Video Game Concerts Harmoniously Unite Fans Through Music

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When you think of video games, you probably don’t imagine dressing up for a night on the town. Well, grab your coat, because game publishers have adopted an innovative way to market and reinforce their brands through video game concerts. These live performances are melodically making their way across the world, a touring marketing effort that has grown in popularity over the last few years.

Most recently, Hello Games announced a tour to promote No Man’s Sky, a science fiction video game scheduled to launch August 9. The No Man’s Sky soundtrack, written by British band, 65daysofstatic, features two albums of music to be performed live across Europe this fall. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Tomb Raider, Square Enix will host a live performance in London this year to debut its new musical collection, The Tomb Raider Suite.

Telling stories through song is an age-old tradition, and video game soundtracks have become a indispensable storytelling tool. From the iconic Super Mario Brothers theme to the Grammy award-winning music of Civilization IV, game developers and publishers are adding more emphasis (and budget) to the musical side of their brands. Renowned composers are expanding their portfolios from film and TV to game music, including Hans Zimmer (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), Sir Paul McCartney (Destiny) and Bear McCreary (God of War).

Sony’s E3 press conference started in a new way this year, with a live orchestra conducted by Bear McCreary. The composer, known for his work on The Walking Dead and Black Sails recalls the moment on his blog: “I gave the cue and my God of War theme was heard by an audience for the first time,” he writes. “The moment the melody reached its climactic notes, the audience erupted into cheers, as if what they heard was the chorus to their favorite song. But, they had never heard it before! I had always hoped the theme would resonate with fans, and at that exact moment, I knew it had.”

Video Game concerts
Video Games Live at Red Rocks Amphitheater, 2015 (Source: H.B. Duran)

In 2005, video game composers, Tommy Tallarico (Prince of Persia) and Jack Wall (Mass Effect) debuted Video Games Live, an annual concert series that celebrates the art of game music in partnership with local symphony orchestras. “It’s the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra mixed with the excitement and energy of a rock concert,” says the official website. “[It’s the] technology and interactivity of a video game all completely synchronized to amazing cutting edge video screen visuals, state-of-the-art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments with the audience.”

Other game music tours that are underway include Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses and Final Fantasy: A New World.

Capcom Live debuted this spring with a “Video Game Orchestra” following the rock and soundtrack mash-up that Video Games Live made popular.

Video game concerts reinforce a brand by drawing fans together as a community, celebrating the legacy of a franchise and introducing new generations to both games and the art of music. By reminding fans of their favorite video game moments, brands connect with their audiences on an emotional, symphonious and lasting level.

How The Games Industry Is Redefining Console Upgrades

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Microsoft pulled off a tremendous trick when it made the unprecedented move of announcing two new Xbox One consoles. The first being the Xbox One S, a slimmer version of the existing console releasing in August with features that include HDR gaming 4K video support. The second, and more surprising, announcement was the early reveal of Project Scorpio. Expected to launch during the 2017 holiday season, Scorpio promises to the “the most powerful console ever,” with emphasis on high-end features such as virtual reality and 4K gaming.

Taken together with the Xbox Play Anywhere program, and the fact that Sony is working on its own incremental PlayStation 4 upgrade—PlayStation Neo—and we can see the beginning of a major shift in the video game console industry. The eventual launch of Scorpio and Neo will signal the end of 5 or 6-year console cycles. Instead, we may see considerably shorter upgrade cycles, similar to that of mobile devices, which is a monumental shift for a console gaming market that has been long accustomed to having to completely give up old hardware for the new generation of consoles.

Microsoft’s statement in 2013 about the Xbox One cycle would last (conservatively) 10 years may seem like a distant memory, and a statement that didn’t account for the accelerated pace of technological development, but the truth is that Scorpio represents a major move toward reaching that goal. The important point to keep in mind is, as Phil Spencer (head of Xbox) indicated at the end of the Microsoft pre-E3 press conference, gamers will not be left behind as technology moves ahead. Although there are benefits to upgrading, all games and accessories will work on the original Xbox, Xbox One S and Project Scorpio. That way, there isn’t necessarily any pressure to upgrade, nor will players have to choose between buying a new console or staying with the communities established with the previous one.

This is great news for major game publishers, including Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft and Take-Two support this approach, and see the both Scorpio and Neo as a “positive evolution.” EA’s global publishing chief, Laura Miele, told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview that, “I actually see it more as an incredibly positive evolution of the business strategy for players and for our industry and definitely for EA. The idea that we would potentially not have an end of cycle and a beginning of cycle I think is a positive place for our industry to be and for all of the commercial partners as well as players.”

Meanwhile, Alain Corre, head of Ubisoft EMEA, stated:

“The beautiful thing is it will not split the communities. And I think it’s important that when you’ve been playing a game for a lot of years and invested a lot of time that you can carry on without having to start over completely again. I think with the evolution of technology it’s better than what we had to do before, doing a game for next-gen and a different game from scratch for the former hardware.”

With incremental hardware updates and universal compatibility, a console’s lifespan can almost go on indefinitely. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 won’t be left behind technologically, and technology won’t leave gamers behind. Take-Two’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, believes that an ongoing platform would be good for the industry. “The same way that when you make a television show you don’t ask yourself ‘what monitor is this going to play on?’ It could play on a 1964 color television or it could play on a brand-new 4K television, but you’re still going to make a good television show.” Zelnick also added: “We will get to the point where the hardware becomes a backdrop.”

As Xbox’s head of operations, Dave McCarthy, told GameSpot, Microsoft’s goal is “reach ‘the whole canvas of gamers.'” In a separate interview, McCarthy stated that Microsoft is achieving hardware innovation while ensuring compatibility. “That term of an upgrade is gone. We are wiping out those generational boundaries. As a gamer, it’s pretty cool. Because then I know the games I buy and play today and the controllers I use today are going to work on that machine of tomorrow. And that’s the real major step-change.”

Some analysts believe that the early announcement of Scorpio may interfere with Xbox One S sales, but Phil Spencer sets the record straight in a different interview with GI.biz, stating, “..our model’s not really built around selling you a new console every one or two years. The model is almost the exact opposite. If I can keep you with the console you have, keep you engaged in buying and playing games, that’s a good business.”

Although Microsoft does need to sell units, the consoles themselves are almost becoming incidental. The emphasis is on growing a strong community of players that will purchase and engage with games, whether it’s on a Xbox One console or PC, for the long term. As to whether original Xbox One owners may feel that they’re getting a “watered-down” experience, Spencer explains, “There’s no developer out there today, except for in maybe a first party, that’s only focused on one platform. Some are still going PS3, 360, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. When you say PC, there’s probably a minimum [spec], a recommended [spec], and then an uber-config that they’re focused on.” Spencer went on to say: “We’re continuing to grow the capability of the Universal Windows Platform to literally allow you to build one game that would run on console and on PC. So that’s an enabler. You still have a scenario of whether the different configs [and resolutions is something you’ll support] and I think that will all be part of install base size.”

McCarthy echoes the sentiment by stating: “[Developers] will always want to write to specific capabilities and devices,” he explained. “Giving our developers some choice in what they choose to leverage as they do that is key to our whole philosophy moving forward. They’ve responded well to it as we’ve shared the plans with them.”

The ultimate goal is maintaining long-term player engagement while continuing to innovate technologically. Although Sony has not yet revealed its plans for Neo, the shift toward giving console systems incremental upgrades with broad compatibility is already underway. Microsoft has already stated its intention to unify the Windows 10 PC and Xbox One with Xbox One Play Anywhere, which allows players to purchase games for both platforms with one price. Some of these games, including Gears of War 4, will feature cross-platform multiplayer. In the long run, publishers and marketers may soon be able to appeal to one large gaming audience instead putting so much emphasis on a console platform.

‘WWE 2K17’ Cover Unleashes Power Of Brock Lesnar

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2K Games knows how to engage with its audience, and Grand Theft Auto V continues to be a best-seller years after its initial release (due largely to its online features) while NBA 2K getting a great deal of attention from the eSports community. But let’s not count out the grapplers.

Earlier this year, the publisher signed a multiyear licensing deal with World Wrestling Entertainment so that 2K Sports remains the exclusive publisher of WWE games, particularly the best-selling WWE 2K franchise. It’s done quite well for the company, as the games have sold well over 60 million units since 2000. Now, it’s pushing for its biggest entry to date, with a true juggernaut on the cover.

2K Sports formally announced that WWE 2K17 will release on October 11 with Brock Lesnar featured on its cover. Lesnar, who recently signed a multi-year deal to stay with the WWE, will be a playable character alongside other superstars, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena. He will also serve as the official ambassador for the game.

“My career has been defined by dominating every opportunity presented to me,” said Lesnar in a press release. “I am excited for my newest opportunity representing WWE 2K17 as the franchise’s ambassador and honored to serve as the WWE 2K17 cover Superstar.”

WWE

Lesnar has been making big waves since his re-signing with the WWE, appearing in traditional events like Wrestlemania, and is expected to return in time for SummerSlam. Additionally, he recently signed on in a unique cross-promotion where he’s set to fight at UFC 200 in July.

Having Lesnar on the cover is sure to be a popular choice with wrestling fans. But it’s not the only promotion that 2K Sports is putting behind the game. Last month, it revealed that Bill Goldberg, a popular face from the old World Championship Wrestling days, would be making his debut in the game, as a pre-order bonus.

Both 2K Sports and the WWE are expected to promote WWE 2K17 leading up to its release, including activities that tie in with SummerSlam in August. It’s expected to get some air time on WWE Monday Night Raw tonight as well, with the company setting aside time to showcase the cover.

GameStop Exec Discusses Fox Animated TV Show Digital Card Game

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GameStop-owned Kongregate is expanding its collection of collectible card games. The publisher has joined forces with Fox Digital Entertainment, independent developers Synapse Games, and Chinzilla Games to launch Animation Throwdown: The Quest for Cards for iOS and Android devices this year. The game will later be released on other platforms, including the web game portal Kongregate.com.

This marks the first time that characters and worlds from Twentieth Century Fox Television’s popular shows American Dad!, Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, Futurama and King of the Hill are together in one game.

Kongregate will market the game to its global audience of millions of gamers who visit the Kongregate.com website each month. The company will also promote the game across its portfolio of mobile applications, through GameStop’s 4,200 U.S. store locations, 40 million PowerUp Rewards members, and across the GameStop web and mobile properties. Fox Digital Entertainment will use its various marketing platforms to promote the game.

Emily Greer, president and co-founder of Kongregate, talks about the company’s first Hollywood-licensed game, and its eSports potential, in this exclusive interview.

What were your goals heading into this project?

When we talked to Fox, one of the things that was important was to create a card game that was broadly acceptable and deep. We had two broad and deep card games in our portfolio from Synapse Games and Chinzilla. So we got the two developers together and pitched a combo project that takes some elements from each game and weaves in a narrative and characters from Fox animated shows.

What impact has the success of Hearthstone opened up for mainstream awareness of collectible card games?

Hearthstone is wonderful and everyone looks at it as a high bar of polish, but we were focused on creating a game that was more broadly accessible. You have a lot of Hearthstone clones coming out. Our game is going to look and feel very different. And it should be broadly accessible to a lot of people.

The collectible card game genre has gotten a reputation for being a very core, inaccessible genre partly because of the success of Magic: The Gathering. But card games are among the most played and accessible across every region of the world. We believe collectible card games can be broadly appealing across all demographics, and that the meaningfulness of Fox animated characters makes it more accessible.

What eSports potential do you see with Animation Throwdown: The Quest for Cards?

It’s been great to see interest in collectible card games expand and grow with the release of Hearthstone. We’ve been very into card games at Kongregate for a long time. When we founded, one of the things we wanted to do was create Kongai, which allows gamers to collect cards by completing challenges in different Kongregate.com games. We built up an audience that liked card games eight or nine years ago.

Collectible card games have always done really well on Kongregate like Tyrant, Tyrant Unleashed and Rise of Mythos. When we started mobile publishing in 2013—Tyrant Unleashed was our first game and became a Top 100 grossing title on both Android and iOS and still doing well today. In our publishing portfolio, we have five or six different card games like Little Alchemist, which is a cute and charming broadly accessible card game.

Do you see eSports potential for this game?

That’s something in our mind for the long-term potential for this game. Something we’re interested in developing and exploring. We think the game has the depth to support it long-term. It is designed to be mobile-first. It’s a little more challenging in terms of eSports and streaming, but we’ll be taking it to browser and PC.

What are your thoughts on the rise of mobile eSports with Vainglory and Hearthstone?

It’s something that is our hope for the game, but we haven’t designed it around it. Our first focus is to make it a great, entertaining and accessible game. The characters and shows will bring in a broad audience, and it’s been designed so there’s depth of strategy and interest that could support eSports. I hope to be seeing a lot of Twitch streams of the game post-launch.

How does GameStop and the Fox TV shows help find an audience in the crowded mobile games business?

We have a huge advantage with Fox and GameStop. With the love people have for these shows and these characters, they’re looking for more of them. This is the first time these characters are coming together in a world. That alone is quite novel.

Where we see our role is helping indie developers like Synapse Games and Chinzilla compete in the market and to cross that bridge where we can bring in Fox and great properties.

Fox has a social media following to support the game. With the GameStop connection, we’ll have a big booth at GameStop Expo in Anaheim and we’re getting the store employees and PowerUp Rewards customers excited about the game. Most gamers are omnivores. GameStop customers are playing on lots of devices, wherever it’s convenient. They’re going back-and-forth playing on console and mobile. They’re the best gamers around. To be able to reach out directly through stores and email is unique for a property like this. It gives us a leg up in a crowded environment.

Will Fox promote this game on TV?

It’s in discussion. They’ll be using all the channels that they can. Technically Fox Digital is not Fox TV, but there’s some negotiating to be done. The broadcast side is excited to support this game because it supports the whole lineup of Fox animated shows. There should be many channels that they’ll use to promote the game.

Will the game feature voice actors from the cast?

We’ll be using some clips and conversation from the show. And Fox will be showing off the game at [the San Diego] Comic-Con. It will be more like dialogue from the show rather than new dialogue. You can expect catch phrases and taunts. As you play the game and make a good play or your opponent drops a strong card, your leader character will express dismay or joy in a unique way with a voice clip.

How many cards will there be at launch and how will that grow?

You’ll start with character, item and environment cards. The key gameplay mechanic is that you can play two cards and they combine into a different card. Your initial deck is 50-75 cards with 35 in play, and half of those are characters. You choose your leader from each show and your starter deck reflects that show, but you play against characters from other shows.

We’ll be releasing new cards on a weekly or bi-weekly tandem, so it will be much more regular than Hearthstone. We’ll have special events that will bring in elements from the shows’ episodes. And long-term we’ll be tying into new episodes of the shows as they’re released.

How are you working with the Fox TV producers?

We’re working closely with all the shows on every aspect, especially with the writers and producers. We’re focusing on existing content at launch, but with expansion packs and new events, we’ll look at upcoming content as well.

The showrunners are very engaged with the development of this game and are playing it, commenting on it, and holding it to the standard of the shows. They’re helping us understand the characters and environments and making sure we do them justice.

The advantage of this game is that we have five separate universes to draw on. That creates a lot of variety and depth of storyline and characters to explore.

How does this game tie into your independent games initiative?

We were founded with a mission to help indie game developers succeed and grow. We’re working with Synapse and Chinzilla. This is our fourth game with Synapse and second with Chinzilla. With both studios, we helped them go from hand-to-mouth development studios to larger successes. And now we’re helping get them access to major IP, which is generally something only established studios with deep pockets can do. The Simpsons game was made by Electronic Arts. We’re giving two small studios a chance to compete with the largest game companies in the world by connecting them with the IP and helping them with distribution and marketing. It’s great for consumers, as well. There’s such a broad range of creativity and invention going on in the indie space, and we’re helping them.

Cannes Lions Takeaways: Ads With Purpose And Taking Risks Pay Off

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The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has drawn to a close, and hundreds of proud brands are headed home with their shiny, new awards. While a plethora of advertising was seen at the festival, those most recognized fought for a cause, touched audiences on an emotional level or took enormous risks.

Ads With A Cause

Brands determined to leave a legacy were a popular trend this year, from Grand Prix winner The Organic Effect persuading Swedish families to eat better to Testimonies urging those testing negative for HIV to support those who weren’t as lucky.

Although you might think cause-driven campaigns are “award gold,” Cannes jurors are warning those creating disingenuous ads just for recognition. “When you just staple something on . . . I think I can speak for all 20 jurors that we had cause fatigue,” jury president, John Clinton told PR Week. “We’re sitting there looking at some of the things people stick on to their brands and you’re like, ‘how the hell did that come about?’”

Bringing Art To Life

Airbnb_VanGoghsBedroom16

In a campaign to promote the Art Institute of Chicago’s upcoming Van Gogh exhibit, artists recreated his painting The Bedroom in real-life and invited the public through Airbnb to spend the night. All nights in the room sold out within minutes. Online pre-sale tickets to the exhibition were up 250 percent and more than 200,000 people attended in just six weeks. The room cost $31,000 to build and generated more than $6 million in earned media.

In an experiential campaign for the Kamoi Kakoshi brand of Washi tape—long, thin and decorated sticky tape that can also be used to customize your belongings—an exhibition was created where visitors could be creative and play with over 80,000 tapes that were hanging from the ceiling. The result was a visually overwhelming environment of color and texture that garnered its public relations agency a Golden Lion Award.

Reinvention And Risks

Beyoncé was awarded one of two Excellence In Music awards for her video Formation, defying the typical Grand Prix-winning campaign in that no corporate brand was attached. “[You have] the biggest artist on the planet taking serious risks,” Josh Rabinowitz, jury president of Lions Entertainment, said in a press conference. “This is a mainstream pop artist pushing the limits on the way we perceive things of race in culture, and the perception of women in culture.”

Queen B wasn’t the only Hollywood A-lister taking risks, as Channing Tatum discussed his own brand of vodka, Born & Bred. The creator and star of the Magic Mike films stated that he wanted to “slow down on acting,” much to the disappointment of the primarily female audience in attendance. Tatum told the crowd that he decided to create his own vodka because none of the brands out there appealed to him or his friends. He was more interested in creating a world that he and his friends would live in. “It’s storytelling more than building an actual brand,” explained Tatum.

REI was a hot topic this past fall (and thus awarded) when the retailer gave its employees a paid day off on Black Friday and closed online sales. Using the tag #OptOutside, REI encouraged would-be shoppers to enjoy the outdoors instead. The idea of a retailer opting out of the busiest shopping day of the year seems insane, but this successful campaign got the world talking. The result was 170 organizations closing down for the day and parks opening to the public, reinforcing REI’s outdoor-centric brand.

Burger King’s tongue-in-cheek ad campaign for World Peace Day was another risk-gone-right. In a full-page ad in the New York Times, Burger King pitched an idea to their biggest rival McDonald’s to create a hybrid burger called the #McWhopper. McDonald’s didn’t bite, but the Cannes judges did, sending them home with the top award for Print and Publishing.

Breakvertising, meanwhile, was honored for a new way to look at in-video advertising by showing ads only when a user pressed pause.

From the outside, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is full of bright stars and coveted awards, but the heart and soul of marketing is reaching the audience on an emotional level. Each award-winning campaign told a story that resonated with its audience and encouraged conversation. When the audience remembers your ad, they remember your brand.

Zynga’s ‘Ice Age: Arctic Blast’ Mobile Game Matches Perfectly With Movie

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Ice Age: Collision Course, the newest addition to the 14-year-old franchise, hits theaters next month on July 22, but fans don’t have to wait that long to revisit their favorite characters and settings. Zynga, famous for hits such as Farmville, released a new free-to-play match-3 mobile game yesterday, Ice Age: Arctic Blast.

The game was developed in partnership with 20th Century Fox and promotes the upcoming movie with two exclusive movie clips for fans to enjoy. Furthermore, in a deal with Regal Entertainment, players can use the game to purchase movie tickets. Meanwhile, the game’s trailer will run at 570 Regal Cinema theater lobbies for two weeks following the film’s release. The movie stars the voices of John Leguizamo, Jennifer Lopez, Josh Peck, Queen Latifah and many more.

Jim Stern, executive producer of Ice Age: Arctic Blast, talks to [a]listdaily about how the game enhances the movie-going experience and the growing relationship between films and mobile gaming.

How did the partnership between Zynga and 20th Century Fox come into being?

Both companies have wanted to work together for quite some time with the right opportunity. With Ice Age: Collision Course, Fox was looking to celebrate the new movie with a fresh take on a mobile game that would leverage the entire film franchise. The timing was perfect for us, as we wanted a popular entertainment brand to pair with our innovative match-3 gameplay. As the biggest mass market genre on mobile, we see high levels of audience affinity between fans of match-3 gameplay and the Ice Age brand, which is one of the top animated international movie franchises of all time.

Do players have to do anything special to unlock the exclusive movie scenes?

They just need to play past the general FTUE [First Time User Experience] to have access. Once they do, they can earn valuable rewards, including acorns—the game’s currency—by watching the never-before-seen movie moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzPFo0RtIY

How does a popular franchise like Ice Age help enhance the match-3 experience?

People familiar with the franchise will have an immediate affinity for their favorite scenes from the original four films and will be delighted with the content from the upcoming Ice Age: Collision Course movie. It was very important to us that all 16 characters were deeply integrated into the actual gameplay. Whether it’s Ellie siphoning all of the jewels from the board or Scrat expanding the board after you’ve collected enough acorns, we recreated everyone’s favorite characters in a way that is meaningful and stays true to their on-camera personalities.

How does the Facebook integration work?

Players 13-years and older can connect with their real-world friends to see how they are progressing in the game and send them in-game advantages, including lives and currency. They can also compare how far they have progressed in the game with respect to their friends, and compete for the highest score on a given level. Coming soon, players will also be able to help their friends by completing levels for each other.

How did Zynga, Fox Interactive and Regal Entertainment come up with the idea for purchasing Collision Course movie tickets through the game, while promoting Arctic Blast in Regal Cinema lobbies?

We wanted to create an experience for Ice Age fans where they could enjoy the movie and the game as a connected adventure. We are bringing that to life in the game by showing exclusive content and giving players the opportunity to buy movie tickets in real-time. Once fans experience the movie magic of Ice Age: Collision Course in the theaters, they can take their favorite characters home with them and continue the experience in Ice Age: Arctic Blast.

We’re seeing an increasing number of tie-ins between mobile games and movies recently. How do you think the two experiences complement each other?

Movies and mobile games are not only great sources of entertainment, they are wonderful opportunities for families and friends to spend time together. Connecting the two media experiences allows people to interact with the brands they love at a time and place that is convenient for them.

ArenaNet Invests In ESports With $200,000 ‘Guild Wars 2’ World Championship

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NCsoft-owned ArenaNet, creator of the free-to-play Guild Wars massively multiplayer online (MMO) franchise, is doubling down on eSports. Through its partnership with ESL, the game maker will host a $200,000 Guild Wars 2 World Championship on September 17 at ESL Studios in Burbank, CA.

But first up is the June 25 Guild Wars 2 Pro League Season 2 Finals, which is the culmination of seven weeks of competition with 16 teams from Europe and North America. Representing Europe in this Saturday’s event is Season 1 champions Rank Fifty Five Dragons and The Civilized Gentlemen. Astral Authority and Team PZ will represent North America in the finals. These four teams will compete for $100,000 at the ESL Studios in front of a live studio audience and on Twitch.

Joshua Davis, associate global brand manager at ArenaNet, talks to [a]listdaily about the expanding Guild Wars 2 eSports business.

What has eSports opened up for Guild Wars 2, which wasn’t created originally for competitive play?

PAX 2013 was our first foray into eSports. There was a $100,000 tournament for Guild Wars Factions back in the day before eSports took off.

We’ve had a very active competitive player base for a long time, and they’ve been asking us to scale this up. We’ve done the Cups in 2014 through ESL and then tournament standalone mini-major events. We’re constantly engaged with our player base to make sure there’s something to aspire towards. We’ve recently increased playing time for player vs. player combat, for example. ESports is interesting in that you can accomplish a lot of things with one swoop.

How has the ESL Pro League evolved?

We’ve learned so many lessons about how you treat and work with players, and how you balance the gameplay experience. It’s been nice to have ESL as a partner and a guiding light through the whole process.

The Cups we held in the past were casual tournaments with small prize pools. The World Tournament was more strict with regions and larger prize pools and more structure. But they were more sporadically placed. For competitive players, not having big beats to look forward to was detrimental. With Pro League, we were able to lay out a calendar for the entire year, so they know what to expect for competitive play.

What’s the breakdown for the World Championship?

There are eight teams per region in North America and the EU that compete for seven weeks. The top teams go to the Pro League Season Finals June 25 for Season 2.

How will the world championship work?

The world championship will be scaled down to six teams (three from North America and three from the EU) and feature the largest prize pool in Guild Wars 2 history—$200,000 for a single day event. The six teams will be decided through qualifier on August 6-7.

Why are you opting for a smaller studio instead of a large arena?

We’ll have fans inside the ESL Burbank studio. The main thing is making sure the venue scales to where you’re at. Certain games are booking Madison Square Garden, but we’re not there right now.

The one thing we gain in-studio is increased production value. We were fighting for space at Gamescom with other games at previous eSports events. Our competition will be as top quality as it can be.

Will you add more teams in the future?

There are more teams who could compete through the Challenger Series, but we’re comfortable with eight teams per region now.

How has the Twitch audience grown since Guild Wars 2 eSports was introduced?

We’re happy with our Twitch viewership. We weren’t expecting Dota 2 or League of Legends numbers. ESports is a slow growth endeavor, and it all comes down to consistency.

What’s the challenge of breaking into the eSports arena?

Ever year, new games get launched in the market and have varying degrees of success. MMOs in eSports are very rare. Blizzard has its World of Warcraft annual tournament, but there’s not a lot going on. One opportunity in eSports is presenting new genres and types of play. Clash Royale and Vainglory on mobile is another new area.

How has making Guild Wars 2 free-to-play impacted eSports?

We’ve attracted a lot of new users across the entire game. Play-for-free isn’t only about competitive gameplay; it’s about getting people to jump in regardless. We saw a huge spike initially. Player vs. player in Guild Wars 2 has a low barrier to entry. Once you join, you have all equipment and max level, and there’s no grinding for power. It works out really well.

How has eSports attracted new players to Guild Wars 2?

With MMOs, we can use the eSports initiative without worrying about the core game. We have a lot of features in Guild Wars 2, including raids, open world, a living world, and world vs. world. The Pro League lets us prioritize player vs. player. We can forget all the other elements and focus on combat. We’ve done some test campaigns around promoting player vs. player as a stand-alone game. It’s nice to talk about all these different gameplay components with players.

How has the game evolved since launch?

We work with the development team to prioritize the elements of player vs. player. Over the past six months, we’ve improved the visuals of the game to make it easier to follow combat, watch a game, and understand what’s going on. The Heart of Thorns expansion introduced the League System, an in-game progression for player vs. player that starts at Amber and goes through a Legendary division. This helped us increase the competitiveness through tangible goals. Players are taking it more seriously, and there’s been a shift to the right in skill level. On a professional level, it’s been an interesting problem balancing the game to make sure we move gameplay in the right direction, as players are always trying to one-up things. We’re constantly staying on top of things.

What are the marketing benefits of eSports?

Having tournaments adds visibility to our game. Occasionally, we’ll be on front page of Twitch. Having new fans research the game and maybe go into the game is a benefit. Most games on Twitch are competitive-skewed. A couple of games aren’t, but MMOs usually don’t have a large audience on Twitch.

What type of infrastructure is there for teams to compete in Guild Wars 2 today?

We’ve taken more of an organic approach. We don’t want to solicit ourselves to them. We had our first pro team come in three or four months ago, Astral Authority, and they’re sponsoring a team, The Abjured. We decided to let them come into the game when it was the right spot. It’s cool to see a team come in based on a competitive initiative this year.

What are your plans for Season 3?

We haven’t made decisions on next year yet. There are still two major beats this year we need to get through.

What role does Asia play for Guild Wars 2 eSports?

KongZhong handles all operational stuff in Asia. They opted out this year. They manage their own region. We’re not officially launched in Korea, in that we don’t support their language. This year we did open up our competition worldwide. We even have players from Antarctica competing. We have a number of players on teams in North America from Brazil and on EU teams from Thailand and Korea.

Zynga’s ‘Ice Age: Arctic Blast’ Features Cool Movie Integration

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Zynga made its reputation with games like Farmville, and now it’s about to send a refreshingly cold chill with its latest free-to-play mobile game, Ice Age: Arctic Blast. The game was made in partnership with 20th Century Fox, as part of a tie-in for its upcoming animated film Ice Age: Collision Course, set to debut in theaters on July 22.

In Arctic Blast, players work with familiar characters from the film, including Manny and Sid, to clear through match-3 puzzles while using special power-ups. Additionally, users can sign into Facebook to earn in-game currency, as well as connect with friends to send extra lives as needed. The game will also soon become a hub for the film, as it will mix in content from Collision Course. This includes two upcoming exclusive clips from the film, in a deal with Regal Entertainment Group, will let players purchase tickets to the movie from within the game.

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Arctic Blast will also get exposure in the real world, as the game trailer will run for two weeks following the film’s release in over 570 Regal Cinema theaters. A game download call-to-action will also be included with each Collision Course ticket sold.

“Our key goal with Zynga was to produce a fun and exciting game that immerses players into the world of Ice Age and its wonderful characters,” said Rick Phillips, executive VP of Fox Digital Entertainment. “Whether you’re a longtime Ice Age fan or a newcomer just learning about Scrat, Sid, Manny and the rest of the herd, Ice Age is one of the top animated movie franchises of all time.”

Arctic Blast is also benefitting charitable organizations. John Leguizamo, who voices the character of Sid for the films and the game, posted on Twitter that with every download of Arctic Blast, Zynga will donate $1 (for up to $50,000) to the Fresh Air fund.

 

Super Evil Megacorp Exec Discusses Amazon ESports Partnership

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Super Evil Megacorp continues to prove that mobile eSports are here to stay. The game developer, which has raised over $26 million in funding to date, has just signed a deal with Amazon. The leading e-tailer is the platinum sponsor of the 2016 Vainglory Summer eSports season, which runs today through September 11.

The new season introduces two separate tiers of competition. Twitch and Super Evil Megacorp are debuting the Evil Eight, presented by Amazon Appstore, a new tier of elite competition in North America and Europe featuring only the region’s top eight teams at any given time. These elite teams will battle each weekend on Twitch in eight-team tournaments, earning points in championship standings.

Alongside will be a community-run “Challenger” tier of competition, with regular Evil Eight challenger battles. Kristian Segerstrale, COO of Super Evil Megacorp, said this two-tiered competitive structure creates many more opportunities to broadcast clashes of elite teams such as Team SoloMid, G2 eSports, Team Secret, mousesports, and SK Gaming, while giving up-and-coming teams a path to their own tournament victories and ultimately the seasonal championship.

“This is the first time both top-tier teams and new teams are applying and competing,” Segerstrale said. “It all culminates with the top three teams from the Challenger series facing off against the bottom three teams from the elite structure. The competitive landscape has grown so rapidly that we can now support full-time Vainglory teams that deserve a league of their own, and also give amateur teams that are improving an opportunity to challenge the best teams.”

Segerstrale added that Vainglory-first teams such as GankStars and Halcyon Hammers have been able to build professional organizations, complete with business development representatives, sponsorships, and part-time team psychologists. Amazon’s home city of Seattle is likely to host the “Battle for Seattle” North American Summer Live Championships September 2-4 while the European championship will be held September 9-11.

“We’re hoping to work the North American championship into the broader PAX fabric, which takes places that weekend,” Segerstrale said. The summer season is poised to have 5 million viewers tune in to the action, doubling the number of viewers from the Winter 2016 event. He also expects to see a larger live audience attend the event, topping the 500-700 people who attended the recent Spring North American Championship.

In addition, the Amazon Appstore will be rewarding players throughout the season with discounts and bonus Amazon Coins, the digital currency that lets customers save up to 25 percent off in-app purchases.

Super Evil Megacorp signed a multi-year, multimillion deal with Amazon-owned Twitch in March to take over its Vainglory eSports business. “We’ve had a relationship with Amazon before the Twitch deal, and worked with them on the first season in a small-scale collaboration,” Segerstrale said. “That’s grown. We’ve launched Vainglory on the Amazon Appstore and the relationship has grown into this significant Summer Season. The Twitch deal has helped. All sponsorship and sales come through Twitch. The team working on Vainglory eSports there has quadrupled. Both the live audience and broadcast quality of these events significantly increased.”

Segerstrale also commented on how this new deal is about more than the sponsorship monetary component. “It’s a deep marketing collaboration that helps promote the Amazon Appstore and helps spread the word of Vainglory and the competitive scene, which is rapidly becoming a fun, fast-growing new thing for the touch screen generation,” Segerstrale notes. “There are millions of folks growing up with touch screens as their primary device for gaming, entertainment, communication and information. This Amazon deal will help invite more people to be part of the competitive scene.”

Super Evil Megacorp has been updating Vainglory to connect with a more mainstream audience like the one Amazon caters to. “We believe multiplayer touch screen gaming will be mass market in the next few years,” said Segerstrale. “It’s new for this generation now, but the Summer Season update has many features that make the game more approachable. We’ve added broader options to play with or against bots, so you don’t have to play with real people. We’ve introduced the shorter Battle Royale game mode for learning to play different heroes. And we’ve added more tutorials and learning materials.”

This 2016 Summer Season is a small step in a long journey toward making multiplayer play more approachable on touch screens. “At its core, Vainglory is a highly competitive game, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to just have fun playing with friends,” Segerstrale explains. “Amazon will help spread the word.”

8 Games That Showed Off Open Worlds With Style

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If there’s one statement that was often heard repeated at last week’s E3, it was how games were featuring worlds that were bigger than ever before. It seems as though almost every major publisher showcased an open world game, with a vast land for players to fully lose themselves in. Even Bethesda, still enjoying the success of last year’s release of Fallout 4, announced the upcoming release of Skyrim Special Edition—a fully remastered version of the 2013 game for current consoles and PC.

Huge games need an equally big presentation, and here’s how some of the most expansive games were shown to the world.

Battlefield 1

Although Battlefield single-player campaigns have historically been straightforward stories, with little opportunity to explore, the upcoming addition to the series deserves a mention. EA made a big show of Battlefield 1‘s dynamic game systems during its EA Play press event last week. The game promises to focus on three distinct pillars that make up the Battlefield experience: destruction, dynamic weather, and a variety of weapons and vehicles. These guarantee that no two matches ever play quite the same way. So, even though Battlefield 1 probably won’t be an open world game in a technical sense, no one is going to remember that when they’re flying a behemoth—a massive war zeppelin—around.

To fully demonstrate how large the game is, a 64-player multiplayer match was livestreamed at the press conference’s conclusion. Attendees joined celebrities Jamie Foxx and Zack Efron in trying the game for the first time from the EA Play floor.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

With hits like the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry series, it’s probably safe to say that Ubisoft loves developing open world games more than any other company. This is evidenced by how there were three upcoming open-world games showcased at its E3 press event last week, not counting the two The Division expansions, the puzzle-oriented Grow Up, or the brutal melee combat of For Honor. Chief among them was Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which boasts the largest world Ubisoft has ever created.

Ubisoft emphasized the real world influences that went into developing Wildlands, with Dominic Butler, lead game designer at Ubisoft Paris, explaining to viewers that, “In Bolivia, the coca leaf is core to the culture. It’s found in every gas station, every hospital, and every town square.” Then he showed a lengthy gameplay demonstration video, where four players came to together to execute a mission. They needed multiple vehicles, including a helicopter, to traverse the vast landscape. E3 attendees were invited to try the game out for themselves from the show floor to help build up anticipation for the game when it launches next year.

Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs 2 is a game that’s so big that it took two separate events to showcase what it has to offer. The first was a livestreaming debut, where viewers were introduced to the new hacker’s playground: San Francisco. It also introduced the new main character, Marcus Holloway, and the tools he has at his disposal to take control of the city’s electronics. Considering how San Francisco is considered to be one of the country’s largest tech hubs, there’s a lot to play with.

The second presentation was at the Ubisoft pre-E3 press conference, where host Aisha Tyler’s introduction was “interrupted” by a hacker who took over the lights and screens. The hacker’s message transitioned straight into a quick recap of some of the features introduced during the livestream, followed by a mission demonstration. Furthermore, Jim Ryan, Sony’s president of global sales and marketing, took to the Ubisoft stage to remind audiences that a Watch Dogs movie was in the works, showing that the world is just too big for one type of medium. He also announced that PS4 players will have access to all Watch Dogs 2 DLC 30-days before they released for other platforms.

Considering how Assassin’s Creed fans will be treated to a movie in lieu of a game release this year, Watch Dogs 2 may be than enough to satisfy the need for an open world adventure when it releases this fall.

Steep

Extreme sports come to life like never before in the newly announced game, Steep. Inspired by the Alps, players can take on snowboarding, skiing and wingsuit challenges, compete with other players in events, and take in the snowy mountaintop view.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda was first introduced to the world in 1986, and it is arguably one of the first open world games. Now Nintendo wants to recapture that sense of adventure with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Reggie Fils-Aimé, president and COO of Nintendo of America described the game as “one of the biggest experiences ever created by Nintendo,” and the company practically dedicated its entire E3 presence to showing it off.

Of all the games shown at E3 last week, Breath of the Wild was perhaps the one game with that left the biggest impression. That’s because its 30,000 square foot booth was designed as a real world recreation of Hyrule, the game’s setting. This included real grass on the ground, the smell of pine, and other ambient features to fully immerse attendees into the world. Meanwhile, Nintendo played Breath of the Wild for all three days of E3 on a livestreams, so that online viewers could get a look at what the game has to offer. Even with all that was shown, the E3 presentation was only a small part of what players can explore when the game releases next year.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Featuring multiple solutions to practically every situation, the Deus Ex features choice and creativity as a critical part of its gameplay. Players need to figure the best way to navigate dark vision of the future by solving missions with combat or stealth, using a variety of cybernetic augmentations, weapons and gadgets. Among some of the announcements made during a livestream broadcast a week before E3, the developers at Eidos Montreal revealed the city hub where players would spend much of their time.

Furthermore, Square Enix’s booth was augmented using robotic arms. A person named Daniel Melville wore the world’s first Deus Ex-inspired prosthetic arm (created by Open Bionics), and he showed it off to attendees. Furthermore, attendees could control a separate robot arm contained in a transparent box using the Razer Stargazer motion-sensing camera.

Mafia III

One of the biggest themes of this year’s E3 was bringing the game worlds to life. That’s exactly what 2K did by recreating a 1960s-themed New Orleans-inspired block on the show floor to promote Mafia III. The publisher also revealed story and gameplay from the open world organized crime game to get viewers to pre-order the game.

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Pokémon GO

Perhaps it’s cheating to include an augmented reality game, but when you think about it, the real world is about as big and open as it gets. Players will be encouraged to go outside and explore far outside of their neighborhoods with their mobile devices to “catch” all the Pokémon hiding out there when the game releases next month. The developer, Niantic, has stated that the game is designed to get players active and take in the world around them. It’s a task that will become even simpler when the Pokémon GO Plus accessory launches sometime later, which will let users catch Pokémon without having to pull their phones out.

Pokémon GO is currently undergoing field testing across multiple countries, and developers—including the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo—demonstrated the game live from the E3 show floor.