Top Spin 4 Unauthorized Serena Williams Video

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2K Sports efforts for Top Spin 4 included an ad with Serena Williams and an actress who wasn’t happy it wasn’t going to be released publicly. So, she posted it on YouTube and it’s gone viral . . . and 2K Sports is claiming it wasn’t their idea. Regardless, check out the video below, with enough ‘tennis moaning’ and rear shots to make it less than work-safe.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SmC9FslYo_o

Get Groovy At Home

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A massive content update to PlayStation Home will reveal over 100 new items schedule to hit the shelves in the PlayStation Home Mall this week alone. Heavy Water is expanding their line of Heavy Pets with their new Peeps collection. Fan favorite nDreams is revealing more of their ever-evolving PlayStation Home world with the new Funksters 74 line of virtual items ranging from funky and retro clothing items and a line of groovy 70 s Furniture and shag carpet bundles. Get down tonight!

The Duke Cave Is Open

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Step into the ultimate man cave on the official website for Duke Nukem Forever. Enter the Duke Cave to conduct surveillance on two of Duke’s favorite things: aliens and babes. Check out Mark and Kate Holsom, two motorboating twins or get a look at the Octabrain, a floating head that uses it s airborne tentacles to fire a blast attack. Browse the Hall of Humility to see how Duke’s awesomeness even puts Chuck Norris to shame. Gamers that have the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition or have already preordered can register to be part of the First Access Club to get the demo first. Winning!

BlackBerry PlayBook Opens Up April 19

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RIM has announced that the BlackBerry PlayBook will go on sale on April 19 in North America. In an attempt to compete with the iPad 2, prices will range from $500 to $700.

The PlayBook will have a 7-inch LCD screen with 1024×600 resolution, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5MP standard camera and a 3MP front-facing camera. It will run on a new QNX-based operating system.

Source: After Dawn

Facebook Targets Real-Time Conversations For Ads

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Facebook has announced that they will be testing real-time conversation mining to target ads with roughly 1 percent of their user base about six million people. While user preferences and likes in the past have helped deliver ads, mentioning pizza, a baby, buying a power drill or running can all now elicit immediate ads.

“The long-held promise of local is to deliver timely, relevant and measurable ads which drive actions such as commerce, so if Facebook is moving in this direction, it’s brilliant,” said Reggie Bradford, CEO of Facebook software and marketing company Vitrue. “This is a massive market shift everyone is pivoting toward, led by services such as Groupon. Facebook has the power of the graph of me and my friends placing them in the position to dominate this medium.”

This could make a huge difference in how ads on Facebook perform; the site had a 0.051 percent click-through rate in 2010, which was very low by industry standards. Still, this does not alter Facebook’s notoriously finicky ad algorithm used to determine whether there is any commercial intent behind a statement.

“You might have the potential of seeing some unfortunate ads if not targeted correctly,” said eMarketer social-media analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “If I’m talking generally about Starbucks — ‘my latte was cold’ — would it be weird to then see an ad from Peet’s ”

Source: Ad Age

Hobbit Filming Begins

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After years of delays filming of The Hobbit started recently in New Zealand. The anticipated prequel movies are being filmed for $500 million in the Wellington Stone Street Studios in the village of Matamata, along with various other secret, undisclosed locations around New Zealand.

The story revolves around Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit who is swept up into an adventure with wizard Gandalf the Grey and 13 dwarves. British actor Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins, with Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Andy Serkis all reprising their roles from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Source: Times Colonist

Dead Island Sees Box Art Change

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Deep Silver has confirmed that the box art cover for Dead Island will be changed in its release to the U.S. The change from a hung man to a staggering zombie will affect the logo only on the box and promotional materials, not in the game.

Original logo.

New logo.

“The video game industry has set guidelines about the types of content that are appropriate in advertising and marketing materials, which includes game box art. According to those guidelines the depiction in the logo was not compliant,” read a statement by the ESRB. “We never censor or dictate in any way what type of content can be included within a game. However, a game’s marketing materials are seen by an audience that is much broader than that which actually purchases the game itself, so we enforce industry-adopted guidelines as to what is suitable for inclusion in these materials.”

Source: IGN

Batman: Arkham City Gets Pre-Order Bonuses

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Details have been showcased for the pre-order bonuses for Batman: Arkham City. Those that pre-order at GameStop will be given a “Joker’s Carnival” challenge map, confirming the return of the skill based mini-missions that weren’t tied into the greater storyline.

Those that pre-order from Best Buy will receive a combo pack although what that exactly means was not detailed. No details were given for what pre-order bonuses will be available at Amazon or Walmart.

Source: batmanarkhamcity.com