Live Gamer’s Latest Coup: EA

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Live Gamer announced that EA has selected them to power their micro-transactions. Live Gamer’s Elements micro-transaction platform will be integrated with its global IT systems and augment its existing e-commerce capabilities for EA studios worldwide.

“We selected Live Gamer due to its unique e-commerce functionality and payment methods which will augment EA’s current e-commerce capabilities,” said Dennis Self, EA’s Chief Information Officer. “With that, EA is committed to its efforts to enable global online gaming capabilities, and Live Gamer provides us with additional capabilities to do that.”

“EA is synonymous with some of the most popular video games of all time. EA has also embraced and innovated new business models in the game industry since its pioneering efforts in online gaming and now extending to their entrance into social gaming,” said Andrew Schneider, President and Co-Founder, Live Gamer. “We are honored to be part of EA’s efforts to further evolve the industry and offer gamers new and exciting online experiences.”

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Playdom Talks Waxing And Waning Of Social Games

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There have been a spate of social gaming acquisitions over the past year or so. Despite the fact that Playdom CEO John Pleasants has snapped up seven smaller developers in the past year, he thinks that purchases like that will slow down.

“If you go back 18 months [and look at who] were making the top 25 games on Facebook, there were 14 indie companies. Today, that number is five,” said Pleasants. “There are 250,000 apps on Facebook. There are 250 games launching a day on Facebook. It is very difficult for small companies to break in. It s near impossible. And in that context, the deals are cheaper. We are at a scale now where we are comfortable. I don t think you will see a continued pace of acquisitions.”

He thinks that social gaming is still in an early stage and will expand out to five major companies like Playdom and Zynga. “We still hustle, said Pleasants. We don t feel like we are winning the race. I don t think any one company wins the race. I think a handful of companies will be in the front pick. There will be an A list, and we want to be firmly in the pack.”

Pleasants is, overall, hopeful about the market and expects it to be worth a few billion dollars in five years. “We are in a race. There is a sense of urgency,” he said. “I am as bullish as ever. In the West, it will go from a $1 billion market to a $5 billion market in the next four or five years. It s a very fast growing business.”

Source: VentureBeat

Blizzard Denies $100 Million StarCraft II Pricetag

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Recently, a report came out that StarCraft II cost over $100 million to develop. Blizzard has come out to refute that number, though they have not said just how much it does cost.

“Activision Blizzard Inc. hasn’t disclosed development costs for its Starcraft II videogame,” the Wall Street Journal disclosed. “A July 16 article incorrectly said the company spent more than $100 million to develop the game; that figure referred to its World of Warcraft game.”

Darkseid Comes To Smallville

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Smallville is returning for a tenth and final season, and the final villain will be appropriately epic. The producers revealed that major DC baddie Darkseid will send off the long running Superman series.

Star and executive produer Tom Welling will be directing again, as will Justin Hartley. Erica Durance will also be appearing in every episode in Season 10.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Gears Of War Shifts Movie Towards District 9

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The original Gears of War movie project went off the tracks earlier this year when director Len Wiseman left the project. Now, Epic designer Cliff Bleszinski indicates that the whole project might start over again from scratch.

Apparently, the first script for the movie was like 2012 over the top action and CG. What Bleszinski describes the new approach as is more like District 9, the acclaimed sci-fi production from a production crew that was, ironically, originally going to make the Halo movie.

Source: The Movie Pool

Mark Ruffalo Will Smash As Hulk

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After a presentation for Captain America and Thor, Marvel rolled out the main cast for the anticipated Avengers movie. Among them was Mark Ruffalo, who was confirmed to be the new Hulk.

Samuel Jackson introduced the initial Avengers cast, including Robert Downey Jr. The man who would be Iron Man then asked if anyone had seen Inception.

That was the most ambitious movie I ve ever seen, he said. Then I thought: Wait a Goddamned minute. Marvel is going to take all of their top superheroes and put them together in one movie. THAT is the most ambitious movie ever.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell Keynoting [A]list Summit

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Next week, August 4-6, at the beautiful Westin Verasa Napa in California, Ayzenberg Group will be hosting its third annual [a]list summit. This year, the theme will be CCCP – Content, Conversation, Conversion, Participation. These are all keys to effective video game marketing, especially in this new world of social networking. The summit will focus on how best to market games in this brave new world.

Presentations will include David Perry’s (Gaikai) talk on cloud gaming, the ESRB’s pointers on content approval, a discussion on 3D gaming, best practices for leveraging Facebook, how to sell digitally, and more. And to highlight the event, the summit will be capped with a special keynote from Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, who recently rejoined the publisher’s Board.

“From the early days of Atari and the beginnings of the videogame industry to revolutionary Chuck E. Cheese and back again to Atari, Nolan Bushnell has had a unique and amazing career. Hear the insights of a pioneer who remains a leading force in our industry,” reads the event page.

Stay tuned to [a]listdaily next week for coverage if you can’t make it out to Napa.

Check out the event page for more information.

Michael Jordan Slams It Home In NBA 2K11

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Part of the incorporation of Michael Jordan into NBA 2K11 is the The Jordan Challenge, letting players have the chance to try and live up to the legacy of His Airness in 10 different legendary games. As a teaser, 2K Sports unveiled this teaser trailer with the first in-game footage of Jordan in action.