Anheuser-Busch has shot back at assertion that they are watering down their product to save money. They’re denying the accusations and they launched these ads in the Houston Chronicle and The New York Times to highlight their relief efforts in times of disaster.
Source: AdWeek.com
Crystal Dynamics, having just rebooted the Tomb Raider game franchise, are looking to work with GK Films to do the same to the movie series. The agreement between the two companies was contingent on input from the developer, though GK Films will ultimately make most of the important decisions.
“They are working from this new take that we’ve given them. It’s a good partnership. We’re seeing the challenges through the same lens,” said Crystal Dynamics head of studio Darrell Gallagher of GK Films. “It was important for both of us to have a cohesive version of the franchise. We didn’t want to see a film version that was a continuation of the old Tomb Raider films.”
Source: Variety.com
To celebrate the launch of Wreck-It Ralph on Blu-ray, Disney released this half-hour short mockumentary spoofing King of Kong with a film called Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives. Detailing the life and times of the one time Fix-It Felix Jr. high score champion Garlan Hulse falling into obscurity before attempting to reclaim past glory, you’ll laugh and cry and be contemplating your own life by the end of it!
Ken Weber details to GamerHub how Zynga got involved with Games for Change to deliver Half the Sky Movement: The Game. Zynga.org plays a part in a game that educates people on complex social issues involving women and girls, which allows users to donate to non-profit organizations designed to support social awareness and address issues of oppressed women throughout the world.
While some complained that the tone of Dead Space 3 didn’t have enough horror, Visceral Games is looking to correct that with the first DLC of the game. Titled Awakened, what little is shown demonstrates that the only thing more freaky than a necromorph is a Unitology cultist dressed up and pretending to be a necromorph.
With the imminent arrival of Kerrigan and Heart of the Swarm on March 12, Blizzard Entertainment will be preparing for the onslaught with a worldwide broadcast spanning more than 20 hours leading up to the launch of the game. StarCraft players are invited to join at official events in Melbourne, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; Versailles, France; and Irvine, California; or catch the celebration online.
Top StarCraft II pro-gamers will play Heart of the Swarm show matches with popular casters narrating the action while featuring live demonstrations of new features in the game, plus showcase videos, community content and great prize giveaways. Developers will also be present at some of the official launch events — list of locations and information about all of the events are being announced on the game’s official site.
Global brand manager at Crystal Dynamics Karl Stewart is very happy with the early reception to Tomb Raider. On Twitter, he implied that the reboot might be seeing stock shortages.
“Wow, 1m gamers playing in less than 48hrs!” tweeted Stewart. “@tombraider fans, you’re AMAZING Hearing some stores are running low..more copies are on the way!”
Source: Twitter.com
Zynga New York GM Dan Porter recently made waves when he addressed the issue of Zynga copying games. “Zynga is often accused of copying games, which is mostly true,” he reportedly told an audience at a recent event.
Porter said at the time that what Zynga did was adding features to make those games a service. He now regrets touching on the subject and offered some clarifications online.
“Some of you have seen in the press that I supposedly said Zynga copies games,” he said in a blog. “I was very surprised when the article came out because it was a misrepresentation of what I said at a small talk about the future of gaming and where I talked mostly about wearable gaming and ramification of everyday events.”
“When I spoke to this group, I told them what I truly believe: the debate over copying games is a distraction if you are trying to figure out the future of social games; what matters is the ability to run those games as a service,” he added. “But I also know that is a nuanced point and isn’t quite as sexy a headline. I should know better. Lesson learned. Sometimes it is truly better to say nothing at all.”
Game cloning is a touchy subject for Zynga, which has been the focus of lawsuits in the past, most notably from Electronic Arts over the resemblance of Zynga’s The Ville to The Sims Social. Porter has also personally courted controversy last year, when he wrote of an OMGPOP employee who refused to join Zynga as “the weakest one on the whole team.”
Source: Yahoo.com
Goichi Suda recently wrote his impressions of the PS4 reveal, saying that he is highly impressed with the device. While he’s currently working on Killer is Dead for current gen systems, he announced his intentions to make PS4 games at Grasshopper Manufacture and that he was excited over the possibility for a new generation of hardware.
“I think that in the future, cloud delivery will become totally commonplace,†Suda writes. “Social networking has certainly done that. To be able to play anywhere, on any device, with shared data – this will be an alluring new feature for games. You’ll have your own personal profile or ID that you can access from many different devices and enjoy your game from anywhere, in various different ways.”
“That this play style will become a reality is futuristic enough. But in addition, cloud saving becoming standard practice is an evolution in itself. It will add new value and will surely result in new ways to play. Thinking about the future of this stuff and then constructing and outputting something appealing is our job as game designers, and from that challenge we can take new strength. And that makes me horny,†he added.
Source: Edge
Richard Garriott has announced that he is launching a new game called Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. The game will be made by Portalarium, Garriott’s Austin-based game studio, and marks the Ultima creator’s return to fantasy role playing games.
Shroud of the Avatar will be backed up at Kickstarter. One of the most important levels of pledges allows for housing, where players can buy their own virtual property, outfit them as they like and potentially run their own business
“Shroud of the Avatar will include what I think are the keys to an ultimate role-playing experience,” says Garriott. “These important tenets include things like a fully interactive virtual world, deep original fiction with ethical parables such that players’ choices are relevant, cultural histories and fully developed alternative languages and text. Also we want our players to have physical game components like cloth maps, fictional manuals and trinkets. These are all things that people came to expect in my earlier works and we plan on bringing them all back to create Shroud of the Avatar.”
Shroud of the Avatar will have an overarching story for players to experience, but users may instead decide to work a more humble craft both in settled lands or the frontier. Player choice is said to be an important component, from the psychological profiling at the start to consequences of their actions later.
Shroud of the Avatar will be a PC game available via digital download with episodic content available later at a fee. While the game is being built to be enjoyed as a solo experience, it will also contain a persistent world where you can meet and share your experiences with friends.
“This will not be a Facebook or casual game,” said Garriott. “We think it will appeal to a multitude of audiences, but we are planning on making a game that will harken back to the same design principles that you can find in my earlier games.”
“And we couldn’t be happier to be introducing the game on Kickstarter, which has really changed the landscape for game developers. It allows us to connect directly with our fan base and it keeps us from being so dependent on the traditional publishing model. There’s now a direct feedback loop with people who like our game and have decided to back it. With Kickstarter we can listen to what our fans are saying about how we are developing the game and make changes and additions based on that feedback, before the game launches. We hope people will like what they are seeing and hearing about Shroud of the Avatar and back the project on Kickstarter,” Garriott concluded.
Source: Kickstarter.com
