Shogun 2 Invades Social Sphere

The Escapist has announced that it is launching a unique social advertising campaign for Total War: Shogun 2. Similar to the game itself, it will offer numerous different troop types for the player to use against a defending army.

Players attack by using the official forums and Twitter, with one entry towards a grand prize with every victory you have in battle. Potential prizes include copies of Total War: Shogun 2 and Origin PC Gaming Desktops.

To find out more, visit escapistmagazine.com/content/Shogun2/.

Apple Not Looking At Game Companies

Apple has become a major power in the realm of gaming thanks to the popularity of the App Store, but they don’t produce games themselves. Despite rumors that they might pick up a company like OnLive to provide streaming games on their iOS devices, Panoptic Management Consultants analyst Asif Khan has reason to believe this won’t happen.

“From my firsthand conversation with Steve Jobs last year at the shareholder meeting, I can tell you with confidence that Apple will not acquire a game company,” said Khan. “They would rather rake in the 30 percent of App Store sales that they currently have set up with developers.”

Source: IndustryGamers

We Dare Getting Warning Sticker

We Dare has attracted some attention over its PG-13 raunchy ads, but the game has only received a PEGI rating of 12 (equivalent to a ‘T’ for Teen) rating. Ubisoft has revealed that it will receive a Parental Discretion Advised sticker on top of that, and explained why.

Since PEGI is a Pan European system, the questionnaire is designed to meet varying cultural standards in all the member states, said Ubisoft. So for example, mild violence may not be a very shocking element in your country, but the swearwords in some games may be.

PEGI does not take into account the context of a game when rating it, we only look at the contents of the game, continued a statement by the company. [We Dare] has been rated as a PEGI 12 because it contains mild swearing, minor assault on a human-like character and words/activities that amount to obvious sexual innuendo, explicit sexual descriptions or images and sexual posturing.

Source: Cubed3.com

 

Robert De Niro Open To Uncharted Movie

David O. Russell has this idea to make the Uncharted movie into a a film about a family of antiquities experts that dole out justice. Mark Wahlberg has already been cast as Nathan Drake and Robert De Niro appears open to the role that Russell wrote for him.

“Absolutely, sure. I’m aware of it,” said De Niro when asked about the film. “I haven t seen [the script] yet. I thought he did a terrific [job] in The Fighter.”

Source: MTV.com

Rovio Makes Millions On Merchandise And Licensing

Rovio’s Angry Birds cost only a little over $100,000 to make (which is peanuts compared to AAA games these days) and has made $70 million and counting. Rovio’s co-founders said they want the Finnish company to become “Disney 2.0”, with cross-media efforts in TV, merchandise and comics.

“Look at how Disney got started,” said chief executive Mikael Hed. “Steamboat Willie created Mickey Mouse, then they added more characters. You can see the same pattern today, but everything is happening much, much faster. Other brands used to build recognition over the course of decades. We’ve done it in one year.”

Rovio has around 40 employees and generates nearly a $1 million month from the ad supported Android version of Angry Birds. Roughly 40 percent of the company’s revenues are from non-game businesses, like as merchandising and licensing, with that only likely to increase with the upcoming release of Angry Birds Rio.

“We are building our infrastructure with Angry Birds. So we have the distribution, the marketing, everything in place, so that we can basically take any IP and drop it in, said Hed. And we have the capability of producing the games on all the platforms – smartphones, consoles, PCs, Mac, online, Facebook – you name it. Then the TV, the movie side, it will happen when the time is right.”

Source: Wired

MLB 2K11 – Million Dollar Men

2K Sports made such a splash last year for their perfect game promotion and they’re putting even more emphasis on it this year. Along with the cover athlete for MLB 2K11, this year’s ad also has last year’s contest winner.

 

BioWare Co-Founder Says Dragon Age II Raises The Bar

Dragon Age II should be available soon to everyone in both Europe and North America. Despite the controversies that have arisen from the various changes made to the sequel BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka has come out and praised for the development team.

“I am very proud of the bold, ambitious direction our team took with Dragon Age II, which I think is some of the best work yet from BioWare,” said Muzyka. “The Dragon Age team built on their success with Dragon Age: Origins and also focused on innovation for our players, delivering better combat, creating an incredible new art style and introducing a dynamic storytelling technique to really raise the bar for both the franchise and the genre.”

Source: CVG

 

Harrison Ford Helping Talkie Make Ecotopia

Game studio Talkie has teamed up with Harrison Ford and Conservation International to make a new green game. Titled, Ecotopia it will launch on Facebook this spring and will reward players who perform real-world green initiatives.

“I’m excited to be involved with Ecotopia because I see it as a great way to engage millions of people in our fight to protect our planet by taking action online and in our daily lives,” said Ford, vice chairman of Conservation International. “As we work to address the most fundamental issues facing humanity, I think Ecotopia will help get people involved in a way that is fun, educational, and meaningful.”

“As a passionate supporter of Conservation International’s work, this game represents a refreshing new way to engage millions of people in addressing critical environmental issues and finding solutions that work for the wellbeing of humanity,” said Ford.

Ford was apparently a huge motivator in trying to get environmental issues in a gaming experience. “The idea was a byproduct of the passion that both Chris (Swain) and I share for the environment along with a conversation that I had with Harrison shortly after he returned from a U.N. meeting on climate change in Nagoya, Japan last fall,” said Larry Bond, chairman of Talkie. “Harrison explained the crisis that our planet was facing on the loss of biodiversity. That was the catalyst to create a game that was not only really entertaining, but also have a profound impact on our world.”

“We allow players to enter their real world green acts — such as composting — and get in-game credit,” said Swain, CEO and founder of Talkie. “That means if you car pool you get Sustainability Points, Money Savings, and Power Savings that you can spend to get further in the game world. You get a low number of points for doing a real world act, but we give you a big bonus if you also upload a picture of yourself doing it. Then you get the real points if your friends verify that you did it. This is a system we call ‘social proofing.'”

The game’s messaging aligns with Conservation International’s initiatives, designed to support initiatives in climate, food, fresh water, health and cultural security. “Ecotopia makes being green fun and adds a dash of social status,” said Swain. “We track the real carbon savings created by each act and can tally the total environmental impact made by our players.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter