exclusivity
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Sharp FX Plus for AT&T caught on Walmart brochure, shows off its Froyo side
Just as paper adds fuel to a fire, so does an official Walmart brochure with images of new phones. The latest exclusive to come out of Wally World is the Sharp FX Plus (Google lawsuit, anyone?), an Android 2.2-powered follow-up to last year's blip on the AT&T radar. The photo confirms that this is indeed identical to the puzzling Sharp Android slider that appeared in fuzzy renders two months ago, only with an AT&T logo on the bottom to make it look all the more official. The brochure indicates the FX Plus will feature Froyo pre-installed (upgradeable to Gingerbread soon enough, we assume), a 3.2-inch display, and Audience's earSmart noise cancellation technology. It's unclear when we'll see it hit store shelves or how much it'll set us back; even if we knew, the phone isn't likely to deter a lot of keyboard lovers from getting something as desirable as the Samsung i927. At least AT&T's QWERTY Android lineup is filling out fast after a lengthy drought. [Thanks, Billy]
Second 'South Park' game headed exclusively to Xbox 360
It's been nearly two years since the last South Park-branded title landed on Xbox Live Arcade, but apparently at least one more is in the works exclusively for Microsoft's digital marketplace. In speaking with 345 Games creative director Prithvi Virasinghe during a recent Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon preview, I couldn't help but wonder what other Comedy Central properties his studio might work on next -- perhaps one of the network's most famous? "Right now, South Park is actually in a first-party deal with Microsoft Studios, who published the first game, and they're doing a second game as well," he explained. Apparently South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! was just the first of two titles in the deal, set to expire whenever that follow-up title launches. "After that, that first-party exclusivity window expires, and we get a shot of taking that back," Virasinghe explained. Though his team is up to the challenge, Virasinghe also has some other projects he's interested in first, particularly a couple of ideas involving Stephen Colbert (as well as Colbert's hilarious side character, Tek Jansen). That said, the developer needs to leap some hurdles before that can happen, the least of which is deciding whether or not its game idea fits well with the brand. According to him, "It has to be the right combination of game idea meets property." Personally, I'm holding out for Tek Jansen.
Invizimals developer Novarama working exclusively with Sony
Invizimals developer Novarama didn't just announce a new game in its PSP augmented reality series today: it announced a new deal with Sony that will ensure more of the Spanish company's games will appear on Sony systems. The AR-focused developer has entered into an exclusivity agreement with SCEE. That means that the PlayStation Vita fighter Reality Fighters will remain a Vita-only experience, and Novarama will also begin working on new games for Sony. "For a studio geared towards innovation like Novarama, having a partner of the size and experience of Sony is the perfect blend," said Novarama CEO Dani Sánchez-Crespo. "By extending our partnership, we will continue making kids believe in invisible creatures and turning gamers into video game characters." Put that way, it sounds a lot more like the work of some evil mastermind. "Soon, all the children will believe in invisible creatures! And then, the world is ours!"
The Daily Grind: Does PS3 exclusivity affect your enthusiasm for DUST 514?
Raise your hand if you saw last week's DUST 514 PS3 announcement coming. Given the lack of hands waving about, we can only surmise that you lot were as surprised as we were. While internet speculation has attributed CCP's decision to the perceived difficulties in bringing an Xbox Live MMO to market (as well as the PS3's superior hardware), the reality is that it doesn't matter at this point. What does matter is player reaction to the news, and when we say player, we mean EVE Online veterans and curious bystanders alike. For today's Daily Grind, tell us your thoughts about CCP's New Eden-based shooter. If you've got a PS3, will you be playing DUST? If you don't have one, do you plan to get one now? In short, how does the Sony exclusivity impact your decision to try the game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
HTC Sensation bids tearful adieu to Vodafone exclusivity
It was fun while it lasted, but Vodafone's expected two-week reign of exclusivity on the HTC Sensation has dropped, leaving the phone ready to be scooped up by other networks. Carphone Warehouse is now offering the dual-core Gingerbread device on pre-order for O2 and Orange with plans starting at £40, expecting to ship the week of June 20th. If neither carrier sounds overly tempting, BuyMobilePhones is also commencing pre-orders for T-Mobile and Three with a minimum tariff of £15; no delivery date was mentioned here, though we hope to be looking at a similar timeframe. Already sold? Head south to the source links, wallet clutched firmly in hand.
Samsung Galaxy S II on pre-order in South Korea, introduces Olleh Touch for NFC payments
When Samsung teased us with those clever Galaxy S II commercials, we could feel the growing anticipation for its early UK arrival. Coincidentally, today marks an end to Britain's exclusivity, with South Korea's KT now offering the dual-core stunner for pre-order. We've learned this Korean Galaxy S II includes NFC, coinciding with the carrier's roll-out of Olleh Touch, a payment system being implemented at local grocer Lotte Mart. Sure, NFC inclusion increases the phone's thickness to 8.9mm, but if parlor tricks are your thing, we'd imagine it'll still easily pass under doorways. [Thanks, Aditya]
Samsung Galaxy S II to arrive in UK on April 27th, but only through Phones 4u
UK phone retailer Phones 4u has scooped itself a short-term but enviable exclusive -- it'll be the only place in the UK where you'll be able to buy Samsung's Galaxy S II in April. The 1.2GHz dual-core Android superphone has already been announced for wide availability in the Queen's Kingdom on May 1st, but Phones 4u will get you one as early as April 27th, plus it'll throw in a free 8GB microSD card if you pre-order one now. The Galaxy S II will be available for free on two-year contracts costing £35 per month and above and there'll be a choice of carriers. Only Orange's tariffs are listed at the moment, but we imagine the others will be showing up soon as well. Jump past the break for the press release.
Motorola Atrix to launch exclusively with Orange UK in early May
Just in time to duel with the Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola's Atrix is crossing the Atlantic for an early May release in Orange livery. UK carrier Orange has proudly announced it'll be the "exclusive launch partner" for the Atrix in the UK, offering the dual-core handset for free on two-year contracts costing £35 per month or more. A Work and Play Kit that includes the phone's Multimedia Dock will be made available at a reduced £50 price to new customers buying the phone, or for free to existing Orange subscribers upgrading to the Atrix during May. Business customers on some of the more overpriced fully featured tariffs will also get the chance to snap up the Lapdock for free. Jump past the break for Orange's fulll press release or hit the source link to register your interest now.
HTC's WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy 'this spring'
Now that it's received its big US debut courtesy of Sprint and under the name EVO View 4G, HTC's Flyer tablet is free to, um, fly under the radar with a WiFi version this spring, exclusively through Best Buy. Specs on the Flyer are somewhat atypical for the current crop of Android tablets, as it opts for Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb and a 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip intead of the popular Tegra 2 dual-core solution. That, and it's a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive stylus and an aluminum unibody shell. Notably, this WiFi-centric variant looks set to beat the WiMAX-capable EVO View (which Sprint expects in the summer) to market, so we'll be keeping a very curious eye on pricing as and when it is announced. For now, we have a retailer and a rapidly dwindling release window. Oh, and a press release, which you'll find just past the break, augmented with a neat little promo video. [Thanks, Michael]
Xperia Play to be exclusive launch device for Gameloft's BackStab action game
It has begun. The Xperia Play, a device that promises to take mobile gaming to its next level of awesomeness, just scooped itself a one-month exclusive on a brand new action adventure game. BackStab, produced by mobile game makers Gameloft, has a "free roaming 3D environment" (old school 3D, not the fancy new stuff), filled with some decidedly yummy-looking graphics and what appears to be an emphasis on battling multiple enemies at once. All we're seeing here reminds us of desktop or console games, not the usual mobile fare, so we're most intrigued to see this game in action. It'll hit all of Android eventually, but for the first 30 or so days after its launch in Q2 2011, it'll be only on Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play. Check it out in the gallery below.
Angry Birds Rio will be exclusive to Amazon Appstore on Android launch
Think you'll be heading to the Android Market to get your next fix of Rovio Mobile's insanely popular Angry Birds? Think again. The next installment in the aviary vengeance saga, Angry Birds Rio, will launch exclusively on Amazon's upcoming Appstore for Android. That does sound like it will eventually achieve universal distribution via the Market, but in the interim Amazon has scored a pretty big scoop in its efforts to attract users to its own app repository. We're also promised the Appstore is launching "very soon" and Amazon has just inaugurated an @amazonappstore account on Twitter to keep us abreast of when precisely that will happen.
Samsung's Google TV delayed by Intel exclusivity agreement?
Samsung's been waffling on Google TV for quite some time -- prototypes aside -- and now Bloomberg thinks it might know the reason why. According to an anonymous source, Mountain View's been requiring that OEMs use Intel's CE4100 chip in their television products, and as any self-respecting chipmaker might be expected to do, Samsung declined. Now, with Google TV's efforts to break into the living room floundering, the search giant has allegedly lifted the restriction and allowed Samsung to use its own silicon, meaning we'll likely see Google TV running on a certain dual-core ARM in the months to come. Anything to save us from Smart TV, right?
Sony Ericsson breaks out white Xperia Play, makes it an O2 exclusive in the UK
We'll confess, we did see Sony Ericsson execs flashing white Xperia Play handsets during the company's MWC 2011 press event, but curiously enough none of those made their way to the demo areas. Now we've finally got ourselves some fully fleshed out press shots, along with the news that O2 will be the sole carrier for this alabaster gaming smartphone in the UK. Other markets have yet to announce availability of the white Xperia Play, but you'll know more just as soon as we do. Skip past the break to see how the front end looks. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Report: EA and NFL restructure exclusivity deal amid work stoppage fears
The NFL has cut EA a break, reports SportsBusiness Journal, reducing the Madden maker's licensing fee by an undisclosed amount for the next football season, which remains in jeopardy as the current collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players' union is set to expire March 4 and, so far, renegotiations have been futile. If a new CBA is not drawn between the two sides before the current contract expires, it could result in a work stoppage -- in other words, no football come fall. While such an outcome wouldn't prevent EA from releasing Madden 12 in early August (the series' traditional launch window leading up to the start of the NFL regular season), it could certainly devalue the expensive NFL-related licenses that EA has secured. Last October, anticipating such a scenario, EA reportedly requested a $30 million dollar discount on its payment owed to the NFL this year. The five-year deal inked in 2008 between the two sides is believed to be worth "well into nine figures" -- that's hundreds of millions -- and is likely the NFL's most lucrative non-TV contract, according to SBJ. "For one of our core partners in a difficult environment, we say let's look at this, and maybe it makes some sense to extend something out longer and give our partner some relief in the short term, but gain something on the back end," Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, chairman of the NFL's business ventures committee, told SBJ, alluding to the nature of the restructured deal with EA. According to SBJ's sources, EA has been granted some form of relief for this year's fees, and its NFL exclusivity deal has been extended one year through the 2013-14 football season. EA maintains a separate, concurrent contract with the NFL Players Association for which the players' union receives $30–40 million, annually (according to the union's Labor Department filings), for the publisher's right to use NFL players in its games. It's as yet unknown if EA has sought to reduce its fees owed to the union this year or extend the deal another year to remain consistent with the companion contract with the league. EA declined our request to comment on its NFL-related licensing agreements for this article.
Homefront DLC maps to debut on Xbox Live, 'Suburb' exclusive to Xbox
Homefront is following in Call of Duty's footsteps in more ways than one. As Activision has done for its FPS franchise, THQ is partnering up with Microsoft to offer Xbox Live members first access to all future downloadable content for Homefront, Xbox's Major Nelson announced today at a THQ press event for the game. In addition, the Xbox 360 version of the game will include an exclusive map at launch, dubbed "Suburb." Additional details about the map and partnership will be revealed on "Inside Xbox" next week.
iPhone 4 will be available through Verizon starting in February
Verizon has acquired the right to sell the iPhone starting February 10 with pre-orders beginning on February 3, the company announced this morning in one of the worst-kept secrets since the Beatles appeared on iTunes. The iPhone will connect to the CDMA network and will be $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model (with a 2-year contract and required data plan, of course). The big news? A mobile hotspot is included, allowing you to connect up to five devices through the iPhone. The talks began in 2008, when the two companies began to discuss bringing over the iPhone over for the CDMA network, and indeed the release of the iPad on the carrier last year was proof of the iPhone's imminent arrival.
'Buzz' dev Relentless expands digital strategy as PlayStation exclusivity deal ends
Relentless Software, the UK-based creator of the Buzz! trivia games for PlayStation platforms, is now free from an exclusivity deal with Sony and looking to pursue a digital distribution strategy that would bring its games to a wide range of internet-connected devices. "That's my aim," co-founder Andrew Eades told GamesIndustry.biz, "to make games for anyone who has a TV." "The whole retail market is becoming very much about pillar titles for a hardcore audience," said Eades, citing Activision's perennial standout Call of Duty and its difficult to match, multimillion dollar budget as good reason to move away form the disc-based business, "so we have to find a new way to get to our audience, and that is digital, episodic, various different platforms, including PlayStation -- that remains our main platform." The platform-exclusivity deal with Sony ended on good terms last year, and Relentless will continue to look to PlayStation Network for long-term revenue in its new, fremium-based Buzz!: Quiz Player iteration, along with ongoing sales of its self-published episodic mystery game, Blue Toad Murder Files, which debuted on PSN in late 2009. (It was released for PC in November.) "The interesting thing we've found out with Blue Toad is that, almost a year after its first launch, we're still selling it in different ways," Eades explained. "We've had a sixty percent uplift in sales through the Advent Calendar Theme Bundle pack. You can't do this on disc." This realization appears to be the guiding light in the studio's new focus to expand its digital distribution efforts to more platforms. Relentless is at work on a new game for next year, to be followed by the launch of a new IP. "PlayStations and Xboxes have a place under many people's TVs, but there's also satellite boxes, Apple TVs, Google TVs, internet-connected TVs," Eades observed. "They all have more and more computational power, and that's all we need -- that processor power to deliver our games and the internet connection to distribute them -- and we're in the living room just as any broadcast TV is." [Image source: Relentless]
AT&T's Richard Lindner: "Exclusive arrangements end."
If you agree with Consumer Reports' take on AT&T's terrible wireless service, the good news is that you might not have that much longer to wait. "Exclusive arrangements end," AT&T's CFO Richard Lindner told the UBS Media and Communications Conference earlier this week. If you think that sounds like he was trying to pad the landing on an upcoming split between AT&T and Apple, then we agree. As Electronista reports, Lindner also made the point that AT&T has plenty of phones to sell that aren't the iPhone. Interesting -- of course that's not confirmation that AT&T's deal is ending soon, but if that's what Lindner is thinking about lately, it certainly supports some of the other rumors we've heard about Verizon possibly getting an iPhone next year. Lindner also talked about AT&T's data capping plans, and said that the 2GB limit on bandwidth per month was a tough decision to make, but that customers have responded to it pretty well. The company lost some revenue on the high end as people dropped their plan costs, but Lindner also says the $15 option has done well, and perhaps even enticed some users to data plans when they weren't on one before (of course, iPhone purchases require a data plan, so he wasn't talking about us). Finally, Lindner said that the iPad was closer to a smartphone in terms of network usage than a netbook or a more traditional computer. He said that the caps on iPad did possibly push users to use Wi-Fi a little more than they would have if unlimited bandwidth was available -- though that's not very surprising at all.
G4 signs three-year exclusive deal for E3 TV rights
Television network G4 announced today that it has signed a three-year deal to be the official broadcaster of E3. The partnership between the network and the mega-convention's organizer, the ESA, extends a relationship the two have renewed annually for the past several years, relieving G4 of having to ask the awkward "wanna go steady (again)" question for a time. The Comcast-owned network's multi-year agreement gives G4 access to "uninterrupted press conference coverage" and all the other flare you'd expect from the moving-picture medium. All you DirecTV subscribers, of course, will have to head over to a friend's house to watch the coverage, since the satellite TV company recently dropped the network -- or you could just join on us these little ol' internets for our own extensive E3 coverage with written words.
First Fallout: New Vegas DLC 'exclusive' to Xbox 360
Bethesda has confirmed that Fallout: New Vegas will -- obviously -- be supported by post-release DLC. As was the case with Fallout 3 add-ons, the first new content for New Vegas will be "exclusive" to Xbox Live when it's released this holiday. Though no plans to feature the same content on PSN (or PC, for that matter) have been announced, what happens to be exclusive to Xbox Live doesn't always stay exclusive to Xbox Live -- odds are New Vegas DLC will (eventually) be ported to PS3. "We're excited to continue the partnership between Bethesda and Microsoft, and build on the success of the game add-ons released for Fallout 3 on Xbox Live," said Bethesda mouthpiece Pete Hines in an announcement. "Fans will once again be able to continue their experience in the Fallout universe with the add-on packs planned for after the launch of the game." Bethesda will reveal more details about New Vegas DLC in "the coming weeks."
