Deep Silver’s Building Up A New ‘Homefront’

This spring season is already seeing a lot of big titles set to arrive, but one that’s sure to be a hit with shooter fans is Deep Silver’s Homefront: The Revolution. It’s a fast-paced action game that takes place in an alternate world where Korea became a world power and took occupancy of the U.S. Its cooperative multiplayer components, combined with a moody atmosphere and solid controls, should make it a big hit.

The publisher, Deep Silver, has already pushed some elaborate promotional campaigns into action. One involved a special 6-hour Twitch event that took place last week, where a number of streaming superstars (like Angry Joe, Amie Lynn, and DansGaming) worked together in the game’s cooperative play. This event was hosted by Adam Sessler, and special behind-the-scenes content was livestreamed through Periscope. The other introduces a fictitious technology company called APeX, which is this new world’s Apple, but also develops military gear helps the Korean army come to power.

[a]listdaily had a chance to chat with senior manager of marketing and communications, Will Powers, about these promotions, as well as the challenges of building an all-new Homefront game from the ground up.

Will-320x320Does Homefront: The Revolution pick up where the original game left off years ago?

It’s important to distinguish that Homefront: The Revolution is not Homefront 2. When the IP was acquired, we did an entire narrative reboot of the franchise, and the only thing that remained at its core was that North Korea had occupied the United States. For the purposes of Homefront: The Revolution, the events that took place in THQ’s Homefront never happened.

What challenges did the development team face when it came to establishing a new storyline?

Because the development team was building this world from the ground up, it was less of a challenge and more of a breath of fresh air. They had the liberating sense of being able to take the story in whatever direction they wanted without the confines of playing into someone else’s fiction. The results are an incredibly rich and deep lore for this universe dating back to the 1950s.

What new gameplay features are Dambuster Studios implementing into this Homefront? Will it have a huge online multiplayer emphasis?

The gameplay, and just general expansiveness of the world, will be on a completely different level than the original Homefront. For example, as THQ’s game was a 5-hour linear FPS, and we’re touting a 30+ hour open-world, narrative-driven single-player campaign. In addition to the rich fiction established in the single player, we’ll also launch with a cooperative multiplayer mode (Resistance Mode) where up to four players will take part in bespoke hit-and-run strike scenarios. The developers have also committed to a year’s worth of free multiplayer support, which equates to doubling the amount of multiplayer content available to players. And, as I said… all for free!

Looks like this past week’s livestream for Homefront: The Revolution was a complete success. How did the team at Deep Silver put it together, and how did you select the streamers?

This event has been my baby, but actually really only came together in the past month. Obviously, we recognize that Twitch is an essential medium for communicating directly to our fans, and we did so by getting the highest quality product and talent in front of them for a 6-hour showcase. “Homefront LIVE” rocketed Deep Silver’s Twitch channel from 20,000 lifetime views to just shy of 1,000,000 in one stream! The focus, when it came to casting talent, was all about personalities, but not just individual ones. We needed ones that could play well with each other. That, of course, is because the event was made to show off the cooperative multiplayer mode. So if these streamers didn’t have chemistry with each other, then it was all for naught. Long story, short–amazing people and personalities like Angry Joe, Rooster Teeth, Adam Sessler, and Wes The Editor made this event what it was.

What is APeX, and how did you come up with a fake company promotion?

What sets Homefront as an IP apart from other shooters in the space is the premise and the fiction of the universe. There is something horrifying about the thought of being an oppressed population within your own country, and the game doubles down on these fears by making the city and the world feel “familiar yet alien.” APeX is the company that has allowed North Korea to establish itself as a world superpower in our fiction, so it only makes sense that we put this company and this lore front and center in our marketing campaign.

Is it true your team actually sent a number of phones to members of the press and social media to hype APeX?

Short answer. Yes. Working phones were shipped out to select press, tech and gaming, with no indication that they were tied to Homefront: The Revolution. On the phone was one video file which would send them down a breadcrumb trail to realize that this all circles back to the game. Hilariously though, the return address was Pyongyang, DPRK, so a lot of people were really intrigued.

What has the feedback been from the recent multiplayer beta? Does your team feel it has the potential for eSports?

I feel like eSports might be a bit of a far cry from what we’re offering here since we’re focused on cooperative multiplayer. Despite that, people have been loving what they’ve played, and in the recent event we did with Twitch, Homefront LIVE, the game’s co-op proved to be thrilling and exciting with the competitive twist we put on it for the purposes of hosting a live tournament. I guess we’ll have to just wait and see how the market responds.

Homefront: The Revolution arrives on May 17th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

KontrolFreek Explains Why It’s Offering ESports College Scholarships

KontrolFreek has relied on console eSports pros to help sell its controller peripherals for the past seven years. Now the company is investing in the next generation of pro gamers through a new Collegiate eSports Scholarship program. The company will distribute $20,000 across 10 recipients over the course of the 2016/17 academic year.

This program is the first of its kind, as it’s available to any player in the U.S. or Canada, at any school, competing on any game. KontrolFreek’s scholarship is not a prize that players can win in a tournament or a tuition grant given to players by the school. It’s a merit-based award available exclusively to competitors in the collegiate eSports space. In order to be considered, applicants must prove that they are members of a collegiate eSports team and plan to continue their education for another year. Other considerations include grade point average, extracurricular activities, awards and honors, and personal goals.

Ashish Mistry, president and CEO of KontrolFreek, discusses this new program and explains the company’s game plan for eSports in this exclusive interview.

Ashish_Mistry_kontrolfreekWhat impact have you seen college scholarships offered by universities and developers like Riot and Blizzard have on eSports to date?

Organized collegiate gaming and associated scholarships are relatively new, so what we’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the scholarship programs are gaining a lot of attention, and there’s still a long way to go to create opportunities for players and brands. However, we are seeing some traction.

For instance, Heroes of the Dorm is a very well-known collegiate eSports competition because it is shown on ESPN. Broadcasting the competition on a mainstream sports network validates the industry and the competition itself, and also exposes the tournament to new audiences. Additionally, brands have a chance to sponsor and see real ROI from participation, because of these expanded audiences.

What were your goals in launching this eSports scholarship program?

Our main goal with the eSports scholarship program was to provide a truly merit-based and publisher-agnostic scholarship to student gamers. We saw that there wasn’t anything like it on the market, and the other scholarship offerings severely limited students’ chances at receiving financial support for gaming. To win a scholarship in a tournament, they have to beat out hundreds of other student gamers, and universities are only giving out scholarships for players of particular games, specifically League of Legends. We looked at existing programs and thought, “What about the DOTA 2 players? What about LoL players going to community colleges?” We saw a need, and we stepped up to fill it.

How does it differ from other scholarship options available through eSports?

Before our program, there were only two types of scholarships available: tournament prizes or university team grants. All of the competitions and scholarships available were game-specific. We wanted to create a scholarship that cast a broad net over gamers, so that virtually anyone playing college eSports could apply.

Our scholarship is purely based on merit, not off of how well you can beat other teams in one specific game or what university you go to. Students competitively gaming for any accredited university in North America are eligible to apply to our scholarship. This opens up the opportunity to a huge amount of students who previously couldn’t be recognized for their contributions to their school and to the industry.

What impact do you hope this program has on the greater eSports ecosystem?

We hope the KontolFreek scholarship draws more attention to the what’s happening en masse. It’s one thing for a game publisher to put up money for winners of a competition. But it says something about the opportunity and validity of the collegiate eSports industry that a brand is willing to award academic scholarships to any type of gamer.

We also know that the gaming industry tends to hire from within the gaming industry. Ex-pro gamers retire and work for gaming brands or publishers all the time. But the industry is growing almost faster than anyone can keep up. Our hope is to keep students active in the eSports space and focused on academics at the same time. It might open up doors for students to funnel into eSports businesses. Most of these players are sharp, smart and motivated. Those are the kinds of people we want to support, and those are the people we want with us in the trenches of the gaming industry.

How does investing money now in these players open up opportunities for your brand down the line?

Having spent the last seven years building authentic relationships with millions of gamers, KontrolFreek knows that providing gamers with opportunities and a voice can have a direct impact on our brand. And we hope this resonates with other large brands and pulls them into the sport.

Are you looking at this as a new annual investment or a one-off experiment?

We are committed to this program as part of our corporate giving strategy moving forward, and based on initial interest from applicants, we are also looking at options to expand internationally in the coming years.

How has KontrolFreek used eSports to market its brand over the years?

We’ve been involved in eSports since our inception in 2009, and have strong relationships with pro teams and individual players alike. The core of our involvement stems from our tournament-sanctioned performance gaming gear that truly helps gamers improve their results. Obviously, that’s been great for KontrolFreek from a marketing perspective, because top players use our products to compete and win.

What impact are the increased prize pools across games like Halo, Call of Duty, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat having on your business?

Increasing prize pools are a direct result of the greater awareness and attention that gaming communities are currently receiving. We know firsthand that the industry is growing, and that our budgets will increase as the opportunity increases. We also know our place in the gaming world, and intend to continue our partnerships with leading brands like Activision and Bungie to further grow these prize pools and opportunities.

What do you feel console eSports can learn from the much larger PC eSports community?

The console community can learn immensely from the groundwork and history in PC-centric eSports. While there are differences in how we compete, the “why” of competition is universal—and so too are many of the tactics required to scale. Specifically, I believe team and league structure are critical, as well as having a structured “farm system” and athlete management. I also firmly believe that the inclusion of large brands and their ability to effectively deploy marketing dollars at scale will be critical to a sustained eSports community.

How ‘Dark Souls III’ Promotion Got Players To Embrace The Pain

The Dark Souls series is famous for its exceptional difficulty, matched only by its spectacular graphics that feature giant, fearsome creatures. Releasing on April 12th in the U.S., Dark Souls III marks the conclusion of a trilogy that’s marked by a lot of pain and frustration, which is exactly what fans love about the series.

The road to promoting the finale has been epic to match the game’s scope. Here are some of the biggest highlights to come out from the past year.

Blood Runs Free At E3

Dark Souls III made its official debut at E3 2015 with a thundering cinematic trailer that teased some of the sprawling ruins and gigantic creatures players could look forward to (the giant that rises is the Lord of Cinder). Although the trailer was relatively short, it did manage to stir a tremendous amount of excitement, especially when fans learned from the press release that it would be the “final episode” of the series. As the conclusion of a trilogy, the game would no doubt be bigger and more difficult than ever imagined before. No wonder fans were so eager for its release.

Although trailers are great, nothing makes an impression quite like a fountain of blood. The Bandai Namco E3 booth featured a massive Dark Souls III statue, with blackened blood flowing up from an impaled creature.

Bandai Namco kept the buzz going a few months later at Gamescom, where a new trailer showcased some of the painfully difficult gameplay. Media was also given hands-on demonstrations of the game. Not only did this provide a deeper look into the world of Dark Souls III, but it instilled a sense of confidence among fans that the game was on track to release the following year.

Illuminating The Darkness

Dark Souls III hosted a number of contests to help promote the game for both new and returning players. One of the most prominent is the Story Trailer Contest, where the community was challenged to create a video detailing their interpretations of the rather abstruse plot from the first two games. The grand prize winner, received $10,000 while the runner-up got an impressive life-sized statue of the Red Knight that puts both the 15.75-inch statue in the $490 Prestige Edition (an Amazon exclusive) and 10-inch figure from the $136 Collector’s Edition to shame. Third place winners had to make do with the considerably smaller, but still impressive, Lord of Cinder statue that’s included in the Prestige Edition.

As Dark Souls III came closer to release, Bandai Namco hosted a new sweepstakes that even promoted its promotions. Contestants were asked to complete a list of tasks such as commenting on videos, including the winner from the Story Trailer Contest; leaving a Dark Souls-style message on the official Facebook page for newcomers to enjoy; submit pictures of themselves doing a “Praise the Sun” pose; submitting pictures of themselves drinking an Estus (a gold health potion); and finally—convincing a friend to play Dark Souls and providing photo evidence of the momentous event. The company chose 12 winners at random, and two of them received a Collector’s Edition while the other ten got Season Pass redemption codes.

Dark Souls Goes Mobile

Some would consider a Dark Souls mobile game a dream come true, so that’s exactly what Bandai Namco and GameStop provided fans. Slashy Souls, a 2D free-to-play 16-bit side-scrolling adventure game inspired by Dark Souls III, released on March 1st. In addition to the sheer joy of being repeatedly beaten down by powerful enemies and traps from your mobile device, players could share their in-game scores and win prizes. Not only did the mobile game provide an interactive way to promote Dark Souls III, it drove awareness for GameStop’s exclusive collectible bonfire keychain, given to those that pre-ordered the game.

A New Vision Of Horror

It’s very fitting that the director of horror movies like Hostel and Cabin Fever would turn out to be a Dark Souls fan. Eli Roth produced an animated short inspired by Dark Souls titled, The Witches, which released on YouTube on March 30th. It features an original story set in the world of Dark Souls, where a knight finds himself in a deadly situation when he comes across a trio of witches.

When Dark Souls Goes Retro

It turns out the Eli Roth trailer was just the start of fake Dark Souls movie franchise. On April 1st, Bandai Namco released a trailer for Dark Souls III – The Movie, coming soon on VHS. It was an amusing April Fools’ Day joke, complete with ’70s and ’80- era style and VHS-like skips, saturated color, and video noise. It was the perfect start to the month leading up the game’s release in the U.S. on April 12th.

4 Ways Facebook’s Latest Initiatives Will Affect Marketers

It’s been a busy week for Facebook, as the company has introduced a number of initiatives in the hopes of drawing in more content creators and brands. Among the four biggest components are:

Video

The company first posted a blog earlier this week discussing the new video features being added. Specifically, a new mobile tab was added to the Facebook mobile app, making it easier to look up user videos. It also provides a huge upgrade to livestreaming by allowing users to broadcast to Groups and events.

What does this mean for marketers? Facebook is quite serious about expanding its video features, and expanding on experiences and possibilities for both content creators and brands. In fact, a lot more brands have taken interest in Facebook’s native video format, giving it a lead over YouTube.

With these new features, there’s potential for reaching out to new audiences, especially through events and fan groups monitored by a marketing team.

Speaking with Buzzfeed, company co-founder Mark Zuckerberg noted, “If you’re a public figure, the audience is unprecedented. If you’re Jimmy Fallon and want to go live, it’s not really worth your time unless you can reach an audience that’s similar to what you can reach on TV.” And while those numbers matter in aggregate for people like Fallon, they may even matter more on an individual level for regular people. “If you’re a person that just wants to share with your friends, it helps to have your friends there.”

Canvas

Last month, Facebook released its new Canvas experience for its mobile app, enabling advertisers to bring products to life like never before. It’s the latest push in an effort to reach out to its billions of daily users, creating a unique experience instead of a traditional ad format.

What does this mean for marketers? Canvas allows marketers to become more creative with their advertising, putting together experiences that expand beyond the usual “banner ad” or “auto-playing video.”

However, it still needs some time to be effective, according to VentureBeat. The format is currently “not ready for the agencies of their advertiser clients looking to use it to drive direct, measured results.” However, they won’t have to wait long to see these results come to life, as it could reach that potential in just three-to-six months.

That said, impressions are positive, as some consider Canvas to be a “cool new toy” for agencies to try out.

Improvements To Native Ads

Some companies have been hard at work trying to make native ads work on Facebook, but the company’s recent changes to its branded content policy could make things a little bit easier. With the changes, verified Pages will now be better enabled for sharing content, even though some of it will still be blocked if it’s too promotional for its own good.

“This update is something that media companies, public figures, influencers, and marketers have been asking for, as branded content is a growing and evolving part of the media landscape,” the blog (written by Facebook product manager Clare Rubin and Nick Grudin, VP of Partnerships) notes. “People will now be connected to more of the content they care most about on Facebook as publishers and influencers gain an incentive to share more quality content—of all kinds—with their fans. We know that many of our partners have existing partnership deals with marketers, and this update gives them the ability to extend their branded content business onto Facebook.”

What does this mean for marketers? Provided it can produce its branded content the right way and utilize video features for a more effective campaign, then there’s no reason why a company can’t find success using native ads on Facebook.

“The marketer will be notified, can access post-level insights, and will have the option of sharing and boosting the post. We focused on designing an easy tagging experience to create a simple and streamlined workflow for both publishers and marketers,” the blog also states.

Messenger

Facebook’s Messenger service could be seeing the most innovative push of all, making it easier to access its 900 million monthly active users.

The service now supports custom QR codes, like the ones Snapchat utilizes, where users can link up with one another and begin conversations. This lets users find and communicate with people more simply, even when they’re in the middle of watching an event or livestream.

What does this mean for marketers? While the full marketability hasn’t been nailed down yet, the social possibilities are endless. After all, we’re talking about a vast audience of people with a stronger way to communicate with one another. Imagine putting together a promotional campaign for a band or film where fans can connect with one another and talk about how excited they are. It worked for Twitter and yesterday’s launch of the Star Wars: Rogue One trailer.

It’ll probably be some time before we see a campaign that effectively utilizes Messenger’s social features, but the potential is definitely there. It has to be done right, so perhaps the cautious approach is the best way to go.

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Treyarch Studios Delivers ESports Drama With ‘Call of Duty’

The Call of Duty World League Stage 1 finals are about to begin as the best teams in North America battle it out for their share of $250,000.

David Vonderhaar, Treyarch Studios’ designer director, is standing front and center at the ESL studios in Burbank, California, taking in all the action, navigating the intimate space with an infrared scope on determining next-level fixes with the production staff, and players alike.

Although his job since 2005 as designer for six COD installments is to make one of the most popular game franchises of all time consistently better than the previous version, he’s making mental notes on how to make the eSports experience just as great as the gameplay—where the players and caster desks are positioned, and how it affects the overall spectating experience both in person, and at home. Such is the life of a creative who makes more maps than Magellan.

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“I get fascinated by the process side, and turning it into one that’s cyclical, focusing on the next important thing we could be concentrating and improving on,” Vonderhaar tells [a]listdaily. “Having that direct feedback from the community is important. All you can really do as a developer, and as a human being, is just try really hard to make things better. … Even if it’s just one more thing you can do.”

Publisher Activision’s sci-fi military shooter Black Ops 3 has been the top-grossing console game since it was released in November—it generated over $550 million in worldwide sales in its first 72 hours. In recent months, they’ve taken dead aim on weekly live broadcasts, regional competitive events, and their largest prize pool yet with more than $3 million on the line.

They also launched Live Event Viewer this month on PlayStation 4 to let players watch COD World League matches from within the game; there’s also community-focused programming, like developer-hosted livestreams, that complements the first year of the league.

Jay Puryear, Treyarch’s director of brand development, says their three COD World League regions—Europe, North America, Australia/New Zealand—each have their own unique style.

“Looking at all of these regions, there’s really a growth potential for all of us from an eSports perspective,” Puryear said. “With the Live Event Viewer, we are noticing viewership growth from across the world. We’re all pushing each other. We see the potential. We see where we want to go. … For us, it’s about growing that engagement and giving eSports a platform through not only live events, but in-game to ultimately help grow the audience.”

The combination of production value and spectator tools, like seeing the silhouette of players through buildings, is delivering the drama, and really opening up viewership to non-traditional eSports players.

Vonderhaar, who’s largely responsible for the development of multiplayer in the COD franchise, joined [a]listdaily to discuss how eSports has impacted the franchise.

 

What is the best part about attending an eSports event in person? What do you learn?

For us on the development side, there’s a good consortium of people inside our building at Treyarch Studios that really are super in tune with what’s happening when we take the game, and it gets played on this level. It’s a lot of fun for us. It’s a lot of fun to see the game get exposed to lots of people. In general, you get this great swelling—like all the streams are on the TVs back at the office. There’s enthusiasm to see all this hard work over the last three years come to these moments.

What have been your chief takeaways from COD World League?

The business of eSports is a pretty fascinating thing, right? But at the end of the day, we have to work on the game. We have to make the game super competitive. We have to keep that playing field fair and balanced. We have to think about all of the things that go into letting the game become a spectator experience, with features like our COD Caster, which is a spectating view. The live-event viewer that lets you stream inside the game. Even the custom game setup, and how people can set up to play competitively in the first place. So all of our energy from the business side is translated into the development side, because that’s what we do. There’s really impassioned conversations about ‘where this could go, where you need to be, and what that the roadmap looks like.’ From a practical point of view, on a day-to-day basis, you can get caught up and overwhelmed in sort of the fun, business side of things. But you’re making a game. You have to be focused on the game, and that’s what we do on our side of the fence.

There’s so much competition in the market. As a designer, how are you differentiating yourself from the pack to own a large share of the gaming audience?

Call of Duty is a really big, popular franchise with a heavy, passionate install base. Right off the bat, we have a great opportunity to take that audience and bring them into the eSports world, and show them what the eSports side can look like. And as big as the eSports side of it is for Call of Duty, there are still a lot of people who perhaps are not familiar with it. Over the years, we’ve been able to do things to help grow that audience, and build awareness, and exposure to it. But as developers, you’re really focused on just making a great, competitive game, and a great competitive game can be a really great eSport. That’s how we approach that problem. You can focus on how large numbers of people could enjoy a game competitively, and how the game services this broad, potential audience of players but also maintains its competitive nature. There’s a constant tendency, and a very healthy push-and-pull on the development side between things that are fun for everybody, and things that are fun for competitive. And they’re not always the same things, and I think that’s the design challenge. And that’s what makes things fun because design is about solving problems.

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How crucial has eSports been to engaging with the Call of Duty audience?

What you get from eSports and engagement is this new opportunity to put new engagement loops inside the game. We’ve been doing different types of engagement loops from a game design point of view for a very long time: How you level up; who you pick to unlock; which types of abilities you select as a player to play as; what type of challenges are available; how we do double XP, double weapon XP, double crypto key. All of these things are engagement-driving loops, but eSports gives you this new thing because there’s this awesome cadence of stuff that happens on a routine basis when you’re doing an eSports season like the COD World League. It gives one more tool in your designer’s tool box. And now, we can say ‘OK, this is the eSports event driver, this is what we’re getting people to pay attention to this week.’ For us, it’s great because you can combine that with 10-plus years of experience working on the game franchise.

How has the development style changed from the first Call of Duty till today for this new generation of gamers?

The new generation of gamers, from one point of view, like a lot tighter gameplay loop. They like the game very, very fast. Over the years, on the development side, we’ve been trying to figure out how to keep the game as fast as you can to engage those players. But also, very fast games can be difficult to spectate. There’s this constant push-and-pull and balance trying to figure out ‘how to make a game that’s fun to watch that’s also fun to play.’ And that’s what you’ve been seeing over the years as the game gets faster, but also maintains the integrity about how to watch that experience. … Things happen in Call of Duty in microseconds, in some ways. Like the COD Caster feature: with eight players in the battle space, and only spectating one, you have to have this information so that the Casters have the spectator predict where the action is going to materialize. It’s been fun to think about that problem.

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What are the current challenges you’re trying to overcome? How are you improving gameplay?

As an eSport, there’s a desire to want to contain the available amount of content accessible. From a development challenge point of view, it’s ‘how do you build compelling content that can be usable and competitive,’ but also appeal to the rest of the population? One of the challenges for us has always been ‘what modes are we playing; what are the rules of those modes; what’s allowed to be played in those roles?’ … It’s created this whole new kind of meta that’s uniquely new for the COD World League and Black Ops 3 that didn’t exist.

Has eSports changed the landscape of the Call of Duty community?

It does change, and the players have changed. But I think of it in terms of maturity and growth. Everyone gets a little better every time we do this. There’s certainly a growth in the competitive community, how they’re approaching the game, what they’re playing. It’s impacted us on the development side in terms of what features we’ve prioritized to construct. … We’ve maintained a healthy relationship with direct contact with players. That growth has been challenging, too, because you can only take so many phone calls in a day and still make video games. But I love it.

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How often do you get to play?

I actually am having a hard time getting to play. I’m not playing Black Ops 3 for fun, but I play everyday because we’re still developing, and we have DLCs we’re making. I joke that when the game comes out, it’s only halftime. We make as many maps after the game comes out as we made on the release. There is a tremendous amount of stuff going on.

What is your favorite part of the design process? 

Every single day we are updating the game. Being able to tell the community about the hot fix or the small patch that doesn’t require download is fun for me. I do it because I want to, and I like that part of it a lot. Having players be in the loop influences the next round of stuff. In a post-ship world, it’s the most fun part.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan.

IGN’s ‘ESports Today’ Brings Competitive Gaming To SiriusXM Radio

IGN is expanding their global outreach with”ESports Today,” a new daily talk show about the world of competitive video games.

It will debut on April 11 and air live every weekday evening. The new show will be hosted by Kevin Knocke, known for hosting segments on IGN, the media publisher specializing in video games and entertainment, as well as eSports commentary and video content for Blizzard Entertainment.

“Kevin has covered eSports for over half a decade and is the perfect host for the job,” Fran Mirabella II, IGN’s vice president of video gushed in the press release. “He’s passionate to speak out on the big issues for the community, and has all the right connections. It’s going to be an awesome resource for fans.”

Knocke is excited about new outreach efforts, telling [a]listdaily: “IGN ESports Today on SiriusXM not only gives us a brand new platform for IGN to reach new fans, but also a platform to try in eSports what is wildly successful in sports media: live radio coverage. This partnership gives us the ability to speak at length about the real issues in eSports, invite the biggest personalities to talk directly with fans, and update everyone around the globe about breaking eSports news in real time.”

Marquee competitions to be covered include those for League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Street Fighter V, Call of Duty and more. In addition to related news coverage and commentary, listeners will be able to call in for advice.

“We’re going to have pro players and coaches on to answer questions from our listeners,” Knocke said. “So this is a cool, unique way for people to interact live with players and ask the experts directly on how to improve their game.”

SiriusXM subscribers can tune into “ESports Today” beginning Monday (7 to 8 p.m. ET) on the Bleacher Report Radio channel. SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio is available to subscribers nationwide on satellite radios (channel 83) and the SiriusXM app.

Consumer Awareness Of Virtual Reality On The Low Side

The virtual reality era has officially begun, with both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift now shipping and PlayStation VR set to launch this October. That’s in addition to the heavy promotional pushes for mobile VR viewers like the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard seen last fall. But, according to a new report from Nielsen, not all consumers may be aware of their availability.

The company’s “360 Gaming Report” indicates that 37 percent of all U.S. gamers have heard of at least one virtual reality or augmented reality device. However, that’s a rather low number, especially considering the millions of dollars that Oculus, Sony and HTC have poured into developing the technology.

Based on the numbers, the most recognizable brand is Oculus Rift, which is owned by Facebook, but even that is a low figure at 22 percent. Google Cardboard takes a close second with 18 percent, while Samsung Gear VR is third with 14 percent.

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“Education will be an important factor for these companies to get the word out. However, this type of experience doesn’t really lend itself to traditional marketing driven education. A lot of the education will likely be organic through buzz/word of mouth and come from early adopters,” Nielsen Games general manager Michael Flamberg said, per GamesIndustry.biz. “This reinforces the importance of social influence in the development of these devices and content to foster a spirit of experience sharing so that early adopters can more easily advocate for VR. The early adopters, tech enthusiasts and social influencers can then cascade their influence to the masses.

“These are also devices that will require some investment from consumers and will be an immersive experience so for gaming, content available on the devices will be another key driver. [VR headsets] also have the potential to do a lot more than just gaming. Viewing other forms of content (live events, movies, TV) and engaging with a broader set of categories and functions will also help the devices in time (product development/engineering, health care, training, etc.)”

Income plays a big part, as a majority of that 37 percent showing interest in the tech are young people with an annual income of nearly $63,000 and a monthly video game spend of $20. On an interesting note, male gamers have more of an interest than female gamers, but not by much.

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On a side note, the report also discussed eSports, explaining how 51 percent of viewers are in the millennial group, with an income of nearly $69,000.

 

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“ESports fans are a valuable audience for the category and for brands. ESports attract fans for its entertainment value, particularly the drama of competition and the relevance of gaming to their own leisure time. To grow further, eSports will need to be easier to engage with, and both more social and interactive. More local events and increased mainstream coverage will also be key. To be successful in the space, brand fit and sponsorship execution will be important for sponsors/advertisers, who should pursue eSports as one part of a broader brand strategy,” Flamberg added.

“However, we have seen in our eSports research (released late 2015) that Twitch is definitely the destination for eSports fans as Twitch is the top destination for eSports content/programming well ahead of YouTube and other gaming sites like GameSpot and IGN. This could have implications for marketing—do you reach the majority of viewers/consumers just by being on Site A, or do you really need to get your content on all the different sites?”

Those interested in receiving a free copy of the report can send a request to peter.roithmayr@nielsen.com.

Russian Neuro-Interface Games Will Hold Players Emotionally Accountable

While brainwave-controlled wearables have been on the market for a number of years, the practical applications have focused primarily on health, fitness and accessibility. Neuromatix, a Russian game developer, has created a new system that hopes to introduce more feeling into an otherwise separated gameplay experience. Using a neuro-interface headpiece, this system would analyze the user’s emotions (with data such as brain waves and skin temperature) then reflect that directly onto their in-game character. Reminding players of how their actions affect others, Neuromatix director, Vladimir Statut hopes the result to be a sort of emotional accountability.

“Currently, there are no emotions in video-games,” Statut told Sputnik in an interview this week.  “A person can commit a murder [in a video-game] and he wouldn’t receive an adequate emotional impact. Without emotions in virtual environments, people can then have the lack of emotions in real life.”

These emotionally-fueled, thought-controlled games will be playable sometime in 2017 on Russian social media platform, Vkontake.

With the advancement of hyper-realistic video game graphics, whether a link exists between game violence and real-life outbursts remains an ongoing debate. The Neuromatix system, in order to achieve the desired affect of empathy, would rely on the individual’s current emotional state and how they naturally react to say, hurting someone’s feelings. Empathy, the human ability to identify and feel another person’s emotions, would be required to impact the player’s experience under these conditions. Barring certain mental and personality disorders, Neuromatix is relying on what they perceive to be “normal” reactions to a video game event. However, anyone having played online multiplayer has encountered those who thrive on emotional havoc—known as trolls—and it could be said that such an interface would make the horrified look on your character’s face even more satisfying.

If the goal of the Neuromatix system is to evoke an emotional response artificially—for example, to make a player feel guilty after committing an in-game murder—or more realistically, create a positive response to an advertisement—the technology will have to advance a bit further. Experts say it could be possible in the future, however. We spoke with Tan Le, co-founder and CEO of Emotiv—an innovator in the field of brain wave wearable technology—to see how soon we can expect this kind of ’emotional implant.’

“It is certainly possible to detect a player’s emotions and then reflect those emotions into their in game character,” Tan Le told [a]listdaily. “However, to simulate emotions a person will require a form of deep brain stimulation and it’s not well understood how that might be achieved at this time. But it is likely to be possible.”

 

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at Neuromatix. (Source: Neuromatix)
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was in attendance for the Neuromatix presentation. (Source: Neuromatix)

According to the NeuroNet expert group, the global market of neurotechnologies will reach $1 trillion by 2035; making the trillions of neurons in our brains prime marketing real estate. Neuromatix specifically analyzes a user’s emotions, and learns accordingly. For example, the headset could gather data on whether a user enjoyed a video or found educational materials too complicated. The Russian military, meanwhile, has expressed interest in the application of brain-controlled drones and other advancements on the battlefield. In the medical field, a neurological link between patient and artificial limb or organs could change lives.

In the meantime, neuro-interface technology is already being used across the world to study and improve athletic performance, achieve mental relaxation and provide entertainment, such as flying a toy drone or moving cat ears on a headset. While the practical applications seem endless now, the list of thought-powered possibilities will continue to grow in humanity’s endless pursuit of scientific—and marketing—knowledge.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s ‘The Machine’ Is Solving The Data Deluge

The recently separated computing company Hewlett Packard Enterprise has been enjoying its day in the sun ever since it became its own entity late last year.

Formerly known as Hewlett-Packard, the company ceased to be last November when it split into HP Inc. and HPE—HPE now focuses on a product portfolio featuring infrastructure, security, big data and workplace productivity solutions—all of which totals $53 billion in annual revenue.

HPE company stock increased by 33.6 percent in March, according to an inaugural quarterly report, per data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The momentum carried into April as the Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech titan shored up capital and struck an $825 million deal to sell Blackstone Group a majority stake in Mphasis Ltd, an Indian IT services company, earlier this week.

According to the The Wall Street Journal, the sale “aligns with the company’s capital allocation priorities, which it has said include directing investments toward developing new products and services.”

[a]listdaily caught up with HPE to discuss how the company is redefining the future of computing with “The Machine” and accelerating progress with the Living Progress Challenge.

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Where is HPE guiding the future of data? How will it be sharing information, and closing the digital divide and solving the data deluge?

Moore’s Law is running out of steam. As a result, the computing architectures that have handled the world’s data needs for the past 70 years will not be able to support a future of energy scarcity and data abundance. The public cloud already consumes as much energy as the airline industry, and worldwide data volumes are expected to double every two years for the foreseeable future. We need new computing technology that will help us store and analyze these oceans of data. HPE is building a new kind of computing infrastructure called The Machine. It’s a radically new design that collapses memory and storage, transmits data using light instead of electrons, and consumes a fraction of the energy used by conventional computers. This technology will help us solve the data deluge, close the digital divide and solve many other pressing challenges that society faces.
—Richard Murphy, editor in chief, HPE

The Living Progress Challenge asks people to answer the following question: “What software applications and digital services would you create to improve people’s lives?” to improve lives by 2020. How has it progressed since it first launched?

The Challenge has received over 370 ideas and 130 proposals from organizations and individuals from around the world, telling HPE how they would use technology to improve lives. The proposals are diverse and innovative, and HPE is currently reviewing them and will be selecting up to 20 first-round winners by May 2.

Some examples of the proposals we have received include: a tablet application that helps new mothers in developing countries ensure their babies receive appropriate vaccines on schedule, an application to improve the business continuity of small- and medium-sized businesses struck by natural disaster, and a mobile app to help disabled youth and adults gain life skills and confidence to pursue independent living.

From the first round of up to 20 winners, up to five will be ultimately selected to be built and deployed in regions around the world to positively impact lives.
—Shari King, HPE Living Progress
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Influencer marketing has grown to be a strong alternative for storytelling versus traditional ads. Are influencers—like Julian Smith— on your radar as a means to leverage “power of suggestion” from a trusted source?

Events like SXSW and Sundance Film Festival provide a stage for us to introduce the new HPE brand. The power of leveraging influencers makes the spotlight even brighter. Influencer content gives us a whole new lens through which we tell our story. It’s important to us that our influencers are also brand advocates—that they believe in the brand and what we stand for. That relationship makes the content more authentic and the partnership more trustworthy.
—Kelsey Carroll, global marketing and social media, HPE

What was your biggest takeaway from the “Fast Company Grill” at SXSW? How did HPE explain the meaning of “The Machine,” the company’s new research initiative to transform the future of computing?

The Fast Company Grill gave us a way to demonstrate, through partnership, the leaders that we are in the enterprise technology space. We created a fun and interactive visual representation of distributed mesh computing which The Machine will ultimately enable at scale.
—Chris Drago, director of global media, HPE

How Disney Mobile Is Crossing Into The Future Of Entertainment

With blockbuster movies like Inside Out, the upcoming Captain America: Civil War, and today’s teaser trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Disney Entertainment has maintained its position as one of the biggest and most successful entertainment companies in the world. That success extends into Disney Interactive, which has published the popular toys-to-life game Disney Infinity 3.0 and the recently released TRON RUN/R for PC and consoles. The company has also found tremendous success with licensing, demonstrated by games like Marvel Contest of Champions and others.

Today saw the release of Disney Crossy Road—a game that takes the mobile mega-hit, Crossy Road (which has over 120 million downloads), and gives it a distinct Disney makeover. The game features hundreds of Disney and Pixar characters, all looking to cross busy roads without being run over, set in worlds inspired by Toy Story, Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph and many more. Developed in partnership with Hipster Whale, Disney Crossy Road is part of a broader strategy to further grow the publisher’s video game presence, particularly on mobile devices.

Chris Heatherly, SVP and GM of Disney Mobile Games, talks to [a]listdaily about how Disney is growing games as a service, and its plans to create an interactive network that covers a multitude of devices, platforms and demographics across the world. If there’s any company that has the brand power to take advantage of mobile gaming’s explosive growth, build-out to a wide variety of cross-media promotions, and create a lifetime’s worth of engagement, it’s Disney.

chris-heatherlyThe Star Wars and Marvel licenses have clearly been big hits for Disney. What opportunities do you see for further growth?

Licensing is very successful for us, but our mobile business is not just focused on licensing. We are also a Top 25 publisher in our own right in Western markets.

Our published mobile network is a huge asset and we have strong plans to grow it. The organic interest in our brands is so strong because people already know our characters and franchises, which makes it a lot easier for us to get them to download our games. If we can keep people in our network over a lifetime, with multiple franchises and games to play, and also give them videos, e-books, and apps, we can cross-promote those users ourselves instead of having to reach them again through marketing.

For example, Marvel: Avengers Alliance was Disney’s most successful Facebook title, so it made sense to extend the storyline and create a new game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2, which we launched last week. In this new title, we bridged the storyline from the old game to the new one and also created a custom comic book with Marvel that tells the story behind the game, which deepens the connection between the game and the Marvel Universe.

If you put our licensed and published business together, The Walt Disney Company is globally the #4 brand according to App Annie. While the mobile market may be maturing, it’s still projected to grow strongly over the next 5 years, especially in markets like Asia and Latin America, where Disney has a strong presence. We have great opportunities if we continue to grow with the market, especially if we can bring those users into our network.

What are the challenges of growing a brand as big and well-known as Disney?

We are far from hitting our limitations, and our growth is outpacing the market. Two years ago, we had very few top-grossing hits. Today The Walt Disney Company has ten Top 100 Grossing titles, which is more than any other brand. However, of those, only two are in the Top 20 Grossing in the West, and of course, there’s one massive hit in Asia with Disney Tsum Tsum. With the global cultural strength of our brands, we don’t see any reason we can’t maintain multiple Top 20 titles. And Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Disney Animation, and Lucasfilm are all at the top of their game with a phenomenal film slate over the next few years, so we will have the movies and the marketing reach to do it.

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 In what ways has Disney Interactive learned to adapt to the mobile market?

You will hear the same from us that you hear from almost every other successful publisher, which is that a focused strategy of fewer, better titles has been a lot more successful for us than a lot of “shots on goal.” Disney has always been about quality, and we’re proving that when we deliver that quality—not just in gameplay, but storytelling and animation… the things we are known for—that we can have repeatable success.

But we’ve also learned that mobile games, and apps in general, are not products you put in a box and ship. They are live services connected to millions of users over the Internet. If you want to be successful, you have to think both in terms of individual apps and in terms of the network. If you are not using data in smart ways to identify and super-serve your audience, and then build that audience into a self-sustaining network, you will struggle to find success. Or if you do, it won’t last.

 What are some of the long-term goals for Disney Interactive’s mobile business?

Long-term, we’d like to be one of the biggest brands on mobile globally, whether directly through our network or through our partners with licensing, and then grow with the market into new regions as mobile continues to reach more and more people around the world.

We think mobile will be the way most people connect with Disney and its brands, and games will be a big part of that. We also believe that what we currently call “mobile” technology and ecosystems are going to expand beyond smartphones into virtual reality and interactive TV and whatever else comes next. So the expertise and network we are building around “mobile” is really about creating a multi-platform, multi-device, multi-experience, and multi-demographic global interactive network of the future.

How did the partnership to create Disney Crossy Road come together?

They are big fans of Disney. We are big fans of them. We met at GDC and we said, “Hey, let’s do something together.” And that became Disney Crossy Road. The team at Hipster Whale are so great to work with, and have been incredible partners. They saw the value we could bring by publishing the game through our network, even though in their own right, they have one of the biggest games in the world.

We are pushing Disney Crossy Road not just with our mobile network, but with our online video network through Maker Studios, who have brought incredible YouTube talent to the table like The Diamond Minecart. We are also making a series of interactive short animations to go along with the new franchise. This is a multi-pronged push on our part to get Disney Crossy Road out there, both as a game and as entertainment.

With games like Disney Infinity, Ducktales Remastered and Castle of Illusion, do you think there will be a lot of overlap between PC, console, and mobile games in the future?

The PC and console platforms have a lot more in common than either have with mobile. Mobile is a different type of device, used in a different way, and we think that game brands may cross over—you may have a mobile version and a PC/console version of a game—but they will be different games for the most part. What all these platforms have in common is the long-term trend towards digitally-delivered, live-operated games-as-a-service.

This is already the reality on PC and mobile, and console will get there soon. But we think there is strong potential for TV gaming to get disrupted, probably not replacing traditional consoles, but creating a new explosion of casual gaming and games that appeal to non-“core gamers” on the TV. And of course, VR will be a theme as well. The user experiences will be different by device, but the skillsets and how you operate the games is going to converge, and the successful ones will all be live-operated games with strong communities.

 Will Disney Interactive be experimenting more with VR, since Jakku Spy launched last fall for the Star Wars app?

Yes, you can count on it. It’s worth noting that Disney has funded and partnered on a lot of the pioneering work around VR for the last 20 years. Everyone else is just getting into this space. Disney has been doing it for decades.

How will Disney games stand out in the increasingly crowded mobile games industry?

We’re not worried about standing out. The maturing of the market is good from our perspective. You will see fewer venture-backed companies who can spend gobs of money unprofitably to grow topline. The focus has already shifted to running mobile as a real business. That’s a market in which Disney can strongly compete and our brands have never been stronger.