Virtua Tennis 4 Getting Push During Royal Wedding, Wimbledon

Sega is pushing Virtua Tennis 4 hard in the U.K. with $1.6 million in marketing spending. The publisher will have a series of online, print and TV advertisements running on Channel 4, Sky Sports, ITV, and more starting on April 25.

“With over a million pounds invested in marketing, this is our biggest spend on a Virtua Tennis title to date,” said Sega’s senior product manager Anna Downing. “Activity will create awareness at release, with a second execution to capitalize on grand slam fever during Wimbledon.”

“The No.1 tennis series is releasing on what is a pretty significant date,” added Downing. “For many, that will be the Royal Wedding, but for gamers it signifies the start of the gaming tennis season, and with the bank holiday a few extra hours of play. Virtua Tennis 4 is the only tennis game to include motion control functionality across all platforms.”

Source: MCV

Join Madea’s Big Happy Family!

On the official Facebook fan hub for the latest installment in Tyler Perry’s epic Madea series, fans can join the family and take their rightful seat at the table alongside the cast from the film. Access the Join Madea’s Family app to upload an image of yourself and insert yourself as a character in the film. Fans first must choose the character that they want to replace (is it Ben Calvin The Browns ) and then upload and image from Facebook or their computer to replace their face. Fans are given a set of tools to scale and rotate the image to create a realistic composite. The image is a neatly compiled image of each family member in light blue boxes resembling the poster for the film which is based on the classic Brady Bunch design. Individuals can share themselves as part of Madea’s family to friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter and beyond.

Dance Central Wants You To Step It Up

Fans of Dance Central on Facebook can access the Step It Up app {app no longer active} and record and upload a video of your Dance Central routine to be eligible to become the Dance Central King or Queen! Fans can vote or like their favorite video entry and vote as often as they d like. Winners will be eligible to win a trip to show off their style alongside a celebrity in a Dance Central dance-off and win $500 cash and prizes including an Xbox 360, Kinect and more!

iPhone 5 Rumored For September Release

According to reports, Apple will begin production of the iPhone 5 in July or August of 2011 with a ship date sometime in September. The iPhone 5 is said to look much like the iPhone 4, which is expected to be refreshed sometime this year.

Many Taiwanese suppliers would benefit from this news. “For some suppliers, Apple is their cash cow, or their bread and butter,” said Vincent Chen, an analyst at Yuanta Securities. “With all these versions being launched so frequently, it will be the so-called low-margin suppliers, such as those that assemble the phones, who will benefit the most.”

Source: Reuters {link no longer active}

Intel Gears Up For Tablets/Smartphones

While Intel had a great first quarter of 2011, many analysts are concerned about the company going forward given the uncertain future of PCs and the looming power of smartphones and tablets. Intel CEO Paul Otellini recently fired back at those doubters, saying that an Intel chip will find its way into a smartphone in the next 12 months and is working to have chips for Android/Honeycomb, MeeGo and Microsoft/Windows mobile OS based tablets.

“We’re heads down on a number of designs on tablets, on all three of those operating systems,” Otellini said.

Source: MarketWatch

Mortal Kombat: Why There’s No Xbox 360 Exclusive Character

The PS3 version of Mortal Kombat has Kratos as an exclusive character, but the Xbox 360 version has no such similar bonus. As NetherRealm Studio head Ed Boon implies, this was either because Microsoft didn’t ante up for such a cameo, or the deal with Sony scuppered any hopes of a similar one with Microsoft.

“I’m not allowed to talk too much about it, but I can tell you we certainly wanted to do an exclusive for 360, but that’s all I can say. It was not a decision we made where we said, ‘Oh, let’s not do one for the 360,'” said Boon. “Anybody who’s really knowledgeable about the Xbox video games, the big titles, names like Master Chief from Halo, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, and any other Xbox exclusive title, is going to come up in a conversation in talking about it. So clearly we’ve discussed it.”

Source: Eurogamer