Riot Games’ ‘Sad Mummy’ Is Music To Players Ears

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The popularity of the PC game League of Legends is quite staggering, across both the hardcore eSports community and casual players alike. That said, Riot Games is making every effort to celebrate its audience, as it has just released a soundtrack album that highlights some of the best songs from the game.

Music of League of Legends Vol. 1, which is available now through iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Spotify, brings together 15 selections from the game, each of which set the mood for the next battle that lies ahead. One particularly moving piece from the soundtrack, The Curse of the Sad Mummy, has also been released on YouTube, complete with animations that match the mood of the song.

The video focuses on Amumu, a mummy character who wanders around the gaming world, seeking not only his true identity, but also allies, as he considers himself friend-less. However, he finds that his powers make it a struggle to find compatriots to join him, thus making him a devastating character in-game with his undead capabilities. (You can see that in the turning point of the song, which can be seen below.)

With such capabilities as the Cursed Touch, Bandage Toss, Despair and Tantrum, there’s no question that Amumu’s rage is quite effective in-game, although his saga certainly makes for good use in a song.This is the latest move by Riot Games to branch out to its League of Legends community through another medium, as it previous teamed up with rock band Imagine Dragons for an original song for a recent tournament, “Warriors“, which can be found below. And judging by the title of the album, it’s very likely that Riot will continue to release new albums featuring songs from the game, as well as original selections inspired by it.It’s an interesting marketing move for a company that professes not to practice marketing in the usual sense. For Riot, content and community are marketing, so releasing more content (and collaborating with music creators) is an effective way to keep current players engaged and to reach out to some new potential players.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ezCrOdC_PxY

League of Legends Vol. 1 is available for download now, and can be downloaded for free here.

 

 

PAX South’s Major Impact

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I had the pleasure of attending the debut Penny Arcade Expo South event this weekend in San Antonio, a new event devoted to the Texas-oriented gaming community. Although the event wasn’t nearly as big as others in the PAX realm (including the forthcoming East and the highly popular Prime), it remained a huge draw anyway – and spells an interesting future for the event, which will no doubt flourish for years to come.

Very few “big” companies were in attendance for the event, outside of Nintendo, Logitech and Twitch.tv, but the show ended up being a big success anyway, as a number of small developers and companies got their chance in the spotlight, with thousands of attendees trying out their games, from upcoming video game projects to board games with their own set of diverse rules.

The event also got a huge push from locally-based Gearbox Software, who tied in its Community Day proceedings with it in a separate hall. The developer set up a Community Fun Zone, where attendees could play classic games, buy goods and chat with Gearbox developers (including president Randy Pitchford), as well as check out panels delving into the company’s hotter properties, including BattBorderlands and the forthcoming Battleborn.

Really, though, there was a well-balanced focus between both video and card games. As much space as there was devoted to bigger items like the new Nintendo 3DS (which releases next month) and Twitch superstars, there was more than enough space for board games, in which hundreds sat around tables and played for hours on end.

And the show, despite its smaller setting, turned out to be a vast success. IGN reported that the attendance for the debut of PAX South was even bigger than either of the debuts for PAX East and PAX Australia, indicating that it would no doubt return for future iterations – and likely in a bigger format.

So what does this mean for companies Well, for those based in Texas, it’s big news, because it allows them to reach out to their local community better than any other event before it. Sure, there are GameStop midnight premieres where fun can still be had, as well as community days like Gearbox usually holds. But this event allows the group as a whole to come together and have a good time, while also learning about folks who are in their own backyard.

That doesn’t mean bigger companies can’t benefit, though. Nintendo’s booth was a smashing success, driving up interest in the new Nintendo 3DS (despite initial skepticism, as the system will not come with a traditional AC adapter cord), and Twitch broadcasted panels from the event all weekend, keeping a strong viewing audience at home interested in everything that was going on. Logitech and Alienware most likely drummed up some interest in the hardcore PC gaming community as well, bringing various pieces of hardware for attendees to try out.

It was a risky move to launch an event like this, especially sandwiched between CES in Las Vegas and the forthcoming PAX East, which will no doubt be a bigger hit when it launches this March. Regardless, the Penny Arcade team has proven that, no matter where it seems to launch a show, success is likely to follow. Especially from local developers who want to find a way to reach out better to their community, aside from online activities and occasional side events that may or may not gain a big audience.

In other words, prepare for more PAX – because it’s coming.

‘Best Fiends’ YouTube Success With PewDiePie Shows The Impact Of Influence

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We’ve talked previously about what drives the success of a mobile game, whether it’s a popular idea that takes off quickly (like Flappy Bird) or the involvement of a major development team (Angry Birds) or even a brand name that shoots up the charts like magic. However, as we’ve stated in the past with our articles, sometimes all you need to capture mobile lightning in a bottle is the right partner.

That’s certainly the case with Seriously, a start-up company that has produced a mobile game called Best Fiends. First introduced back in October on the App Store, Fiends has become a big success, not only receiving a recommendation on the site by Apple themselves, but also a huge push from YouTube sensation PewDiePie, according to Pocket Gamer.

Seriously teamed up with the Swedish-based streaming star, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, to provide a push for the game. And when you snag someone like that, you get a huge following, as he currently has 38 million followers with his Let’s Play videos – and makes quite a bit of money from it.

The company had to do some serious work to get the star, but Seriously’s vice president of marketing and communication, Phil Hickey, explained that they finally got a hold of him through Maker Studios. “The first and most important step was that PewDiePie tried out the game and genuinely liked to play it,” he said. “Short of that, nothing would have been possible.”

But it’s a move that paid off for the better, according to Hickey. “In our launch week, Best Fiends had a lot of momentum and racked up one million downloads, zooming up the Apple App Store charts with very little performance marketing compared to competitors.”

He elaborated further on numbers. “You can’t track the impact precisely, but we estimate that around 30,000 to 50,000 direct installs were generated through the video in the opening weekend, at a lower average CPI rate than we would have paid through mobile UA networks or Facebook Ads,” Hickey explained.

The video was also a big success on YouTube, with over 2.5 million views.

As part of the promotion, a Best Fiends tournament was also held, with a number of YouTube stars, including PewDiePie, competing to win $50,000 for charity. Video of the event can be found below. It turned out to be a rousing success, with nearly four million views during the first ten days of circulation. More details on the event can be found here.

This is a bold move by a start-up company in an effort to reach out to a certain audience, but it’s not the first time it was done. eMarketer recently broke down how certain college students connect better with brands than with general company business, through a new report called US College Students 101: Updating Fundamental Facts About This Diverse, Digital Cohort. With it, a number of methods were revealed about the best way to reach out to this audience, with word of mouth topping the list with 48 percent, followed by ads on the Internet (39 percent), ads on television (31 percent) and free samples in a store (29 percent).

Thus, going for the “popularity” angle with a certain celebrity or spokesperson to help endorse said product can easily get a community talking – and send the sales possibly soaring, if done the right way.

More about brands selling big in mobile can be found in our report here.

 

December App Downloads Show ‘The New Reality Of Apps’

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When it comes to app downloads, there’s no question that people love them. But there’s also a question of whether companies are better prepared to provide more of them.

According to a report from Fiksu, app downloads from Apple’s App Store have managed to reach a new high for the month of December, with an average daily download volume of 9.2 million for the top 200 free iOS apps — that’s a jump from November’s 8.1 million and October’s 7.8 million, showing an increasing trend in popularity. In total, it’s a growth of 44 percent over December 2013’s numbers.

Fiksu’s CEO Micah Adler stated that the growth is “an indicator of what we call the ‘new reality of apps,'” according to GamesIndustry International. “Consumer demand across iOS and Android is rising, which draws significant attention from major brands who are putting cost pressure on the games and other mobile-first apps.

“We expect these factors will not only elevate costs for marketers, but also drive an evolution of marketing strategies,” he continued. “In 2015, just buying mobile ads won’t be enough to drive usage — app marketers will need robust strategies based on customer data and precision targeting to find the right users for the apps.”

interestingly, while the CPI (Cost Per Install) rose dramatically for both iOS and Android apps have risen (42 and 47 percent, respectively), the CPI for games declined by 15 percent and six percent, respectively. It may be that game publishers opted to try other marketing methods to generate installs in December, but for whatever reason the spending on game installs was just not as high.

“This division points to increased competition among top-tier brands during the holiday period, as well as suggesting that some game publishers opted to limit their investment in the holiday battleground this year,” said Adler.

Adding to the conversation was VB Insight analyst John Koetsier. “As competition for users just continues to amp up in mobile, smart publishers are using mobile marketing automation solutions to drive deeper engagement — and monetization — with the users they get,” he explained, speaking with VentureBeat.

“Many of the top solutions enable automated one-to-one targeting, offers and messaging . . . really a CRM-like experience at millions-of-users scale.”

Caution is still likely to be used by some companies when it comes to customer acquisition, but that isn’t likely to stop others from paying more for new users. Will game publishers turn back to spending on customer acquisition, causing game CPI’s to rise We’ll be watching with interest.

Virtual Reality Changing the Game At Sundance

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We already knew that some companies were planning to embrace virtual reality for the forthcoming Sundance Film Festival in Utah this month, but Vice News has a specific new project on the way that could really shake up how attendees view entertainment from the medium.

According to Variety, the company will debut its first VR-based news feature at the festival. A collaboration between filmmakers Chris Milk and director Spike Jonze, the piece, titled Vice News VR: Millions March, will focus on a protest that took place last month in New York City, in opposition of police brutality. Vice News’ Alice Speri will host the film, which will debut on a new app being produced by Milk and VR-based development team VRSE.

More than 25,000 New York citizens blocked the streets during the protest, following the Ferguson incident that happened months before, where a police officer killed an unarmed black teenager and another incident where a large African-American man was choked to death in Staten Island.

With the technology, Vice News set up the film to provide a “you are there” sort of presentation, engulfing viewers right into the thick of the action – rather than simply sitting them on the sidelines. It utilizes a 360-degree VRSE-built in camera system to make that effect all the more realistic.

This is just the beginning of Vice News’ new approach to journalism, as it expects to produce new pieces as well. “My hope is that VR is the tool we need to stir more compassion for one another,” Milk said in a statement for the project. “I think VR holds the potential to fundamentally change journalism.”

Jonze believes the project allows filmmakers to approach storytelling from a unique angle. “Living in New York this fall and feeling these spontaneous protests against police brutality that have been forming and growing, it seemed like this was the most timely and important subject to go shoot,” he explained. “When we got the footage back and watched it on the goggles, I was so moved by what we had.”

The app, which will also contain other programs such as the CGI-based Evolution of Verse, will be available soon for both iOS and Google Play. It’s likely it’ll find its way to the Oculus Rift technology as well.

It’s definitely a staggering new approach to cinema, and the involvement angle – being able to relive moments in a 360-degree setting – could set the pace for a new medium for the world to partake in. We’ll see how successful it is once it releases.

Imagining An Abstract Version Of The Internet With Google’s Eric Schmidt

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Wearables are a very hyped-about market right now. They constituted a considerable amount of the products unveiled at CES this year. It speaks to a larger trend– a very vague conception that we can imagine right now, but only just: the Internet of Things.

As we hurdle forth into a future in which the Internet of Things becomes more and less tangible at once, Google sees a reimagination of daily life already happening. “Connected life” platforms, of course, are emerging quickly and smartphone personal assistance like Siri and Cortana are becoming increasingly smarter about your context and intent.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Eric Schmidt saw beyond: “I will answer very simply that the Internet will disappear.”

Audi VRBrands like Audi are no longer seeing personalization as a marketing gimmick. Audi is using VR to get customers to configure the cars they want.

Of course, Schmidt doesn’t mean to say that the Internet will actually disappear, but it will change to become virtually unrecognizable as we see it now.

“There will be so many IP addresses… so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it,’ he goes on to say. “Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic, and with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”

Brands are only just wading into these waters and what these new platforms or decidedly non-platforms mean for the future of marketing, when everything feels like it’s changing so fast that it is hard to stay agile. But as technology moves to become more personalized and feel less like an obstruction and more like a convenience or even a necessity, so should marketing, too.

“Today, people expect to get the answers and services they want, customized precisely for them, in the exact moment that they want and need it — and there are many of these moments,” says Alan Eagle, Director of Executive Communications at Google.

“But in 2015, it won’t be enough to make life easier in just these moments. The winners will be the ones who use all the information at their disposal to learn and continuously improve so that the next experience isn’t just as good as the last but better.”

Speculating About Upcoming Android Phones

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With the Mobile World Congress (MWC) hitting Barcelona, Spain at the beginning of March, it’s that time of year when top Android phone makers are preparing the new generation of Android phones for release. While nothing’s official yet, there are plenty of leaks from usually reliable sources that enable us to paint a picture of the newest Android-powered phones. Perhaps even more importantly, we can get an idea of what this means to mobile gaming and marketing in general.

The leading Android phone producers that are expected to launch new phones in the next few months include Samsung, HTC, LG, and Sony. All are expected to produce new versions of their flagship phones, which will of course be at the premium end of the price range. While these phones may not be responsible for the largest sales numbers in the year ahead among Android phones, they do define the top end — which in a couple of years will be the middle to lower end of phones. For game developers, it’s important to keep an eye on what’s happening at the cutting edge of technology to know what sort of features you can expect to see as widespread among Android phones in a year or two.

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is an important phone for Samsung, which is looking to revive sales and profits from its mobile phone offerings. The company is apparently pulling out all the stops to make a killer phone, with the following features rumored:

  • 64-bit eight-core 14nm CPU, 50 percent faster than Galaxy S5
  • 5.1-inch Quad HD (2560×1440) Super AMOLED display with a 577ppi density, stunning outdoor visibility, super dim mode for late night
  • 20 megapixel OIS camera sensor and a 5 megapixel f/1.8 front-facing camera with real-time HDR
  • 32 / 64 / 128GB of storage
  • 2550mAh battery
  • Built-in wireless charging
  • Four hours of usage on a 10 minute charge
  • Quick connect charging
  • Samsung Pay: works with 90 percent of existing magnetic stripe payment terminals, and NFC payment terminals
  • Metal and glass body
  • Gorilla Glass 4
  • Cat 6 LTE

Meanwhile, HTC is also seeking to revive its Android phone division with the upcoming HTC One M9, also with impressive specs:

  • Qualcomm octa-core Snapdragon 810
  • 3 GB RAM
  • 5 inch 1920 x1080 display
  • 20.7 megapixel rear-facing camera
  • 2840 mAh battery
  • metal body similar to HTC One M8

LG is also said to be stepping up with the LG G4, said to be arriving sometime in May, with the following specs:

  • Qualcomm octa-core Snapdragon 810
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 32 or 64 GB of internal storage
  • 5.3 inch Quad HD (2560×1440) display, almost bezel-less
  • 20.7 megapixel rear-facing camera
  • 3500 mAh battery
  • metal body similar to HTC One M8Â

Not to be outdone, Sony is getting the Xperia Z4 ready, with these specs rumored:

  • 3 GB of RAM
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 CPU (2.8 GHz)
  • Adreno 430 GPU
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 5.5 inch Quad HD (2560×1440) display, possibly 6.44 inches on the Ultra model
  • 32 GB of internal storage (base)
  • 3500 to 4000 mAh battery
  • 20.7 megapixel rear-facing camera, 5 megapixel front-facing camera
  • Improved audio with better stereo separation in the speakers
  • IP68 water and dust resistant

CREATIVE: Watch These Game Trailers

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Pokken Tournament – Pikachu vs Lucario Gameplay

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gZudBzdMczQ

Pokemon meets Tekken – a match made in heaven Feast your eyes on nearly seven minutes of intense real-time fighting between two of Pokemon’s more popular monsters: the timeless Pikachu, and Smash Bros veteran Lucario. This is far from anything we’ve ever seen out of the franchise, and it seems to be a welcome change among fans of the pocket monsters. Will it turn into something good Time will tell, but they sure can stir up some discussion with even a few minutes of gameplay

Call of Duty: Advance Warfare – Havoc DLC Trailer “Randall Higgins: KillCameraman”

I feel like we hear the words “pulling out all the stops” associated with Call of Duty hype all the time, but my goodness did they pull out all the stops for this DLC trailer. Live action with lots of booms, plenty of gameplay and even a freaking Raconteurs song.

The best move here, however, was focusing on the unsung hero: the kill cam guy. It’s obviously preposterous to actually have a person wielding that camera on the battlefield, but isn’t it fun to think about I’d like to think there’s some psycho war photographer catching shots of every noob I pwn on the virtual battlefield. Not only was this a fun angle to take on a common trailer format (COD releases a trailer for every DLC pack they drop), but it’s something that every player will recognize and appreciate. Awesome fan service on top of the features.

Sid Meier’s Starships – Announcement Trailer

Sid Meier is going back to space! Coming soon for PC, Mac, and iPad, Starships is a turn based action strategy from the mind of the man who brought us the Civilization series. Piggybacking off of the themes from Civilization: Beyond Earth, you now have a fleet that is space combat ready, and you embark on a mission to save other pockets of mankind desperate for your help.

The game is described as an experience that focuses on starship design and combat within a universe filled with interstellar adventure, diplomacy, and exploration. Similar Civ themes, but this time you’re exploring space instead of trying to take over measly old Earth. Color me stratospherically excited.

BONUS: Strafe – Kickstarter Trailer

I . . . uh . . . don’t really have words for this one. Just watch it. *WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT*

App Store Revenues Beat Hollywood Box Office

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When people think of entertainment, they usually think of Hollywood and its primacy in movie and television production. After all, Hollywood is the leading revenue producer among entertainment media, right Not any more, according to Apple analyst Horace Dediu, who compared 2014’s App Store revenue figures from Apple with Hollywood’s 2014 US box office revenues. Apple paid $10 billion to app developers in 2014, while Hollywood’s US box office take for 2014 was roughly the same amount.

Those numbers are diverging rapidly, though. Apple took in $500 million from the App Store in just the first week of 2015, so it’s pretty clear that the total for this year will be much higher than 2014. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s box office grosses have been keeping in a fairly narrow range for the last five years.

The picture isn’t complete for either side, of course. Hollywood makes money overseas from movies, as well as from DVD sales, Blu-ray sales, and licensing revenue to various outlets. Still, it’s also true that the App Store numbers are merely a part of the app economy. “The Apps economy includes Android and ads and service businesses and custom development,” noted Dediu. “Including all revenues, apps are still likely to be bigger than Hollywood.”

The app economy is more than just app revenues, of course. The app economy sustains some 627,00 jobs (based on iOS) in the US, versus 374,000 jobs in Hollywood. And it’s quite probable that the average revenue of app developers is higher than the average revenue of actors.

Some more key stats for the App Store:

  • $500 million spent on iOS apps in first week of January 2015
  • Billings for apps increased 50 percent in 2014
  • Cumulative developer revenues were $25 billion (making 2014 revenues 40 percent of all app sales since store opened in 2008)
  • 627,000 jobs created in the US
  • 1.4 million iOS apps catalog is sold in 155 countries

‘Summoners War’ Employs Influencer Marketing Campaign With Street Art

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Launching a new mobile game is always a challenge, and publisher Com2us decided to pour some creativity and budget into its marketing efforts to help make its new game Summoners War fly. Com2us partnered with Vine influencers Cody Johns, Landon Moss, and Jake Paul to get some video sizzle for the game. Those Vine stars were paid to create and share Vines about the game, which have been generating good numbers (one Vine by Paul has been seen over 1 million times).

The marketing effort didn’t stop there, though. Com2us also worked with noted street artist Meggs to bring some street cred and interest to the title. The publisher recorded a time-lapse video of Meggs creating an original Summoners War-themed mural in Los Angeles. The Melbourne street artist painted an original 2,000-square-foot mural in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles all by himself during a six-day marathon. Clearly, Com2us’s marketing team was looking for some viral pickup on these videos, and so far the company has notched some 250,000 views on YouTube for its three videos.

“YouTube has been an extremely successful user acquisition strategy for some game publishers,” says VentureBeat Insight analyst John Koetsier. “For certain verticals — and gaming is one of them — YouTube can bring in not only a significant number of users, but also high-value users.”

This is all part of a push to bring Summoners War to Western audiences, noted VentureBeat. The game already has an audience of millions in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan, and now Com2us has set its sights on the lucrative US market, hoping this gameplay can attract players over here.

Will all this creative marketing work It will be interesting to watch the results over time. There’s also an official commercial for the game, and perhaps we’ll be seeing that on TV at some point. Machine Zone and King Digital have been getting good results with their TV campaigns for mobile games, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see more publishers with sufficiently deep pockets go that route as well.