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iPad devsugar: Moving beyond your 50 promo codes
iPadpalooza is in full swing. If you're like a lot of devs, you're quickly moving through (if not past) your 50 promo code limit per application version. If marketing now is important to you, don't forget that you can gift applications through iTunes. After all is said and done, this will cost you 30% of the price. Apple will return 70% of the cost back to you at the end of the month because you are basically buying from yourself while making sure that Apple gets its cut. Gifting applications offers a reasonably cost effective way to expand your marketing beyond complimentary promo codes. Keep this option in mind as the iPad App Store gold rush gets underway.
GDC 2010: How to develop an app with EA Mobile
For the first panel of day two here at the 2010 Game Developers Conference's iPhone gaming track, Oliver Miao of Centerscore Studios took the stage to talk about working on Surviving High School for the iPhone as a part of Electronic Arts' Mobile division. As Miao made clear early on, he's an "insider outsider" at EA: his company was started with a few friends, purchased by Vivendi in 2006, created a hit mobile game called Surviving High School in 2007, and was bought by EA in 2008. Last year, they were commissioned to recreate their game for the iPhone. In one of the most interesting iPhone panels at the conference yet, he talked about the ins and outs of working with EA on an iPhone title, and explained both, what it was like to work with the company, and his own philosophies on game design, especially concerning in-app purchases and microtransactions. Most users seem to believe that microtransactions and episodic content are, at the very least, a pain to deal with (and are, at worst, a scam), but Miao is convinced that they're actually necessary to having a successful game -- he said that every developer, going forward, "will need to have them." Read on to find out why.
James Cameron thinks he can get viewers asking to wear 3D glasses
The promotional hype train for Avatar is just getting started, one of the more recent stops was on 60 Minutes for an interview with director James Cameron. Of course one of the segments focused on was the film's potential to push 3D at home and in theaters, with Cameron dropping this interesting line on all the glasses-haters (video embedded after the break) "my goal has been, over the last few years to get people from a point of say "Do I have to wear the glasses?" to a point of saying "Do I get to wear the glasses?" because the glasses must then become associated the sense of a heightened experience, of a journey." Our trip took a turn towards believing in 3D after checking out the BCS National Championship game last year, we'll have to wait for the launch December 18 to see if this very Pocahontas / Dances with Wolves style sci fi tale is a similar turning point for others.
Motorola Droid ads invading mailboxes, too?
Because television and the internet can't be the only media feeling the touch of the Droid's marketing blitz, it looks like promotional mailers are being sent out. No new details or screenshots, but you can't get enough of Motorola / Verizon's Android device anyway, can you? A few more pics past the read link.
Motorola CLIQ promotional material surfaces, confirms October 19th pre-order start
Can you feel it? Can you feel Motorola rushing back to relevance? If you're still in need of a bit more encouragement, have a gander at this. What you're looking at is official T-Mobile USA promotional material for the upcoming CLIQ, and interestingly enough, the whole brochure is in the shape of the phone it's advertising. You won't learn much from flipping through the pages (though the screengrabs are appreciated), but you will notice that pre-orders are set officially begin on October 19th -- just like we knew they would. You know, when it shows up as free on contract.
Zune HD promotional videos offer brief glimpse at 3D gaming
Zune HD may really be just around the corner -- this Tuesday, in fact -- but there's still a few things we don't know about. Enter a handful of promotional videos care of Buy TV to fill in some pieces. There's a couple of really nice overviews of the car dock, built-in radio, Xbox integration, Zune video, and AV dock (it outputs 720p video, just to clarify). More importantly, though, in the video entitled "Portable Perfection" around the 30-second mark, you catch a quick view of what appears to be a racing title as the narrator discusses the ability to "play games" on the device. For a company that's been about as coy as possible when it comes to the status of applications for its forthcoming Tegra-powered monster, this isn't exactly subtle. There's also what looks like some new Zune marketplace images in the Zune pass video around ten seconds in. Be honest, you had nothing else to do this Friday, and now you can at least watch some gadget noir. Check it out after the break and form your own wild opinions. [Via Zunited, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Giant Final Fantasy XIII characters watch over LA residents
Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Japanese role-playing game character watching you shower? Los Angeles residents have been introduced to the cast of the upcoming Square Enix powerhouse, Final Fantasy XIII, via building-sized promotional posters. The giant ads for the upcoming JRPG can be spotted on the corner of S. Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles.The 124ft image showcases the game's three main characters, (above-left, from left to right) Vanille, Snow and Lightning, as well as a heading that promises the game will launch in 2010 (with logos for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). Giant video game based promotional posters in LA, huh? You'd think some kind of huge gaming event was happening in the area soon, or something.
Ten crazy iPhone cases
I ended up going with an iSkin Revo for my iPhone as a thin little protective case, but now that I've seen some of these crazy cases, I'm reconsidering just a little bit. Who wouldn't want to encase your iPhone in what appears to be bacon, or try out the tactile iPhone case above (which transmits button presses to a customized home screen -- not something I'd want to use all the time, but it is wild and it has a purpose).That Dexter case is cool too, though there are probably plenty of promotional cases out there. It's almost too bad -- when I picked up my plain black case, I was thinking a lot more about function than appearance. There's all kinds of cool things out there to put your iPhone in.[via Urlesque]
RIM shows employees that rich people use BlackBerrys, as if they care
Oh yeah, we know a certain dutiful crew in the R&D labs at RIM are toiling away on the BlackBerrys that we'll be swooning over in the years to come, but what winner took the time (and what champion instructed him / her?) to conjure up this PowerPoint slide? Reportedly, this here slide was used within the company to show just how awesome its handsets are, because clearly, if six rich people accept free phones well before the street date from you, that equates to stellar quality and usability. Oh, and just remember RIM -- we'll bet Motorola used to brag about all the superstars with RAZRs, too. See how far that got 'em?
Stargate Worlds open beta to come right before launch and not suck
Stargate Worlds Studio Head Dan Elggren told videogamer.com in an interview that there will be an open beta test for the game immediately before the commercial launch date. That's not a shock; most MMO developers these days run a small open beta test in the one or two weeks immediately preceding launch.Elggren promised that the beta will be "pretty solid product," and pointed to Funcom's Age of Conan open beta event as the best example of what Cheyenne Mountain/Firesky is trying not to do. Our readers who participated in that beta may remember terrible performance and stability issues.In both videogamer.com's interview and in a chat with us earlier in the summer, the SGW team has acknowledged that open beta events are more marketing tools than technical ones. The closed beta (which will begin within the next few weeks) might be a different kind of affair though.[Via Ten Ton Hammer]
Mildly frightening Verizon promo video gets employees hype for BlackBerry Storm
Hey, bet you'd like to know that Verizon Wireless' Mike (you know, from Minute with Mike) thinks the BlackBerry Storm is going to "crush the competition." He also expects his sales team to "take the world by storm." He also states that this handset's screen is "built to be the most responsive of its time." Oh, but he totally neglects to mention a price and / or release date. Thanks Mike. Thanks a lot. Full mind-numbing episode is after the jump.
Vizio switches marketing gears from discount to high-quality
When Vizio let loose a stable of new HDTVs at CES this year, it was apparent the outfit was beginning to head in another direction. For years it had pushed itself as a discount brand, grabbing market share the only way it knew how: by selling cheap. With a decent foothold in the US, Vizio has finally decided to switch gears and begin to market the more sophisticated aspects of its HDTVs. It won't stop throwing the word "value" around, but rather than honing in on how much cheaper its wares are compared to top-label competitors, it has now hired an ad agency to showcase the high-quality aspects. According to said agency, it wants "consumers to associate premiere audio quality, along with images, when they think about Vizio," and beyond all that, we're also hearing confirmation that the outfit will indeed be pushing out a low-cost soundbar in the near future. Go get 'em, Vizio.
Windows Gurus to infiltrate retail stores, tell you why Vista rules
In case you missed the completely baffling Gates / Seinfeld ad, here's the skinny: Microsoft is getting serious about polishing the tarnished Vista brand (its words, not ours). According to new reports, that aforementioned spot is just the beginning of Redmond's costly push to "change consumers' perception of Windows," and soon you'll be seeing Microsoft Gurus in your favorite B&M locations. These so-called experts will be there to "explain the benefits of Windows," but we're not sure if they'll only be around to answer inquiries or if they'll be actively approaching you in an uncomfortable attempt to talk about Aero and ReadyBoost. We're hearing that some 155 representatives will be deployed before the year's end at stores like Best Buy and Circuit City, so at least you now know where not to shop if you're terrified of confrontation.[Via Electronista, image courtesy of StarBulletin]
Pioneer goes crazy with 16 new speaker models, KURO brand push
Lookee here, our first sight at what Pioneer's bringing to CEDIA. For the audio crowd, it's unveiling a mind-boggling 16 new speaker models including four floorstanding subwoofers. The new line of "dynamic architectural loudspeakers (pictured after the jump) come in three different performance levels – Elite EX Series, Pioneer CST and plain ole Pioneer. As you can likely imagine, we don't have the luxury of space here to cover the sweet sixteen, but everything is laid out nicely in the link below. In somewhat related news, the outfit has also announced a new KURO brand campaign that "embodies transformation." We'll spare you the marketing hoopla, but there's a nice link down there should you want to dive in.Read - 16 new speaker modelsRead - New KURO campaign
World of Warcraft, and lack of it, at E3
I was lucky enough to go to E3 this year with the Joystiq crew last week, and while I had planned to cover some stories about WoW for you guys, the biggest story I came back with was: that there was no story. I didn't hear or see World of Warcraft mentioned once. When Blizzard said they were not showing at E3, they meant it -- I didn't even hear a competitor mention their name.There was one mention of Blizzard at the Activision press conference on Tuesday. Mike Griffith name-dropped Blizzard once just to say the merger had happened, but there was nothing at all about World of Warcraft or any of Blizzard's properties. And I had planned to try out the Novint Falcon controller with WoW. I did try it out, and it is an interesting, if expensive, PC game controller, but Novint told me they didn't have it working in a form they wanted to show off with World of Warcraft yet.Kind of strange that the biggest game in the world didn't get a single mention at the biggest game show in the world, but then again, it's not that weird when you consider that E3 has scaled way down by magnitudes from past years. Companies aren't as interested in the event when there are many, many other ways to market and show off their games to journalists, and considering that Blizzard has invested heavily in not one but two giant events of their own this year, it's no wonder they don't want to spend any money at E3. Shame that we couldn't bring you more WoW coverage from LA last week, but we'll be back there in October, and there'll be plenty of news to report then.
Video: Samsung's Soulful dinosaur takes tour around England
Remember that not-entirely-innocent looking prehistoric creature that won your heart immediately upon viewing Samsung's optical illusion promotional vid? Apparently quite a few folks demanded to see more of the Soul dinosaur, so Sammy hoisted him up onto a truck and proceeded to drive around a few English towns. Catch the sub-2 minute journey (reactions included) just after the break.[Thanks, Claudio]
AT&T launches BlackBerry Bold promotional site
See that image above? Yeah, that's a sexy new side angle of RIM's BlackBerry Bold, and it's coming to us courtesy of AT&T. Just as Sprint did with its fashionable Instinct, AT&T is launching a promotional site for the forthcoming BlackBerry in order to drum up interest and get you (re)informed. Straight from the carrier's mouth, we've got GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA support, integrated WiFi / GPS, 480 x 320 resolution display, a side-loaded memory slot, 1GB of built-in storage, a 624MHz CPU, 128MB of Flash memory, Bluetooth 2.0 with handsfree support and up to 5-hours of GSM talk time (13 days in standby). You'll notice that the operator makes no mention of an exact release date, but we're crossing our fingers and sticking to that leaked July timeframe until we hear otherwise.[Thanks, Daryl]
Voodoo's Omen and Envy get talked about on video
Let's face it: a photograph is only worth a thousand words, but a video... well, it's almost always preferred. For those still hungry for (even) more details on Voodoo's latest duo, the HP VoodooPC channel is now home to a host of fresh clips to satisfy your insatiable appetite. The goods are in the read link, kiddos.[Thanks, William]
Hobbits will enjoy the new Mines of Moria web game
Turbine has been rolling out web-based games to promote The Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming expansion, The Mines of Moria. The first two games -- King Under the Mountain and Swig and Toss -- had a Dwarven theme. Now, a brand new, Hobbit-themed game called Eleventy Seven Morsels has been unveiled.Eleventy Seven Morsels is sweet for its simplicity; all you do for the most part is pick up a morsel from the board -- simple, right? Well, there's a bit of strategy involved. Morsels you pick up are distributed around the board with a certain pattern, and you have to try to distribute them in your favor instead of your opponent's. If you visit the website, you can read the rules to see exactly what all that means.As was the case with the previous two games, avid players will receive a little something -- a poster featuring art from the expansion, in this case.
Samsung launches Instinct promotional site
Just in case you haven't learned enough about the forthcoming Samsung Instinct from our hands-on gallery / UI video walkthrough, Sammy has launched a promotional website designed to give you the skinny. Within the site, you can peer at a handful of press shots, get schooled on all of its features and sign up to be notified when it's ready for your hands to be wrapped around it. Nothing too exciting, but those with the Instinct high on their list of next mobile to own will surely find it worth the click over.
