Dead Island Movie Rights Discussed

Dead Island recently managed to make a bit of a stir with its gory and well edited trailer, and now the franchise is riding high on awareness. While rumors were that the rights to the movie IP have been bought, publisher Deep Silver denies this is the case, despite “a massive amount of interest.”

“We are looking for quality above all else for a movie based on Dead Island. We want to do it the right way as film realizations of games (or vice versa) usually fail to deliver what the fans were looking for. We will not go down this route with Dead Island. Deep Silver profoundly believes in the quality and value of its Dead Island IP,” says Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Deep Silver’s parent company Koch Media. “We would therefore be honored to work with someone who already has a proven track record with blockbuster movies.”

In-Game Game Advertising: Where’s The Revenue?

In-game advertising has never materialized into the multi-billion dollar industry it was once promised to be. Typically, gamers who pay $60 for a new game or pay a subscription fee aren’t keen to be barraged with tons of ads.

“When gamers see in-game advertising, they know that it is a source of revenue for the people that have already sold them a product and in general it has been received poorly by most players exposed to it,” says Richard Lewis, of Heaven Media. “This is especially true of those playing subscription games. They see themselves as paying for a premium service and the expectation is that they should be allowed to enjoy their game without interruption.”

“There were so many more possibilities than just simply having ‘in-game’ billboards or scrolling adverts, that were never really explored,” he added. “Creative minds had talked about in-game storylines where the prizes would relate to real products or character cross-overs involving those from corporate brands. None of this materialized and the advertising in-game was generally as mundane as it is in real life.”

While the opportunity is squandered, Jack Wallington, head of industry programming at the Internet Advertising Bureau, does not think it has been lost forever. “I think advertisers are significantly underusing in-game advertising in all its forms,” he says. “I think there’s still an issue with the perception of who is playing games. The advertisers I talk to think it’s still a niche audience. They understand that it’s a good way of reaching the young male demographic. But we know that 20.1 million people play games on consoles and that’s a huge chunk of the U.K. population.”

Source: The Independent

Uncharted Director Says He’s ‘Very Respectful’ Of The Franchise

Director David O. Russell has talked openly about his ideas for the Uncharted movie, and fans of the game franchise have responded with open skepticism. Russell recently talked about his experiences with the game in an interview, in response to those criticisms.

“My son plays most of the games in our house, and I will play them with him but I m not hardcore,” said Russell. “I’m not going to present myself as hardcore. But I played the game a bunch of times and I also read as much as I could about the game and I met the game s creator, Amy Hennig, who s really cool. I started to brew together what I thought could be a really cool idea that I d never seen in a film before Really intense action and really intense family dynamics on a global stage.”

“To grow a game into a movie is an interesting proposition because a game is a very different experience than a movie,” he added. “You guys are playing the game, and it s about playing the game. It s not about a narrative embracing you emotionally. You know what I’m saying? So, I want to create a world that is worthy of a really great film that people want to watch and rewatch, so that s what I m working on right now.”

Along with the general themes of the film, casting Mark Walberg as Nathan Drake has also rankled some fans. Russell, however, is trying to take this all in stride. “As far as I’m concerned, I m very respectful as far as the core content and spirit of the game, but beyond that it s my job as a filmmaker to make what I think is going to be an amazing movie. People have to trust that and let that go, I think. There s not a bunch of movies you can point to that are made from games that are amazing movies, that stand up to time as a franchise or as [individual films].”

“I personally think it s really cool when you see that someone like Darren Aronofsky is going to make an X-Men movie or to get someone such as myself to make this picture. You can be guaranteed that it s going to be real, it s going to be raw, it s going to be intense, it s going to be original, and it s going to be propulsive. And those are all the things that I want when I go to watch a movie like that,” he concluded.

Source: Slashfilm.com

Sony: We Focus On Exclusive Third-Party Content, Not Games

Exclusive content helps drive consumers to various game consoles, but third-party retail releases exclusive to a console can be an expensive proposition. Because of that, Sony indicates that they’re targeting more exclusive content than full exclusive titles.

“We work very closely with our 3rd parties publishers, not necessarily to lock down games exclusively, but to lock up exclusive parts of games,” said Scott McCarthy, senior brand manager for PlayStation software. “A good example is Batman: Arkham Asylum, where you could only play as the Joker on PlayStation 3.”

“When you make a title exclusive, you limit its promotional power; we don t want to do that. We want games to be as big as possible it s great for the industry,” he added. “However, we want to make sure that you play it on the best system possible, so we like to take parts of games and make them exclusive to the PlayStation system.”

He was also very positive about Sony’s 2011 lineup, adding, “You know what, it s not only something that appeals to everyone, it s multiple things that appeal to everyone. You know, we ve got in our shooter lineup we kicked it off with Killzone, we re going to follow it up with SOCOM, we’re going to follow that up with Resistance; and then, over to more of adventure games, like Uncharted 3 is going to be one of the biggest games of the year for I don t care who you are! Anybody! Then, there’s Twisted Metal, which is going back to old school, with the PS3 flavor on top of it. And I think it ll surprise a lot of people, not only on how updated it is, but with how fun that kind of familiar gameplay still is. We always consider ourselves not having really the car combat genre doesn’t exist until Twisted Metal comes out. We re looking forward to doing that this year and relaunching that genre.”

Source: Scrawl FX

Intel Blasts Nokia Windows Phone 7 Decision

Nokia recently announced that they will be running Windows Phone 7 as the mobile OS of choice on their smartphones, much to the annoyance of Intel, whose MeeGo mobile OS is being dropped by Nokia. Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini says that Microsoft made “incredible offers [of] money” for Nokia to make the shift.

“I wouldn’t have made the decision he made, I would probably have gone to Android if I were him,” he said. “MeeGo would have been the best strategy but he concluded he couldn’t afford it.”

“We will find another partner,” he added about MeeGo. “The carriers still want a third ecosystem and the carriers want an open ecosystem, and that’s the thing that drives our motivation.”

Source: Reuters

3DS AR Cards Detailed

Every 3DS sold will come with six cards, but they won’t just be normal playing cards. These cards will actually be “augmented reality” devices, allowing the camera on the 3DS to show animated images on the handheld’s top screen.

Here are the cards.

The cards include images of popular Nintendo characters like Link, Mario, Kirby, Samus and Pikmin, which will come to life in the right software. It’s basically a proof-of-concept thing, but it shows some interesting potential for the device.

Source: Kotaku

Zynga Value Reaches $10 Billion – Report

Recently, the value of Zynga was reportedly put between $7 – $9 billion for a series of $250 million in funding. However, a new report says the funding is somewhere in the range of $500 million and that Zynga is valued at a mind blowing $10 billion.

This round of funding is believed to be led by Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments along with existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins. It is believed that this is a precusor to Zynga making its IPO.

Source: All Things Digital

Guitar Hero ‘Abused’ By Activision, Says Former RedOctane CEO

Activision’s decision to essentially pull the rug out from under the Guitar Hero franchise left many shocked over the move {link no longer active}. Perhaps the most ticked off (with the most right to be so) is former CEO of RedOctane Kelly Sumner.

“[Activision] tried to get too much out of the franchise too quickly. They abused it,” said Sumner. “There’s no reason why Guitar Hero cannot continue. It’s a great product. My gut tells me there is still a significant market for Guitar Hero.

“Not every game can be a billion dollar franchise, but maybe that’s what Activision wants,” he added. “I’d be surprised if they sold the brand as it’d prove to the world there is still a market for this product and show them up. Look at how Take-Two has handled GTA. They haven’t thrown products out there. They’ve nurtured it for over ten years and it is still a strong franchise.”

Source: MCV {link no longer active}

InFamous 2 Gets A Hero

Sony has announced that InFamous 2 will release on June 7, 2011. They also announced that along with the standard version of the game they’ll ship InFamous 2 Hero Edition, which will retail for $99.99.

Check out the Sly Cooper logo on the sling pack!

“Short of actual electrical super powers, the Hero Edition delivers everything an InFamous fan could want including a highly detailed 8.5″ Cole MacGrath statue, a sportable sling pack modeled after Cole’s own in-game gear, the InFamous 2 #1 mini comic from DC Comics, the official InFamous 2 Hero Soundtrack and a super voucher code for a collection of in-game content,” writes Chuck Lacson, Associate Product Marketing Manager for SCEA.

There will also be retailer exclusive pre-order items, like the in-game 24k Gold Amp from Amazon, the Kessler character skin from Best Buy, the Lightning Hook special power from GameStop, and the Electrocution Grenade from Walmart.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Games Dominate All Time App Store Sales

Apple has announced the most popular paid and free apps on the iPhone and iPad in honor of the 10 billionth app download on the App Store. The most popular paid iPhone and iPod Touch app of all time is Doodle Jump, with games composing nine of the top ten paid apps.

Versions of Tap Tap Revenge and Pocket God both are listed high, with Angry BirdsBejeweled 2,Traffic Rush and Flight Control filling the list out. Games only compose four of the top ten paid iPad apps, with Stick Wars and Backbreaker leading the way. Nearly half of the paid apps for iPhone and over a third of the paid apps for iPad are games.

Free game apps were not as popular as paid ones, comprising only one of the top apps for both iPhone and iPad (Paper Toss and Solitaire, respectively).

Source: Gamasutra