DeNA Believes It Will Change Mobile Market With Nintendo

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Earlier this year, Nintendo finally ended its stubborn holdout from the mobile gaming market and partnered with DeNA to bring a number of its popular franchises to iOS and Android devices. While we wait for the first title in the deal to drop later this year, DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako recently spoke with Pocket Gamer about what players can expect – and why it could be such a big deal.

“I think this is potentially an opportunity for us to completely change the market,” he said regarding the “huge, huge deal”, during a visit to the Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2015 event. “Nintendo has by far the best gaming IP. DeNA’s expertise is definitely backend.”

This makes an interesting approach for both companies. Nintendo usually takes the product-based set-up with its titles, while DeNA prefers to introduce them as a service.

Still, it’s how these are presented that will make a difference, and the partnership could lead to big results. How big Kim Kardashian Hollywood big.

Asako brought up the Glu Games-produced mobile hit as an example of how a key partnership can work on the platform, considering Nintendo’s deal with DeNA to be “the most crucial partnership” that it’s ever done. “People are expecting a lot,” he said.

DeNA is no stranger to partnerships of this magnitude, as the company previously worked with Marvel, Star Wars and Disney for a number of titles over the years, most of which ended up being best-sellers. Obviously, Asako believes this will continue to be the case with Nintendo.

The deal covers five different games, with the first arriving later this year, and four more titles due between early 2016 and March 2017. Asako believes they will provide unique experiences for everyone.

“We want to make sure out of those five IP that we can end up attracting hundreds of millions of people,” he concluded.

With a company like Nintendo – and millions of fans old and young alike – that shouldn’t be a hard number to reach.

Pocket Gamer Connects SF: What Are ‘Rewarded Ads’?

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The European mobile games publication Pocket Gamer held their first U.S. event on Wednesday and Thursday this week in SF. The event brought together many European and Asian as well as U.S.-based mobile game developers and publishers to network, to do business and discuss hot topics in mobile gaming and beyond.

Here’s a recap of some of the highlights from yesterday’s “Superstar Sessions” that kicked off the event:

Samsungs’s VP of Emerging Platforms Mihai Pohontu Shows How Powerful Mobile Is

Pohontu has a very positive attitude towards the growth potential for wearables, Internet of Things and VR. For example, he showed research that predicted that connected mobile health apps and hardware that help you better control your own health have the potential to increase average life expectancy by 10 years.

DeNA Talks Nintendo Partnership

DeNA’s CEO Shintaro Asako spoke about the company’s partnership with Nintendo that had been long in the works and how the company is launching Nintendo IP’s on mobile that, according to him, has the potential to attract “100’s of millions of players.” He did not say more about which IP’s will be first out of the gate (Zelda, Mario Bros., etc.).

Twitch Is Now Bigger Than MTV and CNN

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Streaming channel Twitch.tv has had no trouble accumulating and keeping a major audience, as we previously reported that the channel has doubled its numbers to 100 million viewers a month, with no signs of stopping. According to The New York Times, however, its popularity is now eclipsing that of popular cable channels.

As you can see from the chart above, Twitch’s audience has grown immensely since July 2012. Starting out at just under 100,000 or so, the audience has gradually grown during that time, and has now gotten to the point where its peak viewership has managed to rival that of average prime-time viewers of some cable networks, including CNN, MSNBC, and even MTV, a popular channel amongst teen viewers.

With thousands of broadcasters, millions of fans, and partnerships with companies like Coke and Old Spice, Twitch has had no trouble attracting audiences outside of hardcore gamers. That said, despite this popularity, The New York Times reports that the company is still “small,” as both Netflix and YouTube have larger numbers when it comes to video viewed per month — Netflix is eight times higher, while YouTube is 24 times higher. (To be fair, though, both of those services have more accumulated programming for viewers to sort through, while most Twitch broadcasts are only kept on the network for a limited time after live broadcasting.)

Twitch’s numbers are still too powerful to ignore, though. Below, you’ll see some of the more popular streamers’ numbers on the service, and just how long people tune in to watch a specific game, whether it’s Hearthstone or League of Legends.

It’s easy to see that numbers can differ depending on the streamer and title. While a game like ArmA III will only keep viewers for five hours, that’s still an incredible number. Meanwhile, Nightblue3 and trumpsc have no problem keeping viewers tuned in for nearly eight hours or more.

As a result, streamers have managed to make a living from the channel, through donations, ads and even subscriptions, should users be “hardcore” enough to follow them.

Game companies and sponsors also play a huge part in Twitch’s success, as indicated by the screen below.

Riot Games continues to rule the roost with consistent League of Legends viewership, while ESL TV and Red Bull Sports have steady audiences for hours at a time with a variety of game sessions, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

The numbers are calculated from a six-day moving average of the daily maximum number of viewers, while prime-time cable ratings are measured from numbers provided between September 2013 and August 2014.

Regardless, it shows just how far Twitch has come in just a few years’ time, combined with what we previously reported. And with Amazon now backing Twitch, these numbers will continue to expand.

Coke Launches Interactive Billboard In Times Square

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Have a Coke and a smile – and see your name up in lights while you’re at it.

Coca-Cola, already on a roll after the launch of a cool drinkable billboard for its Coke Zero product back in April, has made the next step towards interacting with possible consumers, this time in New York. Adweek reports that the company has just launched a new billboard in the Times Square area – but this isn’t just some static electronic sign-advertising product. It’s interactive.

Utilizing the “Share a Coke” campaign that the company has been recently running, the billboard interacts with users by showing fun facts for user’s names. For instance, as you can see in the image above, by using the name Lauren, the sign easily points out that “Laurens sure steal the limelight. They’ve starred in 723 movies since 1936.”

By tweeting their first name on Twitter with the hashtag “#CokeMyName”, users can see themselves up in lights, along with some fun facts surrounding their name. It’s a program that also ties in with a recently launched website that does the same thing – for those who can’t make the trek to New York City.

The billboard is the brainchild of Clear Channel Outdoor, who put together the tweeting program so that it had an interactive touch to it, instead of just running a pre-programmed set-up.

So how’s it work After the user sends a tweet, it appears on the billboard within approximately two minutes’ time. But there’s more to it than that, as a webcam set up across the street will snap a picture of the person’s name. From there, the social media team for Coca-Cola will tweet the photo back to the person within the hour.

“That potentially then seeds more social sharing amongst your Twitter followers (and) social impressions,” said Sean McCaffrey, Clear Channel Outdoor’s senior vice president of national client strategy and partnerships. “It’s the interesting convergence of the mobile, digital and physical worlds.”

So far, the billboard has been running for two weeks, but it’s already seen 200 custom messages per day. And Coca-Cola hasn’t been shy when it comes to sharing these messages on its Twitter account, complete with photos.

This, tied in with the company’s printing of names on Coke bottles and cans, will no doubt add a personable touch to advertising. After all, who doesn’t like getting mentioned by name

Now Hiring This Week: July 8th

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

Read a case for and against job hopping before you find your next position.

  • Riot Games – Brand Manager (Los Angeles, Calif.)
  • Activision – Senior Director, Consumer Marketing (Santa Monica, Calif.)
  • Ubisoft – Associate Brand Manager (San Francisco, Calif.)
  • Instagram – Head of Consumer Marketing (Menlo Park, Calif.)
  • Ayzenberg – Marketing & Communications Director (Pasadena, Calif.)
  • Ayzenberg – Director, ION Business Development (Pasadena, Calif.)
  • Ayzenberg – Account Executive (Pasadena, Calif.)

For last week’s [a]list jobs postings, click here. Have a position you’d like to place with us Email us at pr@ayzenberg.com.

Newzoo: Top Core PC Games In June

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In June, the top seven games in the Top 20 Core PC Games were stable from the previous month. Riot’s League of Legends remained the perennial number one, with no title able to take its place since these rankings began. Mojang’s Minecraft and Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive kept Ranks 2 and 3, respectively, while Wargaming’s World of Tanks and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft were stable at Ranks 4 and 5. Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm continued its ascension, breaking the top 10 for the first time; the more casual-/team-friendly MOBA climbed three spots to take Rank 9 in June. HOTS wasn’t the only MOBA on the rise; Valve’s DotA 2 climbed one more spot to Rank 8, pushed by the hype surrounding The International set for August 2015, currently with a record-breaking prize pool of more than $15 million.

Other key takeaways:

  • Valve on the Rise. Valve had a good month in June. Not only did CS:GO retain Rank 3, all its other titles in the rankings were on the rise. DotA 2 climbed one more spot to Rank 8, Garry’s Mod rose an impressive four places to Rank 13 and Team Fortress 2 rose two spots to Rank 18.
  • A Blizzard Win Is Team Fortress 2′s rise really a nod to Blizzard As people anxiously await the release of Blizzard’s new game Overwatch, Team Fortress 2 is the closest alternative. If the anticipation of Overwatch is in fact driving people to play Team Fortress 2, this is truly a Blizzard win. Along with Heroes of the Storm gaining three spots in a crowded MOBA market, it seems there are good times ahead for Blizzard.
  • GTA V Down, San Andreas Up. Grand Theft Auto V continued its decline while Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Multiplayer is climbing back up the rankings. After its strong debut in April, GTA V fell out of the top 10 in June, down three places to Rank 11. Perhaps players are returning to San Andreas, which rose three spots to Rank 12.
  • The Witcher Breaks Top 20. As we predicted after its debut in May at Rank 21, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has managed to break the top 20. CD Projekt’s massive and sprawling open world RPG took Rank 16 in June.
  • Diablo III Drop Out. Two game dropped out of the rankings in June: Robocraft and Diablo III. While Robocraft was on a gradual descent since April, Diablo III tumbled out of the top 20 from its Rank 11 position in May. With a big patch in the near future (now on the beta test realms), we expect Blizzard’s title will re-enter the top 20 in the near future.

 

PC Games Market Monitor
In line with our monthly Top 20 Core PC Games Rankings, we have developed a brand new service in collaboration with Overwolf. The PC Games Market Monitor provides a monthly overview of the performance, cross-over and churn for the Top 20 PC/MMO games, and covers more than 40 countries across Europe, North America and Latin America. The data is derived from Overwolf’s user base of close to 10 million PC gaming enthusiasts. Subscribers will receive a monthly report and dataset featuring the Top 20 PC games by unique players, game sessions and average session time. For a PC title of choice, the data will show cross-over engagement and churn. Month-on-month changes are quantified for each game in every country of choice, revealing, for instance, the impact of marketing campaigns or (esports) events.

A full product presentation with dummy data can be found on the product page.

AMD Partners With Nerd HQ And Walker Stalker At San Diego Comic Con

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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has Comic Con International covered in San Diego July 9-12. The chipmaker continues to go the event route in partnering with established brands like it did at the PC Gamer Show outside of E3 last month. In San Diego, AMD will be connecting with consumers who are in town for Comic Con, but aren’t on the actual convention show floor.

Peter Ross, senior marketing manager at AMDPeter Ross, senior marketing manager at AMD

Peter Ross, senior marketing manager at AMD, said the company has had success in years past partnering with Geek & Sundry during “the Con.” This year they’ve teamed up with two much larger brands in San Diego with actor Zachary Levi’s Nerd HQ four-day celebration of games, tech and entertainment at the New Children’s Museum and Robert Kirkman’s Walker Stalker Fan Fest at PetCo Park, a two-day celebration of The Walking Dead.

AMD worked with Petrol Advertising and Electronic Arts to bring the 20 versus 20 player Star Wars Battlefront Walker Assault mode to consumers for the first time. After receiving critical acclaim at E3, fans can play the multiplayer experience on AMD-powered PCs inside Nerd HQ. Levi even added a charity element to this set-up, allowing fans to donate to his Conversations for a Cause (with all money going to Operation Smile) for a chance to play the game with him.

Ross said in addition to the PC set-ups, AMD is working with Sony to have PlayStation 4 versions of the game playable for fans at Nerd HQ as well. Sony is another major sponsor for Nerd HQ, and AMD powers the chips inside PS4.

“Nerd HQ had over 50,000 attendees last year at PetCo Park and reached an additional 5 to 10 million people online,” said Ross. “We’re anticipating a bigger audience with the New Children’s Museum location.”

Ross said AMD will be giving fans a chance to win a cool PC gaming rig. And there will also be Star Wars photo opportunities for all attendees.

AMD will also be part of the first-ever Walker Stalker Fan Fest at PetCo Park on July 10-11. Skybound is now working directly with this fan convention, which is bringing more game activations to this year’s event. Telltale Studios is doing a panel with the developers and voice actors from The Walking Dead Season 1 & 2, including Melissa Hutchison, Dave Fenoy, Gavin Hammon, Nicki Rapp, and Nicole Vigil. The Panel will be moderated by Walker Stalker’s Cindi Peterson and The Walking Dead TV actor Jason Cabassi. Afterward, there will also be a live voice-acted session of the best moments from the first two seasons of the episodic game on a big screen in the baseball stadium.

According to Dan Murray, president of Skybound Interactive, the fan fest will also feature game developers Other Ocean and Team 17. Both of these game studios will have The Walking Dead games playable. In addition, Twitch will host an entire day of programming with eight top streamers on July 11 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. playing different games. Starbreeze is bringing The Walking Dead RV to the stadium, which will have playable versions of The Walking Dead VR video game demo that 505 Games debuted at E3 2015.

Inside of the Walker Stalker “Dead Zone,” AMD will have a VR demo featuring Oculus Rift demos of Zypre’s First and Crytek’s Robinson: The Journey. AMD will also have its Project Quantam prototype machine and a 4K demo with HP system featuring Dragon Age: Inquisition. Ross said the 6th Generation A-Series AMD processors on HP and Lenovo systems will be running Dirt Rally and Lego Batman. Starbreeze’s Payday 2 will be playable on several mobile gaming systems. And Battlefield 4 will be playable on Xbox One and Killzone: Shadow Fall on PS4.

“We’re excited to engage with the Comic Con audience,” said Ross. “They represent a real core group of hardware gaming fans and users. The whole gaming space is critical to AMD. We have great relationships with Sony and Microsoft in the console space, and we’re doing everything we can do to grow the PC gaming space.”

Over 130,000 people attended Comic Con last year. More visitors are coming into town for day trips even without tickets, just to take in the free options that stretch throughout the downtown area. AMD is just one of the companies to tap into this huge gathering of pop culture fans at one of the biggest gatherings in the United States.

‘Mighty No. 9’ Jumps From Kickstarter To Movies

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At one point in time, Mighty No. 9 was merely an up-and-coming Kickstarter project being headed up by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, in the hopes of reviving an old-school side-scrolling shooter for a new generation to enjoy. Little did anyone realize, however, that the game would become one of the biggest crowd-funding projects in history, making over four million dollars during its campaign.

Now, the heroic little adventurer is expanding his limits beyond video games. Variety has reported that a partnership between Legendary Digital Media, Contradiction Films and Mighty game studio Comcept (headed up by Inafune) will work together on a live-action Mighty No. 9 film project.

The game, being developed by Comcept and set to release later this year through Deep Silver, focuses on a hero named Beck, the ninth model in a line of Mighty Numbers droids, as he takes on his cohorts after a computer virus makes them run rampant.

Tomas Harlan and Tim Carter are on board to develop and produce the movie. There’s no word yet if Inafune will play a role, but he is likely to consult somewhere on the project.

Legendary Digital Media and Contradiction Films have dealt with video games before, having produced the movie Dead Rising: Watchtower for release exclusively on Sony’s Crackle network. The film has been a huge draw for fans that have been enjoying Capcom’s games in that series, so Mighty No. 9 should see a similar draw from its growing fanbase.

This is just the latest indication that old-school properties – or spin-offs of them, thereof – can still draw the right kind of audience. Koji Igarashi, producer of Konami’s Castlevania series, recently proved this with his Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night project for Kickstarter, raising even more than Mighty with a total of $5.7 million dollars. And producer Yu Suzuki is doing something similar with his Shenmue III project, which is nearly at $4.5 million dollars with ten days to go in its campaign.

Could these see movies as well As Mighty has easily proven, the possibilities are there.

Meanwhile, Mighty No. 9 will be available for various consoles on September 15th, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, 3DS, PS Vita and PC. The trailer is below.

Mobile Video Viewing On the Rise

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Sometimes watching videos on the go via a mobile device is just convenient. Flipping over to YouTube and/or Facebook and clicking a play button makes it easy for people to stay informed with a variety of video content. And, according to a new report from eMarketer, it’s definitely getting more popular.

With results gathered from Ooyala for the first quarter of 2015, eMarketer reports that 34 percent of digital video views worldwide managed to come from mobile phones, versus seven percent coming from tablets. That shows a tremendous amount of growth in a year’s time, with a increase of 126.7 percent of digital video views overall — a 95.2 percent increase year over year, from 21 percent to 41 percent.

As for what type of videos are preferred, users seem to go for the short-form content clips. Ooyala reports that videos that ran for under three minutes managed to make up nearly half the time spent watching video on mobile phones overall. By comparison, nearly 60 percent of time spent with tablet video manages to go a little longer, at least over ten minutes.

On Device Research, working on behalf of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, held a poll as well, asking smartphone video viewers about how often they watched short-form videos and longer ones. 57 percent of those polled indicated that they watch content that runs five minutes or shorter throughout the day, while 35 percent prefer longer-content videos.

According to these results, a lot of these viewers are also willing to sit through ads to get to their content, in an effort to save a few dollars for a premium subscription service. The IAB reported that 78 of respondents would prefer to watch free mobile videos with ads, versus the 15 percent who said they’d pay for a monthly mobile video subscription to skip the ads. Meanwhile, eight percent said they’d pay for separate video views, without any ads.

One more interesting statistic from FreeWheel indicates that 17 percent of digital video ad views in the U.S. were on smartphones, while only eight percent were on tablets. That may be something of note to advertisers, though, as you can see from the stats above, several folks are still willing to sit through ads to get to their beloved content.

The full report can be found here.