Rovio has announced that Angry Birds will be getting an update for St Patrick’s Day. Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka has said that this new update will launch around March 17 and be “very green” and have “more pigs than ever.
There have already been Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s-themed level packs for Angry Birds and more are promised to come later. Also, the Angry Birds: Rio tie-in with the similarly named 20th Century Fox film will release March 22.
Source: Eurogamer
Shigeru Miyamoto is nearing what would be retirement age for most people, but he’s still making new games. His focus in gaming has shifted but clearly his enthusiasm has not.
“One thing I can say is I am constantly thinking,” says Miyamoto.”Most of the fun things I find cannot necessarily be turned into video games right away. But it grows, and one day, it all comes together. So it’s not like one day I get a strong inspiration for an idea. Most of the time, what I experience in life turns into a game eventually.”
When the 3DS was brought up, he said, “3D is nothing new in our world. When we were young we used to experience 3D with the type of glasses with red and blue lenses. And today, in order for many people to view 3D films, they definitely need some special glasses.
The fortunes of Nintendo have been slumping a bit of late, though Miyamoto has a simple philosophy on the matter. “Nintendo makes software for our own hardware,” says Miyamoto. “Of course I try to make software that is valuable enough for customers to pay for it. So the fact that different types of games are available to customers, and what happens to Nintendo’s games seems a separate issue to me. So my goal is to continue creating the software to high standards. As long as we keep doing that, I believe our business will follow.”
Source: BBC
Sony recently announced that they were they were offering a 25 percent discount off of three-month subscriptions for DC Universe Online. They have announced that the offer is going to be extended for another two weeks.
Those who stick with the promotional price will keep it for as long as they have a promotion. In America the, price is usually $41.99 for three months, which has been dropped to $29.99.
The March 2 press conference by Apple is nearly upon us and it is widely expected to include the second iPad design. More than that, a photo of a frame of the device suggests that the iPad 2 might come in white.
The white iPhone has yet to launch, so it may be that they’re looking to put both out in the market at the same time. The photo also suggests that the iPad 2 will have a camera.
Source: 9 to 5 Mac
PopCap Games has announced the results from a survey conducted by Information Solutions Group. The survey of adults in the U.S. and U.K. suggests that mobile phones are now the primary source of gaming (displacing PCs and consoles) with smartphone owners being the most avid mobile game consumers.
Mobile games are, along with social games, the hottest sector of the video game industry by far, stated Dennis Ryan, EVP of Worldwide Publishing at PopCap, which derives nearly a third of its overall revenues from sales of mobile mega-hits like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies. As more people purchase smartphones and the entire process of finding, purchasing and playing mobile games becomes as simple as browsing the internet, the mobile games market is going to accelerate even more.
84 percent of mobile phone gamers say they play games on their phones at least once a week, with the number increasing to 97 percent for avid mobile phone gamers. Also, 78 percent of mobile phone gamers indicated that playing mobile phone games had become a regular part of their weekly activities, with 59 percent indicating that they play such games on a daily basis.
The survey indicated that roughly one out of five users played one or more social networking games via their phone every day and over a third said they play a social networking game via their phone at least once a week. 23 percent of all mobile phone useage by mobile gamers is for games, not including phone calls.
Paramount Pictures and Zynga have announced a new partnership with the game FrontierVille. The first ever advertising integration for the popular social game will add a quest that after completing (and watching the movie trailer) gets you a Rango statue to add to your own homestead.
We’re committed to building the best user experiences for the hundreds of millions of people playing Zynga games each month,” said Manny Anekal, global director of brand advertising at Zynga. “The Rango campaign offers a fun way to interact with the film’s characters while enhancing game-play within FrontierVille.”
We are continuously looking for new and innovative ways to create interactive experiences for our movie-going audiences, said Amy Powell, Paramount s executive vice president of Interactive Marketing and Film Production. Given Zynga s proven success building fun and engaging games, bringing Rango to FrontierVille seemed like a natural fit.
Electronic Arts has announced that Florence + the Machine will be contributing their song I’m Not Calling You A Liar to Dragon Age II. The song from their debut album ‘Lungs’ will be remixed for the game by composer Inon Zur.
With the band s full blessings and enthusiasm, we isolated Florence s original vocals from one of their most unique songs and completely Dragon-Age d it, stated EA’s worldwide executive of music and marketing and the track s co-producer Steve Schnur. What was originally a powerfully stark, acoustic-based song has been reborn with all-new instrumentation and full orchestration. The results are an epic anthem for the next stage of the Dragon Age legend.
Ogmento is adding a city-specific layer to Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary for the Game Developers Conference. Players in San Francisco of the location-based game for iOS can play as one of the Demonologists or one of the Possessed and participate in real-world missions in reportedly haunted locations.
We re excited to show how our game can bring actual locations alive on even a local level in a city such as San Francisco, said Brian Selzer, president and co-founder of Ogmento. We had a great time adding missions in the game based on real haunted locations in the city including Alcatraz and the Curran Theater.
Download the app on the App Store.
2K Sports has announced that they are launching a nationwide RV tour for Major League Baseball 2K11. They’ll visit over 20 cities during Spring Training and the first half of the Regular Season, showing off the game on Xbox 360.
We re extremely proud of Major League Baseball 2K11, and we can t wait to share it with baseball fans across the country, said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. The tour is a perfect opportunity for fans to practice their skills for the $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge that begins on April 1.
Visit http://www.2ksports.com/mlb2k11/tour for the latest schedule.
The erotic horror-arcade puzzler title Catherine from Atlus has attracted a decent bit of attention for its unique setting and plot dealing with marriage worries, finding the right girl and being attacked by said girl in bizarre nightmares. Despite a reputation for localizing quirky and quintessentially Japanese games, Atlus isn’t planning on bringing the title across the Pacific.
Catherine is a Japan-only game and there are no plans for a NA release at this time, said Atlus in a statement. Sorry about that!
Catherine (developed by the same team that created the Persona series) recently outsold Marvel vs Capcom 3 in Japan.
Source: BeefJack.com
