Put Your Friends On The Chopping Block

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Lionsgate’s Texas Chainsaw 3D continues the legendary story of the homicidal Sawyer family, picking up where Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic left off in Newt, Texas, where for years people went missing without a trace. Decades later and hundreds of miles away from the original massacre, a young woman named Heather learns that she has inherited a Texas estate from a grandmother she never knew she had. After embarking on a road trip with friends to uncover her roots, she finds she is the sole owner of a lavish, isolated Victorian mansion and stumbles upon a horror that awaits her in the mansion’s dank cellars.

The website experience combines the history of the franchise and real stories from the front-lines of Texas justice. Fans can click around and see full frame video from the film and share directly to Twitter or their preferred social network.

For iOS devices, fans can download the Horror Movie Maker and start directing their own horror movies starring their friends. Give the term “Director’s Cut” a whole new meaning with exclusive horror movie effects featuring Leatherface.

Start by choosing a signature horror movie scene and then use the on-screen guide to correctly set up the scene. Use the on-screen timer to cue up your friends and then choose a horror movie inspired filter as a finishing touch. Watch the horror unfold then share your masterpiece through Facebook, YouTube, Email and Camera Roll.

The app includes four free, incredibly realistic Horror Movie effects in full HD:

– LEATHERFACE SLASH: Put your friends on the chopping block as Leatherface moves in for a gruesome kill.

– LEATHERFACE WITH A CHAINSAW: Direct a classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre scene featuring Leatherface and his signature kill.

– BECOME LEATHERFACE: Make your audience experience what it feels like inside the bloodthirsty mind of Leatherface.

– DEMONIC POSSESSION: The iconic horror movie scene of a young girl experiencing demonic possession.

Windows 8 Sells 60 Million Licenses

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Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller announced at the 11th Annual J.P. Morgan Tech Forum at CES 2013 that Windows 8 has sold 60 million licenses to date. This total includes both upgrades and sales to OEMs for new devices.

“We have seen a significant increase in the number of Windows 8 certified systems since general availability at the end of October. There are now more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT,” posted Brandon LeBlanc. “This week we also highlighted strong growth in developers building for Windows 8. Since the opening of the Windows Store the number of apps has quadrupled and we passed the 100 million app download mark — just two months after general availability.”

Source: Blogs.Windows.com

Sony CEO: PS Vita Sales On ‘Low End’ Of Expectations

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Nvidia introduced Project Shield at CES, a new and potentially disruptive device in the portable games market. Sony CEO Kaz Hirai, however, isn’t exactly shaking in his boots over the potential rival to the PS Vita.

“I wasn’t as surprised as you might think,” said Hirai to PCWorld. “If you look back through the pages of history, there have been other attempts. It’s difficult to break into. I’ve managed this industry, so I know.”

As for the sales of the PS Vita, Hirai said, “I would say it’s at the low end of what we expected” to the Wall Street Journal, noting that he was looking at its prospects over a period of several years. “Long-term is what is important.”

GameStop Saw Holiday Sales Drop During 2012

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GameStop announced that for the last nine weeks of 2012, the company saw sales of $2.88 billion, or 4.6 percent less than the same period of 2011. This marks the first year-over-year holiday sales decrease since GameStop merged with rival Electronics Boutique in 2005.

According to GameStop, the primary reason for the decrease was diminishing in-store traffic. Second-hand sales were down 15.6 percent, with the retailer noting fewer releases for 2012, while new game sales were down 5.1 percent and hardware numbers were down 2.7 percent.

Digital sales were up more than 40 percent for the holiday period, e-commerce sales rose 20.5 percent, and mobile brought in $76.5 million (though that is a small part of the overall pie for GameStop). The retailer said it did well by the Wii U launch, having sold 320,000 systems.

However, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter was far more bearish over this first holiday period for the Wii U. He said the Wii U moved 675,000 units at U.S. retail in its second month with a software attach rate around one per hardware unit.

Pachter described the launch numbers of the Wii U as underwhelming, blaming the softness of the market for Nintendo products for no small part of the gaming retail industry’s general malaise. He expects NPD decline of 11 percent in console software sales due to the Wii U’s underwhelming launch and fatigue with titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Halo 4.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

Endgame: Syria To Undergo Changes For iOS

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Auroch Digital has announced that they will have to change the game Endgame: Syria in order to bring it to the iOS App Store. An App Store guideline preventing an app from targeting “a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity” means that some of the meaning and context will have to be removed from the game, already available on Android.

“We had hoped that Apple would be more nuanced in how they applied this rule but we got a bit worried when it had been in submission for around two weeks without a decision,” said game designer Tomas Rawlings. “We then figured that because of the controversy of using the gaming medium to cover an ongoing war meant passing the game had become an issue for them.”

“Our aim is to use games as a format to bring news to a new audience and submission processes such as this do make it a lot harder for us,” Rawlings added. “I get that Apple want to make sure really offensive titles don’t pass into their store, but ours is far from that.”

 

Razer Edge Gaming Tablet Revealed

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Razer announced at CES 2013 the Razer Edge, a gaming Windows 8 tablet. It comes in two models (one for $999 and another for $1,299, both coming early 2013) and will be compatible with a gamepad controller, a docking station to make it into a home console and a keyboard dock to make it function like a Windows 8 laptop.

“When we decided to design a tablet from the ground up, we did it to create a phenomenal experience for mobile gamers. By combining the best of PC and console gaming with Windows 8, we’ve created a true gaming tablet,” said Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. “Clearly, the critical acclaim and community support the Razer Edge has enjoyed suggests we hit the mark. Now, we get to celebrate the reality of what was formerly a dream with the audience for which this groundbreaking tablet was made.”

“Gamers are among the most demanding audience when it comes to processor performance. We’re happy to be working with Razer to satisfy those desires by helping build one of the most powerful tablets based on the 3rd gen Intel Core family of products,” said Brad Graff, Director of Customer Marketing, Mobile Communications Group at Intel. “The Razer Edge is a testament to what can be achieved with true innovation between industry-leading companies.”

Apple Planning Low-Cost iPhone

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Reports are that Apple is developing a low-cost version of the iPhone in order to compete with Samsung, LG and other manufacturers. Plans are to launch the device in the second half of 2013, using a polycarbonate plastic shell with a variety of parts from older iPhone models.

This new, cheaper iPhone will primarily be used to target the world’s developing mobile markets, particularly China, where iPhone models are consistently undercut by affordable Android handsets. Apple’s stock has fallen 25 percent since it reached an all-time closing high of $702.10 in September as investors worry competitors are gaining ground.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Microsoft Planning More TV Ads On Xbox Live

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Microsoft has indicated that they have seen double-digit engagement results for the NUads experience on Xbox Live, with particularly positive results for interactive polls. The NUads were begun in the Fall 2012 in North America and the U.K., seeing participation from brands like Subway and Toyota.

“When we launched NUads, we redefined the 30-second spot,” said Ross Honey, general manager of Xbox Live Entertainment and Advertising. “These results show that NUads is a real breakthrough in TV advertising, and you can expect more investment from us when it comes to this new ad format and video advertising in general.”

Brands are pleased with the engagement that they get via polls or Xbox Kinect. Microsoft will be seeking out more media partners going forward for video advertising on Xbox Live.

“Consumers want a relevant and engaging experience when watching TV,” said Dionne Colvin, national media manager, Toyota Motor Sales USA. “NUads was a new format for our advertising, but we saw an opportunity to try something new, and the results exceeded our expectations.”

“We’re thrilled with the results of our first NUads experience,” said Kathleen Bell, director of Marketing, Subway Restaurants in Canada. “We’re always looking for new ways to engage with our fans and deliver a customized experience to them. Taking part in this exciting program has given us the ability to further target our audience and get real-time feedback from them through a new and interactive platform.”

BioShock: Ultimate Rapture Edition Announced

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2K Games has announced that they will release a BioShock: Ultimate Rapture Edition for PS3 and Xbox 360 on January 14, 2013. It will release for $29.99 and include the full games BioShock and BioShock 2.

Along with the games, there will also be the Plasmids Pack and Challenge Rooms Pack for BioShock and the Sinclair Solutions Tester, Rapture Metro, The Protector Trials, and Minerva’s Den content packs for BioShock 2. Also include will be the Museum of Orphaned Concepts, showing early concept art, character models and more set within the halls of Rapture and a exclusive collectable sticker pack from BioShock Infinite‘s Columbia to get gamers ready for the next chapter in the BioShock universe.

Kickstarter Games Saw Over $83 Million Pledged In 2012

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Kickstarter revealed that $83,144,565 was pledged by 561,574 backers to gaming projects in 2012. 2,796 projects were submitted in the gaming category, which saw more money pledged than the categories of film, technology or art.

The site saw over $319,786,629 raised from 2,241,475 people who funded 18,109 projects. 17 of those projects raised over $1 million, including Double Fine’s adventure title, InXile’s Wasteland 2 and Obsidian’s Project Eternity.

Source: Kickstarter.com/blog