Reese’s Constructs A Facebook Tab To Bring Green Lantern Corps Together

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In partnership with Reese’s, Warner Brothers has launched a destination Facebook tab in anticipation of the launch of Green Lantern. A rich, robust experience loaded with engagements, at the top of the tab a countdown clock keeps track of the days, hours and minutes until the film opens. Also, a large trailer window takes up the middle of the iframe above the fold. Fans can invite the corps {link no longer available} from the Facebook friends by first choosing a location and time to see the film, then invite their friends to assemble their own Green Lantern corps. As a group is assembled, the user can customize the design of the group and share with friends and followers. Fans can also customize their profile picture   {link no longer available}  or share with friends from a custom set of Green Lantern collectible cards featuring a wide cross section of characters from the film. A selection of images from the film with key facts from the legacy of Green Lantern are also featured alongside funny quips from a Reese’s peanut butter cup. Weekly mini-missions require the user to share their peanut butter corps badge to Facebook. Tied into an on package contest promotion, the tab brings together the film and Reese’s in a fun and playful way all linking back to a contest landing page {link no longer available} on the Reese’s homepage where fans can win a jet fighter experience {link no longer available} similar to Hal Jordan’s original test flight.

Apple Reverses Decision On App Store Subscriptions

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Apple has reversed a previous decision and will let publishers sell subscriptions for Apps outside of the App Store. The only requirement is that there be no button or external link to purchase the content in the App for magazines, newspapers, videos, music and games; Apple will make no money on these subscriptions.

“I am a little surprised they took this long,” said Gartner media analyst Mike McGuire. “I think it makes sense.”

“They could see that, if they continued in their old policy, they could lose a central advantage, which was the iPad becoming a central reading device of our time,” said Ken Doctor an analyst with Outsell Research.

Source: Reuters

Activision’s Kotick Looks To Buy MySpace

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Reports are that an investment group that includes Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick as a member is looking to buy control of MySpace According to the source, the investment is a personal one and does not involve Activision Blizzard directly.

The report says that Kotick’s group is now favored to win in the bid for MySpace Other potential buyers include MySpace founder Chris De Wolfe, music video site Vevo, and current MySpace CEO Mike Jones in conjunction with private equity backers.  Under terms of this deal, News Corp would retain an equity stake (perhaps 20 percent) in the social network, but details are still being hammered out.

Source: Reuters

PS Vita Probably Region Free

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Speaking recently, Sony Worldwide Studios Europe president Michael Denny says that the PS Vita will be a region free device. This is to the best of his knowledge” according to reports.

This is notable, since while the Nintendo DS was region free, the 3DS is decidedly not. The PSP was a region free device with its UMD releases.

Source: IGN

Sports Guy Launches Grantland Site

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Bill Simmons has announced that he will support Grantland.com, the new ESPN-owned sports and pop culture site he’s editing. Sponsors include Unilever’s Klondike and Subway with three more clients, including a luxury auto brand, expected soon.

“I went on a lot of sales meetings. I mean, we have awesome ad sales guys, but I think it s different if you see the guy with the idea and he s in there in the room with you and you can see the look in his eyes,” says Simmons. “It’s just a different scenario than if someone secondhand had pitched it. From here on out, I want everything I do to be this hands on.”

Simmons, known by many as The Sports Guy, will be pushing a site that will focus on quality over quantity. It will also, it is worth noting, not have the standard traffic guarantees for sponsors.

“It’s the quantity over quality trap. Everyone s chasing page views and I m not sure that s always the way to go,” says Simmons. “We want to put up longer, more thought out stuff, because there s definitely an audience for that kind of writing. So the key element in being able to proceed with this thing was to get the sponsors onboard with the idea that we wouldn t throw up 60 items every day just to get traffic.”

“Speaking of the sponsorship model,” Simmons said, “I don t like this model where people don t get paid for the writing they do, because frankly, it s disingenuous to think you can get away that. If you want quality, you have to pay. And writers deserve to be able to make a living off their work.”

Source: AdWeek

Gears Of War 3 Locks In Limited Edition Controller

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Epic has announced that it will release a Limited Edition Xbox 360 controller for Gears of War 3. It will be styled after the series and include the transforming d-pad found in recent limited editions.

The controller will actually include five weapon skins as DLC. The Limited Edition Xbox 360 controller will match the design of the Limited Edition Xbox 360 console release.

The Gears of War 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 controller will release in August 2011.

Sony’s Hirai Says Hacker Attacks Affect Society

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The PSN recently suffered the barbs of certain hackers, though they by far haven’t been the only ones. Sony deputy president Kaz Hirai thinks it is a problem that extends far beyond Sony as a result.

“Just generally speaking, whether it’s PSN or any other non-Sony services, in the past week several companies and organizations also got hacked as well,” said Hirai. “I think there are reports that the FBI got hacked. So this isn’t something that is a Microsoft issue or a Sony issue or limited to one or two companies. This is actually a lot bigger than that. It’s large enough to the extent that we’re talking about any and all companies, organizations and entities that deal in the online space which is pretty much everyone at this stage, isn’t it?”

“It’s a threat, not just to Sony or a couple of other companies, but to the very fabric of society, he said. Therefore it requires individuals and companies to be very vigilant, which goes without saying, and we need help from various government, various enforcement agencies and legislation in certain instances as well. And this needs to be a worldwide effort.”

“We had moved the data centers and we basically have done everything to bring our practices at least in line with industry standards or better,” he continued. “I’m not going to get into details of what we did and have not done for security reasons. But I can tell you that, as far as the PS3 is concerned, we’ve done everything that we thought we could to make sure we’re protecting our consumers’ data as aggressively as possible.”

Source: The Guardian {link no longer active}

Michael Jackson Experiencing Next-Gen Portables

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Ubisoft has confirmed that Michael Jackson: The Experience will becoming to PS Vita and 3DS during 2011. The game has already released on Wii, DS and PSP and more recently came to the Kinect and Move of the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Michael Jackson: The Experience will be tailored to the strengths of the platform for both the PS Vita and 3DS, for instance using the touch screens to tap out beats in time with the music. Both versions are set to release by the end of 2011.