Developer A2M and 505 Games have released this trailer for their cartoon violence action game Naughty Bear. From the looks of it, the game makers have taken a page from Rare’s classic Conker series. Granted these aren’t the gun-toting Tediz from those games, but seriously is there a more culturally relevant reference to evil Teddy Bears to draw from Any dark satire involving Teddy Ruxpin doesn’t count.
Watch it at Joystiq.
Writing for Industry Gamers, James Brightman talks to EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich on how Nintendo markets franchises and sequels to its casual audience on Wii and DS. Divnich argues that as Microsoft and Sony start to vie for the same casual market, they might learn lessons from Nintendo’s approach.
Read the article at Industry Gamers.
Writing for 24/7 Wall Street, Garrett W. McIntyre with Phil MacDonald look at how much potential revenue app makers are losing to piracy on Apple mobile devices. The pair come to a massive estimate by talking to developers, analysts, and even one operator of a renegade app site for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches. They also tap these third party sources to pepper the article with plenty of data on the devices, the kind Apple won’t release.
Read more at 24/7 Wall Street.
The Marketing Student David Fallarme has a unique take on consumer culture, giving a glimpse at the major global and homegrown brands that vie for Chinese consumers attention.
Check it out The Marketing Student.
Shack News lists this week s videogame releases.
Capcom’s rocket-fueled action game Dark Void headlines this week, soloing as the only new release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Also notable is PlayStation 2 and PSP getting Konami’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which first appeared on Wii. Meanwhile Wii owners can get their retro on with the sure-to-be nifty but oh-so-niche Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection, or perhaps look forward to next week.
Check out the full list at Shack News.
Nintendo has partnered with retail giant Target on an extensive store promotion pushing Wii Fit Plus, reports Blast. The promo puts in-store demo stations for the game, along with outdoor kiosks at select locations, at Target stores throughout the US. Nintendo US marketing head Cammie Dunaway positioned the push for the fitness game as a New Year’s resolution themed campaign. Blast says the promo started last weekend and runs through the end of this month. Read more at Blast.
A Disney survey of young children in six Europe territories has uncovered gaming as the most popular internet activity, reports Cream. Disney conducted a survey of slightly more than 3,000 children aged 8-14 in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland. It found that nearly 80 percent spend the majority of their time online playing games. The second most popular activity was homework, with 59 percent of respondents saying it s why they commonly use the web. When it came to communicating with friends, nearly a third said they preferred face-to-face over digital. Texting was preferred among 15 percent of respondents, followed by chatting online among fourteen percent. About ten percent said they would rather use their mobile phones. Read more at Cream.
Hasbro has taken a stake in Discovery Kids network with plans to re-brand the channel and add programming based on its toys, reports Washington Business Journal. According to the news outlet, Hasbro spent $300 million to buy 50 percent of the network from Discovery Communications. The companies have formed a joint venture that will see it re-launched as The Hub this fall and feature programming based on Hasbro s lines of toys and games. Washington Business Journal says shows are already in the works based on Transformers, Tonka, G.I. Joe and My Little Pony. Discovery Kids is estimated to reach 60 million households in the US. Read more at Washington Business Journal.
Ad Age lists the top 10 viral videos for the week of Jan. 4.
The chart s new entries are topped by a video for Starbucks AIDS charity Love Project. The video featuring clip after clip of people from the around the world singing The Beatles All You Need Is Love has a lot of replay value. That could be why it debuts at number three with nearly 748,000 views. Right below it is another debut, a spoof of Saturday Night Live pushing Apple culture from Mac software maker Parallels. It has a little more than 721,000 views. The other two new videos hit closer to the bottom of the chart. DieHard batteries roped in entertainer Reggie Watts for worthy viral fare, getting 409,000 views. And from the underappreciated ad genre of legendary product meets low end ad production value, the spot for Booty Pop entered the chart at number eight with about 295,000 views.
As for games, Microsoft has to be thrilled about the video for Natal. It s not just lingering mid-chart this week. Ad Age highlights it as the week s power mover, surging to number two with about 885,000 views. The outlet credits Microsoft s announcement at CES that the motion controller is coming to Xbox 360 this year.
Ad Age’s chart includes number of views for the week and percentage change in views for videos that stayed on the chart. The list is compiled by Visible Measures.
Check out the full list and watch the videos at Ad Age.
Writing for Industry Gamers, James Brightman picks through NPD game sales figures for Dec. and wrapping up 2009. The report shows declines in nearly all major game categories for the year, although sales still managed to nudge past $20 billion to become the industry’s second best on record.
Read the article at Industry Gamers.
