@WhatTedSaid

The red band trailer for Seth MacFarlane’s Ted debuted this weekend online and it’s a tale about “a grown man (Mark Wahlberg) who must deal with the cherished teddy bear who came to life as the result of a childhood wish…and has refused to leave his side ever since.” The CGI bear, voiced by MacFarlane (channeling Peter Griffin), also has a social media presence. On the film’s official website, TedIsReal.com, links you to Ted’s own Facebook and Twitter pages. The entries are pretty funny so far, but a little NSFW, so beware. The Facebook page gives some good character background for Ted, even telling us that he was “born” on Christmas, 1985.

Suits Are Real

The Men in Black III viral campaign has launched at the destination site TheMenInBlackSuitsAreReal. Fueled by a 14-year old blogger known as Bugeyes126, his continued updates to the site and Facebook page provide interesting real news stories and videos of the voice messages he requested. He also included a video {link no longer active} of himself talking about a clue he got that lead him to Clive’s Tattoo Parlor {link no longer active}. Here is a commercial for Clive’s. There are obvious hints on the website and video (like the legal disclaimer) that Clive is an alien, there’s not much else to the website or commercial. Stay tuned for more extraterrestrial action.

Angry Birds Getting Animated, 52 Episodes Planned

Angry Birds is more that a mobile game now, it’s a cultural phenomenon with retail products of all sorts. Now, developer Rovio says that they’ve already got the details to a 52-episode first season planned out, with “all platforms possible” pointing to mobile, console systems, Netflix, Hulu and similar services.

“I am happy to say we are going to roll out a weekly animation series this year of short format content,” said Rovio animation head Nick Dorra. “It’s a great way for us to connect with our existing fans, to give them more and keep them engaged. But it’s also important for acquiring new fans because not everyone might want to play the game or is not able to play the game. We want to offer people different points where they can interact and experience our characters.”

Angry Birds is not just about the game-play,” he said. “It will, in the future, be less and less about the slingshot and more about the characters and their adventures and all different kinds of games in different forms.”

Source: BBC

Capcom Argues For On-Disc DLC

Street Fighter X Tekken has been excoriated by fans who were furious to find out that all of the planned DLC characters for the game are already on the disc. While there’s a lot of lingering resentment over this move (which was likely a result of simplifying things for online play when the characters do eventually release), Capcom does not feel like they’ve done wrong by their customers.

“At Capcom, we value our customers and make every effort to resolve customer complaints. We are sorry to hear that [censored] was so disappointed with the Street Fighter x Tekken game (‘SFxT‘), and would like to respond to his complaints,” said Capcom in response to Better Business Bureau complaints. “SFxT has an enormous amount of content, fully developed and available for play and enjoyment immediately on-disc. Given the 38 characters available for full play, as well as multiple play modes, SFxT provides great value for all players from day one. While Capcom is sorry that some of its fans are not happy about the chosen method of delivery for the DLC, we believe that this method will provide more flexible and efficient gameplay throughout the game’s lifecycle.”

“There is effectively no distinction between the DLC being ‘locked’ behind the disc and available for unlocking at a later date, or being available through a full download at a later date, other than delivery mechanism,” the statement continues.

Source: CinemaBlend

Runescape Gets Microtransactions

Jagex has announced that they have added microtransactions to the free-to-play MMO Runescape, which previously just had a subscription option as a means to supplement income. Players will now be able to purchase spins on the Squeal Of Fortune which grants in-game currency, items and XP.

“We’ve done our maths and are confident that the Squeal of Fortune has minimal impact on the Runescape economy,” Jagex noted. “To make sure the economy remains balanced, spins are not tradeable or bankable.”

Video Pre-Roll Ads Company Lets You SkipIt

SpotXchange have announced a new service called SkipIt. This will allow users to skip video advertisements that they do not find to be to their liking.

“If I see that Esurance ad on CNN one more time, I’m going to lose my mind—it’s great, it’s the guy from the office, it’s funny, but I’m sick of it,” said Mike Shehan of SpotXchange. “I don’t click on some CNN videos because I know I’m going to get a video ad, and I’m the CEO of a video ad company.”

SkipIt will give users a few free skips to start and then will provide ways to earn more. The goal is not to shaft the advertisers or get fees from consumers but to help both parties better communicate with each other.

“It was a little bit of a nerve-wracking conversation,” said Shehan. “We were going to our advertisers and saying, ‘So…we’re going to have a product that allows users to skip your ads. By the way, if they do skip your ad, you won’t pay for the ad.'”

Advertising companies were actually quite open to the proposal, with one company saying it would offer 10 free skips to anyone who agreed to answer a five question survey about why he or she hated the advertisement enough to skip it. “We’re going to try to find ways to allow our users their skips without actually using money,” Shehan said.

Publishers are credited for the skipped impression for more than they would have paid for the spot to begin with. In the end, the goal is to provide vital data. “If you start to offer the ability to skip ads, you can measure the creative burnout on the ads themselves,” Shehan said.

Source: AdWeek

Nival Encourages Female Players With Incentives/Discounts

Nival has announced that they are offering female players discounts and incentives to play as female characters in their upcoming online strategy game Prime World. Not only will confirmed female gamers receive a discount for their female avatars, teams formed of men and women will receive in-game bonuses.

“The idea is to introduce the MOBA genre not only to hardcore players who already love it, but to their friends who might be more casual, and of course to their sisters and girlfriends who may not be as hardcore,” said producer Larisa Nuretdinova.

“To do the very best, you’ll want a female player on your team,” continued Nuretdinova. “When boys gather around to play games just with each other, it’s not really social. When girls gather around just to chat, it’s not very social. The social starts when they hang out together and play games together.”

Source: Penny Arcade {link no longer active}

Call Of Duty Classic Maps Should Be Free, Says Former Creative Strategist

Robert Bowling is now the former Infinity Ward creative strategist, and no one is sure if it was due to differences with Activision or if his contract expired. Giving a possible insight into why he might have left, he gave a public interview before leaving saying old maps should be free.

“Here is my philosophy on throwback maps,” he said. “Old school maps, I love maps like that, I want to see Creek, I want to see Overgrown, I want to see Crossfire, I want to see Highrise. So my mentality on it is if you are going to do throw back maps, if you are going to do classic maps, keep it outside of the DLC model. Like for DLC, if you are paying for stuff and it’s included in your subscription, it should all be new content. Give me something new I’ve never seen before, and that’s not something we’ve done in the past before, [when] we’ve included [old maps] in traditional map packs.”

“But now, since our DLC model is so different, I feel like we have a flexibility to let DLC be focused on all new content, brand new stuff you’ve never seen before in the game or any game,” he continued. “And if we want to do a throwback map, let that be outside the DLC model, let it be free, let it be to everyone. Don’t let it be restricted by contracts and partnerships and all that f***ing money stuff. Let it just be there. So that’s what I think. I want to see the new gameplay experience of Modern Warfare 3 in classic maps.”

“I feel like we are in a f***ing era where everyone is so focused on subscriber numbers and all that stuff that we need to get back to what I feel like we did so much better in the old days of just plain goodwill, like stuff like the LAN patch, yeah it is lower priority but let’s get it out the f***ing door,” Bowling added. “Let’s just do it.”

Source: Callofdutymappacks.com