Rovio Leads The Way For European Entrepreneurs

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While Facebook has made a lot of noise on their IPO, European companies like Spotify, the online music streaming service, and SoundCloud, an audio sharing platform, are also innovating. Rovio is notable as well; as the company has managed to achieve a valuation near $9 billion.

“Now you’ve got European entrepreneurs that have figured out how to build category leaders, not just clones,” said Jason Whitmire, a partner at Earlybird Venture Capital. “That wasn’t happening 10 years ago.”

Rovio is located in Espoo, Finland where Nokia is also located. While Nokia has fallen on hard times and shed thousands of jobs, it offers a ready pool of engineers for Rovio to tap.

“The important thing is that the way people think has changed, especially young people,” said Artturi Tarjanne, general partner at Nexit Ventures in Helsinki. “They used to dream about going to work for Nokia or McKinsey or something like that. Now they are much more willing to take entrepreneurial risk.”

France and Britain have instituted place tax breaks to support venture investment. For Germany, U.S. venture capital commitments to Berlin firms have roughly tripled and there’s been an influx of engineers from Eastern Europe immigration rules in Britain have gotten tougher.

Rovio managed to attract a $42 million investment from a group of firms led by Silicon Valley headliner, Accel Partners. “You might say that the culture is somewhat different,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio. “But at the end of the day dynamic businesses have the ability to attract venture capital no matter where they’re located.”

Source: New York Times

Trident Ad — Coffee Block

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This ad campaign uses some simple imagery on a cup to convey its message from Trident about coffee. No fancy CG or anything like that — just a simple and effective message about breath and stained teeth.

Source: Ads of the World

Amstel Light Wants You To ‘Savor Complexity’

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Amstel Light is running a new campaign called “Savor Complexity” that will talk about surprising complexities of simple things. These things include, say, a pigeon.

“Complexity is not a dirty word. Our new campaign will help position Amstel Light in a different light by celebrating the natural and unique complexities of our brand and target consumer,” said Belen Pamukoff, Brand Director, Amstel Light. “We recognize that Amstel Light drinkers appreciate the layers and dimensions in their lives, and aren’t willing to sacrifice taste, and this campaign showcases the overall versatility of our product and its relevance to their lives.”

Kingdom Hearts 3D Gets Collector’s Edition

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Square Enix announced that there will be a Mark of Mastery Edition for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. The collector’s edition of the game will release on July 31 for the Nintendo 3DS and will be available for $54.99.

“The series’ first collector’s edition for the North American market is housed in a Kingdom Hearts-branded magnetic box,” describes Square Enix. “It will include a copy of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, a branded clear hard case skin cover and 12 art cards. It also contains five augmented reality (AR) cards that allow players to unlock rare Dream Eaters such as Meowjesty, Frootz Cat and Kab Kannon, and a 360° viewing stand that allows players to take a closer look at their Dream Eaters from all angles. The Mark of Mastery Edition is an excellent opportunity for fans to commemorate the groundbreaking franchise’s 10th anniversary.”

Choose: Team Intense Vs. Team Sudden

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Now is the time for basketball players across the globe to lace up their kicks, grab a ball and perfect their uncontainable basketball moves. Sprite is shining a spotlight on undiscovered basketball talent and celebrating players’ expressive moves by participating in the Sprite Uncontainable Game as players and fans.

Sprite is teaming up with six NBA players — Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) and LeBron James (Miami Heat) from the U.S., in addition to Andrea Bargnani (Toronto Raptors) from Italy, Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks) from the Dominican Republic, Omri Casspi (Cleveland Cavaliers) from Israel and Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder) from the Republic of Congo — to discover 24 amateur ballers who will represent either Team Sudden or Team Intense in the Sprite Uncontainable Game at NBA All-Star 2013 in Houston.

As part of the brand’s largest ever basketball program and building upon its long-standing partnership with the NBA , the six professional players will help Sprite discover players whose personal styles of play set them apart.

  • TEAM INTENSE : Kobe Bryant, Andrea Bargnani and Al Horford will coach players whose moves are characterized as agile, surgical and precise. Team Intense is looking for players who land lean one-handed dunks, execute off the pick-and-roll and drop passes on a dime.
  • TEAM SUDDEN: Players with moves that are strong, forceful and bold, will try out for Team Sudden, coached by LeBron James, Omri Casspi and Serge Ibaka. Team Sudden is looking for players who soar in for tomahawk dunks, grab monster rebounds and execute full-court passes.

Players will first identify the team that best represents their personal style and skills. Then they will have the opportunity to try out for the first round by either uploading their best moves online at Sprite.com (U.S. residents only) or by showing their moves off at local tournaments and events.

Coinciding with the player tryouts, fans will also compete to demonstrate how uncontainable they are both online, at local events and through mobile SMS challenges. The most expressive fans will be given the chance to win a trip to watch the Sprite Uncontainable Game in Houston during NBA All-Star 2013.

To enter, fans must submit a 30 second video clip showcasing their dynamic, creative, and expressive basketball moves. Each submission must show general offense and/or defense basketball skills and moves and pre-uploaded to your YouTube.com account in order for you to participate in the Contest.

Zynga Rolls Out Zombie Swipeout

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Zynga is known for social games, but they keep pushing into the mobile category as well. The most recent mobile effort is Zombie Swipeout, the spiritual successor to hit title ZombieSmash from developer Gamedoctors formed by German brothers Thomas and Matthias Hoechsmann, which could be best described as Fruit Ninja with zombies.

“We’ve centered the game on one, massively social way to play: a weekly tournament where players compete against friends for the highest score,” Matthias said. “You can connect with friends through Facebook or through a dedicated Swipeout username.”

“We believe that in order to realize our mission of connecting the world through games, being a leader on mobile devices is essential,” said Travis Boatman, SVP of Zynga Mobile. “We’re committed to not only connecting with players that play on tablets and the PC, but also on mobile devices globally.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Mobile Developer Fun Machine Founded

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Veterans from Wideload Games, Disney Interactive, and Gearbox Software have formed a new studio called Fun Machine. The developer has already released Awesome Eats, which has already seen over 800,000 downloads on the iPad and iPhone.

“The next generation of gaming isn’t going to come on a disc or be bought in a store. It’s going to be downloaded and streamed to every screen in your household – and in your pocket – in the blink of an eye,” says Patrick Curry, CEO. “Smart phones and tablets are changing the video game industry in fundamental ways. Forthcoming smart TVs are going to complete the transformation, creating a single ecosystem that lets you play games across small, medium and large screens. We’re creating games that play within this ecosystem, and the technologies that let them.”

“This is an exciting time to be creating games and original intellectual properties,” said Michael Hadwin, Fun Machine’s President and Studio Director. “Our technology lets us focus on innovative ideas and instantly test them across several platforms and devices. One lesson from the console industry that still holds true: iteration and polish always win.”