Homeless Man Manages To Snag Formal Suda51 Interview

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Warner Bros. held a press party for Lollipop Chainsaw that had Suda51 talking to the press. In a bizarre display of loose security, communication breakdown between a Japanese game developer and his American hosts, and a possible demonstration of the slovenly nature of games journalists in general, one man who was definitely not suppose to be there sat in on an interview with the No More Heroes developer.

“Suda was conducting interviews with press for most of the night. Later on in the evening a journalist from Edge arrived for what he thought was an exclusive one-on-one interview, but a second man checked in with him,” said a source. “There were plenty of drinks flowing at the event so nobody took much notice that this second ‘journalist’ was heavily soaked in beer. Warner thought the guy was with Suda’s people and the journalist seemed to assume he was with Warner.”

“He managed about 10 minutes seated with Suda, mostly stroking his chin and nodding his head,” the source added. “Eventually it became quite clear he wasn’t a journalist – he was in fact a homeless guy that managed to blag himself all the way to the interview. PR staff quietly ushered him away and Suda seemed pretty speechless about it.”

Source: CVG

Where Adds Donate Now Button

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Location-based discovery and advertising service Where, part of Paypal, has announced a new product for political donations. The company’s first political product is called Donate Now, which lets people make donations to political campaigns from a mobile ad unit.

“Where’s whole value proposition is its ability to geo-fence and serve mobile ads based on a user’s location,” a Where rep said. “The technology is something political campaigns could use as well.”

Donate Now could be used to deliver locally relevant messaging to people when they enter a given location, and the political implications are tangible. Other possible uses include a disaster relief organization or charity using it to reach people in a region affected by a natural disaster.

Source: AdWeek

Brand-Washing: New Approach To Video Ads

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Solve Media is now offering a new feature called pre-roll insurance, which is designed to allow advertisers and agencies a means to prove ad performance. Similar to Google’s TrueView feature, if consumers don’t want to watch a video ad, they’re asked to type in a phrase (most likely a branded message) that skips them ahead to the desired video.

The message planting is something that’s appealing to advertisers, according to Ari Jacoby, CEO and co-founder of Solve Media. “[The feature] offers consumers a reward for participating cognitively with a brand message.”

“[Consumers] have to internalize [a brand’s message] if they’re going to be typing it in,” said InterContinental Hotels Group’s VP of U.S. sales and marketing Del Ross.

According to research conducted by Solve Media and comScore, 53 percent of respondents said they “zone out” during pre-roll ads, and 47 percent open a new browser tab or window in the interim. Solve Media believes the dollars wasted on skipped or ignored U.S. video ads is somewhere around $33 per second.

InterContinental Hotels Group tested the product last Fall in its Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand that promoted a Nike golf equipment giveaway. Ross indicated that 78 percent of consumers exposed to the campaign’s display or video ads interacted, whether by clicking on the ad or typing in the corresponding phrase and the pre-roll spots generated more than 50,000 type-ins.

Source: AdWeek

Charlie Sheen’s Triumphant Return To Commercials

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Charlie Sheen probably spawned more Internet memes during 2011 than any other individual, but he’s been out of the spotlight for several months. He’s making a triumphant return, however, starring in two new ads: one for Fiat and the other for DirecTV.

 

Street Fighter X Tekken TV Spot

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Street Fighter X Tekken is the anticipated crossover game, putting Street Fighter characters like Ryu, and Chun-Li up against Tekken fighters such as Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams. This Ayzenberg Group-produced trailer gives a glimpse at the fast-paced tag battle action!

City Of Heroes Issue 22: Death Incarnate

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The latest content pack for City of Heroes sees the death of Statesman, leaving a new generation of heroes to fill his place. This City of Heroes Issue 22: Death Incarnate trailer produced by the Ayzenberg Group shows off the new powers, and the incarnate trial highlighted by the deadly Diabolique available in this newest City of Heroes expansion pack.

PC Gaming at $18.6 Billion for 2011

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According to the “Horizons” report composed by DFC Intelligence, the U.S. PC gaming market grew 15 percent to $18.6 billion in 2011, and China saw 27 percent growth to $6 billion. The U.S. PC gaming market is expected to be at $25.5 billion by 2015.

“While reports of gaming sales at retail show signs of struggle, the impact hasn’t been as great for PC gaming which had an earlier adoption of newer formats, business-models & delivery with: digital distribution, free to play, and subscriptions fueling PC gaming’s strong global growth,” noted Matt Ployhar, PC Gaming Alliance president . “Not only investment dollars, but real revenue and profits, are now being generated solely from purely digital business models, formats, and delivery.”

Google+ Games Head On Developers As Key Partners

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Punit Soni, Google+’s head of games and mobile, has indicated that his company is looking to make games a key part of building the social network’s community. Also, he sees convergence as inevitable, unifying browser, social network and mobile games.

“We realized very early on that developers are key partners. We need to learn from you guys and build a very compelling social platform,” said Soni. “Games are key to the success of Google+. Next year we won’t be talking about Google+ games, Chrome games, games for Native Client or Android games – we’ll just be talking about Google games.”

Source: GI.biz

Tapjoy Registers 4 Million To Tapjoy.com

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Tapjoy has announced that Tapjoy.com has seen over 4 million registered users. The social advertising and publishing firm also announced that they are rolling out new features, including a better UI, more apps and an improved discovery tool.

“Our goal for Tapjoy.com is to provide a better way for consumers to find, share and engage with great mobile apps,” said Mihir Shah, Tapjoy CEO. “Research shows that consumers struggle with traditional app discovery methods and that they instead prefer to receive personalized recommendations for apps they’re likely to enjoy. The rapid growth of our user base is a testament to the strength of our discovery method. We’ve already helped millions of people find tons of apps that they love, and we look forward to helping millions more.”

Big Fish Games Becomes Self Aware

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Big Fish recently announced plans to acquire the Self Aware Games. The developer has been responsible for a variety of virtual casino games, and will retain its 25 person team in Oakland, California.

“We are delighted to integrate one of the most talented mobile-social game development teams into Big Fish, and to extend our mainstream consumer reach to include the booming market of casino games,” said Paul Thelen, founder and chief strategy officer of Big Fish Games. “We look forward to delighting the enormous audience on Facebook with the Card Ace: Casino experience.”

“They really ‘got it’ with respect to our vision here at Self Aware,” said Seppo Helava, co-founder and lead designer of Self Aware Games. “They are the perfect partner to supercharge our growth across all platforms.”