In order to promote the DVD release of X-Men: First Class, Fox has unleashed a new 3D projection mapping promo in Los Angeles. It does a great job of highlighting the different X-Men, which are mostly different than the first set during the initial four movies.
Rockstar has finally issued its first Max Payne 3 trailer to the world and it looks spectacular. James McCaffrey is back to deliver the gritty voice over.
The Gunstringer is one of the most anticipated Kinect games to come out this year, and the launch trailer demonstrates the surprising variety of the game. Also includes, a parody Kevin Butler video of Gunstringer!
Ubisoft and GAME have teamed up to launch an Augmented Reality iPad Game that lets you race cars from the new release around just anywhere you can place a marker. Once the app is loaded, start your race by pointing your iPad 2 at the marker (available at any GAME store or available to print and download from the website) and the app will begin to set up your augmented reality track, choose one of five cars from the game and then let it loose to post the fastest possible lap time on a global leaderboard. Play in freestyle mode and impress friends with jumps, doughnuts and skilled handling. Fans can also win copies of the game, consoles or the ultimate prize: a trip to San Francisco!
On the official Facebook page for the remake of Straw Dogs, a Facebook application called Straw Dogs Quiz asks fans to test their breaking point. Click to begin and choose three friends – significant other, someone that always has your back and a person you feel you need to protect – and then proceed to the quiz. Questions ask fans to agree or disagree either slightly or strongly about their personality traits after being presented with a statement like “I am an even-tempered person and avoid conflict”. After answering some questions, a clip from the film fills the frame. The questions begin to change and the friends selected at the beginning start to appear in the questions themselves. After all 11 questions have been answered, the results of your breaking point quiz appear which can be shared via Facebook or Twitter.
Online options are revolutionizing the way that people consume games, from new distribution methods to economic models. It’s given rise to new disruptive game companies and allowed the relatively new game creator Hi-Rez Studios to snatch up the Tribes IP. We talked with Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios Chief Operating Officer about the exciting new developments at the
Three major reasons. The first was exposure and community growth: We felt that by going free-to-play we would significantly increase the number of people creating accounts and trying the game since it costs them nothing to do so; and then strong Global Agenda gameplay would keep them playing.
The second was player-choice: We like the idea that players get to decide how much they spend within a game. We don’t have to convince them to drop $50 up-front as with a retail game. If they like the game they can opt to spend money later on in-game items and services, and do so in a way that is not pay-to-win. And the final reason was around long-term support and updates: we felt that a free-to-play, not pay-to-win model, could still deliver revenue to our studio. And that revenue would allow us to not only maintain Global Agenda but enhance it with significant new updates.
All of the above turned out to be true. In fact, this month we are delivering Global Agenda‘s largest content update to date – the version 1.5 Recursive Colony expansion, and it will be free to the entire community.
Yes. Not necessarily for developers of single-player content. But at Hi-Rez our focus is indeed online games where you play with and against other people. Successful games of this type spread primarily thru strong word-of-mouth and the free-to-play model supports this growth. It is the same reason that other online platforms tend to be free, be it Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc.
Digital distribution is the huge change that is disrupting the games industry for the better. As with music, movies, and books, the consumer no longer has to enter a retail store to purchase product. But with games the digital distribution channel is even more powerful because the product no longer has to be static and unchanging. Regardless of how the game is acquired, it doesn’t actually have to be treated like a product at all but more like a an entertainment service where there are constant updates, distributed digitally, based upon what players want. And I think when you have this direct and ongoing communication between developer and user, the result is better games.
Challenges . . . Well, as a single game studio we had to fight for media attention against a lot of big publishers. But now, with three strong online games in development – Global Agenda, Tribes: Ascend, and SMITE, we are definitely seeing that change.
The advantages are numerous. Basically we get to develop the type of games we want to see as gamers, design them the way we want, and release them when we feel they are ready.
With Global Agenda we made a VERY different type of MMO – aiming reticules instead of tab-targeting, player-skill over extreme stat-based level grind, playable in 15-minute mission doses rather than requiring all-night raid coordination, and of course a sci-fi setting rather than generic fantasy with elves. We wanted to communicate how our game was not the typical MMO and that messaging came together with those ads and the tag-line – “No Elves!”
It is a huge opportunity for us. Again, it is not like a publisher acquired the IP and contracted with Hi-Rez Studios to do the development. As a studio we sought out the IP and acquired it because we missed Tribes and were excited to renew that franchise.
We have a lot of promotion planned but I think long-term fans are most motivated by seeing gameplay, and of course eventually getting hands-on in Beta.
With Tribes, so much of the game revolves around the feel of movement and physics involved with jetpacking, skiing, momentum, and weapon impact. There is a speed and fluidity and elegance in Tribes that you simply don’t find in any other shooter. The dev team has worked hard to nail that feel and we see fans get most excited once they are hands-on.
SMITE in action.
SMITE will be our first game without jetpacks!
As with Global Agenda and Tribes: Ascend, SMITE is a multiplayer online game with a big emphasis on teamwork, tactics, and strategy. But beyond that it couldn’t be more different.
Gamers familiar with DoTA or League of Legends will see familiar elements like 5 versus 5, session-based games, minions, towers, and in-match leveling and item-buying. But the huge change is the 3rd-person camera. That doesn’t just improve how the game looks, it changes completely how the game is played. Plus we are excited by the theme of mythology. Our art team has created some very compelling playable gods including Zeus, Anubis, Odin, Kali, and many others. Again, gameplay videos sell SMITE better than any words do so I encourage folks to check the coverage from PAX where we had a great showing of SMITE.
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Played Global Agenda Looking forward to the new games from Hi-Rez Join the discussion on Facebook.
Blizzard has announced that PayPal will be the payment-service intermediary for their real-money auction house in Diablo III, allowing users to convert money for use in the auction house and turn in-game currency from the auctioning into real money. Also, PayPal will soon be a method for purchasing games on Battle.net.
“PayPal envisions a world where we are wherever the consumer is,” said PayPal director of emerging opportunities Carey Kolaja. “Be it on the web, a mobile device, a gaming console, or a social networking platform, PayPal continues to be the trusted payment option of choice.”
Newzoo released a study indicating indicates that emerging markets Brazil, Russia and Mexico, will generate $2 billion, $1.5 billion and $1.2 billion. Brazil is mostly concentrating on freemium games, with 11 percent spent on social networks, 15 percent on casual game portals, and 16 percent on MMOs, with mobile devices accounting for 9 percent of total revenue; roughly a third goes to boxed PC and console games, but the piracy and second hand sales account for roughly a sixth of that spend.
Mexico has more spent on retail console and PC games, roughly 69 percent of their total spend. However, while 60 percent of all consumer time is spent in online and mobile games, social networks, online portals and mobile games only generate $85 million of spending each, though Newzoo predicts significant growth in these areas as free-to-play business models become more popular.
Russia has 38 million gamers, and while 75 percent readily admit to downloading games illegally, 53 percent say they do spend money on games. Of those who spend, 56 percent of consumer spending goes to PC games and MMOs, or $830 million, while console games generate just $225 million; online game portals, social networks and mobile devices account for 10 percent of total spending each, but represent 48 per cent of all time invested.
Investors have let Nintendo know what they think about the company’s intransigence towards releasing their games on non-Nintendo platforms, especially mobile phones. However, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata remains firm in his conviction that keeping Nintendo games on Nintendo platforms is in their best interest.
“This is absolutely not under consideration,” said Iwata. “If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s the duty of management to make use of those strengths.
“It’s probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we’d make profits,” he added. “However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo’s mid and long term competitive strength.”Source Andriasang
Subway has announced the details for their Taste For Adventure Sweepstakes & Instant Win Game for Uncharted 3. The contest will run from September 29 until November 13 and will be available with purchase from appropriately marked products.
Cups with the appropriate code will come with early access to the Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Competitive Multiplayer Experience or play DC Universe Online for seven days. Other choices (which come with a sandwich or chip bag) include your choice of Voucher Passcode, including a dynamic theme, the Fortune Hunter Bounty, Multiplayer Drake Character Skin, Multiplayer Weapon Skin or a Subway Taste For Adventure Cup and Subway Sandwich virtual costumes for PlayStation Home.
