With Windows 10, Microsoft has a number of new features in mind to entice both long-time users and newcomers, including a variety of popular first-party apps, as well as a forthcoming Minecraft beta, which was announced this past weekend at the Minecon event in London. However, it’s also rebranding its media channels, in an effort to focus more on a general experience.
As reported by the company on its official blog page, Microsoft has opted to rename both its Xbox Music and Xbox Video brands, in an effort to be more mainstream. From hereon in, Xbox Music will now be known as the Groove service, while Xbox Video will become simply Movies & TV.
Regarding the Groove service, the company said in its blog, “Our fans asked for faster ways to access the music they love – quickly, efficiently and on their favorite devices. And for that, we’re proud to introduce the evolution of our current Xbox Music experience, now titled Groove, with new features we think you’re going to love. Groove describes what people feel and do with music, and is more intuitive for our Windows 10 customers on what they’ll find with the app.”
The Groove app will provide an all-new look to Xbox’s music services, along with access to OneDrive integration, so that songs can be uploaded into the cloud and shared amongst a number of devices, including Xbox game consoles. The company has also begun offering a Groove Music Pass subscription, Microsoft’s own ad-free premium music service, for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year – no doubt wanting to be a competitor to the recently launched Apple Music.
The Groove service already offers access to 40 million tracks, according to the company, and also allows users to build custom radio stations, along the same lines as Pandora and Spotify.
As for Videos & TV, a new exploration feature will be introduced, allowing users to import personal videos from their collection, as well as shop for new movies and television shows through the Windows Store. Additional file formats are set to be supported as well, including .MKV.
Whether these services will be a success has yet to be seen, as Windows 10 is still going through a few touch-ups. However, it appears that Microsoft is gearing up for a more casual audience – even though the Xbox name will still clearly stick with the company as it launches a number of hit games for the Xbox One console this fall, including Forza Motorsport 6 and Halo 5: Guardians.
It wasn’t enough for Michelle Phan to have her own global lifestyle network (Icon) and her own makeup subscription service (ipsy), she also had to get into the comic book business. On Monday, the YouTube star announced that she will debut her first digital comic “The Enchantress” on LINE Webtoon in the fall of 2015.
“Most people think of me as a makeup guru, but might be surprised to know I’m also a trained artist and a huge comic book fan,” said Phan (pictured, below) in a statement. “’The Enchantress’ is my passion project that has been brewing since I was 11, and I’m so excited to finally pursue this dream of mine.”
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.
The world’s largest game company, Tencent, continues to make advances into the West to lay the groundwork for further growth in the future. Tencent’s approach has been mostly indirect — the company has made major investments in successful companies like Riot Games, Activision/Blizzard, and Epic Games. Tencent’s also investing in creative startups, like gaming veteran Jon Van Caneghem’s VCME, which recently came out of stealth mode with a Series A investment round totaling $4.5 million that included investments from Tencent and Pacific Sky Investments. The new Los Angeles-based development and publishing company is currently developing its first mobile title, which it will publish in 2015.
Jon Van Caneghem, the award-winning game designer and former founder of New World Computing and Trion Worlds, started VCME in 2014 and is its CEO. “We’ve seen some amazing mobile games come to market in the past few years, but we also see a lot of areas where the gameplay is ripe for new innovation,” said Van Caneghem. “The assistance of our partners and the experience of our talented team will enable us to explore those new areas and build a new generation of mobile games for phones and tablets. Stay tuned for more information on our upcoming title.”
Tencent is investing in a gaming veteran with a proven track record of hits like Heroes of Might and Magic in his portfolio, which seems like a pretty good bet for creating a new, successful game. Van Caneghem spoke with [a]listdaily at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show about his plans for mobile and why he thinks it’s such a great opportunity.
What led you to create a new game studio after so many years working for major game companies?
I started this studio over a year ago. I’ve been watching the mobile space for years now, on tablets and phones. A lot of people were telling me ‘Dude, you have to play this game — it’s just like stuff you did in the past on PC! It’s really making a giant comeback, but now it’s on a different device.’ I went, yeah, yeah, but then I started playing and got totally addicted to all these different games. I decided all right, we’ll start a studio, grabbed a bunch of people from EA and we started working on our first game. I really believe in this space, it’s such a worldwide audience. Back in the day interviewers would ask me ‘What’s your favorite device ‘ and I’d say ‘Just tell me where the gamers are.’ Because I’ll build a game wherever they are. Now, when I look at the numbers, it just staggers me. Now hundreds of millions of gamers can access your game.
What are the advantages of a mobile game studio versus the kind of studios you’ve run before?
It’s a smaller team size, it’s not 300 people for three years. A dozen or so people can build a really top-quality product in a year. That just reminds me of where I think my sweet spot was when I was making my better PC games.
What sort of game are you looking to build, and how did you wind up with investment from Tencent?
I want to take elements of RPGs and strategy and bring it to the mobile space, in an area that people already know about. I started working on this game, iterating and iterating, and it got to be pretty cool. It was ironic — I changed my LinkedIn from ‘startup in stealth’ to ‘VCME’ and I started getting calls from people I hadn’t talked to in years. The most exciting one was from some people I met at Tencent when I was at EA and later Trion. They said ‘Hey, what are you doing Does it happen to be in mobile Because we’re really excited about mobile and if someone like you is building a mobile product we’d be very interested.’ To have a partner like that is a big step up for us — they’re the biggest game company in the world, and they really understand all the metrics and the market in China. It’s a really great opportunity.
How important are the social connections between gamers, and fostering that in your game?
The social element is important. The social element is important, especially being able to connect with your friends. I was amazed at the social connectivity Candy Crush had, and it was amazingly addictive. You saw your friend’s Facebook page up twenty levels, and you had to get ahead of them even if you went and paid money. I don’t know if you necessarily need a real-time connection, but there are so many things you can do that don’t require that.
How are you planning to tackle the core marketing problem of mobile games these days — getting discovered when there are so many other games out there?
Obviously we’re hoping that the previous following on games we’ve built before is going to help us get started and there’s a lot of ways to start attracting attention. It’s definitely a concern but I think we have a bunch of plans that should help us rise above the noise. I think working with Tencent is also key to that mission.
Anyone who’s been on Vine is familiar with the kind of content that dominates the platform: there’s Vine’s outspoken funny people, the pranksters, the personalities, and then there’s the masters.
Who are the masters They’re the visionary filmmakers and artists who take concept to execution to a whole new, albeit brief level. Here’s ION‘s latest rankings of Vine’s most talented.
In a saturated MOBA market, Motiga looks to have Gigantic stand out in a major aspect: graphics. The free-to-play shooter where heroes and mythical guardians work together achieve greatness is in alpha for PC at the moment, with a release date this year and has been called a MOBA 2.0.
Motiga is wasting no time in developing their community. We caught up with Forrest Raynard, developer for Gigantic, to chat about the game and what they’re offering players.
With all the popularity surrounding online programmers like Netflix, YouTube and, as of late, Facebook, some TV networks may be showing signs of concern in regards to waning audiences. However, some have figured out a more creative solution – why not work with online broadcasters to generate more hype for programming
That’s exactly what HBO and Amazon have done as of late, “sampling” some of its latest series through Facebook with offers of full episodes and clips. Digiday recently reported on this new business practice, which seems to be playing off pretty well.
Last month, Amazon premiered the debut episode of its new series Catastrophe through Facebook, which can be found on its official page. HBO followed suit a week later with full episodes of two of its newest series, including Ballersfeaturing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the political comedy The Brink, featuring Tim Robbins and Jack Black.
TV networks have advertised online before, even offering exclusive programming that ties in with original shows. But with “sampling,” a new kind of buzz can be built around premiering shows, possibly drawing in more audience members with a “taste of what’s to come,” as it were.
At one point, YouTube was the ideal partner for this practice, but with Facebook’s recent push into video – and its teaming up with a number of companies and programmers in the process – a new competitor could be on the rise.
“Right now, the world of video content distribution is right on the edge of total chaos,” said James Nail, principal analyst for Forrester Research. He explained that a two-minute clip of a show just doesn’t cut it anymore, and more exposure of a program is needed to hook potential audience.
It’s not just a draw for television programming, either. The likes of Ballers and The Brink could easily attract viewers to HBO’s separate Now service, which enables viewers to tune in to programming for a low monthly fee, without the need for a cable connection. (Of course, cable viewers don’t hurt either, since HBO is still a primary service on Xfinity and DirecTV.)
Such a practice could easily increase interest in digital video services, along with regular programming. “Networks need to evolve at a pace that will find consumers as quickly as their behaviors change,” said Jim Marsh, vice president of digital and social media for HBO. “Digital sampling is an effective way for us to introduce our programming to our current and potential subscribers. Ultimately, we’re trying to create new fans.”
Brannon added, “It’s part of an overall strategy to include households that are excluded. Get people hooked and get people subscribing. I don’t think it’s going to result in a heck of a lot of pay-TV adoption. It’s a vehicle for OTT adoption.”
With Facebook’s recent expansion of video services, it could easily be as competitive as YouTube on this front. “We are always looking for innovative ways to work with our partners, and in this case, we had a new opportunity to work with Facebook to leverage the massive reach of their platform,” said Marsh. “Facebook has made some significant changes to their video capabilities in recent months, which made it possible for us to do this.”
Facebook also seems to have better reach when it comes to individual pieces of content. “The thing that (Facebook) offers that YouTube doesn’t is an (algorithmic) feed that people check in on multiple times a day,” said Nail. “YouTube, it’s still, ‘Gee, I’ve got to go to YouTube and search for stuff and maybe I’ll stumble onto something new.'”
Marsh put it more into business terms. “The digital video ecosystem is so interconnected that there is no single best way to get exposure. It’s important that we work closely with all of our partners to reach people on multiple fronts.”
So far, the strategy seems to be working. Ballers has managed to accumulate 5.5 million views since its debut, while The Brink is nearing 900,000 viewers. (That’s mostly due to the popularity of Johnson, who helped drive Furious 7 and San Andreas to big box-office numbers this year.)
Consumers who didn’t catch the episodes, however, will still be able to do so for a few weeks. “Facebook is an incredibly important strategic partner of ours, and we have a history of collaborating in innovative ways, including the Game of Thrones red carpet live stream earlier this year,” said Marsh.
However, there are no plans to introduce other episodes to other social video platforms…at least, “at this time,” according to Marsh.
A lot of buzz has been stirring around Nintendo’s plans for mobile game releases, ever since it announced that it was partnering with DeNA to bring some of its game characters to iOS and Android devices earlier this year. However, up until this point, just what kind of approach the company was taking was unknown – but at least now, consumers have a somewhat clearer picture.
Speaking with shareholders this weekend, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata didn’t quite nail down just how much the company’s mobile games would cost, but he did provide details on what kind of approach they would take, emphasizing on “free-to-start.”
Iwata did state that he was concerned about “games with a one-time payment system have not been doing a great job on smart devices,” thus creating a free-to-play style system that would benefit both the parent company and the partners at DeNA. But don’t expect one that other games use, as, according to Iwata, “we do not want to use the free-to-play terminology that implies that you can play games free-of-charge.”
So where does the term “free-to-start” come from Iwata said that “this term more aptly describes that at the beginning you can start to play for free.”
What this means is that games are likely going to come with in-game purchases, whether it’s unlocking levels, characters or other features that players will want to take advantage of. Again, no specifics were given, but it sounds like that’s the business strategy the team wants to go with. The implication also seems to be that after a certain point you won’t be able to play further in the game without paying in some fashion. This starts to sound much more like a free demo of the game rather than the free-to-play style common on mobile, which is perhaps why Nintendo is wisely insisting on using different terminology. Setting expectations properly is important for success, and Nintendo seems to be careful about managing expectations for its mobile games.
However, overspending probably won’t be an issue, as the company’s previously released Pokemon Rumble World proved with a $40 spending limit.
Iwata closed the Q & A by stating that there won’t be too many mobile games coming from the company “from this year to the next,” instead focusing on a smaller group of games based on popular franchises – the “quality, not quantity” approach. And that may be best for a company that’s just getting started in the mobile game business.
We’ll see just what Nintendo has planned when its first mobile release drops later this year.
Minecon 2015, which took place this weekend in London, was a big hit for fans of the popular Microsoft-owned Minecraft franchise, whether it was riding around on a specially built ride, taking part in a number of panels or, of course, playing the game to great content.
However, the show had its fair share of surprises, including one that’s going to give the series a piece of narrative for the first time – through the forthcoming Telltale Games episodic series Minecraft: Story Mode.
The game will break away from the open-world presentation that the original Minecraft has become known for, instead focusing on a series of characters as they attempt to save the world from a diabolically evil force. Leading the pack is Jesse, a new hero that will take the place of the normal Minecraft star, Steve.
Mojang posted the story description below, and it’s definitely a change of pace from the usual Minecraft fare:
“Players will control protagonist Jesse throughout the season, as portrayed by actor Patton Oswalt. Jesse and his group of friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone; four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon. The Order are the very best at what they do: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect. While at EnderCon, Jesse and his friends discover that something is wrong… something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and they must set out on a journey to find The Order of the Stone if they are to save their world from oblivion.”
A story may be a shock to the system for some Minecraft fans, but there’s no doubt that it fits right in with what Telltale Games has been producing as of late, including other episodic titles like Tales From the Borderlands, Game of Thrones (based on the HBO series) and The Walking Dead, among others.
Plus, Telltale has gone to great lengths to give Minecraft: Story Mode distinctive voices, hiring on a number of popular actors to fill the roles. Jesse will be played by comedian/actor Patton Oswalt, while others, like Brian Poeshn, Ashley Johnson, Martha Plimpton, Corey Feldman, Billy West and Paul Reubens will be included as well – a far cry from the usual speechless Minecraft setting.
“We’ve worked closely with the amazing team at Mojang to ensure this story is a natural fit for the Minecraft world fans already know and love,” said Kevin Bruner, CEO and co-founder of Telltale Games. “As Jesse, players will steer their own path through a tale of adventure and survival; all brought to life by an all-star cast. Through Telltale’s choice-based gameplay and a story spanning from the Nether to the Farlands, the End, and beyond, we can’t wait for fans to experience this new take on the beloved world of Minecraft.”
“The interactive storytellers at Telltale are giving players the chance to explore their own unique interpretation of the Minecraft universe,” said Owen Hill, Chief Word Officer at Mojang. “They’ve crafted a story that follows the logic of Minecraft, but still manages to feel original. It’s actually pretty funny too. And the pig is adorable. We’re super excited about players digging deeper into the world of Minecraft: Story Mode later this year.”
Whether the game will be a success is unknown, as it will definitely take more of a Telltale “choose your own adventure” style of approach instead of the open-world “build your own world” mantra that Minecraft has become known for. However, it should be an entertaining little jaunt into the series universe, with the superb storytelling style that Telltale has become known for over the years.
The game will release later this year for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, and mobile devices. The debut trailer is below, and really sets the tone for just how different – but fun – this new adventure will be.
Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is the embodiment of what can be accomplished by embracing the DIY aesthetic. Armed with a $7,000 budget, he made the full-length movie “El Mariachi” (1992), serving as writer, producer, director, cinematographer, editor and special effects rigger. The film scored a distribution deal with Columbia Pictures, and he parlayed it into a high-profile Hollywood career, accumulating a long list of credits that includes “From Dusk to Dawn” and the “Sin City” and “Spy Kids” franchises, while continuing to wear multiple creative hats, including sound re-recording mixer and visual effects supervisor.
Now, Rodriguez is doing his part to bring that type of opportunity to the masses with The People’s Network, a new digital platform launched last week by his English-language cable entertainment channel El Rey Network. Designed as an outlet for people to showcase their talents through artwork, ideas and short films, it kicks off with The Epic Summer Movie Contest, sponsored by Corona Extra, which calls on fans to design the ultimate movie poster, illustrating how they embrace summer.
“For years, young creatives and filmmakers have been approaching Robert, asking for a way into ‘the system,’” said Kurt Volk, VP and creative director of El Rey Network, in an email to VideoInk. “These are people who don’t know anyone in Hollywood, who have no connections, but who have fresh, creative ideas and just need a way to get their foot in the door. The People’s Network was Robert’s way of connecting these people with more established creators and providing a platform for their work to be seen.”
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.
eSports have come a long way over the past few years, generating millions of dollars through tournaments, gaining more viewers online than most popular sporting events, and even making their way to television with Heroes of the Dorm on ESPN 2.Later this month, they’ll be headed to the big-screen with the movie All Work All Play, which follows a number of popular players around the world.
The movie, which will show in select theaters on July 21, will feature the film, along with a first look at a new mode in Activision Blizzard’s StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, as well as a Q & A with the film’s director, Patrick Creadon, along with the head of the ESL gaming league and several popular players.
However, we were able to sit down with Creadon before the event to discuss a number of topics surrounding the film, as well as how far eSports has come.
First off, what do you think about the state of eSports in general It’s certainly come a long way over the past few years, hasn’t it?
When we started this project 18 months ago, in early 2014, I knew very little about eSports. I had a vague understanding that some people played video games professionally, but beyond that I knew very little. What we quickly came to appreciate was that eSports was very much a mainstream industry throughout much of the world, especially South Korea, China, and Europe. What’s been most exciting for us as we made the film was to see that eSports is finally having its moment here in America. It’s poised to become every bit as mainstream as golf, NASCAR, the NHL…you name it. With All Work All Play, what kind of focus did you want to take in terms of eSports The players, the vibe
As we were making the film, I started thinking of eSports as an entire galaxy, and inside that galaxy, there are hundreds of planets. These planets consist of various video games, different tournaments, different video game leagues, etc… and instead of making a film about this whole galaxy that is eSports, we decided early on to focus on one planet, so to speak. In other words, we made the movie about one tournament, several different teams, one primary video game, (League of Legends) and by doing so we got to know a small group of characters very, very well. The main “star” of the film is a tournament called the Intel Extreme Masters, which is the longest running international video game tournament in the world.
What kind of players do you follow in All Work All Play?
We shot the film on three different continents, Asia, Europe, and North America. And along the way, we captured a behind-the-scenes look at some of the best professional League of Legends teams in the world. We fell in love with the GE Tigers from South Korea — and who wouldn’t, they are easily one of the most charismatic and popular professional teams in the eSports world. They also happen to be extremely good at League of Legends. In fact, at the time we were following them, they were considered by most to be the best League of Legends team in the world. We also spent quite a bit of time with Fnatic outside of Cologne, Germany. Fnatic and their team leader xPeke, are considered by many to be the first real League of Legends superstars. xPeke and his teammates were very welcoming and gave us unrestricted access to their world. And it was during this shoot that we met one of the brightest young standouts on the League of Legends scene — Rekkles. But perhaps more than anyone, we really got to know Cloud9 and Team Solomid (TSM), the two top North American teams in League of Legends. These two teams offered a great storyline for us, because not only were they fighting to prove themselves on the international stage, they very much wanted to prove that the North American region is every bit as good as teams from the rest of the world.
What was probably the biggest challenge in putting the film together?
This was a very challenging film to make for several reasons. First of all, we shot the movie literally all around the world including stops in Seoul, South Korea; Shenzhen, China; Taipei, Taiwan; several trips to Cologne, Germany; Toronto, and San Jose. We’ve never made a film on such a grand scale before, and it was really fun and really exhilarating to do so. But boy was it a lot of work!
Another challenge for us was we decided early on that we wanted to release the film and to do so quickly. Let me explain: typically for our other films we shoot for a year, we edit for a year, and we do the festival and release over the third year. For this film we condensed all of that into 18 months. The reason we chose an accelerated release schedule is simple – the story is very timely, our target audience (gamers) is growing rapidly, and our distributor wanted this to be a big theatrical release over the summer. So from the time we shot the final tournament in Poland on March 15 to the time we locked picture on June 15, it was only 90 days. Yet when I watch the film now, I can’t believe how quickly and how thoroughly we were able to tell the story. We wouldn’t have been able to do all of this without our excellent edit team — editors Daniel Clark and Nick Andert and our assistant editor, Tiffany Dixon.
The final challenge was maybe the hardest one, which was trying to tell a story about eSports that on the one hand gamers would love and embrace, and at the same time the non-gamers could also enjoy when they see it. It was challenging to do so, largely because the game we feature in our film (League of Legends) is an extremely complex and fast-moving game. For those of you who have never played League of Legends, imagine combining the teamwork that exists within the NBA, the strategy of chess, and the speed of NASCAR, and you’ll begin to understand what it’s like to play. Translating that story to a general audience was very challenging, but also very fun and rewarding for our team.
What do you think will be the most exciting factor that fans will see in All Work All Play when it makes its debut in theaters later this month?
I think what never ceases to amaze me and what I think is one of the best things about the movie is just the sheer size and intensity of the fan base surrounding eSports. We’ve grown accustomed to walking into an arena and seeing 15,000 fans screaming their lungs out at a hockey game. What we see in the film are audiences just as big and just as intense, rooting for their favorite eSports teams. I have no doubt that eSports will become a mainstream pursuit in America over the course of the next few years if it hasn’t done so already.
Tell us the process of putting a film like All Work All Playtogether. You worked with a lot of talent in this film.
For All Work All Play, we used the same process that we do for any of our films. You look for a great story, then you look for great characters within that story, and you slowly, day by day, earn their trust. By the time you’ve been working together for awhile, the people in front of the camera start to forget about the cameras and the microphones and they just continue to live their lives like they always do. That’s when we do our best work: when we can become a fly on the wall in the lives of really interesting people doing really cool things. That’s when we know that we’ll be able to tell a really good story, and that’s what we did in this film. We’re really excited to share this with audiences later this summer.
Do you think that eSports is big enough that a number of documentaries could cover it? Like films based on certain events, or perhaps even certain teams?
As I mentioned before, eSports is really a whole galaxy of games and personalities and tournaments and sponsors and fans. In a way, eSports is very much like traditional sports. It’s just that the games that these people play are on computers. And I think we’re going to start to see a lot more storytelling about this community and about the people who live in it. In fact, it’s interesting to note that while we were making the film, eSports appeared on the cover of the Sunday New York Times on three different occasions. That’s a lot of mainstream press coverage for something that most people in our country had never heard of before this year.
How great was it working alongside Michal Blicharz and a number of eSports talents?
Following Michal Blicharz for a year was really a blast. He’s a very funny, very passionate guy from Poland who loves to prank people. He pushes his team very hard, striving for excellence, and he cries all the time when he gets tired or emotionally drained. He’s a big pussycat wrapped in the shell of a lion. And he was a wonderful character to provide the backbone to our story.
Finally, now that All Work All Play is headed to theaters, do you have another project lined up? Would you like to make another eSports-related movie as a follow-up?
There are several projects that we’re looking at right now — nothing that we’re quite ready to announce at the moment, but I would love to tell another story about this group of people. I grew up in a family that loved games. My father especially was a big fan of games and friendly competitions. In fact, the first movie that we made, a movie called Wordplay, which is about the New York Times crossword puzzle and people who are really good at solving it, was largely inspired by my father and my family.
All Work All Play is absolutely cut from the same cloth. It’s a story, at its core, about a group of people who have a passion for something — in this case video games. They took their passion and they created a community around it by hosting tournaments, giving away prizes, and attracting more and more people to this love of theirs. This whole idea of eSports has only been around for 15 years now. A lot of the people in our film were there at the beginning when eSports started. I’m fascinated to see where this is going to go down the road, and I’m quite certain that I’ll be spending time with this group of people in the future.
