Microsoft Clarifies Rules On Content Streaming

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It’s no surprise that game companies want to make more from the game streaming phenomenon, considering how massively popular streaming services like Twitch have become, with upwards of 55 million monthly viewers. There hasn’t been a clear legal basis for streaming someone else’s game or posting videos from it and deriving revenue from that, which is something that various game publishers are taking steps to clarify. Some have already taken a stance to partner with their young broadcasters, while others have set guidelines that could be beneficial to them down the road. Well, you can add Microsoft to that list.

The makers of the Xbox One game console have posted a series of new guidelines for users who post content from its games to YouTube and Twitch, as well as other venues. With these rules, the company has governed the use of its content for external purposes, but has also loosened some of the restrictions as a result, according to GamesIndustry International.

The rules, which can be found in full here, basically cover what users can and can’t use for footage as far as commercial moneymaking is concerned. The real big restriction is that content can’t be used in any form when it comes to paid applications, or those that would generate some form of ad money.

“Microsoft grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-sublicenseable, non-transferable, revocable, limited license for you to use and display Game Content and to create derivative works based upon Game Content, strictly for your personal, noncommercial (except as specifically provided below) use,” said the company’s statement.

There are also specifics when it comes to use agreement, as the rules state. “(Name of the Microsoft Game) @ Microsoft Corporation. (The title of your item) was created under Microsoft’s ‘Game Content Usage Rules’ using assets from (Name of the Microsoft Game) and it is not endorsed by or affiliated with Microsoft” must be posted with the content.

“We’re encouraging you to create and redistribute your items,” the company explained further. “You may post the items on your own site or you may link to a third-party site containing your items if you’d prefer to store them there, so long as the third-party site does not break any of these Rules.”

This is different from what Nintendo did last year with a similar stance, first cracking down on YouTube users making commercial gains off its content before eventually making a partnership deal where the revenue is split between Nintendo, the broadcaster and the video creators.

More details on Microsoft’s rules can be found here.

Indonesia: Fastest Growing SEA Gaming Market

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The gaming market worldwide is quite healthy, and one of the factors to its success is Southeast Asia, where total revenues for the past year have managed to exceed $1.1 billion, with 99 percent of that amount coming from six key countries.

A new report from Newzoo, however, shows that, out of these six markets, there’s one that’s outpacing all the rest — and it’s Indonesia.

With assistance from such companies as Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Facebook, Newzoo was able to compile the information indicating Indonesia’s massive growth, according to Tech In Asia. It’s quite a bit of data to take in — the largest the company has done to date, resulting in a 75-page report — but the information is definitely something of interest to the publishers and developers interested in marketing games in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, alongside Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has managed to generate an annual growth rate of 28.8 percent, with gaming revenues for the entire region expected to rise up to $2.2 billion within just three years’ time. That growth is calculated in the chart below, showing just how quickly the market has risen in just two years already, going from $806 million to $1.09 million. Indonesia, as you can see, plays a huge part in all of it.

With an estimated population of 626 million, not everyone takes part in gaming, since only a small percentage of the population has access to Internet. But these folks show quite an interest in games, with over 70 percent of those with access taking part in some form of gaming session. With the massive increases projected for smartphone and tablet sales in Asia, it’s clear the gaming market will continue to expand rapidly.

Out of the 126 million gamers estimated, almost half (60 million) actually spend money on games, spending an average of $18.40 on games a year. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, about $16 (or Rp 200,000) is spend annually on games, estimating for a good portion of that total.

Indeed, Southeast Asian gaming is on the rise. More specific stats can be found here.

Marketing Technology Expands

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When it comes to the field of marketing technology, the landscape is changing rapidly. No, seriously — the picture you see below is a layout of all the companies involved in a variety of fields, counting into the hundreds, and even thousands.

The report, compiled by Mediapost, shows just how much the landscape is changing, and it’s getting to the point that even the experts in the field can’t keep up with all the companies that have popped up over the last few months.

Compiled by Scott Brinker, co-founder for ion, the chart shows a listing of 1,876 companies and open-sourced projects, spread across 43 different categories. These calculate to twice the numbers from the previous report posted in 2014, with 947 different companies split into the categories.

With the report, Brinker points out that broader marketing technology has become king, even overcoming some of the better-known companies in the ad tech industry.

Growth of these companies should continue onward, and the IDC is reporting that companies worldwide will spend a massive $22.6 billion on marketing software for the new year. It’s estimated to grow even further to $32.3 billion by 2018.

There aren’t many changes to the categories with this year’s report, although there are some inclusions like performance and attribution added to it. “I broke out from the social media category a separate category for influencer marketing,” explained Brinker. “We’re now seeing a set of companies specializing in managing relationship with influencers.”

With the overflowing chart above, Brinker believes that, while there will be growth with scale and scope of companies, there also needs to be management involved to keep things in balance.

Technology will continue to play a key part with these companies as well, with marketing tech picking up through the introduction of new products in the Internet of Things field, as well as new digital physical experiences (3D printers and other objects of the like) that will keep consumers interested in these companies.

More details on the report can be found here.

Azubu Holds ‘Best Zed North America Tournament’ For Charity

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ESports broadcaster Azubu is set to start the weekend off with a bang for fans of League of Legends everywhere.

The Best Zed North America Tournament will feature 32 of North America’s premiere League of Legends players showing off their best moves in a bracketed tournament, each fighting for tons of cool prizes and the right to declare themselves the best Zed, Master of Shadows, in North America. Players will play for either Extra Life or The Humane Society of the United States, making the tournament a surefire win-win for gamers and charity alike.

A formal announcement about the tournament can be found on Azubu’s News page; viewers looking to donate to the Humane Society or Extra Life should visit Azubu’s PayPal page for more information.

‘Call of Duty’ Championship Offers Big Money; Bolsters ESports

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With last year’s tournament being an eminent success, Activision (per an official announcement on Xbox Wire) has gone ahead and announced a 2015 Call of Duty Championship, which will take place on March 27-29th in Los Angeles, California. The tournament promises to be a big boost for eSports in general and especially for console-based eSports, offering over $1 million in prizes for prospective teams.

The tournament will focus on multiplayer sessions featuring the newly released Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, with a total of 32 teams from around the world battling to become World Champions.

The qualifying events for the tournament are set to be broadcast online through Xbox One consoles, while the final round of the Call of Duty Championship will be available both on Xbox Live and other networks.

With it, Activision hopes to “boost eSports to new heights,” beyond the same level that it produced with last year’s championship. “We developed Advanced Warfare with the competitive community in mind, and we can’t wait for the top talent from around the world to compete in the Call of Duty Championships,” said Sledgehammer co-founder Glen Schofield. (Sledgehammer Games is the developer behind Advanced Warfare.)

What’s more, the tournament isn’t exclusive to top-tier players. Anyone can enter and try their luck with it, whether they’re amateurs or professionals. This is a nice change from pace from usual tournaments that focus more on top-tier players. Those that are interested in applying can do so over on the official website.

The official trailer for the tournament is below, and really shows you how hyped up it has become in just a short amount of time, with thousands in attendance (and watching online) as players go all out in full-blown competition.

“From Day 1, the team at Sledgehammer Games set out to bring a new way to play Call of Duty multiplayer to fans. We couldn’t be more thrilled of how the competitive community has embraced and mastered the new player movements and game modes of Advanced Warfare,” said Michael Condrey, co-founder and studio head, Sledgehammer Games. “This is posed to be one of the most exciting Call of Duty competitive seasons, with the Call of Duty Championship presented by Xbox being one of the best eSports tournaments of the year.”

More information on the tournament can be found on the official page.

 

Bring The Popcorn: Twitch To Host Online Movie Nights

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Twitch is an ideal service when it comes to broadcasting gameplay sessions and other live events that amass a huge following by gamers and other audience members everywhere. For the next six weeks, however, it’ll become an online movie house.

Per an announcement on the company’s blog, the streaming channel is teaming up with Austin-based game publisher Devolver Digital to host an online movie event, with new films based around the game industry premiering every Friday, for audiences everywhere to see – free of charge.

Starting today and running through February 20th, Twitch will be host to such films as Stream Dream, Pixel Poetry, Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, Gaming In Color and Super Game Jam: The Movie, with a sixth film to be announced before February 20th.

In addition to the film, filmmakers will also be on the channel, live chatting with the hosts and interacting with the audience.

“Twitch represents a new frontier for filmmakers looking to connect with an audience who is passionate about video game culture,” said Ben Goldhaber, director of content marketing for Twitch. “Devolver Digital is the perfect example of a studio who understands the appeal of Twitch’s social video format by both documenting our brand in Stream Dream and scheduling broadcasts of half a dozen gaming films on our platforms.”

The films will premiere every Friday around 2:15 PM PST over on the main Twitch channel. The movies will also be made available for rental and download on several video-on-demand platforms, including Amazon, Google Play, PlayStation, Xbox and Vimeo On Demand.

Those looking to get a better perspective of online game culture – or just want to kick back and have fun with video game-related content – would be wise to catch these films in action. In addition, viewers can also learn a thing or two from the filmmakers as well.

Google Outlines Three Trends For Marketers To Watch

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Marketers are always on the lookout for hot new trends to help boost their business, and with a new year kicking into high gear, it always helps to know the “hot” ones that will lead business for the next few months. With that, Think With Google has published a report that indicates the three top tech trends that companies should keep an eye on this year.

The three trends in general are Connected Life Platforms Are Emerging, Mobile Shapes the “Internet of Me” and The Speed of Life Gets Even Faster. While those sound a bit general, they break down more specifically below . . .

Connected Life Platforms Are Emerging


According to the report, “the ‘Internet of Things’ is officially a thing. As devices proliferate and start to work together, connected objects will become platforms for your life. They’ll help you with the things you do every day — from entertainment to driving to taking care of your home.” The searches for this method have increased by two and a half times since December 2013, with an even larger growth by three times the number of searches with the health-conscious.

Mobile Shapes the “Internet of Me”


According to Think With Google, “your smartphone is getting smarter. As the hub for all these connected platforms, it can use lots of data to create better, personalized experiences. The ‘Internet of Things’ is becoming an ‘Internet of me’ — all to simplify your life.”

With 1.3 billion smartphone shipping globally in 2014 and 151 minutes per day spent on mobile devices (more than TV or laptops, according to Millward Brown), they’re certainly becoming more of a personable technology.

The Speed of Life Gets Even Faster


From the report, “Online or off, we can now get information, entertainment and services in the exact moment we want them. These quick moments of decision making happen constantly — and the more connected we are, the more they’ll happen.”

Devices like built-in cameras on smartphones and lightweight HD cameras make it easier to capture “moments” in users’ daily lives, and searches for these devices grew greatly over the last year. Drone services estimated a sharp 270 percent growth overall, while 4K was close behind with 142 percent, compact was up 42 percent, and HD was close behind with 25 percent — not too shabby compared to 2013’s numbers.Â

Drones have also been a huge draw with videos, as over 800,000 hours of clips made by them were watched on YouTube during November 2014, and their search numbers grew larger, 2.6 times greater than in the previous year, according to Google Data.

Gaming’s First Robots Push STEM Education, Too

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It’s always fun to interact with games of some sort, whether you’re playing them digitally on a console or PC, or using real objects to get into a good match with your opponent. Very rarely, though, do you see ones made merely for the sake of education, although they can still be entertaining.

That’s certainly the case with the Mecha Monsters, a new toy being produced by UK-based startup tech company Reach Robotics. Led by Silas Adekunle, this robot gaming system enables players to battle against one another, using voice commands given through a connected smartphone app.

As revealed by Robotics Today, the machines are actually able to learn and grow as they fight, working their way through a pre-programmed web-based universe. As players progress with them, they can earn new customizations, being able to add items like shields and additional skills that become unlocked over time.

Where the education part comes into play is with dual-level developers’ software, which not only provides endless opportunities for players, but also devoted programmers who want to adapt the behavior of their robots even further. Using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, they provide an easy way to learn more about robotics in general, as well as coding and mechanics for up-and-coming inventors and experienced builders alike, all through the convenience of the app.

“Although they are very fun to play, they are also an easy and accessible gateway into learning about robotics,” said Adekunle. “When you’re done playing with our robots, you can use our developer software to start creating custom motions. It’s a simple way to try out coding and see it play out in real life.”

The product recently won People’s Choice runner-up at the Pitch@Palace showcase, and the team is hard at work preparing a prototype for a mass-market production sometime this year.

“Before we can make a lasting impression on people through exposure to STEM and robotics, we first need to capture their imaginations,” said Adekunle. “We’ve created a product that combines entertainment and education, but we know that the journey to bring it to life is difficult.”

The Mecha Monsters can be seen in action in the video below.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=D7uHQMB6WE0

mNectar Playable Ads Get Integrated

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Creating mobile ads is one thing, but creating effective mobile ads is quite another, especially for mobile games. Ads that interrupt a user are worse than useless, but ads that users actively want to engage are another thing entirely. According to Pocket Gamer, interactive ad company mNectar has made it easier than ever by integrating its functional ads into several of the most popular platforms, including Twitter.

mNectar’s streaming ads mean that users can try out a game or other mobile app without having to go through the hassle of a download, as we detailed in this interview with the CEO last year. Now, the company’s services have become integrated with a number of the most popular integration programs, including Twitter, Opera Mediaworks, Fuse Powered and Sprint, which will allow more than 7,000 app publishers to have access to mNectar’s playable ad network. This will allow would-be consumers to try games and apps before they download them to their phones.

Using server-to-server integration and a full-screen display, the ads are an easier way to give users a full app experience, rather than enduring a download or just watching a video of an app in action. Better still, mNectar’s ads don’t require any sort of SDK to implement, making it easy for developers to use the technology in a brief amount of time.

A number of companies have already signed up to use the service, including game publishers like Big Fish, GREE and Zeptolab. This is the latest move by San Francisco-based mNectar, following a fundraising period last July, in which the company successfully raised $7 million in a Series A funding round hosted by New Enterprise Associates.

The video below shows the ad program in action, and although it’s a rather brief clip, it does indicate how effectively it works. No doubt a number of clients should pick up on it as the year rolls along – which will just lead to bigger success for mNectar.

http://vimeo.com/91955300

mNectar Playable Demo Video from mNectar on Vimeo.

 

CES 2015: Surprise, Millennials Are Not Tied to Any One Screen

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By: Sahil Patel

Only 55 percent of millennials use TVs as their primary source for watching video, according to a new study from NATPE and the Consumer Electronics Association, which was conducted by E-Poll Market Research and released at CES in Las Vegas.

The goal of the study was to document how people are discovering, finding, and watching TV content as more and more streaming-capable devices launch in the marketplace, and more and more users adopt them into their daily lives.

See the findings in the news NATPE/CEA study…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.