How Mattrick’s Move Affects Microsoft

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The sudden departure of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices president Don Mattrick, and his arrival as CEO of Zynga, have caused an excited buzz about what this means for Zynga. You can read a detailed analysis of the effects on Zynga (and the questions this move raises) here. There’s another side to this equation, though: What does Mattrick’s move mean for Microsoft

Mattrcik’s departure a scant few months before the launch of Xbox One has raised more than a few eyebrows in the industry. Usually an executive likes to finish a major project before departing. The situation here is anything but usual, though. Zynga needs effective leadership immediately, and waiting six months would seriously affect the business.

Microsoft by this point should have all the hardware issues for the Xbox One dialed in, policy changes notwithstanding. At this stage, the emphasis at Microsoft has shifted from product engineering to manufacturing and marketing. Mattrick left behind an experienced team, so any disruption should be minor. According to a report by Bloomberg, Microsoft senior vice president and Windows head Julie Larson-Green may add the Mattrick’s duties to her own.

At this point the biggest issue facing Microsoft is a public relations one. The company has still been dealing with the repercussions of its initial stance on connectivity and used games for the Xbox One. Mattrick’s shift to a policy resembling the Xbox 360 has quieted much of the controversy. Still, Microsoft has to contend with those initial impressions, and added to that Mattrick’s departure raising questions of whether he was pushed out because of that… it’s time for some positive messaging.

Microsoft needs a solid communication strategy for the fall campaign in addition to the marketing spend it’s already got in the works. Sony’s $100 price advantage has led to an early lead in pre-orders; Microsoft has to emphasize the advantages of the Xbox One’s Kinect bundle to overcome that pre-order disparity.

Microsoft also needs to get the message out that Mattrick’s departure won’t affect any of the Xbox One’s rollout plans, or the great games Microsoft has coming for it. It should be a non-event as far as consumers are concerned, and that’s the message that needs to be out there. Microsoft does have to be careful not to peak its messaging too early. That’s a danger considering how much time there is before the Xbox One launch.

Microsoft also needs to consider that while the Xbox One is important, the bulk of the division’s revenue and profit is still going to be from the Xbox 360 this year. The Xbox 360 received scant attention from Microsoft at E3. Yes, a new version was announced… but not priced, or a release date provided. The World of Tanks announcement for the Xbox 360 is potentially of huge importance, yet it hasn’t gotten much attention lately. Third-party publishers also have the best 360 titles ever coming up for the holidays, including Grand Theft Auto V.

Microsoft should shift resources into pushing the Xbox 360 for the next month or two, establishing when the new version comes out (hopefully with new, lower price points). Sony was careful to promote the PS3 as well as the new PlayStation 4 at E3. Microsoft should take a cue from Sony on this and give some love to the Xbox 360 lineup, making sure it will have a solid holiday selling season. There’s time enough to pivot to the Xbox One after that.

Inevitably, it all points to an increased marketing effort this fall. Microsoft should not pull back on Xbox 360 marketing, put instead should increase it. The marketing for the Xbox One should be in addition to this marketing effort, not a replacement for it. Microsoft needs to have a great Christmas for the Xbox 360 as well as the Xbox One. It’s a tall marketing task, made more difficult the later it gets started. We’ll be watching to see how Microsoft handles this.

Ubisoft Shows Off Companion Apps For Their Biggest Games

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Along with all of the new experiences and games being shown off at E3, Ubisoft unveiled a new common theme among all of their video games — a second screen experience. Four of the games they showed off on the show floor involved companion apps: Assassin’s Creed IV, The Division, Watch_Dogs, and The Crew all had second screens that played into the main game experiences.

In a Gamesindustry International interview with Yves Guillemot, he said “it gives you an opportunity to play from outside your home with friends who are playing from their homes. So I’m in an airport, and I can play with my friends using my iPad if I have a good connection. We think this is going to open lots of new possibilities to the industry, and to the type of gameplay that can occur.” The companion apps allow for each of these games to act both as a game for console, and in the mobile space. In addition, second-screen apps allow for users to constantly have maps and targets available for view without having to stop the game to see them.

Many of the games that are being made with the apps are spread across a number of different Ubisoft studios, but all of the companion apps with the exception of The Crew‘s have been developed by Ubisoft Quebec. The companion apps will be available to supplement the console version of the games, and in some cases act as standalone experiences. Currently, the second-screen apps are being developed for Android and iOS devices, but the number of devices is constantly evolving.

The [a]list Daily was able to get some hands-on and eyes-on time with all four of these apps and their respective games at E3, and the results are impressive. In The Crew, for example, players waiting in line were handed a tablet with the companion app running, where they were able to design their car from scratch using multiple parts and designs. Players were then shown a map of the US where they were able to select the city they wanted to play in. When players reached the actual console version, the cars they designed were playable in the game, showing off the app’s ability to act alone and simultaneously affect what happens in game.

Another app Ubisoft showed off at the conference was the app for The Division, which took the abilities the companion app had to new levels. Players on the app were able to join their friends in game and actually help out in combat. App players didn’t play as their characters — instead they played as a UAV drone with combat and target marking capabilities that helped out the human players in the game. In addition, any experience gained while playing as the drone actually carried over into the player’s character in the actual game.

The other two apps, the ones for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Watch_Dogs were functionally very similar based on the demos shown off at the conference, and acted more as second screens. Both apps featured a map of the game world that changed as the player played, and tracked their position inside of the game world, as well as objectives and objective positions that were available to the player. This eliminates the need for an in game map, allowing players to simply glance down at their tablet and see their position in the world, and in addition to that allows them to set targets in the app easily and see those targets reflected in game. For Ubisoft, they are trying to move beyond simply making their games. These companion apps are making mobile devices companions to their games that make not only enhance the experiences of their games, but can be whole experiences in themselves.

Source: GI.biz

Brands’ Tacky Tactics On Twitter

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Advertisers are on a constant pursuit to keep their audiences engaged and interacting on social media. Unfortunately, more often than not, their methods to garner that attention can be well, pretty lame. Recently, Digiday spoke with several brand executives, one who asked to remain anonymous, to weigh in on why the tacky tactics.

“It’s the price to play today,” said the brand anonymous brand exec. “Two years ago, when Twitter was still not a major player for brands, it was easier to be less gimmicky. Today, it’s more difficult.”

Marketers ask for likes, followers and retweets and to tweet out the most nonsensical, cheesy messages. The most disheartening part is that these seemingly desperate tactics actually work on some users.

The proof is in the pudding (see how bad that was ), recently Domino’s tweeted, “RT if you love pizza. No matter how you slice it.”

This tweet got an impressive 260 retweets.

According to Twitter, promoted tweets that ask for replies increase replies by an average of 334 percent, and promoted tweets with an ask to retweet increase retweets by an average of 311 percent. As difficult as it can be, marketers need to understand that it’s not just about the numbers.

Volvo’s CMO makes the point, “Impressions aren’t everything. The quality of the impact, the story you’re telling, and how impactful it is, deserves more attention than the impressions.”

But it’s difficult for brands to see Twitter in this way when they can just pay to have their tweets and hashtags promoted, or they can tell users to retweet and share. If enough people do, the brand trends – making Twitter more of a place where quantity surpasses quality, keeping brands in the realm of cheesy, mindless, self-promotional robots and not anything close to human. And the cycle continues.

But there’s a real concern to this strategy. Taking the cheese ball route can often reflect the type of audience a brand will acquire.

“Asking fans to like if they agree with something obvious is where some brands are falling short — ‘Like if you love sunlight!’ or ‘Like if you love eating!'” said Matt Wurst, director of digital communities at 360i. “If brands practice this behavior too often, they will appeal to the lowest quality of user. By seeking their engagement and ultimately tapping into their social graph (made up of individuals like them), brands may ultimately grow their pages with the wrong people.”

“It’s a tough line to walk [between human and cheesy],” said the brand exec. “Most brands have a tough time being human, because their job is to mitigate risk and deliver shareholder growth, but both of those are at odds with being human — that means it’s safer and easier to act like a company, not like a person.”

And now, enjoy some tacky tweets:

 

LOLOLOLOLOL. Not.

…What

 

Is anyone waiting for that day

This is just gross.

 

Source: DigidayÂ

$47,000 Daily Earnings Required To Hit Top 10 Apps List

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When a user enters the App Store, often one of the first places they look is the Top Apps lists, both paid and free. For an app to make it onto the Top Ten, it must be incredibly popular and gross huge amounts of money, but how much exactly does it take to make it into the top ten According to Distimo, about $47,000 a day in paid downloads is the magic number. In downloads, that translates to around 4,000 downloads a day for a paid app, or 72,000 a day for free apps.

Even to make it into the top 50 apps should be considered an accomplishment. To break into the Top 50 apps involves selling $12,000 a day with in-app purchases, or 23,000 downloads a day for free apps. Distimo’s data also shows that the day that is normally slowest for app downloads is Thursday, while the day people most download apps is Saturday.

Source: Ubergizmo

Titanfall Dominates Best Of E3 Awards

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Last week, the nominees for the Game Critics E3 awards came to light, with Titanfall becoming a new record holder for number of nominations at the awards. Today, the winner of these awards were announced, and Titanfall won in all six of the awards it was nominated for, including Best of Show, Best Original Game and Best Action Game. This makes Titanfall the record holder for most wins for the Game Critics Awards at E3.

Another interesting point of note was in the category of Best Hardware. Both the Xbox One and PS4 were nominated, but it was the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset that came out on top. Other notable winners included Watch_Dogs for Action/Adventure Game, The Elder Scrolls Online for Role Playing Game, Fantasia in best Social/Casual Game and Transistor for Best Downloadable game.

In the wake of Titanfall’s domination, several high profile games such as Bungie’s Destiny and Battlefield 4 came away without any awards.

Source: GameTrailers

NPD Will Begin To Track Digital Downloads

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Digital downloading has become an increasingly large part of the game industry in the past few years. Microsoft is taking an increasingly digital stance on game distribution with the Xbox One, promising that new titles will be available digitally on the same day they are available in retail stores. Up to this point the tracking firm NPD has been providing retail game sale information monthly, with information on digital sales quarterly. Moreover, NPD has been vague about exactly how it gathers digital sales data. The lack of this information has given them trouble, with the ESA calling for more transparency and Gamasutra dropping the display of NPD information as a result.

The NPD has decided to take action by beginning to offer an SKU-level POS tracking service that would give more information on exactly where digital sales for games are coming from. As the next gen consoles begin to move toward a more digital future, the NPD is looking to roll out these new services quickly. “NPD has formed a leader panel to track digital POS sales of full game and add-on content downloads. It is an important and critical step toward that goal. Leader panels are often formed as a precursor to a formal launch of a POS tracking service,” NPD games group president David McQuillan said. NPD is working with EEDAR on this project.

Speaking to Gamesindustry International, McQuillan continued, “The NPD games leader panel is currently comprised of nine leading games publishers. The initial focus will be on full-game downloads and downloadable content for consoles, PCs and portables.” The nine publishers haven’t been named yet, but the NPD’s willingness to start tracking digital sales is a step in the right direction.

The digital game market is a much broader realm than retail sales, and NPD will need to collect data on subscriptions, in-game purchases and DLC as well as full game sales in order to provide a comprehensive picture. The variety of platforms involved is huge, and NPD faces a number of complicated issues in gathering believable, comprehensive data. Eventually this data will be integrated into NPD’s monthly reports.

Source: GI.biz

New Version Of Nexus 7 Tablet Rumored

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According to information from an Asus customer service representative reported by NDTV Gadgets, the next-generation of the Google Nexus 7 tablet will be seeing release later this month. In addition to that, a number of details about the specs of the device have also surfaced.

The new version of the device is reported to run on Android’s Jelly Bean 4.3 operating system and will also feature a 1920×1080 screen resolution. The 7” tablet will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, have 2 gigs of RAM, 32 gigs of storage inside, a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 megapixel front camera as well.

It is odd that a customer service representative for Asus would be the person revealing all of this information, but it does fall in line with a report that was revealed in April by Reuters that showed a new Qualcomm core and a July release. Whether this service rep’s data will be reliable remains to be seen. If Google sticks with a $199 price point as expected, or drops to $149 as has been rumored, the new Nexus 7 will provide serious competition to other tablets. This combination of power and low price will also put pressure on handheld gaming devices such as the PS Vita (currently at $249) and the 3DS XL (currently at $199). The new Nexus 7 may even be compared to the Wii U at $349, which is not a comparison Nintendo would like to see made.

Source: TheNextWeb

Quantum Break E3 Trailer Shows Time Control

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Quantum Break was first announced at the Xbox One reveal in May with a unique combination of live-action video and gameplay. The newest trailer is squarely in the gameplay portion of the effort, with everything shown running in-engine for the game. Two characters move around in a time-stopped explosion where they interview the victim involved, and face the explosion that’s ocurring. There’s no release date yet, but it will be available exclusively on the Xbox One.

Katamari Meets Combat In Knack

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One of the many launch titles that Sony has announced for their PS4 system is Knack, a colorful game where assembling the eponymous hero is part of the fun. Knack starts out small, but as the game progresses you can add pieces to turn Knack into a hulking giant. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to get small in order to advance. The PS4 effortlessly keeps track of the hundreds of pieces that are swirling around to form Knack, and the abilities they grant are fun as well as visually stunning. Knack will be released alongside the PS4 this fall.

Game And Wario Uses GamePad For Microgame Craziness

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Nintendo’s Wario Ware franchise is known for its wacky ‘microgames’ that have a number of crazy characters and control schemes. These microgames make Mario Party look flat-out tame. Game and Wario‘s launch trailer shows the new game is no exception to this rule, this time utilizing the power of the Wii U Gamepad. The game is currently available for Wii U on the eShop and in stores.