Juvenile Offender Posts Bail With His Wii

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A judge in the UK has ordered a juvenile offender to post bail by turning in his Nintendo Wii, reports Metro UK. The twelve year-old is charged with vandalism after using a rock-filled sock to break windows at his school and attack a student. Prosecutors argued that the boy breached court orders to stay away from the school, prompting the judge to set the unusual bail conditions. Read more at Metro UK.

Study Shows Effectiveness Of Video Ads In Online Games

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Researcher Frank N. Magid Associates says brand awareness increases by five-fold when people are exposed to video ads during online gaming. The firm studied the behavior of 3,000 game players in the US exposed to video ads served by NEOEDGE. It also found a three-fold increase in product awareness through video ads.

NEOEDGE has published the full findings in the white paper, Exploring the Optimal Online Video Advertising Model: Maximizing Online Video Advertising Effectiveness in the Context of PC Casual Games.  Read more in the press release.

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Brand Hopping In The Music Game Genre

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Researcher DFC Intelligence has conducted a study of consumer behavior among players of MTV’s Rock Band and Activision’s Guitar Hero titles. The firm says there are high crossover rates in the most recent releases in the franchises. It found that 45 percent of those who played Guitar Hero 5 also played The Beatles: Rock Band. Reverse crossover from the Rock Band title to Guitar Hero was slightly lower at 34 percent. Findings also showed brand loyalty within the franchises, with about a quarter of people who played the immediately preceding title in each series migrating to the sequels.

DFC found that The Beatles: Rock Band succeeded in attracting more new users to the music genre. Worldwide, 64 percent of those who played the Beatles title had not tried earlier games in either music franchise. For Guitar Hero 5, 46 percent claimed they had not played earlier music games.

DFC’s findings are based on usage data collected from more than 10,000 users on online game community site GamerDNA. Read more in the press release.

Mickey Makeover Messaging Goes Mainstream

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Earlier this week, Variety penned an article about Mickey’s revival as a hero in the upcoming Wii game Epic Mickey. The message has gone mainstream, thanks to an article penned by Brooks Barnes for NY Times. It’s proof that Disney is dead serious about reviving its flagship icon, reconsidering how it relegated a key entertainment property to corporate image status.

NY Times brings more insight into the origins of Epic Mickey, including some of the potential challenges facing Warren Spector and his Wii game. Read more in NY Times.

Not On The Island Of Misfit Toys

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Online advertiser Permuto Discoveries has compiled a visual year-by-year collection of the top-selling Christmas toys dating back to 1960. No word on how the data was gathered, and Permuto admits an initial error pinning Sony PS3 as the most popular toy in 2007 when it was in-fact Nintendo DS. Nonetheless it s a fun walk down memory lane. Pong marks the debut of videogames on Santa’s list, topping wish lists in 1975.

Open Door Policy For Racing Aficionados

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There is a lot at work in the TV spot for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 racer, Forza Motorsport 3. The ad is designed to entice racing simulation aficionados by showing the game’s variety of vehicles, photorealistic visuals, and the in-cockpit experience. To call the spot’s execution subtle is an understatement. It uses haunting music as the only audio, and drawn out frames that amount to ten camera cuts in its 30-second duration. Yet the message is loud and clear. For those who dream of experiencing what it s like to drive the world’s greatest automobiles, and live that dream vicariously through racing simulation video games, this is as good as it gets.

 

Watch it at Creativity-Online.

Addressing A Need In Game Writing

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Audio production company Side saw such a need for polished writing in games that it formed its own professional game writers agency in Sidelines. Talking to Gamesindustry.biz, Sidelines director Sini Dowling says that Side consulted on improving scripts as part of its dialogue production and recording services. The company saw enough bad writing in games that it ultimately decided to get in the business of connecting professional writers with game makers.

Dowling talks about the state of writing in the game industry and how Sidelines hopes to help evolve the craft by connecting professional writers from film and TV with game makers.

 

Read more at Gamesindustry.biz.

Timely Intertextuality A Rare Feat For Games

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Writing for WIRED, Chris Kohler recounts one of his memorable moments from Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, where character dialogue touched on the timely topic of bank bailouts. The state of the economy provided fodder for other dialogue in the game. Kohler sees few other attempts by game makers at working topics that have immediate cultural relevance into their storylines. As he puts it, games don t have their South Park yet. He wonders if an enterprising episodic game maker might not realize the potential of creating games with timely intertextuality.
Read more at WIRED.

‘Modern Warfare 2’ Sets GameStop Record

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GameStop says pre-order sales of Activision s Modern Warfare 2 are the highest for any title in the company s history.  Speaking to Mike Snider at USA Today, GameStop s Tony Bartel says customers reserving copies of the game at their 6,200 stores have managed to set the new milestone.  He doesn’t divulge how many orders the retailer has taken.

Snider writes that GameStop stores and more than 2,600 24-hour Walmart locations are planning midnight launches for November 10, when “Modern Warfare 2” hits stores. Read more at USA Today.

‘Rock Band’ Is Still Unprofitable, Says Viacom

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MTV Games parent company Viacom has told analysts that its music game franchise Rock Band has been a money loser for two years.  Writing for LA Times, Ben Fritz reports on comments made by Viacom senior management on a quarterly earnings call with analysts.

Viacom CFO Tom Dooley says the property is expected to break even or make a slight profit in the fourth quarter based on holiday sales.  Chief executive Philipe Daumann told analysts the franchise had a great launch in The Beatles: Rock Band but that the economics are not improving as fast as the company would like. Fritz writes that the high cost of manufacturing Rock Band controllers are the primary reason MTV and parent Viacom lose money on the franchise.

Read more at LA Times.