Homefront Launches Opening Volley

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Homefront is getting a launch trailer to celebrate its release with revolutionary fervor. The song used in the background is an anti-war tune: Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane.

 

Wii On People’s Court, Hilarity Ensues

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The People’s Court is one of the longest running reality shows substituting for a small claims court. In this case, it proves highly entertaining as a claim over a modified Wii goes over the head of the judge.

 

MySpace Still A Place For Ads

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MySpace is looking for a buyer from News Corp. but it is still open for business. The site recently underwent a major overhaul to attract new users.

We still have a sizable audience that is enormously valuable in the market [where] we still reach 40 million unique users especially for anyone who wants to reach generation Y with content, said MySpace s chief revenue officer Nada Stirratt. We don’t care who owns us, we still have the biggest audience for this demo.

MySpace is looking at a better platform for brand pages and a new ad treatment that lets a sequence of six ads be bought as they scroll down their page. They’re also offering a push-down video ad and a pre-roll video treatment, which has e-commerce and social sharing functionality built in. A lot of Web sites say they offer roadblock ad opportunism, which really means two ads on one page, said Stirratt. We really wanted to create a true sitewide roadblock,

Source: AdWeek

Joe Mauer Teams Up Head & Shoulders And MLB ’11: The Show

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Joe Mauer is the Minnesota Twins All-Star catcher, and he’s also the spokesperson for MLB ’11: The Show. He will also be teaming up with Head & Shoulders throughout the 2011 MLB season, which will be teaming up with Sony in celebrating the release of The Show.

We’re thrilled to welcome Head & Shoulders into the MLB family, and very glad to see them partner with Joe Mauer, one of the most popular players in all of baseball and a perennial All-Star, said Lou Koskovolis, Senior Vice President, Corporate Sales & Marketing, Major League Baseball.

EA Talks Courting Controversy And Fox News

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EA published games have managed to garner quite a bit of controversy over the past few years, from Mass Effect to Medal of Honor and (most recently) Bulletstorm courtesy of Fox News. EA Games label head Frank Gibeau, somewhat surprisingly, said he was all for the attention.

“We love Fox News. They’re bold . . . I’m serious.” said EA Games label head Frank Gibeau Gibeau. “Look, when you’re building new IPs and you’re building games and you’re looking at an entertainment audience, they see a lot of messages. Controversy isn’t a bad thing. I personally believe you should court controversy. You should do it in a way that matches the creative integrity of the game. You shouldn’t do it in a gratuitous way, but if it matches the creativity of the game

I loved it when Fox News did the lesbian aliens on Mass Effect, he added. I love when they covered the Taliban; I loved it when they covered the Bulletstorm stuff. In each one of those cases, it was true to the game and we were trying to do something creatively. The fact that their point of view is different than ours and represented an audience out there is fine by me. I felt we could stand up and defend what we did and be aggressive about it and be proud of it.”

Source: IndustryGamers

Transformers Rolling Out MMO In 2012

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Hasbro has announced that it will team up with Jagex to make a Transformers MMO. The game will release worldwide in 2012.

Transformers is one of the most iconic brands in the world and we are delighted to team up with Hasbro in order to bring our shared vision to reality, stated Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard. There is a huge appetite for an online Transformers game and we will utilize every bit of our development and publishing expertise to deliver a dynamic and action-packed game that Transformers fans will find irresistible.

Hasbro s decision to align with Jagex speaks to the quality of their award-winning development and publishing team that boasts an outstanding track record of delivering innovative and fun online games capable of reaching millions of gamers across the globe, added Hasbro’s senior VP and GM of digital gaming and media Mark Blecher. We are extremely excited to create a dream team that combines Transformers brand stewards with Jagex development experts to deliver an epic Transformers gaming experience to fans in 2012.

Angry Birds Rio Nesting In Amazon Appstore

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Rovio has announced that Angry Birds Rio will come to Android exclusively via the Amazon Appstore. The Amazon Appstore will see the exclusive debut for versions of Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons that are ad-free and purchasable.

The Android platform has seen phenomenal growth, and it s great that new avenues for app distribution are opening up, said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio. The openness of the Android platform works for the benefit of consumers and developers alike. It has been delightful to team up with Amazon to bring the Angry Birds franchise to this great new application marketplace.

Amazon is thrilled to work with a leading developer like Rovio in offering our customers Angry Birds Rio for Android exclusively in the Amazon Appstore, said Aaron Rubenson, category leader for Amazon Appstore. We think Angry Birds Rio is sure to be an instant customer favorite.

Social Media Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)

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Marvin Powell, a Small Business Growth Consultant in Washington DC, posted a question on LinkedIn’s Q&A section, “What are the biggest mistakes that you find small business leaders make when using social media?” Here are a few of the more memorable responses.

“I don’t want to get ten tweets a day hearing about YOU. I want to hear things that are valuable for me and my life . . . and they need to be fast,” said Laura Kowalski, Business Consultant for Business Owners and Senior Executives. “And not too frequent: I don’t want to incessantly hear about your business. It won’t make me think of you more, it’ll just make me annoyed with you. So: short, sweet, pertinent, and valuable to me.”

“They need to talk less and listen more, wrote Jessica Routier, Head of social media and community relations at IAC-EZ. Social media is all about making connections and, just like in the real (rather than virtual) world, people will be more drawn to you if you actually listen to what they’re saying than if you try to force your message upon them.”

“Expecting Social Media to do all the work for them,” added Lisa Cash Hanson, CEO Blueberry Baboon, Author, Small Business Consulting, Motivational Speaker. “You can’t just blast the world with your ideas, products, and services, then sit back and expect everyone to think you’re so wonderful. That is unrealistic.”

“What I see so often is that a business decides to jump into social media because they’re afraid they might be left behind, but then they fail to put a well thought out strategy in place. They end up throwing a bunch of profiles on the internet, trying to market and sell to everyone, and basically failing,” said Spencer Tyler, Co-Founder / Head of Production at CPofA. “If a business would just understand that it is all in the relationship building and that it takes time . . . You wouldn’t suddenly decide that door-to-door sales was the latest approach and go around knocking on people’s doors . . . (at least I hope not)”

“Very simple: the biggest mistake is Lack of a Plan. The biggest ‘what NOT to do’ is to go in bull-in-china-shop mode without knowing what you’re there to do, what your goal is, why you’ve selected the channel, etc.” noted Kristian Chronister, President at Jewelry.com. “I see many businesses getting on social media because ‘everyone else is’ or ‘we just have to’ but without clear purpose or a plan. One wouldn’t open a new store, address a new market, or open a new sales region without extensive planning, goals, organization and thought. And yet, many small businesses (especially sole proprietors) just up and register for Twitter, etc. one night and wade right in. Give it the same planning, investigation, research and forethought you give any other new endeavor for your business, and you’ll reap the commensurate rewards. Treat it casually and you’ll get ‘casual’ results (or worse, reputational/brand damage).”

Source: BusinessInsider.com