HTC Attempts To Usurp Attention On Galaxy S IV

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As Samsung was unveiling the Galaxy S IV in New York, HTC President Jason Mackenzie and his team stood outside Radio City Music Hall demoing the latest One series while handing out $100 coupons and hot cocoa to reporters and consumers gathering there. Mackenzie also took interviews, reiterating that HTC remained hopeful on its latest flagship smartphone.

HTC Chief Marketing Officer Benjamin Ho also sent out an email just hours after the Galaxy S IV launch. “With a continuation of a plastic body, and a larger screen being the most obvious physical change, Samsung’s new Galaxy pales in comparison to the all-aluminum uni-body HTC One,” said Ho in the email. “This is more of the same. HTC remains the best option for those people looking for the best technology wrapped in premium design.”

This is a significant shift, as the Taiwanese firm has never commented on rival’s products before. The change is reflective of the company’s own tenuous position, after net profit shrank to the lowest in more than five years to a point where investors worry the company may soon slip into the red.

IDC states that the Galaxy S IV stands out with its software capability, although its plastic backing with a metal band is still not fancy enough compared with phones from HTC and other rivals. “The company has utilized the device sensors, including new features like temperature and humidity, to gain an advantage by differentiating from its competitors,” the IDC said. “Samsung clearly needs to innovate its device materials to keep up with the developments seen from HTC Sony , or even Nokia.”

Galaxy IV is set to hit the market in April, around the same time as HTC’s One.

Source: WSJ.com

Google Separates Its Mapping And Commerce Units

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Google has separated its mapping and commerce units, both of which were headed up by senior vice president Jeff Huber, who will step down from his position. Having led teams for AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Apps in the past, he will now join the mysterious X team (the group that has produced products like Google Glass and self-driving cars) joining former Android head Andy Rubin and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Reportedly, the reason for the separation of mapping and commerce units is the increasing complexity and size of both teams because of the number of products they manage. The mapping and commerce group was also Google’s largest team outside of Motorola Mobility, with some 2,500 employees under its purview.

“Jeff is an extraordinary executive,” said Google in a statement. “He just finished his first decade at Google — having worked on some of our most complicated issues like ads, apps, payments and geo — and now he is eager to work in more of a startup-like environment.”

Source: TheVerge.com

Apple Downplays New Android Phones

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Apple senior vice president of world-wide marketing Phil Schiller has played down publicly the unvieling of Samsung’s Galaxy S IV. He stated how he believes the iPhone is superior to Samsung’s range of phones and said that Apple’s own research shows that four times as many iPhone users switched from an Android phone than to an Android phone in the fourth quarter.

“Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn’t as good as an iPhone,” he said, before adding about fragmentation, “When you take an Android device out of the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to get the experience iOS comes with. They don’t work seamlessly together.”

Apple’s iPhone represented 19 percent of global smartphone shipments in 2012, compared with about 70 percent for all Android phones, according to IDC; Apple still beats Samsung in U.S. smartphone subscribers, according to comScore. IDC said it expects tablets powered by Android to eclipse Apple’s iPad this year in terms of shipments.

“I’m not sure that the estimates and the modeling accurately gives an accurate picture of it all,” said Schiller.

Schiller cited a survey from research firm ChangeWave that found that around three-quarters of iPhone users say they are “very satisfied” with their device compared with roughly half of Android users.

Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner said Google’s iterative improvements on Android have made it a much stronger competitor and that features such as 3-D visuals and customizable looks have helped make Android look fresh. “There’s going to be an incredible amount of pressure on Apple once the Galaxy S IV is out,” he said. “The Galaxy S III is already a very strong offering, and the S IV will obviously offer more things that appeal to users.”

While Schiller declined to comment about future products, he instead discussed the iPhone 5, saying the screen is “still the best display of any smartphone.”

“Given the iPhone 5 is so thin and light, the reason that people are making their devices bigger is to get up to the battery life the iPhone 5 offers,” he said.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Samsung Galaxy S4 Receiving Significant EA Support

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Electronic Arts has announced that it is planning to release 16 titles on the Google Play store for the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch this April. These games include the upcoming Tetris Blitz along with hit titles like Real Racing 3, Simpsons: Tapped Out, Plants vs. Zombies, Monopoly, and Bejeweled Blitz.

“We’re delighted to be partnered with Samsung to bring some of our fans’ favorite mobile gaming titles to the Samsung Galaxy S4 in time for launch,” said EA vice president of new platforms Glenn Roland. “The device’s higher resolution, larger screen and increased processing power will give our games an opportunity to look even more beautiful for Samsung consumers.”

Journey’s Development Cost ‘Millions’ According To Jenova Chen

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The award-winning Journey cost millions of dollars to develop, according to Thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen. Because of that, Chen knew that it would take a while for his company to receive any royalties.

“When the game makes money, the money first goes back to pay back the money they’ve invested. So, that’s going to take a while – Journey cost multiple millions of dollars to make. Once that money is recouped, then we will get royalties,” he said. “But for almost a year, we are not going to be relying on the money from Journey to keep the company going.”

To help with the money situation, Thatgamecompany secured $5.6 million from venture capital firm Benchmark Company immediately after Journey released. “We were at a spot where, if we couldn’t figure out the next game, or find the next deal, then at the end of Journey we’d run out of money,” Chen said. “When we switched to a venture capital, we raised the money because we pitched the project; we sold them on the vision. They believe it, they want to support us to make that happen. So, creatively I’ve never gotten any input from the venture capital. It’s actually very similar, we are always ourselves, and no one is really messing around with us. With Sony, it was the same thing.”

Source: Joystiq

Iron Man 3 Might See Pepper Potts In Armor

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Marvel Entertainment International President Simon Philips recently indicated in an interview that Pepper Potts will appear in a suit of her own for Iron Man 3. The original reports out of Brazil have been apparently been removed at the request of Disney, a move that likely signals this being close to the truth.

The report also stated that Tony Stark will have an underground Hall of Armors with over a dozen designs (many based upon classic Iron Man inceptions from the comics). There is precedent from the comics for Potts to be in armor, having assumed the mantel of Rescue with her own metallic suit.

Source: TheMarySue.com

BioShock Infinite – False Shepherd

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Booker DeWitt is just one man, but between his arsenal of weapons and the powers granted by Vigors, he has the fighting power of an army. While he’s initially tasked with rescuing a girl, he finds himself wrapped up in the fate of Columbia itself – check it out in this trailer set to Evil Ways by Blues Saraceno.

Get In Bed With Burt Wonderstone

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone opens in theaters today, but if you want see what it’s like to take a tumble in the (supposedly) world’s biggest bed, you can try the Bed Down With Burt online game. Collect coins to make it to the next stage, and challenge or share your results with your friends. You can even have a souvenir photo taken of your time with Burt.

 

 

 

 

Game Connection Reveals 2013 Marketing Award Nominees

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Game Connection and [a]list have announced the nominees for their Marketing Awards, honoring the best the video game marketing industry has to offer in areas spanning digital, print, mobile and public relations campaigns. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on March 25, 2013, held from 4:30 to 5:30 PM at San Francisco’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

Here’s the list of the finalists who will get a chance to take home the winning title in the following categories:

Best Broadcast Campaign

• Telltale Games with The Walking Dead
• ichi for THQ with Metro: Last Light
• TAKEOFF CSH for Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed III Official Animus Trailer

Best Digital Campaign

• Riot Games with League of Legends splash screens
• TBWA/Gamelab for McDonald’s China with Angry Brids Magic in McDonald’s
• Ayzenberg Group for KIXEYE with KIXEYE’s Website

Best Experiential Campaign

• Ideactif agency for Ubisoft with the Rocksmith tour
• Microsoft with Halo 4 Liechtenstein launch event
• iam8bit for Bethesda Softworks with Dishonored “Boyle Party”

Best Mobile Campaign

• Fishlabs Entertainment for The Coca-Cola Company with Fanta Fruit Slam
• Matmi for Warwick Davis with PocketWarwick
• Midnight Oil Creative for Square Enix with Tomb Raider Scavenger Hunt

Best PR Campaign

• Neology/The Redner Group for Oculus VR with Oculus Rift launch campaign
• Midnight Oil Creative for Ubisoft with Far Cry 3
• Crytek Istanbul with Crytek Istanbul press launch event
• appsasia for Korea Mobile Internet Business Association with Mobile App Global Challenge

Best Print Campaign

• Microsoft with Halo 4 E3 OOH
• Ayzenberg Group for Warner Bros. with Guardians of Middle Earth E3 posters
• Ayzenberg Group for Microsoft with Contre Jour pop-up press kit

Best Social Media Campaign

• Sandbox Strategies for Activision with Activision’s Family Game Summit
• Microsoft with Halo 4 Soundtrack DJ and Fan Remix program
• Nemesys Games with Pursued: Street View game campaign

The nominees for [a]list daily’s special marketing awards include:

Best Original Content Campaign

• Armed Mind for Activision Blizzard with Call of Duty: Black Ops II “Rightful King” Kindle short story
• Secret Power for Square Enix with Hitman Trilogy artwork
• Microsoft with Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn

Best Overall Marketing Campaign

• Telltale Games with The Walking Dead
• Microsoft with Halo 4
• Midnight Oil Creative for Activision with Skylanders Giants

[a]list daily will also give away the award for Best Marketing Team of the Year, where all the campaigns are automatically registered and is designed to honor those who have distinguished themselves through the quality and innovation of their work. Further event information can be found at Game-Connection.com.

Google Shuttering Reader

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Google announced that it is shutting down Google Reader on July 1. Google said a decline in usage for the RSS platform led to the decision.

“We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go,” said Alan Green, a Google software engineer. “We’re sad too.”

Google says users will be able to transfer their RSS subscriptions to alternative services, like Feedly or Flipboard, using Google Takeout.

Source: LATimes.com