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 . . .

 

Virtual Goods Market To Exceed $2 Billion In 2011, Says Report

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According to the Inside Virtual Goods report, the U.S. virtual goods market is expected to hit $2.1 billion in revenues in 2011. The report, issued by Inside Network head Justin Smith and Virtual Goods Summit chief Charles Hudson, indicates that the market will be up 40 percent from $1.6 billion in 2010.

If 2010 was the year that virtual goods made a splash in western markets, 2011 will be the year that these markets begin to mature as the collective opportunity across social games, online games, virtual worlds, consoles, and mobile games reaches the $2 billion dollar mark, said Smith.

While Facebook is one of the leading platforms for games with virtual goods, there are also offerings on the iPhone, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and newly free-to-play online games like Lord of the Rings Online.

Source: VentureBeat

The Latest Intelligence From David Cole

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In the latest in our series of [a]list summit interviews, we chatted with DFC Intelligence president David Cole about the challenges presented to the industry, social networking trends in advertising and the summit itself.

 

Kinect Ads: You Are The Controller

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Microsoft is looking to turn up the heat with advertising for Kinect, with these three spots for Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride and Kinect Sports. There’s an absolute minimum placed on what’s going on in the game, showing instead the players gesticulating wildly and letting the watcher fill in the blanks with his or her imagination.

DeNA Feeds Astro Ape

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Last week DeNA announced that they were acquiring Gameview, and now they are expanding their influence even more. The Japanese mobile game company has invested in the U.S. social game company Astro Ape.

The New Jersey-based developer has created games such as Office Heroes for iOS and now will develop games for DeNA s MiniNation mobile game platform. Astro Ape was  founded by Christopher Cheung, Chieh Huang, and William Fong in March 2009 and is looking to expand on its five employees with a couple more in the next two weeks.

Source: VentureBeat

Kotick: ‘Microsoft Has Got To Get The Price Down’ For Kinect

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Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is always willing to be outspoken about things, especially when it relates to the gaming industry in general. Naturally then, he was frank in his comments when asked about Microsoft’s motion sensing camera.

With Kinect I love the idea, but Microsoft has got to get the price down, said Kotick. And I think developers are missing the value of the audio nobody s done a really great job using voice as an interface, and I don’t know why. I think it’s something that will broaden the appeal of games.

Source: Edge

The Social Network Promoted On MySpace

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The Social Network is a direct commentary on the founding of Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and its unflattering portrayal of him as a young man has ensured that Facebook has distanced itself from the Sony Pictures film. So ironically enough, some of the most prominent advertisements have been on MySpace, including an expanded front-page banner showing details of the film, a link to the main website and trailers.

“[It] combines the reach of a takeover, the real estate of a home page skin, and the content of a microsite,” said Nada Stirratt, MySpace’s chief revenue officer.

Source: The Independent