Brink Launches Into Revolution

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Brink is one of the more anticipated shooters during the first half of the year, featuring a unique combination of parkour and shooting. Join the fight as a member of The Security or The Resistance.

 

Portal Meets Minecraft

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Given the degree of customization in Minecraft, it was just a matter of time until someone decided to do a Portal send up. They even managed to do the portal gun correctly.

Become Your Own South Park Avatar At Long Last

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To celebrate the launch and the premiere of season 15, fans can go to http://www.facebook.com/southpark to design their own South Park Avatar and then save it as their profile pic. Ditch the parka and dive the brand-new South Park Avatar Creator that has been totally revamped with tons of new clothes, props, hairdos, customizable colors and skin tones. Fans can create their own avatar and post it to their Facebook profile photo. The revamped Web version of the South Park Avatar creator gives users a richer, more personalized experience allowing them to save and edit multiple Avatars and print on a variety of products featured on Zazzle.com, including t-shirts, mugs, photo sculptures and iPhone cases and skins. The iOS version has also been given a complete overhaul and users have the ability to choose from multiple body types, save and edit Avatars on their iPhones and assign directly to contacts.

Play Update To The Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean Microsite

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An update to the official microsite for the Lego Pirates of The Caribbean on Lego.com has been launched in anticipation of the premiere of On Stranger Tides May 20. Collect Character Cards inside official Lego Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Lego sets and enter them on the site to claim pirate treasure. Five mini-games each have their own achievement. Finish them all to earn a bonus treasure. Games are simple and easy and play off the themes of the film. Go head to head with Blackbeard using cannonballs in Cannonball Mutiny or see if you can pass the Pirate Code which will require keen knowledge of all the films in the franchise. Create short animations and make Captain Jack Sparrow shake his booty or play Treasure Quest which is Mine Sweeper Jack Sparrow style! Mermaid s Song is an update to Whack-A-Mole where you have to whack the mermaids to prevent them from luring the pirates to their watery graves.

L.A. Noire Story Available For Free

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Rockstar Games and Mulholland Books today announced the release of the first short stories based around the world of L.A. Noire. The first story will be readable for free, with a preview of the second story available online.

Below you can read our first full story, What’s in a Name by Jonathan Santlofer, as well as an excerpt from The Girl by Megan Abbott, posted Rockstar. Both are available as either a downloadable PDF or via our online reader. Look for more works from the collection to be released here leading up to and through the release of L.A. Noire on May 17. On June 6th, look for the release of the complete L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories which will be available for download at all major eBook retailers.

Source: Rockstar Games

Battlefield 3: EA Explains Aggressive Marketing

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EA has aggressively marketed Battlefield 3, and the game isn’t set to go out until Fall 2011. Lincoln Hirshberger, Senior Director of Marketing for Battlefield 3, explained the reasoning for getting the game in front of consumers so early.

With Battlefield 3, we believe that we have superior technology and gameplay, said Hirshberger. The gaming press validated this at GDC with a slew of accolades. We just need for everyone else in the mainstream to know that too. Last year, Battlefield Bad Company 2 earned better scores than the competition but, because Battlefield released in March, a lot of the mainstream Holiday hit buyers just weren’t aware that Battlefield was the better game. This year, we’re playing offense by launching Battlefield 3 in the holiday and we’re starting to get the word out early by kicking off our campaign to the mass market. We decided to go big early in order to establish a beachhead with a larger audience and so far the results have been fantastic.

Comments on message boards have been stellar and it scored a 9.5 on Gametrailers, he added. In terms of the metrics, preorders are up 700 percent at the same point compared with our previous launch of Battlefield Bad Company 2. Website traffic, video views and other metrics are on a similar trajectory. Another key part of our strategy has been to fan the flames and create a network effect with the Battlefield community. The power of social networks is amazing and fun to watch. The TV campaign has jumped-started that effort by enlisting a lot of new FPS fans looking for something new and better.

Source: IndustryGamers

Nintendo Of America Hires New Sales & Marketing VP

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Nintendo of America has announced that Scott Moffitt will be the company’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, reporting to president Reggie Fils-Aime. He has worked in marketing for over two decades, having worked at PepsiCo and most recently at Henkel Consumer Goods Personal Care division.

“Scott Moffitt makes a marvelous addition to the Nintendo team,” said Fils-Aime. “His expertise in driving growth will be a terrific asset as we build momentum for the Nintendo 3DS system and continue to reach new audiences for the Wii console.”

“Nintendo is a brand unlike any other,” said Moffitt. “I look forward to helping shape the company’s future for all kinds of players.”

Jagex Proud of 8Realm’s Complexity

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Jagex, previously best known for record-breaking free-to-play MMO RuneScape, launched 8Realm‘s closed beta claiming it has the “most complex front-end commercial website.” It is designed to be free-to-play on any PC, tablet or (eventually) smartphone using minimal javascript, no flash, and requiring no plug-ins.

“I can confidently say I know of no commercial site anywhere near as complex front-end as 8Realms,” said 8Realms lead designer Claire Blackshaw. “Now as much as I love playing with HTML5 and WebGL at home it’s not yet ready for prime-time. So we made current browser tech jump through hoops, and using our own server-side technology pushed what’s possible in terms of scaling.

“8Realms has been a project to push Jagex web technology as far as possible. Preparing us for the biggest platform out there, the browser without plug-ins, he added. We will always choose the most appropriate technology to deliver the games we want to make to the widest possible audience.”

Source: CVG

Online Influencers And Your Brand

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Influencers are a large part of any sort of online marketing campaign these days. They’re not like regular media contacts, instead caring much more about the experiences of things.

The need to focus on relevant influencers rather than the most popular social media celebrities can be explained in three ways, says Pierre-Loic Assayag, president of Traackr. 

Relevant influencers create signals. The big fish create noise. For decades, advertising has trained marketers that noise equals success, which isn t true. Getting the attention of influencers who have built authority with a target audience and have earned trust in communities relevant to specific businesses is what yields the best return.

Targeting relevant influencers drastically increases the engagement hit rate. Instead of reaching out very generically with yet another media coverage request, you ll be talking to someone genuinely interested in your issues, industry and products.

Big fish are actually influenced by targeted voices. They are much more likely to cover your story and get interested in your product after you gain street cred with relevant influencers.

In order to engage relevant influencers successfully, brands must:

1. Target relevant influencers based on expertise and desired outcome.

2. Talk to them inside their story, not the brand s story.

3. Engage them early and build a relationship that outlasts the brand s campaign.

4. Be honest and don t just talk to people who already like your brand.

5. Give up control of the message and trust your influencers to tell the brand story through their words.

Efficiency is also important with influencers. Cindy Gordon, vice president of new media and marketing at Universal Orlando Resort, manged to inform 350 million people around the world about the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Universal Studios by bringing in the seven biggest Harry Potter bloggers in the world.

Before you engage online influencers, you have to figure out who they are and track their conversations. Understand what these influencers like and don t like about your products and services, your marketing, your brand and even how they compare you to the competition, says Michelle de Haaff, CMO of Attensity. Once you know who they are personally, you can engage in relevant ways. Reach out and thank them for their support, and create continual dialogues with them. Don t make engagement a one-time thing.

Source: Mashable