Bite Me: Season 2 Confirmed

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Machinima has announced that it will renew its comedy series Bite Me with Lionsgate. The second season of the series will premiere on the Machinima Network and on the cable network FEARnet on March 6, 2012.

“Bite Me is yet another example of the type of premium content that we know resonates with our global audience of highly engaged and influential young males,” said Allen DeBevoise, Chairman and CEO of Machinima. “We’re thrilled to partner with Lionsgate on the second season and look forward to expanding this into a global franchise.”

“Lionsgate is committed to creating and delivering original content that bridges the gap between traditional and digital screens,” said Lionsgate’s Curt Marvis. “Bite Me is a perfect example of our win/win approach to traditional and digital platforms, launching both on Machinima and FEARnet. Machinima is a dynamic and innovative company that is helping to change the face of the Internet, and they share our entrepreneurial culture and game-changing vision. We will continue to explore these types of synergistic partnerships in the future.”

Facebook Reinforces Negative Behavior For Users With Low Self-Esteem

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Facebook is a tool for people to talk to each other socially, and at first blush it would appear to be a boon for people with low self-esteem. However, according to a study published in Psychological Science, people with low self-esteem often behave in a counterproductive fashion, telling all their friends about what’s going wrong in their lives and pushing them away.

“We had this idea that Facebook could be a really fantastic place for people to strengthen their relationships,” says Amanda Forest, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, who co-wrote the new study with her adviser Joanne Wood.

The study found that those with low self-esteem are more likely to see Facebook as a safe place to talk with people, since they are generally uncomfortable with face-to-face contact. A neutral party (a coder) was asked to rate the last ten status updates of users and it was found that those with low self-esteem were more negative than people with high self-esteem and the coders liked them less.

Interestingly, the study said that those that with low self-esteem get more responses from their Facebook friends when they post highly positive updates compared to less positive ones; with high self-esteem users the trend was reversed.

The conclusion is that while people with low self-esteem feel safe making personal disclosures on Facebook, they may not be helping themselves. “If you’re talking to somebody in person and you say something, you might get some indication that they don’t like it, that they’re sick of hearing your negativity,” says Forest, noting that when people have a negative reaction to a post on Facebook, they often keep it to themselves. “On Facebook, you don’t see most of the reactions.”

Source: ScienceDaily.com

Explore The Magus

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ABC’s The River follows the story of famed explorer and TV personality, Emmet Cole, who’s gone missing while on an uncharted mission in the Amazon. Will his family and friends find him alive during their search or will they discover something more sinister, deadly or even supernatural From Oren Peli, the director of Paranormal Activity, this riveting new thriller takes you deep into the unknown, where the only thing darker than family secrets is the mystery at the heart of the Amazon. On the official website, fans can connect via Facebook and help to find two friends that have also gone missing along with Emmet. The adventure starts on the upper deck of the Magus somewhere in the Amazon. Explore the boat by clicking on hot spots to uncover clues to the whereabouts of Emmet and your friends. Try and stay alive. You may not be alone.

Facebook IPO: How it Could Affect Social Developers

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Facebook has announced its IPO, which might end up being the largest ever. However, there could be a ripple effect on Facebook game developers and not necessarily a positive one.

“Facebook going IPO has both its advantages and disadvantages for the gaming community,” said Jesse Divnich, analyst for EEDAR. “On the positive side, Facebook’s IPO will put additional pressure on the company to continually innovate its back-end technologies, which will add additional resources and tools for game developers to experiment with. On the negative side, Facebook will command a high multiple in the open market, signifying that investors expect aggressive revenue and profit growth, which could force Facebook to ‘tax’ video games more than it already does. This could include various license fees, tool fees, or Facebook connect fees.”

“Yes, their IPO will impact social games,” said Michael Pachter, analyst for Wedbush Securities. “They will be under pressure from investors to deliver revenue and profit growth, so they will have an incentive to find creative ways to get Facebook users to register credit cards and engage in commercial transactions. That could be renting a video stream, downloading a song, buying a discount coupon, or buying virtual items in a game. The point is that once they have a reason to get users to register credit cards, buying virtual items will be far easier for those who play social games and who haven’t yet bought anything (much like one-click ordering on Amazon). I think that is good for the social games makers.”

Source: IndustryGamers.com

Tail Drift Wins Unity Contest

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Unity has announced that their “Flash in a Flash” $20,000 Grand Prize winner, Tail Drift, created by Cameron Owen. The game was chosen from a field narrowed down to 30 titles and then ten prize winners.

“Not only is Tail Drift incredibly fun, but it also shows off both the amazing technology and fast development capabilities of Unity,” said Lucas Meijer, Flash Development Lead, Unity Technologies. “It’s extremely gratifying to see the development community adopt and take-off at such a rapid pace with the new beta, and we can’t wait to see the stellar work that is still in store.”

“This was a thrilling contest for all of us at Unity,” said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. “Our engineers have created some terrific technology for the Flash platform and it’s truly inspiring to see so many developers adopt and create such amazing games so quickly.”

PSN Accounts Become Sony Entertainment Network Accounts

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Sony recently announced that it is changing the name of its PSN accounts to Sony Entertainment Network accounts. This does not mean the end of PSN as a separate brand, rather reflecting the connectivity among the Sony network services.

“Back at IFA in September, we announced that we would be changing the name of Sony’s online entertainment services from Qriocity to Sony Entertainment Network,” said Sony in a statement. “The reason for this change was so that there was more unity between the services and the multiple Sony devices where they can be accessed. The goal is for there to be one networked log-in for all Sony services. By changing the name ‘PlayStation Network account’ to ‘Sony Entertainment Network account’, helps clarify the unity between PSN and other Sony Entertainment Network services. Users can enjoy the same services continuously without being required to change their username and password. However, this change will not affect the naming of “PlayStation Network accounts” when viewed on a PSP (PlayStation Portable) system.”

GTA V ‘Making Great Progress’ Says Take-Two

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Grand Theft Auto V is expected by many to release in late 2012 or possibly early 2013. While publisher Take-Two is remaining mum on exact release details, they’re very upbeat about the game.

“Grand Theft Auto V is making great progress,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. “[The game] promises to continue Rockstar’s incredible track record of delighting fans by raising the bar in interactive entertainment.”