Nexon To Publish New Cliff Bleszinski Game

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In an attempt to gain an edge over free-to-play gaming competitors, Tokyo-based game publisher Nexon has signed publishing deals with several startups recently, including Rumble Entertainment. Nexon’s not done investing, though, and it’s adding some big names to its roster of partners. Nexon announced Tuesday that it obtained worldwide publishing and marketing rights to a free-to-play shooter, code-named BlueStreak, the first title from startup Boss Key Productions. Nexon has also acquired a minority stake in Boss Key Productions as part of the deal.

Boss Key’s CEO is Cliff Bleszinski, a longtime designer for Epic Games who left the company two years ago along with a legacy of well-liked franchises like Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War.

In addition to Bleszinski, some other distinguishable names set to be published by Nexon include EA and Zynga veteran John Schappert’s Shiver Entertainment; former EA Partners exec and BioWare CEO Greg Richardson’s Rumble Entertainment; and former Zynga game designer Brian Reynolds’s SecretNewCo. However none of these names have the recognition Bleszinski has, which may prove to be even more of a bonus for Nexon than it is for Boss Key.

In addition, Bleszinski recently announced on his Twitter, which has close to a quarter-million followers, that he will founding Boss Key alongside Guerrilla Games founder Arjan Brussee, who also worked on Jazz Jackrabbit. Bleszinski has also made an effort to make clear that Epic retains the rights to their previous collaboration.

Source: GamesIndustry International

Fullscreen’s $10 Million Investment In Programming

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It’s all about the “power to the creators” – at least, as far as Fullscreen is concerned.

During a presentation at VidCon earlier in the week, the network, which specializes in multi-channel programming, explained why it’s strictly behind that mantra, promising to back it with a $10 million investment in programming, announced straight from CEO George Strompolos himself.

The company, which provides a number of ways to support partners with management and marketing, plans to fund the projects that come from that group, including the likes of Grace Helbig, Shane Dawson and the Fine Bros., among others. As a result, the fanbase will show appreciation, as well as possibly flourish.

Said Strompolos, “We look forward to bringing you the best work to you from the best creators of our generation.”

Fullscreen has made such an investment before, opening a million dollar fund in 2012 to support smaller channels within its network. With this investment, however, the focus primarily lies in established partners. “These are the creators that have captured a generation,” said Strompolos. “They have spoken to the hearts and the minds of the young. It’s what’s happening now, not what’s about to happen.”

While Fullscreen will continue to focus online, television programming could be in its future plans. The partners mentioned above already have some sort of TV projects in the works, although this investment clearly won’t distract from that, allowing them to focus on where their key audience was put together – online.

Fullscreen is also said to be building up an off-YouTube subscription service, which is something that many companies are also contemplating. The company is cleary devoted to boosting creators and generating more content, and it’s putting it’s money down to make that happen. We certainly wish the partners, as well as Fullscreen, the best of luck in providing some of the best content around.

Source: Tubefilter

 

Vines Come To Tumblr

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It looks like Tumblr and Vine are now best friends as the 6 second autoplaying video is now embeddable into Tumblr blogs. It’s as easy as using the URL of the Vine or the embed code. This streamlines what used to be a slightly more complex process where you could embed a tweet that contained the Vine you wanted to appear, or having to make a GIF out of the Vine — no more!

 

‘True Blood’: The 80’s Sitcom?

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When you think of the 80’s show Cheers, you probably think of a number of things, like all the customers yelling, “Norm!” upon his arrival, or Cliff Claven’s wise-man thoughts as he sips a beer, or, hey, maybe even the theme song. But . . . True Blood Probably the last thing anyone thinks of.

However, Wil Wheaton changed that this week with the latest episode of The Wil Wheaton Project, which airs weekly on SyFy. The Internet affecianado, who also works on the Geek & Sundry network on a variety of shows, aired a new segment on the Project, which re-envisions the hit HBO vampire show True Blood, currently in its final season, and reimagines it as an 80’s sitcom – yep, just like Cheers.

While not focusing on “where everybody knows your name,” this hilarious clip instead talks about wanting to “bang where all the sex is really strange,” and obviously replaces the bar setting with something a little more contemporary in the True Blood sense – Bon Temps, Louisiana.

The clip is rather humorous, but obviously a little raunchier than your usual Internet fare (caution: NSFW), but you can see how cleverly it recreates the atmosphere of an 80’s sitcom, but with all of the True Blood themes in mind.

Wil Wheaton is building up his brand of geek cross-over humor with clever mashups like this, and his finely tuned knowledge of what geeks like makes this all work. He’s got plenty more where that came from, we’re sure. Perhaps we’ll get to see his take on some of the classic games as well as TV shows and movies.

Now, if we can just get that cross-over between Family Ties and Game of Thrones going. That actually wouldn’t be too shabby, mind the bloodshed.

Don’t forget to check out our interview with Wil Wheaton right here!

Source: Creativity Online

 

Raptr’s Most Played PC Games: June 2014

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Raptr has once again tracked the habits of PC gamers to see just what players were spending time with in June. WildStar, the new MMORPG from Carbine/NCSoft, had a strong launch, Battlefield 3 made a comeback thanks to Origin’s On the House program, and Payday 2 climbed the ranks due to new content and Steam’s Summer Sale. Overall, gameplay time among Raptr members in June was up 15 percent over last month.

Highlights

League of Legends playtime climbed 13.26 percent in June, despite a decrease in the game’s Share percentage. The game received character, item, and map patches throughout the month and featured a limited run of the One For All: Mirror Mode that ended early in the month. Overall, League of Legends had a steady increase in playtime in June, which was probably driven in part by Raptr’s growing userbase.

DOTA 2 regained the number two spot from World of Warcraft, helped by a 24.52 percent playtime boost in June compared to May. Increased Summer Sale-related Steam activity was likely a factor, and on the content side the game added team ranked matchmaking. World of Warcraft, on the other hand, saw an 8.76 percent playtime decrease in June, due in part to WildStar stealing some players.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive‘s playtime rose 10.88 percent in June despite losing a small percentage of Share time. The game was part of Steam’s Summer Sale in June and also had the Arms Deal Update that included major weapon balancing.

WildStar made a resounding 6th-place entry into Most Played as it released on June 3, with weekly patches throughout the month. The new MMO impacted the playtime of The Elder Scrolls Online, WoW, Dark Souls II, and Final Fantasy XIV Online, and was definitely a factor that led to those games slipping in the ranks.

Watch Dogs jumped 11 spots to claim 8th place. The game released very late in May, so June was its first full month of availability. A stability/performance patch on June 18 had little impact on the expected post-launch playtime fall-off.

Battlefield 4 saw a slip in the rankings due to the Battlefield: Hardline beta. Gameplay time for BF4 cratered between June 19-26, which coincided with the opening of Hardline‘s beta to all PC players. Battlefield 3, on the other hand, saw a 230 percent playtime surge. BF3 benefited from Origin’s On the House Program, which offers up a free game to Origin members for a limited amount of time.

Payday 2 also got a major bump in the rankings thanks to the June 17 release of the Big Bank Heist DLC and a Summer Sale discount late in the month. As with all Payday DLC, those who don’t purchase the addition can still partake in the new heist by joining a game hosted by someone who has it, which most likely encouraged players to get their friends to play the weekend after its release.

Elder Scrolls Online was in bad shape in June as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim edged out the MMO in the rankings. This is most likely due to a big Summer Sale discount for Skyrim and WildStar claiming a chunk of ESO playtime; ESO hours were down by nearly half in June compared to May. We could very well see both Elder Scrolls games out of the top 20 in July.

Note: The Share number by each game represents that title’s gameplay time as a percentage of the total time spent on all the PC games played by Raptr members, and is useful for comparing the relative amount of playtime between particular games.

Machinima Finds Fast-Growing Twitch Niche

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The popularity of gaming and e-Sports continues to climb, and Machinima’s programming targeted at that audience is growing right along with it. Machinima has been a mainstay on YouTube, but the network has had great success with its Machinima LIVE channel on Twitch as well. Since launch, Machinima LIVE has proven to be one of the fastest growing channels on Twitch, with over 24.6 million views to date and over 159,000 channel follows. Machinima is now developing new seasons for its successful shows Chasing the Cup and Deck Wars, as well as working in popular talent from its YouTube network.

“œMachinima has quickly established a strong and growing presence on the Twitch platform, illustrating the appeal of quality gaming content that leverages live video,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. “The community is consuming a lot of Machinima content so we’re looking forward to seeing more of their premium programming.”

Machinima’s Chasing the Cup was a 10 episode reality series that documented the two highest ranked League of Legends teams in North America, Cloud9 and Team SoloMid, following them during the regular season of the League of Legends Championship Series. The series garnered millions of views, with 301,961 total hours watched, and proved to be one of the first successful VOD-to-Live executions on the Twitch platform. Over 45,000 audience members tuned in simultaneously to watch the finale, which set the record for any Machinima LIVE program. The Deck Wars series is based around Blizzard’s new card game Hearthstone, and the show’s 12 episode arc led up to the season finale tournament. Over the course of the finale weekend, viewership peaked at over 35K simultaneous viewers and held a stable 25K throughout the course of the two-day broadcast. Machinima LIVE reached over 1.1 million live views over the course of the tournament as well as over 20 million minutes watched.

“Twitch has become a valuable partner for us,” said Lester Chen, Director of Live Programming for Machinima. “As one of the fastest growing channels, we’re grateful that our fans enjoy the programming we’ve rolled out and are determined to continue delivering quality content. We’re excited to launch new seasons of what they love, and deliver more live programming around the gamers they enjoy watching — we’re always listening to what the fans want!”

In addition to bringing back some existing shows, Machinima will bring over many of its major YouTube stars and incorporate their live gameplays into its second wave of LIVE programming. Machinima’s network talent will bridge the gap between their already successful video uploads on their YouTube channels and Live audiences via Machinima LIVE.

The [a]list daily spoke exclusively with Lester Chen, director of Live and eSports at Machinima, about the growing popularity of livestreaming and Machinima’s future.

Why do you think livestreaming has proven so popular for Machinima?

Our livestreams act as a sandbox for viewers to converse and interact with one another. It’s one thing to be a fan of Inside Gaming on YouTube, it’s an entirely different experience when you get to play with them live on any of their daily streams. With such a large fanbase, we can afford to appeal to a variety of gamer tastes from Minecraft to League of Legends.

Do you see eSports becoming a more important part of Machinima’s programming mix?

Our team has over a decade of eSports experience under our belts and we actively recognize the growth and importance of the category. Programming around up-and-coming titles and creating highly produced content such as Chasing the Cup will continue to be our focus.

What’s your prediction for the future of livestreaming?

Livestreams will only continue to grow as developers and front-end users begin to adopt the platform. With more and more breakout gaming events, I expect advertisers will continue to jump on board to grab these highly engaged audiences which will in turn churn out even bigger and better productions.

Is livestreaming attracting a different set of customers to Machinima?

Many of our sales initiatives now include some form of livestreaming as part what we offer. Ultimately this helps diversify our programming slate and sets us above and beyond the competition.

Do you think the Xbox One and the PS4, with their built-in livestreaming features, will significantly expand the market for livestreaming and for Machinima?

The integration into those consoles has made it easier for more people to participate, and in turn has created a flood of content. The challenge will continue to be ensuring quality programming can rise above the noise. I’m very excited to see how XBOX / PS4 can evolve this product so that Machinima talent can have a streamlined mode of engaging their audience!

YouTube Bests TV In Survey

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A new report from Adroit Digital titled Online Video: Look Who’s Watching Now, surveyed 2,000 Americans over age 18 and saw some surprising video viewing habits. Of those surveyed, 68 percent said they are viewing content from YouTube while 51 percent said they watch traditional TV, showing a quickly widening gap between pay TV viewership and digital. Netflix is also ascending to meet traditional TV viewership levels– 49 percent of respondents get their fix through the online subscription service.

If these were statistics of millennial viewership habits, this wouldn’t be much of a surprise. However, the high numbers point to the conclusion that online video isn’t just appealing to the young anymore.

The survey also looked into ad consumption preferences to find that 68 percent of respondents said they would be more influenced by a short video as opposed to an ad that is text-based. In the 18-24 age range, that number went up to 72 percent.

This is all just more evidence that the digital video industry is booming. In Q1, Netflix reported a 23.2 percent increase from the same period last year with over 34 million subscribers and Hulu had risen 50 percent to 6 million subscribers.

 

The Time Is Right For eSports

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Although it seems like e-Sports is built upon the notion that you have to be exceptional at games in order to make any sort of living, that doesn’t mean they’re completely inaccessible to newcomers. In fact, Valve believes that with its forthcoming DOTA 2 tournament in Seattle, the market can certainly be open for veterans and rookies alike.

The tournament, which carries a prize pool with over $10 million (mostly driven by community donations through purchases of exclusive DOTA 2 goods), is sure to be a big draw, but it’s also a prime opportunity for Valve to welcome new players with open arms. It’s doing so with the introduction of the Newcomer’s Broadcast.

With this new Twitch channel, explanation of how the game works in general will be provided to those who can comprehend it more on a beginner level, so they’ll understand just what they need to do, and develop necessary strategies from there. The channel will also discuss how teams are drafted, as well as why certain teams play the way they do. In other words, it’s a beginner’s guide to e-Sports in general, and a good primer for those wanting to get into the sheer addiction of DOTA 2.

e-Sports isn’t just limited to this tournament, however, as other options are available between games like League of Legends (which draws millions of gamers to tournaments every year), as well as first-person shooters like the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises, as well as classic favorites like the always go-to Counter-Strike. (Fighting games also have a big outreach, as the EVO 2K tournament will be a huge draw in Las Vegas this weekend, featuring Ultra Street Fighter IV and Super Smash Bros.) So, even if DOTA 2 doesn’t light a fire for players, one of these certainly will.

It’s definitely a good time to check out e-Sports, no matter what a player’s forte might be.

Source: Ars Technica

 

Top Game Trailers Of The Week

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This week brought a smorgasbord of new game trailers for fans to ogle, across various platforms, including the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Wii U. Here now are our top picks for the week:

Far Cry 4 Gameplay

In this fun little video from Ubisoft, you get a better idea of what kind of trouble you can get into around Kyrat, whether it’s hang gliding through a canyon, ripping your way through a fortress on the back of an elephant, or dropping trouble from above on a small gyrocopter. The game will arrive in stores this November.

Sunset Overdrive Co-Op Trailer

Insomniac Games and Microsoft introduced a new trailer for Sunset Overdrive that focuses on the Chaos Squad mode, where friends can work together to take on strange mutants that have emerged thanks to a new questionable energy drink. With a slew of great weaponry (such as a bowling ball cannon) and plenty of parkour-related antics, this game should be a hit when it arrives later this year.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Teaser

A new Halo: The Master Chief Collection teaser, featuring voiceover by actor Keith David as the Arbiter, provides bits and pieces of what to expect from the forthcoming compilation, which will debut on the Xbox One this November. The game features all four original Halo games, along with restored maps and a beta for the forthcoming Halo 5: Guardians.

Hyrule Warriors: Zelda Grabs a Weapon

No longer relegated to a “damsel in distress” mode, Zelda picks up a Rapier and does some damage in the forthcoming Legend of Zelda spin-off Hyrule Warriors, which will make its debut on September 26th. Produced in conjunction with Tecmo Koei, this third-person adventure provides plenty of action, with hundreds of enemies to beat up with a variety of weapons. It should be a hit for both fans of the Zelda series, as well as the Warriors games from Tecmo.

Sacred 3 “You’ve Been One-Upped” Trailer

In the new trailer for Sacred 3, which will make its debut later this year for PC and game platforms, some great cinematics are put into play, as a soldier easily takes down a nasty goblin, then attempts to boast the achievement on her wall. The only problem is, one of her colleagues has managed to do even better.

Project CARS: The Ultimate Driver Journey Trailer

Finally, the sleeper driving hit Project CARS, which will arrive for Xbox One, PS4 and other game platforms later this year, is looking rather sharp, almost on the same level as Forza Motorsport 5. This nearly two-minute trailer shows the highlights on both cars and tracks that the team is putting into the game – and it could very well be a big hit later this year.

Source: YouTube

 

GREE: Free-To-Play Is The Future

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Over the past few years, free-to-play gaming has seen tremendous growth, behind such games as PopCap Games’ Plants vs. Zombies 2 and King’s various efforts, including the highly popular Candy Crush Saga. Anil Dharni, COO of GREE (which specializes in a number of free-to-play releases), believes that the practice comes with several advantages when it comes to making it optional in games these days.

“We look at it as the future. So that’s the macro view. It’s funny that a lot of these console developers are (questioning it), even though they themselves are trying to . . . introduce micro-transactions in their games. So what is that If you’re letting somebody buy it for $50 or $60 and then you’re again charging them more, do you really want to have that argument with us ” said Dharni, speaking to GamesIndustry International.

“I think the problem is by putting up a $50 gate, a $60 gate, a $100 gate, you are really limiting the accessibility of a game. And that’s a big deal. I want people around the world to be playing games, not just people who have the purchasing [power] to buy those games. The same $50 game is $100 in India or it’s $150 in Thailand and how many people in India are playing these games How many people in those markets are playing these games So once you make it free-to-play everyone can play.”

Scale plays a huge part in the market, mainly because of the involved micro-transactions. “The second thing that we realized when we did Storm8, when we were doing Funzio, that accessibility provides a large audience for even the paying players. So when you are a paying player and you’re looking, ‘OK I need to battle somebody, I need to fight somebody,’…you’re not looking to fight with the same person over and over again. It’s really good to have millions and millions of users that you can present to people, so it actually adds that scale that you need for these online [experiences] . . . these are tiny MMORPGs in some ways,” he continued. “Just thinking about it, if it’s getting into the hands of a lot more people, it just means it’s growing our business, it just means it’s growing the share in the pie of gaming overall. Why would we not want to invest in that ”

Sources: GamesIndustry International