Gaming, Movies Dominate Viral Ads

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Ad Age’s Viral Video Chart presents the top 10 most-viewed brand-driven videos, excluding movie or video game trailers. The reason for this is that movie and video game trailers dominate everything else – without movies or video games, Visible Measures’ top 10 Viral Video Ads only amassed a combined view count of 320 million views for the 2010, but when they are included, the total view count tops more than 1.1 billion views.

To compare, the highest rated movie viral ad was The Twilight Saga: Eclipse with 220.19 million; by contrast, the only “social ad” in the top 10 was Old Spice’s “Responses” campaign with 68.74 million. Some surprises in the top 10 include The Karate Kid with 170.92 million views and Step It Up 3D with 138.58 million views.

“Elsewhere, Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops leads the video-game category at No. 5 with more than 110 million views, while Bungie’s Halo: Reach trails closely behind at No. 8 with 74.4 million views,” writes Andrew Hampp. “Although gaming trailers generate lots of views in the pre-release stages, the real traffic comes from the days and weeks after their initial release, when user-generated game-play and how-to videos are uploaded and shared like wildfire among gamers. Visible Measures includes these aggregate clips in each title’s total view counts.”

Source: Ad Age {link no longer active}

SCEE Boss Talks Limitations With Kinect

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While both Move and Kinect are off to good starts, it’s Microsoft’s device that seems to have captured the early lead. SCEE CEO Andrew House, however, thinks that there are long-term limitations with the camera-only interface that will prove themselves out over time.

“We pioneered camera-based gaming with EyeToy,” said House. “We learned from that experience that there are limitations around a camera-only solution. It does work well and lend itself to certain genres, but you do tend to hit a bit of a wall when trying to support it with the broadest range of content available. That s not the sort of problem we have with Move.”

Consumers have understood Move is something that could impact a wide range of games, he continued. “This is opposed to what I think may dog the competition to a degree, which is basing it solidly around just a family experience and one that is harder to adapt into traditional game genres.”

“While some have wondered if Sony was right to launch Move with less fanfare than Kinect, House stands by their strategy. I don’t think it was quieter,” he said. “We know a marketing push is important around a launch window, but what will really drive adoption of new technology is going to be great content. We ve got a whole range of experiences that serve the broadest audience and that is a far better long-term bet. You can only sustain a certain amount of momentum just based on trying to ram product at people based on a strong marketing push. It really will be content that defines it.”

Source: MCV

Mass Effect 3 Releasing Simultaneously On All Platforms

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BioWare has announced that Mass Effect 3 will launch simultaneously on PC and Xbox 360 along with PS3. The demo for Mass Effect 2 will release for PS3 on December 21, 2010, with the full game shipping out January 18, 2011.

“At BioWare, we are always driving ourselves to improve and I firmly believe our best work is still ahead of us,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Group General Manager and Co-Founder of BioWare. “We could not be prouder of the team’s accomplishments with Mass Effect 2, and are excited and humbled by all of the recognition the game has received so far. We can’t wait to show you what the team is doing to make Mass Effect 3 an even bigger success.”

World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm Sets PC Sales Records

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Blizzard has confirmed that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has set a new sales record as the fastest selling PC game of all time. The expansion sold 3.3 million copies during its first 24 hours, easily eclipsing the mark set by World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King in 2008 with 2.8 million copies.

“We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but the result was our best expansion yet,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We want to thank all of our new, existing, and returning players throughout the world for their incredible enthusiasm and support, and we look forward to hearing what they think about all the new content.”

THQ/del Toro Sign inSane Deal

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THQ has announced a multi-year agreement with Guillermo del Toro. The two parties will work together to create the inSane trilogy, developed by Volition and expected to come out in 2013.

“THQ is committed to creating great games by identifying the world’s most talented artists and providing them with the creative support to design innovative game play experiences,” said Bilson. “Guillermo is not only an incredibly gifted writer and film director, but also an avid gamer, and we are excited to bring his talents to our medium. We are confident his unique point of view will create visually stunning adventures, filled with rich and rewarding game play.”

Del Toro will serve as external creative director for the games, working with THQ Executive Vice President, Core Games Danny Bilson, THQ Director of Fiction Development Paul DeMeo and Volition on the game trilogy and any other transmedia projects . THQ will own the gaming IP for the inSane games, while del Toro will hold the rights to any filmed entertainment products.

“With this new series of video games, I want to take players to a place they have never seen before, where every single action makes them question their own senses of morality and reality,” said del Toro. “THQ and Volition, Inc. are equally excited to make this vision of a completely new game universe into a reality.”

Gawker Compromised By Hackers

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Recently Gawker was hacked, compromising 1.5 million usernames and passwords on sites like Gizmodo, io9, and Kotaku. A group of hackers called Gnosis claimed credit and published the passwords of site staff members and shared parts of Gawker’s custom CMS.

“Our user databases do indeed appear to have been compromised. The passwords were encrypted. But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack. You should change the password on Gawker (GED/commenting system) and on any other sites on which you’ve used the same passwords. Out of an abundance of caution, you should also change your company email password and any passwords that may have appeared in your email messages,” said Gawker in a statement. “We’re deeply embarrassed by this breach. We should not be in the position of relying on the goodwill of the hackers who identified the weakness in our systems. And, yes, the irony is not lost on us.”

Source: Mediate

Go On A Journey

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ThatGameCompany has made some great artistic titles for the PS3 in fl0w and Flower, and they’re looking to continue that legacy with Journey. It’s hard to tell what the game is about from the trailer, but the artistic ambitions are overflowing.

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RockYou Wins DPAC Award

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RockYou was recently honored with the DPAC Award for Best Video Ad Network Innovation at the annual Digiday Gala and they were also nominated for Best Branded Content – Social App. They were recognized for their social apps like Deal of the Day, a brand-sponsored, cost per engagement-based, in-game advertising solution.

“Our Video Advertising Network helps brands reach consumers in new ways. Coupled with Deal of the Day, we are able to address emerging trends in social advertising – users see targeted and relevant advertisements, and are also awarded in-game currency in return for their time,” said Lisa Marino, RockYou’s Chief Operating Officer at RockYou. “We were in great company with the other DPAC nominees and winners, and are proud to be recognized.”