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Virtual Greats to sell celebrity likenesses
And not just likenesses. Metaverse developer Millions of Us intends to market likenesses, hair-styles, catchphrases, dance moves, signature moves, clothing lines, furniture collections -- you name it -- based on well-known celebs all under the banner business name of Virtual Greats. These appearances and digital accessories would be sold in dozens of virtual worlds, though you'll probably see them in Gaia Online, Habbo and Second Life first. Deals have already been done with Justin Timberlake, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Raven Symone, Marvel (for The Incredible Hulk), and Tila Tequila, and more are in the works.
Summer movies raise demand for associated classic games
Summer blockbusters aren't just good for propping up the sales of crappy new movie-based games ... it turns out they're also good for pumping up the prices of crappy old games based on the same characters. For proof, look no further than the always interesting Video Game Price Charts blog, which shows a distinct and recent uptick in the selling prices for older games based on the Speed Racer, Iron Man and Indiana Jones franchises. Never mind that these games aren't directly related to the new movies, or that the games are universally awful (well, almost) -- once that old clunker of a game gets attached to a hot new movie, the asking price can get inflated by up to 170%.We can almost see the logic behind the increased demand, from the average consumer's perspective. After all, why waste $50 on the crappy new Iron Man game that junior is begging for when you can pick up a crappy old Iron Man game for half the price (even after accounting for the recent uptick). The little punk won't know the difference anyway, and the game will get him out of your hair so you can get back to having an affair with the pool boy. It's win-win!
Nintendo Channel: New week, new demos
Will the line-up of DS demos available on the Wii's Nintendo Channel change every week? We're not sure, but it's starting to look like it; at least, some of the demos available have been rotated out in favor of fresh meat. If you were looking for something that was previously available, it might just be gone. Lesson? Download quickly rather than putting it off, because the demo you want may just disappear!Peek past the break for the current list of available demos -- you may be surprised at what you'll find!
Cinemassively: Iron Man in The Fall
Iron Man is kicking butt both in the theater and in the virtual world of Second Life. The Warner Brothers Reitz-Lang (Sorry, Jason!) machinima team in charge of the Gossip Girl set took some time out of their busy schedule to enter the Silverscreen Iron Man Fan-Art Contest. They chose a humorous and silly approach to the video, but all professional. Everything about this video, including the lipsynching, the falling scene, and the way the bad guy was saved, makes us drool. We previously featured their initial effort in SL, UES Insider, but had some serious criticism about it, and they've improved 100%! We can't wait to see what kind of trouble Gossip Girl will write about next, and when it will premiere. Don't leave us hanging![Thanks, Jason!]If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Counting Rupees: GTA IV vs. Iron Man
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming: According to several "analysts" last week, the successful launch of Grand Theft Auto IV threatened to sink the box office returns for Iron Man. The thinking went that since the game and the movie both target primarily the same demographic (males 18-29), that demographic would stay home and play the game instead of going to see the movie. While it's impossible to declare with complete certainty, as Variety did, that GTA IV had absolutely no effect on Iron Man's opening (with $104.2M in domestic receipts, $201M worldwide, and a release date for a sequel already announced), whatever effect it may have had was clearly not enough to significantly impact the movie. But clearly, many had predicted that the game could adversely affect box office receipts. It makes me wonder -- have we ever seen this sort of effect before?
Buy Iron Man, score a free gift card
Thanks to Iron Man cleaning up at the box office this weekend (an estimated $100 million weekend), we're sure sales of the Iron Man video game will also be rather high. And even though we can't guarantee the game will equal that of the movies' enjoyment, we can guarantee your Iron Man video game purchase will score you a free gift card.Over at Circuit City and Best Buy, you can score a $10 gift card with the purchase of Iron Man for the Xbox 360. Not too shabby of a deal, especially if you are or know someone who is a gamer hell bent on owning everything Iron Man after experiencing Iron Man excitement at the box office. Just be careful with your purchase.Read - $10 Gift Card at Best BuyRead - $10 Gift Card at Circuit City
No GTA IV effect on Iron Man opening
Talk of Grand Theft Auto IV possibly hurting Iron Man's opening was clearly wrong. According to Variety, the movie made $104.2 million during its opening weekend, proving Paramount's Rob Moore right when he said that young males can carve out two hours to see Iron Man.Variety did explore GTA IV's impact on the home video market recently, which showed no major releases targeted at the young male demo for the week. Probably the best comparison would be to see how the Iron Man video game did in sales when NPD comes out next month, and we know we're going out on a limb on this one, but we're pretty sure GTA IV won that battle.
Engadget Mobile, LG, and Stark Industries want you to have a $1,500 Iron Man phone
If ever there were an LG Shine to live up to its lofty name, this would definitely be it. We'd like to introduce you to the Iron Man phone -- presented here by our boy Robert Downey, Jr. -- based on the Shine slider as sold by AT&T. Unlike the garden-variety Shine, the Iron Man edition trades up to a deep red case with gold plated highlights and a solid 18K gold battery cover to commemorate the launch of the film in style. That's plenty enough element 79 to give this thing some serious heft. We're not bragging, though -- we want you to have it.The phone is valued at a princely $1,500; twenty are being given away by LG directly -- we've got the twenty first. How do you pry it out of our hands? Easy: we want to see just how nasty, disgusting, and close to complete breakdown your current face candy is. Send us a pic and tell us a little bit about your poor, dilapidated phone and the long journey it's taken to its current state of disrepair. We'll pick the saddest entry and let you retire that terrible thing for something just a little flashier.One word of advice though: don't bother breaking your phone or taking a photo of your dad's Dynatac or something, that's not what we're looking for.Check out the gallery to see shots of the very Iron Man phone that could be yours, and don't forget to enter. Good luck!The rules (yeah, there are always rules) Send us your original photo. If we find your picture elsewhere on the internet, you will so be disqualified. Don't test us here, we've seen every picture of every phone. Ever. Email submissions to contests [at] engadget [dawt] com with the subject "I am Iron Man!" And for the love of our inbox, please keep your images 1MB or under, ok? You may only enter this contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Entries must be in by 11:59PM EDT, Sunday, May 18th. After that, give us some time to sort through the entries and pick out the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it). %Gallery-22129%
"Is that a $1500 Iron Man cellphone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see Engadget Mobile?"
Yes, that's right, one lucky Engadget Mobile reader is going to walk away with a gorgeous, ultra-limited LG Shine worth more than the combined value of, like, every phone we've ever had. How exactly does one get in on this action? Head on over to Mobile for the scoop!
Cinemassively: Iron Man in Second Life
Annie Ok has been out of the virtual sweatshop business for less than three weeks, and she's already moved on to something even more epic! Tateru Nino previously wrote about Paramount and Marvel's fan-art contest for the recently released film, Iron Man. Now Silverscreen has released the machinima to go along with it!If you've seen the movie and would like to get the avatar in-world, you can find them on Silverscreen Island. The fan-art contest is going on through May 7th if you'd still like to submit an entry, or you can check out their flickr photo pool.[Via Silverscreen]If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
WRUP: Is it Iron Man? edition
Uh, no post title, it is in fact not Iron Man (although, we should say the prospect of seeing the film this weekend sounds nice). What we're all going to be playing, no doubt, is Mario Kart Wii. With its multitude of tracks, online play and plethora of control schemes available (got to love that wheel!), it looks like it's a shoe-in for this weekend's down time. What about you all?Will you be racing it up in Mario Kart Wii, or are you playing something else? Maybe you're still chipping away at Okami? What are you playing?%Gallery-4772% What are you Playing? is a weekly feature where we ask what it is that you're, well ... playing! Every Friday, look for a new topic and a new chance to converse with the community about what games you're enjoying and which games are disappointing. So tell us already!
Iron Man case mod shows lots of dedication, is still ugly
Let's go ahead and get this out of the way: we can't deny that the Iron Man Mark I case mod took some serious work (and skill). That being the case, it'd take a pretty hardcore fan of the character (or the new flick, we guess) to love this one with reckless abandon. Reportedly, the whole shebang was built in just three weeks, and while we're still waiting for the full work log, feel free to hit the read link for an array of angles.
Shipping this week: good luck Iron Man edition
Remember when an analysts predicted that the release of Grand Theft Auto IV could derail the ticket sales of the Iron Man movie that releases this week? While the idea that big video game launches hindering movie releases is nothing new -- they said the same thing about Halo 3 -- we have one more prediction to make about the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV: it's going to put a serious damper on sales of the Iron Man video game. You see, they both come out this week. Sure, a game might steal money from a film, but a big game will definitely steal money from a smaller game. They will be competing for the same shelf space after all.Well, competing might be too kind a word.[Via Joystiq]
Wii releases this week: Mario Kart Wii edition
It's been one big week leading up to here and this week is also bound to be a big one for the lot of you. That's right, Mario Kart Wii is on shelves right now, and likely many of you did the right thing and picked it up yesterday. Did you get a new Wii with it? Did you race Jason Priestley at the Nintendo World Store?This week's releases are: Mario Kart Wii Iron Man Also, in case you might have missed it, don't forget to check out our off-the-wall features and fun we had up until the game's release to retail locations nationwide. It's been a fun ride, now we look forward to taking the turns and bumps with you all at Game Night. See you Thursday!%Gallery-4772%
Worldwide PS3 releases for the week of April 26th
Calm down, calm down. The waiting is finally over. The game you've all been waiting for finally gets unleashed onto the public this week. That's right, it's Iron Man week. What's that? Grand Theft who? Never heard of it. If that's your thing, though, you can pick it up on Tuesday. After you've seen Iron Man, that is. Here's the full release list:US Games Grand Theft Auto IV [Get a $10 gift card at Circuit City] Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition Iron Man EU Games Grand Theft Auto IV Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition Iron Man Asian GamesNo new releasesThat's pretty much it, this week. Two games worldwide, but what more do you need? GTA IV should very well tide you over until the next major release. Depending on what you're excited for that's either Haze or Metal Gear Solid 4. With both of these games due within the next month and a half, now really is a great time to own a PS3.
Iron Man fan-art contest
Win up to L$100,000 courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Marvel comics by creating Iron Man fan-art in Second Life. We don't think our little attempt above will win the prize, honestly. You can create still images or machinima -- you just have to use the official avatar which is available free with an optional (also free) animation overrider at Silverscreen Island, where finalists will also be displayed. Entries need to be emailed in no later than 7PM US Pacific time on Wednesday, 7 May. First prize takes L$100,000 (more than US$370), and second place takes a not unattractive L$25,000. Check out the full contest details at theppc.com.
Iron Man demo hitting Xbox Live Marketplace tomorrow
Sega has kindly informed us that an interactive snippet of gameplay from its upcoming Iron Man game will become available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace sometime tomorrow. Players are invited to become literal cans of whoop-ass, with Marvel's metal-clad superhero aiding them in the destruction of tanks, jets and other things that explode when you punch them a lot.PlayStation 3 owners will have to make do with our impressions for now, though a PSN demo is scheduled to arrive "soon." Iron Man is out for every console ever on May 2, the same day they release a movie of the same name. What a coincidence!%Gallery-19567%
Iron Man Demo on XBLM tomorrow
Thanks to an earlier press release from Sega we can report that the demo for the upcoming Iron Man game will be going online sometime tomorrow. With the movie and game both set to be released on May 2, it was rather important for Sega to get this out there a few weeks in advance to garner more mindshare. Especially with analysts saying that the movie could be upstaged by GTA IV. Whether or not the movie is a success, we just wish the gods of exclusive content had seen fit to give us the cooler armor. Oh well, at least we've still got the demo tomorrow, the PS3 demo has no definite release date at all.
Latest Iron Man trailer: Keep the mask on, please
There's a new trailer for upcoming Sega movie tie-in Iron Man. Rather than focus on the core of the game (you know, blowing stuff up, tossing missiles back at planes, that kind of thing), the trailer highlights the game's story. That's all well and good, but the character models, well, they could use a little work. There's just something odd about seeing a rendering of Robert Downey Jr. that just isn't quite right. The same goes for the other unfortunately wooden models shown in the trailer. Still, we'd say it's safe to assume that the game's storyline is window dressing at best. As long as the "blowing stuff up" part holds up its end of the bargain, the game should at least be worth renting before seeing the movie.[Via Joystiq]
New Iron Man trailer is creeping us out
After watching the above trailer we were thrilled, because we figured a hilarious joke about Iron Man and the Un-can-ny Valley was well within our grasp. You know, because cans are metal and Iron Man, he's ... well, the short version is that we stared at the keyboard for minutes and nothing came. Honestly, looking at it now, we're not all that surprised.But hey, we figured, we already had it embedded and everything, so we might as well pass it along with our (not as hilarious) response. This old video: Good. This new video: Creepy.
