Netflix has announced that it will be launching its first international opperations into Canada. This will allow Canadians to see streaming movies and TV shows on their TVs via console streaming or their PCs.
This announcement also coincides with the company’s first streaming-only service promotion. While the Netflix Canadian service is currently limited to English, French support is expected over time.
To find out more, visit www.netflix.ca.
As a surprise to absolutely no one, Microsoft today announced that the Kinect motion camera will retail for $149.99. There will also be a hardware bundle including Kinect featuring an Xbox 360 with 4GB of internal memory that will retail for $299. Both the console bundle and the stand-alone Kinect will come with a copy of Kinect Adventures.
Kinect for Xbox 360 offers tremendous entertainment value for the whole family, said Dennis Durkin, Xbox 360 chief operating officer. With full body, voice and the ability to play games with your friends right out of the box, Kinect is the most unique, complete and affordable way for everyone to enjoy controller-free fun and entertainment.
15 Kinect games will be available at launch for the price of $49.99. Titles will include Kinectimals, Kinect Sports, Kinect Joy Ride and Harmonix’s Dance Central.
Nielsen says that over 10 million videos were streamed in the U.S. in June. This represents a 1.3 percent increase over the same period last year and a 4 percent jump over May.
The time spent watching video also rose over last year by 3.1 percent and 2.5 percent over last month. YouTube was tops among video services in terms of unique viewers and number of streams, with sites like Yahoo, Hulu and Microsoft entities following.
This news should be encouraging to those who are expecting online video ads to expand rapidly.
Source: Ad Week
The recent film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li was a critical and commercial flop, reinforcing the opinions of many about movies based around game franchises. Still, Capcom vice president of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson is hopeful for the future of the franchise.
Let’s just say there were a lot of people with different ideas as to what was the best route to take with that movie, described Svensson. A path was chosen, a result was had. I think there are some learnings internally that we’ve taken away from that experience. I think you’ll see some clever live-action stuff that will excite our fans at some point in the future, based on Street Fighter. Let’s just say that the book is not yet done on Street Fighter film and video projects. Hopefully we get one right sometime in the future. There are more projects in the works.
When asked how Capcom was looking to view its properties, Svensson cited another media brand. I think if you ask Haruhiro Tsujimoto, who’s our COO and President in Japan, the model he s always put forward to us is the Marvel model, described Svensson. That is, Marvel’s business was comic books, but they have branched out and become a pop culture media company. I think that’s really the ultimate goal for Capcom in the long term. I don’t think it’s an easy path. It’s not an immediate path where this is going to happen, but we already do content expansion through a variety of media — novels, comics, and soundtracks. All of that fun stuff expands and adds to the universe. We’ve done a fair number of motion pictures, both large and small. We’ve had other motion picture projects in development for a very long period of time Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Dark Void — some of which may come out, some of which never may see the light of day. That’s just the way Hollywood works. The goal is to be everywhere with your brand. Have your brand touch as many people as possible, but still be true to the fans ideally.
Source: GamerLive.tv
Electronic Arts and 38 Studios have announced the official name of Project Mercury as Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The single player RPG features a fantasy world created by best-selling author R. A. Salvatore, visual style from artist Todd McFarlane and is being developed by Elder Scrolls III and IV lead designer Ken Rolston.
Reckoning is a great representation of how a team of incredibly talented and creative people with expertise in different areas can come together and complement each other so well, said Jen MacLean, CEO of 38 Studios. We are thrilled to be developing an open-world RPG under the leadership of one of the greatest RPG designers in the industry, with creative direction by one of the most iconic artists of our time, set in a rich universe imagined by one of the top fantasy genre authors in the world. We can’t wait to share the first details of this universe we have been so dedicated to building over the past few years.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a single-player RPG, which will be the focus of a Comic-Con discussion that will include McFarlane, Rolston, and Salvatore, along with 38 Studios Founder and Chairman Curt Schilling. Those who are lucky enough to attend will see the game’s first trailer and receive a limited edition collectible poster designed by McFarlane. The panel will take place from 1:15 PM 2:15 PM in room 6A and will feature Spike TV’s Geoff Keighley as a moderator.
“In Reckoning, we started with Bob and Todd’s exceptional Kingdoms of Amalur game setting and imagery,” said Ken Rolston, Lead Designer at Big Huge Games, a subsidiary of 38 Studios. “On that foundation we built the open-world exploration, vast narrative and character customization fans expect from the best RPGs. And we’ve added something new that we’ve always wanted from the genre — a fast-paced, graphically stimulating action combat experience with fluid control and immersive, discoverable gameplay fans haven’t seen before in other fantasy RPGs.”
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced that they have opened DC Universe Online beta registration. Those who are interested should visit www.dcuniverseonline.com and click on the beta registration link.
Additionally, a Collectors Edition of DC Universe Online was announced which will have a statue of the Batman conceptualized by Jim Lee, a limited edition Art of DCUO book and limited edition DC Universe Online: Legends Issue #0 comic with a variant cover by Jim Lee. Also, those who pre-order will have access to in an exclusive two-on-two PvP combat arena with Batman, with some participating retailers including the limited edition comic with pre-orders and other retailers offering a unique in-game iconic weapon for player characters.
A fan trailer to a God of War movie has been made, but it isn’t quite what you might think. Like a cross between God of War and Napoleon Dynamite, this very well done fan parody shows great love for the source material while also poking fun at it.
Red Bull ads have always been a little raunchy, but a couple have been too hot for TV. Even friendly euphemisms like gentleman’s club weren’t enough to get this aired in the U.S.
While The Last Airbender has fared all right at the box office, the kung-fu action film (both written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan) has been castrated by critics. The first attempt by Shyamalan to salvage his reputation as a writer will come in an intriguing thriller set in an elevator called Devil.
MTV Games today announced various pre-order offers for Rock Band 3. The game will be available on October 26, 2010 for the PS3, DS, Wii and Xbox 360.
Those who pre-order from GameStop will receive the downloadable songs Burning Down the House by Talking Heads, My Own Summer by Deftones, and Blue Monday by New Order. Wal-Mart pre-orders for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 version will receive a $10 eGift card while Amazon pre-orders will see $10 off a future game purchase for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, along with an exclusive in-game guitar for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 versions.
