EA: No Price Drop Near For Current-Gen

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The current console war is an interesting one, while the previous generation (the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) continue to be quite popular. Still, with “fresh blood” on the market, one would have to wonder if the older systems would drop in price anytime soon. EA’s financial officer Blake Jorgensen, however, doesn’t think this will be the case.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Technology conference, Jorgensen stated, “At some point, (Microsoft and Sony) will most likely bring those prices down, which could expand the marketplace for old-generation software. I’m guessing it’s probably late in the year or maybe even after next Christmas. I don’t know; they’ve not told us what their plans are but it’s probably not any time real soon.”

In the meantime, there are plenty of bundles to choose from, many of which are reasonably priced around $200 to $300, for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Source: GameSpot

Ouya Launches On Mad Catz’s M.O.J.O.

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Even though Ouya is content with its own console, it’s busily spreading its services around to others.

The company has announced that it will share its online store with other hardware makers, as part of its Everywhere initiative. This past week, it announced that it would bring its games to Mad Catz’s Android-based gaming system, called M.O.J.O. As part of the move, Mad Catz will lower the price of the system from $250 to $200, to help attract new customers.

“Up until now, the game console experience has been locked inside a box,” said OUYA chief executive Julie Uhrman in a statement. “Together with the hardware veterans at Mad Catz, we end that. Today’s announcement signifies the inception of a truly open platform where independent developers can bring their creations to the platforms where gamers actually play: everywhere.”

The OUYA services will coincide with M.O.J.O.’s own Google Play application, where players will have a number of games at their fingertips.

“This agreement with OUYA encapsulates our vision of an open software platform powered by M.O.J.O.’s high-performance hardware, and supported by the entire ecosystem of GameSmart gaming accessories,” said Mad Catz chief executive Darren Richardson. “We believe today’s announcements will widen the appeal of M.O.J.O. introducing it to a greater number of passionate gamers.”

Source: VentureBeat

Microsoft Bundles ‘Forza’ With Xbox One

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Microsoft is ready to up the ante with its Xbox One console. In addition to launching a specific Titanfall bundle with the first person shooter’s launch next week, the company has another deal in place for those who prefer the regular model – the racing game Forza Motorsport 5.

Those who purchase the system will receive a complimentary download code for Turn 10 Studios’ realistic racer, according to company spokesman Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb.

The offer is for a limited time, but it’ll save potential buyers $60 on a purchase, making the $500 asking price for the Xbox One seem a little more affordable. Note: the offer is only for regular Xbox One systems, and not the Titanfall package.

Hey, that still provides something to play, doesn’t it

Source: Digital Trends

Sony UK Bundles ‘Watch Dogs’

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Now that Ubisoft’s high-tech adventure Watch Dogs has a release date (May 27th), the company has moved forward with promotions on the game – one of which will see it bundled with PlayStation systems in the United Kingdom.

Sony has confirmed that special bundles featuring Watch Dogs will be released on May 27, the same day that the game arrives in stores. Both bundles will include a copy of the game, which features 60 minutes of gameplay exclusive to PlayStation consoles. The game will be featured in both a PS3 and a PS4 bundle.

Pricing hasn’t been revealed on the bundles yet, but they’re expected to not rise that much, making them a great value for those who don’t own them yet.

No word yet if the bundles will make their way to the U.S., but, at the very least, players will still be able to snag Watch Dogs on these shores when it arrives in late May.

Source: Polygon

Virgin Gaming: eSports For Everyone

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While attention has been drawn to the enormous success and amazing growth of eSports over the last few years, Virgin Gaming has been bringing competitive gaming to everyone else. The company provides tournaments in a variety of console games, primarily on the Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as head-to-head competition, gaming leagues, and sponsored tournaments, all with cash prizes. Since its launch, Virgin Gaming has registered over 2.7 million users and awarded over $41 million in cash prizes. Virgin Gaming has partnered with some of the top brands in the world including NOS Energy Drink, Maxim, Dr Pepper, Pizza Hut, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, SteelSeries, Energizer and Proctor & Gamble.

In other words, you don’t have to be a professional eSports competitor to make money playing a game. You can challenge individuals to a matchup in FIFA or Madden on NBA 2K and lay some money on the outcome, with Virgin Gaming handling all the details of the competition and the financial transaction. Or you can compete with your friends in a league, or join in an online competition. The [a]list daily spoke with Virgin Gaming’s Wim Stocks, EVP of business development, Zack Zeldin, VP of gaming operations (and Virgin Gaming co-founder), and Eric Nachman, director of marketing & strategy about Virgin Gaming’s latest moves.

Virgin Gaming has been busy adding more titles and making it easier than ever to begin competing. “Super Street Fighter IV is the first title we’ve used with the new onboarding process,” said Stocks. “We’re really broadening the number of titles on our platform, and not just sports titles or shooter — we’ll have racing titles, fighting titles, and military shooters and a whole host of other titles coming on board in the next three to four weeks.”

“Xbox Tournaments on the Xbox 360 is a free app that you can download today,” Stocks noted. “It streamlines the interactions a player will have in our events and our tournaments through Xbox Live. It syncs up friends lists, registrations, our wallets so a player can use their PayPal or credit card account.” As you might expect, Virgin Gaming is working on a successor to that app for next-gen consoles, but that won’t be announced until it’s almost ready. In the meantime, there’s plenty to play for current-gen console owners. “We’re announcing a whole host of tournaments that will run in conjunction with some of our key titles like NBA 2K14, FIFA 14, NHL 14,” said Stocks.

Making it easy for players to get into competitive gaming is obviously important, and that’s why Virgin Gaming has introduced a mobile app, Wewana: Play, to make it easier. “It was a little bit tedious for users to take that extra step to go to virgingaming.com and challenge someboday,” explained Zeldin. “That was always a focus for Virgin Gaming — if I can go on Xbox Live and press the A button three times and get matched up into an online game, what’s the advantage of Virgin Gaming We always struggled with that. How can we do this seamlessly, how can we take away the pain point for consumers Mobile was obviously the natural step for us in that direction.” Mobile is just the latest effort in this process. “The Xbox app was really the genesis to bridge that gap to eliminate the perceived barriers to entry,” added Nachman.

Virgin Gaming is essentially offering eSports for everybody by providing competitive gaming to the biggest possible audience. “We have tremendous respect for these eSports organizations that are really catering to the top 0.01 percent, the best of the best,” said Nachman. “Zach and I still play baseball with our friends in a league, even though we’ve aged a lot and we’re really bad. It’s ultra-competitive between the teams. Why not make it interesting and lay five dollars on it, that appeals to the casual gamer. With eSports the interest is there, we’re just making it available to everyone, and streaming is a big part of that.” It’s really bringing power to the people. “Now the consoles give you the ability to be your own directors,” Zeldin noted. “We can direct our matches, chop up the highlights with ‘Xbox record that’ and I can now show that awesome half-court shot I used to beat Eric.”

Getting the message out to players about the existence of competitive gaming is, of course, a challenge in itself. “Discoverability is always the challenge,” agreed Nachman. “For the most part, we’ve found that the most effective marketing tools and channels we have available is working directly with our publishing partners. We have a fantastic relationship with Electronic Arts, with TakeTwo, now with Capcom, and often times we’ll work a marketing communications strategy directly with their marketing team about aligning Virgin Gaming tournaments to their key beats. Whether it’s marketing in the game through kickers, relying on the publishers to work through their social channels, work with their key brand ambassadors, we look for the top influencers.”

Competitive gaming has been a very successful brand marketing tool for major brands looking to tap into the tremendous engagement of gamers and connect that to their brands. “We’ve got a number of different brands involved with us, looking at the opportunities to associate and communicate with the gaming audience,” said Stocks. “We just ran a Madden McDonald’s tournament, and a FIFA 14 event with ESPN FC — they actually ran the final event live in their studios. They’re seeing the power of engaging with this audience, and as a proving ground to try out different sorts of creative that can resonate with this audience.” The Madden McDonald’s tournament shows how creative a popular brand can get in trying to connect with gamers.

“It’s no longer CPM and impressions,” said Stocks. “The more insightful brands are seeing the engagement that videogaming and our tournaments can bring. It’s changing the discussion around what is effective advertising and what is effective sponsorship. We’ve got some pretty compelling evidence that things like purchase intent and affinity for the brand are off the charts. We did a sponsorship two years ago with Head&Shoulders, they’re an NFL sponsor, they sponsored a tournament. Some of the metrics that came from the tournament that they commissioned, they called it some of the most effective advertising and brand association that they’ve ever seen.”

This year Virgin Gaming plans to add 20 or more new games to the service, expand its mobile footprint (with some mobiles games getting ready for testing soon) and work on next-gen consoles as well. With competitive gaming finding support from players, publishers, and major brands, it looks like Virgin Gaming isn’t leaving anything to chance as the company expands.

Lego ‘Hobbit’ Game Ready For Capers

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This Lego The Hobbit commercial presents the Company of Dwarves as a sort of heist team, each with a myriad of personalities to keep the lively adventure going. Hilariously, they give up presenting the members individually about halfway through and just says, “And the Rest of Them” before showing more of the uproarious escapades.

 

Enter The ‘Age Of Extinction’

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Transformers: Age of Extinction picks up where the third film left off, and it seems like humans have a rather negative opinion of Transfomers. However, events make it clear that a new force is attacking Earth and that humanity, not even Mark Wahlberg, is not prepared to face it alone.

 

Hinting At The Horror

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Frictional Games, the developer behind Amnesia: The Dark Decent, is setting up something big with their sci-fi horror title Soma. It might be borrowing elements liberally from the movie Alien, but there’s nothing wrong with that if the game turns out to be excellent.

 

Experience War, A Second A Day

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Three years since the conflict in Syria began, over 100,000 people are dead and over 2 million are refugees, but many in the West have no perspective on what the civil war is like. Thus Save the Children U.K. has launched a video showing a young girl having her life transformed by conflict in this second a day video, showing it in the context of her going from a normal British childhood to that of being homeless in a refugee camp.

Source: AdWeek.com

 

Jack Tretton Departing Sony Of America

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Jack Tretton, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America and one of the key components behind the PlayStation brand, is leaving the company, effective at the end of this month.

The news broke yesterday after it was revealed that both sides mutually agreed not to renew his contract. A reason was not given for his departure.

“Working at SCEA for the past 19 years has been the most rewarding experience of my career,” said Tretton. “Although I will deeply miss the talented team at SCEA and the passion demonstrated every day by our fans, I’m very excited about starting the next chapter of my career. I want to thank the employees, partners and customers for their tireless commitment to the PlayStation brand and, of course, to our fans who have pushed us to new heights of innovation and entertainment over the past two decades. I leave PlayStation in a position of considerable strength and the future will only get brighter for PlayStation Nation.”

Shawn Layden, who currently serves as executive vice president and COO of Sony Network Entertainment International, will fill Tretton’s position starting April 1st, with over 15 years of PlayStation experience.

Source: GamesIndustry International