Can You Build Your Own Holodeck?

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Hologram technology has been appearing more and more at events over the years, but it could very well be right at your fingertips, if HybridLab has its way.

The company has introduced a new program called Hyve-3D, which creates a highly immersive illustration platform that’s utilized by the iPad Mini. Basically, it works as a drawing program, as the items you create can actually be recreated, in 3D, right in front of your eyes – powered by said iPad Mini. The video below details the process a little bit more.

 

This Week’s [a]list Jobs – August 27

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[a]listdaily is now your source for the hottest job openings for senior management and marketing in games, entertainment and social media. Check here every Wednesday for the latest openings.

Looking for happiness (who isn’t ) and heck, why not success too Check out 20 essential life lessons to have your cake and eat it.

Here are this week’s [a]list jobs:

For last week’s [a]list jobs, click here.

Five Super Powerful Lessons ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Is Teaching Hollywood

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With big smiles and open wallets, people around the world are going back to see Guardians of the Galaxy again and again. This past weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, the film retook first place at the box office, grossing $252 million domestically, and closing in on half a billion dollars worldwide after three weeks in release. That makes it the #1 movie of the summer {link no longer active}, and Guardians is shockingly on track to become the #1 superhero movie of the year, beating out Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Futurepast, and even Disney Marvel’s own Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

So how in the world did this happen, and what is Hollywood learning from a global blockbuster that stars a sitcom second banana, a pro wrestler, a walking tree and a talking raccoon

To be sure, Guardians of the Galaxy had its doubters. Motley Fool, ubiquitous on Yahoo’s front page, predicted the film would be a total flop. The main characters were known only to a handful of fanboys. Director James Gunn hadn’t made a movie that grossed more than $10 million {link no longer active} domestically.

Besides dubbing the whole project “magic,” and dubbing Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige as the new James Lasseter (founder of Pixar), here are the takeaways for Hollywood regarding Guardians’ remarkable success:

1. It Pays to Go to the Library

We can trace the roots to the Guardians of the Galaxy movie to the Marvel Screenwriters Program, started by Marvel Studios to cultivate writers and incubate properties from the vast library of Marvel Comics characters. An array of second and third tier titles were offered to participants, and Nicole Perlman {link no longer active} (who had touched up the Thor script) chose the obscure Guardians of the Galaxy. Although much has been made of James Gunn’s rewrite, the point is that without Marvel’s foresight in letting Perlman dig deep into its stacks, Gunn would have had no Groot.

We’re seeing this elsewhere, as studios finally come to grips with the fact that comic books and other fictional universes have tons to offer, particularly if writers and producers apply some audiovisual imagination. While the CW’s Smallville TV series borrowed from Superman’s rogues gallery in name only, the more recent Arrow has been bold in its depiction of such costumed villains as Deathstroke, Merlyn, and the Suicide Squad. Now Fox’s Gotham, ABC’s Agents of SHIELD, and NBC’s Constantine will be tapping dozens of characters that would electrify comics geeks, but are hardly known to the unwashed masses.

Wildly ahead of the curve, Marvel cut a deal for Netflix to finance an entire farm team of secondary and tertiary characters such as Power Man, Iron Fist, and the Defenders in a series of maxi-series. The studio has made no bones about the fact that, as opposed to the Warner Bros./DC television characters, these heroes can then show up in Agents of SHIELD or even the feature films.

After Marvel’s success, the majors are catching on as well. More than a dozen obscure mutants showed us a good time in Fox’s X-Men: Days of Futurepast. Cyborg and Aquaman will make their live action premieres in Batman v. Superman. Sony will be plumbing the depths of its contractual corner of the Marvel Universe by turning a number of Spider-Man villains {link no longer active} into anti-heroes and giving them their own film series.

2. It’s Not Just a Brand, It’s a Story World

Much has been made of the “Marvel brand’ and how it has become trustworthy entertainment, like Pixar. That’s true, but there is something more at play. Although at first blush Guardians of the Galaxy seems to have little to do with the adventures of Iron Man, Captain America and the Avengers, even less acquainted audience members quickly realize that we are in the same story world as those more familiar properties; we are squarely in the Marvel Universe {link no longer active}. The film’s tone, humor and themes are in keeping with the rest of the series; Thanos, an uber-villain glimpsed in Avengers, plays a larger role here; the MacGuffin is another of those pesky Infinity Stones that everybody seems to be after in many of the films.

From this perspective, Marvel Studios is pioneering a 21st century franchise production philosophy, where the “transmedia story world” (a persistent fictional universe that extends across an array of media platforms, with each piece a self-contained addition to a greater mythology) rules over the whims of talent or the politics of corporate suits. Why do it this way when it would be so much easier to let different directors, studios, and licensees do whatever they pleased with each character and storyline The proof is in the results:

Story worlds connect with fans because they simulate reality in terms of consistency, depth, and scope. We are implicitly told that there is a design sensibility to this world that the creators aren’t simply making it up as they go along. Story worlds appeal to our collectors’ mentality: the more we buy into them, the more complete the puzzle becomes, even though we know the picture will never be fully complete. That intrinsic interactivity is quite simply fun, and our natural inclination is to become loyal to it, and lead our friends to it.

Christopher Nolan’s vision of Batman was compelling, but by its nature it was exclusive and self-limiting. Interestingly, Warner Bros. has veered away from this auteurist approach, and as of Zack Snyder’s Superman v. Batman, is now emulating the Marvel Cinematic Universe, pulling in members of the Justice League to start building a DC movie story world in earnest.

Universal is finally pulling its act together and uniting their library of classic monsters (The Mummy, Van Helsing, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, etc.) into a single cinematic universe under the aegis of Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan. The studio is doubling down with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, again acknowledging that the new reboot will tap into the breadth of her entire novel series, rather than simply adapting them one at a time with different casts and disparate visionaries at the helm.

Also, this year, the granddaddy of transmedia story worlds, Star Wars, has announced that all content moving forward “counts” and will be a part of a massive “interconnected long-form narrative.” Creator George Lucas had always made it clear that only his six films were the official story of Star Wars, and all of the thousands of comic books, hundreds of novels, and dozens of video games were not canonical. In a striking reversal, new Star Wars overseer Kathleen Kennedy has formed a mysterious story team deep within Lucasfilm, who will form a kind of narrative hub for the franchise, carefully coordinating between Disney, and a raft of licensees to make certain that if a Wookiee sneezes in a comic book, he gets a Gesundheit in a video game.

But it’s not just about appealing to the geeks, who have clearly inherited the media, if not the Earth. Story worlds make financial sense. Although movies may retain the prestige crown, we now live in a world where any content is accessible through a wide array of media platforms. More kids are being introduced to Harry Potter through the Lego video games than through the Scholastic books. It simply pays for the world we find first to be a vital part of the official world of the franchise, not simply a knock-off to make a buck off licensing. If any date can be the start of a long-term relationship, it behooves the storyteller to dress up a bit, and put their best foot forward.

3. Post-Millennials Are Vibing with Vulnerability

As the world seems to have grown harsher, there is a new closeness between Millennials (those born roughly after 1982) and their Gen-Z (or Pluralist) kids. Combine this with a greater sensitivity toward gender issues and “outsiders” in general, and you have a mass audience of — tweens and teens who are less interested in godlike beings (such as the heroes in the recent Superman and Green Lantern films), and more taken with heroes grappling with personal vulnerabilities, like we’re seeing in the Marvel films.

Director Gunn takes care to give us quick but touching back stories for most of the major characters in Guardians of the Galaxy. The result is that some soul slips into the bombast, and we relate to a band of loveable, strangely innocent weirdos. Interestingly, Universal is circling current vulnerability king Josh Boone, director of The Fault in Our Stars, to helm the first of their Vampire Chronicles.

The Fault in Our Stars

4. Talent Must Serve the Story World, Not the Other Way Around

Some have criticized {link no longer active} Marvel’s rapidly expanding universe of imposing a “house style” on filmmakers, stifling creativity and making the interconnected films and television shows hard to follow. Director Edgar Wright left Marvel’s Ant-Man ostensibly over creative differences stemming from the fact that he’d begun development on the project long before the move canon had matured, but was now being cajoled into bending his script to serve it. This could have meant adding characters from elsewhere in the canon, referencing the overall continuity outside of the story at hand, or even altering the plot to accommodate the superstructure of Marvel’s decade-long master plan.

We return to the distinction between a more traditional auteur-driven approach, and that of talent being brought in to create a new chapter in an ever-expanding but still integral story world. Marvel’s Kevin Feige brought an innate sense of reverence to the source material to the production process, dating all the way back to the launch of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. After all, when a writer or artist is brought in to script or draw an issue of a Marvel comic book, there were certain rules of style and continuity that had to be respected. Keep defying those and the entire universe starts to unravel. Why not observe the same approach with the movies? Keeping track of the canon is half the fun — as fans of soap operas and sports leagues would certainly attest. But does this kill creativity?

Directors such as Gunn, Joss Whedon (Avengers), and Anthony & Joe Russo (Captain America 2) don’t seem to think so. The Russos, in fact got to unfold a fairly subversive storyline with Winter Soldier, commenting sharply on America’s surveillance state. Gunn’s Guardians is fraught with themes and quirks that speak to his obsessions. Its psychedelic palette and surreal images hearken to the director’s love of 1970s pop culture, particularly prog-rock album covers, the airbrush painted sides of Chevy vans, and yes, Marvel Comics. But Gunn also understood walking into this situation that these toys are not his, and although his contribution to the sandbox counts big-time, he still has to play well with others. Like the best Frank Miller or Alan Moore scripted comic books, Gunn has proven that you can join a vast work in progress, yet still make your distinct voice heard over the din.

5. Keep it Warm

Finally, Guardians of the Galaxy hammers home the fact that warmth, cleverness and imagination will win out over uninvolving operatic spectacle any day. Godzilla became a low-key monster march the moment Bryan Cranston dropped from the movie. Lal-El’s aloofness in Man of Steel, capped by the decimation of Metropolis, left audiences slightly chilled. The first five minutes of Guardians, on the other hand, set millions of eyes glistening with tears, and our default response to the fundamental good-heartedness of its motley crew of outlaw heroes is to smile.

Warner Bros. was smart to cast a warmer Ben Affleck as Batman to Henry Cavill’s flinty Supes for the upcoming sequel. There is recent evidence that Superman’s costume will become less muted and more colorful {link no longer active}. Marvel may even take a cue from itself and infuse some of their Agents of SHIELD with a stronger sense of camaraderie, and humanizing emotional complexity in the show’s second season.

Breakthroughs don’t appear out of thin air, and it’s probably true that Guardians of the Galaxy would not have been nearly as successful five years ago as it is today, but it’s not just about the Marvel brand. Any number of studios can cobble together transmedia story worlds, but the true takeaway out of these five lessons is that audiences are tiring of spectacle without drama, confrontations without imagination, and super powers without heart. And a wiggling tree dude with Vin Diesel’s voice never hurts…

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Jeff Gomez is CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, a New York based production company that consults with Hollywood studios on some of their most popular entertainment franchises. Follow him @Jeff_Gomez.

New Apples Are Ripe For Gaming

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The fall is that time of year for pumpkins, the turning of the leaves… and the introduction of new Apple devices. This year, the changes look to be more significant than last year — or perhaps for the last several years. As usual, the rumor mill has been buzzing, but this time we have numerous sightings of Apple parts for new devices to lend some solidity to the rumors.

Of course, with iOS developers raking in billions of dollars, and games being the #1 category for iOS app revenue, the introduction of new devices is highly significant to the game industry. Taking advantage of changes in Apple’s hardware lineup, and the release of new system software, can mean millions for companies that do it right. There’s also a major marketing opportunity for some lucky games that may be the featured app to demonstrate the power of new Apple hardware.

The rumors seem to center around Apple holding an event September 9, where it will introduce one or perhaps two new iPhones, and an October event where the company will introduce new iPads. Speculation has centered on the iPhones because of the rumored new screen sizes, while the iPads will probably be content with faster processors and the Touch ID sensor, and perhaps better cameras.

The new screen sizes for the new iPhone 6 models are still a mystery, but one that some analysis can help illuminate. John Gruber’s Daring Fireball blog has an extensive analysis of the situation, looking at what Apple has done in the past and the hints provided by the recent Worldwide Developers Conference, along with some quite logical math. Gruber selects the following screen sizes: 1334 x 750 for the 4.7″ iPhone screen (326 pixels per inch); and 2208 x 1242 for the 5.5″ screen (461 pixels per inch).

These resolutions would put both phone screens over the Retina display threshold of 300 ppi. The 5.5″ iPhone screen would be an impressively high resolution, but we’ve already seen phones with screens at even higher resolutions, like the new LG G3 at 2560 x 1440, which should be shipping this fall. So it’s not impossible, but it would be at the cutting edge of display technology – which might explained the rumored production difficulties with the larger iPhone 6, which may keep it from widespread availability until late this year or early next year.

The large iPhone 6 is also rumored to sport an even more improved camera than the 4.7″ iPhone 6, along with a top end of 128 GB of storage, and perhaps an extra $100 retail price to go along with those extras. The extra price point plus the limited early availability, along with the large size, make it logical to assume that the 4.7″ screen size iPhone will be the biggest seller, and the sweet spot in the market.

Game developers will of course continue to target the largest possible markets, so don’t expect new games that are only aimed at the latest devices. It’s quite possible, though, that a game developer could offer special graphics that are only seen on the latest Apple hardware. That’s the sort of thing that might get you invited up on stage during Apple’s introduction of new hardware, something that has happened to Chair Software on more than one occasion, as Apple used Infinity Blade to show of the graphics power of the latest iPhone.

The real impact for game industry will be in Apple’s market share. It seems likely that the new devices being introduced will sell well, with rumors noting that Apple is ordering somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 to 80 million iPhones for delivery before the end of 2014. With the previous record of selling 51 million iPhones in a single quarter, it seems Apple believes it can blow past that number with ease.

This is a good opportunity for game companies to make an impression, with new device owners looking for something that will showcase the power they’ve just purchased. There’s nothing like the latest game with amazing graphics to show off that new iPhone or iPad. A senior game app designer at a major publisher sees Apple continuing in its role as the prime target for apps. “I believe iOS will probably continue to be the first development target for mobile game developers because it isn’t fragmented,” the designer noted. “The large market share plus minimal changes needed to address all iOS platforms just make it a clear choice. With any platform that has severe fragmentation, it then becomes a game of which handsets give a large enough ROI to warrant the additional dev time.”

The [a]listdaily spoke with Paritosh Shah, Head of Mobile Engineering from Pocket Gems, about the impact of Apple’s new devices.

[a]listdaily: How will iOS 8 features impact games and game development? Are there important changes, or is it minor? What about Metal, Apple’s new and more powerful graphics software?

Paritosh Shah: We’ve been seeing a shift towards high-quality AAA games on mobile and the most recent announcements from Apple, especially their Metal technology, is a confirmation of the trend and will help accelerate it. As developers start understanding and integrating the enhanced capabilities you’re going to see a higher bar being set for quality of games on mobile which will improve the total ecosystem. I believe you’ll also see more proprietary tech in mobile games over time as developers build unique experiences in order to set themselves apart in the space. At Pocket Gems, we’ve invested heavily in our own engine built from the ground up to be optimized for mobile, that’s going to help us create rich and engaging novel experiences for our users.

[a]listdaily: Supposedly the iPad line will get faster processors and the Touch ID sensor, but no other major changes. Sales have been slowing for the iPad. What do you see for the future of iPad games, and how will this new hardware affect things? Is the iPad still going to be the best tablet for games?

Paritosh Shah: We believe that smartphones and tablets will be greatest gaming and entertainment platforms of our lifetime, but we have a long way to go. What we’ve seen for iPads is longer replacement cycles (versus iPhones) which factors a bit into the sales figures. Because of the longer replacement cycles, we definitely see a lot of users on old iPad 2’s and it’s crucial to build your game with performance in mind for these low end devices. At Pocket Gems, we’ve built proprietary tech that seamlessly tunes the features and richness of gameplay to the performance profile of the device. This way we’re able to address a very broad market while keeping the quality bar for high end devices.

[a]listdaily: The new iPhone models are coming soon, reportedly featuring larger screens (4.7″ and 5.5″) that probably have higher resolutions than the current 1136×640 resolution, and no doubt with a faster CPU and GPU. What impact will this have on your current games, and games you are planning?

Paritosh Shah: Our next generation of games are going to be a significant departure from what people have seen from us before. New tech is very much affecting our batch of games — both from devices and our own.

[a]listdaily: The market share for iOS has fallen worldwide, but the Android share is more fragmented by OS versions, devices, and markets. Do you think iOS will continue to be the first development target for mobile game developers, or will that change?

Paritosh Shah: We believe that with today’s tech and third party providers, having to choose just one platform is actually a false dichotomy. The focus should be on making the most fun mobile game possible, platforms and new devices should be a secondary concern.

The Rise Of Native Ads And The Importance Of Being Human

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The announcement of that some of the brightest VCs in Silicon Valley at Andreessen Horowitz are investing $50 million in BuzzFeed has stunned many. Why? Because the company is regularly dismissed by others for its lightweight “click bate” type of content it is widely known for. But Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz, who is also joining Buzzfeed’s board, explains the rationale behind the investment on his blog:

“Many of today’s great media companies were built on top of emerging technologies. Examples include Time Inc. which was built on color printing, CBS which was built on radio, and Viacom which was built on cable TV. We’re presently in the midst of a major technological shift in which, increasingly, news and entertainment are being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices. We believe BuzzFeed will emerge from this period as a preeminent media company.”

This is a big statement and it puts Buzzfeed in a different light. Dixon doesn’t see them as a traditional publishing company, but an innovative tech company.

“The most interesting tech companies aren’t trying to sell software to other companies. They are trying to reshape industries from top to bottom. BuzzFeed has technology at its core. Its 100+ person tech team has created world-class systems for analytics, advertising, and content management. Engineers are 1st class citizens. Everything is built for mobile devices from the outset. Internet native formats like lists, tweets, pins, animated GIFs, etc. are treated as equals to older formats like photos, videos, and long form essays. BuzzFeed takes the internet and computer science seriously.”

Buzzfeed’s business model, which can be discerned by anyone who visited the site, is native ads. It’s what’s working for Facebook and it works for Buzzfeed because it works on mobile.

But what a “native ad” represents is still up for debate, but Joe Pulizzi, Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, explains it well in a recent LinkedIn post:

1. As the traditional advertising business model continues to evolve, more publishers than ever before are opening up native opportunities on their digital properties. In essence, media companies see native as a replacement for the banner ad. Native has been working so well from a revenue standpoint that some publishers, like Buzzfeed, generate a majority of their online revenue from branded content.

2. Brands are starting to understand that consumers have every right to (and will) ignore their traditional marketing practices. To combat this, brand marketers are beginning to develop content that their customers and prospects actually care about, in the hopes of getting attention and possibly some positive behavior change down the road. Native advertising is a valuable “paid” way to distribute that original content.

However, there are many things that need to happen on both the publisher and advertiser-side to make native ads the “killer app” on mobile that it has the potential to be. Pulizzi  proposes the following fixes:

  1. Fix the editorial process so that native ads have to be created or approved by the editorial staff.
  2. Fix the media business model to diversify revenue streams and be less reliant on ads.
  3. Brands should develop rent-to-own strategies to drive traffic to their own owned-media platform.

Andreessen Horowitz investment of $50 million in BuzzFeed is a bold bet on that the future of media is spelled t-e-c-h, but that doesn’t mean that newsrooms and publishing houses will be filled with robots anytime soon.

I recently visited Buzzfeed’s new Hollywood campus and was amazed to see how many people worked there and how creative they all were. Not at all the assembly-line you would expect. It’s all about rebuilding the media business model where the user/reader/viewer is in focus, not an single know-it-all editor, and then have editorial, business and tech all work together to find the best possible solution to engage that audience.

Listen, then talk. Traditional publishing has never been very good at that. Companies like Buzzfeed is building a new user-focused model that I would argue is more “human” because it uses technology from the start to be better at listening and then creating content, sponsored or not, that is specifically created for social media and mobile devices from the bottom up.

It’s a new way of thinking for publishers and advertisers alike, but the sooner we can accept and embrace this new model and fix our internal processes, the better off we’ll all be.

Five Qs With Vine Star Princess Lauren On Her Latest Brand Deal

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by Jessica Klein

Vine creator Princess Lauren (real name: Lauren Giraldo) has regularly managed to do something that most comedians constantly struggle for — being hilarious in a matter of six seconds. The Vine star is only 16, but she’s already gotten the attention of major brand Clean and Clear, meaning she will serve as brand ambassador for their campaign to empower girls, #SeeTheRealMe. The campaign focuses on girls in pursuit of their passions (forget about acne — this is about strong women).

Giraldo speaks both English and Spanish, reaching a total of 2.9 million followers on Vine. This frames her as an attractive partner for brands, and she already boasts sponsors who will pay her just to share their videos with her large audience. We got to ask Giraldo some questions about her involvement in the Clear and Clear campaign and her life on Vine in general. Here’s what she had to say.

How did you get started creating videos on Vine, and how did it escalate from simply creating videos for friends to a career move?

My friends all asked me to start posting Vines, because they thought they would be funny, so I started making more. Before the “Re-Vine” feature, I went on a cruise with 300 followers, and while I was on it, Vine updated the app to allow for “Re-Vines, so when I got home I had 300,000.”

Working with a brand is a new experience for you, correct? How do you feel about aligning yourself with one, and how did you decide to work with Clean and Clear?

This has all happened so fast. It feels rewarding to be recognized for my posts. I am very picky with the brands I choose. Clean and Clear felt right, and I love what they stand for.

Could you describe your role as the brand ambassador for Clean and Clear’s Girl Empowerment campaign, #SeeTheRealMe What does it entail on your end?

We are working on a project by project basis, so I’m not sure what my formal role with them is. The current project we’re working on, #SeeTheRealMe, is in conjunction with the 2014 MTV VMAS. This entailed social media, and I also filmed a commercial and look forward to working with both MTV and Clean and Clear in the future.

How do you identify with the campaign’s message?

I strive to be confident and always show the real me in all of my posts.

Do you think being bilingual plays a large role in your popularity on Vine/your audience reach?

I am very proud to be Latina and speak Spanish and English. In my posts, I normally speak English, but the more languages you speak, the more people you can reach. I love it.

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Firefox Marketplace Reaches 5,000 Apps

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Mozilla’s Firefox has been in the works to create a strong app store for quite some time now, a process that is vital to the success of the company’s OS and phones. However, according to VentureBeat.com, Firefox’s editorial and campaign manager Scott DeVaney has released news that the Firefox Marketplace has now reached 5,000 apps.

This being the case, Mozilla is still encountering some of the same problems other premature app stores do–they need a way to promote the really good apps, and conceal the less-desirable ones. Part of the answer to this problem, via DeVaney, lies in audience curation of apps.

DeVaney spoke about what this method of app curation might look like to a user. According to the conversation, he said it will be a separate space at the app store that has a slightly different look and feel than the home page of the Firefox Marketplace.

“It would be giving people a playground, and letting them rate and review apps, letting people vote the best app reviews up to the top,” he told VentureBeat. “It’s creating a space that’s a little less polished than the homepage [of the app store].”

DeVaney is no stranger to curation. Before Mozilla, DeVaney managed a team at Apple charged with creating the promotional language around iTunes, App Store, and iBookstore content.

Some of the approaches Firefox is taking to achieve this necessary curation include apps based on geographic location of its users, as well as lists of “best apps” by people who have a special interest in a certain class of apps, such as productivity apps or games.

The company’s ideology behind this is that the best people to promote apps are not the people who make them, but rather the people who have used them.

“We’re really trying to democratize app discovery,” DeVaney said at a retreat for app developers last Friday, via VentureBeat.

While some app stores look to solely use algorithms and automation to identify good apps, DeVaney believes number crunching is a limited approach. “Analysis only takes you so far in predicting the next hit,” said DeVaney.

“I could have a staff of 100, but I still wouldn’t know what people in a little village in Nairobi are going to want, or what the people in the village 100 miles away will want,” he continued.

DeVaney is set to reveal the new crowd curation features in Mozilla’s app store “very soon.”

 

Source: VentureBeat

Madden’s Monstrous Marketing Advantage

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The Madden NFL franchise has been a real monster for EA Sports over the years. First started back in the late 80’s on computer and Sega Genesis, it has since grown into one of the biggest sports franchises in the world – and this year’s release, Madden NFL 15, shows no signs of slowing.

The game, which is available today for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, mobile, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, provides a plethora of new options for players, including a revamped player interface that actually brings them closer to the action than ever before, with a more concentrated tackle system (utilizing “cones”), better defensive plays, and more.

In addition, there’s a lot happening off the field with this year’s game as well. Ultimate Team once again makes a return, providing plenty of Fantasy Football fans the opportunity to create their dream team with cards earned throughout the game. In-game packs are also available for purchase, should players feel the need to earn rewards a little quicker than actually earning them.

This year’s marketing campaign has also proven to be a boon for EA on many fronts with Madden. The company released the game early as part of a limited demo for its EA Access service on the Xbox One, enabling players to get up to six hours of time with the game five days before its release. The advertising angle has also taken a more unique approach this time around, with a more comedic approach rather than just in-game footage, featuring comedian Kevin Hart bombarding his friend Dave Franco with a series of challenges, officially kicking off what he proclaims is “Madden season”.

 

Amazon Officially Acquires Twitch

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After spending weeks in the “will they, won’t they” camp with Google in regards to a buyout, it appears streaming channel Twitch.tv has taken a different route, as retailer site Amazon has officially picked up the service through an acquisition valued at around $970 million.

The deal provides a huge new audience for the site, with more than 15 billion minutes of content streamed through Twitch in its three year life span, as well as one million broadcasters, including devoted gamers, companies, pro players and other outlets.

“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community.”

“Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. “Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world.”

Shear also posted a “thank you” letter to Twitch subscribers, explaining the acquisition. “We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch,” he said.

There’s no word yet on how services will be affected based around Amazon’s Prime service, if at all, but this is no doubt a huge acquisition for the team, and a step forward for its streaming services, which will no doubt go hand-in-hand with the company’s already popular Instant Video brand.

What do you think Is this a good move for the team at Twitch, and a smart pick-up by Amazon

Source: Polygon

Tinyloot Ready To Pay Mobile Players?

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Usually, game players have to pay to unlock content in free-to-play games. However, it appears that Tinyloot has a different strategy with its products, one that could reward players in more ways than one.

The company is looking to pay players a small amount of money for taking part in its game sessions, an idea cooked up by digital game marketing expert Oliver Kern and former IT head at Booz Allen Hamilton Micha von der Meer.

With the Tinyloot platform, players are actually paid for taking part in game sessions, based on the time they spend playing the game. This is a change of pace from the usual way that free-to-play games work, especially when it comes to the involvement of advertisers. “The majority of networks couldn’t care less about the developers and very often do not deliver what they promise,” Kern said. “I have been working in exactly this space and have worked with many of them. Some are good, many not so good for games.”

Through the Tinyloot system, developers and publishers would spend less funds on ads, with the money instead going to players. Those who enjoy playing the games can invest the cash in their game experiences, if they choose. “This would change the value chain in free-to-play mobile games,” said Kern in an email. “We are getting great feedback from players who sometimes can’t believe it’s true.”

The app works for all those involved, as developers can acquire other team members at a low financial rate, while also rewarding players who turn into long-time fans of their games. “This is good for the community of free-to-play mobile-game developers who are struggling with ad networks that take and earn a lot of money without providing real value,” Kern said. “Tinyloot mitigates this risk, and it delivers engaged players at a significantly lower cost if it’s a good game.”

App stores would also benefit from purchases by players. “The price for a mobile user is going up (every month),” said Daniel Hasselberg, chief executive of developer MAG Interactive, which is planning to use the platform in the future. “By the end of 2014, even the majority of the top 300 mobile publishers will not be able to easily afford user acquisition. We are waiting for Tinyloot.”

“Mobile user acquisition is clearly broken. What Tinyloot is seeking to provide will help preserve a commercially interesting space for mobile developers,” said Shaun Rutland, head of Hutch Games.

It’ll be interesting to see if this business model works out. What do you think? Would you be interested in getting paid to play games?

Source: VentureBeat