‘LEGO Dimensions’ Enters Toy/Game Hybrid Market

LEGO’s throwing its pointy little hat into the toy/game hybrid ring with LEGO Dimensions, which is being produced by a partnership between Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games and The LEGO Group. The game merges physical LEGO brick building with interactive console game play along with a myriad of characters from the many classic film properties in the Warner Bros. library. It looks like a serious competitor to the likes of Activision’s Skylanders and Disney Infinity.

 

“When kids play with LEGO bricks, they build beyond the singular brands, intermixing all of their favorite characters and universes, and we have come up with a way for players to experience that in games,” said Jon Burton, Founder and Creative Director, TT Games. “Now for the first time in a videogame, LEGO fans can play in the virtual world and in the real world – combining everything without restrictions. Imagine putting LEGO Gollum from The Lord of the Rings behind the wheel of the LEGO DeLorean Time Machine in New Ninjago City – the creative play is endless.”

The game is arriving September 27 this year for Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, PlayStation 4, and the Wii U. The Starter Pack will include the LEGo Toy Pad (which allows players to transport special LEGo minifigures and other objects into the game), bricks to build the LEGO Gateway, three minifigures, including LEGO Batman from DC Comics, LEGO Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings and Wyldstyle from The LEGO Movie, plus the LEGO Batmobile.

 

 

 

 

Of course, more packs are on the way, drawing on such well-known brands as Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings, DC Comics, and The Wizard of Oz. Clearly LEGO is hoping for some of the brand magic to rub off, in the same way that Disney Infinity has capitalized on the multitude of iconic characters and movies that Disney controls. What remains to be seen is how much marketing effort goes into this product line, especially at the crucially important retail level. Both Activision and Disney have invested heavily in store displays that feature interactive capability to try out the hybrid toys, and certainly that’s been an important factor in the success of both of the product lines.There’s also the issue of retail signage, and the sheer amount of shelf space commanded by the large product lines both Activision and Disney already possess. Of course, LEGO starts with a strong relationship with major retail chains and great shelf position already – will the company leverage this for LEGO Dimensions That seems like smart marketing and a likely outcome.

The battle for the increasingly valuable toy-game hybrid market is only going to intensify this Christmas. Don’t forget that Nintendo will certainly have even more new Amiibos, as well as new compatible video games, to compete for retail attention and consumer dollars. This category is already in the billions of dollars, and thus you can expect the marketing battle to be an intense one.

 

 

New Game Show Goes Virtual In 2016

These days, game shows are pretty basic, featuring a live audience, an interactive set-up where contestants could win big prizes, and a host with plenty of personality – we’re looking at you, Alex Trebek. However, next year, The Future Group could change how we look at game shows forever.

VentureBeat has reported that the Oslo, Norway-based company has managed to raise $8.5 million for a new virtual game show that it intends to launch next year. Co-founder Bard Anders Kasin confirmed the project with Gamesbeat earlier this week, indicating that the team was working with an unnamed game show production company on the project.

Kasin is no stranger to gaming technology, as he worked as a technical director for Warner Bros. and also utilized game-oriented technologies with The Matrix films. “We saw gaming applied to the film pipeline, and since then we have seen a huge change in what we were able to do in real time,” he explained. “This is the accumulation of dreams that people had for many years. And the technology is finally there to do it.”

The project is set to launch as a game show in prime time sometime next year, on a yet undisclosed network. It will feature a virtual world that can be accessed through a number of desktop and mobile devices, enabling the audience to play along and perhaps throw a few challenges at the contestants.

Although The Future Group can’t yet show off what it’s doing – the screenshot above is just a hint of the concept – it intends to blend live video of actors blending in with a virtual world almost seamlessly. “There are so many different markets involved,” said Kasin. “We have people spread through Europe with a lot of partner companies. You have TV, games, studio systems and the eCommerce platform. We’re trying to make it brilliant because we know we have to do that in order to succeed.

“In The Matrix movies, you had people moving into a virtual world, and we’re kind of doing the same thing now.”

The show will utilize Unity based game technology to create the virtual world, using motion trackers to keep track of players’ movements so that they can interact with items with very little error. “We put Unity in the film production pipeline to make the process happen in real time,” said Kasin. “We are building an entire online world. You can compete against the TV show contestants while the show is airing. But you can also just play in the game world. The more you compete, the more chances you have for prizes.”

It sounds like a lot of promise, but if The Future Group can pull it off, it’ll change the way we look at game shows forever. Even with Alex Trebek.

PlayStation Music Rocks On With Spotify

Spotify has been a good go-to service for those listening to their favorite playlists on both desktop and mobile devices – but now it’s taking its tunes to the next level, with its recent debut on the PlayStation 4 console.

PlayStation Music, a new music destination which was announced a little while back on the PlayStation Blog, has been making the rounds for the past couple of weeks, with Spotify powering the service. It’s a change of pace from Sony’s previous Music Unlimited service, which featured direct purchases of songs that could only be played through certain menus, rather than in general. (That service shut down last month.)

With PlayStation Music, users not only have the option of listening to tunes while browsing through their favorite apps and PlayStation Store, but also while playing games. It’s simply a matter of activating their playlist through the PlayStation Music app, then switching over to their favorite game.

“We know how important music is to our community of gamers, and this partnership combines the best in music with the best in gaming,” said Eric Lempel, vice president of Sony Network Entertainment, on the partnership back in January. “PlayStation Network users will enjoy the convenience of linking your accounts to Spotify, making it easy to sign-up with your existing ID and subscribe to Spotify’s Premium service. You can also use Spotify while playing games on PS4, enabling you to soundtrack your gaming sessions with your favorite songs in the background.

“With more than 30 million songs and 1.5 billion playlists, Spotify on PlayStation Music has it covered. As we get closer to launch we look forward to telling you about some of the other great features that will be available exclusively through Spotify on PlayStation Music.”

So far, the service has been pleasing users, and our tests with the PlayStation Music app have been nothing short of successful, as we were easily able to test our favorite playlists during sessions of Axiom Verge, Destiny and other games, with hardly any interruption.

Sony intends to launch PlayStation Music for other devices as well, including PlayStation 3, Xperia smartphones and tablets. Those interested in learning more about the premium services available, as well as how easy it is to use the PlayStation Music app, can do so here {link no longer active}.

A Brave New World Of Monetizing Long-Form Content

by Frank Besteiro

You’re the proud owner of a new long-form show or movie, and now it’s time to monetize it. For most of us in business development, selling the exclusive streaming rights to a subscription service like Netflix or Amazon is one of the first options that comes to mind. And why not It’s simple, it’s proven, and compensation is guaranteed.

But just as we’ve seen content itself change over the years, so too must our business strategy for that content to evolve. It’s not enough to copy and paste a model from traditional TV — or even short-form digital — and call it a day. Rather, it’s time to enter into a brave new world of long-form monetization, circa 2015.

Up until now, subscription services, ad-supported content, and a la carte options have all been championed to varying degrees of success. But there are flaws with each: subscription services require a laser focus on customer acquisition; ad-supported content can frustrate viewers; and a la carte purchases present a higher barrier to entry because who wants to pay per episode of his favorite show

Consumers today are highly sophisticated, and their viewing habits have dramatically evolved. They are able to intuitively assess what different content is worth, and then act accordingly — either by punching in a credit card number or patiently watching pre-roll.

That’s a good thing, because it forces content creators and distributors to stay one step ahead. And while there’s no magic formula, there are a few guiding principles that will help lead the way as we, in the business, determine how best to monetize to today’s world.

Keep reading…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Swrve: How Mobile Games Monetize

Mobile marketing automation firm Swrve released a report on monetization for mobile games, and the numbers are fascinating. Swrve’s data is drawn from over 200 freemium games and tens of millions of players, and the figures are based on a the month of January 2015. The key statistic is that only 2.3 percent  of the players made a purchase in the month — but that’s a sharp improvement over the same survey done in January 2014, which found only 1.5 percent of players making a payment in the month.

The report didn’t consider advertising revenue, which is a major source of revenue for many games. Still, it’s clear that the vast majority of mobile game players don’t pay any money to play. How much is being spent The average spend was $29.17 per game surveyed (based on the paying players), which is up from $22 last year. So publishers seem to be getting significantly better at motivating players to pay, though the numbers are still small.

The report noted that while purchases between $0 and $5 represent over 55 percent of all purchases, they now contribute just 13.4 percent of overall revenue (less than half of the 27 percent they represented last year). While the high-value (over $50) purchases are 14 percent of revenues, it’s the mid-range of purchases that has seen a significant change. Last year, purchases between $11 and $20 were 8 percent of all purchases, accounting for just over 22 percent of revenues. This year, items priced in that range are 21.9 percent of all purchases and account for 38.6 percent of revenues. Swrve’s conclusion is that “the $10-$20 SKU is now the true revenue driver in mobile free-to-play games.”

Perhaps the most interesting fact revealed by Swrve’s study is the importance of whales. “A full 64 percent of revenue now derives from the top 10% of payers,” noted the report. “To add further context, if we express that group as a percentage  of total players they represent a mere .023 percent of that group. In other words, 64 percent of all revenues come from a mere 0.2 percent of all players!”

Swrve also looked at how long someone would typically play a game before making a purchase, finding that the average time to purchase is 15 hours, significantly less than the 28 hours reported the previous year. “Players are making purchases faster than ever before,” Swrve said.

The full report is definitely worth a read if you’re trying to figure out what to expect from monetizing a game, what sort of prices to charge, and who are the important players. No doubt the implications will be thoroughly debated, but one thing is clear — the mobile game market continues to change. There’s a vast opportunity inherent in the 97.7 percent of mobile game players who never spend any money. The company who can unlock that, even a little bit, with clever game design, monetization, or marketing will be very successful indeed.

Facebook To Host Pre-Newfront Video Event For Advertisers

by Sahil Patel

It’s been a big year for video on Facebook, which says it now generates more than 3 billion views every day. Now, like other video giants in the space, it wants to convince more ad buyers — especially from the TV world — to allocate more money to its network.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is planning an event in New York for advertisers on April 22, the week before the annual Newfronts confab are scheduled to start. It will be an opportunity for Facebook to pitch advertisers on its video capabilities, including its growing reach among the important-to-reach millennials, as well as provide a preview of what’s to come.

Read more…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

 

 

VR Marketing Stars In Bars

Having a brew at the local bar may come with a VR chaser, if some alcohol brands have their way. Tech-aided events are coming to neighborhood bars in an interesting effort to add some cachet to liquor brands, according to Adweek. Top names like Jim Beam and Dos Equis are using VR to grab attention for their tastings, and even newcomers like cinnamon-flavored Fire Eater are trying the high-tech way into consumer’s hearts, minds, and wallets.

“In this day and age, it’s really hard to capture the full undivided attention of your consumer and it’s especially hard to capture that in a crowded, busy bar,” said Rachel Harris, Jim Beam’s U.S. director of brand activation. Jim Beam’s Devil’s Cut is using Samsung Gear headsets at 250 bars in 16 U.S. markets for some 750 sampling events.

The VR headsets give the user a trip through a river of bourbon inside of a barrel, and swirls them around before exiting the barrel, all while a Jim Beam rep waves a piece of paper soaked in bourbon under their nose to enhance the sensory experience. “The virtual reality piece was a way to add a bunch of shock value and make sure that as they walk away, they’re talking about the experience,” Harris said.

Dos Equis used Oculus VR headsets at 21 different bars last year to show a three minute VR video, which boosted sales 18 percent while the live events and online video generated 27 million views. Brown-Forman used Oculus Rift to bring virtual circuses to English bars last year in order to promote their cinnamon liquor Fire Eater.

It’s hard to say if this is just a temporary gimmick or something that will become a regular part of liquor marketing. Perhaps the next time you find yourself in a bar and your head is spinning, it’ll be the VR headset and not the liquor that’s responsible.

$1.5 Million Secured For Virtual Reality App Store Wear VR

Virtual reality is about to turn a large corner on the market, with devices from Razer, Sony, Oculus Rift and others set to soon make their way to retail. However, one company has already secured a great deal of money before the VR rush has even begun.

VentureBeat has reported that Wear VR, a company that serves as an app store for virtual reality-based games, has managed to raise $1.5 million in funding to help secure its current store basis, as well as add improvements. Unnamed Atlanta-based investors were responsible for the fund raising, and Wear VR wisely intends to use the money to add new features before the virtual reality market gains steam.

With the investment, the company will launch an app that will allow users to search through virtual reality-based software on mobile devices for download.

“Despite minimal marketing, we’ve witnessed phenomenal interest in Wear VR since we launched in July,” said company co-founder Nic Mitham. “This funding will allow us to reach the growing number of people excited by the possibilities of virtual reality, as well as expanding the store’s functionality, as requested by our vocal and passionate community of VR fans.”

Wear VR already has over 900 unique VR-based apps to choose from, and has seen more than 200,000 downloads to date, for use with devices like Google’s Cardboard and Samsung’s VR tech. Obviously, those numbers will pick up as more devices head to retail.

“Our priorities include growing and harnessing the power of our community, and increasing the number and range of experiences offered through the store,” said Mitham. “We’re also looking to add a recommendation engine and implement user-curated game lists.”

However, the company will remain an independent operator, even with the pressure from many big-name companies entering the fray. “It’s important for us, and our users, that Wear VR offers the broadest range of VR software,” said Mitham. “With new devices being announced on an almost-weekly basis, virtual reality is about more than Oculus Rift: we want fans to know that they can download and access games from Wear VR for whatever device they’re using.”

We certainly wish them the best of virtual luck.

YouTube Subscription Service Could Launch This Year

Earlier this month, we reported that YouTube may be considering some form of paid video service, in an effort to introduce a new stream of revenue. This week, VentureBeat followed up with even more news, indicating that the company may be moving forward with a paid, ad-free program.

The company shuffled off a letter to content creators, indicating that it would be introducing the plan in a matter of months.

“Your fans want choices,” the letter reads. “Not only do they want to watch what they want, whenever they want, anywhere, and on any device they choose, they want YouTube features built specifically with their needs in mind. Over the past several months, we’ve taken bold new steps to bring these experiences to life. Since inviting hundreds of thousands of fans into our YouTube Music Key Beta, we’ve seen tremendous engagement. And we’ve seen an equally enthusiastic response for our new YouTube Kids app, designed to give families a simpler and safer video-viewing experience – it’s already crossed two million installations in less than one month.

“We’re excited to build on this momentum by taking another big step in favor of choice: offering fans an ads-free version of YouTube for a monthly fee. By creating a new paid offering, we’ll generate a new source of revenue that will supplement your fast growing advertising revenue.”

With the program, content creators will still make a reasonable amount of money with paid content, with a healthy dose of revenues created from subscriptions going back to them. The terms of service surrounding said creation should be updated on the site by June 15. “YouTube will pay you 55 percent of the total net revenues recognized by YouTube from subscription fees that are attributable to the monthly views or watch time of your content as a percentage of the monthly views or watch time of all or a subset of participating content in the relevant subscription offering (as determined by YouTube),” said the statement. “If your Content is included in and viewed by a user in multiple subscription offerings, YouTube will pay you based on the subscription offering with the highest amount of net revenues recognized by YouTube, as calculated by YouTube.”

This move would put YouTube in competition with various other streaming sites, including Netflix, Hulu and the recently launched HBO Now. It could also draw in potential new streamers to be featured on the channel, but without such of a heavy focus on companies to advertise – although there would still be plenty for those who prefer not to take the subscription route.

HeartbeatsMUSIC Changes The Beat For Apple Watch

There are tunes that can certainly fit a person’s mood, whether it’s kicking back with easygoing selections or rocking out to some classic Lynyrd Skynyrd to relieve work-related stress. However, the introduction of HeartbeatsMUSIC could change the way a user listens to music forever.

PSFK reports that the program, a concept put together by Beats Music for use with the Apple Watch, utilizes the pulse function within the device, and organizes tracks based on beats that may be playing nearby – or with the rhythm of the user’s pulse itself. The categorization happens automatically, this providing an “Upbeat Workout Playlist” (or whatever may fit the pulse) to keep that tempo going. The video below, Future Lions 2015, provides a demonstration of how this works.