Women Gamers Haven’t Been Served, Says Female Designer

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Core gaming has long been a male dominated field, in both who makes the games and who the games are made for. Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch, CEO of Silicon Sisters Interactive, thinks that the gameing industry has failed its female customer base.

“I think there are different levels to what you can offer,” said Gershkovitch. “What we’ve seen is a fairly superficial offering where, in the absence of truly understanding what women want in terms of game mechanics and connection, what we’re getting is a female wrapper around a game that’s really designed for men. But while that works to some degree it’s not going to, in my estimation, really build the gaming community, and really contribute to that aspirational goal of finding out what it is that women connect with when they game.”

“It took 30 years to really perfect the three things that males seem to really love, which are shooting, and driving, and sports,” she added. “And those are absolutely kick-ass games now, and you really have to sit back and go, ‘What is the equivalent for girls And please God, don’t let it take us 30 years to get to as high a quality level as that.'”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Take The Plunge And Share

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The soon-to-be-released film Shark Night 3D has launched a contest {link no longer active} asking fans if they have what it takes to face off against the deadliest predator alive. Enter to win a trip to dive with the Great Whites by “liking” Shark Night 3D on Facebook and then connecting to Twitter or Facebook and sharing out the official contest page. Final contestants will be chosen on September 2, so take the plunge now!

Your Memories On Your Bookshelf

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Use the Social Memories {link no longer active} app to save your Facebook activity, summarized beautifully in one book to look at whenever you want. Analyzed and commemorated in twenty eight elegant pages on luxurious gloss stock to present your memories professionally bound with clarity, infographics show your social highlights and trends.

Social Game Companies Have ‘Out Of Whack’ Valuations, Says Activision

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Rovio has been valued at several billion dollars, while Zynga is somewhere around $13.8 billion. This has made Activision, who hasn’t been very active in the social gaming arena, reluctant to jump in.

“Valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack, so that’s an issue when it comes to acquisitions” said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who added about social games, “We haven’t made any formal announcements, but don’t mistake careful, methodical planning for inaction. Any new place where people are playing games, at scale, is something that we’re interested in.”

Source: Bloomberg

iPad Continues To Own Tablet Market

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Apple has remarked before that other companies have had difficultly breaking into the tablet computer market and compete with the iPad. Now that HP has decided to shutter its TouchPad weeks after launch, Apple’s position in the driver’s seat of the tablet market seems more secure.

“Apple created the tablet castle and various competitors have tried to storm the walls, but nobody has made much of a dent,” said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

HP decided to push out a high profile ad campaign with the TouchPad, featuring teen idol Miranda Cosgrove and Glee star Lea Michele. Still, many thought that the device couldn’t be fixed by marketing, and clashes were reported between HP and Palm employees for the product development and marketing of the TouchPad.

Apple said they shipped 28.7 million iPads from launch in April 2010 through May 2011. With estimates that sales of tablets will get up to 44 million in 2015, others like Samsung, LG and RIM aren’t going to surrender as easily.

“HP was late to the tablet game as well as the smartphone market,” said Golvin. “Even if their tablet had been more successful, they still would have been shut out of the smartphone space and would have had to face that mountain.”

Source: AdAge

Rovio Hires Fox Veteran For North American GM

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Rovio has announced that it has named Andrew Stalbow as general manager of North America. He worked with Rovio previously on Angry Birds Rio while he was still part of Fox Digital Entertainment’s mobile division.

“I saw firsthand the power of the Angry Birds brand during the collaboration with the talented Rovio team on Angry Birds Rio,” said Stalbow. “I’m looking forward to helping grow Rovio’s business and the Angry Birds franchise by building partnerships with the entertainment industry, the biggest consumer brands and the latest digital distribution platforms. Our goal is to continue to delight and surprise Angry Birds fans all over the world.”

“Working with Andrew on the Angry Birds Rio app was an excellent partnership,” added Rovio CEO Mikael Hed. “We’re very excited to have him on board for our continued expansion in North America and in the entertainment industry in particular.”

Google Motorola: The Next Apple?

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What if Google were to make Android proprietary to Motorola? That’s the scenario that Piper Jaffray analysts are putting out there, and they think that Google could make a lot of money if they went that route.

Gene Munster, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray and Co., thinks that Google will hold on to Motorola Mobility’s patents and sell off the company’s device and set-top box businesses. However, if they closed off Android from other OEMs and makes it exclusive to Motorola hardware, he estimates that the company will see $10 billion in operating profit in 2015, which would add about 35 percent to its overall income.

“It’s massively accretive, but unlikely to happen given Google is too concerned about losing search share to Bing,” said Munster.

Such a decision, however, would cede market share to Microsoft. Google would also have to give up its current strategy of being the leader in mobile search and advertising and would lose $4.5 billion in Android ad revenue at $10 per user in 2015, compared to Android’s current trajectory.

Andy Rubin, Google’s senior vice president of mobile, said of the purchase of Motorola, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community.”

Source: AdWeek

DeNA Expands In Asia, Teams With Namco Bandai

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Mobile developer DeNA has announced that they will launch DeNA Asia Pacific Holdings in Singapore on September 1, 2011. Separately, they will team up with publisher Namco Bandai Games for a brand-new joint venture to create new social titles for mobile platforms; the new company, BDNA, Inc, will start operations on October 1, 2011.

“Mobage is a truly global platform for social games and entertainment and we’re excited to expand our game development capability in the Asia-Pacific region with DeNA Asia,” said DeNA managing director Tetsuya Mori. “Southeast and South Asia are full of entrepreneurial talent and has huge growth potential. DeNA Asia will serve as local developers’ gateway to the global market and bring unprecedented monetization opportunities by enabling them to deliver social games across borders and devices.”

Saints Row: The Third Gets ‘Maximum Pleasure’ And ‘Smooth Criminal’

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THQ has announced the ‘Maximum Pleasure’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’ editions of Saints Row: The Third. These limited edition collector’s packs will be available exclusively in Australia and New Zealand for now, with the game scheduled to release November 15, 2011.

JB HiFi will have the ‘Maximum Pleasure Edition’ with a Professor Genki stuntman key-ring, hyper-replica head and a banner pen, and will retail for $109 Australian. EB Games will offer the ‘Smooth Criminal Edition’, which has a bullet-shaped ice cube tray, silver-played Saints Crest cuff links, the in-game soundtrack and a pair of sunglasses for $128 Australian. The will both have copies of the game, the downloadable ‘Professor Genki Hyper-Ordinary Pre-Order Pack’ and their own unique packaging.