Double Fusion Still Kicking After Massive Goes Under

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With Microsoft’s Massive Inc. getting shut down, many wondered if in-game ad companies were on the way out. Alex Sood, CEO of Double Fusion says this isn’t the case, and he stressed that his business has rebounded since the recession in 2009.

Massive as an entity was doing quite well, running multiple campaigns, said Sood. We saw them in the field and we know they were selling ads. There were multiple reasons to make the decision they made, but it was not just ad sales.

According to Sood, Double Fusion has booked 300 percent more campaigns in 2010 compared to 2009. He also said that campaigns started out at $15,000 a few years ago, but they’ve ramped up to $50,000-$100,000 regularly today.

The market itself is a growing one, asserted Sood. All of the general success metrics are there. Average spending is up, the number of clients is up — and orders per client are up.”

While EA has decided to move in-game ads in-house and Microsoft has seemingly removed themselves from the equation, the PS3 remains fair game. “PlayStation remains committed to the dynamic in-game advertising business, our third-party publishers and our sales and distribution partners, said David Winding, director, PlayStation network advertising. As our overall advertising business expands on the platform, in-game advertising looks to play a significant role in that growth.

Sood says that Double Fusion now reaches 50 million unique gamers every month worldwide, with upcoming titles on the platform including Killzone 3, Shaun White Skateboarding, Driver: San Francisco, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and John Daly’s ProStroke Golf. Our network is a fairly deep one, he said. The industry is providing a tremendous value to advertisers and is gaining its stride. Our hurdles and struggles are in the past.

Still, he’s quite interested in Xbox Live. As an independent ad network, I would love to work with the Xbox platform, he said. That would instantly double our reach in the U.S. That s access we would love to have.

Source: AdWeek

Miyamoto Talks Mario In 3D

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Stereoscopic 3D presents some interesting design challenges for developers, especially when it comes to the upcoming 3DS. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto is excited for how the 3DS will affect the new Mario game on the system.

Of course, we are working on a Mario product for the Nintendo 3DS, I can tell you that, said Miyamoto. One of the things we have looked at, you know when you are in a 3D world but on a 2D screen it is difficult sometimes to tell distance, whether an object you are looking at is in the foreground, in the background, is the object above you Sometimes it’s a little bit harder.

So it’s going to be really exciting for us to make that easier for the player to understand using the Nintendo 3DS technology he added. And for the first time ever Mario will be on a handheld system with an analog stick for controls. That’s new.

Source: USA Today

Samsung Ships 7 Million Galaxy S Smartphones

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According to Samsung, they have shipped three million Galaxy S smartphones in the U.S. for a total of seven million worldwide. The Android-based smartphone has apparently been selling well via Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA, which it is attached to.

“We’re in a situation where we wish we had more supply,” said Samsung Chief Marketing Officer Paul Golden.

Source: Reuters

THQ’s Del Toro Project To Be Revealed At VGAs

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Guillermo del Toro’s project with THQ is well known, but few details have been revealed save for the fact that it will deal with Lovecraftian themes. THQ core games EVP Danny Bilson has announced, however, when we’ll get to see more.

“You’ve heard rumors of us working with a big film director who is actually a big gamer,” said Bilson. “He’s a gamer who wants to make a great game and has very interesting points of view and is partnered very closely with myself and my writing partner, Paul. [THQ] will be announcing the game title and the studio and all of that on the VGA awards in about a month.”

Source: Joystiq

GameStop Sees Kinect As ‘Winner’ Over Move

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This holiday season, one of the biggest dust-ups is between Move and Kinect for supremacy among the new motion controllers. While there’s still a lot of time left, GameStop sees the advantage going to Kinect.

“I’d say right now Microsoft’s Kinect is looking to be the winner of the two for us, said senior VP of merchandising and marketing Bob McKenzie. “We’re very happy with the sell through over the weekend. It has met our expectations and actually exceeded our initial forecasts.”

“I do have them both obviously and the Move sports bundle is a great option,” he added, “but I knew for my family with an eight-year-old daughter and ten-year-old boy that Kinect was really going to be the thing that was more geared towards my household.”

Source: Eurogamer

IPhone Getting 3D Solution

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Hasbro announced recently a 3D solution for the iPhone and iPod. Called My3D, it attaches to the devices and promises three-dimensional content that offers a 360-degree experience in gaming, virtual travel experiences and entertainment content.

Available for $30, the device will ship in Spring 2011. Working with Apple on the device, Hasbro indicated that there will be a variety of My3D content, which they promise will do the best 3D on the system.

While Hasbro will team up with Dreamworks to make content for the device, senior research analyst at Kaufman Bros. L.P. Shaw Wu sees the potential with hundreds of millions of the iPod and iPhone devices available. “The issue with this is whether they are going to get enough content for it,” Wu said.

Proposed uses cover everything from shooters to museum content and film snippeds. “The idea of being able to be somewhere in Los Angeles, in this 360-degree environment, to be in the shark tank, to be able to swim with the fish and chase after the fish. These are really breakthrough immersive experiences,” said Brian Goldner, president and CEO of Hasbro.

Source: AP

GoldenEye TV Spots

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Renowned among many for being an early defining game for FPS action on consoles, the new GoldenEye 007 harkens back to those days. Appropriately, the ads are as much an homage to the old game as they are an advertisement for the new one.

Scion Puts Nintendo In A Car

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The upcoming Pixel Pushers will feature an “an exploration of 8-bit digital media” that will run from November 17 to December 11 at Scion Installation L.A. in Culver City. As part of the event Len Higa and Eric Nakamura have customized a Scion to have Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES) styling, with shoot’em up Return of the Quack being projected out the headlights during the event.

Source: GameSetWatch