Injustice: Gods Among Us is about DC heroes, but its roots with the developers of Mortal Kombat are more and more clear all the time. There’s plenty of cool environmental effects, and while it can’t be called visceral, the action gets pretty violent – there’s even some blood spilled!
Fist of the North Star calls back to an era of Japanese manga when men were men and fists could cause people to explode. Because once just wasn’t enough, Tecmo Koei are bringing Kenshiro back another time for Ken’s Rage 2.
Cricket is a sport as popular as any in India . . . a country with a rising middle class that companies like Nike want to tap into. Their new “Bleed Blue” campaign, showing professional cricket players along with those on the amateur and school-level, exhibits Nike’s usual production greatness along with whispers of their “Find your Greatness” campaign from earlier this year.
The long awaited launch of a revamped MySpace is underway, and it looks like it wants to be the MTV – Music Television, not the reality show channel – for a new generation. The new stewards of the social site, which includes part owner and creative director Justin Timberlake, have long promised that their revamped MySpace would again become the hub for popular music, aspiring musicians and their fans.
Speaking as the site entered beta testing last year, Timberlake said, “There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. MySpace has the potential to be that place.”
In that sense, the first peek doesn’t contain any major surprises. As the teaser video shows, a slick new UI resembling a cross between Facebook and Pinterest seems to be loaded with features for easily posting and pimping music. The video also gives a glimpse at tools useful to aspiring artists, such as the ability to promote shows and track and identify influential fans.
News Corp. bought the once mighty MySpace for $580 million in 2005. It unloaded the site last year for $35 million to Specific Media , which includes Timberlake as an investor. According to ComScore, traffic to MySpace fell by half between 2010 and 2011 but the site has since stabilized. It drew 26 million unique visitors in April, a slight uptick from late last year.
Find out more at MySpace.
Fans of 007 get the chance to live vicariously through their favorite British spy in a new digital campaign. Launched to coincide with the release of the upcoming James Bond film Skyfall the interactive campaign features Daniel Craig and new Bond girl Bérénice Marlohe (as Sévérine).
Called “Crack the Case,” the mini film takes viewers on a train through snowy Siberia, challenging them to complete several tests while dodging Soviet-esque villains. Die-hard fans will notice that replica James Bond film props, such as the Spectre ring from Dr. No and the Faberge egg used in From Russia with Love and Goldeneye, make cameo appearances.
In an immersive experience, viewers are prompted to enter their name, gender and even have the option of uploading a photo (or continuing with a “secret identity.”)
Machinima Prima has officially debuted its new reality series. Called The Controller: Medal of Honor Warfighter, it pairs military experts with gaming experts to compete in live-fire and video game challenges.
Each challenges the contestants participate in will be judged by a panel of fan favorites, will be based on a Medal of Honor theme. The show is on Machinima Prime, which has over 120,000 subscribers and over 7 million video views in total; Machinima’s main YouTube channel has 4.8 million subscribers and nearly 3.7 billion video views.Watch the first couple of episodes on YouTube.com.
IDC raised its forecast of global tablet shipments to 117 million units this year, up 65 percent from 71 million shipped tablets in 2011. The company also upped its original forecast from March 2012 by more than 30 percent to 261 million units.
The modifications to their outlook for 2016 reflect their optimism for iOS devices. Similarly, they now expect less marketshare for Android tablets, instead favoring Windows devices.
Source: Statista.com
GameFly announced that they have signed a two-year sponsorship deal with Blake Griffin. The Los Angeles Clippers forward is famed for his dunking skills and is also one of three cover athletes for NBA 2K13 from 2K Sports.
Additionally, the game rental company is launching a month of giveaways to celebrate its 10th anniversary, running October 1 – 31. Prizing will consist of 10 copies of NBA 2K13 given away daily and weekly prizes of GameFly gift bags and memberships, while the grand prize will be an all-expenses paid trip for two to Los Angeles to play NBA 2K13 with Griffin, tickets for one of his home games, a one-year GameFly membership, a signed copy of the video game and an Xbox 360 console system.
“GameFly is an innovative company that allows consumers to really hone their skills by trying any and all types of video games,” said Griffin. “I’m thrilled to join the team and look forward to meeting the contest winners in Los Angeles.”
“Blake is the perfect fit to be GameFly’s spokesperson as he is a devoted gamer who is only gaining in popularity with our demographic of core gamers and families alike,” said Sean Spector, GameFly co-founder and SVP of Business Development and Content. “We’re excited to celebrate the company’s 10 years of leading the video games rental industry with 31 days of giveaways, giving one lucky GameFly fan the chance to meet and play a game with Blake.”
PR is a vital yet underrated part of the promotional cycle of games, involving a lot of behind-the-scenes work to keep journalists engaged and aware of products coming down the pipeline. When Will Powers, a now former member of SCEA PR, was let go, he took to twitter to assert the importance of his position and blast Sony.
“You have to wonder what the hell PlayStation was thinking laying off more than half of their software PR team going into the holiday season,” Powers wrote. “In typical fashion they’re sending titles out to die, because they have no PR support — [Little Big Planet Karting], Sports Champions 2, Wonderbook. Worst part it, the PR department was already under-staffed. I feel sorry for those that remain there, because their workload just doubled.”
Powers also ranted about external PR agencies. “Already they outsourced too much work to overpriced agencies, so laying off is only going to exacerbate an existing problem,” he added. “The point of having external agencies is so that you can scale back without layoffs, not layoff so you can ramp up. Internal PR teams have product loyalty and serve only one master. Neither can be said about agencies, though there are some select people.”
He continued his rant about some policies of Sony Corp. in general. “That being said, you have to question the priorities of the company as a whole — What’s the point of AdHoc multiplayer when no one has a Vita Sony in general is serving too many masters. PlayStation shouldn’t suffer because TVs are overpriced. This all being said, because I genuinely like and care about the PS product, but they’re being hamstrung from success internally,” Powers concluded.
Source: Kotaku
Apple announced that first weekend sales of the iPhone 5 were 5 million, roughly a million more than the iPhone 4S managed. This set a three day record for the company, even as demand outstripped supply and sales fell below the hopes of some analysts.
“The number is lower than what people had expected,” said Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets, who had estimated debut weekend sales of 6 million to 6.5 million units. “This seems to be driven more by availability than demand.”
“The story now with Apple is less about the gorgeous technology and more about if it can really execute the global supply,” said James Kelleher, an analyst at Argus Research. “Can they get them to as many people as they want in the right amount of time “
Some particularly optimistic analysts saw sales between 6 and 8 million and one thought the iPhone 5 might reach 10 million. It is worth noting that the 5 million does not include orders from Apple’s online store that haven’t been delivered.
“Units in transit could be in the millions currently,” said Brian Marshall, an analyst at ISI Group.
“Demand for iPhone 5 has been incredible and we are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date.”
Source: Business Week
