definitely looking at that,” Baker said. “Our priority was to get the Wii U build [of Unity] up and done and ready. Because we need a test environment for it, it’s taken a while for Unity to get finalized on Wii U, so that we can actually test against it. So that has been made available now and that is why we’ve got all of these [game] candidates waiting in the wings that are just going through the submission process at this point. Now, we can move on to other platforms and see how we can make those compatible, either with Unity or with additional middleware providers as well.”
The engine is already in use on a number of other game platforms, including the Wii U, so bringing Unity support to the 3DS would definitely make sense.
Source: Siliconera
In its debut weekend, Valve’s newest documentary, Free To Play, has certainly gained an audience.
The film, which focuses on three aspiring professional gamers, has been viewed by over 5.5 million people in its opening weekend – the biggest debut for any documentary film to date.
Released through such channels as Twitch, YouTube and iTunes, the film has gotten strong reviews from press and viewers, with a 9.3 user rating on IMDB.
Those who want to know more about the film can visit the official page here.
Source: Free To Play
Riot Games has caught the attention of Hollywood. HBO made a cold call to the Santa Monica, CA-based game studio to connect with the massive eSports fan base that League of Legends has around the globe. The pay cable network kicks off a three-week program today (March 22nd) to promote the fourth season of Game of Thrones, which debuts April 6. Dustin Beck, vice president of eSports and merchandising at Riot Games, details the promotions and discusses what this deal means for eSports and its growing popularity in this exclusive interview.
On the heels of the Lionsgate Ender’s Game eSports Tournament, how have you seen Hollywood take notice of pro gaming?
Generally speaking, a lot of non-endemic players are starting to take notice given some of the mainstream press we’ve been getting recently, whether it’s our Staples Center event or our announcement about doing an All-Star Game in Paris. Big names are now starting to understand the demographic that they’re able to reach through eSports, which is a relative nuanced and new demographic that they traditionally haven’t been able to reach effectively.
Do you have a sense of how big an overlap there is between League of Legends players and Game of Thrones fans?
We’ve done a lot of player surveys to see what our fans like and dislike and I think a lot of the discussion and strategies going forward that we have are going to cater to our fan base. We want to make sure that any activations that we do are super authentic to our fans and that we’re not working with brands that aren’t going to have any value to our players.
How did this Game of Thrones advertising deal happen with HBO?
We got a cold call from HBO because they thought that there was going to be a great overlap between our players and their demographic of people that watch Game of Thrones and this was a good way to explore reaching that demographic through new media.
This fan artist on DeviantArt has already mashed up League of Legends with Game of Thrones
Can you detail the Game of Thrones plan?
HBO is doing a three-week activation in advance of their series premiere on April 6. They’re going to be getting some marketing assets, whether that’s logo bugs or Website takeovers. But we’re also working with their team to produce a mash-up trailer. They’re giving us some exclusive sneak peaks into footage that hasn’t been seen before.
What are the advantages to Hollywood studios or mainstream brands when it comes to the League of Legends community?
There are a couple of advantages going through us. We have a very loyal, dedicated fan base that has built up trust with Riot and our brand and our eSport. We make sure that any of the brands that we are working with have relevance to them and to properties that they like. The advantage with us versus traditional TV or even traditional sports is we have a very limited, focused advertising or sponsorship and partnership strategy. We’re not working with a ton of different brands. There’s not going to be the kind of sponsor overload you get when you look at NASCAR for example. You see a car that’s littered with various sponsor bugs and it’s very hard to focus in on what logo you’re looking at. We have the exact opposite approach, where we’re modeling our strategy after what The Masters of golf does, where we want a very limited, focused set of advertisers or sponsors with very high touch, high share voice and frequency. We have about three-and-a-half minutes of ads per hour, whereas TV is 14-plus minutes of ads per hour.
What impact do you feel having American Express and Coke get on board has had on opening up Hollywood’s eyes to eSports?
American Express and Coke have been very thoughtful and intelligent partnerships with us. They get the value that their brands can bring to our players and community in a first-mover segment. They’re blue chip, well-established brands that are going to put a lot of people on notice. They’re brands that haven’t been involved in eSports traditionally, so it’s groundbreaking. Traditionally, eSports had been very inundated with endemic partners and brands and these companies are breaking the mold. They’re the first to market and they’re establishing a lot of brand credibility in that sense.
How have you worked with Coke on the Challenger Series?
Coke has been a very valuable partner for us on the Challenger Series. They’re bringing to the table a new kind of approach on how we want to engage with our plans and with our players. They want to make sure that they’re doing it in an authentic and genuine matter that is going to add value to the scene, and not just be a logo bug on the screen. They’re starting to build up their own discipline within gaming. They brought in a head of global gaming, Matt Wolf, who’s been our go-to contact on that front. And they’re exploring a lot of ways now that they can get involved with the scene and help us build this Challenger League into what we hope it’s going to become. We think it’s very similar to the Coke leagues that they have for European soccer, for example, that are feeder leagues into the premiere league. We’re looking to do the same thing.
