Posts Tagged ‘Entertainment’
Monday, August 11th, 2008
Project Powder is the newest offering from Outspark’s already impressive lineup of free to play games. Project Powder is a rich snowboarding adventure for all types of gamers.
The shredder features multiplayer action, a number of tricks, and hundreds of ways to customize your play experience. Based on the method of play, gamers can play for 5 minutes or several hours.
“Project Powder utilizes all of the benefits of online gaming to make an extreme sport a community experience,” said Susan Choe, Outspark CEO and founder. “Our overarching goal is to expand our free-to-play Virtual Playground into a diverse entertainment destination, and Project Powder is a great addition to our game portfolio.”
While Project Powder is still in an open beta with the official release at the end of the summer, it still packs in a number of exciting features:
- 33 monster courses(10 available exclusively for open beta)
- 3 challenging game modes
- Intense multiplayer action with up to 7 opponents
- Premium gear including new snowboards, clothing and accessories for your character
- Dozens of unlockable tricks
Outspark plans on a number of community events during the open beta, including a user generated video contest.
Check out the open beta at: www.project-powder.com
About Outspark
Outspark is an entertainment services company that publishes and operates engaging online multiplayer games. Featuring a portfolio of immersive free-to-play games and related content, the company is building an online destination where members come for the games and stay for the community. Backed by Tencent, Altos Ventures and DCM, Outspark is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a subsidiary office in Seoul, Korea. For more information, visit www.outspark.com.
Tags: altos ventures, DCM, Entertainment, intense multiplayer action, Korea, online multiplayer games, open beta, outspark, Playground, Powder, Premium, premium gear, San Francisco, Seoul, seoul korea, snowboarding adventure, Susan Choe, video contest, virtual playground
Posted in industry news | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Apparently Blizzard has had enough with the (probable) massive amounts of ‘Hey, my account has been hacked’ emails that they deal with each day/month/year. To combat this, Blizzard is stepping up security by offering an optional lightweight and Waterproof Authenticator device that is meant to attach to a keychain.
The device is linked to your account and generates a Keychain Token style code that changes after a predetermined time period. After inputting your normal login details, you would then be prompted to enter the alphanumeric code that is displayed on your Authenticator.
This authenticator is not required, but rather an optional security feature available from Blizzard. The device was premiered at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Event, and will be available shortly on Blizzard’s online store for the whopping price of $6.50. Not a hefty price to pay to ensure that your top gear isn’t ending up at some vendor and you left standing naked in the middle of Ogrimmar wondering wtf? In addition, wouldn’t the Blizzard Authenticator be a welcome addition to your boring keyring? Not quite the ultimate fan badge, but definitely an eye catcher.
“It’s important to us that World of Warcraft offers a safe and enjoyable game environment,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “One aspect of that is helping players avoid account compromise, so we’re pleased to make this additional layer of security available to them.”
Read the official release at: http://www.blizzard.com/security-token
Tags: alphanumeric code, authenticator, Blizzard, blizzard entertainment, CEO, Entertainment, game environment, keychain, keyring, login details, mike morhaime, Ogrimmar, security, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Worldwide, worldwide event
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Friday, June 6th, 2008
NVISION 08 is a three day mega-event taking place this August 25-27 in San Jose, California. Thousands of engineers, designers, developers, researchers, artists, enthusiasts, gamers, film makers, business professionals and consumers from around the world will be descending on the ‘next town over’ from San Francisco.
If the sheer collection of top tech toys wasn’t enough, NVIDIA dropped it like its hot today by announcing that super hottie Tricia Helfer will be speaking at the convention.
“We are very excited to have Tricia Helfer speak at NVISION 08,” said Rob Csongor, vice president of corporate marketing, NVIDIA. “As an actress in the 21st century, she is an iconic example of how visual computing is transforming the television, film, and entertainment industries. She interacts with both real and virtual characters, and real and virtual sets, in award-winning television dramas as well as video games. Our NVISION 08 attendees will have the special opportunity to hear and see through the eyes of Tricia how story making and entertainment have become stunningly realistic and engaging through the use of visual computing technology.”
Some of you die hards out there might remember that Tricia is not only the object of desire from the hit series ‘Battlestar Galactica’ but also played the role of General Kilian Qatar in EA’s Command and Conquer 3. And….to top it all off, no, you’re not the only one who thinks this hottie has got the goods. In addition to her acting both on screen and in the sound booth, she’s also been awarded with the “Ford Supermodel of the World Contest” and has worked for magazines such as “Elle,” “Vogue,” and “Cosmopolitan.”
So mark those calendars now folks. If you’ve got the opportunity to hang with some heavy hitting heroes, all the while kickin’ it and drooling over Helfer, I say….why the h#*$ not?
Tags: Battlestar, battlestar galactica, California, Command, command and conquer 3, Conquer, corporate marketing, Elle, Entertainment, entertainment industries, film makers, ford supermodel of the world contest, Galactica, General Kilian Qatar, hot number, hottie, number six, nvidia, NVISION, object of desire, Rob Csongor, San Francisco, San Jose, san jose california, sound booth, Supermodel, tech toys, television dramas, television film, Tricia, tricia helfer, virtual characters, virtual sets, visual computing
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Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Turbine Inc. makers of top titles ‘The Lord of the Rings Online’, ‘Shadows of Angmar’. ‘Dungeons and Dragons Online’, and ‘Asheron’s Call’ have sealed a $40M financing deal with top investors Time Warner Inc. and CGV Captial.
Time Warner Investments target non-control strategic investments, and is an integral part of the Time Warner parent company, a leading (if not THE leading) media and entertainment company in the US.
CGV Capital is a leader in expansion-stage venture capital investments in the U.S. and China. The firm manages over $1B in global capital from it’s offices in Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Singapore.
“Our investment in Turbine is an important addition to Time Warner’s entertainment initiatives,” said Rachel Lam, Senior Vice President and Group Managing Director of Time Warner Investments. “Online interactive
entertainment is a huge growth market and we are very excited about Turbine, its unique capabilities and the obvious opportunities that exist with our own broad portfolio of IP.”
“The demand for massively multiplayer online worlds is exploding both geographically and in terms of platforms served,” said Hany Nada, managing partner, GGV Capital. “Turbine is a proven leader in massively interactive online entertainment and the incredible technology that supports it. We look forward to marrying our strengths both here and in Asia with Turbine’s unique capabilities.”
Turbine CEO Jim Crowley says, “This is truly an exciting time for Turbine. The addition of Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media companies, and GGV Capital, one of the financial community’s most sophisticated investors, adds a level of access, perspective and experience to Turbine that is singularly unique in the global online entertainment space. Turbine has an extraordinary team, incredible technology and a growing portfolio of games based on some of the most popular brands ever created. With this funding we are uniquely positioned to change the future of online entertainment as we bring new titles to market, expand the platforms we support and introduce new technologies to sustain self-evolving game worlds.”
Tags: Asia, capital one, ceo jim, CEO Jim Crowley, cgv, China, dungeons and dragons, dungeons and dragons online, entertainmen, Entertainment, entertainment space, expansion stage, jim crowley, lord of the rings online shadows of angmar, rachel lam, rings online shadows of angmar, s entertainment, Shanghai, silicon valley, Singapore, sophisticated investors, stage venture, strategic investments, time warner inc, Turbine, US, venture capital investments
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Yes that’s right ladies and gentlemen, fatfoogoo is heading to the land of fish and chips, one seriously big clock, and drivers on the wrong side of the road.
Last year over 450 attendees from 23 countries descended upon the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe in London. With over 80 speakers, 2 days of workshops, conferences, expos and networking functions this was THE conference to be at.
This year’s event looks to meet and exceed expectations. With over 600+ professionals interviewed regarding content, take home podcasts, demo and keynote theatre as well as tech developer streams, that’s enough alone to make one shout ‘Blimey!’. But wait….there’s more! Building upon the overwhelming success of the expo area, this year’s Forum includes stands from 25 exhibitors, a shell build scheme, previously mentioned demo and keynote theatre live and in person on the demo floor, live tech developer streams, and 400+ expo only passes.
Direct from Virtual Worlds Forum:
VWF 08 helps you harness the power of virtual worlds to engage with clients, suppliers or customers, connecting brands, corporations, digital and virtual worlds agencies, entertainment and games companies, technologists, academics, regulators and VCs.
We are working on bringing you a bigger expo, more great content and workshops, and parties. We like to party.
Funny…we like to party too!
Our beloved fatfoogoos are raiding London this 6-7 October, are already registered as Associate Sponsors, and our very own Martin Herdina has applied for a speaker placement. Alas, the VWF hasn’t gotten back to us quite yet, but if placement if based on knowledge, experience and all around ‘He’s a good guy to listen to, and knows his stuff’; Herdina’s headed to the podium mighty fast.
Tags: associate sponsors, attendees, blimey, Demo, Entertainment, Europe, exhibitors, expo, expos, fatfoogoo, fish and chips, Foogoo, forum europe, game, games companies, keynote, London, Martin Herdina, networking functions, overwhelming success, podium, Professional, regulators, shout, speaker placement, techno, virtual worlds, vwf, wrong side of the road
Posted in company news, fatfoogoo | No Comments »
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Canadian residents are not required to pay an entry fee for Blizzard’s upcoming arena tournament. Instead, Canadian residents are required to write a 250 word typewritten essay comparing the video gaming culture in the Great White North to the video gaming culture in the States. Click here for the tournament main page and then click on rules (Blizz isn’t allowing direct linking to this page).
Canadian residents are not required to pay an Entry Fee in order to enter. Instead, Canadian residents may enter by submitting a 250 word typewritten essay comparing the video gaming culture in Canada to the video gaming culture in the United States on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper and mailing their essay to Essay Entry for The North American Blizzard Entertainment Arena Tournament, P.O Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623. Essay entries must be received no later than March 31, 2008 in order to be eligible. Essay entrants represent and warrant that the essay is their original work and does not infringe the rights of any third party. By entering, essay entrants hereby grant, without further consideration, all right, title and interest in and to their essay to Sponsor.
Ok, so the deadline has passed, so if you’re living somewhere in a province under a red maple leaf, sorry, but you missed the boat. On the other side of the coin here, gotta hand it to Blizz, excellent crowd sourcing and market research all within a highly specialized field. I’d LOVE to be sitting on the marketing review and research and development panels on the receiving end of these essays. Nice work Blizz!
On a side note, all Canadian contests involving a game of skill or chance must have a no fee entry clause. Normally this is covered by the STQ. The STQ is a skill testing question, used in order to qualify a ‘potential’ winner. While this question is usually mathematically in nature, sometimes a trivia question has also been used. I’m assuming that a 250 word essay will be a perfectly acceptable STQ.
A skill testing question is a legal aspect attached to all contests that Canadian residents can enter. Some contests may require you to answer the STQ when you enter the contest, other may require it only after you are declared a ‘potential’ winner. Because Canadian law prohibits “for-profit” gaming or betting, but does allow prizes to be given for skill (or mixed games of skill and chance), chance-based games (which, a random draw for contesting is), stays legal when contestants are required to answer the “skill” testing question. The STQ is a mathematical question, which you must answer correctly to be declared the contest winner. Contests which are run by sponsors in the USA are required to include a STQ if the contest winner is a Canadian resident, even though STQs are not required by contest winners in the USA. Some Canadian contests will ask a trivia question in place of a mathematical STQ.
Tags: Blizz, Blizzard, blizzard entertainment, Canada, canadian contests, canadian residents, crowd, Entertainment, entertainment arena, game, gaming, gaming culture, Irvine, irvine ca, King, Legal, maple leaf, Market, market research, marketing, North American, red maple, research, research and development, skill test, stq, third party, tournament, trivia question, typewritten essay, United States, USA, video gaming, word essay
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Sunday, May 4th, 2008
Holy smoke: tickets to WWI are/were hotter than hotcakes! It seems as though Blizzard underestimated the response from gamers around the world by selling out entry to Hall 5 of the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center in less than a week.
To add a bit of insult to injury, it seems as though there was a problem with the ordering system whereby users were receiving an incorrect message of “Limit of 3 Payment Attempts Reached“. D’OH!
For those that didn’t get a ticket: let’s just pray to A’dal that the event management staff is busily trying to book Hall 4 or Hall 6, as the FAQ for the event reads: Tickets are limited and will go on sale in the next few weeks on a first-come, first-served basis until they are sold out, though Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to sell additional tickets in the future.
Should Blizzard release more tickets, we’ll be sure to update on the fly.
Tags: Blizzard, Entertainment, event, Exposition, Invitational, Payment, Sold out, ticket, Versailles, Worldwide
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
The shredder features multiplayer action, a number of tricks, and hundreds of ways to customize your play experience. Based on the method of play, gamers can play for 5 minutes or several hours.
