Spidey Is Optimized For Mobile

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Accessible on tablets, the official website for The Amazing Spider-Man has been optimized for the touch based experience with unique engagements and content. Anyone on a tablet can quickly look for showtimes and tickets as well as browse information about the film, watch videos or explore a gallery of stills that can be used as tablet wallpaper.

In addition, a game called Rooftop Runner lets fans play as the wall crawler himself and tap their way by running and crawling across the rooftops of New York. Rooftop Runner can also be played in either landscape or portrait mode.

Want to see Spider-Man come to life right before your very eyes The Amazing Spider-Man Augmented Reality App allows fans to discover Spider-Man in the world surrounding them. By locating special movie-themed AR images and scanning them to unlock exclusive 3D Spider-Man interactive animations, fans can see Spider-Man swing through buildings, crawl up walls, shoot his web at the screen, or engage with nefarious characters on the streets. Up to 13 achievements are available. Each marker activates a new animation sequence and an achievement badge that can be shared on Facebook or Twitter. Once an AR image has been located, use the app to scan it. The iPhone camera will read the marker and you can then initiate the experience. You can also take photos of Spider-Man in action and just play the animation sequence a second time and you can find the right moment to capture Spider-Man in mid-flight, in a winning pose, or taking on villains from different angles and then share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter.

The Amazing Spider-Man Augmented Reality app is now available for download from the App Store here or on Google Play here.

Fans can also browse 3D Models from the film, including Peter Parker’s mechanical web shooter.

 

Clang Hits Kickstarter Goal

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The Clang Kickstarter project has managed to reach its funding goal. The threshold of $500,000 was exceeded by over $25,000, closing the gap of tens of thousands of dollars needed to kick off the project over the weekend.

Clang will be a motion-controlled sword fighting game under development at Subutai Corp, owned by author Neal Stephenson. The goal of development is to make the world’s first sword combat game which uses motion control to provide an accurate recreation of sword combat, with the Medieval longsword as the stated first goal.

Source: Kickstarter.com

Assassin’s Creed III – Rise Trailer

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Ubisoft’s marketing machine is pushing full steam ahead. The recent trailer in honor of July 4 in America leverages live-action cinematics rather than gameplay but does so to great effect. The trailer’s been criticized for being too patriotic or nationalistic, but politics aside, it does a wonderful job with imagery and emotions, and certainly reminds us of the iconic Assassin’s Creed brand.

Modern FPS Setting Is ‘Stale’, Says Battlefield 3 Dev

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DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson believes first-person shooters need to do more to innovate.

“I think we’re going to start seeing people moving away from the modern setting, because every now and again settings or themes start to get stale and then everyone jumps over,” Troedsson told Edge Online. “You know, at some point dinosaurs are the hottest thing and everyone is making games with dinosaurs, but there are trends. It used to be WWII, and recently it’s been the modern era and people are now moving towards near future.”

 

Troedsson said that developers need to push themselves, technically and thematically.

“I think it’s our responsibility as game developers to always push ourselves when it comes to the experience of games. To always make sure that when we put games in the hands of consumers that we are proud of what we’ve done,” he said.

Source: GamesIndustry International

TinyCo And Chartboost Offering Developer Support For Kindle Fire

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TinyCo and Chartboost announced that they are launching a program designed to accelerate growth and deliver better revenue opportunities for game developers on Amazon’s Kindle Fire. They will receive a guaranteed rate of $2.50 per install driven by Chartboost interstitials in the U.S. and U.K. (and $2 per install in other countries), bonuses for publishers who generate at least 20,000 installs and 100 percent of the revenue for the developers.

“Developers were thrilled when we announced a similar deal with TinyCo on iOS last November, and the response was overwhelming,” said Maria Alegre, CEO and co-founder of Chartboost. “Chartboost and TinyCo have seen the enormous potential of Kindle Fire games and hope to incentivize first-mover advantage with this uniquely attractive deal.”

 

EA Sports And The ‘Always-On’ Strategy

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EA as a company has been pushing digital and online experiences in a big way. Its EA Sports label is a big part of that, as EA Sports boss Andrew Wilson clearly wants his consumers to enjoy EA Sports’ franchises wherever, whenever. It’s part of the “always-on” strategy.

“It’s a creative idea, based on how people are playing our games. What we know about sports fans is that from the minute you get up to the minute you go to bed, you are thinking and talking about your favorite sport. Yet for the longest time, the only time people could engage with that sport in our world was when they were sitting in front of their televisions. And that was a big miss,” Wilson said.

“A very great proportion of HD sports gamers have iPhones, iPads, Facebook accounts, and they’re doing things in that space. We ask them, ‘what are you playing on your iPhone ’ And they say, ‘Aw, just some time-wasting stuff’.’ So what we challenged them with was, what if the stuff that you did here actually had meaning to who you are in the game-world Had meaning to your level, had meaning to your status It wasn’t wasted time. That when you did something there, when you got home at night and booted up your game in front of your 60-inch television, what you’d done actually had meaning. And they said, ‘absolutely, that’s the way it’s supposed to be’,” Wilson continued.

“There is this nature of connection and omnipresence that is important in the interactions people have with technology. What you end up with is a connected cross-platform world where everything you do counts and nothing you do is wasted.”

Source: Gamasutra

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Game On with Nike+

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Nike’s been on a roll with its engaging advertising, and with this new commercial for Nike+ that makes an abundance of video game references, it’s pretty clear what demographic the sports apparel company is targeting.

 

Mobile Games Growth Outpacing PC In China

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Mobile gaming has seen explosive growth in North America and across the globe. Perhaps the area where it’s seen the quickest growth, however, is Asia. China in particular has seen an extraordinary rise in mobile gaming. A new report by market research firm Niko Partners now shows that the number of mobile players in China will soon exceed the number of PC players. In China’s Mobile Games Market 2012 report, Niko estimates that the number of mobile gamers in the region will reach 192 million this year.

Niko added that the market is still growing and will continue to rise as 3G data use and smartphone ownership becomes more prevalent. The firm anticipates that China’s annual mobile game revenue will hit $3.6 billion in five years.

“Mobile games and web-browser games are the two buzzword segments in China’s games market this year, and Chinese game companies are racing to deliver their games on multiple platforms to satisfy gamer demand in every way possible,” said Niko Partners managing partner Lisa Cosmas Hanson.

K2 Network Now Reloaded

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Reloaded Games announced that they have merged with K2 Network, their parent company. The agreement was financed by Arkenstone Investment and will create a new entity known as Reloaded Games.

“This merger represents the beginning of a new era for the company, as we evolve our two core businesses,” said Reloaded Games CEO Bjorn Book-Larsson. “We have already signed contracts with independent developers to use our platform and portal for their free-to-play game distribution. We will announce those agreements in the next couple of weeks.”

“We think we have found one of the most driven, experienced and passionate management teams in the online game space and we look forward to further innovations from a team that has proven amazingly resilient through the enormous changes rocking the game industry today,” added Cascade Finance’s Howard Brand.

Apple, Amazon Try New Sizes

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The tablet market is getting hotter at the smaller size, according to multiple rumors. The arrival of Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet is merely the first in a number of competitors designed with a smaller size, lower price and faster processors. Apple may finally ship the smaller iPad that Steve Jobs said wouldn’t make any sense, and Amazon is looking to heat up sales of the Kindle Fire.

Rumors from several sources indicate that Amazon may be planning several models for the Kindle Fire 2; several 7-inch versions (one without a camera, one with a camera, and one with a camera plus 4G) and an 8.9 inch Kindle Fire 2 with a 1900 x 1200 pixel display for the fourth quarter. Pricing is still not stated, but Amazon would certainly want to be competitive with the aggressive $199 pricing for the 8 GB Nexus 7 tablet from Google.

Apple may be poised to shake up the market with a 7.85″ iPad Mini, if Bloomberg and CNET are correct. The tablet might be priced at $299, close enough to Amazon and Google’s pricing that it could make a serious dent in their sales, depending on the exact specifications. Apple is said to be readying this device for the late third quarter, in time to be sold heavily over Christmas.

Source: GamesIndustry International