How This Startup Is Adding Music To The Messaging And Bot Landscape

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Emoticast, which is behind the TuneMoji apps and bots that puts music GIFs with sound into messaging, is expanding the ways mobile users can send entertainment content across the world’s biggest messaging platforms, including iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Kik.

The company enables mobile users to send snackable music GIFs with sound from today’s top artists and has produced original content working directly with Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and other artists. Emoticast has global licenses with major music industry labels Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, and with major publishing groups Sony ATV, Warner Chappell Music, Universal Publishing Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and PRS/Impel. The company is also widening its focus on entertainment messaging content beyond music GIFs to film and television.

Emoticast founder and CEO James Fabricant told [a]listdaily that communication is the biggest market on the planet.

“As the head of video and entertainment for MySpace International, I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat for the shift from email to social networking, so I was very cognizant of the two major shifts happening in communication,” Fabricant explained. “The first was a shift from social networking to social messaging—last year the top four social messaging apps overtook the top four social networks. The second was a move away from text to more visual forms of communication—emojis, stickers, GIFs and now GIFs with sound (and music). Today, more than 50 billion messages are sent daily on social messaging platforms.”

Those numbers have attracted some big names from Silicon Valley and the music industry. Emoticast has just closed a $5 million super angel round led by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, producer and Black Eyed Peas co-founder will.i.am, DJ and producer David Guetta; former Maker Studios CEO Ynon Kreiz; Jason Epstein, board member for Rhapsody International, parent company of Rhapsody and Napster; Nicole Junkermann through Montilla International Corporation; and Alan Cannistraro, the Godfather of apps.

Fabricant said the company will use the investment to continue to grow its partners in music and other entertainment fields, to increase original content collaborations with artists, and to expand its messaging partner network. He said the idea for TuneMoji sprang from two other popular brands—Coke and Universal Music.

“I heard about a Universal Music campaign with Coke called ‘Say It With A Song,’ which put lyrics on Coke cans that were a message, such as ‘Call Me Maybe’ for which you could scan a QR code and send a clip of the music video,” Fabricant said. “The campaign exploded, demonstrating that kids want to use music to express themselves and communicate with their friends. It occurred to me—what if you could transform music from entertainment into communication? And that’s essentially what we do. TuneMojis are entertaining, yes, but their primary use is to communicate a message. At the same time, in Japan, Line was starting to sell packs of stickers (static illustrations) for $3, so it was clear there was a path to monetization. By now, they’re making $300 million a year selling stickers. It was a no-brainer!”

Fabricant said TuneMoji makes it easy for iOS and Android consumers to share snackable music, film and TV content to the world’s biggest social messaging platforms, including iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Kik, as well as via TuneMoji bots on Kik, Viber and Telegram.

“We’re the first company to introduce specially formatted music and entertainment GIFs (with sound) to the market,” Fabricant said. “There’s now no need to scrape music and video sites, share links or pirate content.”

Before TuneMoji, consumers would have to go to YouTube or some other video platforms to rip and edit the snippet they wanted, save it to their camera roll and then use social messaging.

“TuneMoji is that platform,” Fabricant said. “Also, now with the death of Vine, a lot of the creative class that lived on there has started created content for TuneMoji, which is awesome.”

Despite the abundance of digital content out there, Fabricant said platforms are struggling to include licensed music and entertainment content in their mobile messaging services.

“At first glance, it might be tempting to make a comparison to some of the platforms that distribute GIFs and animated stickers, but we’re in a different category,” Fabricant said. “What Emoticast is doing goes far beyond GIFs or emojis. We’re taking it to the next level, with the type of snackable entertainment content that we’re bringing to users, and positioning the company to become the micro-YouTube for messaging based on premium licensed content.”

Today, all of Emoticast’s products are free to its users, and the company monetizes via brand partnerships.

“We found that corporations are just now realizing that social messaging platforms are where their customers live,” Fabricant said. “They’re eager to have their brand associated with cool music GIFs in this space, which is otherwise very difficult to penetrate.”

The company is marketing TuneMoji through the talent that’s investing in it and the artists being featured. Fabricant said this month Snoop Dogg will embark on a creative collaboration with TuneMoji through Kik.

“We’re working on an original creative collaboration with Snoop and WB Records that is a world’s first,” Fabricant said. “It’s an exclusive collaboration with Kik in April featuring Snoop Dogg, where the artist will take over TuneMoji’s bot and empower users to express themselves by sharing custom Snoop music GIFs. It will be one of our first partnerships.”

Ultimately, Fabricant believes it’s the artists, actors and talent from the music, film and television industries that will help propel the TuneMoji brand with millennials.

“We appeal to very passionate audiences who are plugged into what’s current in music and entertainment,” Fabricant said. “Emoticast brings the universe of popular culture into the chat stream through snackable music, film and TV content across the world’s biggest messaging platforms, including iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Kik, Viber and Telegram.”

Fabricant said Emoticast has hundreds of thousands of users and millions of TuneMojis sent. The plan is to grow this audience by expanding its distribution through partnerships with messaging platforms, dating apps and beyond.

“We’re growing through the combined effect of adding more users and increasing their engagement and retention,” Fabricant said. “The most effective ways we found to add users are viral (our music GIFs are branded, inviting the recipient to download the product to reply) and via brand partnerships which can boost our customer base in specific geographies where they operate.”

Emoticast is also attracting new audiences as it expands its content offering with each new set of rights it acquires from entertainment companies, and as it integrates more closely with social messaging platforms to become native to the messaging experience.

How Bandai Namco Entertainment America Is Harnessing The Power Of Anime

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Anime has grown from a niche hobby, inspired by a Japanese art style, to a global mainstream phenomenon in the past 20 years. Bandai Namco has been on the forefront of that growing interest from around the world with cross-media brands that include manga, animated television shows, toys and video games. According to the Brand Finance Brand Strength Index, Bandai Namco has one of the most recognizable toy brands in the world, second only to Lego.

There are numerous signs of how anime has matured and become mainstream, ranging from Nickelodeon’s Avatar television series to the immense popularity of the Final Fantasy video games. Anime streaming site, Crunchyroll, reported earlier this year that it surpassed one million paid subscribers, generating over $83 million in revenue, with users streaming more than 1.5 billion minutes of video per month. Its per-user average is about 30 minutes per day. But one of the most prominent examples of anime’s influence is the recently released live-action movie, Ghost in the Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson and based on the manga and 1995 animated movie. Ghost in the Shell brought in $19 million this weekend, while Saban’s Power Rangers (which has anime influences) pulled in $65.1 million in the two weeks since it released.

That kind of popularity is what empowered Bandai Namco Entertainment America (BNEA) to launch its Month of Anime campaign in February—a promotion that included almost every facet of the company’s anime brands. With it, digital platforms such as Steam and the PlayStation Store ran sales on games at the same time brick-and-mortar retailers promoted toys and figures featuring Bandai Namco products. The fact that it came together speaks to the immense interest people have in anime and the Bandai Namco brands in particular. The media giant recently doubled down on anime by buying out controlling interest in the Japanese Anime Consortium, which mainly licenses and streams anime programming in both Asia and the West through the Daisuki platform.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

Dennis Lee, director of brand marketing at BNEA, told [a]listdaily that part of the reason anime has become so popular recently is because “there have been a lot of personas that have grown up liking anime, and they’ve become famous or popular in one way or another. They might have their own YouTube channel, blog or became a UFC star or artist. That has helped anime content become much more mainstream that it was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Stephen Akana, brand manager on the anime team at BNEA, agreed by stating, “Look at Avatar: The Last Airbender or RWBY, which are Western-created content inspired by the Japanese anime style.” The two shared their thoughts about the growth of anime and how Bandai Namco, famous for games such as Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm, Sword Art Online and many more, has been taking advantage of this growing wave.

What do you think has contributed to the rise of anime’s global popularity?

[Akana]: The access that people have nowadays when it comes to ways that you can consume anime has become a lot more accessible than it was 15 or 20 years ago. Being able to look at different streaming services such as Crunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu, where a lot of people are consuming different forms of entertainment. It’s been a really easy way for people to give anime a try—if the if it’s something they’re not familiar with it—or to get in there with the binge-watching culture.

Bandai Namco is one of the predominant publishers for anime titles in the West. Rather than there being just one node for people to sit back and watch something, people are able to engage with it. They’re able to play the game and live out the adventures of their favorite hero or get into fringe elements like cosplay, artwork and all those other things that inspire people.

What do you think contributes to anime’s mass appeal?

[Akana]: When you think about it, everyone can pretty much look back on their childhood and remember cartoons that they’ve either engaged with or were very special to them. I think there’s an element of nostalgia that comes to people when they see an animation that has been tailored so that it’s not just for children—animation that’s ageless—and I think that Japanese animation has embraced that. It can show all different elements and all different types of narratives through this creative form.

How do people discover new anime titles?

[Lee]: I think there’s a mix of different ways that fans will search for content that they like. A lot of it comes from social media and finding out what other people are enjoying. They’re also looking back at the different types of brands and shows they’ve liked previously as new content comes out and they’re going out and finding those as well.

[Akana]: Before the rise of social media, the connection that you had to niche hobbies were limited to those within your space. The access that people now have to find like minds on social media has expanded the anime culture through word-of-mouth. Now you’re getting mass recommendations from tastemakers in the anime space.

How has BNEA leveraged the popularity of anime to help promote its games?

[Lee]: That’s a multifaceted question, but I think that one of the elements that starts on our side is linking popular anime brands such as Dragon Ball or Naruto—and the characters that were developed for those series—with great content that utilizes the original stories or creates new stories that branch off that content.

That has definitely helped give fans new ways to interact with their favorite anime series and has—through a typical licensing strategy—elevated the brand overall from being just an experience that you watch to an experience that you get to interact with.

[Akana]: With Dragon Ball Xenoverse, it was taking points of nostalgia, bringing up key moments that worked in the series, and going with a “what if” scenario. Let’s turn what people knew on their heads in a way that can still speak to people who know the content, but doesn’t gate anyone out from it. It’s complementary, and people [who don’t know] may want to learn where it all came from. Maybe the access point for them getting into the anime scene is through gaming.

sao-new-boxartHow do you let fans know when a new game is releasing when they’re consuming content digitally and there may not necessarily be commercials?

[Akana]: We use a variety of different ways to do our promotions for our titles. One of the biggest ways is through social media, often through our community team and having them interact with our fans. We’ll also use paid social media placements to reach people on different networks to make sure they are aware of announcements and activities that we have.

[Lee]: We also have multiple channels for communicating with our audience. We recently launched an extension of our corporate Facebook page—Play Anime Games—where we were able to take all of our anime content and collate it through one singular feed so that there is a destination point for people who only want to see the anime arm of what we’re doing. We work on many different products when it comes to games, but we do think that the anime content that we have can reach a wide category. This extra channel has been very helpful.

[Akana]: We’ve also been partnering with the streaming networks. We have a very close relationship with a lot of the partners in the anime industry. Crunchyroll is a company we have close ties to, so we will run a lot of co-promotions with them. Since they have such a loyal and core fan base, we’re partnering to hit anime fans where they’re at.

What contributes more to the popularity of a series such as Sword Art Online? The light novels, the TV show, or the video game series?

[Lee]: I think people become interested in the brands through the original content, which may be the manga or the anime series. With Sword Art Online, people get hooked with the experience by watching the anime and learning about the story, world and characters. Then we, from the video game side, add on to that with an additional experience—new stories and ways to flesh out the characters while adding new characters. The majority of the audience starts with the original content and video games are supplementary to that. But there are instances where the video game expands out to a different audience that the anime series wasn’t reaching on its own.

[Akana]: The first Dragon Ball Xenoverse game released when there wasn’t a lot happening on the anime side. You could almost argue that, with the amount of engagement we had with that game, the general mass audience could name the game before it could name a show. There’s a volley back-and-forth, where the game and anime keep adding to people’s interest and engagement with a brand.

Does the attention movies like Ghost in the Shell get help improve the success of other anime brands?

[Lee]: I think, in a way, it does inadvertently help grow anime overall through exposure to more fans. Similar to how comic book movies have grown the comic book industry, fans of the movies look for other ways to find out more about those characters and franchises. When they go to the comic book stores, they’re exposed to other stories that they could be interested in. The same thing happens with anime.

How did the Month of Anime promotion come together?

[Lee]: Our portfolio has such a varied line-up of anime titles. Many times, it’s not easy to cross-promote these series together, due to different rights holders and artists. But one of the ways we did that was with the Month of Anime promotion that we ran in February. There, we took a look at ways to increase our catalog sales while giving more visibility to our new releases from January and February. We partnered with retail and ran a lot of promotions with our community team while partnering with Funimation, Viz and licensors like Aniplex to put together a cohesive package for our anime titles and merchandise.

Doing that definitely helped give us a significant lift and it generated a lot of interest in anime video games along with the interest in anime overall. It turned out to be very successful for us, the retailers, and the anime industry as a whole.

Month of Anime[Akana]: I think that speaks to how far the anime genre has come. We able to work with these traditional retailers, not just from an IP standpoint, but from a genre standpoint. If we had thought of that five or six years ago, they probably wouldn’t have agreed to do that. Now, the anime genre has become synonymous with the current generation of 18-30-year-olds (millennials)—they consume the content that these brick-and-mortar stores want to promote.

[Lee]: Our partner GameStop had an Anime Day, where they had events in their stores with customers who came in cosplaying. They also had a lot of giveaways, and we gave away Steam codes for full games so that people could try out anime titles. Then there was the sweepstakes that GameStop ran, with a trip to the Anime Expo in Los Angeles as the grand prize. Again, it’s about coming up with fun promotions to help generate interest in anime and partnering with the right consumer-facing retailers to reach a wide audience.

April Fool’s Day 2017: Brands Let Loose With Fake Ads

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April Fool’s Day is a fond tradition of pranks, jokes and a celebration of silliness, in general. This year, the holiday landed on a Saturday so a number of brands got a head start with some rather ingenious hoaxes.

Twitch: Emote Effects

This hoax makes the top of our list because it seems totally legit. On April 1, Twitch announced the addition of emote effects—animated comments overlaid onto saved video clips. “Your favorite global emotes were once limited to Twitch Chat, but no longer shall you be contained,” the site boasted. Of course, the effect doesn’t actually work, much to the chagrin of a few users.

Twitch April Fools

Google Maps: Ms. Pacman

It has become an April Fool’s Day tradition to transform Google Maps into a game board for Ms. Pacman and it’s available once again. Simply open the app and press the Ms. Pacman icon to change from regular maps to the game.

GeForce: GTX G-Assist

With the help of learning AI, this nifty gadget will keep playing for you when you’re AFK, beat that pesky boss and even order food when it thinks its gamer is getting hungry.

Honda: Horn Emojis

Now honking at people can be more expressive and fun, especially on the highway.

https://youtu.be/B1qmmf6cYow

Lexus: Lane Valet

Tired of “left lane rangers” holding up the show? Lexus has the solution I really wish existed.

https://youtu.be/Tzqio8ig6Gk

Nestlé Coffee Mate: Coffee Flavor

Ever wish your coffee tasted a bit more like coffee? Problem solved.

fools-coffee-mate

Jim Beam: Jim Beans

“We’ve been making bourbon for 220 years, but some folks still call us Jim Bean. Hint taken. Introducing Jim Beans: aged one day in a tin can.”

fools-jim-beans

L.A. Police Gear – Tactical Rock

Sometimes the most basic tools are still the best. Also makes a handy paperweight.

tactical rock

Progressive: Insurance on Mars

If you’re planning on leaving Earth any time soon, it’s better to go prepared.

Mars insurance

Buffalo Wild Wings: Rally Beard Sauce

Can sauce be delicious, help your team win and help grow a lush beard? BW3 has the solution.

https://youtu.be/EGGjYaPLAUc

Amazon: Petlexa

Amazon Echo has been updated to understand pets, according to this April Fool’s ad.

Snickers: SKnickers

Because “no one knows nuts like Snickers . . .”

https://youtu.be/-ZUglnSWw94

U By Kotex: Pad-Shaped Bandages

Now with wings for extra protection.

fools-u-by-kotex

 

Evine: Totes M’Goats DIY Soap Kit

This kit “offered” by the cable shopping network includes an adorable baby goat and everything you need to make your home a complete, although lavender-scented, mess.

KFC: The Bucket

The future of ordering chicken has arrived.

T-Mobile: ONEsie

There’s no reason why you can’t have great cell coverage and be comfortable.

https://youtu.be/8SqTwIF4p64

Swim Today: Eu de Chlôrine

Let everyone know how much you swim . . . or bleach clothes with this new fragrance from Swim Today.

Life Storage: She Shed

Ladies, have you ever wished you had a feminine version of a man cave? Life Storage is offering “She Sheds” for $99 a month.

Hitcents Breaks Down NBA’s Impact On Mobile Gaming

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The NBA continues to expand its gaming footprint. Developer Hitcents, which recently launched The Godfather: Family Dynasty , has released NBA Life. The game offers a new experience for NBA fans, combining elements of lifestyle role-playing, resource management, and strategy games.

The game puts players in the shoes of an NBA prospect. After signing with the team of their choice, users must balance the competing commitments of an NBA career on their quest to become the best in the league. Players must hire agents, trainers and publicists to help them manage their busy careers—all while making time for workouts, events and appearances as they play through their team’s real-life schedule.

“We are extremely excited to offer an innovative take on a sports mobile game that’s never been done before,” said Chris Mills, president of Hitcents. “Creating NBA Life has been a huge focus of our company for the past year-and-a-half, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”

Chris Mills, Hitcents co-founder and president, told [a]listdaily that working with Oscar-winning actor, Tom Hanks in 2014 changed the developer’s direction.

“Before these two titles (Godfather and NBA Life), our only true IP-based application was Hanx Writer, created in partnership with Tom Hanks,” Mills said. That app, which turned iPads into a vintage typewriter, was the number one app in over 50 countries. “After we saw the value that his brand brought to our product, we decided to take on more licensing opportunities to help drive visibility for our games in the increasingly competitive mobile landscape.”

Mills also discussed how his studio simultaneously built The Godfather: Family Dynasty and NBA Life over the past two years. “During that time, we gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about what it takes to work with large brands,” Mills said. “We began developing The Godfather: Family Dynasty first and began gaining a good understanding of how every decision we make on these games has an impact on the overall brand. We held ourselves to high standards of quality throughout development.”

According to Mills, the goal of NBA Life was to create a sports mobile game that had never been created before—something fresh and different. “Our goal was to produce something that was aesthetically pleasing and inspiring, while also showing users what it’s like to be an NBA player off the court,” Mills explained. “As we were designing the game, the slogan we kept at the forefront of our discussions was: ‘it’s more than basketball.’”

Mills said this game is one of the first NBA-licensed games that is not solely focused on basketball gameplay, but instead focuses on all aspects of becoming an NBA star. “As a player on your favorite team, real-life NBA players are your teammates,” Mills said. “They are your mentors, the ones walking you through the process of becoming the next NBA legend. You are learning from your own NBA heroes, while also challenging them to scrimmages that will improve your skills.”

Hitcents is tapping into the NBA brand with this game. “We are utilizing all NBA teams and their top players throughout the entire game,” Mills said. “This brings authenticity to the experience, and allows users to feel like they are legitimate members of the League.”

The free-to-play game integrates micro-transactions into the experience. Players can earn and buy special currency called Juice, which supplies users with resources, permanently unlock extra utilities in certain game systems, increase system efficiency, or be used to buy shoeboxes containing special items.

Given that this game isn’t going after the simulation experience of games like 2K Sports’ NBA 2K17, Mills believes it could connect with the NBA’s large female fan base.

“We are proud to say that we’re the first NBA-licensed game to give users the option of choosing to play as a female avatar with an NBA team jersey on,” Mills said. “We believe this is one small step towards a much more inclusive gaming culture, particularly in sports gaming. So many females enjoy watching sports such as basketball, and it seems there aren’t any games out there that cater to this audience. We are hoping NBA Life will give female and male NBA fans alike a chance to interact with their favorite brand in a new and interesting way.”

Mills said the mobile market is developing into a “winner takes all” industry. That’s where the power of a license, especially a global brand like the NBA, comes into play.

“It becomes increasingly difficult to find visibility for new mobile games each and every day,” Mills explained. “The top publishers have the resources and funds to afford the top users, leaving the mid-tier publishers and independent developers behind to figure out how to drive downloads in a cost-effective way. Having an attached brand is known for increasing your chances for App Store or Google Play featuring, and driving cost-per-installs down. However, the more IP-based games that flood the market, the less opportunities having one will afford you.”

Hitcents is relying on the NBA plan to help connect with gamers and basketball fans around the globe. The game won’t have a traditional cover athlete player spokesman to directly promote the title. But NBA players are very tech savvy and the NBA has a lot of social media followers.

“Social media is huge for the NBA and its players,” Mills said. “This is one aspect that we evaluate when choosing which licenses to work with in the mobile games industry. The ability to tap into a large, engaged market is crucial to us when finding the best partner to work with. We plan on tapping into this large user base for promotional benefits, beginning with launch day. We hope to build a strong social media following as the game progresses, and engage with that community on a regular basis. It’s a great way for us to gain valuable information from our users, and use that information to keep the game relevant for years to come.”

Mills said events like NBA All-Star, the NBA playoffs and the Finals are huge opportunities for NBA Life in terms of marketing and game design.

“Our hope is to integrate live in-game events for our users during playoff time, offering fans another touchpoint with their team of choice during an exciting time for the franchise,” Mills said. He also added that, with the NBA fan base spanning across the globe, it’s essential to market NBA Life globally. The game has launched in 48 countries, with six languages coming soon.

“Players can interact with other players from around the world in real-time,” Mills said. “Our crew system allows for 50 players from any location to team-up together while discussing their favorite teams or latest NBA news.”

The game will continually incorporate more live events and social aspects for players to interact with. “Our goal is to provide users with a game they can play during the regular season, and also play in the off season by gearing up their player, practicing, and building up skills,” Mills said. “This gives NBA fans a way to interact with their favorite team and players year-round.”

Nostalgia On Demand: Why Netflix Is Resurrecting Classic IPs

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Ah, “the good old days.” Whenever that might have been for you, chances are there’s a song, TV show or film that perfectly represents that time in your life, and Netflix wants to help consumers recapture those fond memories. The streaming service has filled its already massive video library with classic shows and films, but is taking it a step further by resurrecting beloved IPs through sequels and reboots.

“If you are like me, we grew up with a lot of 8 o’clock-hour programming—scripted programming, that people could watch together,” explained Brian Wright, Director of kids & family programming for Netflix, at the Television Critics Association conference last year. “You could feel good about it, and there were a lot of bonding opportunities between parents and kids.”

Fuller House plays a major role in that initiative for the streaming service. A continuation of the 1990s series, Full House, Fuller House follows the story of DJ Tanner-Fuller, her sister, Stephanie Tanner and best friend Kimmy Gibbler as they raise kids of their own. The show is full of references and cameos from the original series, adding to the nostalgia factor while offering something new for fans. According to data from Symphony Advanced Media, season one of Fuller House was Netflix’s highest rated original series, attracting an average audience of 7.33 million viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic in the first three days in which it was available. Thanks to its success, Fuller House will return for a third season.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life took fans back to the little town of Stars Hollow to check on mother and daughter, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore and their modern day, coffee-fueled adventures. Nearly a decade after the final episode of Gilmore Girls, Netflix drew 5.99 million viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic in the US over the first three days it was available, according to Symphony Advanced Media.

The four-part series was meant to wrap up the story as it was originally intended, but those “final four words” left fans wanting more. Netflix is open to another season of Gilmore Girls, if creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino is interested.

fuller house

“We hope [there are more installments],” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told the UK’s press association. “We obviously loved the success of the show, fans loved how well it was done, it delivered what they hoped . . . The worst thing is to wait a couple of years for your favorite show to come back and for it to disappoint you, but they sure delivered and people were really excited about more, and we have been talking to them about the possibility of that.”

Netflix’s diverse programming and lack of traditional TV format is good news for creators, as well. When Joel Hodgson, creator and former host of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) successfully crowd-funded a new season of his hit show, many networks were interested but it was Netflix that made the cut.

“I think one of the biggest reasons I’m glad we’re on Netflix is length,” Hodgson told Kickstarter backers in an email. “See, MST is a lot longer than most television shows, because each episode includes most of a cheesy feature film. Back when we were first making MST3K, that wasn’t a problem. In fact, it was really an advantage, because on KTMA, The Comedy Channel, Comedy Central and even Sci-Fi, there was a lot of unused airtime to fill up. So, having two-hour episodes was a good thing back then. But these days, broadcast and cable programming is really competitive, and it’s a lot harder to keep one show on for two hours every week.”

Hodgson wasn’t alone in his efforts to bring classic TV to Netflix—Fuller House was spearheaded by one of the original show’s stars, John Stamos. After years of rewrites and numerous production struggles, Paul Reuben was finally able to bring his film, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday exclusively to Netflix in 2016. Although not based on an existing franchise, Stranger Things—a majorly nostalga-fueled show—was turned down by a number of networks before Netflix helped it become a breakout hit.

Netflix prides itself in the diversity of its programming, something that creators appreciate when approaching the company with ideas.

“The beautiful thing about the internet is that it has ushered in a new era of television centered on delivering the best possible experience to millions of people around the world—with the singular goal of connecting people with stories they’ll love,” said Netflix VP of product, Todd Yellin in a statement. “Human beings have incredibly diverse and unique tastes—each person is more than the demographic group they belong to. At Netflix, we not only have a catalog that meets the needs of these tastes and moods, but we use our technology to ensure we surface the right story to the right person at the right moment.”

Analytics firm, Gallup, reports that economic decision making is 70 percent emotional and 30 percent rational. If classic TV franchises give you “the feels,” Netflix has plenty more shows on the way, including a Death Note live-action film this year and a Lost In Space series in 2018.

‘Syberia’ Creator Talks About Third Game And The Adventurous Spirit Of Series

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Syberia is a steampunk epic centered around the adventures of the main character, Kate Walker, as she travels across Europe and Russia. Beautiful artistry, deep stories, and fantastic elements such as clockwork robots and actual mammoths surviving to the modern era, helped the Syberia franchise emerge as a beloved favorite among the gaming community even at a time when many thought point-and-click puzzle adventure games were going out of style.

It’s been over twelve years since the last game, but fans will be able to continue Kate Walker’s journey when Syberia III launches on April 25 in North America (April 20 in Europe) for PC and console systems, including the Nintendo Switch. Developed and published by French company, Microïds, this will be the first game in the franchise to use full 3D graphics and gameplay, bringing the 20-year-old franchise into a new era. In the third chapter, Kate visits a town called Baranour, which is inspired by the abandoned buildings of Chernobyl, where the remnants of human civilization are taken over by nature.

syberia_photosBenoitSokal_01
Benoît Sokal, author and creator of the Syberia series.

Author, artist and Syberia creator, Benoît Sokal, spoke with [a]listdaily through French translators to discuss making Syberia III after such long break from the previous game, and what he thought drove such an enduring and loving fan base for the series.

When asked to describe the new game, Sokal said that, “Syberia III is a kind of re-visitation of the 20th century in Europe, because people love to travel there. Kate Walker is this symbol of girls traveling around Europe for long periods of time.”

Sokal then talked about some of his inspirations for the game. “I’m very interested in the landscape of the USSR because it’s wonderful and awful at the same time—like Chernobyl,” he said. “When I began to make Syberia III, my first idea was Chernobyl. I think it’s the most amazing place in the world because nature is very beautiful. There are many animals—it’s an explosion of life, despite the radiation. It was once a major city, like a Soviet Disney World. After the explosion, nature took back its rights.”

We asked Sokal if he was trying to invoke a sense of nostalgia for late 20th Century Europe with the new game and how that feeling related to the game. “The feel of Syberia is a mix of the fantastic and nostalgia because, for me, Europe is about nostalgia,” he replied. “Kate Walker is wandering around fantastic places that were inspired by European cities. People in Europe during the 20th Century liked to wander around many cities, and Kate Walker represents them. Syberia is based on an old Europe, so it’s more about wandering than [going on] a quest.”

While on the topic of nostalgia, we asked Sokal if it was difficult to get back into the series, especially since it’s been so long since Syberia II released. “Yes, a little, because it’s not the same technology,” he admitted. “I made two other games after Syberia II—Paradise and Sinking Island, so it wasn’t possible for me to make Syberia III. When I began Syberia III, the technology changed to real 3D, so I couldn’t make in the same way I made the first two. With those games, I drew everything in Photoshop, and that’s not possible with 3D. But what I lose in detail, I gain in gameplay.”

Sokal further commented on the change in technology by stating: “For me, the comparison between the first games and Syberia III is like the steam locomotive and the electric train. The last steam locomotive was very beautiful, but it was the end of one technology.”

We also asked Sokal about his approach for attracting a new audience to the Syberia franchise. “I work with young people,” he said simply. “We have discussions and arguments about what to change, because my vision of Syberia is from 20 years ago. The only way give a fresh look to Syberia is to work with young people.” His son, Hugo Sokal, helped write and design Syberia III, turning the game series into a kind of family legacy.

Sokal also gave us his thoughts about what made Syberia such an enduring brand after 20 years. “I think that it’s emotion,” said Sokal. “I tried to make it a very emotional game because I come from a comic book background, and my idea was to write a story in the same way I do a book, by introducing emotion for the player. The most important things to me are story and emotion. People remember with their hearts, not their brains.” Sokal also added that, “Kate Walker is the link between all the games in the saga. In the beginning, she was very meek, but she has evolved across the games.”

We asked Sokal for his thoughts about how Syberia managed to stand out when many thought that adventure games were in decline. “I think people need a story—a real story—and people need emotion,” he said. “It’s a basic need from the beginning of humanity. Even when everyone has a VR headset and things like that, they will need stories. You can make that with an adventure game, but not really with a sports or action game. For me, adventure games are crafted for stories, and it (the genre) is the child of novels and comics. It’s a very good way to tell stories.”

Given the 20-year history of the series, we asked Sokal what he hoped players would come away feeling after they completed Syberia III. Echoing his previous statement about stirring emotion, the artist said simply that he hoped that players will cry. “If they cry, I have a win,” said Sokal. “It’s not important that if it’s a book or a video game. If people cry at the end of the story, then we have a win.”

Jam City Brings ‘Family Guy’ Fans ‘Another Freakin’ Mobile Game’

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Fox’s irreverent animated TV comedy, Family Guy is starting its 15th season this year, and it seems like fans have an unending thirst for the adventures of Peter Griffin, his family, and his friends. Fortunately, Jam City gave fans another way to enjoy the show with the launch of Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff for mobile devices in 2014.

But surely, there’s more, right? Of course there is. Jam City is serving up another round by officially announcing Family Guy: Another Freakin’ Mobile Game, which will bring an all-new experience for fans as Peter works to save Quahog one drink at a time. Developed in partnership with Fox and Fuzzy Door, the free-to-play match-3 puzzle game launches in the summer, but players can pre-register today on Google Play or the game’s official website.

Jam City co-founder and president, Josh Yguado, spoke with [a]listdaily about some of the new adventures Another Freakin’ Mobile Game will bring and how it maintains the authentic, in-your-face humor of the show.

Josh Yguado, Jam City co-founder and president
Josh Yguado, Jam City co-founder and president

What is Family Guy: Another Freakin’ Mobile Game about?

The backstory is that Peter has been kicked out of the clan and he has come up with a harebrained scheme to start a booze truck—traveling the world to deliver booze to his friends.

How does this game differ from The Quest for Stuff?

The Quest for Stuff was a builder game with a lot of storytelling. We took a little bit of a different tack here, where it’s more of a puzzle- and progression-based title. But it also has a ton of story, jokes and dialogue. In fact, we worked with Fuzzy Door, the original writers on the show. So, it’s a great mix of story, humor, puzzle and progression.

What led Jam City to develop a new Family Guy game?

The first thing is, we absolutely love the brand. We love the rebellious, in-your-face dialogue and positioning of the show. A lot of mobile games right now are very sweet, straightforward, and vanilla. So, we wanted to take this opportunity to create a mobile game that’s much more in-your-face, loud, takes risks and is pretty crude and adult-oriented. It’s taking a risk, but we’re trying to do something very different than what you’re seeing in the market currently.

Do you think Quest for Stuff players will end up moving over to playing the new game, or will they play both at the same time?

By all means, I think Family Guy fans are going to want to play both of them. It’s very different gameplay and completely different stories. If you love the characters, you can have twice as much fun playing both!

To be clear, these two games are not duplicative at all. They’re not sequels. You’ll see that it’s a completely different experience than the original Family Guy game. You’re going to get very different things from Another Freakin’ Mobile Game.

IMG_0232Will there be cross-promotion between the two games?

There will be some. I think there are a lot of big Family Guy fans playing Quest for Stuff, and we’re absolutely going to let them know that there is another fantastic title available. We’re not going to force users to go to the other game or obstruct their progression in any way—but that’s one of the places where there are the most core Family Guy fans, and it would be silly not the cross-promote to them.

How will you be getting the word out about Another Freakin’ Mobile Game?

First of all, there’s a lot of grassroots interest in this game. It’s been several years since the last big Family Guy title came out, and I think fans are excited for something new.

Also, I think the fact that we’re working with the original writers and animators on the Family Guy show has gotten the core fans especially excited. Frankly, I think that if you’re a core fan, you’re doing whatever you can to find out more about Family Guy. People are already talking about and blogging about it, and there’s a lot of buzz about the game. It seems to be happening naturally, so we’re trying to get ahead of it right now by talking to the media—folks who have a megaphone to the marketplace—to let other folks know about it. Eventually, we’ll also do advertising, including television spots to air on Fox along with the show.

How are you working with Fox and Fuzzy Door to maintain the style and humor of the show?

In a couple of ways. We’re working very closely with them. As I mentioned, the original writers of the show are very much in the middle of this development. They love the game and they’ve been involved in writing all the dialogue and working on storylines. There’s a very close connection there.

We’re also working closely with the animators. There’s a very particular style and rules around how the characters can be animated, and what’s authentic to the show. Our number one priority is to make this game 100 percent true to the television show. Everything has been approved and has been worked on by the show’s animators.

What did you learn from releasing The Quest for Stuff about the discovery and promotion of mobile games, and how does it apply to the new title?

I’d say that you’ve got to be authentic to the show. If you try to promote it in a way that is like generic, typical, mobile game app advertising, the Family Guy fans will not react well. We want to do advertising that’s a little quirky, a little off-the-wall, and authentic to what’s in the game from day one, I think you’re going to see some very fun advertising campaigns and media events that are very much true to the brand.

Will there be any cross-promotional events with the show that go beyond commercials?

There are aspects of the game that link back directly to particular episodes. Later on, we’re also going to be announcing some fun collaborations, but I don’t have any details to announce right now.

IMG_0244Family Guy is entering its 15th season. What do you think has kept fans engaged with it for so long?

I think the core concept is amazing. There’s nothing like it on television, so when it launched, it was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. To this day, there’s nothing like it. So, that core originality—there’s nowhere else to get it. I think that’s what makes the show special, and it’s also just a high-quality, humorous show. To me, animated or not, it’s one of the funniest shows on television. That consistent quality has gotten them to where they are today.

The Quest for Stuff launched three years ago. What’s the key to keeping players engaged with a mobile game for that long?

One of the most important things about Quest for Stuff—and frankly, all of our games at Jam City—is that when we put the game out, our work has just begun. We release new content, new events, new characters and new storylines every month. That’s what keeps the game fresh. All of our games are more like television shows than films, in that you can always expect something new showing up week after week. That’s what keeps games successful over years. These are evergreen franchises.

‘Rogue One’ Writer Talks About Expanding ‘Star Wars’ Franchise With VR And Video Games

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Lucasfilm’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first of the Star Wars standalone films, became the seventh highest-grossing film of all time in the US, earning over $530 million at the domestic box office and another $523 million globally. Walt Disney Studios brings the film home on March 24 with Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere, while the Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On-Demand versions will launch on April 4.

Gary Whitta crafted the story for the film with John Knoll, while the subsequent screenplay was written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. Whitta is a former video game journalist who served as editor-in-chief for PC Gamer and also worked as a story consultant for a long list of games, including Prey, Gears of War, Halo 5: Guardians and season one of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead.

“I wish I could tell you the story about me transitioning from one career to another, but fate dealt me this hand,” Whitta said. “I worked as a journalist for many years, and fortunately, I got to work in this business because my other big hobby is movies. I had a very comfortable career in video games and I never really thought about becoming something like a screen writer. But the truth is that I got laid off, so I wanted to try something new. I just started writing screenplays for a year, living on canned soup and noodles before I managed to get some interest in script writing.”

Whitta’s post-apocalyptic screenplay for The Book of Eli was featured in Hollywood’s prestigious “black list” in 2007, which eventually attracted directors Allen and Albert Hughes and actor Denzel Washington. That film was a blockbuster hit, which opened the door to additional screenplays such as M. Knight Shyamalan’s After Earth starring Will Smith. Rogue One is, without a doubt, the biggest film Whitta has worked on to date.

“Some people who know my video game background think that they can identify my scenes in Rogue One,” Whitta said. “There isn’t anything specifically like that, although subconsciously it’s entirely possible.”

For a long time, before Disney acquired the franchise from George Lucas, Star Wars was only available through video games. “The video games, especially Knights of the Old Republic, were great, and that is what helped us get through the time when films were not made,” Whitta said. “It certainly got my Star Wars imagination ticking.”

Whitta’s work in writing video games also came to play when crafting the Rogue One story. “There is a challenge when you write a Telltale game that comes from having to satisfy an interactive audience to hear the story,” Whitta said. “The audience is like another co-writer because they get to make the decisions for the character and they are almost helping to craft the story.”

Whitta also said that ability to make choices is very specific to video games, but creating characters in a story that people care about and making sure that there is enough fun stuff in there and appropriate to the piece is universal whether one’s writing a video game, TV show or movie. But there certainly was a challenge to step back into the original Star Wars universe and craft a compelling story.

“We certainly felt the weight of history on this,” Whitta said. “We were the first to do a standalone film and people weren’t sure what that meant and if they were going to see original Star Wars characters. But at the same time, the fact that we were so closely connected to the original tale, the one that started it all, we did it in such a way that we would tell a story that would change the way that when you go back and watch the first Star Wars film. You would have to look at it in a different way because now you know the events that happened immediately before.”

The other interesting thing about Rogue One is that the audience knows the ending because of Episode IV: A New Hope. Whitta compared this challenge to the scene in Apollo 13 when NASA engineers had to take what was available in the capsule and make something that works out of it.

“We watched the original film and wrote a lot of notes,” Whitta said. “There was a scene in the movie where someone said we have to find a tape, so there had to be a physical tape somewhere in the movie. When Rogue One comes out on Blu-ray we had to make sure when you watch it back-to-back that we don’t shock people with continuity issues.”

Rogue One was also a first to utilize virtual reality designed by ILMxLab to allow filmmakers to explore sets and ships virtually before they were physically built. Whitta worked in the Letterman Digital Arts Center building in San Francisco, which also houses ILMxLab. “(Director) Gareth (Edwards) and I would walk inside the rebel base in virtual reality and he would say things like ‘Can we make this corridor a little bit longer?’ Or ‘can we make sure that this wall can pop off so we can shoot it from the side with the camera?’ And they would say ‘yes.’ So, we walked around the set of the film before it was built, which was incredible.”

Whitta said the tower used in the final fight of the movie wasn’t as tall originally. After checking it out in VR, Edwards asked for it to be raised another 200 feet. And just like that, the VR operator said “hold on” and it rose higher.

Rogue One is also part of Electronic Arts’ Star Wars Battlefront franchise. There’s the X-Wing VR mission, as well as the Scarif DLC.

“I played the original Battlefront around the time when I was working on Scarif (scene) and I remember thinking that there is no way this does not end up in a video game,” Whitta said. “That is not why we did it, but we knew that there was going to be a great space battle.”

Whitta is excited about the potential virtual reality is opening up for storytelling, having played the HTC Vive experience Trials on Tatooine from ILMxLab. “I would like to see them, at some point in the future, opening up VR entirely,” Whitta said. “Time is very limited, but in the future, we will be walking around in Star Wars virtual worlds and starring in our own Star Wars films.”

Disney’s new directive to have all VR, video games, films and television shows to follow the official canon opens up new opportunities. “It is going to be interesting,” Whitta said. “Now everything is under the same roof, every Star Wars film is being made into storytelling. It’s no longer part of the expanded universe where they can do whatever they want. Everything now has to exist economically on the same parameters that are set up by the film.

Beyond that, they are able to do whatever they want. In VR we are getting better at interactive storytelling. The first Star Wars films had more stories. Story is what makes Star Wars great. I don’t want to randomly shoot guys without any context.”

The Rogue Initiative Is Using VR To Launch Larger Entertainment Properties

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The Rogue Initiative has teamed up with director Ilya Rozhkov to launch a new intellectual property. Rozhkov has filmed the first 360-degree short film in the Identity Experience franchise called Agent Emerson, which stars Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass) as the secret agent and Tony Denison (Major Crimes) as The General.

Rozhkov isn’t revealing much about the 360-degree short, which will launch this summer across all VR platforms. But the universe is a James Bond-inspired world of secret agents with lots of action. The first-person perspective story puts players in the role of CIA Operative, David Emerson, who awakens to find himself part of an experimental government program where subjects are under complete remote control by The General. He must fight to retake charge of his own actions and escape the high-security facility with the aid of Alex Emerson.

“We put the audience in Emerson’s eyes and just like the audience, he does not control his own body,” Rozhkov told [a]listdaily. “So, this is the immediate point where the audience relates to the character.”

Getting this unique perspective took some outside-of-the-box thinking. Galaxy Vision created a proprietary stereoscopic VR camera rig custom-engineered for this series called the “IC-Cam” (Identity Capture Camera), which sits on an actor’s head and provides a first-person point-of-view.

“We wanted to do storytelling and take advantage of the narrative virtue that virtual reality provides,” Rozhkov said. “And once the story was written we started asking ourselves how we were going to shoot it. A lot of people thought it would be impossible to shoot it the way we wanted to because there were so many bodies in the field of view and a lot of movement, so we had to make our own camera.”

The 360-degree shoot, which spanned six days of filming Louisiana and Los Angeles, drew inspiration from video games.

“Our department is really inspired by video games,” Rozhkov said. “Agent Emerson provides a variety of story experiences and physical experiences, and one section of the story is very reminiscent of a first-person shooter. One of the big inspirations was the Call of Duty franchise. We analyzed a lot of motion and animation in those video games.”

Rozhkov said the developers at Activision, some of which are now at The Rogue Initiative, spent a lot of time answering questions like: where does a gun go in a first-person shooter for best framing and still look real? He said that expertise helped with this VR project.

Agent Emerson introduces a central hub that will connect to additional VR stories. The second story will expand the 360-degree action from a 12-minute story to 20 minutes.

“The existence of this hub is part of the bigger story,” Rozhkov said. “I don’t want to reveal too much yet because there are different things planned and I don’t want to spoil them for you. But this is the first one and the setup is going to explain everything so that when the next one comes around people will understand what’s going on. Information will be revealed—and each story might seem independent from each other—but in the end, they all together come to form a perfect picture.”

Rozhkov compared the VR series to a traditional analog TV show, where you have the character and the setup that continues but each story is unique to itself. “There is a beginning, middle and end to each story, but the overlapping theme carries on to the next one,” Rozhkov said. “It will be obvious as you go on, but part of the adventure is discovering what that is.”

The Rogue Initiative is taking a transmedia approach with this new IP. Given that 360-degree content still generates a lot of buzz, especially with the millennial audience, content creators can launch something new in VR and then expand from there.

“Agent Emerson is just one character in this universe, and there are other stories that can be told across various mediums as well,” Rozhkov said. “In addition to the VR stories, we’re working to possibly expand this into a TV series and maybe a video game series that can keep on going. Agent Emerson is purely the pilot to set up the Identity Experience.”

Player.me Launches All-In-One Desktop App For Gaming Community

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Player.me is a social community tool for those in the gaming industry, whether they’re players, content creators, developers or audiences. The platform helps them connect with each other to discover content and game that they might be interested in.

Last year, SplitmediaLabs, makers of the XSplit broadcasting software, acquired Player.me was acquired along with the tournament management service, Challonge, and the overlay service, Strexm. The first result of that acquisition was revealed at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in the form of a new Player.me desktop application that streamlines both content discovery and creation.

Sean Fee, chief product officer, SplitmediaLabs
Sean Fee, chief product officer, SplitmediaLabs

“What we’ve built here as a desktop app that integrates everything Player has but with the additional feature set of being able to stream from the app itself and create content,” said Sean Fee, chief product officer at SplitmediaLabs. “It’s a content creation platform with community tools embedded into it.”

The app is divided into three different sections, the first being Connect, where users go to meet with others players and post updates, which are then organized into different feeds. Then there’s Create for making content and Discover for finding streams, videos and other content along with player groups in addition to posting game reviews. Social updates can be cross-posted to other channels such as Facebook, Twitter or Twitch. But Fee explained the benefits of posting to the Player.me platform. “The beauty of Player is that everything is gaming related,” he said. “Anything about gaming goes.”

There are over 50,000 games with their own pages on the platform, and each one is curated by the community, which also creates the custom game pages. Users can also customize their profiles from the desktop app and connect multiple accounts from Twitch, YouTube, Steam and others. “We pull in their game library and their content [into the profile] and we allow them to cross-post to every kind of platform that a gamer might use,” said Fee. “You could put a link on your profile so that users can find you on those other services.”

The streams and videos users find in the Discover section are based on their individual profiles and tastes. However, there is a Featured area that Player.me manually updates with high-quality content. However, the ultimate goal is to build machine learning into the system so that the platform can learn about the users’ interests as they interact with the platform.

“One of the things that we think is a major issue in the market right now is discoverability,” said Fee. “Discoverability is really tough. It’s hard to get noticed as a content creator, game developer or player. So, one of the things that we want to do is help people find what they’re interested as quickly as possible and enhance their overall game experience by having them less spend less time making mistakes in terms of choosing games that don’t suit their personality. We want to make the platform feel personalized. If you’re into anime, it’ll feel like an anime community. If you’re into first person-shooters, it’ll feel like an FPS community. We tailor the experience to the kind of player you are.”

Eventually, users will be able to discover the games and content that best suit them according to criteria such as genre and platform, and the ratings are dynamic according to the user’s profile. Meaning that, if you’re not a big fan of MOBA games, it’ll show scores from people who think similarly. “You’ll be able to see the highest rated first-person shooter for PS4 that suits your personality profile,” Fee explained. The system is still in its early phases, but it will improve with time.

 

Player.me Desktop App - Transparent

Player.me worked with XSplit to bring content creation tools into the application.

“We think that one of the main problems with existing solutions, including XSplit Broadcaster, is that it’s hard to get started,” said Fee. “Creating content is quite a daunting task because you have to buy a bunch of equipment, get the software, and then learn the software. Then you have to start creating your content, and it might look kind of crappy at the start because you don’t have a graphic designer. After all that, you have to try to grow an audience.”

Fee continued by stating, “What we’ve seen over the years is that there’s a high amount of churn—users will usually give up after two or three weeks of streaming because they don’t think they’ve achieved what they thought they would. Or they think it’s too hard to keep on using the software. So, what we’ve built here is the easiest tool to get started with.”

Encouraging a stronger content creation community involves a web-based application, with custom overlays designed by Strexm, which opens opportunities for partnerships. “One of the things that we’d like to do is to work with partners on creating overlays that are themed for events that can have the audience engaged. Fans of certain eSports events can show off their badges for the teams that they support during streams, for example. I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to partner in the eSports space and the developer space for games that are launching. We will definitely be adding some audience engagement elements into this product.”

Once users create a video, all they have to do is edit it using the simple tools inside the app. Additionally, tools are built into the application for easy streaming and automating alerts. With ease-of-use, Player.me hopes to foster growth by targeting specific users.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6m0JKZUkt4

“I think where we are going to see some major growth and traction is in the space of new streamers and the mid-tier streamers who do this casually,” said Fee. “They’re not the hardcore guys who have an expensive rig and separate screens to do advanced stuff. We hope that, at some point, we will develop into that market, but the part that is suffering the most is with the newcomers and people who have been doing it for about six to twelve months but haven’t gotten the support that they need to push their streams to the next level and make it look more professional.”

The Player.me desktop application is currently in closed beta and users can sign up for access. Fee assures users that, “when this thing launches to the public, it’s going to be perfect. Despite it not being under the XSplit brand, it has the reputation of XSplit integrated into it. It gets credibility right away as an XSplit product, and we don’t want to release anything unless it’s top-notch.

We want to help people create content, help them get discovered, and help them connect with each other and have meaningful experiences in gaming. We’re not game developers, but we’re really passionate about the space.”