Sony has revealed the July 6 offerings for LittleBigPlanet 2 will be Good Cole or Bad Cole from inFamous 2 while Killzone 3 costumes will come on on July 20. In between that on July 13 will be a non-Sony property — characters from Final Fantasy VII.
Expect packs for Toy Story 3 and MotorStorm Apocalypse later this year. All of the costume packs are priced $2.99.
Artix Entertainment has announced a special sort of in-game advertising system. In AdventureQuest Worlds when the player dies in-game, instead of seeing a grayed out screen, Death himself will appear with something pithy to say along with a static ad for something from Artix, like AdventureQuest Worlds Anything-Goes Battle On Battle Card Game, free AdventureCoins (in-game micro-currency) and finally one ad advertising the benefits of becoming an in-game Member (one of which is not having to see the Death ads).
“For years our players scoffed at how there was no real punishment for dying in AQWorlds,” said Adam Bohn, CEO/Founder of Artix Entertainment, LLC. “So we added a fate worse than death . . . ads!”
Find out more at aq.com.
Smurfs’ Village is a micro-transaction game that has achieved success, but not without controversy. However, Behaviour Interactive CEO Remi Racine sees the game as revolutionary to the mobile games market.
“Everybody is talking about Angry Birds, but the game, to me, that is changing the market is Smurfs’ Village,” said Racine. “Smurfs’ Village is outstanding. I’d be curious to see who is making the most money between Angry Birds and Smurfs’ Village. When you look at the charts it’s always among the top three of four grossing games of the last seven or eight months. It’s always there. Angry Birds is in the top ten, but Smurf is in the top three. It’s amazing.”
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
Epic Games has announced that they are teaming with Calibur11 to create a custom Xbox 360 case for Gears of War 3 featuring “a high-definition ‘Bleed-Out’ finish, a controller cradle and an LED Crimson Omen that glows red every time a player is downed by an opponent.” There will also be a contest to win a life-size Gears of War COG armor suit replica for anyone who buys a case.
“We are huge fans of the Gears of War franchise and really wanted to raise the bar with our exclusive Gears of War 3 Vault,” said the brilliantly named Coy Christmas, CEO of Calibur11.
“The quality of the Gears of War Vault 3 is phenomenal, and Calibur11 has done a great job of capturing the spirit of the franchise and enhancing the overall experience,” added Epic Games Vice President Jay Wilbur.
DeathSpank achieved cult status as an entertaining and humorous downloadable title. For this new game, he must deal with the consequences of donning all thongs of virtue at the same time . . .
Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising was a long anticipated MMO and now it’s available for free-to-play. On top of all the regular trailers, there’s also this cheeky live action trailer they did for the game.
The Captain Morgan brand has gone all out for their latest commercial, involving real period sail ships and directed by Academy Award Winner Tom Hooper. It’s all part of their new slogan: ‘To Life, Love & Loot.’
Part of the launch of the Mad Men Season 4 in the Netherlands, a Mad Men Ad application on Facebook has been launched featuring the entire cast of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. You can create a new ad campaign in which you play the starring role. The men and women of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will come up with a slogan, ad and render an original 60 s Mad Men poster featuring you. Potential “clients” supply their preferences and a photograph for the agency to work with. The app then follows the advertising process from briefing to tissue meeting to client presentation through a personality test like interface. If you re happy with the result, you can share the ad with your friends by publishing your ad to your Facebook wall. Each week, the best ads are rewarded with great Mad Men prizes. At the end of the campaign in early September the overall winning ad will be published in BLVD Man (a Dutch fashion magazine) and on several billboards in Amsterdam.
WildTangent have announced that they have launched social games in their game service. Games at launch include It Girl, Polar Bowler Strike!, Build-A-Lot Metropolis, Gun Bros, Organized Crime, Odd Manor, Penguin World, and Salon Street.
“Just like on social networking sites, players have the choice to connect and play with friends or choose to play alone,” said Sean Vanderdasson, senior vice president at WildTangent. “Players can take advantage of our virtual currency, WildCoins, to get in-game items and power-ups to make their game even more exciting. Players should keep an eye out for BrandBoost. Top brand advertisers will give away free in-game items when players watch a video or otherwise engage with their brand.”
WildTangent also announced the Social Summer Sweepstakes, running through July 8, where 10,000 WildCoins will be given away. To find out more, please visit wildtangent.com/socialsummer.
The clientele for Home is not something that’s readily established, given its unusual status on consoles as being a free-to-play virtual world with dozens of mini-games built him. However, Home director Jack Buser says that Home users are among the most active on the PS3.
“They buy more games than the average PS3 user, they play more games than the average PS3 user. They also watch more movies than the average PS3 user, who is already a highly self-selective consumer. We’re talking about rabid consumers of media and hardcore gamers. That’s who these people are,” said Buser. “You have users who are spending a tremendous amount of time on the platform, literally spending their lives inside of PlayStation Home. You have other users that are using PlayStation Home as something that they do between games. They’ll have a big game they bought, they beat the game or otherwise get tired of the game, so what do they do with their console between that and the next time they buy a game They use PlayStation Home.”
Home saw record numbers after the reopening of PSN. “We were watching the numbers and we were just so excited. We were just dancing in the streets,” said Buser. “The numbers are through the roof. I think it speaks to the loyalty of our user base, and to the power of these kinds of platforms.”
Source: Giant Bomb
