This trailer aired during the college football BCS National Championship and it’s timing was such that it could look like an ad for either the University of Alabama or Notre Dame. It’s not that however – it’s an impressive fake for Monsters University!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=THhRSJC5FX8
The horror classic Evil Dead is being remade more than 30 years after anniversary of the original movie. This impressive trailer (which is quite bloody to be warned) is about as visceral as any film in recent memory.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=BHDJm1D2ELw
Dead Space 3 is the first game to have co-op specific voice commands, according to this trailer. Now you can yell at your teammate and actually have things happen!
If Facebook and its properties such as Instagram are truly toying with the idea that they can easily weave users and their content into advertising, it may not be an easy road. Just weeks after an uproar over Instagram’s change of service terms, which people perceived to mean their photos could be used in ads, Facebook is facing backlash against sponsored stories. This time it’s litigious. A class action suit has been filed in federal court against the company’s use of profiles in sponsored stories. Facebook is trying to settle.
A pending class action and proposed settlement notice for the suit Angel Fraley v. Facebook, Inc. sent to users states, “Facebook unlawfully used the names, profile pictures, likenesses, and identities of Facebook users in the United States to advertise or sell products and services through Sponsored Stories without obtaining those users’ consent.”
The notice states that no judgment has been made, only that Facebook is offering a $20 million settlement that has preliminary court approval. According to the terms, that can translate to up to $10 for users who agree to the terms and file a claim. If claims exceed the amount of the offered settlement, Facebook will instead pay the money to charities defined by the lead plaintiffs in the case. The deadline for users to accept and file a claim or object to the settlement is May 2, 2013. There’s a web site with details of the suit including pending actions and deadlines at www.fraleyfacebooksettlement.com.
Source: Mashable
By David Radd
In the first two parts of our interview Tony Key, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Ubisoft we discussed keeping the momentum in Just Dance 4 and bringing out the third and debatably most important Assassin’s Creed game to date. We conclude the interview, talking about ZombiU and digging into Far Cry 3, which may have transformed the property into Ubisoft’s latest hit IP.
[a]list: Ubisoft led on PS Vita with Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and they did so similarly with ZombiU, one of the few third-party titles designed exclusively for the Wii U. Was it conscious to have a prominent spot at the system’s launch much like was done with the Wii and Red Steel
Tony Key: We had dev kits for the Wii U and got to see what the second screen experience was about pretty early. We saw an opportunity there to create something unique. ZombiU it’s not the sort of game Nintendo makes. It’s a unique game and it’s somewhat polarizing. Some people can’t get get around the fact that to play this game, you will die! The idea is you die and have to hunt down your former self, because your backpack with items stay with you. I think that idea is unsettling to some people and you can see that in the certain way people perceive the title. Some people, however, say it’s a cool experience. It’s one of the top sellers for the system and it will sell as the system’s base expands. There’s only a certain amount of units that will sell until the Wii U itself sells more!
It might seem depressing, but I think seeing your former self as a zombie with a backpack is kind of cool! Zombies are hot in pop culture right now. It will be interesting to see how zombies evolve, and I never saw zombies run fast before the World War Z trailer [Editor’s Note: Tony clearly hasn’t watched 28 Days Later] – they’re always these slow moving beings. So it will be interesting to see it evolve as a trope.
[a]list: Turning to Far Cry 3, that game saw a release very late in the holiday schedule. Did Ubisoft do this for development reasons or or the timing to give it some breathing room from other prominent releases
Tony Key: Far Cry 3 needed polish in order to present the experience people wanted. It wasn’t a decision to keep it out of the way of other games; it wasn’t a late shift game. We have one more great series now and the challenge is to find a voice with fans of shooters to convey that we have this special product. That’s the reason why we had the early reviews, because we were so confident that we have the top shooter. So many people have bought so many games already this year, and without that polish, Far Cry 3 might have gotten lost in the shuffle. I think we’ve delivered an awesome product.
[a]list: Talk to me about the advertising for Far Cry 3.
Tony Key: Along with the ad spots around launch, we’ve had extensive digital presence and we’ve had a cool trans-media Far Cry 3 experience video series that we’re doing with Machinima, starring Christopher Mintz-Plasse from Super Bad and Kick-Ass. That series has done really well right now, and has Michael Mando as part of the live action experience. He’s Vass and he recreated the experience from the game very well. He should win acting awards for what he did in Far Cry 3. He did of the best character acting in this game where there are so many great characters.
[a]list: Far Cry 3 was at late release, but it’s seen wide acclaim. Were there concerns it might not be recognized for game of the year awards because of the late timing
Tony Key: We were concerned that people had decided, because we do think it should be considered for game of the year awards. We don’t want to be a sleeper we want to be a big brand. How many games are 90 percent on Metacritic Among shooters, its the top rated this year. The game deserves game of the year considerations and that’s our challenge as marketers to help make people aware of the praise.
Far Cry 2 had pretty good critical acclaim but it alienated a lot of customers since didn’t fill the world with things to do – that was the biggest piece of feedback – the emptiness frustrated people.
[a]list: Were those lessons things that were applied from the Assassin’s Creed series
Tony Key: Absolutely, the Far Cry team is in the same studio in Montreal. Open world design is a learning experience that’s shared among all the teams. We learned that you have to fill the world with things to do. Far Cry 3 is a clear step up in quality for the series.
[a]list: Thanks Tony, and look forward to seeing what you guys have cooking next year!
Newly launched Mobile Media Summit is hosting an event looking at how brands are finding meaningful ways to work mobile apps into their advertising and marketing strategies. More than 40 speakers are on the roster from big brands such as Activision, Intel, Tapjoy, The Weather Channel and Purina. Top media outlets are joining the lineup as well, with speakers and moderators from Bloomberg, Financial Times, Adweek and Ad Age. The event is scheduled for January 22 in San Francisco.
As part of a partnership with [a]list summit New York, registrants can get $100 discount on Mobile Media Summit San Francisco by entering ALISTSUMMIT100 at checkout. Register at the Mobile Media Summit site.
Xi3 Corporation announced at the 2013 International CES trade show that they are developing a gaming PC system designed for televisions. The “uniquely shaped, grapefruit-size” Xi3 Modular Computer chassis is being designed with Steam and its Big Picture in mind, and is being developed with an investment from the Valve Corporation.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era for Xi3,” said Jason A. Sullivan , founder, President and CEO of Xi3. “This new development stage product will allow users to take full-advantage of their large high-definition TV displays for an amazing computer game experience. As a result, this new system could provide access to thousands of gaming titles through an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand.”
Apple has announced that they have seen the download of over 40 billion apps, including 20 billion in 2012 alone, having paid out over $7 billion to developers. The App Store has over 500 million active accounts and saw over two billion downloads during December, a new record in a month for a store with over 775,000 apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
“It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world.”
“The success of our game Temple Run in 2012 was nothing short of astonishing,” said Keith Shepherd, co-founder of Imangi Studios. “We were simply looking to create a game that was fun and easy to play, but once it hit the App Store, the game took off. This past year, we saw more than 75 million downloads of Temple Run on iOS.”
Chartboost has announced that it has closed a $19 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Sequoia Capital with additional funding from previous investors TransLink Capital and SK Telecom Ventures.
Chartboost is designed to help games grow their audience by working directly with developers and facilitating cross-promotion. They’ll use these funds to expand and hire new people and improve their app discovery that currently reaches more than 300 million monthly active devices with six billion monthly game sessions.
“In a historically opaque industry, Chartboost is laser-focused on empowering developers with transparency and control over their businesses,” said Chartboost chief executive officer Maria Alegre. “We have big dreams for the future and we are thrilled to be partnering with Sequoia going forward.”
Hackulous has been shut down, and the demise of the piracy community means the end of the Installous jailbreak iOS app. The app allowed users to download free pirated iOS apps and games then add them to their system as if they had been legally purchased from the App Store.
“We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down,” reads a post on the Hackulous homepage. “After many years, our community has become stagnant, and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff.”
This does not mean that iOS piracy options are going away, merely that they are taking other forms. For instance, the app Zeusmos provides users with a license and provisioning profile that allows them to install pirated apps.
“The intent of Zeusmos will be to SOLELY code sign applications,” said the app’s creator, 15-year-old Kevin Ko. “We will not be supporting or encouraging any form of piracy through the link providers or even via search (although they were based off the iTunes API). The intents [sic] as I have stated [was] to allow open development for developers. Recently I’ve had the time to add this feature into Zeusmos called the ‘Exclusive Apps’ section where developers who got their application rejected in the App Store were able to post their application on here for free and share their application to a large audience of users. Such applications even included Grooveshark and many others.”
There is also the app Kuaiyong that downloads free versions of apps that appear to have been purchased under an Apple enterprise license, enabling installation across multiple devices. This has led to developers reporting thousands of installs of the same exact copy of their app, complete with the same set of encrypted credentials.
Source: FierceMobileContent.com
