Syndicate: Deep Dive On Agent Fireteam

Syndicate is all about heavily modified agents going on missions for large corporations, be it alone or with others. Check out how the four-player co-op will go down, along with some of the Dart 6 brain chip abilities.

 

Tomb Raider Developer Prepping New IP

2012 will be a banner year for Crystal Dynamics, marking the release of the bold re-imagining of Tomb Raider. While the studio has focused on Lara Croft exclusively since they inherited the franchise from Core several years ago, they’ll also be working on something brand new.

“The New Year ushers in more than just fresh calendars and renewed resolutions,” wrote Meagan Marie.2012 will prove to be a very exciting year for Crystal Dynamics, more so than any in recent memory. Not only will our team be eating, sleeping, and breathing Tomb Raider, but we’ll also be hard at work preparing to reveal exciting new intellectual property to the world.”

“Additionally, the New Year marks Crystal Dynamics’ 20th anniversary. Despite the studio’s veteran status, Crystal Dynamics is always eager to grow. We’ll be working even harder in 2012 to produce product that positions us as a top tier innovator within the industry,” she added. “We’re excited for this New Year, and for our new vision of Tomb Raider. As always thank you to long-time franchise fans and studio followers.”

Source: square-enix.com

Facebook Looks Into Awards For Ad Agencies

Facebook has announced the judges of its inaugural Facebook Studio Awards, that will include several studio heads and Mark D’Arcy, director of global creative solutions at Facebook. agencies, brands, creatives.  Facebook’s global agency marketing head Jennifer Kattula said the goal of the awards was to inspire shops to be creative in their Facebook campaigns.

“[Agencies said], ‘I’m not inspired; your ad unit is tiny,'” Kattula said. “My whole goal was to go out and change that perception. . . . It’s a different perspective, figuring out how you string together the components of Facebook to make that whole experience really social in a way that can’t happen in any other medium.”

The awards have received hundreds of submissions from 40 countries and the deadline has been extended to January 15. Winners will be ranked in four tiers (blue, gold, silver and bronze) based on four criteria: whether the campaign is “social,” whether it makes full use of Facebook’s marketing programs, if it integrates with other media and if it scales.

Susan Credle, CCO, Leo Burnett North America, thinks that these awards help explore ways to bring creativity to advertising on Facebook, which is nascent in the way she compares to the early days of TV advertising. “There’s a great quote: ‘The best minds of our generation are being wasted trying to get ‘likes’ on Facebook,'” said Credle. “Right now, that’s what everyone’s trying to do. Next year we’re going to see, that’s just like turning on the TV. Of course [you need likes], but then what do you do ”

Source: AdWeek

Apple ITV Might Launch Mid-2012

Reports are that Apple is prepping the supply chain to create the materials for the iTV in Q1 2012 for full production and a launch in the middle of 2012. Reports are that Samsung have been producing chips for the iTVs and Sharp is produce the displays for the new TVs.

“Instead of a form of set-top box (STB) like the Apple TV launched in 2006, Apple’s new products will be full TV sets, the sources added,” said reports. “The displays of the new iTV sets will focus on 32- and 37-inch sizes initially, noted sources in the supply chain.”

Source: DigiTimes

EA Dice Loses Staffers To Ngmoco

Ngmoco has announced that they have hired three new staffers from EA Dice, developer of the successful Battlefield 3. Ngmoco Sweden will focus on social gaming and specifically free-to-play games.

The hires include Wille Wintertidh, who worked on the recent Battlefield 3. The other two hires worked on the latest Battlefield, and Malte Hildingsson also worked on Need for Speed: The Run, Mirror’s Edge and BulletStorm while Torbjorn Lædre has experience with Battlefield 2 and Far Cry 2.

Source: twitter.com

Angry Birds Sees 6.5 Million Christmas Day 2011 Downloads

Rovio has announced that there were 6.5 million Christmas Day downloads for its Angry Birds franchise, including Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio in both paid and free formats. The total number of downloads is more than triple the Christmas 2010 output of two million downloads across iOS and Android.

“We’re really excited to have such a massive number of new people get acquainted with Angry Birds over the holidays,” said Angry Birds creator Ville Heijari. “We have exciting new releases lined up for 2012, and can’t wait to introduce them to the public.”

Source: AllThingsD

Nintendo App Store Might Come Yo Wii U

Reports are that Nintendo is looking to prepare an app store of sorts for the Wii U. It is unknown if such a store would be monetized with Nintendo points currently used for WiiWare and the 3DS Nintendo eShop, or with something that resembles Apple’s pay-to-play system.

“Nintendo currently maintains repositories that act as ‘light’ app stores: The DSi Shop for its portables, and the Wii Shop for its current console. Most of its apps are games and basic utilities like Mario Calculator. The Wii U’s as-yet-unnamed store will go far beyond this, proffering a wider variety of apps, said a person familiar with the matter,” reports Matt Hickey. “Wii U owners will be able to use apps that operate on the Wii U itself, such as MLB.TV, and others that run independently on the Wii U’s controller. Given its tablet-like design and 6.2-inch screen, it’s not hard to imagine being able to check email, browse the Web, post to social networks and even get some gaming in.”

Source: The Daily

Legend Of Zelda Figurines In All Styles

Some new capsule toy pieces have been revealed for various incarnations of Zelda and Link from The Legend of Zelda. The $35 set includes childhood characters from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link and Tetra from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and the hero and princess from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Source: hobbyfan.com

Facebook Represents 1 Out Of 7 Minutes Spent Online

comScore recently released their ‘It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed’ report. Notable in the statistics: one out of every seven minutes spent online in October was on Facebook.

“The emergence and widespread global adoption of social networks has vastly influenced human interaction on an individual, community and larger societal level, and underscores the convergence of the online and offline worlds,” explained Linda Boland Abraham, CMO and EVP of global development, comScore. “Regardless of geography, social networks are weaving themselves ever more intricately into the fabric of the digital experience, opening a world of new opportunity for business and technology.”

Facebook is said to have reached 55 percent of the online global audience. Facebook took up three out of four minutes on social networks and social networking accounted for approximately one in every five online minutes in October of this year.

The study also said the 64 percent of U.S. smartphone users interact with social networking websites on their phones at least once a month. Two out of five smartphone users used sites like Facebook every day and increasingly come from older demographics.

Half-Life 3 Leaks Debunked As ‘Trolling’

There have been various images that have been floating around suggesting that maybe, just maybe, that Half-Life 3 is finally in development. However, Half-Life and Portal series co-writer Chet Faliszek has come out to debunk any theories that Gabe Newell had given the order to start leaking about Half-Life 3.

“You are being trolled. There is no ARG,” Faliszek wrote. “There has been no directive from Gabe to leak anything. That is all false. I just want to say this so there is no confusion. This is the community trolling the community nothing more. While it is nice to see people excited about anything HL, I hate seeing people be trolled like this.”

Source: forums.steampowered.com