The development team at Alien Trap has been hard at work on a new side-scrolling action game called Apotheon. The game uses an art style drawn from classical Greek pottery combined with original gameplay elements with surprisingly good results. Apotheon features original Greek weaponry as well as beautiful level design, which you can check out for yourself in the video below.
Apotheon will release sometime in the next six months through PC/Steam.
Up until its official unveiling at E3 a couple of months ago, some folks were skeptical as to how Bungie’s latest game project, Destiny, would turn out. There’s no need to wonder any more as the gameplay definitely has that Halo-like aspect to it, with terrific graphics and great multiplayer events. The game has gotten an amazing reception over the past few months, prompting the developer to release a “thank you” video for its avid community. Of course this video also shows even more gameplay and encourages social media sharing by showcasing hashtags.
Destiny releases on PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in early 2014.
American Express is the first blue chip company to enter the eSports arena with sponsorship of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) and a new Riot Games credit card. Electronic Sports, or eSports, has been riding the success of Riot Games’ League of Legends over the past few years. Thanks in part to the explosion of live streaming through Twitch and the global appetite to watch pro gamers compete, and even practice, playing the world’s number one game, Riot has attracted a major sponsor in American Express. And more are sure to follow as the company has over 32 million active players.
For those who haven’t been following eSports, millions of gamers from around the globe tune in to watch big events like the recent LCS North American Regionals at PAX Prime and European Regionals at Gamescom. The winners from those events will compete for $2 million in cash at the LCS Season 3 World Championship in Los Angeles on October 4. Riot sold out 10,000 seats at the Staples Center in an hour and six minutes, and fans are already scalping tickets online as if it was a Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup Final game.
2012 LCS World Championships in Los Angeles
“From an engagement perspective, Riot Games is a great partner because League of Legends isn’t just about these huge live events, it’s also about the time spent playing the game and watching others playing the game for research and strategies,” said Ian Swanson, vice president of Enterprise Growth at American Express. “We want to reach the male millennial audience on a consistent basis. These millions of gamers aren’t just watching things live on Twitch, but many times afterward to learn from the pros. And they’re also actively talking about it.”
Swanson comes from the video game industry. He founded in-game payment and optimization company Sometrics, which was acquired by AmEx in September 2011. As a result, he has watched League of Legends grow in size and scale and seen the engagement levels of 18 to 24 year old male gamers rise along with the game’s eSports success.
Reigning ‘League of Legends’ champs Taipei Assassins
Swanson said the engagement for League of Legends is phenomenal. Players will spend three or four hours playing the game and then another five hours strategizing on how to play better. The American Express Serve Prepaid Account League of Legends card extends that reach and allows players to connect to the game by earning Riot Points through everyday purchases. The U.S. Government has also kept an eye on eSports. Riot Games worked with the State Department to allow League of Legends eSports players from other countries to receive the same P-1A visa status as other sports’ athletes. Dustin Beck, vice president of eSports at Riot, said the biggest winners with this achievement are the athletes playing League of Legends because it’s now a viable career path for players to pursue their dreams and passions.
“It further legitimizes eSports,” said Swanson. “It certainly helps that our government is aware that these players are professional athletes just like baseball or football players. From a marketing perspective, our core focus was on demographics, reach and scale, and Riot checked the boxes on each.”
In addition to the prepaid card, American Express is a sponsor of LCS and the upcoming World Championship at Staples Center.
“American Express is also a US Open sponsor, what this means for eSports is that we’re stepping up and saying this is no longer niche,” explained Swanson. “This is a large audience that’s strategic to our goals as a company to reach. Just as you see American Express at the US Open or LA Kings hockey games at the Staples Center, you’ll see us at LCS.”
Swanson added that the Staples Center is iconic for championships for tier one sports, and to have eSports there and gamers playing underneath the banners and jerseys of the Kings, Lakers and Clippers shows that they’re legitimate.
“We showed a video from the LCS Season 2 championship game at USC Galen Center to a bunch of execs at American Express and they were shocked at the fans and how excited they were and how proud the athletes were when they won,” said Swanson. “We told them that Riot would sell out Staples Center in a day, and then we were able to go back and tell them they sold out in an hour, so it was clear we made the right choice.”
Beck said having AmEx on board breaks the traditional mode gamer categories that have been sponsors of eSports over the last decade. He said this deal also makes sense for players because it’s a value-add experience.
“We’re careful about the sponsors we do work with and AmEx has that quality bar and they can deliver on that,” said Beck. “These cards fill a lot of needs and connect to the game world with champions from the game. Moving forward, whether it’s team specific or player specific cards, we haven’t figured that out yet.”
Having a “AAA” blue chip sponsor will likely open more doors for Season 4, especially once footage spreads of a sold out Staples Center hosting a video game tournament.
“Our participation will hopefully help legitimize eSports and help bring in other brands and other sponsors,” said Swanson. “The real testament goes to the players and quality of the game Riot has produced. We’re almost on the ground floor of eSports. In the next two to five years this thing is going to be much bigger than it is. And it’s already tens of millions of people watching around the world.”
Beck admits that the company is leaps and bounds ahead of where they thought they’d be in the eSports arena.
“All we can do is guarantee fans we have a focus on delivering high-quality, engaging experiences and that’s our first and foremost attribute,” said Beck. “We’re going to start doing more global experiences with fans. We have five distinct leagues in China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and we just launched in countries like Brazil, Russia and Turkey. It’s a unique situation where we have a global sport that is tough to benchmark outside of any sport except maybe FIFA or the Olympics.”
And it’s also unique in that most mainstream companies, which are struggling to connect with millennials, have yet to capitalize on this gaming audience. American Express is the first, but certainly won’t be the last.
The USA is the home to many great social and gaming apps for tablets and mobile devices, but it isn’t dominating like it used to.
A report from the mobile analytics firm Flurry shows that the numbers for US control of the mobile app market has slipped over the past couple of years. In 2011 and 2012, the US held a steady 45 percent of the market, compared to 55 percent with the rest of the world. However, in 2013, there was a huge change, with only 36 percent of the market for the United States, and 64 percent for the rest of the world.
However, in terms of weighted percentage of active apps (taking into account total time spent with the apps), the United States remains firmly in the lead . . . though it has slipped a little. In 2011, it had a 75 percent hold on this market, and in 2012, it rose a point to 76 percent. This year, though, it’s only at 70 percent – a small slip, but still a significant one.
Source: TechCrunch
Microsoft has already gone through its first round of Day One Edition systems for the Xbox One launch on November 22nd, but that isn’t stopping the company from prepping a few more for release.
Corporate president Yusuf Mehdi stated that additional units are now available for pre-order through various retailers. “We’ve been very fortunate and we’re very humbled by the amazing interest by our fans on Xbox One. So much so that we’re actually at this point sold out of Xbox One in pretty much all major retailers around the globe,” he said. “But because of the great progress that we’ve made by moving to full production and because of the demand we’ve seen, we’ve found a way to create a few more Day One SKU’s.”
“If you’re lucky and you’re up on your retail website this afternoon, you’ll be able to get your Day One SKU,” he concluded.
Retailers include the Microsoft Store, Best Buy, Amazon and GameStop, among others.
Source: Gamespot
The PlayStation Vita hasn’t exactly gotten off to the greatest of starts in the year and a half it’s been on the market, but it could very well see an upswing in the months ahead.
The system has seen a huge sales boost in the United Kingdom, with a 100 percent increase over the summer thanks to the Mega Pack – a collection of ten hit Vita games bundled onto an 8 GB memory card.
“Vita had a good summer, the Mega Pack is one of the things that has boosted performance by more than 100 percent,” said Sony’s UK boss Fergal Gara. “It’s now in growth year-on-year. And you’ve seen several pieces of news at Gamescom which will only help. So that means we can feel optimistic.”
“The process of trying to drive costs down on Vita has happened just as it’s lining up to be a fantastic companion to PS4. Our optimism around Vita is growing.”
One of the bigger games for the system, the first-person shooter Killzone: Mercenary, launches this Tuesday.
Source: MCV
Digital Media Wire is preparing to put on their next games conference, taking place September 17 in New York City. In addition to a daylong agenda looking at various game industry issues, much of it focused on digital games, the event will give game startups a chance to make their pitch to panel of big investment firms.
DMW is accepting entries from startups by email at ned@digitalmediawire.com. Finalists whose pitches make it past the first round will then have the opportunity to make their presentation during Games Startup Pitch Day, which takes place the same day as the games conference on September 17. Participating investors are Rogers Venture Partners, Raptor Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Time Warner Investments, Siemer Ventures, and Signia Venture Partners. The panel is also hearing pitches from video technology startups on September 18 – that’s likely why Comcast and Time Warner are there.
Conference organizers also recently announced speaker and panelist additions including award-winning game designer Greg Costikyan from Disney Playdom and Giordano Contestabile, VP of product management and revenue at newly formed digital game publisher Tilting Point. The [a]list daily also has a presence at the show. Chris Younger, who heads up strategy for [a]list daily publisher Ayzenberg, is moderating the Game Marketing Leadership Roundtable with Peter Gollan, head of global marketing, games group at Fiksu, Cara Scharf, president and founder of Fearless Media, JonMichael Bukosky, CEO of FragD Media, Sandy Diep, VP of advertising at BitTorrent, and Jill Braff, formerly EVP of digital commerce at HSN.
DMW Games NY web site has more information on the conference agenda and the startup pitch contest.
Games are usually categorized as purely entertainment, and their artistic value can often be overlooked. Many of the new games on the market, from thatgamecompany’s compelling Journey to Nintendo’s upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD reboot, are using a refreshing artistic approach that drives home just how much talent goes into creating these works of art. With artistic vision in mind, Tequila Works is working on a new game called Rime, a game that combines the best elements of Zelda, Journey and Ico into one beautiful adventure. It’s a visual feast, and if the gameplay is anywhere near the same quality, this will be a hit.
Rime is currently scheduled for a 2014 release on PlayStation 4.
Humor and a firm grasp of the odd has been a hallmark of Old Spice since the highly successful campaign starring Isaiah Mustafa. Old Spice continues in this tradition with a series of 15 second spots starring NFL players Wes Welker of the Denver Broncos and Jerod Mayo of the New England Patriots. You may think you know where the ad is going when it starts, but you’ll never guess where it ends. It’s a great lesson in creating memorable spots that are sure to get passed around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXuho3eRfh4
Source: AdWeek
The hugely popular Games Workshop miniatures game Space Hulk has become the first-person shooter Space Hulk: Deathwing, aptly demonstrated by this teaser trailer. As you’d expect from any Space Hulk game, you play a Space Marine Terminator and fight Genestealers on board a creepy derelict space ship. The Unreal Engine 4 game looks gorgeous, grim and ready for action.
No word yet on the release date, but this video is sure to spur interest.
