Facebook Gears Its New Dash For Games And Apps

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Facebook has launched a new version of its dashboard geared to facilitate accessing games and apps, reports VentureBeat. The social media net has redesigned its dashboard to give developers a platform where they can promote their apps and games, and a place where users can manage what they re playing and find new content. Facebook’s game platform manager Gareth Davis said the move is indicative of how the company recognizes the popularity of apps on the network is and is hoping to give them the same kind of visibility it does for photos and events. VentureBeat has a screenshot and a brief description of the new dashboard s features.

‘Avatar’ Set To Pass ‘Titanic’

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James Cameron’s Avatar has come within a tendril of the top grossing film of all time.  As reported in the Hollywood Reporter, the film is now within easy reach of beating domestic and worldwide sales records set in 1997 by another Cameron epic, Titanic. The Reporter says Avatar came out of the weekend ranked number one domestically for the sixth week in a row, raking up $36 million for a total $553 million in the US.  It s now only about $48 million shy of domestic box office sales for Titanic, and with audiences still attending in record numbers according to distributor Twentieth Century Fox. The film is even closer to beating the worldwide box office record, coming within about $2 million of Titanic after this weekend’s total tally of $1.841 billion. It has already set the international box office record, besting Titanic by about $50 million with $1.29 billion.

 

Read more at Hollywood Reporter.

User Content Key To Music Game Growth, Say Developers

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Developers Harmonix and Neversoft have spoken to Edge Magazine about the slumping music game genre, with an excerpt of their interview appearing in Edge-Online. Head of Harmonix Alex Rigopulos, maker of the Rock Band series published by MTV Games, has told the outlet that the music game category was hurt by the recession in 2009. He said the high price point of instrument bundles needed by new adopters hindered sales. He added that he doesn’t think the genre has peaked and that future titles will surpass sales set by their predecessors.  Neversoft’s Brian Bright, project director for Guitar Hero games published by Activision, disagreed with his colleague on sales growth. Bright said it s a tall order for any title to match sales of the genre’s record-setting Guitar Hero III, also ranked by NPD Group as the second bestselling console title of all time in the US. Both developers agreed on some aspect of user-created content as key to growth for the genre, but differed in views on what the user-centric experience means. Rigopulos pointed to his company’s Rock Band Network as the next defining moment” for the evolution of the genre. He said the network enables user content by “power-users,” essentially the community of musicians who can use it to provide new content. Bright said that future music games need to empower all users with content creation, making a game out of the ability to make tracks as well as play them back as rhythm games.

 

Read more at Edge-Online.

Sega Partners With UK Theme Park

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Sega has struck a three-year deal with popular UK amusement park Alton Towers, reports MCV via an official press release. As part of the deal, the park is planning on rolling out attractions based on Sonic The Hedgehog that includes a rollercoaster called Sonic Spinball and a themed hotel room. The press release says the hotel room will allow guests to “live, sleep and even play the latest games from the Sonic franchise. The park will launch both Sega-themed attractions on Feb. 13, 2010.

 

Read more in the press release.

Ad Age Viral Video Chart For Week Of Jan. 11

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Ad Age lists the top 10 viral videos for the week of Jan. 11.

 

Half of the chart is new this week. The five rookie entries are topped by a long form ad from LEGO’s Cl!ck campaign, in at number two with more than 876,000 views. Right below it is another debut, a stunt video for Ray Ban sunglasses that pulled in about 845,000 views. Coca-Cola enters the chart at number six with its own stunt viral, getting about 418,000 people to watch the latest entry in its feel good about sugar water short film genre. Nokia placed seventh with a video from its crowd sourced Offline as it Happens campaign, getting just under 410,000 views. Last, and as Ad Age makes it known least in their book, is Axe deodorant’s Clean Your Balls viral. We laughed, and likely so did the majority of the 375,000 people who watched it.

 

Evian’s eerie babies are still at number one, getting nearly 1.3 million views for the week.

 

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.

 

 

‘Mass Effect 2’ Trailer Roundup

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GameTrailers gives the Red Carpet Trailer treatment to EA and developer BioWare’s Mass Effect 2. It’s a nifty device for the video site, giving it a chance to get mileage out of existing content and drive some eleventh hour buzz for a game nearing release. One of the best parts of these montages is how each segment featuring a new trailer has a title page listing the number of views it pulled on GameTrailers. The site had put together a similar video for Ubisoft’s Assassin s Creed II.

 

Watch it at GameTrailers.

Atari’s Trek Into Social Media

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Writing for ClickZ, Christopher Heine looks at the social media push Atari has implemented to promote its massively multiplayer game Star Trek Online. The multi-faceted effort is harnessing online nets Twitter and Facebook, enlisting a non-endemic partner in Del Taco, and even executing a PR style campaign vying for earned media among MMO sites and Star Trek communities. Heine talks to Atari marketing head Jonathan Anastas about specific initiatives. In the interest of disclosure, Anastas also manages a plug for your the[a]listdaily provider Ayzenberg Group, which is among agencies executing on Atari’s campaign.

 

Read the article at ClickZ.

Op-Ed: Online Games And Licensed IP

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Writing for Industry Gamers, Alex St. John pens a piece on whether licensed IP helps online games. St. John is co-founder and former head of online game developer WildTangent, and currently leads online social gaming net hi5. He argues that online games don t necessarily need the power of a known brand to gain an audience.

 

Read the article at Industry Gamers.

Crispy Gamer Shutters Editorial

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Barely two-year old game news outlet Crispy Gamer has effectively shut down its editorial department. Joystiq reports that the site s entire editorial staff has been laid off. CEO Chris Heldman has also resigned in protest. The staff affected reads like a roster of game journalism stalwarts, including former Joystiq staffer Kyle Orland and consumer press connected writers Scott Jones and Evan Narcisse. Others include managing editor Elise Vogel, chief marketing officer Anne Mischler, and staffers John Teti, Ryan Kuo, James Fudge. Crispy Gamer co-founder John Keefer had left the site last September to join game blog GamePolitics. Crispy Gamer had acquired internet game community site GamerDNA in December.  GamerDNA head Jon Radoff had commented at the time that the union was part of very ambitious plans to build a media company around the gaming market. Joystiq says the layoffs likely show that an editorial component is not part of the media mix. The site adds that Radoff was not aware of the staff cuts when he was contacted for comment. Read more at Joystiq.

Marketers Boosting Social Media Spends

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Marketing firm Alterian has conducted a survey showing that a great majority of marketers will invest in social media in 2010, with nearly half shifting over a significant portion of their direct marketing budget. As reported in Washington Post, the firm surveyed 1,068 marketing professionals who were primarily based in North America and Europe. It found that 66 percent will invest marketing dollars in social media campaigns this year. Within that set, 40 percent said they would be shifting more than one-fifth of their direct marketing budget to social net outreach. In other results reported by the outlet, Alterian’s survey showed 36 percent are investing in social media monitoring tools, and that 51 percent are moving away from campaign-centric direct marketing to embrace customer engagement through multiple channels.

 

Read more at Washington Post.