Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Sponsoring MCM Expo

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Ubisoft announced that it is teaming up with the MCM Expo. They will be showing off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood during the October event as an official sponsor, wherein they will promote the event and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will have banners, special activities ad demo stations at the October event.

Partnering with MCM Expo is yet another way to bring Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood to life, create positive word of mouth in the run-up to release and ensure the game is front of mind, said Ubisoft brand manager Jan Sanghera. We have always supported MCM Expo in the UK and it s encouraging to see it growing in popularity year-on-year. The event brings together many forms of entertainment such as film, video games, comics and anime, providing visitors with the opportunity to experience everything under one roof.

From our perspective, it s about ensuring Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is seen as an essential part of this entertainment mix, added Sanghera. It s a fun environment, and will provide visitors the chance to engage and interact with the brand.

MCM Expo will take place from October 29 -31 at London s ExCeL Centre.

Source: MCV

Kinect Sports Facebook Q&A

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Rare has arranged a Q&A for Kinect Sports for the Facebook community. Web Producer Mike Wilson takes on the form of an Xbox 360 avatar in this video that lends visual context to some of the questions asked.

Norton Presents: Lundgren Vs. Unicorn

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Norton continues their series of comical security videos by pitting Dolph Lundgren against a Unicorn. The options recreate events with plastic toys from the ’80s . . .

 

Blackberry Gets A New Ad Platform

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Research in Motion recently announced that they are launching a new advertising service. The maker of Blackberry is allowing ads in apps where it’s relevant, enabling developers to connect with ads and ad networks like Amobee, Jumptap, Lat49, Millennial Media and Mojiva and receive 60 percent of the revenue.

“This new advertising service not only brings new channels of revenue to our developer community, but also provides them with a single relationship through RIM to simplify the commercial and technical complexity of mobile advertising,” said Alan Brenner, SVP of BlackBerry Platform for Research in Motion. “We also feel that it is important that agencies and brands have full control of the creative process and have worked to provide features in the SDK that will allow them to bring dynamic and relevant ads to BlackBerry smartphone users.”

PopCap CEO Rips Zynga On Game Quality

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Zynga has certainly prospered with Facebook gaming, but their methods of doing so have been openly criticized. PopCap Games CEO Dave Roberts can be added to the list of people who is not a fan of Zynga.

“They are in some ways struggling to catch up because they are not (about) gaming in their heritage — they are a marketing company. They are a media company,” said Roberts at the WTIA TechNW forum. “They are awfully good at it. But we believe that ultimately, and it’s our bias, that great content wins out. And that great games are always going to be better than great marketing.”

Roberts also noted that PopCap’s Bejeweled Blitz was doing better than Zynga’s Mafia Wars in terms of daily unique visitors without spending any money on advertising. “Zynga is really good at sort of using money to buy their customers every day,” he added. “…That’s an interesting business model, but [it] becomes complicated.”

He noted that there was a particular challenge in bringing Bejeweled Blitz to Facebook, but he said that PopCap has gotten used to adapting to new platforms. By contrast, Roberts said that Zynga’s attempt to bring FarmVille to iPhone was an “abysmal failure.”

“I think a lot of the easy money that catapulted companies like Zynga into this crazy stratosphere — the easy money days are gone,” said Roberts. “That doesn’t mean the platform is dead, it just means that you actually now have to work at it. Now, it is not about luck, it is about good, old-fashioned hard work.”

Source: TechFlash

Ubisoft’s Big Spend On Christmas Dancing Titles

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Ubisoft made Just Dance and Dance on Broadway into large hits and they’re hoping to continue that this holiday season. They think they have another pair of hits in Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson: The Experience.

We have been delighted with the performance of Dance on Broadway and Just Dance over the summer months and expect the market to ramp up as we come into the Christmas period, said Ubisoft s group marketing manager Mark Slaughter. We are planning on spending big this Christmas on our key dance titles. Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson: The Experience will be supported by significant above-the-line spends, as well as strong trade marketing activity.

With Just Dance and Dance on Broadway, we saw great elasticity to TV advertising so with a strong TV buy planned including X Factor spots, we expect a similar reaction, he continued. Both titles deliver a great gameplay experience. Through this high awareness and trial-driving activity, we hope to maintain our leading position in this market.

Source: MCV

Wii Remote Plus Is Real

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FlingSmash is described as combining the hands-on fun of tennis with the nonstop action and instant gratification of pinball. It’s not the sort of title that would normally attract attention from the media, but when it recently came out that it was being bundled with a special Wii Remote that had built in functionality of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, interest was palpable.

Still, the posting on GameStop was almost immediately withdrawn, leaving speculation in its wake. However, a Nintendo rep did recently confirm that it “is real” before adding, “We have nothing to announce on this at the moment.”

Source: Eurogamer

3DS Coming March 2011

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Nintendo has announced that the 3DS will launch on February 26 in Japan for 25,000 yen ($299), coming in the colors of Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black. A North American release is planned for March 2011, with no price given for the region.

The portable will have the ability to take photos, play augmented reality games, create Miis and save them on a 2GB SD card. The 3DS will also have a Virtual Console, with various Game Boy titles available for purchase.

BlackBerry Opens Up The Playbook

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Research in Motion recently unveiled the BlackBerry Playbook, a new tablet computer. Set to release in early 2011, RIM is hopeful it can counter Apple’s success with the iPad.

With new devices coming out on multiple operating systems, it’s as much defensive for RIM to have a tablet as it is offensive, said Scott Sutherland, a Wedbush Securities analyst.

Playbook will be able to use Flash, and thus be able to deliver a different sort of web experience than the iPad. Much of the market has been defined in terms of how you fit the Web to mobility, said RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie.

Source: Toronto Star