The crazed cooking videos by Epic Meal Time have become a bacon-wrapped Internet sensation, which is no doubt why Carl’s Jr. is using them to show off the Super Bacon Cheeseburger. Six strips of bacon make a powerful argument for this new burger. The connection with a popular Internet series of videos won’t hurt the viral pass-along of this video. Mmmm . . . six strips of bacon.
NSA has currently been in the news for their controversial, over-reaching efforts to collect data on U.S. citizens. In order to combat the cryptic intelligence agency, Reddit gift exchange has come up with a unique method utilizing keywords to throw off the organization.
One of the ways the NSA collects its data is by tracking a large list of flagged keywords that are common to everyday conversation. Sites like Motherboard.tv’s “Hello, NSA” are fighting back, taking the list of terms and automatically generating phrases using a few of them that users can then post all over the Internet. The goal is to skew data that NSA collects by making these terms less unique to terrorism (if they really were unique to terrorism in the first place.)
Now Reddit has created a social machine to thwart the NSA’s plans. The “front page of the internet’s” idea is to craft a gift exchange around this concept. When users sign up for the exchange, they are given an automatically generated phrase using words from the NSA’s list. They can then paste the phrase anywhere across the web, and they’re also asked to formulate a gift based on the phrase to send to another Redditer through the site’s gift exchange system.
For example, Venture Beat staff writer Tom Cheredar created his phrase which reads, “The world’s most popular condom brands is named after the Trojan army. Is there so-meth-ing sick about that ” From that, Cheredar says he “can expect to get a bag of army camo condoms, a handkerchief, or maybe a bag of blue Breaking Bad crystal meth rock candy.”
“I would probably talk about these gifts in social network updates, blog comments, or maybe even an article,” says Cheredar. “Anyway this is by far one of the most unusual ways to fight back against the NSA. And I would expect nothing less from Reddit.”
Source: VentureBeat
Google recently released a study titled “Gamers on YouTube: Evolving Video Consumption” which seems to show that the only thing gamers enjoy more than playing games is watching online videos about them. That’s according to Google’s research of online behaviors for U.S. gamers between the ages of 18 and 54. The company says it conducted the study in order to help marketers better connect with its audiences at the most rewarding times.
Google found that YouTube is a frequent destination for an impressive 95 percent of gamers when seeking out entertainment and information. The amount of time spent watching gaming videos on YouTube doubled from 2011 to 2012, outpacing the site’s overall growth in the Unites States. As a true sign of the times, smartphones and tablets are driving much of that expansion, with one in three views originating on a mobile device last year.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the study for game marketers is the clear dynamic between brand videos and fan videos, and how game publishers can leverage both. YouTube found that on average 60 percent of views happened before the launch of a game, and 90 percent of those views were led by brand-released videos. Game publishers played a critical role in driving views before the release of a game, but fan community videos drew the majority of views once a game was available for purchase. It shows that leveraging not just YouTube’s general audience but YouTube celebrities and influencers with large gaming fan communities, including their following on social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, are key to driving high engagement and product awareness for games.
“Brand-released and third-party videos associated with highly anticipated moments like the announce, the initial view of gameplay, and the review of a game had the most shares and comments per view in 2012,” states Google’s study. “Community-created content, such as tutorials, walkthroughs and game powered entertainment videos, received more “likes” and “dislikes” per view in 2012.”
The study’s conclusion: “To engage with gamers meaningfully, game brands must meet them where they’re choosing to spend their time. Increasingly, their time is spent with online video.”
Source: Google
A surprising hire yesterday grabbed headlines across the game industry and in the mass media, as Zynga announced that industry veteran Don Mattrick had accepted the position of CEO at Zynga. Earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal broke the story, and Zynga confirmed it.
Don Mattrick is a veteran of Electronic Arts, having sold his company Distinctive Studios to EA back in 1991, and eventually Mattrick became president of Worldwide Studios for EA. He left EA and joined Microsoft, heading up the entertainment division for Microsoft and driving the Xbox 360 to its current status as number one console in the USA. Mattrick’s departure is surprising to many because the new Xbox One is still several months away from launch.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer addressed the change in a note to employees: “This is a great opportunity for Don, and I wish him success. Don’s directs will report to me and will continue to drive the day-to-day business as a team, particularly focused on shipping Xbox One this holiday…Thank you, Don, for setting us on a path to completely redefine the entertainment industry. The strong leadership team at [Interactive Entertainment Business] and their teams are well positioned to deliver the next-generation entertainment console, as well as transformative entertainment experiences, long into the future.”
The change is also surprising for Zynga, which has remained firmly in the control of founder Mark Pincus, who has served as CEO and chairman of the board since the company’s beginning. Pincus has now left his CEO position to Mattrick and instead will become Zynga chief product officer, which from the sound of it would indicate that Pincus will focus on games instead of overall management.
“I’ve always said to Bing [Gordon] and our Board that if I could find someone who could do a better job as our CEO, I’d do all I could to recruit and bring that person in,” Pincus said. “I’m confident that Don is that leader.”
There are many questions left to be answered about both Microsoft and Zynga as this change is absorbed. Effective immediately, though, Mattrick is beginning his new role at Zynga, and we’ll be watching to see what changes take place.
Source: GI.biz
When Sony announced the $399 price tag for PlayStation 4, it was met with uproarious applause at their press conference and praise from watchers around the world. Whether $399 for PS4 or Xbox One’s higher price at $499, the points of next-gen systems may seem steep to some. According to data from Ars Technica, these next generation consoles are far from the most expensive ones relative to today’s dollars.
Ars Technica showed the price level at release and adjusted for inflation for a number of consoles beginning with the Atari 2600 and leading up to the next generation. This graph shows comparatively how expensive these consoles actually are in a historical context.
Even without adjusting for inflation, the Xbox One and PS4 are far from the most expensive console releases. The PlayStation 3 was initially released at $600 back in 2006, which raised a lot of eyebrows. Yet more than a decade before it, a couple of systems had already set a higher bar for launch day price tags. The 3DO was an astounding $700 at its release in 1993. Two years before 3DO, the Neo Geo came out at $650.
Based on Ars Technica’s chart, the average price consoles adjusted for inflation comes out to $498.63, which puts the Xbox One only about a dollar over the average. Still, the Xbox One is more expensive than the adjusted price of almost every system to come out since 1995, with the PS3 and Sega Saturn as exceptions. The PlayStation 4, on the other hand, is actually cheaper than every other previous PlayStation system when adjusted for inflation.
It’s worth noting that PS4’s $399 price point came at the expense of PlayStation Eye, which is now excluded from the launch bundle. Meanwhile, the Xbox One includes a Kinect, which is still retailing for more than $100 as a standalone unit. If the PS4 included the PS Eye, its launch price would have to account for its retail value, currently around $60.
When looked at through the lens of history, these next-gen consoles are relatively reasonably priced when compared to generations past. From a pricing standpoint, they’re certainly within striking distance of the most successful consoles.
Source: Ars Technica
Kongregate, GameStop’s browser-based game service, has announced which mobile games they will publish under a $10 million fund they announced earlier this year. The slate of games are Synapse Games’ Tyrant: Unleashed, RedPoint Labs and Making Fun’s BloodRealm, Lingplay’s Sheep Happens, White Milk Games’ Endless Boss Fight, and Randommine Ltd’s Cardinal Quest 2.
Tyrant: Unleashed will be released this month, with the other games coming later this summer. Tyrant: Unleashed is a collectible card game with both co-op and competitive gameplay elements. Its predecessor Tyrant already has 50 million plays on the Kongregate platform.
Kongregate has already established itself as a platform where browser developers can release their games with support from GameStop’s network, as well as featuring a simple way to implement microtransactions into games through the use of ‘Kreds.’ With the launch of its game development and publishing fund, announced back in February of this year, Kongregate has begun to move outside of the browser space and into the world of game apps. The company said it has more games in development that are due to be announced later this year.
Source: Kongregate
With the Xbox One fast approaching, the Xbox 360 is now facing the end times of its natural life cycle. Microsoft is celebrating a successful eight years of the 360’s life span by releasing a new stand-alone gold version of its Chrome series 360 controller. The Chrome series controller saw its release last year, and featured a chrome finish and a transforming d-pad.
The shiny new gold controller will only be available in a small amount of stores in the US, including a number of GameStops and Microsoft Stores. The controller will retail for $55 like its predecessor controllers, and will begin shipments this August.
Source: Engadget
One of the slew of Android-based consoles that was announced earlier this year was BlueStacks’ GamePop console. The console is planned to be released for $129 later this year. BlueStacks recently announced a new version of the console that will be released alongside the GamePop, called the GamePop Mini. Unlike its big brother, the GamePop Mini will be a free device that is included with a 12-month subscription to the GamePop service, which offers more than 500 Android games for $6.99 a month. Canceling the service early means having to send back the Mini and paying a $25 restocking fee. BlueStacks is taking pre-orders for the GamePop Mini starting July 1.
The Mini will not replace the regularly priced GamePop console. Both consoles feature the same games, and they both run on Android Jelly Bean 4.2, but the Mini is less powerful than the original GamePop. Bluestacks says that both consoles will be able to play iOS games with minor adjustments to work with Bluestacks’ virtualization code. The company also said it’s planning a line of peripherals for the GamePop console. Developers can find out how to add their games to GamePop’s service on the company web site.
Source: Polygon
In the wake of the constant stream of PlayStation 4 information, reports are out that Sony has recently filed a trademark for something called the “PlayStation TV.” Sony hasn’t made any official statements about the trademark filing but that hasn’t kept the game industry from pondering the possibilities of what a PlayStation TV could entail.
The trademark could mean that Sony is planning a TV streaming service through PlayStation Network that would be competition to the Xbox One’s robust set of TV services. Another possibility could be similar to what Sony released a couple years ago for PS3, bringing to market a PS3 branded 24-inch 3DTV set. This trademark could also mean the PlayStation brand is finally making the jump to Sony’s TV line, part of a strategy the company announced several years ago to expand PlayStation Network across Sony entertainment devices.
At this point, all there is to go on is the trademark. It will be interesting to see if this pans out into something related to the PS4 generation.
Source: PS4daily.com
Most apocalypses are grim and represent the underworld of society in the face of darkness. Sunset Overdrive shows the exact opposite. Colorful, fast and fluid, the reveal trailer for Insomniac’s new Xbox One game shows off the lighter side of mutant slaying, including orange headshots, parkour, and persistent co-op.
