Xbox One Markets To Current Gamers Promising Day One Edition Console

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Immediately after Microsoft’s press conference at E3, an email was sent out to current Xbox Live members describing to them a special edition of their Xbox One that will only be available the day of release, aptly called the Day One Edition. Players who are able to get the Day One Edition of the console will get the console, a commemorative controller and an exclusive day one achievement on Xbox Live.

The email states: “Over the past decade, you have been with us as we pushed the boundaries of innovation. Xbox One represents not only the arrival of a new generation of games and entertainment, but also the next chapter of our journey together.” With this move, Microsoft is clearly marketing to its established fanbase with this extremely limited run of this console. The Xbox One will be released this fall.

Trailer For Star Wars Battlefront Is Short But Telling

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The 30 second reveal for DICE’s newest entry in the Star Wars Battlefront franchise began as a mystery with a first person view of a frozen wasteland. At 23 seconds in though, the iconic sound of a blaster from Star Wars was heard and it became immediately apparent that the long-dormant franchise was about to make its return. No release date was revealed, but this goes to show that EA is putting its exclusive publishing rights to Star Wars to good use.

 

Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Trailer Shows A Moment In The Life Of A Pirate Assassin

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In the initial moments of the newest cinematic trailer for Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, we see our dashing hero Edward Kenway in a bar enjoying the pirates life. From there, we see how a bar-room brawl turns into a hunt across the high seas for an assassin’s target, culminating in the assassination amongst the chaos of naval warfare. This trailer tells a story: the story of Edward the Pirate, Edward the Assassin and the crossover between the two sides of him.

 

Another Strong, Emotional Commercial

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This is the way a commercial for a game console might go, if it was focused on relationships. You can easily see where a gaming session would fit into this story. This would be a beautiful way to show how game play can foster relationships. You could also, for instance, show Skype through the game console, and remote game play between people… the possibilities are endless. It requires a complete shift in the usual approach for selling a game console, though.

 

Exclusive: Ubisoft Will Increase Marketing Spending

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The [a]list daily got the chance to sit down with Ubisoft’s CEO to ask him about the prospects for the company’s holiday season and the marketing challenge ahead. With expensive new consoles coming out this Christmas, is Guillemot concerned that it might reduce spending on current-generation games “In fact when a new console comes, you have lots of games that come back to the market because people sell their games to buy the new consoles,” Guillemot said. “You have an influx of lots of games and machines on the market that is making the market change a little bit. That’s what we can expect. What I’ve seen is that the guys who are capable of buying new machines are capable of buying quite a few games. They are fascinated by gaming and have enough money to buy good quality games.”

With all the games coming out are you increasing your marketing spending this holiday “We are spending more this year,” Guillemot said. “We are really in the transition period where we have lots of machines, so people are more difficult to reach than at the beginning of a console cycle. Next year maybe the marketing will go down, because it will be easier to reach those gamers unlike at the end of a cycle where we have do a lot of TV advertising.”

Guillemot thinks changes in business models have not made marketing games more difficult. “I think all of those systems are ways to help people to get in games,” said Guillemot. “The more we help people to start playing and have a good experience, the better.” He doesn’t see prices increasing for next-gen games, either. “At the moment we can expect to have around the same prices,” Guillemot said. “What I feel, though, is if we can give more content in the longer term, we will have a game that will continue to live longer with the possibility to buy your way in.”

Microsoft, Sony Reveal Console Prices, Availability

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It was a big day for console news, as both Microsoft and Sony held huge press events where the pricing and availability for new consoles were revealed, along with many new games. Microsoft went first, revealing at the end of its press event that the Xbox One will retail for $499, €499, or £429 depending on the region. The console will be available in 21 different markets this November, though Microsoft did not yet specify an exact date.

Microsoft also showed off a number of titles for the Xbox One, claiming that 13 exclusive titles will ship before the end of 2014. Titles shown for the Xbox One included Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Crytek’s Ryse: Son of Rome, Killer Instinct, Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive, Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 4, Mojang’s Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, Remedy’s Quantum Break, D4, the Kinect and SmartGlass-powered Project Spark, Capcom Vancouver’s Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3, CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, EA DICE’s Battlefield 4, Capy’s Below, Black Tusk Studios’ unnamed title, a new Halo, and Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall.

Sony’s press event revealed that the PlayStation 4 would be arriving “this holiday season”for the price of $399, €399 or £349 depending on the region. While Sony was vague about the release date, it’s almost certain the console would be available before the Thanksgiving weekend in November, which is a huge shopping weekend.

Sony showed a huge number of games coming for the PS4, with the company claiming nearly 40 exclusive titles in the works. Sony also led off the event with the PS Vita, noting that the handheld console has more than 175 dedicated games and access to more than 650 other titles thanks to its PSP, PS Mobile, and PS Classics compatibility. The ability of the PS Vita to play PS4 games remotely was also mentioned, as every effort was made to revive interest in the device. “We’re making Vita the ultimate companion device for PS4,” SCEA president and CEO Jack Tretton said.

Sony’s Worldwide Studios has more than 30 titles in development for PS4, about 20 of which are expected to launch in the first year, 12 of them brand new IPs. Sony showed a string of impressive games including The Order 1886, Killzone: Shadow Fall, DriveClub, Infamous: Second Son, Knack, Transistor, Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3, along with a string of indie games.

Sony made a show out of stating that there would be no restrictions on used games, and no connectivity requirements for the PS4, in an obvious dig at Microsoft. Sony also revealed that the PlayStation Plus program will extend to the PS4 (as well as the PS Vita), providing free games and other benefits for less than $5 per month (one account works on all the platforms you have).

The crowd responded very positively to Sony’s pricing and policies. It will be interesting to see how the events are reported and spun in the next few days, and the reactions of the larger gaming audience.

Online Video Ads More Effective Than TV

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As more people turn to the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Go to get their TV, and digital video sites garner millions of views a day, ads in online video are becoming the new face of advertising. According to a new eMarketer report, 75 percent of ad agency executives are saying that online video ads are more effective than traditional TV ads.

Research indicated that internet video views by internet users grew by 23 percent over the course of the last year as sites like YouTube become common in everyday society. As more and more people turn to YouTube as a means of getting information, news, trailers and silly cat videos, advertising online becomes an increasingly important segment of advertising that is reaching a growing number of people. Spending on digital video advertisements grew by 40 percent over the course of the last year, and that growth will reportedly bring digital advertising spending to over $4.1 billion this year.

This comes in conjunction with the news of streaming site twitch.tv hiring an in house advertising team to bring in some of this advertising toward sites like theirs. The massive growth in game streaming (twitch.tv grew from 3 million monthly views to 35 million monthly views in the last year) represents a huge opportunity for game marketers.

Source: Mashable

New Interface Uses WiFi As A Controller

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Four researchers from University of Washington have unveiled a new device that allows the use of gestures to control the internet called WiSee. The device works by connecting to a router and seeing how gestures affect the Wi-Fi network signal. When a movement is made, the movements disturb the steady Wi-Fi signals which act like a kind of radar allowing the tracking of movements.

This technology, while working for navigating the net at this point could, if used correctly, certainly be used for a wide range of uses, including games. With the Kinect out, having a device like this that utilizes something as commonplace as a Wi-Fi signal could mean having games controlled by movement, or possible connection with services like Steam’s The Big Picture mode.

Source: GigaOm

Print Magazine Ad Sales Decline, But Find Success On iPad

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Over the course of the last year, ad sales for print have been floundering with few exceptions. While this is the case, though, sales for magazine ad on the iPad were up 23 percent between Q1 2012 and 2013. In comparison, there was almost no growth in print ads over the course of the last year. iPad ad sales now account for a grand total of 56 percent of all ad sales for magazines.

This is representative of a growing trend for magazines in general: a shift of readership from print to digital. Advertising in digital magazines is becoming a much more important and vital as print begins to fall by the wayside. Whether print will be completely phased out by digital is yet to be seen, but the trends are certainly pointing more toward the digital frontier.

Game magazines and game ads in many kinds of magazines were once the primary tools in the game marketing workshop. Now that ads in iPad magazines are a significant market, perhaps we’ll see an expansion of game marketing spend in that direction.

Source: Mashable

World Of Tanks Endless War Trailer

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The newest trailer for Wargaming.net’s free to play tank warfare game World of Tanks shows off the destruction that the namesake war-machines can wreak on the battlefield. From destroying buildings to crushing trucks beneath their treads, this trailer opts for cinematic flair instead of gameplay. The game is available now from their website, wargaming.net {link no longer active}.