3DS XL Gets Pikachu For Holiday 2012

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Nintendo announced that they are launching variations of the 3DS XL just in time for the holidays in the U.K. There will be two white 3DS models with Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land for 200 British pounds apiece that will launch November 16 and November 30 respectively.

There will also be a yellow 3DS XL featuring an image of Pikachu (though not containing a copy of Pokemon Black/White 2) will launch December 7 for 180 British pounds. Oddly, none of the systems have a an AC power adapter, but they are compatible with DSi, DSi XL or 3DS AC adapters, which can also be purchased separately.

Epic’s Tim Sweeney Talks Free-to-Play’s Inevitable Rise

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Epic Games chief technology officer Tim Sweeney indicates that next-generation development costs should only be about twice what current AAA development costs are. After the creation of the Samaritan tech demo took longer and with more people than expected, the company doubled down on content and production tools to improve production efficiency.

“If we extrapolate that into creating an entire game, we were worried that the cost would go up by a factor of three or four or even five in the next generation,” Sweeney said. “And of course, we felt that was not acceptable.”

Sweeney also sees a future where free-to-play cross platform titles are more common as high-resolution displays and multicore CPUs become more widely available. “Free to play gaming is becoming more and more inevitable,” Sweeney said. “If a user has world-class, AAA free-to-play games to choose from side-by-side with $60 games that are available only on a disc in a retail store, free-to-play games are very likely to win. So we need to really be mindful of this trend and start building games that have monetization and are designed to be piracy-proof.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Zynga Veterans Hired By Rumble Entertainment

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Rumble Entertainment has hired Brian Schneider and Steve Desilets to the executive team to focus on retention and monetization and the design team for free-to-play experiences, respectively. Schneider is the former director of design for Zynga for titles like CityVille and Treasure Isle and Desilets was a design director at Zynga.

“At Rumble, we are in pursuit of redefining the games experience on digital platforms,” said Rumble founder Greg Richardson. “Brian’s track record of successfully engaging customers across different types of microtransaction games and Steve’s raw creativity will further our mission of creating the world’s best free to play games.”

Wild Zoo Advertising

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Zoos provide ample opportunities for creative advertising because of the dynamic and exotic animals. Here’s a few great examples of ads for zoos around the world.

Source: BuzzFeed.com

Consumer Attitudes Reach Five-Year Highs

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A recent survey showed that Americans’ perceptions of the outlook for the economy and for employment improved in early November. Consumer sentiment also rose to its highest level in more than five years, marking four straight months of consumer mood improvement.

Wholesale inventories rose in September by the most in nine months as wholesalers sharply boosted stocks of farm goods and oil, a positive sign for economic growth. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment rose to 84.9 from 82.6 in October, topping economists’ expectations for 83.

Consumer sentiment was the highest level since July 2007 and the measure of consumer expectations also hit a more than five-year high, rising to 80.8 from 79.0. Most interviews for the survey were done before the presidential election.

The positive feelings help in part to explain how the recent election went down, though the so-called “fiscal cliff” of impending tax rises and government spending cuts could be a shock to consumers if it is not quickly avoided. “It shows that the U.S. economy is on a decent footing heading into the so-called fiscal cliff,” said Joe Manimbo, market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions. “There’s a lot at stake, and there’s a lot momentum that could be lost if lawmakers don’t get their act together.”

The automatic spending cuts and significant tax increases set to come into effect in January could take an estimated $600 billion out of the economy and push it into recession, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office; many believe that the lame duck congress will attempt to punt on most of the larger parts of the legislation.

“Unless the Congressional Grinch steals Christmas, prospects for the holiday shopping season have improved markedly,” said Survey director Richard Curtin.

Total wholesale inventories gained 1.1 percent to $494.2 billion, beating even the highest estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts. Inventories are a key element in the government’s measure of changes in GDP and can highlight underlying strength in U.S. growth.

Banking group Barclays raised its estimate for third quarter gross domestic product growth to 3.2 percent from 2.8 percent following the report. The first reading of growth for the third quarter showed the economy expanded at a 2.0 percent rate, though other recent economic reports, including data on trade and factory orders, have already suggested a faster pace of growth than first estimated.

Source: ChicagoTribune.com

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn — End Of An Era

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Witness the end of an era as the Eorzean Alliance clashes with the Garlean Empire in a bid to deliver the realm from certain destruction. The meteor Dalamud is striking the world of Eorzea, leading to the changes that will result in the relaunched game Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Exclusive: Kinect Connects With TV

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Sesame Street has been a television show for over 40 years, teaching children basic educational elements since the late ’60s. While their philosophy hasn’t changed, they’ve remained at the forefront of relevancy by embracing new trends and technologies . . . like Kinect. Sesame Street, along with National Geographic, teamed up with Microsoft to produce two Kinect 2-Way TV titles designed to create a space between television content and video games. We talked with Brandy O’Briant, Group Product Marketing Manager of Playful Learning Products at Microsoft, about the Kinect 2-Way TV titles.

Microsoft worked with Ayzenberg Group to develop the visual ID and packaging for Kinect 2-Way TV titles

What were the origins of the Kinect 2-Way TV titles and what did you hope to accomplish with them?

Brandy O’Briant: Microsoft Studios was looking for news ways to demonstrate the power of Kinect and transform entertainment for consumers. In the kids space in particular we were also purposefully looking for entertainment other than traditional games that would appeal to a growing audience for Xbox. The #1 entertainment activity for kids was TV consumption, and we wanted to be relevant where their eyeballs were directed. At the same time, we had pioneering partners like Sesame Workshop and National Geographic eager to extend their reach and connection with kids and bold enough to learn on-the-fly with us in creating an entirely new TV format.

Were there any lesson’s learned from Double Fine’s Once Upon a Monster?

“Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster” and Kinect Sesame Street TV are fundamentally different products but both were designed to provide users with a meaningful interactive experience through close collaboration with Sesame Workshop. Just as Sesame Workshop is known for being pioneers in education, we are known for making fun, interactive experiences. In both Double Fine’s “Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster” and the more recent “Kinect Sesame Street TV”, our team was able to collaborate with Sesame to deliver truly unique experiences that brought the beloved worlds of Sesame Street to life.

Talk to me about the branding and packaging and how you used that to make these products appealing to both kids and families.

We wanted to make the branding and packaging appealing to families, but we also had the added challenge of communicating the product. Something this new and innovative isn’t easy to communicate visually. People have no real reference point for 2-Way TV experiences. Our goal was to capture the magic of actually being in the TV show and the joy the viewer has in that transformation.

Are the educational benefits a large part of the messaging for the game to tout the educational benefits to parents?

 The partners we worked with — Sesame Street and National Geographic — are two of the best names in good-for-you learning content. To a large degree, they spoke for themselves. When a parent sees those brands, they know that there is trusted educational content inside.

How did you balance concerns from making sure the messaging got out about this 2-Way TV and already established branding for Nat Geo and Sesame Street at the same time?

The two messages worked well together, especially given that both products were based on actual TV shows, ‘Sesame Street’ and Nat Geo WILD channels ‘America the Wild’. This carried the TV message supported by two strong and established brands.

For the TV spots for the the Kinect 2-Way TV titles, was it seen as important to narrate them from the kid’s perspective in order to make them seem like a fun thing for them to do?

From a creative standpoint, we had kids narrate the spots to reinforce the idea that Kinect Sesame Street TV empowers kids to use their imaginations, their whole bodies, and their voices to control their 2-way TV experience.

Is Kinect 2-Way seen as an important extensions of the Kinect brand to more than just explicit video game titles?

Absolutely. Kinect is so much more than gaming and the 2-Way TV experiences are the tip of the iceberg. We see a lot of possibility for the future of television entertainment, with Xbox and Kinect as the centerpiece.

What sort of television programming will we see ads for Kinect 2-Way TV titles and where else will it be advertised?

2-Way TV experiences will be promoted in our Xbox channels and social networks, including Xbox.com, Facebook, Twitter, Live and email.  You will also see the Kinect Nat Geo TV ads on various National Geographic channels and media.

Brandy, thanks.

Presidential Vote Broken Down By Suffrage

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The coalition that re-elected President Barack Obama is likely the most diverse in the history of the U.S. The easiest way to show how key it was for him to cobble together votes from such diverse groups is electoral maps showing what the same vote would look like in different eras.

This is what the map would look like before 1870 and the 15th amendment, securing the vote for non-white men for the first time in history.

Here’s the early 19th century map, showing how things would have shook out with just men voting.

Early 20th century impediments for citizens of color to vote in the U.S. meant that effectively only white men and women could vote — here’s what the map would look like.

For a long time, citizens had to be 21 or older to vote, and that would have altered the race from last week in a few subtle ways.

Finally, here’s how the race actually turned out.

Source: BuzzFeed.com