Roy Halladay Covers MLB 2K11

2K Sports has announced that Roy Halladay is the cover athlete for MLB 2K11. The Cy Young Award winner has thrown a perfect game and helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the NLCS; 2K Sports also predicts he will win his second Cy Young Award.

I’m honored to be on the cover of Major League Baseball 2K11, said Halladay. I’m not one for predictions, but should 2K Sports be right about tomorrow, well, that would be a great way to end the year.

Halladay was chosen to be representative of the MLB 2K series Total Control Pitching mechanic, which gives players a high level of control and accuracy on the mound.

In the Year of the Pitcher , Roy has truly distinguished himself as the best pitcher in baseball, said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. Between his dominating season that included baseball’s 20th perfect game, and his exciting performance during the postseason, we believe there is no player more worthy of representing our revolutionary pitching mechanic on the cover of Major League Baseball 2K11 than Roy Halladay.

Microsoft Teams With CrowdStar To Push Bing Social Games

CrowdStar announced that they have teamed up with Microsoft to promote Bing as a social games platform. CrowdStar will make a number of its games available on Bing and later on other Microsoft services.

“We’re excited about the potential of Microsoft’s and Bing’s new gaming platforms, said CrowdStar CEO, Niren Hiro. We believe they are a great fit for CrowdStar to expand its portfolio of hit games in ways that are sure to delight customers.”

“CrowdStar’s impressive lineup of popular titles have made them a leader in the social games space,” said Microsoft’s senior global director of PC and mobile gaming, Kevin Unangst. “We’re taking a bold new approach to bridging the worlds of social and casual games, and are thrilled to work with CrowdStar to bring that vision to life.

Facebook’s New Messaging Service Unveiled

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the network’s new communication service. This includes the long rumored email integration into the site.

“We don’t think a modern messaging service is going to be e-mail,” said Zuckerberg. “People are going to have facebook.com e-mail addresses. But this is not e-mail.

Explaining that somewhat confusing sentence, Zuckerberg said that there will be seamless messaging, conversation history and a social inbox to filter out unwanted elements. “We’ve tried to make it so people don’t have to think about this stuff,” he said.

Zuckerberg said the service will be rolling out over the next few months and that it will be invitation only to start. “This is not an e-mail killer,” Zuckerberg noted. “This is a messaging service that has e-mail as part of it.”

Source: MercuryNews.com

Microsoft’s Kinect And Business Potential/Privacy Concerns

Dennis Durkin, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Microsoft’s Xbox division, recently indicated that the Kinect presents special business opportunities. Speaking during an investors conference sponsored by BMO Capital Markets, he talked about the various benefits to investors.

We can cater which content we present to you based on who you are, said Durkin. How many people are in the room when an ad is shown How many people are in the room when a game is being played When you add this sort of device to a living room, there’s a bunch of business opportunities that come with that.

While the benefits to marketers are obvious, questions about privacy were almost immediately raised over this issue. Microsoft very quickly sent out a statement about their stance on privacy concerns and how the Kinect is used.

Xbox 360 and Xbox Live do not use any information captured by Kinect for advertising targeting purposes, said Microsoft in a statement. Microsoft has a strong track record of implementing some of the best privacy protection measures in the industry. We place great importance on the privacy of our customers information and the safety of their experiences.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Top Mood Trailers Listed

Game trailers are a commercial art form that is often more bombastic than subtle. Still, there are chances to convey emotions when it’s appropriate to the property, stirring something within the watcher and connecting them to the game.

IndustryGamers looked over several emotional trailers that they called mood trailers and listed the top 10.

Check out the full list here.

Move Gets A PASS

Sony has announced a collaboration with American Express and GameStop. By purchasing a PlayStation Move product at GameStop, consumers will be able to receive a $25 bonus on their American Express PASS Card.

The prepaid card is designed specifically for teens to use and parents to manage. In order to get the $25 bonus, consumers must make the purchase at GameStop between September 25 and November 30, 2010 and use the promotion code from the GameStop receipt by December 31, 2010.

Source: AmericanExpress.com

Bruckheimer Games Suffers From MTV Games Fallout

Things looked a whole lot rosier for MTV Games a few years ago, when they had purchased Harmonix and had agreed to publish a game by Jerry Bruckheimer. Now, the Viacom division is looking to sell Harmonix, and that doesn’t spell good things for the deal signed with Bruckheimer.

While Bruckheimer Games is currently developing several games, including titles for PS3 and Xbox 360, MTV Games does not sound enthusiastic about pursuing the project. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said that, “The console game business requires an expertise and scale that we don’t have.”

Sources say that Bruckheimer Games is considering its options whether to pursue another publishing relationship or not.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Blizzard Offers Week Of Playtime To Lapsed World Of Warcraft Players

Blizzard is offering an opportunity for lapsed World of Warcraft players to return to the fold before the release of the third expansion. The company is openly offering a week of game time to anyone who previously subscribed to World of Warcraft.

Notable about this offering is that the deal will expire on December 1, 2010, while World of Warcraft: Cataclysm won’t release until December 7, 2010. The purpose of the offer, then, seems to be letting lapsed subscribers prepare for the expansion rather than sample it.