Namco Bandai has announced a new contest for Dark Souls. Users are encouraged to submit shield designs based around three blank templates, with the three winning designs available as post-launch content, with the winners seeing their name in the game’s credits.
The due date for the entries will be July 13 for users that “like” Dark Souls on Facebook. Fans will be able to vote on their favorite designs until July 20.
Source: Facebook.com/darksouls
To go along with a recent promotion for Captain America, Dunkin’ Donuts is running some complimentary TV ads. It even has a sly Marvel reference in Stanley the dog (like Stan Lee, Mr. Marvel himself).
Kenshi is the second of four DLC characters for Mortal Kombat and he had his own unique path to the tournament. Check out this Ayzernberg Group produced vignette to find out how he lost his sight and gained his powers.
Anarchy Reigns is all about a free-for-all brawl with melee combos and vicious weapons, but the ultimate attack is a Killmove. Check out the variety of deadly moves used during a multiplayer mix up.
On Facebook, an app has been launched and is still active with this week’s release of Mafia II: Director’s Cut that allows fans to make their own hit list and take down their friends. The top 5 hitmen and top 5 most wanted also appear on the front page of the app. Fans can build a hitlist by picking a friend to target, choose a reason they should go and then determine how they should go and then put out the hit. Reasons friends need to go can include too many status updates or too many farm wars updates or just because they know why they need to go . Once the app is completed, the user will receive a post on their wall alerting them to the hit.
OnLive is currently the most high profile game streaming company out there. However, TransGaming CEO Vikas Gupta doesn’t believe in their technology or business model.
“We’ve looked at OnLive’s [business] model and we don’t believe it’s sustainable,” said Gupta. “We don’t believe they can make money on it. We know what they’re making from a distribution fee perspective, because that’s their model . . . So EA says here’s a game, and that game retails for $50. We know that they’re only making x percent, and within that margin there’s no way they can make money, given their operating expenditure, as well as the initial capital expenditure in order to get that data center up and running.”
He believes his company’s offering, Game Tree TV, will provide a much better experience because it was built from the ground up for smart TVs. “Think of us as the Netflix of videogames-on-demand,” he says. “We’ve got a sophisticated infrastructure located in the cloud… but the one big difference is that we download the content directly to the device, and that allows us to run the content optimally, and not have to worry about bandwidth issues and so on, which, in certain territories, can be a big problem.”
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
The second stop in the 2011 MLG U.S. Pro Circuit in Columbus, Ohio drew over 22.5 million streams on MLG.tv from 164 countries. This was not only good for game companies Microsoft, Blizzard and Activision but also helps sponsors like Stride, Dr. Pepper, Doritos, Sony Ericsson, Gunnar Optics, and Tritton; Mike Hastr0 Rufail thinks pro gaming is only on the rise in the U.S.
The path is relatively tough to make a decent living as a player today, said Rufail. There are only a few guys that really have the opportunities for the big sponsorships, but I really think within the next two years you re going to see a lot of players start getting taken care of in terms of having salaries from their organizations that sponsor them. We ll also see a lot more big corporations coming in to sponsor the players. The opportunities are just starting to get to a point where a lot of these pro players can actually make a decent living doing this all the way down the board. In the past, it might have just been the Top 10 guys that were marketable. You re going to start seeing everybody benefit as a pro player if you re qualified with an MLG role.
I know a few of the guys have busted six figures and that s happened quite a few times in the past. It just depends on how many sponsors you can get behind you, how much promotion that you can give to the sponsors, and how much viewership you have around your own brand as a player. A lot of the guys are at the top of their game, he added. I would say a lot of those guys could make anywhere between $30,000 and $150,000. It just depends on the player and how motivated they are on promoting their own brand and how interactive they are with the community.
I think that the sport s growing so fast that we aren t going to be limited to game companies and headset manufacturers and controller makers as sponsors of players and teams. Soon we re going to see these large corporations that have products that have nothing to do with gaming, but they want to market by demographic, coming on board. The doors are about to open wide for sponsorships for anything from mobile phone carriers to big brands. It could be anything and everything any kind of sports marketing that s been done in the past with professional sports, you re about to see that in gaming, he concluded.
Source: Forbes
British Ofcom has apparently received 17 complaints about the PS3 ads between February and March on Channel 5’s Five Movies. The television programmer blamed human error at a third-party company for the “excessively noisy” PS3 ads.
“Advertisements must not be excessively noisy or strident. The maximum subjective loudness of advertisements must be consistent and in line with the maximum loudness of programs and junction material, reads Ofcom’s broadcasting code. “Broadcasters must endeavor to minimize the annoyance that perceived imbalances could cause, with the aim that the audience need not adjust the volume of their television sets during program breaks.”
Source: Eurogamer
GameStop has revealed that those that pre-order the Dead Island Special Edition will receive special bonuses along with the other limited edition bonuses. The game will release September 6, 2011 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
The crown jewel of the pre-order bonus is the Bloodbath Arena DLC, four different arena with leaderboards and a new weapon the the brain wave bomb. The other bonuses include exclusive box art and the Ripper which is a combination baseball bat and buzz saw.
Source: GameStop
A reporter working for News of the World allegedly attempted hacked into the cellphone of an abducted teenager. He apparently listened to her messages and deleted some to make room for more
“It is distress heaped upon tragedy to learn that the News of the World had no humanity at such a terrible time,” said Mark Lewis, a lawyer for the victim’s parents. “The fact that they were prepared to act in such a heinous way that could have jeopardized the police investigation and give them false hope is despicable.”
Lewis indicates that he plans to sue the tabloid for its interference. The editor of the tabloid is, for her part, denying any knowledge of the hack and in cooperating with authorities on the matter.
The backlash has already started hurting News of the World with Ford announcing they would find “alternative media within and outside News International Group” to advertise. The tabloid is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Source: USA Today
