A lot of changes took place on G4 over the past few months, with the cancellation of popular shows like X-Play and Attack of the Show in favor of more “original” programming that was to be put in place for the Esquire Channel, which, at one point, was set to be the rebranding for the “geek” network.
Now, it looks like NBC Universal has had a change of heart. The network recently confirmed that Esquire Network will now be taking over the Style channel instead, leaving G4 to stay the way it is in terms of branding and current programming.
That doesn’t mean NBC will be bringing back popular fan shows, though. The Hollywood Report indicates that G4 will remain the way it is for the foreseeable future, with the chance of seeing new shows being “highly unlikely.” That means programming including American Ninja Warrior and Cops, as well as movies like Tekken and WarGames.
How this will affect G4 in the long run has yet to be seen.
The Skylanders franchise has generated over $1.5 billion at retail so far, and this Christmas looks to be another sales milestone for the latest installment, Skylanders SWAP Force. This holiday is different, though, as competition enters the picture. The [a]list daily caught up with Activision’s Josh Taub, senior vice president Skylanders, to talk about the marketing of Skylanders this year.
Competition is already here as Disney Infinity has launched its line of toys that work with its video game. Disney Infinity has the advantage of huge name recognition for its Disney characters, but Skylanders has created a loyal following since its introduction. Toy Giant LEGO is entering the toy-game crossover market as well next summer, with its LEGO Minifigures Online series of toys and games. This holiday will be a competitive one for Skylanders, and the competiton will be heating up even more next year. Activision isn’t standing still, though.
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg proclaimed that the Skylanders marketing campaign would be bigger than last year’s campaign, and Taub confirmed this. “We’re proud to say that the Skylanders SWAP Force marketing campaign is the biggest in the franchise’s history,” Taub said. “While we can’t provide specifics on the size of the investment, when we bring our products to market, we focus heavily on leveraging consumer insights and testing, which in turn help us create the best game possible, as well as guide our marketing efforts to the scale that we’ve executed thus far.”
Taub couldn’t reveal specifics of the budget, but he did discuss the scope of the marketing effort. “This year, we continue to drive massive support for the launch of Skylanders SWAP Force which will be backed by a multi-million marketing campaign reaching kids and their parents through TV, digital, retail and PR channels,” Taub said. “Our retail support is stronger than ever with marquee placement, innovative programing and increased synergies with the licensed partners.”
There will be an air war going on with TV commercials and social media efforts, but like most wars this battle will be won on the ground. The retail presence is going to be critical to driving sales, and Activision is gearing up to win at this level. “On the retail side, we’ve increased our space by 30 percent this year where we focus on newly redesigned interactive displays which let families experience our newest innovation — dynamic swapability,” Taub explained. “Fans will be able to place toy packages on the Portal of Power and watch them come to life on the video screen, which demonstrates the magic of the Skylanders experience. This truly is our biggest and best marketing effort yet, and our retail presence is the strongest it has been since the beginning of the franchise.
Toys are usually purchased by parents, and it’s often a buying decision that’s shaped by in-store displays. The sheer number and variety of Skylanders characters can be a selling point, as it demonstrates the popularity of the brand. Increasing the shelf space for Skylanders means a larger visual impact for the brand when parents or kids are looking around the store for something of interest. Interactive displays are important to help potential buyers understand how Skylanders works, and to show off individual characters as they appear in the game.
At first glance you would think Skylanders is a product aimed at young boys, but the demographics of Skylanders may not be what you’d expect. “Our core demographic for Skylanders is kids ages 6-12, both boys and girls, but our research indicates that the game skews more to boys,” Taub noted. “While we don’t specifically target girls with our marketing, we know the strong female Skylanders characters are fun to play for both boys and girls. We really are seeing the franchise appeal to entire families — we frequently hear anecdotal evidence of parents playing alongside their kids, which we think is a testament to the sheer breadth and fun of the game experience.”
With a new set of characters this holiday and an aggressive marketing campaign, Skylanders is set to have a merry Christmas. What lies beyond that “The future of Skylanders is incredibly bright,” Taub said. “Our innovation pipeline is very strong and fueled by world-class studios. We continue to be committed to delivering polished and fun experiences across all platforms including everything from Wii to 3DS and PS4.” The broad platform reach of Skylanders, which even includes PCs and mobile games, is an important part of the brand’s success. Almost every household has access to at least one of the platforms that Skylanders supports.
Activision is paying attention to such details in order to give Skylanders every chance for success. “We’re focused on ensuring kids and families have a great experience right from the start whether it’s as simple as having an extra-long cord for the Portal of Power, to enabling our signature ‘toys with brains’ to be cross-platform, to offering a library of 100+ toys — including all toys from previous games — that work in Skylanders SWAP Force,” said Taub. “We are very optimistic that Skylanders will continue to deliver the magic we created when we first pioneered the genre, and continue to innovate at every turn.”
The world will be saturated by commercials for Grand Theft Auto V soon enough, but clearly the commercials we should be looking forward to are the ones in the game itself. The world of Grand Theft Auto is a parody of all aspects of American life, so of course our television content is not safe from this amusing satire.
Stormtroopers are symbolically about conformity, so they’re a great thing to contrast when you what to promote individually in your product. In this case, we see the Nissan Juke inspiring a stormtrooper to put some color in his plain black and white get up.
The Robocop reboot has produced some passionate opinions from fans over its aesthetics, plot and casting. With the first full trailer here, people can form more complete opinions of this new Robocop for the 21st century.
One innovative feature in the recently released Disney Infinity is the Toy Box mode, where users can build creations that span for miles on end. Another great component to the mode is being able to tear it all down with massive explosions – sort of like knocking down blocks when you were a kid. You can see the comedic chaos for yourself in the video below.
Disney Infinity is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and Wii U.
Popularity is everything on the App Store. App makers want to see their product end up at the top of the charts, whether it’s a game or a popular social program. It’s not quite so easy to get to the top, though, especially since Apple changed its algorithm in July to take app ratings into account.
A new report indicates that there’s a lot that goes into an app’s placement into the top of the charts. Account ratings and other metrics play a huge part in that, according to Appurify. App ratings now play a huge part in influencing rankings, and if a rating raises as high as half a star, it can make all the difference in the attention that an application gets.
Mobile app updates also play a part, according to the report, combining with ratings to help increase the popularity of the app. In the report, Appurify stated that one third of games, 62 paid apps and 590 free apps with in-app purchases were analyzed. Over half the top apps covered carried a rating of 4.5 stars, while 75 percent managed to garner at least four stars.
It’s always good to see a new technical project get off the ground that has many practical uses, while at the same time presenting an amazing technology that everyone would be able to take advantage of. That’s exactly what we’re getting with Displair.
The product is the work of a new Russian startup which presents a touch-screen style interactive experience without the need of a tablet or phone. First shown at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, the device uses a stream of humidified air to generate a static image that users can interact with, with their gestures ready by sensors built into the monitor.
Using said hand gestures, users can zoom in and out, scale and wipe with objects, the same way they would on a touch-screen. However, it does so with a more interactive display, one that is harmless to the user.
Displair has already been configured to work with a variety of apps, and a technical support team is on hand to help move application development along as the project takes shape.
Microsoft’s Xbox One won’t just involve players with a number of stellar next-generation games and online TV-movie services. It’ll also be a system that takes full advantage of the company’s SmartGlass technology, where you can use a tablet or mobile device as a secondary screen to get further into the gaming/viewing experience.
General Manager Ron Pessner recently took part in a Q & A posted over at Xbox Wire, where he explained some of the more luxurious features included with SmartGlass.
“Fundamentally, it’s a free downloadable companion application that extends your Xbox game and entertainment experiences to your smart devices. With SmartGlass for Xbox One, you can use your phone, laptop or tablet as a remote to easily navigate the web on your console, turn up the volume on your TV, and select a video, music or game to play. SmartGlass is more than just controlling your TV content though. We are working with all of our game and entertainment partners to build really cool experiences that take advantage of the fact that you have smart devices connected to your Xbox One,” said Pessner.
Matchmaking will play a huge part on SmartGlass, enabling gamers to match up with equally skilled allies and rivals. Up to 16 SmartGlass-enabled devices will also be able to connect to an Xbox One at once, allowing multiple players to get in on the action.
You can read more about SmartGlass’ extensive features at the link below.
Millennial Media, a company that specializes in mobile ad platform analysis, has released its latest Mobile Mix report covering the second quarter of 2013 in terms of ad impressions, and the standings are good news for the folks at Apple.
It has changed its annual “Top 20 Phones” list to a “Top 20 Devices,” and in doing so, has allowed Apple to overtake three of the top four spots on the list. The Apple iPhone sits firmly in the number one position with a 22 percent hold on the market, while the Samsung Galaxy S sits in second place with just under 10 percent.
Rounding out the top four are the Apple iPad, sitting in third place with 9.38 percent, and the Apple iPod Touch, with 7.6 percent hold. The rest of the list features various devices, including the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry Torch.
These numbers are a huge jump for Apple over the previous year, with an eight percent increase for Apple’s iOS in terms of overall ad impressions. That’s almost twice of what Android gained with its 5 percent increase. Not everyone was a winner, however – BlackBerry dropped from last year’s 15 percent down to 7 percent.
