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Halo 4 comes to iOS ... as a Mountain Dew/Doritos/7-Eleven promo app
The good news: There's an official Halo 4 game on iOS. The better news: it's free! The moment you become furious with us for those first two sentences: the full name of the app is "Halo 4: King of the Hill Fuled by Dew." Yes, "fuled."The exclusive soft-drink soaked experience brings in 7-Eleven and Doritos for the most authentic Halo experience, allowing you to compete to become "king of the hill." And by "hill" we mean "7-Eleven," by "king" we mean "person who is always in a 7-Eleven," and by "compete" we mean "scan Mountain Dew and Doritos products in that 7-Eleven you're constantly loitering in."You'll unlock double XP and an "Exclusive Custom Locus Helmet" for the non-Dew-fueled Xbox 360 Halo 4 by playing, and you'll forever associate "alien warzones" with 7-Eleven. Just like they want you to, apparently.
Toyota offering free LittleBigPlanet 2 content
What kind of car does Sackboy drive? Apparently, he drives an eco-friendly Toyota hybrid. Well, at least that's what a new cross-promotion with Toyota is suggesting. The auto manufacturer will be offering free sponsored content when LittleBigPlanet 2 launches, including a free XMB theme and a special Prius-themed level. The downloadable add-on includes collectible items that you can use to build your own adver-gaming creation for a chance to win "some very cool prizes." So, who's going to build a LBP2 recreation of Yaris?
FDA gave Pfizer hard time over Viagra game
Although the US Food and Drug Administration cut off Pfizer's Viagra advergame back in September, it appears the details are just coming out now. The Multinational Monitor notes the FDA requested that the pharmaceutical company remove the game from the interwebs after it decided Viva Cruiser failed "to disclose any risk information for the drug."According to Pharma Industry, Viva Cruiser had players guiding a motorcycle down a desert road, picking up gifts for a date and avoiding obstacles. We're sure many retail driving games are happy that the stiff competition this Viagra game could have posed was removed by the FDA.[Via GamePolitics]
Today's most political video and game: Kung-Fu Election
Atom Films hosts Kung-Fu Election, a Mortal Kombat knock-off fighting game starring Republican and Democratic primary front-runners. While the game is fairly deep -- boasting three attack buttons plus special moves -- the intro video snared us. Who knew Obama could shred like that?See the non-embeddable video, play the game, then tell us how far you fared in the democratic primary tournament. [Via AdRants]
'Doritos Dash of Destruction' coming to XBLA (unfortunately)
The finalists were played, the votes were tallied, and only one of the five weaksauce Doritos flash titles would be turned into an actual, factual Xbox Live Arcade title, thanks to Doritos' Unlock Xbox Competition. Announced today was the official winner: Mike Borland will be taking his game concept, Doritos Dash of Destruction, to Ninjabee Studios to be turned into a fully-working XBLA game.Dash of Destruction has players taking on the role of either a T-Rex or a Doritos truck, in a race around a city to see who can win: the Doritos truck (by making it safely out of the city) or the T-Rex (by eating the Doritos truck). The concept is cute, but the execution on the Unlock Xbox website is practically unplayable.Like the other four finalists, the Flash-based demo of the game was developed by advergame studio Blockdot. Clearly Blockdot had a lot on its plate while developing these demos, as they all suffer from numerous glitches and other results of rushed coding. It's clear that voting must have been based more on the concepts than the final games. Here's hoping Ninjabee -- whose previous titles include Outpost Kaloki X, Eets, and Band of Bugs -- can turn Doritos Dash of Destruction into something a bit more polished.
Today's future-of-advertising-video: Yaris game
Remember that Yaris XBLA game to be released free on Wednesday? Gametrailers user, warchiefgrim, uploaded a clip. We hope this video convinces you to save the precious bandwidth of the internet and pass on the game; even "free" costs too much. Things we learned: The 4-Door Sedan Yaris comes in such focus-group-approved colors as "Jade Sea Metallic," and "Flint Mica." Northbound on 101 goes straight up (and straight down) as often as it goes north. The Yaris is powered by the constant desire to catch a cat toy mounted on its roof. Sadly, the toy is always just out of reach. See the video, and add your own observations after the break.
Viva Piata toys are latest spawn from Microsoft, BK love in
If last year's advergaming love affair between Microsoft and Burger King made you at all uncomfortable, you might want to leave the room, because the pair are at it again, though this time things are are a lot less interactive, and a bit more, well, plastic. In the march up to the October 30 release of Microsoft's 'family friendly' party game-montage, Viva Piñata: Party Animals for the Xbox 360, Burger King has made available a collection of Viva Piñata toys for customers with kids in tow (or adults with more shelf space than sense). The set includes a total of eight different colorful toys, including Horstachio, Sparrowmint, Elephanilla, Fudgehog, Macaraccoon, Fizzlybear, Cocoadile and Goobaa, with each packed with a 'surprise in every piñata,' such as a flying disc or every parent's favorite, a kazoo. Advil not included. [via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Splinter Cell: Dynamic Advertising Agent
Concerned reader and avid Splinter Cell fan, Carlos Birdsong, shares some interesting info about Double Agent."I was playing SCDA with some friends as a Merc and I saw a spy run under a truck that had a Comcast ad on it. I was out of grenades and told one of my teammates to toss a grenade under the comcast truck, only he didn't see it. Why? He saw what was by default a Hong Kong truck instead of the Comcast truck.While I think in game ads are cool when in context, I saw some Comcast signage as well, but this dynamic ad rendering can affect gameplay--subtle but interesting side effect."Dynamic ad placement in games is starting to become commonplace, and situations like this could be an unfortunate byproduct. Have any of you experienced similar problems? Do you think dynamic ads should be removed from multiplayer games where positioning is important, or at least made so every player sees the same thing?[Image via Mega64]
Free CDX adventure game released with BBC tie-in
The BBC History website has launched the first episode in its multi-part adventure game, CDX. Acting as a companion to the current BBC series, Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, the game's story follows a character who supplies a Roman dagger to the BBC TV production. Bad things happen, including memory loss (required in an adventure game), as you unravel the plot.Previous games, Death in Sakkara and The Seven Noble Kinsmen are also available; these were also released alongside BBC TV shows, and all of their episodes are online to play.We're interested in CDX for its production values and episodic bent. In our initial overview of the game, the graphics, sound, and pacing seem strong. We keep thinking of the episodic trend being suited to commercial titles, with Sin, Half-Life, Bone, and others coming out; but episodic gaming seems even more suited to Flash, where you can play without any software installation.We also like to watch the intersection of marketing and gaming as the two sides mix more frequently. CDX has some puzzles that can best be solved if you've watched Ancient Rome, so the TV tie-in is obvious. There's a balance to strike between overt questions about the show versus questions that can also be solved by other means; CDX seems to satisfy that area, although it only took a minute for us to find a blatant ad to watch Ancient Rome. Still, when the gameplay is compelling, we'll put up with a lot. When do you tolerate game tie-ins to other products or unrelated products being advertised in games? Is your patience different for free games?See also: Should the BBC be doing games?[Via Jay is Games]
American Apparel opens up shop in SL
Clothing-retailer (and our choice for the Joystiq ringer-tees) American Apparel has recently opened a virtual store in the virtual world of Second Life. In it, Second Lifers will be able to peruse the digital racks and purchase, in true SL fashion, buy clothing for their avatars in addition to the real life counterparts. Of course, American Apparel's simple styles may appear anemic next to the more colorful creations of other Second Lifers. MTV News quotes Raz Schionning, director of Web services at American Apparel, who says, "Everyone else has wings and devil horns and all the rest ... So it'll be curious to see if a red T-shirt makes sense."The real question is, with only 200,000 virtual inhabitants, why does a virtual storefront for a company like American Apparel make sense? Well, publicity of course! Forbes covered their in world presence, comparing it to similar ventures by Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros.. American Apparel's fashion-centric approach and socially-conscious sensibility seem to jibe better with the culture of Second Life. Will the attempt net AA anything more than good press?[Via GameSetWatch]Read - American Apparel's Store in Second Life (Lots of pictures)Read - Online Shopping (Forbes)
The growth of in-game advertising
It's "warm and fuzzy" feelings all round for in-game advertisers, according to these predictions from MarketingSherpa and Yankee Group. While in-game advertising isn't top of the list for corporations, with only 10% of respondents quizzed admitting to immediate plans in the area, it's certainly on a lot of radars.Slightly more disturbing is the chart of predicted growth for games-related advertising from May 2005; between advergaming and in-game ads, the end of this decade will see games as an extremely viable platform for advertisers if these predictions are anywhere near correct.[Via Cathode Tan]
