Hustle And Win

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Want to rise in the ranks in APB On the official Facebook page for the game, check out the customized Fanzy Top Fans App produced by the Ayzenberg Group and start spreading the word and earning in-game rewards. Post and share videos, get your friends to join then check your status and boost your rank. The higher you rank, the more you win. Start spreading the word by posting about the game and sharing videos through Facebook and Twitter. Make sure to use specific phrases and keywords in order to receive your in-game gift. Invite your friends to Fanrank and keep coming back to share new stuff and keep tabs on your status as you boost your rank, gain badges, and move up the leaderboard.

PS3 Bundle For Just $200 At Walmart

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Walmart sure is on a roll with amazing offers for gamers this holiday season. Following the news of the $99 Wii we brought you yesterday, we’ve now found out that Walmart is offering a special PS3 bundle for just $199.96, which includes a 160GB PS3 and two games: LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition and Rachet and Clank: All 4 One.  That’s quite a steal.

It’s available online (or was), and it’s up for grabs as an early Black Friday deal on Thursday, November 24 starting at 10 PM local time. We can already see gamers scrambling in a Turkey induced haze after dinner to get to Walmart to take advantage of this deal.

NBC Gives Thumbs Up For Full Season Of Grimm

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Grimm, a new fantasy-based TV series on NBC inspired by Grimm’s fairy tales, has become a big hit among the 18-49 demo (which naturally has a good amount of overlap with gamers). The network has decided to give the show the go ahead to produce a full season.

The show has been tracking up 50 percent in its 9 p.m. Friday time slot over the same period last year in the 18-49 demo. NBC also said it’s going to give Grimm a shot to pick up more viewers with a one-time run in the 10 p.m. time slot on Thursday, Dec. 8. And no, it won’t be a re-run of a previous episode – it will be an original episode, and another original will air the following night in the series’ regular time slot.

Perhaps game publishers might want to consider securing a spot during the series’ time slot

Final Fantasy XIV And How Square Aims To Regain Players’ Trust

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Final Fantasy – it’s been one of the biggest brands in RPG gaming for decades, but all is not right. Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada has acknowledged in the past that the troubled 2010 MMO Final Fantasy XIV “greatly damaged” the Final Fantasy brand. Now Square Enix is aiming to regain the trust of its customers.

With that in mind, the company hasn’t even started charging for FFXIV, which was supposed to have been a premium MMO. Come December, though, patch 1.20 will launch and bring about any features that were missing. Square Enix could begin charging then.

“What we consider more critical is the feeling that we betrayed the trust of our players,” says Naoki Yoshida, producer of the game. “Final Fantasy XIV, at the time of its launch, greatly disappointed our customers who had high hopes, and failed to live up to the standards of the Final Fantasy series. As a result, we lost our customers’ trust in a big way.”

“The first thing I did when I became the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV last December was to ask myself, ‘What kind of service system, game content, and community content would be necessary if we were to continue to offer this service 10 years into the future ‘” says Yoshida, who took clues from popular Western MMOs such as World of Warcraft and Rift. “I came to the quick conclusion that we would have to redesign the user interface, graphics engine, map system and the resource itself, and the servers.”

Read more at Gamasutra.

Why The Facebook Phone Died

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Facebook, it’s been revealed, had been working on a phone, but in the end the project died. Apparently, CEO Mark Zuckerberg selected a special team and even put them in their own building where they were put in charge of designing a Facebook Phone. So what happened

Well, according to Liz Gannes and Ina Fried at All Things D, the project was just too ambitious and too costly. “The project quickly spiraled out of Facebook’s expertise and into budgets that were impossible without an IPO or perhaps a billion-dollar fundraising,” they revealed in their report.

That’s not all, though. Apparently, jealousy started creeping in throughout the organization since these engineers were “chosen” by Zuckerberg. “This was an exclusive and hand-picked group, which generated awkwardness within Facebook’s flat organization. That’s because Facebook has historically only ever made one product — its social platform. To have a secret team operating out of a separate building drew a lot of interest and also jealousy from other employees, multiple sources said,” the report continued.

If you actually desire a Facebook phone, the good news is that you’ll be getting a version of sorts still. Facebook is currently working on a phone that will be built by HTC and run on Android.

Source: All Things D

IPad 3 Rumored To Be In Production Right Now

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Many industry pundits expect iPad 3 to launch next year, but it’s possible that Apple’s next tablet could hit the market even sooner than expected. DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim has indicated that the new iPad with a QXGA 2048-by-1536 Retina display is actually already in production right now.

Because the display is very difficult to produce in mass quantities, Apple is looking for help from Samsung, Sharp, and LG to produce them, in order to meet consumer demand. It’s rumored that iPad 3 could be ready to ship as soon as January, with more significant volume becoming available within a couple months.

The iPad 2 has really been embraced by game makers, and the iPad 3 is likely to bring visuals much closer to what the consoles can produce. It’l be interesting to see what iOS developers do with the beefier tablet hardware.

Source: CNET

Xbox 360 To See Revised Model By Holiday 2012?

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If you’ve been reading gaming websites in the last couple weeks, you’ve no doubt seen the rampant rumors about Microsoft readying an Xbox 720 (a successor to Xbox 360) by the end of next year. But does that make any sense when Xbox 360 continues to sell so well Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter says no.

In fact, Pachter thinks the rumors are off-base altogether and that what people are actually getting wind of is a new design for the existing Xbox 360.

“Those rumors are silly. Microsoft is still selling a ton of Xbox 360s, and they won’t replace the existing one until sales begin to slow. I think the rumors are based upon leaks about modifying the current Xbox 360 to allow it to operate Windows 8,” Pachter commented. “I fully expect a new model of Xbox 360 by holiday 2012, but don’t think we see a new console altogether from Microsoft until 2014.”

Source: IndustryGamers

Netflix And Nintendo Push ‘Just For Kids’ Section On Wii

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Netflix has done a fantastic job penetrating the console market and the Wii is perhaps the most family-friendly console ever created, so it makes sense that the streaming video service is leveraging the Wii with a special “Just For Kids” section.

By selecting the section within the Netflix app for Wii, members will see a variety of content that’s perfect for their children 12 and under, with popular characters like “Phineas and Ferb” and “Elmo.”  The “Just for Kids” section lets users scroll through row after row of TV shows and movies organized by genres like superheroes, princesses, dinosaurs and girl power. Additionally, Netflix is using ratings and reviews from Common Sense Media “to help parents make great media choices.”

The Netflix “Just for Kids” section is now available in the U.S. on the Wii console (and PC/Mac). Netflix is planning similar functionality for other devices over the next year.