World Wrestling Entertainment
Latest
WWE Network heading to 170 new countries next month
Fans of professional wrestling seem to be enjoying WWE's new online network. The company announced during its most recent earnings report that it has 700,000 subscribers to date, which is a pretty great sum given the service's mere five-month existence, a relatively young history. But WWE doesn't want to stop there, and it plans to keep expanding its digital channel to more places. To do just that, WWE Network will be arriving in 170 new countries next month, on August 12th, including Australia, Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and the Nordic region. In addition to those, WWE revealed its video service is also headed to China, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand and UAE, but that further details about this won't be shared until later on. So, are you one of the subs? Let us know in the comments below, or feel free to hit up our forums and spark up a conversation about the WWE Network.
WWE 2K14 pre-orders add snarling Ultimate Warrior
Fans of 90s rasslin' can recruit The Ultimate Warrior into their WWE 2K14 rosters with a pre-order on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. The supporting retailers are GameStop, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Toys R Us and the WWE shop. Though the Ultimate Warrior may be a calculated move in garnering additional sales, it's not the first one made in the game's journey to stores. Former license holder THQ owed WWE $7.6 million for marketing and royalty expenses at the time of filing bankruptcy, and between $15 and $20 million to longtime series developer Yuke's. WWE 2K14 was then acquired by Take-Two, which is pushing the game into the retail ring on October 29.
Take-Two officially takes over WWE license, WWE 2K14 coming in fall
We knew this was coming last week, but now it's official: Take-Two is now the holder of the WWE license. The first game to come from the new WWE publisher is due this fall, titled WWE '14 – in line with 2K Sports' branding of sports games. [Update: The original ESPN source cited a name change, but Take-Two's press release confirms the new game will be called WWE '14.] Take-Two struck a five-year deal with WWE, WWE executive vice president of consumer products Casey Collins confirmed to ESPN. The previous WWE license holder was THQ, who has been pumping out wrasslin' games since 1999. THQ has since become no more, forced to sell off all its assets to the highest bidder – but before that silent auction, THQ and WWE got together to hold private bidding for the license. According to Collins, Take-Two was the right fit, a publisher he sees as "a leader going forward on these next-gen systems." Not only that, but Take-Two's success with the NBA 2K series also spurred interest, Collins said. "The work they do, and the quality of the games they put out and how they've been able to grow their franchise with not only the simulation aspect of the game, but also the entertainment aspect, we thought they'd be a perfect partner." WWE '14 will launch this fall, a joint collaboration between 2K Sports studio Visual Concepts and longtime WWE series developer Yukes, located in Japan. As part of this five-year deal, Take-Two has also hired on some designers from THQ to work with Visual Concepts. "What we're going to do moving forward is meld Yukes with the team at Visual Concepts, so we can have the best of both worlds," Collins said. "Having Yukes' experience and then getting the Visual Concepts guys on board with them, we think this is going to be a dynamic duo." Collins confirmed that folks from THQ's "Fight Team" were being hired at Take-Two to help Visual Concepts with the transition. "The THQ Fight Team is also being brought over, and they'll report directly to Visual Concepts. Their experience in the marketing, their experience in the development, their experience with our franchise for years ... we thought that it was very valuable to keep that continuity." [Note: Image taken from WWE '13, but you probably knew that because it says WWE '13 right on the image.
Report: THQ's WWE license going to Take-Two
While most of THQ's coffers have already been cleaned out, there's been no official word on any party making a move on the WWE license. An IGN source suggests Take-Two will take over the WWE line of games. The negotiations for the WWE license apparently took place outside of the formal THQ auction, IGN notes. According to documents obtained by Joystiq, Take-Two has already spent $10.9 million snagging Turtle Rock's Evolve from THQ.
Mattel Apptivity hands-on (video)
Mattel thinks it has the secret to succeeding where so many others have failed in bridging that divide between the virtual and the physical -- and it might be right. While plenty of other toy companies have tried pairing hunks of plastic with apps in the past, Mattel has gone the extra mile, incorporating its recognizable brands and partnering with top tier developers. Later this year the company will launch Apptivity, a line of toys made from conductive plastic that interact with iPad games -- some which you're already quite familiar with, like Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja and, of course, Angry Birds. The games will get an update when the toys hit the market with new features and play modes specifically designed to utilize the physical pieces. Other brands, including WWE, Batman and Hot Wheels will also be part of the first batch of toys designed to be played with on your iPad screen.None of the apps or the toys themselves were quite ready for prime time yet, but Hot Wheels, WWE, Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope were all at least playable. The Apptivity mode in Cut the Rope and Fruit Ninja are pretty intuitive, but it took a bit of practice to get the hang of Hot Wheels. We had trouble finding the sweet spot on the screen that kept our car speeding along while leaving room to see upcoming obstacles. The line of toys will launch exclusively in Apple Stores in May with Hot Wheels (which will cost $20), followed by the rest in July. Check out the gallery below and the video after the break for a few more impressions.Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
GDC 08: Entertainment content convergence in online worlds
We spent most of Monday ensconced in the GDC Worlds in Motion summit track, which made "standing room only" seem extremely spacious -- most of the sessions were packed to the gills and then some. It seems like more than a few industry types are interested in the intersections between gaming and virtual worlds. Case in point, the following session we've paraphrased (hopefully not too liberally!) from Reuben Steiger, CEO of Milllions of Us, a company that builds marketing campaigns and content for virtual worlds. Reuben: Storytelling is the bedrock of human culture. (Looking at a slide with a real campfire on the left and a user-created campfire in Second Life on the right) -- users in virtual worlds are recreating this storytelling tradition. I'm going to make a contention: the internet has failed as a storytelling medium. Instead, the norm is bathroom humor and ridiculous jokes. So virtual worlds: are they games or not? What defines a game -- linguists and semioticians get real worked up about it. The audience might say "virtual worlds are games without rules, competition, goals or fun." And it's hard to blame them. Extreme openness has defined virtual worlds, where fun can be in a way you define as opposed to what some game developer feels is fun. But the appeal of virtual worlds is that we can tell stories on a broader and less walled playing field.
