DC Universe Rescued From Subscriptions

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Sony Online Entertainment has announced that DC Universe Online will be going free-to-play. Free players will have access to all the game’s content with two character slots; any player that has spent $5 will have a Premium account with more character, inventory and cash limits and Legendary for subscribers will come with all the DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots and more than 80 inventory slots.

“When we launched DC Universe Online, we introduced a very different brand of massive online game driven by fast action combat to PC and PS3 gamers and with that, we discovered a new type of online gamer,” said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. “We’ve listened to our community, and we’ve determined that the free-to-play model is the best fit for DC Universe Online. Our philosophy embraces learning from our experience and as a pioneer in the free-to-play space with proven successful games like Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures, we believe this new model will expand the DCUO experience and offer more options that cater to every type of player so they can play the game in a way that fits them.”

Find out more at DCUniverseOnline.com/free.

Angry Birds Sees Unofficial Theme Park In China

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An Angry Birds theme park has appeared in China’s city of Changsha which allows visitors to use giant slingshots that shoot the birds at pig balloons. Thing is, it is not a licensed effort by Rovio.

“This [Angry Birds park] serves as a method for people to purge themselves and to gain happiness,” explained a park official to the Chinese site Gamersky.com.

Both companies could benefit from an official partnership and Daisy Yang, a spokeswoman for Rovio China, said, “We would welcome a partnership, but Rovio would need to give them permission to use the Angry Birds game.”

Source: mobiledia.com

Nike Mag Is Back From The Future

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Nike recently held a promotional event auctioning off 1,500 Nike MAGs. Here are some of the videos for the famous design from Back to the Future!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eihSPj9lSMw

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eYMyEqRb2cw

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_dNexvnbi44

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3yiSdjwi_bg

Sims Social Zings Zynga

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The Sims Social has quickly risen to be one of the largest competitors to Zynga in the social space. Electronics Arts is letting people know in these adds that they’re gunning for Zynga’s games in particular, encouraging FarmVille and CityVille players to “play with life.”

Enter Capitol

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To coincide with the release of the teaser trailer, Lionsgate has launched a new website at thecapitol.pn that began with a distorted image, twitter link and not much else. The tweet stated: “the Capitol knows who I am. Identify yourself immediately”. Fans can begin registration and connect with either Facebook or Twitter which will allow the “what’s my district ” app. Fans must confirm their name and e-mail to continue. Once they have registered they are told that they are registering in a particular district and that their application is being processed. In order to expedite the process, fans must click to expedite (share) with either Twitter or Facebook which will post a message saying: “I’m applying for expedited processing for #District2PN District Identification Passes. What District are you in ” Fans can continue to expedite (share) or return to the Citizen Registration Terminal and scroll through data from the Capitol looking at the district processing queue and read Capitol announcements. A countdown clock to the 74th hunger games seems to sync with the release of the first film in the series.

Create A Missing Person Report

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On the official Facebook page for Abduction, fans can upload and tag a photo in the Fan Mosaic app to create a missing person’s report. Begin by choosing a photo from a Facebook album and then tagging the name, last known place seen, last person seen with, who to contact if found and size of the reward. Once submitted the user’s photo will be added to a mosaic that can be explored and shared.

Gaikai Targets 100 Million Users

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Streaming service Gaikai has already reached 10 million consumers but it’s not stopping there. Using a combination of retailers and entertainment destinations Gaikai can place games directly in front of established audiences, and Gaikai CEO David Perry claims it’s easy to hit another one million users at the touch of a button.

“We are targeting 100 million as quickly as we can possibly get there,” said Perry. “We need to get above the reach of any single game entity in the industry a quickly as we can.”

“The ability to pull a lever and have a million people play your game is something that’s crazy to even think about today,” he added. “That’s a very difficult problem, yet with cloud gaming that will be really quite straight forward. A normal way of thinking will be, ‘I want another million and another million’. It turns out that the number one way to get people to buy is trying your product, and it’s amazing that game trials are being made so difficult.”

“We are a company doing this for other people. If this was just Gaikai and Gaikai has down time that’s our problem,” he noted. “But if I’m doing it for Electronic Arts or someone else and it’s down, then it’s my problem big-time and everyone’s going to be calling. If you just paid to play a game and you log in and it’s not available for any reason you’re going to get mad. We’re at a point now where the conversions that we’re seeing on the partner sites are way higher than expected so now we want to go to full games. The problem with that is I need to offer Amazon-level ‘always up’ service time.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Sony Doesn’t See Vita Competing With 3DS

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While gamers are eager to pit rivalries between Sony’s PS Vita and the Nintendo 3DS, that’s not the way Sony sees it. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan president Hiroshi Kawano thinks that the Vita will compete more directly with the smartphone market.

Sony views the Vita as a gaming device first, with social features secondary. Sony is hoping that the first 500,000 PS Vita units sell out easily in Japan, helped by a pre-paid 3G plan included for free.

Source: andriasang.com