Our video of the day comes from the streets of Santa Monica and advertises an upcoming music-based game. Which one? We have no idea.
And it’s not because we re distracted. Okay, maybe a little.
The video just advertises a Facebook page for one of the, ahem, models, and we expect all to be revealed soon. Our best guess is Microsoft’s Lips 2 for the holiday season, but does it really matter
Today’s AFK moments comes to us from a cosplayer whose game of choice is the post-apocalyptic Fallout 3.
In the game, you play the protagonist in a nuclear-devastated Washington D.C., surviving through skill, a little bit of luck, and picking up every conceivable item off the charred earth.
The folks at Weekly Geek decided to dress up as the game’s lead character, but decided to outline some instructions for creating your very own Nuke Cola Caps, Med-X and the very important Buffout strength tonic.
Just be careful with those needles.
From eMarketer:
By 2013, marketers will spend a total of $681 million on in-game advertising, up from $403 million in 2008, per eMarketer. During the forecast period, the relative mix of console/PC-based and Web-based advertising will shift slightly toward the latter, with 75 percent of the total spent online in 2013.
eMarketer has an interesting theory regardiung in-game advertising that, while console and PC in-game advertisements will continue to grow ($117 million in 2008 versus a projected $170 million by 2013), browser-based games will show a larger increase of its share ($286 million in 2008 to $511 million in 2013).
They point to the increased acceptance of gamers playing free games in exchange for exposure to advertising, rather than the slower acceptance of seeing ads and product placement in console games they’ve already spent money on.
After playing the free 1 vs. 100 on Xbox Live, we have to wonder if they jumped the gun here. The free-to-play game show has ample advertising from Sprint and Honda, and is now the #7 game being played on Xbox Live.
Not only are the advertisers presented in a way most browser-based games are incapable of doing, but the robust experience has already made this game show crack a top ten notorious for its hardcore Call of Duty, Halo and Gears of War mainstays.
From Ad Age: {link no longer active}
“For brands taking the initiative, it’s paying off. We’re seeing that in the buzz numbers,” he said, citing much-talked-about campaigns such as Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunters” series and KFC’s promotion with Oprah Winfrey. “[The numbers] indicate that those people who are being risk takers have the potential for a big payoff.”
What is the common theme between those two campaigns and other successful ones from brands such as Best Buy? Value, value, value.
These campaigns were initially criticized for focusing too much on the bargains consumers were told they would get with these brands, but it seems like it s paying off.
From IndustryGamers: {link no longer active}
Media giant Viacom has announced its fiscal results for the second quarter ended June 30. From a game industry perspective, the most interesting aspect of this of course ties into MTV Networks, which publishes the popular Rock Band franchise from Harmonix. Sales at the Media Networks division (home to MTV Networks) dropped 8 percent for the period to $1.97 billion. The cause Viacom put most of the blame on “a 41 percent decline in ancillary revenues driven by lower sales of the music video game Rock Band.”
If you thought music games were anything but a fad, you may want to think again.
Music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are already down over 30 percent worldwide, and companies like Viacom and Activision are scratching their heads wondering why their golden goose is feeling sick.
We have a couple of reasons:
– Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour were just not that different from their originals, so why bother upgrading, especially if I can download all the same tunes anyway?
– Gamers are probably feeling a bit burned as they head to Gamestop to trade in their plastic instruments in hopes of upgrading to newer ones, only to find their $100+ purchases reduced to $2 prices.
Can anything stop the bleeding Activision is pinning its hopes on the upcoming hip-hop focused DJ Hero, complete with turntable, while MTV Games is hope The Beatles Rock Band makes the Harmonix deal well worth it.
Time will tell if gamers have already changed their tune. (See what I did there )
Kotaku reports:
U.S. Xbox 360 owners who shell out the 5600 Microsoft Points necessary to net them Splosion Man, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Turtles in Time Re-shelled, Trials HD, and Shadow Complex between now and August 31 will get an extra 800 Microsoft points added to their account, basically cancelling out the price of Splosion Man.
Microsoft is making its push to convert Xbox consumers into regular DLC patrons even stronger with this promotion, which we ve never seen before.
This amounts to gamers spending $80 for virtual goods getting $10 back for their trouble. Anything to get consumers accustomed to a new distribution method, huh?
From The Hollywood Reporter: {link no longer active}
Screenwriter Sheldon Turner is becoming even more “inFAMOUS.”
Sony Pictures has pre-emptively picked up a pitch from Turner to adapt the Sucker Punch Prods. video game into a feature film. The deal is for seven figures.
The studio is working out a deal for rights to the game, which was published by sister company Sony Computer Entertainment.
Avi Arad and Ari Arad will produce. Sony executives Matt Tolmach and Jonathan Kadin are handling for the studio.
Infamous already has a comic book line and soundtrack collection, with games like Assassin’s Creed II and the Halo series following suit with similar multimedia initiatives later this year.
Is this the future of gaming? Buy the game, but don’t forget the comic, DVD series, anime, soundtrack, toothbrush and cereal?
Sorry, Myspace.
Microsoft announced Twitter and Facebook were coming to the Xbox 360 at this year s E3, and Eurogamer is now reporting that heavy work is being done to get the two social platforms enabled by the end of the year.
[Microsoft marketing’s James] Halton did go on to say, “It will be before Christmas.” He added, “A lot of the background work’s been done for a lot of applications that are coming.”
Netflix is already enabled on Xbox 360, and Last.fm should hit by the end of the year, all of which will be important additions to the ever-improving Xbox suite of features.
Meanwhile, Sony has a web browser but no integration on any of these fronts (yet), and the market-leading Nintendo Wii can hardly get an online game to play well. Connecting with the connected demographic is getting away from these two companies as Microsoft looks to steal away even more of their free time.
Special editions used to be special, but then marketing and development costs for these games reached all new highs. What’s an honest publisher to do? Overcharge for a bunch of plastic, of course!
Activision just showed off its special edition of the upcoming DJ Hero, and there are two major differences. First, you get a Jay-Z/Eminem CD with a bunch of unreleased (for now) tracks. Secondly, you get a nicer turntable controller complete with a case that turns into a stand.
The regular edition of the game will retail for $120, but no price has been announced for this pack.
We have to ask: is anyone else afraid of this trend of more and more upsells or a potential consumer backlash, or is this par for the course now
Evony is a free-to-play browser-based MMO with a banner campaign that harkens back to the ubiquity of those annoying X10 webcam ads of yesteryear.
The ads, analyzed recently by Jeff Atwood, have a very particular style, and one that’s become a bit more, shall we say, male-targeted in recent months.
Now the folks at PopCap are taking the bet that you ve seen these ads, and will get the joke they’re making with a new web advert for Plants Versus Zombies.
If you’ve seen Evony before, this is very funny. If not, you can at least appreciate the long shot laugh they’re going for. Reminds us of that Slap Chop video we posted yesterday.
