Facebook Saw 9 Million+ Check In For Election

BY

Over 9 million people checked into Facebook saying they voted during the Presidential election. The stats show that women nearly doubled up men on Facebook, with over 6 million voters compared to over 3 million for men.

A study by the University of California San Diego says that such motions encouraged people to vote. “Our study suggests that social influence may be the best way to increase voter turnout,” James Fowler, U.C. San Diego professor of political science. “Just as importantly, we show that what happens online matters a lot for the ‘real world.'”

Source: CBSnews.com

Real Winner Of Election: Nate Silver

BY

Nate Silver has become a celebrity due to his electoral projection blog FiveThirtyEight. This was enhanced by his recent TV appearances, including on the The Colbert Report, and represented 20 percent of visitors to nytimes.com and 71 percent among visitors to the politics section.

Other stats for Silver, his book The Signal and The Noise is ranked 15  in terms of sales on Amazon.com; he got $700,000 in an advance for the book. He recently bet Joe Scarborough $1,000 on the outcome of the election, with the proceeds to go to charity (The Times’s public editor chastised him for the bet) and he has over 325,000 Twitter followers.

GSN Hires Andrew Pedersen As Chief Studio Officer

BY

GSN announced that it has hired Andrew Pedersen as Chief Studio Officer. Based out of GSN Digital’s San Francisco office, he will oversee the company’s virtual currency game production across its mobile, social and online gaming platforms.

“Andrew is a highly respected industry veteran with a wealth of experience managing online entertainment and consumer web studios,” said Jeff Karp, GSN’s Executive Vice President Mobile & Social Games. “His creative talent and business expertise are exactly what we need to continue delivering the highest quality games and the best possible entertainment experience to our players.”

“GSN Digital was a pioneer in the social games space and has since built one of the leading social casinos on Facebook with extensions on the Web and mobile platforms. I’m excited to be a part of the company’s continued success as we look for innovative ways to keep players engaged while attracting new ones across all platforms,” Pedersen added.

American Express Syncs With Xbox 360

BY

American Express has launched a co-branded experience on the Xbox 360. The credit card company is using its Card Sync technology with Halo 4 to unlock content and offers for U.S. and for U.K. card members.

Card members can sync their Card to their Xbox Live Gamertag by logging in at Sync.AmericanExpress.com/Xbox. This will grant card members an Access Code, real-time, to enter in the American Express digital experience tile in the Game Marketplace in the Games section of the Xbox 360 dashboard, then will ask them to share their Xbox Live Gamertag to be directed to the offer dashboard.

Offers include spending $10 at AMC Theaters and get $5 and spending $50 at PacSun and getting $25. “We’re bringing a totally new experience to the platform that’s never been done before,” said American Express’ SVP of digital partnerships and development, Leslie Berland, adding that 40 million Xbox Live users are also American Express card members.

“The basic mechanics of ‘earn an achievement [and] get a reward,’ that is not a complicated exercise to extend beyond Halo,” said Ross Honey, GM of Xbox Live Entertainment and Advertising. “We expect this to be the biggest game of the year.”

There are plans to go beyond this game, as once the syncing occurs, it can be implemented later. “This is the first manifestation of how [American Express’s technology] Card Sync and Xbox can work together,” said American Express’ head of business and product development, Dave Wolf. “We’re excited about future ways we can bring it to life through streaming, music, anything on the Xbox platform.”

There’s potential for rewards from media viewing companies like Hulu in addition to rewards for in-game achievements. “We deeply value our partnership with Hulu…I’d love to bring that up to them,” said Honey.

Source: AdWeek.com

DeNA Purchases Stake In Rage Of Bahamut Developer

BY

DeNA has announced that it is buying a 20 percent stake in Cygames. The shares, bought from Cygames majority owner Cyber Agent, are worth roughly $92 million.

The Rage of Bahamut developer has helped push DeNA’s revenue across Europe, the U.S., Korea and Japan. DeNA recently reported sales of $627 million for the second quarter with profits of $254 million.

Army Of Two: The Devil’s Cartel Rolls Out Pre-Order Bonuses

BY

Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel has been confirmed for a release on March 26, 2013. Those that pre-order the game will see their game upgraded to the “Overkill Edition” with early access to three “Overkillers” contracts, new equipment like a TAH-9 side arm, Double D automatic shotgun along with Overkill and polymer textured masks and outfit, and a Day of the Dead themed assault rifle with a similarly designed outfit and mask created by popular tattoo artists.

“With Army of Two The Devil’s Cartel we wanted to take the series in a new direction while also leveraging the aspects that made the first two Army of Two games unique,” said Julian Beak, Executive Producer, Visceral Games. “We knew coming out of the gate that meaningful co-op gameplay, customization and over-the-top action would be key pillars for us, and we’re bringing these elements to the next level by presenting them in a setting that is more serious in order to dial up the intensity.”

Mass Effect Trilogy Dated For PS3

BY

Electronic Arts has announced that they will launch the Mass Effect Trilogy for PS3 on December 4. The $60 compilation will include Mass Effect‘s Bring Down the Sky DLC and Mass Effect 2 will have Cerberus Network, Kasumi, Overlord, and Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC.

To coincide with the release of the Mass Effect Trilogy on PC and Xbox 360, BioWare will hold its first annual N7 Day on November 7. The day will consist of online, live and in-store events, with more details coming soon.

Molyneux’s Curiosity: The Cube Sees Huge Demand

BY

Peter Molyneux’s gaming experiment Curiosity: The Cube saw overwhelming demand from thousands of users, and 97 million “cubelets” have already been destroyed on the first layer, with the average daily destruction rate for each user at 306. Molyneux reported yesterday that 2 billion in-game coins had been spent and 625 people have purchased the 1 million coin chisel.

“I now understand what’s going on, basically we and our server are overwhelmed by the number of people trying out the experiment,” tweeted Molyneux. “Everyone please remember something as concurrent as this has never been attempted before, and we’re just a tiny company.”

Curiosity: The Cube is free and the first of a series of “experiments” for Molyneux’s 22 Cans studio. Users strip away layers of a cube by tapping, but only the user who removes the final cubelet will get to see what’s at the center of the cube by video link.

Source: Twitter.com

Skyrim DLC – Dragonborn

BY

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim‘s latest expansion pack features a return to Solstheim, the setting for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind‘s Bloodmoon expansion. The cold northern island houses a legendary figure, the first Dragonborn!