Facebook Ads To Explain Facial Recognition Feature

Facebook recently launched a facial recognition feature that was automatically activated, leading many to worry about privacy problems, including Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen. Facebook has responded by saying they will run ads informing users how to turn off the feature which every user will see at least twice.

Facebook has made significant changes that will provide better service and greater privacy protection to its users, not only in Connecticut, but across the country, Jepsen said. The company has been cooperative and diligent in its response and I look forward to working with them in the future to make sure Facebook users privacy is protected, which I believe is our shared goal.

For any users who opt out, any facial recognition data collected will be deleted, Jepsen added, noting that the company also assured him that it was not using the information for commercial or marketing purposes nor could private individuals to gain access to biometric information of others.”

Source: ct.gov

MapleStory Adventures Open For Business On Facebook

Nexon has officially launched MapleStory Adventures onto Facebook. It features all of the the action/MMORPG elements of the PC version along with the ability to interact with Facebook friends, letting players invite friends on quests and send gifts to each other.

MapleStory Adventures represents one of Nexon s top priorities of bringing our most popular games to the biggest audiences, said Daniel Kim, CEO of Nexon America. The game brings a whole new action RPG element to the Facebook space, a genre that hasn t been widely explored on the social gaming platform.

The 11-day closed beta test for MapleStory Adventures reached the 30,000 player cap almost immediately, with players participating in over 862,000 quests and picked up 14.2 million items like gold and potions.

MLS Tries To Sell Game With All-Stars Vs. Man U

The MLS All-Star game pitted the best of the American league against the English Premiere League champions Manchester United. It’s somewhat high stakes for the young U.S. soccer league, which they lost decisively 4-0 against perhaps the most popular European team in the world, but there are upsides regardless.

“Some professional sports teams or leagues might use Bobblehead Night to drive consumer awareness and demand. We actually bring in an international club and create an event,” says Dan Courtemanche, VPof marketing and communications for MLS. “It’s almost event marketing 101. It drives sales and demand.”

The event also gives MLS a chance to show off Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. “We could have gone up the road to the New Meadowlands Stadium and sold that out at 80,000. And certainly from a revenue standpoint, that would have been more advantageous,” says Courtemanche. “But from a marketing standpoint, this provides us the ability to showcase this stadium for the metropolitan New York City area, and really build the profile of the local team, the New York Red Bulls. We can show the in-stadium atmosphere, and people can sample what they can expect week in and week out with the Red Bulls.”

Still, despite pressures to be competitive, additional coverage of soccer on Fox Soccer Channel, Univision and ESPN is seen as beneficial to MLS in the long run. “We’re a firm believer that a rising tide lifts all boats, so the more people who are paying attention to soccer, the better it is for us,” he says. “We encourage fans of European or Latin American soccer to continue watching those matches. It might be your hometown club, where your family grew up in Buenos Aires or London. But you live in this country now. Watch those games on Saturday morning on Fox Soccer or ESPN, and then on Saturday night come out to an MLS game and experience it live at the stadium.”

MLS has done more on social media and ratings are good after a positive performance for the U.S. in both the Women’s and Men’s World Cup tournaments, but ultimately MLS is shooting for the top. “Our goal is to be the best soccer league in the world,” said Courtemanche bluntly. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow. It’s not going to happen in three-five years. But could it happen within the next 10-20 Most definitely. Americans have a mentality that they want to see the best. We certainly have some incredible players, guys that can keep you on the edge of your seat, competing in Major League Soccer. But our challenge remains that some people view other leagues as being of better quality. So, we need to solve that problem.”

Source: AdWeek

Zynga City Made In China

Zynga has announce a joint operation with Tencent to launch Zynga City. The Chinese version of CityVille marks on of the first international social games on Tencent’s Open Platform, with the additions of new Chinese decorations and architecture along with in-game events and competitions linked to Chinese holidays and new game mechanics including the ability to send street peddlers to their friend s cities.

As a social game developer, Zynga fully recognizes the value of Tencent’s Open Platform and their professional service capability, said Andy Tian, General Manager of Zynga China. CityVille is Zynga s largest and most popular game and Zynga is proud to partner with the leading open platform in China to bring the innovation and delight of the game to Chinese players. We are excited that a fully localized Zynga City will be introduced to the Chinese audience and look forward to enabling them to connect in a fun, harmonious way.

Tencent’s Open Platform has made a lot of progress after its launching one month ago, said Lin Songtao, General Manager of Tencent Open Platform. The launch of the new cross platform application center and integrated services such as brand-new cross-platform APP centers, Tencent s cloud service that uses APP console as a window, data statistical analysis, self-help advertising, virtual currency s payment capacity and gross settlement capability, are all bringing real value and strong support to the partners and developers of the Open Platform. It is the reason that we can operate such big games successfully in such a short time.

Uncharted Director Says Lots Of Actors Could Play Nathan Drake

Director Neil Burger right now is on the home stretch with the Limitless DVD release, but he’ll turn his attention over to Uncharted soon. He reiterated his love for the game source material at Comic-Con.

“I’m rewriting the script from scratch, starting like right now — like we are just starting now,” he said. “I love the game, it’s great, and I think it’s a great start for a movie, because the game is so cinematic. The character Nate in particular I like because he’s this ballsy guy that lives by his wits, and who’s capable of kind of anything and everything. He’s fearless and he doesn’t give a damn and he’ll go after the thing. I dig that kind of character and it’s a great character for a movie.”

Mark Wahlberg was previously attached to the role of Drake, though Burger suggested that he or Limitless star Bradley Cooper could potentially pull off the role, adding that those decisions are a ways off. “Once you get to the end of the screenplay you see who’s available, who seems right, who’s a new actor that’s just breaking on that’s not even on your radar right now.” said Burger. “There’s a lot of actors who even look like Nathan Drake from the video game who could do it and who would be great for it, so we’ll see.”

Source: Joystiq

Star Wars: The Old Republic, Battlefield 3 Pre-Order Bonanza

Electronic Arts has revealed the pre-order indicators for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Battlefield 3 as part of the results for the first fiscal quarter ending on June 30, 2011. Considering the importance of pre-orders for determining future sales, they’re both very good signs.

Battlefield 3 reportedly has pre-orders somewhere in the range of 10 times what Battlefield: Bad Company 2 racked up and is believed to be on par with Call of Duty: Black Ops from last year. Meanwhile, results for Star Wars: The Old Republic are even more positive, with pre-orders breaking all of EA’s records.

The War For Global Resistance Has Begun

Insomniac has unleashed Global Resistance, a Facebook-connected social game to promote the upcoming release of Resistance 3 for the Sony PS3. Similar to Risk, players of Global Resistance will unlock exclusive content in the PS3 shooter. Inversely, playing the shooter will bolster your forces in the social game. Players are forced to side with either the humans in this alternate WWII reality, or the alien race called the Chimera. Players gather troops and attempt to take over regions of the world using the vast war map across rounds that last for hours in wars that last for seven days. Military decisions are aided with color-coded icons to help judge your forces against the enemy’s. Skewed to the hardcore, war-mongering gamer, Global Resistance takes cues from Facebook games – like Goals in FarmVille directing players on what to do next in order to unlock content in Resistance 3. Players must even create and maintain their own military base to create new troops to launch Missions and an asynchronous battle system with players trading pre-planned attacks much similar to Mafia Wars.

Assassin’s Creed Comic And Movie Short Details

Ubisoft has announced Assassin’s Creed: Embers short film created and produced by Ubiworkshop. The 20 minutes short film promises to show what happens at the end of Ezio’s life.

 

Additionally, they revealed at Comic-Con a new comic called Assassin’s Creed The Chain. Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl, both of whom worked on Assassin’s Creed The Fall, will work on the new comic which will continue the stories of Daniel Cross and Nikola Orelov set during early 20th century Russia.

Source: Ubiworkshop

SoBe Teams With Tyson

SoBe is partnering with Mike Tyson s Main Event by launching a mobile game for the various teas, fruit juice blends, and enhanced waters they offer. As part of the “Try Everything Challenge” the person that gets the highest score in the game will receive a trip to Las Vegas in October to train with Tyson.

This (Main Event) partnership is a great way to bring to life the idea of Try Everything, said Elisa Quackenbush, a PepsiCo communications manager.

Previously, the new Try Everything branding has been bandied about by actress Hillary Duff and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton in television ads. This new ad is more focused on the male consumer, which is good because their millennial audience skews male.

We didn t necessarily set out to partner with a celebrity; we wanted to start from a creative place that was all about the consumer and the positioning, added Sam Olstein, director of the company who helped make the game. We knew about Mike s iPhone game and that it was gaining traction among the target audience and what better way to bring the concept Try Everything to life than climbing into the ring with Mike Tyson

Source: AdWeek

Dead Island Zombies Shambling To Home

Deep Silver announced recently that Dead Island zombies will infest Home Square before the game releases in September. Users will also be able to get a photo with a zombie and and take a zombie quiz.

There will also be ten mini-game challenges, allow players to craft items and fight off zombies with up to four other players, and those that complete all the challenges will receive the exclusive in-game weapon dubbed “Exploding Meat.” To top it off, there will be a pre-order kiosk in Home Square.