Forza Motorsport 4 Teams With American Le Mans Series

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Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios have announced a partnership with the American Le Mans Series. As a result, Forza Motorsport 4 will provide realistic models of tracks and cars from the racing series, and fans of the American Le Mans Series will have the opportunity to try out Forza Motorsport 4 at select race events before it launches in October.

“Our partnership with ALMS signifies the joining of two great automotive forces,” said Alan Hartman, Studio Manager of Turn 10 Studios. “We’re pushing the limits in Forza Motorsport 4 and taking peoples love of cars  to a new  level. Xbox and Forza Motorsport 4 will without a doubt be the best place to enjoy the iconic American Le Mans Series if you aren t at the track racing yourself.”

“The American Le Mans Series is about delivering the ultimate sports car racing experience for race fans and automotive enthusiasts around the world,” said American Le Mans Series CEO Scott Atherton. “Partnering with Turn 10 Studios and naming Forza Motorsport 4 as our official racing game partner unites our mutual passion for racing and provides our loyal fans even more ways to experience the American Le Mans Series. I don t know of any other racing series that gives its fans the opportunity to both watch live racing and race the cars and tracks themselves on the same gaming console.”

Skyrim Collector’s Edition Gets Dragon Statue

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Bethsoft announced that they will release a Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector’s Edition for $149.99. It includes a PVC dragon Alduin Statue, a 200 page ‘The Art of Skyrim’ Official Art Book, and a ‘The Making of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim‘ DVD.

“We always say that we make the games we want to play,” said Pete Hines, VP of PR and marketing for Bethesda. “We can also say we create the collector’s editions that we’d want to own. We all want one of these!”

Everyone who pre-orders will also receive a premium map with a material not unlike burlap. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be available at retail on November 11, 2011.

NFL Ad Buys Full Steam Ahead, Regardless Of Lockout

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The fourth month long lockout of the National Football League over a labor dispute between the players and owners resulted in much consternation for the fans. Despite (or maybe even because) of the situation, ad buys have never been larger for the league.

There are five weeks until the NFL season begins in earnest and already the network partners have sold 85 percent of their regular-season inventory. CPMs are indeed meeting the 11 to 13 percent increases from broadcasters secured in the 2011-12 upfront.

Sunday Night Football, which averaged 21.2 million viewers per broadcast last year, has been a particularly big winner. Some of our games are sold out in the high 80s [percent of ads sold], says Seth Winter, head of NBC Sports Group sales & marketing.

NBC was selling ads for the past four months despite the lockout. There was never any real doubt in the mind of the ad market that there would be a resolution, Winter says. All along, the behavior of the key parties reinforced our belief that we would have football in September.

Neil Mulcahy, who runs Fox Sports advertising sales, noted that despite worries, they were well inclined to believe that everything would work out. The bottom line is, the NFL is irreplaceable, Mulcahy said. Anyone who spends a significant amount of dollars with the NFL had to take that chance.

Perhaps the greatest relief is felt by NBC because of Super Bowl XLVI on February 5; as early as May, they had reportedly sold roughly half of the Super Bowl spots at rates as high as $3.3 million for 30 seconds of airtime, with sources indicating that fewer than 20 in-game spots yet remain.

Source: AdWeek

Bobby Kotick: Why He’s In Moneyball

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Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, will play the owner of the Oakland Athletics in the upcoming film Moneyball. The reason is because Kotick is a friend of director Bennett Miller and he wanted a favor.

“We were having dinner and Bennett was talking about Moneyball and he asked me a little bit about an owner’s psychology and what an owner would be like. I started reading the script and I said, I really think the words don’t capture how an owner would react to this part of the conversation.  I also loved Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball. We were having this back and forth and Bennett said ‘why don t you do it? It would make the role very authentic.’ And I said, ‘I will, but only if you made my Call of Duty endowment movie.'”

Miller has already made the short film for the Call of Duty charity, which will air at a later date. As for acting, Kotick says, “I don t get a credit and you ll never see me acting again.”

Source: Reuters

Twisted Metal Developer Explains Delay

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David Jaffe has taken to Twitter to defend the decision by Eat Sleep Play to push back the release of Twisted Metal until early 2012. While he concedes that the game would have been done by the late Fall release date they had planned, Jaffe said that it comes down to polishing issues.

“No real way to ship Twisted Metal sooner than the date we are currently shooting for (early 2012)…Sorry for the delay,” said Jaffe. “But the extra months are really needed for polish and we feel we need more than 4-6 weeks (which would see us hitting shelves in your suggested November time frame) of polish/tuning. Also hitting smack dab in mid Nov/Mid Dec is a bad time to release this game (although that was not the reason we delayed AT ALL…we WANTED to be out in Oct)…but the extra time gives us more time to balance weapons, tune vehicle handling, tune the EXP progression for leveling up, etc…”

“I assure you, better to be a LITTLE ANNOYED in the short term versus hate us forever for shipping a game that’s not up to your understandably high expectations,” he added. “ANY money is a lot to ask from someone for entertainment. 60 bucks is a S**TE TON to ask for so if we are going to charge that, you deserve our best…even if it takes a little longer than we anticipated.”

Source: twitter.com

3D Purchase Intent Down, Portable 3D Devices Up Generate Interest

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The NPD Group report that overall awareness and purchase intent for specific 3D products declined in May 2011 compared to October 2010. The only category not to see a decrease was home and portable video games consoles, with the 3DS in particular because of its launch between the two “3D 360-Degree Monitor” surveys.

“With the run-up to the holiday purchase season, the intent to purchase 3D televisions followed the purchase intent to buy TVs in general,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD. “As NPD’s sell-through data shows, sales of 3D TVs did indeed rise during the holiday season, but they have since receded due to the seasonality of major electronics purchases.”

“Growth in both awareness and purchase intent for the 3D video-game player market is a particular bright spot in this emerging arena,” Rubin added. “The Nintendo 3DS has a low price compared to a 3D television and doesn’t require glasses to view the effect. These advantages will also hold true for 3D smartphones entering the market this year.”

 

Bend, Stretch, Shoot And Build On Facebook

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LifeSavers Gummies has launched three new game app experiences on Facebook   {link no longer active} that challenge fans to play, beat their own high score and share. Ring Shot challenges users to shoot their favorite Gummie in a slingshot as far as they can. Gummie Mug allows users to upload a photo, stretch it, smush it and share it. Sweet Strings N Sour Rings is a track builder game where users can build a mini-race track, share it and compete for their best score. Users can login and track their scores and compete every time they come back.