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Pizza Hut is testing pies with plant-based 'Incogmeato' sausage
Now that KFC has generated a frenzy over plant-based meat substitutes, it's the turn of sibling brands to generate some buzz. Pizza Hut has revealed that it's conducting a Phoenix test of a new Garden Specialty Pizza with Morning Farms' Incogmeato (yes, really) Italian "sausage" as a topping. On top of that, the pies will be served in unique Zume-made round boxes. They're not just for show. The circular shape uses less overall packaging than a square box, keeps the pizza hotter and is industrially compostable. In other words, you can feel better about the pizza's environmental impact well after you've finished the last bite.
Madden 20 Championship Series ties its schedule to NFL events
Just a few months after EA announced its Madden NFL 19 bowl set new viewership records, it's laid out a schedule of events for the 2020 season. Madden NFL 20 launches next week on August 2nd -- or three days earlier for people who pre-order a special edition -- and it's touting the ability for players to go "from couch to champion." EA has announced that it's increased the number of spots available in online eliminations, with its first Classic event scheduled to occur starting August 30th. There, fans will compete to represent one of the NFL's 32 teams at the Club Championship in December. Then there's the Madden NFL 20 Challenge during Super Bowl weekend and the Madden NFL 20 Bowl during next year's draft. The NFL and EA have aligned the esports schedule to work along with the league, seeing it as a way to keep viewers and gamers engaged. NFL VP of Gaming & Esports Rachel Hoagland said in a statement that "We view esports as a key accelerant to growing the NFL. It enables new ways for young fans to engage in the sport through Madden NFL competition." The league has also snagged sponsors including Pizza Hut and Snickers, and this year signed up the first "virtual stadium rights deal in esports" that will put MCS Major live events in Pizza Hut Stadium. In a world where Fortnite exists, making sure gamers still tune into your sport any way you can is probably a good strategy. More details about the esports events were announced tonight during a Twitch stream that you can watch right here.
Pizza Hut tests Amazon Locker-style 'cubbies' for carryout orders
It's not always as quick as you might like to pick up a pizza on the way home, but Pizza Hut might have a solution: borrow a page from the online shopping world. Its Hollywood restaurant (6660 Sunset Boulevard) has started testing Amazon Locker-like "cubbies" for carryout orders purchased through any method. Each cubby includes a display that shows your partial name as well as a lining that keeps your food hot and your drinks cold. You won't have to wait for someone at the counter -- once you've paid, you just double-tap the screen and grab your meal.
Robot chefs and en route baking could be the future of pizza delivery
Looking at its storefront, you wouldn't expect Zume pizza to be the kind of business gunning to revolutionize the food-delivery business. Tucked into a quiet commercial park in Mountain View, California, next to a defunct flower shop -- which now serves as the company's engineering bay -- Zume looks more like the countless IT startups that dot Silicon Valley than a pizzeria. But only from the outside.
ICYMI: 'Pepper'-oni pizzas, 'Vibranium' hyperloops and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: Softbank's domestic robot, Pepper, got a job at Pizza Hut welcoming visitors and taking orders. The Hyperloop company developed a metal that's ten times stronger than steel but five times lighter than aluminum -- of course they're calling it Vibranium, Adamantium is so passe. And CorridorDigital created the most realistic TIE vs Millenium Falcon dogfight to date!
Pizza Hut's eye-tracking menu knows what you want before you do
When scanning a menu, are you justifying that Dame Blanche sundae in your mind rather than actually choosing a dessert? Pizza Hut wants to help you skip your super-ego middleman and just let your id order that triple-cheese bacon pepperoni pie directly. It's "Subconscious Menu" uses Tobii's eye-tracking tech to figure out which of 20 different ingredients you're looking at on a screen (see the video below). It then takes all of three seconds to identify the pizza you really want based on which you looked at the longest. Pizza Hut says its Subconscious Menu is still in trials, but after testing to a 98 percent success rate, it may eventually appear in restaurants.
Pizza Hut Xbox 360 app made over $1 million in first four months
The Pizza Hut app on Xbox 360, which made its debut back in April and allows you to order food from the delivery chain directly through your console, has earned Pizza Hut quite a bit of dough – over $1 million in four months. That's around 166,667 P'Zones or 200,000 orders of breadsticks. The last notable collision between gaming and Pizza Hut was the implementation of "/pizza" in Everquest 2 back in 2005. When players typed in "/pizza," they'd be taken to Pizza Hut's online ordering page. "It's been a source of unbelievable growth for us," Pizza Hut PR head Doug Terfehr told Polygon. "Just the explosion of people who wanted to download it, experiment with it, play with it with Kinect. As soon as we did one, everyone was contacting us to do the next [one]." As for bringing a Pizza Hut app to other consoles, Terfehr says conversations are "ongoing."
Order Pizza Hut from Xbox 360
Xbox 360 owners now have the option to download the Pizza Hut app for their console and place an order directly from the comfort of their couch, cozy recliner or beanbag chair. As Polygon reports, there's no need to search for a phone anymore, as the chain's full menu (pizza, pasta, breadsticks, agita) is available from the app. Shame or pride after ordering can be shared across Facebook."We're always looking at ways to give our audience more of what they're interested in," Xbox's Larry Hryb told Polygon. "If you look at our audience, they love pizza. I mean, who doesn't? It has international appeal, and Pizza Hut is a recognized brand that matches up well with the Xbox brand."Don't go thinking Microsoft is some pioneer in this space. In 2005, World of Warcraft let you order chinese food from Pandaren Xpress... no, wait, that was a joke. However, EverQuest 2 players could order a pie by simply typing /pizza.
Phantasy Star Portable 2 product placement is getting ridiculous
Oh, come on. Come on. The incorporation of Fanta products into Phantasy Star Portable 2 was bad enough; though we could almost excuse it for its appropriately futuristic-sounding name. There's little we can do to reconcile the addition of Pizza Hut branding into the title, though -- especially when said addition includes a pizza box shield and pizza peel sword (seen above; no photoshopping necessary). Other in-game products include literal pizza huts, dolls of the company's Japanese mascot, Mr. Cheese, and an epic boss encounter against the Noid, who attempts to ruin delicious pizza pies regardless of their corporate affiliation.Okay, so we made up that part about the boss fight -- sorta -- but the rest is totally for real!
Fight Night 4 and Pizza Hut give away custom console
Pizza Hut and EA are offering up 10 Fight Night Round 4 consoles (pictured, well, 1 of 10 is featured) and 200 copies of the game as part of the Rumble in the Ring sweepstakes. Oh yeah, there's also a trip for two to Vegas to see a championship fight live ... but let's focus on the things you actually have a chance at winning.The sweepstakes works by going to the contest website and entering your email address. We can't tell you what happens past that point because we're scared to death of anything that starts by asking us for our email address. Participants can enter once per day, so check it out. We recommend making a spammable email address first.[Via Kotaku]
Pizza Hut serves up SMS ordering: "lg ?? w xtra chz, plz"
Pizza Hut has joined rivals Domino's and Papa John's in implementing a nationwide order-by-text service, giving customers even easier access to its tasty-but-greasy fare. To take advantage of the "Total Mobile Access" feature, you have to visit the Pizza Hut website for a one-time registration of your mobile number, along with setting up your so-called "pizza playlist" to enable easier ordering. You can also satisfy your pizza jones by hitting up the same site on a mobile browser, which provides an optimized version of the desktop ordering system that has been in place for several years.[Via InformationWeek]
Pizza Hut to sponsor cyberathletes
Pizza Hut recently announced they will become the first fast food franchise to sponsor the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) and its affiliated tournaments. When engaged in league play, CPL professional and amateur members will be directed to special deals at Pizza Hut's web site, although there's no mention if this agreement also includes the Hut's Wing Street brand of chicken wings.According to Pizza Hut marketing exec Bill Ogle, "ordering a Pizza Hut pizza and having it delivered, without having to stop a game in progress, is a huge plus for this audience." While the marketing campaign makes more sense than McDonald's "feeding the world's Olympic athletes", you might want to keep a roll of paper towels handy, lest you defile that brand new 360 controller or Zboard with sauce and grease.Check out the CPL's Summer Championships schedule which includes tournaments for Quake 4, Halo 2, GRAW, and Project Gotham 3. And don't forget the breadsticks.
