Posted By Ivy Chang - January 26, 2012
Social games are a big deal. What seemed like another source of home entertainment turned into one of the biggest marketing opportunity for brands and is expected to draw in 69 million social gamers in 2012.
Currently, there are approximately 61.9 million social gamers in the United States. Social gaming dominates the app ecosystem within Facebook and people are playing social games every month.
Women and Social Gaming
The gamer stereotype
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Posted By rmay - December 22, 2011
The Louvre has partnered with Nintendo to upgrade the museum’s current audio system to Nintendo 3DS consoles. Visitors will be able to select a digital themed guide to tour the 60,000 square foot museum. Through the Nintendo 3DS system, users can interact with the touch screen and 3D features to experience the museum in a new way.
The Louvre is continuing this digital upgrade by releasing mobile and tablet apps for
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Posted By rmay - December 20, 2011
Rockstar Games is promoting 2012’s Max Payne 3 video game release by giving their Twitter followers the chance to become a part of the game. The followers use the hashtag #MaxPayne3 on Twitter, and Rockstar Games will randomly select 8 people to have their likeness included as one of 8 multiplayer game characters. The #MaxPayne3 contest runs until January 13th.
Implications: Twitter hashtags are an easy way to socially promote a
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Posted By sspearman - November 17, 2011
An entire city of faceless people stuck inside of Google Street View. A girl jumps into your new Mercedes and tells you to escape the map before you become like the other faceless citizens of the map. Is it a nightmare? A dream?
No, it's just the latest interactive video campaign from Mercedes Benz UK. The new Mercedes TV spots in the UK encourage people to jump online and play through
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Posted By sspearman - October 27, 2011
Sonera, a mobile telecom in Finland, recently faced an interesting advertising challenge: how do they demonstrate the speed of their new 4G network in their print advertising?
The solution: make the advertisement into a game all about speed. The advertisement sends readers to a mobile site, which serves as part of the game board. They can challenge a friend to a reaction speed test to enter to win a free 4G
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Posted By eknab - August 22, 2011
Volkswagen recently created an interactive online game to showcase the low fuel consumption of its Golf BlueMotion model. Participants visited a Google Maps and Streetview-enabled website to see in real-time where the car was on Norway's route E6 and guess where it would run out of gas. The closest guesser won the car. Contestants only had one chance to guess, giving an incentive to research more about the car before
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Posted By Ivy Chang - July 19, 2011
Toyota has rolled out its new kid-focused mobile gaming app called Backseat Driver. The app makes riding in the car a fun experience for kids by allowing them to drive along with their parents. Backseat Driver utilizes the GPS on the phone to create a virtual driving route that mirrors the actual road and integrates real world landmarks into the game. Kids are awarded points for steering
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Posted By eknab - July 11, 2011
Face.com is a service that uses photos and video to identify faces. Last year the company opened its platform up to developers to encourage the creation of applications that use their technology, and the recently-launched mood detection feature is generating a new wave of buzz around the service. One developer has already created a web-based game called Mood Battle, which scores players based on their ability to emulate a mood
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Posted By eknab - July 6, 2011
A number of private, Internet-based companies have been filing for initial public offerings (IPO) this year. Popular names such as Groupon, Pandora, LinkedIn and prominent Chinese social networking website Renren have all taken the leap. Even LivingSocial is rumored to be looking into filing for an IPO. The company to most recently join the ranks is Zynga, which has been cited as the most valuable U.S. game company. Now that
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Posted By eknab - June 30, 2011
Generally, the best ideas solve complex problems in the simplest of ways. Gesture-based interfaces, while simple and easy to use, have not solved complex problems traditionally. While Kinect may help to get people off the couch and moving around more, the true value is in the entertainment, making that solution a secondary outcome. But gesture-based interfaces are now taking steps into areas where the technology is a primary solution, amplifying
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