Coke Brings PlayStation All-Stars To Mobile

Sony created a huge culture clash last year when it brought several of its popular gaming characters together for PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale on both the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. For those who couldn’t get enough of that game – or just want more All-Stars action – Coke and Sony have put together a promotion for Europe.

Sony has teamed up with Coca-Cola to produce a new mobile game called PlayStation All-Stars Island. In this free game, players can take on a Temple Run-like game based on the Uncharted franchise, featuring its main hero, Nathan Drake. The game is available for both iOS and Android devices It’s pretty simple right now, but Sony intends to add more Coke Zero related content to the game, including characters from Infamous, LittleBigPlanet and Gravity Rush, as well as appearances by Jak and Daxter, as well as Ratchet and Clank.

No word yet on whether this promotion will make it to the U.S., but we promise to drink a Coke if it does.

Source: MCV

Massive Merchandising For ‘Battlefield 4’

With Battlefield 4 just over two months away from release, Electronic Arts is primed to push the game in a number of promotional directions. In fact, the upcoming sequel will receive the biggest promotional push from the company to date.

Branded accessories, such as iPhone cases, mouse mats, books, T-shirts, posters and headsets will grace store shelves alongside the game, just in time for its release this fall.

“This will be our biggest and best planned campaign to date,” said EA’s senior brand licensing manager, Stephen Wanigesekera, talking with MCV UK. “This range will help the specialists diversify their offerings, whilst more mass market retailers will be interested in items that can enlarge their established categories, such as peripherals, books and apparel. There is a great opportunity to position the merchandise alongside the software itself.”

Battlefield 4 releases on October 29 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and later in the year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Source: MCV

An AmEx For Legendary Gamers

Think you’re an ultimate gamer How about getting your own League of Legends credit card from American Express

The credit card company has teamed up with Riot Games to bring in-game rewards to those who register for an AmEx Serve Prepaid Account, which comes with a special limited edition League of Legends branded card. By using the card, you’ll earn points through a reward-based system, known as Riot Points, or RP+.

You can use these points to purchase items in the game, either by signing up for a card, making real-life purchases, linking to a direct deposit account or loading funds totaling $20 or more to it. Those who sign up for RP+ will even get the choice of which character they want on the card, with six different options available.

Stefan Happ, SVP, U.S. Payment Options for American Express, says, “Riot Games is passionate about serving their players and giving them avenues for enhancing their gaming experience. Together we’ve been able to create a great co-branded product with a unique rewards program that will help League of Legends players earn Riot Points whenever they use their card to make qualifying purchases.”

You can learn more about the card here.

Source: psfk

Inside The Xbox One Controller

With the Xbox One just months from release, Microsoft really wants to get people excited for the console.  The company has released a new video that details the system’s controller. Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb, the company’s spokesman, teams up with Xbox accessories general manager Zulfi Alam to take a look at the controller, inside and out, to see what makes it tick. You’ll be able to get your hands on it for yourself in November.

 

‘Summer Of Sonic’ Promo Continues

Sega’s self-proclaimed “Summer of Sonic” season continues to roll along into August, as the company has released a new gameplay trailer for its upcoming Wii U/3DS exclusive Sonic: Lost World. In the trailer, the hedgehog runs wild over enemies while avoiding dangers, and, at one point, transforms into an eagle to collect rings outside of his reach. The game looks like a lot of fun, but you can find out for yourself at the link below. Sonic: Lost World releases in October.

Here’s To 30 Years Of Wrestlemania Mode

2K Sports’ wrestling game WWE 2K14 continues to get better, as the company announced today that it is adding a 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode to the game. In it, players will be able to relive 45 epic moments from the past 30 years of the event, from Hulk Hogan’s tussle with Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III to John Cena’s run-in with The Rock at this year’s Wrestlemania 28. The Ultimate Warrior is likely to be in the mode as well, as he was previously introduced as a pre-order character for the game. Check him out in the video below. WWE 2K14 releases on October 29 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

 

Wii U On ‘The Price Is Right’

The Price Is Right, hosted daily by comedian Drew Carey, is a fun show to watch – especially when contestants win big.  In the game, in order to get on stage, the players need to guess the actual retail price of items as closely as possible.  The latest round of contestants had the opportunity to guess how much Nintendo’s Wii U game system was when bundled with several game titles. The base system goes for $299, and the Deluxe system is $349, but these folks had quite a range of guesses. Watch the fun and see if you can guess the right price!

Stairway As Canvas

The historic stairway of Santa Maria del Monte in Caltagirone, Sicily was built in 1608 from thousands of ceramic tiles. Each step has a different design, a tribute to the city’s reputation as a center for ceramics and sculptures. The stairway also serves as a backdrop for illustrations employing flowers or candles as pixels, in a tradition dating back centuries to celebrate festivals. Some of the examples are seen below in these photos by Andrea Annaloro.

Source: Colossal

 

Apple’s New iPhone Looms

With many customers enjoying their iPhone 5 – as well as earlier models – some are questioning when Apple might move forward with a new design for the device. Well, it looks like we’re about to find out.

Apple is said to be holding a special media event on September 10, according to AllThingsD, which has historically been very reliable in its Apple event predictions. The rumors about the phone itself have focused around an ‘iPhone 5s’ with a faster processor, a 12 MP camera, and some screen improvements,  with no change in the current form factor or casing. Also said to be in the works is a lower cost version of the iPhone with a plastic casing, designed to compete against the hordes of lower-cost Android phones.

It’s likely that we’ll see the release of iOS 7 during the announcement. The operating system has been in beta release since the WWDC in June, with five versions thus far.

Source: The Verge

Xbox Live Switching To Real Currency

For years, Microsoft has relied on a “points” system for purchasing items on its Xbox Live service, including games, add-on content and movies. All that will change with the system’s next update, however, as it will do away with this currency system and use real money instead.

Marc Whitten, chief product officer for Microsoft, explained the transition in more detail in a blog post. “Our goal is to make this transition as easy as possible for you. After the next Xbox 360 system update, when you go to buy something or redeem a Microsoft points card or code on your console with your Microsoft account, we’ll add to your account an amount of currency equal to or greater than the Xbox Marketplace value of your Microsoft points, which will be retired.”

As far as your current Microsoft points, don’t worry, they’ll be safe. “We’ll continue to accept purchased Microsoft Points cards and codes until further notice, and we’ll add to your account an amount of local currency equal to or greater than the Marketplace value of those points. In addition, we know you’ve worked hard on your Microsoft points earned through Xbox Live Rewards. These will remain in your Xbox Live account and transition to local currency with the rest of your Microsoft points.”

Source: Xbox