Google Explains Heineken Deal

Google recently agreed to a large global ad deal with Heineken, and it seemed to take agencies and media buyers out of the picture. However Google’s global president of media and platforms Henrique de Castro says that is not the case.

“All of the implementation is happening through agencies,” said de Castro. “No one is being cut out. Agencies still have to do the execution and media buyers still have to do the planning — we are over-complicating this.”

de Castro said that the buy is a strategic one for Heineken, complimenting their TV buy. “Digital used to be a small part of the media mix and now digital is a really large part of the media mix,” he said, referring to how much advertisers spend online vs. traditional venues such as TV. “It’s much more about full integration — YouTube enables extended reach from TV.”

They’re also mobile buys which are part of the equation, however, Google stressed that Heineken’s regular agencies were a part of the plan. “They’re absolutely a part of this,” Mr. de Castro said.

de Castro confirmed that Google will be looking for more of these upfront buys in the future.

Source: AdAge

DC Universe Online Infuses Micro-Transactions

DC Universe Online is the latest MMO to feature micro-transactions. The announcement came from Sony Online Entertainment, with the DCUO Marketplace now live.

One item available for sale are Proto Repair-Bots which let players repair on the go, while Vault Tickets allow access to the Vault instance, which has special rewards. Rather meager offerings for now, but there’s sure to be more in the future.

Source: Massively

Zynga Preps For IPO

Zynga has finally announced their stock offering and they have filed their S-1 form. The publisher of social games like CityVille and FarmVille plans to raise up to $1 billion in a public offering.

The company claims that they have over 232 million active users every month. The revenue for the company has ramped up considerably in a short period of time, increasing from $19 million in 2008, to $121 million in 2009 and nearly $600 million in revenue in 2010.

“And now, by offering our shares to the public we hope to enable Zynga to invest more in play than any company in history,” founder and CEO Mark Pincus wrote to shareholders. “To accomplish this, we will continue to make big investments in servers, data centers and other infrastructure so players farms, cities, islands, airplanes, triple words and empires can be available on all their devices in an instant. We will also continue to fund the best teams around the world to build the most accessible, social and fun games.”

Zynga does admit to some difficulties, such as a dependance on Facebook and an agreement that expires in 2015. The company has also been mostly unsuccessful in the mobile sphere and admits it is “difficult to know whether we will succeed in developing commercially viable games for mobile.”

The social game developer has also been involved in intellectual property battles. Zynga does not expect to lose such cases, but they are costly in any event.

Source: AdWeek

Age Of Conan Breaks The Payment Chain

Funcom has released the MMO title Age of Conan as a free game. Now titled Age of Conan: Unchained, it is playable forever as a free game, with certain caveats of course.

Free accounts have access to four character classes and two character slots, with bank space, adventure zones, dungeons, raids and mount training all limited. Sieges, alternative advancement, offline levels and veteran points are unavailable, though all of the above is unlocked for certain fees or a subscription payment.

Source: ageofconan.com/playfree

Halo: Glasslands Hits Bookshelves In October

The latest book for the Halo franchise has been announced. Called Halo: Glasslands, it will follow the events of Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.

This novel is by Star Wars and Gears of War novelist Karen Traviss will start a new trilogy of books at look at the game’s universe after the events of Halo 3. Halo: Glasslands will release on October 25.

BioWare Regrets Gameplay Mistakes In First Mass Effect

BioWare has expressed some regrets with Dragon Age II, but it turns out there are some lingering regrets over the first Mass Effect as well. The combat was redesigned and streamlined for the acclaimed sequel Mass Effect 2.

“Art-wise the original levels [in ME1] worked really well but for gameplay they weren’t so good, said BioWare art director Derek Watts. We had a lot of raised platforms and areas you could get caught up in – stuff we should have fixed right from the beginning.”

“Because it was our first next-gen game we were actually thinking we were doing a really good job. It’s just the challenge of trying to make that first next-gen game was huge. Everybody else had issues too, said Watts. “Getting used to the technology made it difficult for us. We wanted those wide open areas, those swooping curves, the grand vistas and stuff, but it was hard to do with that engine.”

Source: CVG

Rockstar’s Relationship With Team Bondi ‘Badly Damaged’

By now, much information has come out about the 130 or so developers who were left of the final credits for L.A. Noire and the poor working conditions they endured. As it turns out, the relationship between publisher Rockstar Games and developer Team Bondi was almost as dysfunctional as it was with certain developers.

“I’ve heard a lot about Rockstar’s disdain for Team Bondi, and it has been made quite clear that they will not publish Team Bondi’s next game,” said an anonymous source. “Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged – Brendan treats L.A. Noire like a success due to his vision but I think Rockstar are the ones who saved the project. They continued to sink money into L.A. Noire, and their marketing was fantastic. Without their continued support, Team Bondi would have gone under several years ago.”

Part of the conflict between Team Bondi and Rockstar was due to Rockstar’s frustration with Team Bondi’s direction, and eventually Team Bondi’s management in turn resented Rockstar for taking lots of creative control, the source added.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz