Celebrating 50 Years Of ‘Dr. Who’

BY

The famed British sci-fi series Dr. Who will turn 50 on November 23. The twelfth incarnation of the Doctor will be revealed that day, and BBC is celebrating with a trailer that touches on all of the different Doctors over the past 50 years.

 

Gouging Gamers In Brazil

BY

The PlayStation 4 is looking like a steal in various markets, going for $399.99 here in the United States. However, in Brazil, it’s going for about $1,850 at current exchange rates. Sony has hastened to explain there’s a reason behind this, after an outcry from consumers blown away by the sticker price.

The company’s PlayStation Latin America team broke down each of the pricing parameters, stating that it’s “heard your frustration loud and clear about the PlayStation 4 retail price,” and states that “it isn’t in the interest of Sony Computer Entertainment America to sell PS4 units at this high retail price.”

So, then, what is it? Apparently, a tax burden, as the company explained in a recent response…

“There is a lot of confusion and inaccurate information spreading online about Brazil’s import tax policies online and the PlayStation 4 retail price, so we’d like to set the record straight: of the R$3,999 gamers pay, 63 percent of the retail price goes to offset the various taxes that are applied in the process of importation. Some do not consider the IPI on the distributor price and PIS/COFINS on retailers price and much less, include the ICMS and ICMS-ST taxes. You can see a true breakdown of the price model at Valor Economico. The other 15.5 percent goes to retailer margin and 21.5 percent to PS4 Transfer Price (equivalent to USD $390).

“We will continue to talk with the relevant government agencies to help us reduce the heavy tax burden that gamers, retailers and Sony Computer Entertainment America are paying.

Our primary focus right now is to ensure we are in full compliance with Brazilian import tax laws and look ahead the opportunity to locally manufacturing the PS4, which will significantly reduce the retail price. Sony Computer Entertainment began locally manufacturing PlayStation 3 in Manaus this past May and it immediately made PS3 more affordable to gamers in Brazil. PlayStation is fully committed to Brazilian gamers and we are proud of the strong relationship we’ve been able to build over the years. We are doing everything possible at this moment to reduce the PS4 price for you.”

The PlayStation 4, meanwhile, arrives in the U.S. on November 15 for only $399.

Source: Destructoid

‘Titanfall’ Drops In March

BY

Ever since its debut at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this year, Respawn Entertainment’s first-person shooter Titanfall has been turning quite a few heads, between its amazing graphics and free-flowing gameplay. Thankfully, players won’t have to wait that long to get their hands on it.

Electronic Arts has announced that the game will arrive on March 11 in the U.S. — and three days later in Europe — for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

In addition, the game will be available as both a standard $60 purchase, as well as a special $250 collector’s edition. This is an expensive, yet spiffy, package that includes an 18-inch hand-crafted Atlas titan statue with diorama and battery-powered LED lighting, as well as a 190-plus page art book and an exclusive schematic poster.

Despite its high price tag, Titanfall‘s collector’s edition should be a huge seller, mainly due to the heavy feedback for the game thus far from the community. Said Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella, “The feedback we’re getting from fans around the world is fueling our team as we head towards March and motivating us to deliver an experience that lives up to the hype.”

Titanfall is now available for pre-order from a variety of retailers, including GameStop and Amazon.

Source: Computer and Video Games

TV Ads Still King

BY

Ad spending is definitely spreading around different areas, including the Internet and mobile applications, but it seems like nothing will beat good ol’ television for the time being.

A report from Global AdView Pulse, headed up by the Nielsen Group, shows that a huge amount of ad spending is still spent on traditional television. Approximately 57.6 percent of spending is still done through television, while newspapers – there are still plenty in circulation, despite some closures – take a healthy second place position with 18.9 percent. Magazines follows in third with ten percent, while the rest – Cinema, Internet, Outdoor and Radio, have smaller percentages.

Even with the rise of Twitter and Facebook, the Internet still plays a small percentage. That said, it’s definitely growing, with a nearly 27 percent growth – six times as much as TV spending – in the past year. Outdoor and Television markets also show a slight increase, but only by a few percent. Meanwhile, other markets, including Newspapers, Magazines and Cinema, show a small decline.

If these growth rates continue, it’s just a matter of time before Internet ad spending overtakes TV advertising. Unless TV finds a way to respond to this challenge…

Source: TechCrunch

New Nvidia Tech Improves Monitors

BY

There are PC gamers everywhere who love their high-end set-ups, but run into light problems when it comes to latency issues, and how certain frame rates hold them back from reaching their optimal experience. However, with Nvidia’s help, that might not be a problem anymore.

The company has introduced a new module for computer monitors called G-Synch, which, according to its blog post, “brings big benefits for gamers.”

With this module, gamers will be able to sync between a graphic card’s frame-rendering rate and a monitor’s refresh rate, which are generally set to 60 Hz. Because of that rate, latency and image stuttering sometimes set in, causing those frame rate hiccups.

Rather than linking a GPU to a monitor, the G-Sync goes the opposite route, with the monitor refreshing after the GPU finishes rendering the frame. This means less screen tearing, input lag and glitches – and more high performance from the games PC players enjoy.

The hardware works with a variety of GeForce GTX cards – preferably 650 Ti Boost or better – and will be available in the first monitors sometime later this year. There’s no word yet on pricing, but several manufacturers might offer their monitors with the G-Sync technology built in as soon as early next year.

Source: Nvidia

Facebook Updates Mobile Ads

BY

Facebook is making a few changes to its mobile app ads that should bring in more advertising business, adding to the efficiency of certain app installs, according to its latest blog post.

The first is called “video creative.” According to the post, potential customers will be able to click play to watch a video featuring a business’ mobile app before needing to install it. One of the early partners, DoubleDown Casino, already tested the program. “In our early tests, we found that using video in our mobile app ads resulted in increased install rates and decreased costs per install,” said John Clelland, Vice President, Interactive Marketing for DoubleDown Casino. “We’ve seen tremendous success with mobile app ads and are looking forward to using video to make them even more engaging with rich media like video.”

The second feature is CPA, or cost-per-action. This csimplifies the buying process for mobile app ads with the option to bid and optimize for installs. In the past, bidding was kept to CPC, or cost per click, or oCPM, also known as cost of impression. Now, using the CPA system, budgets can be managed much better than before, as developers are only charged once a user downloads and installs the app, providing better handling of spending on mobile app ads altogether.

Facebook will present all the options over the next couple of weeks.

Source: Facebook

 

Nokia Unveils Trio Of New Tablets

BY

Not content on letting Apple have all the fun with its new iPad Air model, Nokia introduced three new tablets that will be coming to market soon. The three were introduced at the Nokia World show in Abu Dhabi this week.

First up is the Microsoft-partnered Lumia 2520, which features Windows RT and includes a 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, polycarbonate body that’s been used on previous Lumia models, a snappy 10.1 inch IPD LCD panel, and a built-in LTE radio for mobile connectivity. It’s also said to have made huge improvements on working with Microsoft’s RT operating system.

The second model is the flagship Lumia 1520, which features a 6-inch ClearBlack LCD display running at a solid 1080p setting, along with the Snapdragon 800 chipset, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of flash storage and a microSD card slot. The camera is a whopping 20 megapixels.

Finally, the budget Lumia 1320 also has a 6-inch display, but with less resolution. It does, however, come with a dual-core processor, as well as a 5-megapixel camera. It’s an affordable alternative compared to the other models, selling for just $339 without a contract. No word yet on what the other higher-end tablets will go for just yet.

Expect more details on the release of these devices in the months ahead.

Source: TechCrunch

This Week’s [a]list Jobs – October 23

BY

“Work that is pure toil, done solely for the sake of the money it earns, is also sheer drudgery because it is stultifying rather than self improving.” -Mortimer Adler

Here are this week’s [a]list jobs:

[a]list daily is your source for the hottest job openings for senior management and marketing in games, entertainment and social media.

To see last week’s jobs, click here.