IPhone Leads Mobile Ad Impressions, Says Millennial

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Millennial Media issued a report called Mobile Mix that found that 56 percent of the impressions on the company’s mobile ad network were on Apple devices in June. The number of ads served to Apple devices also went up 36 percent month-over-month

Android devices saw a 23 percent increase in ad servings month-over-month. Millennial also noted that Android has benefited from significant momentum, having increased 439 percent since January. Android, which generated 11 percent of overall impressions, was third behind BlackBerry devices, which accounted for 17 percent of impressions.

Millennial Media also noted that iPad ad impressions jumped by 206 percent month-over-month in June.

Source: AdWeek

The Wii Games Begin

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Shawn Johnson helped kick off the Wii Games event today at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. The Olympic medalist and Dancing With the Stars winner participated in a parade featuring her, Mario and a marching band.

“The games will start and people will start competing,” said Johnson.

From now until mid August, there will be Wii Games competitions for prizes like games and home entertainment systems, which will occur “at a bunch of events in malls and Six Flags [amusement parks] around the country, says Johnson. Otherwise if they can’t get to an event, they can go online and enter a lottery for a chance to also a part of the final L.A. championship. You can go. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

To find out more, please visit www.wiigames2010.com.

Source: USA Today

OnLive CEO Talks Advertising

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OnLive is one of the more intriguing start ups that might have a major impact on gaming in the near future. As it turns out, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman thinks the platform has a lot of potential for advertisers as well.

We can have games that are ad-supported. We can also have games that are supported as some kind of promotion related to a product, said Perlman. Say someone has a car that they’re selling and they want to promote the new antilock brakes, they might have a driving game that plays instantly. OnLive is delivered through browsers, and it can run as an executable, and it can also be delivered through apps through cell phones or tables, or integrated into consumer electronic devices. We showed it at E3 working on iPads, iPhones, and on Android devices, and of course on the MicroConsole to the TV. You’ll see OnLive built into TV’s, and you’ll see OnLive built into set-top boxes.

As far as having embedded ads in Web sites, a lot of people run OnLive from their desktop, but a lot of people will connect to the service from the OnLive Web page, he continued. It should be pretty obvious that it’s easy for us to embed a link in a Web page that makes a game run. The reason we haven’t done that yet is we’ve been paddling as fast as we can as far as the basic service.

You will see in time Web pages that people can just click on a link and they instantly play a game, but there are other alternatives, he detailed. If you finish a 30-minute demo in the OnLive service, for example, we can include a link to download the game, maybe in partnership with Steam or Direct2Drive, or maybe with the publisher itself. Then there will be another option to refer to GameStop or Amazon, or Toys R Us, which would either tell you what store has the thing in stock or has a used copy of it, or you can buy it directly.”

Source: CNet

Kinect Experience Touring Country

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Microsoft announced that it will let fans around the country try out Kinect during a nationwide tour. Called the Kinect Experience mobile demo tour, the event will start November 4 and run over 14 weeks; it will, be stopping in 32 cities across North America.

Kinect Experience Mobile Demo Tour (Dates subject to change)

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East Coast:

July 17-18 Manhattan, NY Macy’s

July 20-22 East Falmouth, MA Barnstable County Fair

Seaport-Lower Manhattan

July 24-25 Manhattan, NY Entertainment Area

July 28-Aug. 1 Washington, DC Six Flags America

Football Hall of Fame – Rib

Aug. 4-6 Canton, OH Burnoff

Football Hall of Fame Festival

Aug. 7-8 Canton, OH Weekend

Aug. 11-15 Chicago, IL Air Show/Navy Pier

Woodward Dream Cruise – Auto

Aug. 19-21 Detroit, MI Festival

Aug. 26-30 St. Paul, MN Minnesota State Fair

Westfield Citrus Park Shopping

Aug. 30-Oct. 24 Tampa, FL Mall

Sept. 3-6 Indianapolis, IN Rib America Festival

Sept. 10-13 Nashville, TN Tennessee State Fair

Atlantic Station – Entertainment

Sept. 15-16 Atlanta, GA Plaza

Sept. 18-19 Atlanta, GA Atlanta Arts Festival

Sept. 23-26 Charlotte, NC Festival in the Park

Oct. 1-2 Orlando, FL Disney Wine and Dine Marathon

Oct. 8-10 Valdosta, GA Wild Adventures Theme Park

Oct. 14-17 Dallas, TX Texas State Fair

Oct. 21-24 Shreveport, LA Louisiana State Fair

 

West Coast:

July 15-Aug. 22 Minneapolis, MN Mall of America

July 25-26 San Diego, CA Youth Surf Cup – Soccer

July 28-Aug. 1 Sacramento, CA California State Fair

Aug. 6-8 Portland, OR Bite of Oregon Food Festival

Aug. 10-11 Seattle, WA Woodland Park Zoo

Aug. 13-15 Seattle, WA Taste of Edmonds – Food Festival

Aug. 19-22 Vancouver, BC Summerfest

Aug. 27-Sept. 1 Pueblo, CO Colorado State Fair

Sept. 3-6 Denver, CO Elitch Gardens

Sept. 9-12 Albuquerque, NM New Mexico State Fair

Sept. 16-19 Salt Lake City, UT Utah State Fair

Sept. 24-26 Los Angeles, CA Universal City Walk

Oct. 1-3 San Diego, CA Miramar Air Fest

Fleet Week – Military Ship and

Oct. 7-11 San Francisco, CA Air Festival

Oct. 15-17 Phoenix, AZ Arizona State Fair

Oct. 20-24 Las Vegas, NV PBR World Finals

Visit facebook.com/kinect for more information.

PlayStation Move: Three Ways To Purchase

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Sony has recently unveiled three bundles for the PlayStation Move. Sony is hopeful to meet the needs of everyone who wants the motion controller, regardless of how much or how little they have right now hardware-wise.

For those that lack a PS3 entirely, there’s the PlayStation 3 Sports Champion Move Bundle that will come with a PS3 system, a Move controller, a PlayStation Eye Camera, Sports Champions game on and a PlayStation Move game demo disc for $399. For those that have just a PS3 (probably the majority of consumers likely to pick this up) there’s the PlayStation Move Bundle with everything that the above bundle has, save a PS3, for $99. Finally, for those that have a PS3 and the PlayStation Eye, a singular Move controller can be bought for $49.99.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Oddworld Returns

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Just Add Water has announced that they have been working with developer Oddworld Inhabitants for the past year. While no specific details were announced, they did say they are working on multiple projects, across multiple platforms.

To work with the team at Oddworld has been amazing; being able to tap the minds of Lorne Lanning, Sherry McKenna and others has been fantastic, said Just Add Water’s Managing Director Stewart Gilray. “It s almost symbiotic in that when something moves forward on any of the projects we just start chatting about new items, or what if we do this. We’re all extremely excited to breathe life into the Oddworld universe and indeed to let it breathe life into us.

Source: jawltd.com

Apple Offers Free Bumpers For IPhone 4

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a presentation on Friday where he said that the reception issues of the iPhone 4 have been “blown way out of proportion. Still, he said that all owners will receive a free rubber bumper case to address the issue; everyone who has already bought a case will receive a refund.

“We’re not perfect; phones aren’t perfect,” Jobs said. “We want to make all our users happy.”

The iPhone 4 has already set Apple sales records, having sold 3 million units so far. Jobs called the phone “our best product ever despite the issues.

“It’s not like Apple has had its head in the sand on this,” Jobs said. “It’s only been 22 days.”

Despite the positive response from many users, the reception issues have been a sore spot, leading Consumer Reports to give the phone a “can’t recommend” rating. Apple responded with the presentation by Jobs, who noted that returns for the iPhone 4 have been just 1.7 percent and that the difference in dropped calls between the iPhone 4 and 3GS was less than one call per 100.

Source: CNN

Sony Resolves PS3 Shortages, Reports 11 Months Of Growth

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Sony has indicated that the hardware shortages that had been dogging the PS3 since the holidays have finally been resolved. Also, the company says that PS3 hardware unit sales are up 85 percent since June 2009 and 42 percent since January 2010, having seen 11 straight months of hardware growth.

“Video games are fueling new innovation for the entire consumer entertainment category and today’s numbers are a testament to the big impact we’ll play this holiday. In just the back half of this year, PlayStation will be offering groundbreaking experiences in 3D and new motion control games with PlayStation Move, and we’re already providing rich streaming content options such as Hulu Plus, MLB.TV, and Netflix, stated Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications at SCEA. With a healthy flow of PS3s back in the channel, and eleven months of PS3’s consecutive growth behind us, we’re confident the PS3 will become the main entertainment hub for many new consumers this year and provide countless reasons to congregate in the living room.

FrontierVille Third Among Zynga Titles

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FrontierVille has become the third most popular game from Zynga. The Facebook game publisher claims the game has passed 20 million users in only a month.

Zynga says that FrontierVille is only just behind FarmVille and Zynga Poker and has already outpaced much more established titles like Treasure Isle and Cafe World. Zynga also indicates that 6.3 million FrontierVille users have built cabins and 3.3 million have created general stores.

Source: PaidContent.org

Assassin’s Creed Comic Set In Russia

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Ubisoft has unveiled a new three-issue mini-series comic book with illustrators Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl. The Assassin’s Creed project is part of UbiWorkshop’s transmedia efforts, and will concentrate on the mysterious Tunguska Event in Russia. Check out the video below, which teases the project as a period news reel.