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Bridgestone responds to Sony: Kevin Butler wasn't in our commercial
Bridgestone is responding to Sony's lawsuit by denying the Kevin Butler character appeared in one of its recent commercials. Following Sony's allegations over Butler actor Jerry Lambert's appearance in a Bridgestone commercial, the tire manufacturer made a statement via The Hollywood Reporter declaring its intention to fight the lawsuit. As far as Bridgestone is concerned, Lambert appeared in its commercial but wasn't starring as Kevin Butler in any way whatsoever."Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer," reads the statement, "Bridgestone denies that 'Kevin Butler' appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial."It emerged last month Lambert appeared in a commercial as part of Bridgestone's "Game On" campaign, featuring him playing a Wii and acting in a similar exuberant manner to his PlayStation persona of Kevin Butler. Sony believes Bridgestone and Lambert's advertising agency Wildcat Creek are guilty of violating the Lanham Act, misappropriation, breach of contract, and intentional interference with a contractual relationship. Sony filed the lawsuit on September 11, and Bridgstone has since removed Lambert from its most recent ads. Sony has until October 12 to withdraw the lawsuit, otherwise it proceeds.
Sony, Kevin Butler actor in lawsuit over breach of contract
Sony filed a lawsuit implicating Jerry Lambert, the actor who plays Kevin Butler, Sony's high-energy, aggressive spokesman and fake VP of whatever happens to be relevant. Sony's claims are based on violations of the Lanham Act, misappropriation, breach of contract and tortious interference with a contractual relationship, senior director of corporate communications Dan Race writes in a statement to VentureBeat.Early in September, images and video of Lambert in Bridgestone Tires' "Game On" promotion gained traction online, wherein Lambert is playing a Wii and over-acting in a style similar to his Kevin Butler character. Lambert appeared in Bridgestone commercials as early as February. On September 11, Sony filed a lawsuit against Bridgestone Tires and Wildcat Creek, an advertising agency for which Lambert is actually president.Since the filing, Lambert has been removed from the most recent Bridgestone ads. The Game On promotion ended on September 30."We invested significant resources in bringing the Kevin Butler character to life and he's become an iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products over the years," Sony's statement says. "Use of the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation misappropriates Sony's intellectual property, creates confusion in the market, and causes damage to Sony."Lambert and Sony reached an agreement on September 26, and Sony has until October 12 to officially withdraw the suit or announce it will continue forward. NeoGAF member Takao has a detailed breakdown of the entire lawsuit.Below find a few of Lambert's most memorable Sony advertisements.
New Black Desert trailer impresses
One of the more spectacular MMO trailers we've seen in a while comes to us courtesy of a company called Pearl Abyss. The MMO in question is Black Desert, the firm's maiden offering that is apparently getting ready for public testing in either Korea or Japan. We say apparently because official details are sketchy. Fan site Steparu.com says that publisher GameOn recently signed a contract with Pearl Abyss, but no dates or territories have been announced. In terms of the trailer itself, there are plenty of gorgeous environmental fly-throughs, mounted combat, and several stunning character model examples. See for yourself after the break.
Game On! The cast of The Guild releases new music video
They've done it again. Almost one year after the ridiculously catchy "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar," the cast of The Guild has released a second video. Game On begins with Codex trying to back off of gaming a bit. "People say it's weird," she says. Zaboo, with his typical over-the-top enthusiasm, has hired an entire troupe of dancers to lure her back in. It's a fun video with shades of Benny Lava in some of the subtitles, and the typical antics of our favorite Guildies are in full force. Vork is stoic (read what you will into the meaning behind his faux-Vishnu costume), Clara and Bladezz are ogling various dancers, Zaboo is flailing about, and Tink is strutting her stuff. Check out the video on The Guild's site.
The Guild's new music video: Game On
The Guild has released a new music video, which was originally debuted at San Diego Comic-Con last week. This time, they've jumped from the virtual scene into the Bollywood scene. Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh) leads a song in which he tries to convince Codex (Felicia Day) to put down her book and jump into the game. The set is complete with a full ensemble of dancers, wonderful choreography, the rest of The Guild's cast and even a real elephant. They did a wonderful job of mimicking Bollywood style and still keep with their usual sense of humor, which shows up in everything they do. This comes in the middle of their season 4 storyline involving the quest to build the better guild hall, as well as Codex's usual dose of drama where gaming and real life collide. Check out their latest adventures on Bing.
NBC working on video game show pilot for primetime
According to a Joystiq source, NBC is developing a pilot for a show about gaming, focusing on gamer culture and the people who make games. According to the source, the project is being helmed by TJ "Ocman" Allard, a former Ubisoft designer. His co-host is Audrey Cleo, who currently works on Qore. The team is currently editing footage recorded at E3 for the pilot, including interviews with Kinect's Kudo Tsunoda and Mortal Kombat's Ed Boon. Specific details, like a show name and distribution, have yet to be settled upon. However, our source says that the working title is currently "Game On." The pilot -- planned for primetime -- may even premiere as early as next month. If you happen to know more about this project, feel free to send us a tip. We will keep you anonymous!
GameOn! London is off
HMV's GameOn! London event is officially off with the official website making the cancellation expressly clear. Ticket holders will be refunded for the event, which was to occur in November, after already being delayed from June.For an event that had several big publishers allegedly committed to the show when it was first announced, organizers obviously ran into some major issues. Perhaps the Eurogamer Expo -- also partnered with HMV -- which takes place at the end of October, was just more attractive.[Thanks, Shaffy]
Denver gamer opens game store in memory of his mother
Colorado's 9News reports that 18-year-old gamer Elijah Taylor has opened a new game shop called Game On in Denver (located at Alameda and Zuni). While that in itself might seem ordinary, it's the circumstances that prompted him to do so that are extraordinary. Taylor grew up with a single mother who was only 18 when Elijah was born. The two of them would often use video games as an escape from the everyday problems they faced, with Elijah saying he was "raised ... on the games she was playing at the time."Taylor opened his store in honor of his mother, Dani Jo Perko, who died at the very young age of 35, when he was only 17. "You know, I can either just grieve and wallow for a while and just feel sorry for myself," said Taylor. "Or I can do what my mom would've done and do something with my life." He noted that many of the games at Game On were part of he and his mother's personal collection, saying, "I can look through here and be like, 'Oh, I remember playing that with my mom when I was just a kid."Taylor said he hoped his mother would have been proud of him.
GameOn! London delayed until November
The GameOn! London event, which was set for next weekend, has been moved to November. The public event will now be held at Earls Court on November 14-15, right in time for some holiday showing offage. Those who bought tickets for the June show can now receive a full refund or receive up to four complimentary tickets instead. Where's Monty Hall?Show organizor HMV tells MCV that the event was moved so it could become "bigger and better." Scheduling the show within the impact radius of E3 likely didn't help the expo garner any attention.
June's GameOn! expo lets public try Capcom's latest
It's a real shame that E3 is an industry-only event, keeping all the hot, new games out of the hands of the general public. The only way you, the gaming masses, will get an early romp with these highly-anticipated titles is if you hop on a plane to England and grab tickets to London's GameOn! event.On June 20 and 21 at the London Olympia, British gamers will get to go hands-on with upcoming titles from the following companies: Sony, Nintendo, Capcom and possibly more. Specifically, Capcom (via Edge-Online) has a detailed list of what it's showing, and it certainly is a line-up strong enough to make its E3 showcase blush. Check out the list after the break. Is there anything you want to play?
EA exec on display at Game On London
EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon will be featured in a special Q&A session at the Game On exhibition in the Science Museum in South Kensington, London next Wednesday night. The event is open to the public, but space is limited (reservations can be made via email). Beer and soda will be provided.Gordon began his career with EA in the marketing department back in 1982, the year Trip Hawkins established the now dominant company. Gordon also holds a faculty chair at USC's Interactive Media Division program, which EA has co-funded.
Go to the museum and learn about the next-gen consoles!
Plagued by fieldtrips and annoying schoolchildren, museums generally aren't well-liked by many people for various reasons. Not sure why. Not to mention whenever the things are mentioned on that strange television box, it's generally in the "aww, the museum, crap..." way. Allow us to pique your interest in the Game On exhibit -- an area in the Science Museum (which is found in London) where you can play many of the next-gen titles. Over 120 titles are playable as of right now, many of which are 360 titles. November 29th will hail the arrival of the PS3 and Wii to their exhibit.The Game On exhibit runs until the end of February and explores the history and culture of video games. Personally, this nearly brings a tear to my eye since many people believe that video games are just a "waste of time" or a "petty diversion". It's a part of social culture now and has been a major role in my life since I grabbed my sister's NES when I was three. Just as music can be pop-culture and fade away, so too may gaming, but really it seems to be sticking around and as long as it's here, I'll continue to play and enjoy more than just the "cool he blew up all real and stuff hey look a butterfly where am I?" side. That is to say, I play as a part of culture, not a way to focus my attention for five minutes at a time. Everyone, now is your time to voice your approval of gaming -- give the culture props!
Game On returns to the UK, London's Science Museum
Sure, Europe has to wait for a lot of things, but one thing they did get first was the Game On exhibition. Game On is a touring video game exhibition started by London's Barbican Art Gallery in 2002. Since then, it's been all over Europe, Israel, Chicago (twice), San Jose, most recently Seattle, and is now returning home to the UK where it will run at London's Science Museum from October 21st to February 25th, err, rather 21 October to 25 February.Your £8.50 adult admission nets you access to a lineup of consoles, dating back to the PDP-1 (the Space War machine), drawings by Shigeru Miyamoto, and hundreds of games. Anyone hit up this show previously and care to offer a recommendation to your fellow gamers? [Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]Read - Video game exhibition announced (BBC)Read - London Science Museum's Game On infoRead - Game On tour page
Game On exhibit back on at Chicago museum
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry is extending the "Game On: the History, Culture, and Future of Video Games" exhibit from February 3rd until April 30th. Containing over 100 games, including classic arcade titles and vintage game consoles, to current Xbox hits, the newly dubbed Game On 2.0 adds even more games to the show (but why play Star Wars Battlefront II in a museum when there's a class Donkey Kong cabinet?). To entice you further, they're also raffling off a PSP every day through February 28. Chicago has their gaming culture down: when Game On closes—for the second time—it's only another month before the debut of PLAY!, the much-anticipated gaming concert. What's the trick Chicago?[Via Siliconera]
