Those that ‘like’ the Resident Evil page on on Facebook can now access Shared Nightmare, an interactive video created by Capcom to promote the October 2 release of Resident Evil 6.
Facebook application that allows users to share their the experience of global chaos as the ‘C-Virus,’ is unleashed. Users can personalize the video by including their friends, and even send them a final message in the middle of the video.
Three brands took it on the nose this past week on social media for getting caught up in politics. Dr. Pepper, Dos Equis and a local Midwest theme park all spurred online firestorms between politically left and right leaning consumers, adding to a recent trend of companies jumping in or inadvertently caught up in the politically charged pre-campaign environment in the US.
Dos Equis parent company Heineken is dealing with a real pickle, where the actor who portrays its mega-popular spokesman The Most Interesting Man Alive exposed his political leaning as a Democrat. In Dr. Pepper’s case, where the beverage maker released an image equating discovering Dr. Pepper with human evolution, the fallout could mean the end for the iconic image of monkey-to-man evolutionary progress in sponsored messages.
Find out more at Digiday.
The iPhone 5 is now available in eight more countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Germany, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. The anticipation is so high, it is believed that as many as 10 million iPhones could be sold during the weekend sales rush, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Digital Business. “It used to be that with tech products the nerds got them, obsessed about them, and talked about them, and the cool kids wanted no part of that conversation. That’s just not true anymore.”
Apple is introducing the iPhone across the world faster than any of the device’s five previous debuts. The iPhone will go on sale in 22 more countries on September 28, and it will be in more than 100 countries by the end of the year.
Source: Bloomberg.com
Kickstarter today announced some changes in the way it allows projects to present what they are. Designed to reemphasize that Kickstarter is not in fact a store, it will require project makers to talk about the risks and challenges the project faces before completion.
Product renderings and simulations are also prohibited, meaning that creators will have to show off products as they are now rather than how they could potentially be. For hardware, offering multiple quantities of a reward is prohibited.
“These guidelines are effective for all Hardware and Product Design projects that launch starting today. We hope these updates reinforce that Kickstarter isn’t a traditional retail experience and underline the uniqueness of Kickstarter. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always for using Kickstarter,” concluded the posting.
Source: Kickstarter
Gree CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka believes that the iterative pace of smartphones is higher than that of PC, leading to a merger of the two platforms in the future. Also, he sees the importance of localization to an increasingly global audience.
“The line between PC and mobile has blurred, and that’s a trend for this year,” said Tanaka in his Tokyo Game Show keynote. “The traditional PC will disappear, and smartphone and PC will converge to become a new platform.”
“As time goes on, localized services will be required,” he said. “In three years time, local development of games will be bigger. That’s why we engage in worldwide development activities. Global participation will help us come up with new ideas.”
Find out more about Gree in this exclusive [a]list video interview.
Source: Gamasutra
Pepsi famously worked with Michael Jackson to promote its soft drinks over the years. Pepsi recently promoted the 25th anniversary of Bad’s release with a concert late August with Billboard and singer Ne-Yo.
Pepsi famously sponsored Jackson’s Bad world tour back in 1988, following the successful “New Generation” ads of 1983 and the incident where Jackson’s hair was accidentally set on fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. Now they are airing a 15-second ad spot to continue its 25th anniversary tribute to Bad.
Significantly, the BAD25 deluxe collectors’ edition album/DVD box set is set to release on September 18. Expect to see the new ad with its kaleidoscope of images of Michael dancing during BET’s two-hour special, BAD25: The Short Films of Michael Jackson.
Nothing equals this ad that rolled out in China earlier this year, however, where the visuals are bombastic and surreal. Pepsi, the Jackson Estate, and Sony ensure that the legend of Michael Jackson continues, making him into an even bigger marketing success in death than he even was in life.
Pokémon games have traditionally relied upon sprites for the character and monsters themselves. There is a reason why the game’s haven’t fully embraced 3D in its graphics, at least not yet.
“For the Pokémon characters, one of the reasons we use sprites, at least currently, is because we like to have more of a comical kind of look, like an animation. This kind of visual style is what we want to do for the Pokémon games,” said Pokémon Producer Junichi Masuda. “If we were able to take that style we have now and have it translate into 3D with no problems; that is definitely something we would be into.”
“It’s not just about the visual appearance either,” he went on. “The feeling and the control of the character is also very important to us. There is definitely a certain feeling you have when you control these 2D characters. It may be different if we switched over to 3D.”
Source: Game Informer
Wreck-It Ralph features Nintendo characters like Bowser, but Mario and Luigi are absent. Director Rich Moore indicates that if the franchise has a future, Mario and characters like Link and Samus might just appear.
“I think to them that those are like their Mickey Mouse and I don’t know that they are, like Clark [Spencer, producer] said, if they are legally kind of bound by another project that they are working on or something . . .” said Moore. “I don’t know if they were like ‘No, we don’t want them in there. We are against them being in it,’ I just think that there are other things they are doing with them that made it difficult or impossible to get them in there and maybe it will be a situation like Barbie not being in the original Toy Story and then maybe after they see it, if all goes well, they will say ‘If you’re doing a sequel, we would like to have these guys in it,’ which we would love to have.”
Source: SlashFilm.com
Nintendo will not offer Wii U GamePads at U.S. retail when the Wii U system releases. However, Nintendo of America product marketing manager Bill Trinen says that GamePads will be sold separately sometime down the line.
“The launch window is all going to be single-GamePad. The dual-GamePad functionality, we expect to start seeing that in games sometime next year,” said Trinen.”Our feeling is, we’re not going to sell another GamePad if you don’t have something to use it with. We’ll make that available as an additional accessory when there’s content to support it.”
Source: 1UP
Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth says that the company is working on its first hardware product and that it is looking to enter beta in the next year. Working with the Steam “Big Picture Mode” team, the hardware people are looking to create a solution for those that want mouse and keyboard controls in the living room and those that want to primarily use a game pad.
“[Our goals are] to make Steam games more fun to play in your living room,” said Ellsworth.
Source: Engadget
