Media | Page 38 of 1254

Jagex Activates Amazon Alexa Gaming Potential

February 2, 2017, 11:55AM

Jagex is one of the first big game companies to take the “video” out of video games and explore the potential for interactive audio gaming with the Amazon Alexa platform. RuneScape, Jagex’s massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, has introduced an exclusive audio-based adaptation of its award-winning content as a Skill for Amazon’s Alexa voice service.

RuneScape Quests: One Piercing Note is an interactive murder mystery audio adventure game, produced in partnership by Amazon and the RuneScape game team at Jagex Games Studio. It’s currently available from the Skills section in the Alexa App for Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and all Alexa-enabled devices in the US and UK.

In the game, players become the voice of an adventurer tasked with solving a murder at the Abbey of St. Elspeth. Players choose their path throughout the adventure, engaging in audio puzzles, investigating crime scenes, selecting how to question suspects and (ultimately) how to catch the killer. The game takes full advantage of Alexa’s AI machine learning; using its speech recognition and spoken language extraction to make interactions more conversational and directions more natural, putting the player squarely in the role of a proper investigator.

Mark Ogilvie, design director for RuneScape, explains what Alexa opens up for established video game franchises in this exclusive interview with [a]listdaily.

Why did you decide to get involved with Alexa as a new gaming platform?

Fascination more than anything. We’re always interested in experimenting with new tech, and the idea of bringing our stories to Alexa was an opportunity we couldn’t say no to. A chance meeting at an event led to some of the Alexa Europe team being invited into the office, where we wowed them with some interesting ideas for the future. They were hooked!

**How do you see Alexa growing the RuneScape brand to a new audience of gamers?**

Every developer is interested in removing barriers to entry–we want the effort to play our games to be as small as possible. With the Alexa AI, you can play games in moments you would have thought impossible–no control pad, total hands-free interaction. I think for some, it’s the traditional methods of interaction that often prove the biggest inhibitors to playing any game. Also, people with Alexa-enabled devices might not be typical gamers. It’s a lifestyle gadget at the end of the day, not primarily a gaming platform. So that’s going to introduce new people to our worlds.

How do you see Alexa and Jagex leveraging each other’s brands for success?

Alexa Skill users are always looking for new ways to use their devices, and RuneScape players tell us they want to experience our world through different mediums. We both have an audience with an appetite for it.

How large was the team and how long did it take to develop this game?

We developed the game over about six weeks, with Amazon assisting with the technical development aspects of the project. At Jagex, it was a dedicated team of five, with some others helping out on a part-time basis. We also used a group of professional voiceover actors for the audio, who were amazing.

What were the challenges of developing for this new voice platform?

Because it’s so new, none of us really knew what we were doing in the early phases. Even Amazon themselves were discovering new challenges through One Piercing Note’s development. For example, there is a 90-second restriction for each section between user inputs, otherwise Alexa assumes the user has stopped and the skill self-terminates We didn’t know about that until halfway through development, so we had to rewrite huge chunks of dialogue and change the flow of the experience, adding points of interaction even after lots of the voice recording had been done. Frankly, you have to expect those sorts of challenges when using something so innovative.

What type of replay value has been built into this game?

We have a few different endings available, and there are choices throughout the adventure that lead to different experiences, which are often comedic sidesteps.

How can groups of people partake in this new adventure?

It’s primarily written as a solo adventure, but we have played it in groups in the office. Actually, my friends play tested it for me in a group. Just make sure you have an elected spokesperson and use the mute button liberally.

**How does this new game tie into the traditional RuneScape game universe?**

It’s a standalone adventure, so it doesn’t rely on RuneScape knowledge to play. But if you’re interested in medieval fantasy at all, it’s certainly something you should check out. One Piercing Note is actually a quest that exists in RuneScape today. It was originally written six years ago as our first quest with ‘proper’ audio that was fully voice acted and a story that used song as an integral part of the narrative. It’s set in an abbey inhabited by a group of holy sisters that believe song has the power to ward away demons. In the abbey, there has been a horrific murder, and the player embarks on a classic whodunit adventure with supernatural twists.

We’ve changed the quest a fair bit to capitalize on the nature of Alexa-enabled devices–it now includes audio puzzles, for example–so there’s plenty of new things in there for classic RuneScape fans to enjoy. The game responds to your choices on how to deal with the challenges you face, and ultimately who you suspect, so it’s really quite an empowering experience.

**Is this an experiment or a new platform for further RuneScape adventures? What will ultimately decide that?**

We’ve really enjoyed the experience, and our audio team in particular has had a real chance to shine and they exceeded all our expectations. Right now, it’s an experiment but we’d love to do more. We have some very bold ideas about using Alexa devices as traditional table-top dungeon masters. Perhaps they’d be able to properly roleplay, with the player using freeform responses that Alexa’s awesome linguistic skills can interpret, thus delivering unique adventure experiences. I think that’s very exciting.

Ultimately, it depends on the response from our communities and the download figures we get. If people like it and it has a positive effect on the RuneScape brand, we’d certainly be at the front of the queue to do more.

UrbanWorld Music Brings Power Of Hip-Hop To VR

BY Steven Wong

February 1, 2017, 11:43AM

Virtual reality (VR) and hip-hop are merging together with a new partnership between Digital Mind State and social music platform VRTIFY. The result is UrbanWorld Music, the first virtual and augmented reality (AR) channel to focus on hip-hop music and urban entertainment content.

UrbanWorld Music (powered by VRTIFY) is expected to launch in June, and it will take advantage of the perfect marriage of art and technology. Music ranks as one of the most popular content types for VR, since VR is perfect for quick viewing periods—about the average length of a song. Additionally, hip-hop and urban music generate more than $10 billion per year and hip-hop has over 45 million consumers between the ages of 13 and 34, according to a SLMG study cited in a press release.

Mike Johns, CEO of Digital Mind State, describes the channel plainly: It’s “VR meets soul music! UrbanWorld is the first of its kind platform to support hip-hop and urban entertainment content for VR/AR consumption.”

Johns is joined by the founder and CEO of VRTIFY, Facundo Diaz, and the two talk to [a]listdaily about bringing the hip-hop and virtual reality closer together.

How did the partnership to create UrbanWorld Music come together?

[Diaz]: We are a tech company that has developed all of the capabilities to produce and distribute music in immersive technologies. We’ve been working with different artists creating music clips and filming or livestreaming concerts, but we rely on the creativity and the vision from the music industry to take advantage of this amazing technology. It was the right opportunity when Mike brought this idea of a completely new space for urban music creation to us. In this partnership, we are providing the technical tools to bring UrbanWorld Music to life. We are excited about this great opportunity of working with all the UrbanWorld Music team, to re-invent the way Urban Music fans experience and access their favorite music.

What inspired the creation of a hip-hop VR channel?

[Johns]: UrbanWorld was a disrupter during the ringtone days, bringing new revenue streams to a slew of artists who have since remained loyal. Most notable artist we’ve worked with in the past include Oscar award-winning duo, Three Six Mafia, Jerry Springer, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. VR and music have made for the perfect mix to resurrect the name UrbanWorld. While movements were being made in both rock and EDM, not much has been done with the integration between VR, hip-hop and urban entertainment content. We are aiming to change that.

In what ways does this music channel differ from what the VRTIFY platform offers?

[Diaz]: This will be the first full concept channel for us. It is much more than an artist or concert section. UrbanWorld Music is a channel that has entity, per se, and will focus on the spirit of urban music in a new and fully immersive way. It will not only include videos, but it will also include shows, interviews, back stage access, additional content and unique experiences.

How will users access the channel? What VR devices will be supported?

[Diaz]: The channel will be available on the UrbanWorld Music website (360 degrees content) and in most known virtual reality platforms: HTC Vive, Oculus, Android and iOS.

How are you getting the word out about UrbanWorld Music?

[Johns]: We are aggressively going after artists and indie labels within our database as well as sourcing emerging talents.

Why do you think music and VR go so well together?

[Diaz]: Music is not only what we hear. Music is a completely sensorial experience. Music allows us to transport ourselves to new worlds, situations and is a state of mind. Virtual Reality and immersive technologies allow us to create new experiences around music. With the UrbanWorld Music channel, we’ll let urban music fans transport themselves to new music experiences, attend concerts right from the stage, experience what a day in the life of their favorite artist looks like, and have access to new kind of immersive shows.

[Johns]: Virtual Reality allows musicians to be creative and to explore the intersection of art and technology. In addition to that, VR is the new frontier to connect with music fans.

AppsFlyer Is Converging Performance Marketing And Brand Marketing

BY Steve Peterson

January 26, 2017, 09:58AM

Marketing has become ever more dependent on data and analytics, and as a consequence companies that can provide tools to gather and analyze data effectively are doing quite well.

One such company is AppsFlyer, the leading mobile attribution and marketing data analytics company, which recently announced it has raised an additional $56 million in Series C financing. The company will invest this funding in the enhancement of its products to help even more marketers measure engagement with their target audiences.

AppsFlyer is growing strongly as the market for mobile advertising and marketing continues to expand. The company has grown revenues by 500 percent in the last two years, and expanded headcount from 40 to 240 people across a dozen global offices in that same period. Building on this growth phase is AppsFlyer’s new investment round.

“A lot of good things are happening at AppsFlyer at the moment,” said Jasper Radeke, AppsFlyer’s director of marketing for North America, speaking exclusively to [a]listdaily. “This funding of $56 million brings our total investment since our founding to $84 million. For us it’s a testimony to the expectation of continued growth of the mobile industry this company in particular. If you look at the growth trajectory of AppsFlyer and the products we’ve developed over the last couple of years, it’s a very strong indicator of us being on the right track when it comes to delivering on the needs of publishers for mobile measurement.”

Jasper Redeke — Jasper Radeke, AppsFlyer’s director of marketing for North America

Marketing analytics is becoming increasingly important, and Radeke explains why. “The state of marketing analytics and mobile attribution in general is that we’re now at a stage where it’s a must have,” Radeke said. “Over 80 percent of the top 500 apps in the App Store have some sort of mobile attribution SDK integrated. Publishers and app advertisers understand that they need to have a holistic view of their user funnel from the acquisition part, from the advertising part, up to engagement and retention. At the heart of this, giving publishers and app advertisers this perspective of the entire user funnel is what we’re doing. There’s a lot of talk about marketers becoming more and more data driven, and mobile is at the forefront and we’re supporting app developers with the tools to do that.”

While all kinds of app publishers are using mobile analytics, gaming is a key vertical. “A lot of this has been driven by gaming companies,” Radeke said. “We work with Activision, Bethesda, Konami, Sega, Playtika, Microsoft and others. This speaks to a larger movement of mobile companies becoming really interested in these types of products.”

AppsFlyer’s efforts have been very successful for gaming companies, according to Radeke. “If you look at the list of the products we’ve released, nearly all of them are about closing existing gaps in the funnel. We released uninstall tracking, which helps you better understand churn, and ties that back to the media sources that you use for acquisition. Especially for the gaming side, very relevant is the ad revenue attribution. Looking at how app publishers, especially gaming publishers, make money advertising plays a large role. We released a product that gives you a more holistic view of all your sources of revenue, including advertising. We released the most advanced anti-fraud suite in the market, it’s a combination of traditional anti-fraud measures but it’s also powered by the largest database worldwide on fraudulent devices.

“Our SDK is integrated, through one app or another, on 98 percent of the world’s mobile devices,” Radeke continued. “We use this information to identify potential fraudulent devices and really help publishers stop that traffic before it even occurs. We are thinking about the entire user funnel at all stages of engagement and how we can help marketers become more data-driven and gain actionable insights from the data we are providing.”

As mobile phone growth slows and the market matures, the role of marketing analytics is changing.

“Definitely, the days of the Wild West are over, and mobile app publishers and advertisers are becoming much more aware that you have to go beyond a pure install,” Radeke noted. “You have to really look at user quality, you have to look at engagement, and you have to find what that actually means. You have to think about meaningful events and data points that you can use to quantify that.”

Radeke has some advice about what app marketers are doing to make their apps successful in the current market. “One of the key success criteria that we see is being very smart about how you spend your user acquisition budget,” Radeke said. “This is what we ultimately help marketers with. For a long time there was this notion of trying to touch as many people as possible through your app, and hoping that somehow they will stick, and a couple of them will monetize. That was true for a while, but looking into data points that help you identify the most valuable audiences, help you to find engagement, and trying to acquire similar audiences based on these data points, that is one of the strategies that works really well.”

The future looks like an interesting one for mobile app marketing, from AppsFlyer’s broad perspective. “I think there are a couple of areas that are going to be crucial,” Radeke said. “What we’re seeing already is a convergence of performance and brand marketing. Performance marketing is becoming more than just metrics, it’s becoming sophisticated in terms of ad units. We’re looking at native ads, at different ways of how to build a brand on mobile. At the same time the brand marketers are looking more at the data. We’re going to see a convergence of these two approaches, which used to be portrayed as being at odds.”

Gaming and travel were the leading app categories, but that is changing.

“More traditional verticals are catching up and starting to develop their own very sophisticated ways of creating mobile-first marketing strategies,” Radeke said. “For example, AppsFlyer is integrated with four of the top five shopping apps in the United States. Mobile-second marketers are looking at how we integrate mobile experiences and tie them back into experiences in brick-and-mortar stores, and to online presence on desktop and web. A coming together of these different funnels to a true omni-channel marketing strategy that is driven by mobile but reaches into these different channels and makes it measurable is going to be very interesting to watch, and one of those areas where I see AppsFlyer putting a stake in the ground and saying this is one of the things we can own.”

Lights, Camera, Marketing: Top Video Platforms By The Numbers

BY H.B. Duran

January 25, 2017, 09:45AM

According to a new study by Demand Metric and Vidyard, more than 90 percent of marketers said that video content is becoming more important. A recent Cisco study predicts that consumer consumption of video will constitute 80 percent of all global internet traffic by 2019. Marketers know that video should be part of the strategy, but which platforms are best? Let’s break it down.

YouTube

Currently the top video streaming site in the world and second most popular website overall according to Alexa, YouTube hosts over 1 billion users, 1.7 million of which are from the US.
Global popularity can be attributed to no less than 88 local versions and being able to navigate YouTube in 76 different languages, covering 95 percent of the population.
Each month, users watch 3.25 billion hours of video and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube, generating billions of views, according to the site.
More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
Fifty-one percent of marketers say that video is the type of content with the best ROI and YouTube remains the king of social video platforms, even with Facebook Live, Twitch, Periscope and even upstarts like YouNow and Live.me rising in popularity.
YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-to-34 and 18-to-49-year-olds than any cable network in the US.

“YouTube remains the top destination for teenagers, who also rate it the ‘coolest’ social platform and they trust the creators on it much more than they do traditional celebrities,” said Caroline Collins, director of social media for Ayzenberg in the fourth quarter Ayzenberg EMV Index. (Note: [a]listdaily is the publishing arm of Ayzenberg.)

Facebook

As of the third quarter of 2016, Facebook had 1.79 billion monthly active users.
Over half of the US population will log on to Facebook at least once per month, according to predictions by eMarketer.
Users watch 100 million hours of video per day on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, and 500 million people watch Facebook video every day.
People spend more than three times more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live, Facebook reported.

While the wildly popular social network claims to serve a staggering 8 billion video views per day, how accurate that is has come into question in light of recent miscalculations. Critics point out that a view is counted after three seconds on Facebook compared to 30 seconds on YouTube. Also, Facebook videos autoplay, leading to views being counted where, in many cases, the viewer wasn’t actually . . . you know, viewing.

Sketchy statistics aside, Facebook is the marketing elephant in the room—worth the investment for brands hoping to reach engaged consumers, particularly the young ones. “Facebook’s forays into video, particularly live video, have brought back younger audiences that have migrated to niche social apps,” says Erik Schmitt, a social media strategist at Ayzenberg. “Both the viewers and the creators are now coming back to Facebook.”

Twitch

Over 9.7 million log on to watch streaming content—mostly game-related—every day.
Those users go on to watch 106 minutes per person, per day.
Twitch hosts over two million unique streamers per month.
Seventy-five percent of its users are male, with 73 percent of them between the ages of 18-to-49.
The site is a hub for influencer marketers—especially since over 17,000 thousand creators are part of the Twitch Partner Program to earn revenue for streams.

Twitch isn’t just for gamers, however. Brands are also turning to the platform to broadcast their own content, such as interactive scare sessions for Stranger Things and The Magnificent Seven. “We’re having tremendous success with non-endemic brands. The most significant shift we’ve seen is that gamers are now becoming an extremely attractive target,” Anthony Danzi, Twitch’s senior vice president of client strategy, told The Wall Street Journal.

Instagram

This Facebook-owned platform has over 600 million monthly active users.
Instagram users share an average of 95 million photos and videos per day.
The Pew Research found that more women actively use Instagram than men (31 percent versus 24 percent, respectively).
A report from WebDam found that 60 percent of the top brands on Instagram use the same filter for every post.
Fifty percent of Instagram users follow at least one business, 60 percent say that they learn about a product or service on the platform and 75 percent of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website.
Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6 percent more engagement than those without, according to a study by Simply Measured.
While hospitality brands have the largest median audience on Facebook, interaction across the vertical on Instagram is almost 20 times higher.

Thanks to a plethora of new offerings like Stories, live video, business profiles and eCommerce, consumers and brands alike are discovering even more ways to connect and share.

“Because businesses play such a rich role within our community, we’ve seen they are the profiles that have led the way and really innovated in [the Stories] space,” Jen Ronan, Instagram’s brand development lead, told The Drum. “They’re telling stories of behind the scenes, of the day to day, and really building their brand in that way.”

Twitter (via Periscope)

Twitter hosts 317 million users, while Periscope reported 10 million within its first year.
As of last March, over 200 million broadcasts have been created on Periscope and over 110 years of live video are watched every day on iOS and Android.
A study by Research Now showed that 83 percent of Twitter users watch video content on the platform.
Ninety percent of Twitter video views are done through mobile.
Forty-one percent of Twitter users thought that the social site was a great place to discover videos.
Twitter gamers are 1.25 times more likely to spend over $100 on video games per year, compared to non-Twitter gamers.
Twitter users want to talk to you—82 percent of users interact with brands on Twitter.

The company announced the acquisition of Magic Pony Technology in June, a company that specializes in making novel machine learning techniques for visual processing. In addition to previous purchases, including Madbits (in July 2014) and Whetlab (in June 2015), this latest acquisition could build toward a bigger picture for Twitter’s future with video.

Snapchat

The disappearing photo-and-video app has over 300 million users.
Users upload over 100 million Snaps (photos) and videos each day.
Snapchatters watch over 10 billion videos per day, which is more than a 350 percent increase in the last year alone.
Vertical videos are watched nine times more than horizontal videos on Snapchat.
In a survey conducted last year, roughly 44 percent of Snapchat users between the ages of 13-to-24 who said they had used Live Stories and/or Discover reported doing so on at least a daily basis.
Snapchat reaches 41 percent of all 18-to-34-year-olds in the United States.

Once dedicated only to photo sharing, brands have taken marketing to a whole new level this past year with the first 360-degree video ad (Sony: Don’t Breathe). With the launch of video-capture Spectacles, Snapchat is poised to attract even more consumers and brand-created videos this year.

With just about 150 million users, Pinterest makes up for numbers with engagement. In just five years, Pinterest has become the third most popular social network in the US, just behind Twitter and Facebook.
Eighty-nine percent of daily users said they bought something on the site, while 86 percent have used the site in stores to find specific products.
Pinterest drives more traffic to publishers than Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit combined.

With the introduction of native video, Pinterest has opened up opportunities for brands and creators, who get access to all the traditional metrics for video ads, as well as the option to stick featured pins below the video.

“In the last year alone, we’ve seen a 60 percent increase in videos on Pinterest,” product manager, Steve Davis said on the official Pinterest blog, “with workouts, home projects and hair and beauty tutorials topping the charts. With so many bloggers, brands and other experts using video to share their ideas, it’s more important than ever that the video experience be as seamless as possible, and we’ve got some big improvements in the works.”

Mission To Make ‘Apocalypse Now’ Video Game Begins

BY Steven Wong

January 25, 2017, 09:34AM

American Zoetrope, the film studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola, is traveling into the heart of darkness with an all new venture: a crowdfunded video game based on the iconic film, Apocalypse Now. The 1979 film, which stars Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter Kurtz and Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin Willard (with memorable performances by Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper and others), has become a classic in American cinema with near universal acclaim. The story takes place during the Vietnam War, and Captain Willard is sent into Cambodia to assassinate Kurtz, who has established himself as a god among a local tribe—discovering the horrors of war in doing so. An extended version of the film, Apocalypse Now Redux was released in 2001, and now it’s time to take things to the next level with an interactive experience.

“Forty years ago, I set out to make a personal art picture that could hopefully influence generations of viewers for years to come,” said Coppola in a press release. “Today, I’m joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of Apocalypse Now, where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War. I’ve been watching video games grow into a meaningful way to tell stories, and I’m excited to explore the possibilities for Apocalypse Now for a new platform and a new generation.”

Montgomery Markland, Apocalypse Now game director — Montgomery Markland, *Apocalypse Now* game director

To maintain creative freedom and to match the creative integrity of the film, the Apocalypse Now game is being funded through Kickstarter, which marks the first step in a three-year project. Its team of developers are industry veterans who have worked on games that include Battlefield, Gears of War, Far Cry, The Witcher, Fallout: New Vegas and more. The game’s director, Montgomery Markland, was the lead producer for two of the most successful crowdfunded games of all time: Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Markland spoke with [a]listdaily about how the idea to create a psychological horror game based on Apocalypse Now came into being and how the developers were working with Coppola to make it a reality.

“We came to work with Mr. Coppola as we pitched his studio, American Zoetrope, several years ago about turning his motion picture into a survival horror role-playing game,” said Markland. “With the way the industry has progressed over the past few years, now seemed like the right time to realize our vision. To quote Captain Willard: ‘Everyone gets everything they want. I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one.’”

In discussing the inspiration for making the game, Markland said, “This line did not make the final cut, nor the Redux, but Captain Willard does have the line in the narration script: ‘War is a game.’

“Obviously, war is not a game. War is about more than pulling a trigger. We believe trigger-pulling gameplay has driven most of the history of video games, and we’re going to create something fresh by relying on great things from our cultural history. Mr. Coppola has shown his vision for the future once again by trusting us to do so.”

When asked to list the challenges of making a video game based on one of the most iconic movies of all time, Markland said, “Specificity, authenticity, reality, and translating a unique point-of-view into a new format, on new platforms for a new generation. We want to stay as true to the motion picture as possible, while also giving players a new and unique perspective on the horror of war.”

As for how closely the game will follow the plot of the movie, Markland explained that “the critical path of the video game will follow the narrative of the motion picture—but we are building a role-playing game with moment-to-moment narrative decision making, so your version of the narrative of Apocalypse Now will vary from every other player’s version of that narrative. If you want to sit on the boat at Nha Trang, drop acid and ignore your mission, be our guest.”

Markland also discussed why the developers turned to crowdfunding, when many publishers would probably be very eager to back an Apocalypse Now game. “Mr. Coppola went outside the studio system to create a motion picture that was war, instead of just being ‘about war,’” said Markland. “We’re going outside the publisher system to create a video game that is Apocalypse Now, instead of just being a licensed consumer product.”

We asked about how the developers are getting the word out about the campaign, and Markland said: “People first. Gamers first. Crowdfunders first. And then we have also been sharing the news with press and other influential people we hope will find this project interesting on a personal level. Apocalypse Now is a classic motion picture, and we will really be looking to the community to help us spread the word of the Kickstarter organically through their personal social channels, and world of mouth. The people will tell us exactly how much they want this video game; that is the beauty of crowdfunding.”

Markland then detailed some of the backer rewards. “There are fifty-two unique backer rewards that range from a digital copy of the game, to physical recreations of key motion picture narrative elements like the dossier Captain Willard reads about Colonel Kurtz, to actual props from the motion picture pulled from the Francis Ford Coppola Presents and American Zoetrope archives, with more to be revealed through the Kickstarter. We’re offering a diverse and compelling range of Backer rewards for fans at any level.”

Similar to his approach with the film, Coppola will be working closely with the game development team. “Mr. Coppola has been intimately involved in the creative decisions throughout the pre-production process,” said Markland. “Mr. Coppola retains his grand vision that helped him direct many of the greatest motion pictures of all time. At the same time, much like how he mentored and collaborated with filmmakers from John Milius to George Lucas, he is the ultimate collaborator and understands that any creative enterprise is a symphony, not a solo act.”

Markland also shared his thoughts on why the film and its dark themes can still captivate audiences, even though it has been almost 40 years since it hit theaters.

“Apocalypse Now carries on a thousands-of-years-old storytelling tradition that begins with Homer’s The Odyssey, carries through Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and found its most gripping expression in Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius’ screenplay and motion picture,” said Markland, “and will soon live again in an interactive form for a new audience.”

“I first watched it in high school in the nineties with my friends at my girlfriend’s house and we endlessly quoted the characters while shotgunning Miller Lites,” he continued. “Most of us weren’t alive when Apocalypse Now was released. None of us were alive when the motion picture was filmed. None of our parents were married when the script was first written. And yet, timeless stories are timeless.”

How Fox Is Using Samsung VR To Reboot “24”

BY John Gaudiosi

January 25, 2017, 08:11AM

Fox has pulled out all the stops to promote its new 24: Legacy series, including a takeover of the American Airlines Terminal 8 at New York’s JFK airport (with a similar installation using 19 digital screens at the World Trade Center), a prime post-Super Bowl LI debut and a virtual reality prequel on Samsung VR.

The VR prequel, called The Raid, was produced by Fox, 24: Legacy‘s executive producer Howard Gordon and Samsung, in partnership with Here Be Dragons.

Patrick Milling Smith, Here Be Dragons co-founder and president, told [a]listdaily that his team worked closely with Howard Gordon directly alongside director Henry-Alex Rubin and the Samsung VR team.

“After some initial conversations of possibilities and unknowns in VR storytelling, Howard came back with a great script that had everyone at Here Be Dragons, Samsung and Fox excited with its ambition for the medium,” Smith said.

In the six-minute short, which is set nine months before the new series, viewers are transported to Yemen in the midst of an action-packed raid led by Lieutenant Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) against the compound of terrorist leader Ibrahim Bin-Khalid. Fans of 24 will also meet CTU director Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto), who is directing the mission—the culmination of a decade-long hunt for Bin Khalid, and Grimes (Charlie Hofheimer).

“VR requires truly skilled actors since there are none of the usual filmmaking tricks to hide behind,” Smith said. “It can feel like very nuanced theatre work at times. We were very fortunate to have such talent that ‘got it’ straight away. It was also a great privilege to work with Howard Gordon, who showed us all that ambition, strong ideas and story are what propel any form of entertainment, regardless of the technology. This is an exciting moment for us all in VR—not merely because of the fidelity and craft that went into this project—but bringing together some of the most prolific talents in TV and film into a new medium.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6abi50ry_1g

Here Be Dragons worked with USA Network and executive producer Sam Esmail on a Mr. Robot VR experience last year, which explored the first date between Elliott (Rami Malek) and Shayla (Frankie Shaw).

“Everything is still developing when it comes to 360-degree storytelling, but I’d like to think opportunities like these have Dragons at the forefront—it’s a new muscle that people haven’t quite developed yet, and we’re excited to be a part of it,” Smith said. “The most powerful feeling about VR is that sense of presence and the nature of 360 video tricking your brain into making you feel like you are somewhere, which in turn becomes a very strong memory. For Legacy, which is an extremely action-oriented series, it was so important that we focused on that aspect.”

Smith said much like with Legacy, Mr. Robot was a benchmark in the language of VR storytelling for the company.

“Every shoot has elements of experimentation and we were able to move the camera in ways that added to the language of the mediums filmmaking,” Smith said. “It felt like one of the strongest examples of compelling cinematic narrative storytelling.”

One of the new elements 360 storytelling opens up for creatives is the ability to pack a lot of elements into a scene, encouraging viewers to explore the experience multiple times to take in all of the surroundings.

“You have total 360 freedom to view,” Smith said. “There are multiple characters in this experience and so many details were obsessed on to make it feel real so that the audience will be very satisfied doing multiple viewings.”

To guide viewers through 360 narrative, Smith said sound, lighting, choreography and points of interest are all extremely important in leading the viewers.

“In VR, 360 storytelling becomes more about introducing characters and environments, and creating worlds, while elegantly and intuitively guiding the viewer through the experience and story,” Smith said.

Fox will pick up the from The Raid‘s storyline in the TV show, 24: Legacy, which focuses on Carter and his team. Bin-Khalid’s followers have declared a fatwah against Carter, his squad and their families, forcing them into federal witness protection. But a recent attempt on Carter’s life makes it clear to him that his team has been exposed. Carter and Ingram uncover a sophisticated terrorist network that will force them to ask: “Who can we trust?” As they battle Bin Khalid’s devotees, they are forced to confront their own identities, families and pasts.

5 Live-Action Video Game Series To Light Up The Small Screen

BY H.B. Duran

January 25, 2017, 07:30AM

Live-action video game to movie adaptations have a notoriously bad reputation thanks to gems like Super Mario Brothers (1993) and Street Fighter (1994), but as games have become more sophisticated through deep storytelling and memorable characters, the opportunity for quality film adaptations has been created. In recent years, game publishers have invited fans into their worlds through live-action films such as Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn but a new trend is emerging—turning the hottest games into digital TV series. Scripted series create a unique outlet for game promotion across channels that reach gamers and non-gamers alike, reaching a much larger audience.

The Division: Agent Origins

Ubisoft has tapped into the creative talents and audiences of three YouTube creators to make a 30-minute short film that tells the back stories of four Division agents ahead of launching the hit game, Tom Clancy’s The Division. The game publisher worked with RocketJump and devinsupertramp to develop Agent Origins, which was produced by Corridor Digital.

Agent Origins was released as four separate episodes on YouTube, each featured on the respective creator’s and Ubisoft’s channels, and also debuted in its entirety with exclusive scenes on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service. Amazon Prime members are able to watch the 30-minute short film with five minutes of exclusive scenes via the Amazon Video app on TVs, connected devices and mobile devices or online.

“The reach of Amazon Prime and YouTube is huge,” Ann Hamilton, brand representative at Ubisoft told ION, “and it is where our consumers are going for their entertainment more and more in the future of our business. YouTube celebrities are just as influential now as TV and movie celebrities. Digital is now another way we put content in front of audiences to enjoy.”

Ghost Recon Wildlands: War Within The Cartel

Ubisoft continues its cinematic game promotions with War Within the Cartel—a prequel to the upcoming open-world tactical game, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands. The 30-minute video features the Santa Blanca drug cartel as they seek to flush out a traitor within their ranks—and its events will lead up to the opening moments of Ubisoft’s new game.

Starring rapper-turned-actor, Tip “T.I.” Harris, War Within The Cartel will be executive produced by Star Trek and Amazing Spider-Man writer, Roberto Orci. It will premiere on Ubisoft’s Twitch channel on February 16 and will then be available to watch on for free on Amazon for Prime subscribers.

Dead Rising: Watchtower and Endgame

Dead Rising: Watchtower and its sequel, Dead Rising: Endgame are two live-action short films based on the popular zombie-slaying games by Capcom, released exclusively for Crackle in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The films dropped fans right into the gory action with such stars as Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), Keegan Connor Tracy (Once Upon a Time) and Billy Zane (Zoolander 2).

Following the success of both films, actor Jesse Metcalfe told Digital Spy, “Maybe there’ll be a third installment of the Dead Rising [film] franchise. They’ve even been throwing around the idea of a possible series. They like the idea that each episode would have a clock on it, similar to 24. It’d be an edge-of-your-seat, action-driven show—within the zombie genre, so it would have two really strong elements going for it.”

Battlefield

This past July, Paramount Pictures and Anonymous Content announced that they had plans to bring the Battlefield franchise to television with Academy Award winner Michael Sugar attached as one of the project’s producers. There’s no word on what form the series will take at this point, only that the two studios—which also produced Mr. Robot—have picked up the rights to the Electronic Arts franchise with plans to turn it into a TV series.

“Paramount TV actively seeks smart content from all sectors that will resonate with audiences and translate to compelling programming,” said Amy Powell, president of Paramount TV in the press release. “EA’s Battlefield has an incredibly dynamic narrative, coupled with a loyal fan base, which will allow us to bring this exciting and unique property to the small screen. We look forward to working with EA and Anonymous Content and thank Michael Sugar for his tenacity in bringing us this exciting project.”

Life Is Strange

Another game is reported headed to the small screen as a digital series—Life is Strange, the award-winning episodic game by Square Enix about a girl with the ability to rewind time.

“We’re proud and excited to be working alongside Legendary to realize a new version of Arcadia Bay and Blackwell Academy complete with our rich cast of realistic, believable characters and memorable events,” said Jon Brooke, vice president for brand and European marketing at Square Enix in the announcement.

The series will be developed and produced by Legendary Digital and DJ2 Entertainment. DJ2 is also producing Sony Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog film, scheduled to hit theaters in 2018. Legendary Digital’s projects include the aforementioned Dead Rising films for streaming network, Crackle. The production companies are “currently meeting with potential writers,” according to the press release.

From The Couch To The Stadium: 10 Amazing Facts About ESports

BY H.B. Duran

January 24, 2017, 11:58AM

ESports has come a long way from talking smack at the pizza parlor and seeing who gets the highest score. From Atari’s Space Invaders tournament in 1980 to selling out the largest stadiums across the world, eSports is here to stay. Here are some facts you probably didn’t know about this growing phenomenon.

Revenue from eSports reached half a billion dollars in 2016.
This year, it’s expected to really take off. The industry is projected to reach $1 billion in 2017.
Can you get rich playing video games? Absolutely! The total prize money of all eSports events held in 2015 reached $61.0 million, a 70 percent year-on-year increase.
It’s not just for the boys—22 percent of women say they’re involved in eSports, compared to 18 percent of men.
Take me out to the shooter game—22 percent of millennial males watch eSports, which is the same amount that watch baseball.
Brands who become involved in eSports through sponsorship or advertising know it’s a great way to reach a young crowd—61 percent of eSports viewers are under the age of 35.
Mobile games are getting in on the action, too. In fact, mobile game developers who added competition to their games are experiencing eight times more average revenue per daily active user than the industry standard.
Go team! There are an estimated 131 million eSports enthusiasts, and another 125 million who watch occasionally.
Over 213 million people watched competitive gaming in 2016.
The industry is on track to reach a global audience of 303 million by the end of 2019. That means that if eSports fans were a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world.

The world’s best gamers are considered athletes—household names to this highly sought after segment of consumers. Today, traditional athletes are investing in the eSports industry, too. One star—Brazilian soccer player Wendall Lira—even quit to pursue his dream of becoming a professional FIFA gamer.

Dennis Fong, eSports Hall of Fame inductee and founder of Raptr, believes that eSports will inevitably become an Olympic sport.

“It’s going to happen,” Fong told [a]listdaily. “The question is just when, and how long is it going to take? Is it a legitimate sport? Curling is an Olympic sport. Why in the world should a virtual sport that fills stadiums, and has tens of millions of viewers watching the finals, not be in the Olympics? The Olympics is also about money and prestige, not just about sport. When you look at the young global fan base eSports has today, they’re going to find a way to make it happen at some point.”

Learn everything you need to know to invest in today’s fastest-growing media channel—Competitive Gaming and eSports on 2.16.17 in Los Angeles. Go to alistsummit.com for more info.

‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’ Director Paul Anderson On The Film Franchise’s Legacy

BY John Gaudiosi

January 23, 2017, 08:26AM

Sony Pictures and Capcom will see synergy across the latest game, Resident Evil 7, and the new movie, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. The new multiplatform game ships on January 24 followed by the film premiere on January 27. It marks the continuation of the 20-year video game franchise and the culmination of the most successful video game-based movie series.

Paul Anderson is the man behind the Hollywood adaptations, having convinced Capcom to explore the big screen with the original Resident Evil back in 2001. Since the original low-budget horror movie debuted in 2002, Anderson has written and produced every Resident Evil film and directed four of them. He also directed the original Mortal Kombat movie and is now preparing to adapt Monster Hunter for the big screen. He talks to [a]listdaily about the key to Resident Evil’s success in this exclusive interview.

**How has the Resident Evil game franchise influenced this movie?**

The movies are born out of the game franchise. It’s really born out of my love of playing the first two games. That’s how I became involved, and the DNA of the games is just intertwined with the DNA of the movies. Although we tell a slightly different story—we tell a parallel story that very much occurs in the world of the video games. So the look of the movies, the way they’re shot, and the creatures—that’s all very much the world of the games.

How are you going to up the ante with the monsters and the action in this film?

We really went for it. This is the final movie in the franchise, so I felt a great pressure to really deliver for the fans and also end on the best movie of the franchise. The action in this movie is pretty insane. It’s nonstop. By the end of the movie you haven’t just watched the apocalypse, you’ve actually been involved in one.

How has the success of these films impacted what you’ve been able to do this time around?

This is by far the best Resident Evil movie. The main reason for that is that we’ve juxtaposed the big action that the franchise has become known for with the kind of horror that we had in the very first movie. The first movie was very intense. It was all set in one location underground—very claustrophobic and horrific with some great traps. When Colin Salmon got chopped up in the laser grid, it was shocking. As the franchise went along it became more action-oriented. Now we go back to The Hive and back to the horrific feeling of the first movie. This one is combining big action with big horror, which is really the first time we’ve done that because the first movie was relatively a low budget film.

I didn’t have the kind of money to execute the big set pieces that we have in this. In fact, some of the ideas in this film I had 15 years ago but we couldn’t actually execute them. I wanted to kill people in unpleasant and spectacular ways in The Hive back in Berlin 15 years ago. Finally, Sony gave me the money to do it, so some of these scenes have been a long time coming.

What’s it like to get back to Raccoon City after all of these movies?

It was amazing. For The Hive, we actually reconstructed some of the sets that we had originally built for the first movie. So walking onto those sets for the first time was like traveling back in time. It was great.

What has Raccoon City opened up for connecting the cinematic universe with the game universe?

In the movie, we’re returning to The Hive and Raccoon City. Those two things are obviously from the video game universe. The very first game was set in a mansion in the woods outside of Raccoon City that had this lab, which we called The Hive underneath it that’s infested with the worst kind of creatures and horrors and terrors.

So we’re returning to that. We’re bringing characters both from the video game franchise, Claire Redfield, but also characters from the film franchise with Milla’s character, Alice. It’s like the greatest hits of both of the video game franchise and the film franchise.

How has Capcom been involved with this franchise over the years?

I’ve always been heavily influenced by the games. The first thing I did when I signed to do the very first movie was fly to Japan, meet the creator of the game, and pitch him my idea—which I spent two days doing through a translator—then he made his comments. When I write a script now, it’s always sent to Capcom. They always give their thoughts. I always take that into account because while the film franchise and the video game franchise are slightly separate, we never want to do anything that messes with that world, and vice versa. There’s a lot of communication between us.

**What do you feel the secret ingredient is to the longevity of the box office success of the Resident Evil movies?**

The key to our success is Milla (Jovovich). She is really the beating heart of the franchise. She gives the franchise a humanity that people can latch onto and her struggle of the individual against the giant corporation is something that everyone can really associate with. It’s something that people feel right now—that maybe these big corporations don’t have our best interest at heart, even more than the zombies and the monsters. That for me is what Resident Evil is all about.

How has the film franchise evolved alongside the video games over the years?

They’ve always changed and evolved. That’s very important. If you look at the game franchise, Capcom wasn’t afraid to introduce new characters and new locations. It’s not like Tomb Raider, where as good as Lara Croft was, people became tired of playing Lara Croft. The Resident Evil game franchise always introduced new characters, and we’ve done that as well. We’ve always told new stories and sometimes we’ve been criticized for that because we’ve deviated slightly from the games, but I feel like that’s been the strength of the movie franchise because we’ve expanded the universe.

We haven’t just done the straight adaptation. We’ve shown the fans new and interesting things, and in this return to Raccoon City and to The Hive, fans will learn more about the Umbrella Corporation than they’ve ever known before. They’re going to discover all the dark secrets of Umbrella, of Alice, of the Red Queen, and answer a lot of questions that people have had for the last 15 years.

Is this really the final chapter?

Absolutely. It’s the end of the franchise and it brings the whole story full circle. It’s Milla returning to The Hive, returning to where everything began, and finishing the job that she started 15 years ago.

Resident Evil 7 is coming out for PlayStation VR. Do you have any thoughts about virtual reality gaming?

I love VR. I’ve always been an early adopter and I loved 3D when it first came out. Resident Evil was right on the cutting edge of that. We were the first native 3D movie to come out after Avatar and I love VR for exactly the same reason. Anything that expands the world of gaming and the world of movies and makes them more immersive, I want to be involved in.

**How will these Resident Evil movies help you bring Monster Hunter to the big screen?**

We’ve made the biggest and the best video game movie adaptation ever, so that’s made us the premium brand in terms of adapting video games. It’s definitely eased the path for Monster Hunter.

Gravity Cats And Dummy Fingers: This Week In Game Promotions

BY H.B. Duran

January 23, 2017, 07:20AM

The new year’s game launch hiatus has finally ended. This week sees the long-awaited launch of Capcom’s foray into VR, Sony’s gravity-defying sequel and Square Enix is getting ready to celebrate a major milestone. From weird-smelling candles to beautiful art, let’s take a look at this week’s big game promotions.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Horror fans are anxious to face their fears down in haunted Louisiana and solve a mystery sprouting from the roots of Resident Evil. Full of signature puzzles, jump scares and healing herbs, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard promises not only to be frightening, but downright horrifying when played in first-person virtual reality. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter also hits theaters this week, bringing the wildy-popular film franchise to a close.

Resident Evil series producer, Masachika Kawata told [a]listdaily that the series had unintentionally evolved after every three games from its suspenseful first night in the mansion to the action sequences of Resident Evil 6—but the time was right to come full circle. “We felt that the franchise has moved forward in a more action-oriented direction and we figured this would be a perfect opportunity to take RE7 and really go back to our roots,” he said, “revisit them and rethink what it means.”

Capcom has been doing a great deal of promotion for the game, beginning with a demo on the PlayStation Network called Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour. In it, players must escape a dilapidated house and in doing so, find clues about the upcoming game. Then there’s the Lantern VR demo, which debuted at Gamescom earlier this year, where players are pursued through a darkened house by a woman carrying a lantern. Finding clues and comparing theories about the game has kept fans busy waiting for launch day, especially trying to figure out the mystery of a certain dummy finger.

Those particularly obsessed with said finger can take one home inside the game’s collector’s edition. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is part of Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere program, in which consumers receive a free PC version of the game with an Xbox One purchase.

Capcom has been teasing fans with images like this for months. Source: Capcom — Capcom has been teasing fans with clues like this for months. Source: Capcom

For London fans eager to fill their pants in abject terror, Capcom has been hosting The Experience: London from January 20 to 23—a real-life adventure that offers visitors a taste of what’s to come. Following the demos’ story, visitors take on the role of an intern reporter working for a paranormal investigation group called The Sewer Gators. Visitors have just 45 minutes to brave the dark house in search of missing team members, presumably without getting killed in some horrible fashion.

Virtual reality will no doubt immerse players in the game, but for that added “essence of death,” fans can pick up a candle infused with smells like wood and blood. When it comes to promotion, Capcom didn’t forget the press—several outlets received an honest-to-goodness VCR with a custom tape begging the viewer to get his message to (insert outlet name here).

Gravity Rush 2

Sony, meanwhile, is celebrating its Gravity Rush franchise with the release of its much-awaited sequel after launching a remastered version of the original in February of last year. The biggest promotion, perhaps, has come in the form of an anime series called Overture. The animated series focuses on the main character, Kat, and her misadventures between the first game and the second.

For Japanese audiences, a short film called Gravity Cat demonstrates the many ways in which Kat can traverse her environment with . . . ya know, a cat (we see what they did there).

https://youtu.be/0lQMXyNUmDs

Those who pre-ordered the game will also have access to other Gravity Rush-based goodies, including bonus costumes for Kat and a nine-song soundtrack.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue

After a delayed release, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue finally hits US shelves on January 24. Square Enix is offering a limited edition of the PlayStation 4 game that includes a collectible pin of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue logo with Mickey and Sora beside it. In addition, those who pre-ordered the standard edition will automatically have their purchase upgraded to the limited edition at no extra charge.

Promotions for this particular title have been on the light side, with Square Enix instead focusing on the franchise’s 15th anniversary. For example, a series of stained-glass Kingdom Hearts clock faces went on display in the Tokyo Metro Marunochisen Shinjuku Station Promenade from January 9 to 15, which resulted in numerous social media posts and videos. Visitors were encouraged to post a picture of their favorite stained-glass clock face to determine which one to feature on the main display and surrounded by the other twelve as clock dials. As an added bonus, Square Enix will be giving the faces away to 13 lucky fans.