Facebook Sees Zynga Payments Down 20 Percent

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Facebook announced that Zynga’s payments to the social network dropped 20 percent in the last quarter, while payments from other gaming companies have increased by 40 percent. Facebook’s revenues were up 32 percent for the third quarter, but the company posted a net loss of $59 million.

“Overall, gaming on Facebook isn’t doing as well as I’d like, but the reality is that there are actually two different stories playing out here,” said Zuckerberg. “On the one hand, our payments revenue from Zynga decreased by 20 per cent this quarter compared to last year. But the interesting thing is that the rest of the games ecosystem has actually been growing.

“Our monthly payments revenue from the rest of the ecosystem increased 40 per cent over the past year since payments has been adopted,” he added. “This evolution is pretty encouraging.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Nintendo Characters Will Invade Scribblenauts Unlimited

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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and 5th Cell announced that they are working with Nintendo to add even more themed bonus content to Scribblenauts Unlimited for Wii U. This will allow players to create dozens of characters and items from the Mario and Legend of Zelda franchises.

“Players will delight in producing fantastical and sometimes hilarious interactions between the Mario and Legend of Zelda characters and objects, alongside everyone’s favorite word-wielding Scribblenauts adventurer, Maxwell,” announced Warner Bros. “Discovered Nintendo characters and objects will behave in the fun and fantastical ways they do in their respective game worlds.”

PlayStation Teasers – The Aftermath & The Arrival

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Following up on Sony’s enigmatic The Reload trailer, they’ve continued with two more teasers titled The Aftermath and The Arrival. With nods to Cole from InFamous and Nathan Drake from Uncharted, along with the appearance of Sly Cooper’s cane and Sweet Tooth’s blade, it seems pretty likely that this is setting up something for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

 

Add Future Weapons To Your Videos

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Action Movie FX {link no longer active} is an app for iOS devices that lets you add Hollywood FX to movies that YOU shoot! Now with the exclusive Call of Duty: Black Ops II update featuring for future weapons from the game: the Hellstorm missile, EMP, Dragonfire drones and the Claw. All for free!

Select a Scene like the “HELLSTORM MISSILE,” film a target and ACTION MOVIE FX adds an explosive action sequence with CLUSTER BOMBS and HUGE explosions right into your movie! Sound Design By Skywalker Sound!

 

Facebook Brand Pages Get Little Engagement, Study Finds

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A recent study by Napkin Labs found that the Facebook pages of major brands engaged an average of only six percent of their fans over an eight week period. The report analyzed fan engagement on more than 50 brand pages with 200,000 to 1 million Facebook fans each. Engagement was lowest among brands with higher numbers of fans.

It’s common strategy for brands to increase awareness by acquiring more likes, but the study reveals that the influence of one engaged fan versus many inactive fans is more valuable in terms of overall reach. The approach isn’t new, and now there are stats to support it. Napkin Labs found that on average, the engagement of each one of a brand’s 20 most engaged fans is equal to that of 75 average fans.

So how can brands measure overall success

The answer is a higher focus on brands’ core audiences, or what the study calls “super fans,” the most devoted groups of users. These are the people who spend more time interacting; commenting, liking and participating in polls, thereby helping organically increase engagement.

The study comes as a result of some brands reporting diminished reach due to the recent change in Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm that no longer shows brand posts in user news feeds if a user hasn’t recently interacted. The change is being seen as a way for Facebook to boost ad dollars. At the same time, it has presented brands with the challenge of creating more engaging content. Napkin Labs study lends even more credence to creating highly sharable content while at the same time targeting the most influential fans in a brand page community.

“If you can get fans involved, get them talking about the brand, the engagements of each of those fans gets pushed to their friends feeds. So you can actually build more presence in the news feed by engaging your core audience,” said Riley Gibson, co-founder and CEO of Napkin Labs.

Source: Mashable

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Operation Supply Drop Receives Support From Pamela Horton

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Operation Supply Drop announced that Playboy’s Miss October 2012 Pamela Horton will be attending the organization’s live Los Angeles event on November 10, a Medal of Honor: Warfighter tournament hosted at the Los Angeles Film School along with Derrick Dockerty of the Dallas Cowboys and several of the cast of Medal of Honor: Warfighter. She joins several publishers and developers who have announced support for the event, such as Activision, Electronic Arts, Treyarch, Corel, Plantronics, Tripwire Games, Runic Games, Adhesive Games, Project Triforce, Capcom, Rooster Teeth, Gearbox Software, Epic Games, Astro Gaming and Dell.

“I have always had a very profound respect and pride for all men and women who serve in the U.S. military,” said Horton. “They do so without us asking and seek no reimbursement for time spent dedicating themselves to this country. We take advantage of the leisures we have in our homes, while they are stationed thousands of miles away without a means to enjoy their gaming hobby. Video games have been proven to keep up morale and help against anxiety and depression in the armed forces. With Operation Supply Drop, together, we can bring the games to them. Let’s keep our troops in tip top shape while also giving them a means to enjoy themselves! Everyone is entitled to life, liberty and the right to video games!”

Source: Operation Supply Drop {link no longer active}

Assassin’s Creed Movie Now Being Fast Tracked

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Reports are that Ubisoft will work closely to develop and co-produce an Assassin’s Creed film with New Regency, while Fox will distribute the film. Michael Fassbender, who is attached to play the lead, helped open doors with both companies.

Fassbender, star of X-Men: First Class and Prometheus, is set to both star and co-produce Assassin’s Creed this Summer.

New Regency president and CEO Brad Weston said working with Fassbender on Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave made the partnership on Assassin’s Creed very appealing. “We wanted to do everything we could to secure the rights to Assassin’s Creed, which Ubisoft has maintained with such care and quality over the years,” he said.

Ubisoft hopes to have Assassin’s Creed packaged with a helmer, cast and script by next summer, according to Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures. Although financial terms were not disclosed, New Regency will finance part of the movie’s production. “We want to be sure that we’re not taking too much of a risk but that we’re still very involved on the creative side,” Baronnet said.

While Ubisoft wants to preserve elements of the game, like the design of its characters and historical elements, it also hopes to tie in the release of a film with a new game launch. “We don’t want to make games just for the sake of movies,” Baronnet said. “We want to make them in concert with the games.”

Ubisoft wanted more control over its adaptations after Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time didn’t do well with Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. It went on to earn $335 million worldwide, just $91 million of it coming from the U.S.

“Ubisoft chose to partner with New Regency because they are a talent and filmmaker-driven company, with the same independent and creative mindset that we have at Ubisoft Motion Pictures,” Baronnet said. “Bringing aboard New Regency’s renowned production and distribution expertise while maintaining our own creative and financial flexibility ensures that Assassin’s Creed will be a high-quality film that respects the lore and fans of the videogame franchise.”

Source: Variety

League Of Legends Watched By 8.2 Million People

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Riot Games is reporting that 8 million people watched the League of Legends World Championship second season final. Around 2.4 million of those watching were based in China and Korea; the two finalists were from South Korea and Chinese Taipei.

The final on Saturday, October 13 had 8,282,000 unique viewers across its TV and online broadcasts and was watched by over 8,000 people in person. Across all users, the League of Legends World Championship second season playoffs and finals were viewed for 24,230,688 hours.

To find out more about Riot Games and their efforts to create a community around League of Legends, read this exclusive [a]list feature.