New Grand Theft Auto 5 Trailer Released Today

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Gamers can rejoice. More information in the form of a brand new trailer for Rockstar Games’ mega-franchise Grand Theft Auto V was released today. It’s the first major trailer since Rockstar put out three parallel trailers in April, each focusing on one of the three main characters in the upcoming game.

Rockstar has been characteristically slow-paced with reveals for the next installment in their blockbuster franchise. Both publisher and game were noticeably absent from the E3 show floor last month. Even as the game launch nears, the most prominent traditional marketing beats this year besides the aforementioned three-character trailer were a massive banner that was laid out in Warsaw, and the reveal for the game’s cover art painted as a mural on the side of an unassuming building in Chelsea, New York.

On the content marketing side, Rockstar did launch an interesting tactic with the resurgence of The Epsilon Program, a religious cult featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Through a website purportedly representing the cult, fans could submit their name and photo to become one of five people chosen to have their likenesses appear as cult members in GTAV, with entries closed in late May. It was an interesting way of getting gamers involved in the GTA universe.

Grand Theft Auto has always been famous for pushing the envelope for what’s possible (and acceptable) in video games, which has brought it a lot of clout among gamers and helped firm the IP in game industry lore. This newest trailer will help move the hype train forward for the first sequel in more than five years, and fans holding their breath for the September 17 release date can at least exhale and breath normally for its near five-minute runtime.

Source: RockStar

Leaked Photos Show Plastic-Cased iPhone

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According to new pictures from a site called Techdy, a new, lower-cost version of the iPhone is currently in development. The pictures show a new plastic case that is only a little bit thicker than the current iPhone 5, and has the same screen size. The pictures Techdy showed had a white plastic shell on the back, which is reportedly higher-quality than plastic casings used by companies like Samsung.

Techdy isn’t a completely sound source – their main purpose is developing look-alike Android phone substitutes. In fact, they are already in development of an Android powered clone of the iPhone. This news does fall in line with widespread rumors of a cheaper, lower cost version of the iPhone that would be announced later this year. The new iPhone would most likely be optimized to use iOS 7, and to save money would use the CPU and GPU of the iPhone 4S. A budget iPhone running Apple’s newest operating system could change the market share balance with Android, both in the US and in other countries.

Source: TechCrunch

Vine Tweets Drop, Don’t Go To Instagram

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According to new graphs from BuzzFeed, the number of links to Vine videos shared on Twitter has taken a significant dive over the course of the last couple of weeks. The likely culprit is Instagram entering the social video space with the launch of longer format and marketer friendly Instagram Videos. The graph shows that since June 19th in particular, the number of Vine links has taken a significant dive and isn’t beginning to recover.

On June 19th, the day before Instagram Video launched, the number of Vines on Twitter were up at 2.4 million shares. As of July 1st though, shares were only one third of what they were at 794,824 shares, denoting a huge drop off.

What’s odd about the data is that Instagram hasn’t gained any more shares as a result of the drop-off from Vine. It appears to be remaining steady with numbers consistent with its picture-sharing service, despite adding video. With Vine adding a number of features to its service later this year, this may not be the very end for Twitter’s video service, but it will have to act fast if it wants to maintain its user base.

Source: BuzzFeed

Top Social Games And Apps In India Revealed

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India has quickly become one of the biggest smartphone markets in the world today. The country is currently the third largest in the world as far as smartphone ownership is concerned, having recently just moved past Japan to take the spot behind China and the U.S. As you might expect, Android phones dominate the market in India. The following infographic shows some detail about the Indian smartphone market.

Facebook is also becoming popular in India, and Metricsmonk has released information regarding the top 10 Facebook apps and games. The top app used was Samsung Mobile’s Facebook app, which has 3.4 million monthly active users. Other top apps included Microsoft’s app, Nokia’s app, Yahoo!, and TripAdvisor.

In the realm of games popular in India, social crime solving game Criminal Case is king with 3.7 million monthly active users, which is 2.7 million users more than the next most popular game, FarmVille 2.

Other familiar games that can be found on the list include FarmVille (#8), Angry Birds Friends (#6) and Diamond Dash (#9).

Source: Techinasia

Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Revives An Old Favorite

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There were a number of routes Nintendo could have gone in bringing more of the Zelda franchise to the 3DS after Ocarina of Time 3D, such as its sequel, Majora’s Mask 3D. Instead, Nintendo opted to make a different direct sequel in the form of Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The game acts as a direct sequel to A Link To The Past which first appeared on the Super Nintendo, and features new powers like becoming 2D to move along walls.

Metal Gear Solid: Legacy Collection Has All Eight Games, Art Book

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It’s been 25 years since Solid Snake first made his debut in Metal Gear for the MSX2, and since then the tactical espionage action franchise has seen 8 main iterations, not including the numerous spinoffs. To celebrate, Konami is releasing Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection exclusively for the PS3. The collection includes all eight main games including Metal Gears 1 and 2, Metal Gear Solid 1, Integral, 2, 3, and 4, Peace Walker, and two motion comics. In addition, gamers will also receive an art book chronicling all 25 years of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear legacy. The Legacy Collection is in stores today for $50.

 

Hand Drawn Visuals And Classic Gameplay Clash In Dragon’s Crown

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Vanillaware and Atlus have one goal in mind with the release of Dragon’s Crown: Bring back the glory of side-scrolling beat-em-up adventure games. With gorgeous hand drawn visuals, tight gameplay, and six character archetypes, Vanillaware is looking to shine a light upon a genre that has fallen into relative obscurity in recent years. Dragon’s Crown will allow four friends to sit together and adventure for loot, or let players play over the internet, on both PS3 and PS Vita. Dragon’s Crown will start its adventure on August 8.

The Most Bizarre Ad You’ll See This Week

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This ad is in Icelandic, advising the watcher to use ‘the phone that understands you.’ Samsung Iceland shows a man trying to use an actual apple as a phone, which leads to him using a Galaxy S4 instead. Then he takes a bite out of the apple. Then he starts break-dancing with the four ninja, which must have some deep meaning for Icelandic consumers. I’m still not sure what message the goat is delivering. It’s certainly a creative ad, but does it really make you want to buy a Galaxy S4

Defying Critics, Defiance Lives On

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Actor Grant Bowler, who plays the lead in SyFy and Trion’s transmedia sci-fi vehicle Defiance, has told GamerHub that the show and the game are finally finding their stride. Defiance recently had one of its first major plot convergence moments. A plague that started afflicting characters in the game, where people fight aliens in a gutted, post-apocalyptic San Francisco, eventually spread east and found its way to the residents of a similarly gutted St. Louis, where the TV show is set. Bowler told GamerHub the event turned out to be their “aha” moment.

“The press, in particular, and critics are starting to go, ‘oh now we see’,” said Bowler.

Defiance had a rocky start with the TV show debuting to mostly ho-hum reviews. That was followed by a game launch marred by server issues and glitches that affected the online multiplayer game. It seems to have since found a footing with fans. SyFy has green lit the show’s second season. According to Metacritic scores, the game is faring much better post release. User scores for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are scoring in the 70’s, a good 10-plus points above what critics scored the game at launch.

“Convergence was always going to be a slow burn,” Bowler told GamerHub. “You can’t do it all at once without handing over the show completely to the gamers, which is a bad idea. It may sound like fun, but you’re going to end up with a million people around the world going, ‘now hit him on the head again.’”

Bowler hinted that the second season is where converged storytelling might really click.

“I know that our writers and our producers and the Trion guys are right now all sitting in rooms and they’re working out season two. And that’s where it really gets going. Now that the game is up, now that the show is up, now that we’ve seen each as a standalone product and we’ve seen convergence start to happen, now we can get the ball rolling,” he said.

In the second part of his interview with GamerHub, Bowler talks about ways the game can bridge the gap between seasons one and two as the show goes into off-season hiatus.“For me, it actually keeps down my homesickness for the show because I’m running around in the same gear, using the same weapons, driving around the same vehicles, it’s the same world,” Bowler said.

China’s Top Ten PC Games For June

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China’s game industry has come a long way in the past few years, growing to billions of dollars in revenue. The latest ranking of the top PC games in China provided by QQ Games and published by tech site Tech In Asia shows some interesting trends, a mix of old favorites with a couple of new entrants.

Riot Games’ League of Legends is number one in China, showing its popularity around the world. The second-ranked game is Dungeon Fighter Online, a Korean-developed title that was first released back in 2005. Crossfire, a free-to-play game that’s making huge amounts of money, is third on the list. This is a version of CounterStrike created by Korean developers, released back in 2007. The original Counter-Strike Online is at $10 on the list, developed by Valve and Nexon and released in 2008. The oldest game on the list is Fantasy Journey to the West, which was originally released back in 2003.

Clearly Chinese gamers are mostly into tried and true favorites. They are not obsessed with playing the latest and greatest, but prefer games that are familiar and fun. The list of games is mostly the same as it was in March, though positions have shifted.

Source: Techninasia