Dreamworks Might Option Halo Movie

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Microsoft is making more money than ever off of the Halo franchise with the successful launch of Halo: Reach, yet the movie based upon the series has been mired in development hell. That might all change, however, as sources say that DreamWorks Pictures is making a serious bid at the film rights to the franchise.

Interestingly, the movie may be based more directly on the Halo books rather than the games. This has the double benefit of showing that DreamWorks has reverence for the source material and it could help avoid any legal issues with Fox and Universal, the partners who tried and failed to make a Halo movie the last time.

“While this would play towards the Hollywood politics that clearly got in the way of the old Halo production, it would still have to pass by the now ‘once bitten, twice shy’ Microsoft. It s a gigantic waste of time, because [Microsoft] doesn’t want anything to happen in any other media that could screw up a multi-billion dollar franchise,” said an insider. “Somebody has to be in control of a movie; it’s a director s medium. But they re completely averse to that. Because if Steven Spielberg f**ks it up, what s your recourse? So the rule is: First, do no harm.”

“Maybe so, but if anyone has enough street cred to get Microsoft to relax, it’s Spielberg,” writes Claude Brodesser-Akner. “One can imagine him casually turning to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer at dinner and murmuring, ‘Halo’s only made $2 billion worldwide I thought it was like, a big deal or something I mean, my films have grossed $8.5 billion worldwide, so … well. Anyway, who’d like dessert?'”

Source: Vulture

Verizon Plans New Wireless Network

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Verizon Wireless has announced that it plans to launch a high-speed wireless service that will reach 110 million people in 38 markets. The company will unveil six mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, that will work on this network in January.

“We’ll reach more than one third of all Americans where they live and work … the day that we flip the switch on this network,” said Verizon Communications Inc Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam.

McAdam also noted that the network could carry the iPhone: “I expect at some point in time our business interests are going to align and I think things like LTE are another great reason why (Apple) would want to have a device like that or a tablet on this kind of a network, so I fully expect it,” said McAdam.

Source: Sify.com

Take The [a]train

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What’s Ayzenberg Group been up to these days  Well, besides providing you with the publication you’re reading right now, the advertising and social media experts at Ayzenberg have been crafting big buzz campaigns for some of the game industry’s hottest titles.

Ayzenberg’s been working on Lord of the Rings Online, FEAR 3, Tekken 6, the upcoming Mortal Kombat,  and more. See it for yourself right here. {link no longer active}

Feature: Spov’s Call Of Duty

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There’s a tendency with games to think that everything produced comes from one source, perhaps a byproduct of publishers receiving more direct credit over the years for games than development teams. Regardless, many roles end up being sent to specialists outside, whether it’s for development, marketing or in-game cut scenes. Spov has familiarity with the latter two and Senior Designer Allen Leitch was kind enough to share with us some of his insights on working on the Call of Duty series and beyond.

[a]list: How are you looking to take advantage of convergence in gaming, TV and movies?

Allen Leitch: We are in the fortunate position of coming from a variety of creative disciplines, and one of our key skills when talking to gaming clients is our ability to deliver extremely strong narrative to move story-lines along as well as producing the scenes themselves. We view ourselves as a directorial agency rather than a production house, so see those skills as applying to any medium rather than being constrained in one area.

[a]list: Describe the work you did for the Call of Duty series.

Allen Leitch: We have worked on the last four Call of Duty titles, starting with Modern Warfare running up to Black Ops. We were asked to get involved after working on a number of animation sequences for a series on the Discovery Channel, called Future Weapons, where we began to develop the technical style that was honed and refined for both Modern Warfare titles. For World at War we worked in a more abstract style as that suited the setting of the title, and the pacing of the narrative. For Black Ops, we have developed a completely new approach.

One of the World at War cut scenes.

[a]list: What can we expect from Spov for Call of Duty: Black Ops?

Allen Leitch: The narrative setting and storyline of Black Ops mark a departure from the previous series. Rather than being tied to a specific historical or contemporary point in time, it is set during the Cold War, which has allowed a much wider use of reference points, and for Spov, the opportunity to harness some of the paranoia, confusion and disinformation which existed to inform our visual style and interpretation of the story. Black Ops will feel darker and more emotional – our scenes are less technologically driven, and more about the character’s experience and predicament.

[a]list: Were any of the materials you made used in the promotional materials (trailers and TV spots)?

Allen Leitch: Yes, absolutely.

[a]list: What’s some of the other game work that you’ve done?

Allen Leitch: Some other games projects we have been involved in include two Transformers titles, Spyro the Dragon, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory, a new iPad game, and the development of our own IP ideas.

[a]list: What other franchise have you worked on outside of gaming?

Allen Leitch: We are working on the titles and credits for an animated 3D film due to have its theatrical release in 2011. A number of TV titles, some architectural and product visualization and also the production design of a full length animated feature which is currently in pre-production – all very exciting!

Expect similar quality treatment in Black Ops.

[a]list: Have you done any sort of work for commercials and would you consider that in the future?

Allen Leitch: We are currently in discussion with Warp Films (part of the famed record label) and info-graphics designer David McCandless, to create an animated study of a somewhat complicated ecological issue, and are confident that this work and relationship will bring us greater commercial exposure and work.

[a]list: How do you promote your own work to outside companies?

Allen Leitch: Strippers, mescaline, compromising photographs and paper bags of used notes!

[a]list: Ha ha, thanks Allen.

Offerpal Becomes Tapjoy

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Offerpal Media officially confirmed that it has changed its name to Tapjoy. Offerpal, which specializes in social monetization, actually purchased Tapjoy, a mobile monetization firm, in March 2010.

The company focuses on monetizing social games and currently generates 250,000 transactions a day on the iOS platform. The name change comes after Offerpal became tarnished by the ‘scammy’ and deceptive ads it was offering in FarmVille.

“It reflects our change in emphasis. Our business is broader than the name Offerpal suggests,” said Tapjoy CEO Mihir Shah, who noted that the former chief executive dealt with the issue in a highly negative way.

Shah noted that this move also reflects the company’s cross platform capabilities, which allows them to simultaneously offer mobile and social ads for companies like Digital Chocolate. He also said that they see as many as 100,000 installs per day for a single app across iPhone and Android and that Tapjoy is used in a third of the top 50 iPhone aps.

Source: VentureBeat

Guillermo del Toro says, ‘Videogames Are The Comic Books Of Our Time’

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Guillermo del Toro has made it clear that he’s excited about working on games and says his current project is as important as anything he’s ever done. He describes it as “a really big, revolutionary, very difficult game that I’ve been trying to do for the last three or four years now.”

“Videogames are the comic books of our time. It’s a medium that gains no respect among the intellegensia, he added. They say ‘oh, videogames.’ And most people that complain about videogames have never f—ing played them.”