E3: Nintendo Brings ‘Skylanders’ Amiibo; New Games For 3DS

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Nintendo has again decided to forgo the logistics and expense of a live stage show, opting instead for a pre-recorded slew of announcements. This method makes a lot of sense for Nintendo in many ways: for one, the majority of the audience at E3 isn’t actually at E3, but watching from home (or from the press room at E3) and for another, it’s a good deal less expensive. There’s also the added benefit of the control of editing, with no snafus like having to restart a trailer or on-stage nerves to deal with.

For Nintendo this year, a puppet show beginning translates much better in a pre-recorded stream than it would on stage, inarguably. It’s all part of Nintendo’s charm. It’s also a great lead-up to intro’ing Star Fox: Zero, slated for a holiday release this year.

 

Next up, Nintendo is bring new Amiibo figures with popular franchise Skylanders. Boy, do they look cute.

Next up, Nintendo shows us a trailer for The Legend of Zelda Triforce Heroes, which is a multi-player and co-op game. Check the gameplay trailer below.

 

Hyrule Warriors, announced at last year’s E3 for Wii U, is now coming to Nintendo DS, too. It will be interesting to see how this game translates to a smaller screen. It’s just one of a number of 3DS games Nintendo has chosen to focus on this year, including Metroid Prime Federation Force, Fire Emblem Fates, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam and Yo-Kai Watch.

 

Xenoblade Chronicles X for Wii U gets a fair amount of attention, too, with a trailer below.

 

Now for the other yarn game at E3 this year, Yoshi’s Wooly World, with a brand new trailer that’s adorable as ever.

 

Been itching for a new tennis game How about one with Mario Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash will deliver the nostalgia.

 

Nintendo closes with a new gameplay trailer for Super Mario Maker, literally making all of your childhood dreams come true.

 

 

 

Acquisitions, Programmatic, Interactive: What’s Next For Video Advertising?

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by VideoInk Staff

During a recent panel moderated by VideoInk and featuring panelists from advertising and technology companies like Videology, Viewbix, andInneractive, the group discussed the latest trends, opportunities, and challenges facing the growing digital video advertising business. A wide range of topics were covered, from the NewFronts to measurement and even the value and potential for interactive advertising in an ecosystem that allows for interactive advertising.

As a follow-up we reached out to two of the panelists, Jonathan Stefansky, CEO and co-founder of Viewbix, and Aleck Schleider, VP of data and analytics at Videology, about the current state of video advertising and where it’s all going. Here’s a selection of their responses below:

What are some of the major trends that caught your eye on the advertising and technology side during the most recent NewFronts cycle?

Jonathan Stefansky: I think the biggest take away was from the IAB’s video-ad spend study, which highlighted how more than two-thirds of marketers and digital agencies are expecting to increase their digital video-ad spend in the next 12 months and that, over the past two years, media buyers have increased video-ad spend by 90%. This underscores how budget dollars are continuing to shift to digital video where advertisers can effectively track ROI from their spend.

Aleck Schleider: From our perspective, since we’ve built our technology around the convergence of TV and video, what is most interesting is that the NewFronts and TV Upfronts are becoming one united front. Several “TV” companies hosted NewFront events, and many of the networks now negotiate both TV and digital during the upfront. As content providers are increasingly distributing their programming across multiple devices, the lines between the two “fronts” are going to continue to blur, which will be more reflective of the way advertisers are thinking about cross-screen advertising. The silos are breaking down—and that’s good news for advertisers as we know that cross-screen advertising produces stronger results.

Keep reading…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Xbox Delivers Exclusive Content To E3 Fans Right To Their Phones

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E3 is where all the greats of gaming come together to see the latest and greatest in the industry. But even with three days, it can be tough to visit every booth, wait in line, and play every game that catches your eye. So how can Xbox, who is offering some of the hottest titles of 2015 and 2016, allow everyone who comes to their booth walk away with a totally unique and special experience

Deliver it right to their phones for consumption at their leisure.

Fans visiting the Xbox booth or following Xbox on Twitter saw the call to action to text a keyword: XboxE3, Halo, ROTTR (for Rise of the Tomb Raider), or Forza, to 55755 to get a text leading them to all the latest content and some exclusive goodies, too. No waiting in lines, no elbowing your way over to get a poster — just great content on your phone that you won’t see anywhere else.

The program, created and managed by Ayzenberg, Xbox’s social agency, is powered by Waterfall and This Moment technology.

E3: For Ubisoft, A New ‘South Park’ Game and ‘Ghost Recon’ Reveal

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Next in a day chock-full of press conferences and palpable excitement, Ubisoft’s event kicked things off at Los Angeles’ historic Orpheum Theatre. Ushering things along was the hilarious Aisha Tyler, lending the conference more levity than usual.

Ubisoft opens with a cinematic trailer for South Park: Fractured, But Whole and brings South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to the stage. The game is a sequel to last year’s popular Stick of Truth.

 

Chart-Topping ‘HUNT The TRUTH’ Podcast Wraps With Two Part Finale

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As the engines of E3 began roaring to life this past Sunday, the first part of the Halo 5: Guardians campaign wrapped up with an intense, shocking, two-part season finale that had the Halo Nation “all aboard the hype train.” Hunt the Truth, consistently a top-rated iTunes Video Games podcast, had fans delving deep into the Halo Universe, where big questions about the Master Chief have arisen.

Created by Ayzenberg with Xbox and 343 Studios, Hunt the Truth followed journalist Benjamin Giraud, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, as he investigated allegations against Master Chief and cover-ups by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).  The story twisted and turned through weekly 15-30 minute episodes documenting  the investigation, which is helped and hindered by Petra Janecek (voiced by Cobie Smulders), Mshak Moradi (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani), Deon Govender (voiced by Phil LaMarr), FERO (voiced by Janina Gavankar), and more.

In case you haven’t caught the finale, we won’t spoil it for you, but here are just a few of the fan reactions:

E3: EA Showcases ‘Mass Effect,’ ‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ And More

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EA’s afternoon press conference opened right away with the announce trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda, which opened a little confusingly with Johnny Cash’s ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’. But all becomes clear when this frontier was slowly revealed to be a whole new galaxy.

 

EA let out yet another crowd-pleaser with an expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Knights of the Fallen Empire, which story/character-driven and BioWare-like than you’ve likely expected. On top of that, it’s free. Free!

 

 

Another yarn game No, it’s not Yoshi’s Woolly World, but a new IP, Unravel, whose main character, Yarnie, is on a big, big journey. The game is a puzzle platform, and from the looks of the gameplay trailer, is quite stunning.

 

 

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is coming with a co-op mode and a whole new look. This isn’t the Plants vs. Zombies you played when the popular game first debuted. This time the announce trailer and the gameplay reveal were shown at the same time, giving PvZ quite a bit of time during EA’s briefing.

 

 

EA’s ever-popular sports games get some gameplay love, too, starting with NHL 16 and then with NBA Live 16.

 

 

EA also gives some time to discuss a few of the mobile games coming out. One is, unsurprisingly, Star Wars-themed one. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a collectible mobile trading card game and should do well for EA’s mobile offerings.

Minions get their own mobile game, too! Stranded on an island, they are tasked with turning it into a paradise. Thus, the game is aptly called Minions Paradise. Meet Phil in this trailer:

 

Next up, EA returns back to sports to bring someone extra special to the stage to promote FIFA 16. It’s none other than Pelé.

For players of FIFA 15, EA surprises with some free stuff when they next check their account. One of the biggest things of note for this next installement of FIFA is that they are bringing women’s soccer players into the game. Certainly this will be a huge appeal to fans of women’s soccer.

 

Last, but certainly not least the the Star Wars Battlefront gameplay trailer that has been much-anticipated to say the very least. With all the hype and a trailer a good idea of how this game will deliver, it looks like a huge game for EA is in the offing.