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Xbox eMagMarch edition

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Editor’s Comment

A belated hello and welcome to the second edition of theXbox eMag – your finger on the pulse of gaming andinteractive entertainment.

And indeed in the space of 30 days (ok, 40 days) since thelast eMag, there have been significant developments in thefield of interactive entertainment courtesy of BBC. We’ll alsotake a look at the rise of mobile gaming and Zynga’s forayinto their own social platform.

Seen the Zeebox adverts featuring a budget version of PaulRudd? We’re looking at the second screen phenomenon andbreaking down ‘TV’s newest sidekick’. Apple’s vision for thefuture of TV, the latest blockbuster release, and more in thismonth’s episode.

As ever, feed your thoughts back to us:(josef.francis@smvgroup.co.uk).

Hope you enjoy,

The Xbox Team

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Content watch

Its programmes available for free to all Xbox 360 users – a major coup!

Complete with hand gesture and voice commandrecognition, this move also completes the BBC’s presence across all of the three major gaming platforms.

The US was not without its own notable additions. Comcast’s Xfinity TV service, HBO Go, and MLB.TV wereadded to the Xbox LIVE roster towards the end of the month. Bringing the likes of Deadwood, Band of Brothers,and Entourage from the past as well as current popular TV shows like Eastbound & Down, Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, all three of these services will offer Kinect functionality.

With Xbox LIVE users spending an average of 84 hours a month on the service, and half on entertainment vs. gaming, that’s 42 hoursincreasingly well spent.

Content

March has been a busymonth on the content

frontfor Xbox.

In the UK, state fundedBBC released their

popularcatch-up service BBCiPlayer on Xbox LIVEmaking it the UK’s onlycontent provider to make

Source: Brand Republic, Engadget, Mashable, Variety.com, Business Insider

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Mobile Gaming on the Move

In the past nine months, reports arefiltering through of industry vets

ditchingconsole gamer production juggernauts(EA, Freestyle Games, Lucas Arts),leaving behind hugely successful ‘tripleA’ titles like Madden, DJ Hero, andManiac Mansion.

Why? A chance at a piece of that $4billion Apple has paid out to App Storedevelopers thus far surely couldn’t hurt.

Source: Taken from PLAYED - Denuo’s March Edition

Games like Infinity Blade, sophisticated

role-playing games available in Apple’s

iOS, are seen by some console killers Since opening in July of 2008, the App Store has generated over 25 billion

downloadsand earned over $5.71 billion in revenue; 70% of which is paid

directly todevelopers.

A closer inspection of those 25 billion downloads reveals that 75% of the top

grossing apps are games, and the most profitable apps are of the freemium

variety – those titles that are free to download and play, but give users the option to

augment their gameplay experience via micro-transactions for virtual goods.

Are gamers abandoning their consoles in favour of mobile

devices? Not necessarily. Sales of top, triple A, titles remain very strong as seen

recently with the latest Call of Duty release (first five day sales exceeding that of the

final Harry Potter instalment).

However as mobile platforms continue to develop, and the gap in price (£50 for a

console game vs. £0.99 for a mobile) appears larger and larger as purse-strings

tighten, we’re entitled to wonder whether the current console model is a sustainable

one.

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What enhances your TV experience? Top notch content? A bigger, sharper screen

perhaps? The answer seems to be another screen in fact.

The internet, and particularly mobile internet, is now providinga commentary track topopular TV shows. 80% of American mobile internet users use the Internet whilst watchingTV. 36% say they look upinformation relating to ads they see. The average Xfactor episode gleans 94,000 comments in social media . Media is starting to take advantage of this dual platform.

The duality of the TV experience

Source: Warc

Apps, ever the caricature of prevailing trends, are at the

forefront of the response. Mobile app Get Glue letspeople 'check-in‘, showing what TV programmes

they arewatching. The uptake? 15m users since mid-2010,

withtop shows getting over 50,000 check-ins.

Zeebox natives already know the score – sharing what

you watch with what your mates are watching. Sky sees

the potential, forming a ‘strategic partnership’. They’re

already using Zeebox technology in their F1 iPad app,

with plans to extend to their SkyGo and Sky+ services.

What do you need to do? Bare in mind people watching

your ads are probably on/have quick access to theinternet. Push keywords throughout your campaign not just in search but in your ad creative too. Usesocial media to engage in these conversations,including real-time responses to consumer

comments,good and bad!

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The app has been around for a while, but you may have only recently seen the ads on

TV...

Zeebox is a new TV app based around audience participation. Viewers can check

what their friends are watching, research topics and buy products linked to the shows.

So, if you were watching Jeremy Kyle you could research threesomes on Wikipedia and

buy a Moonpig card without navigating away from the Zeebox page. Finally.

Zeebox links online to TV, increasingconsumer engagement with productplacements and ad breaks.

How? Zeebox provides branded click through

opportunities that coincide with what they

see on TV.

Take Hardy’s wine, who sponsor ComeDine With Me – viewers could be led to

theirsite via a Zeetag just as they fancy a

glass ofwine. And during the ad break, when a

LoydGrossman zeetag prompts them to buyonline at Tesco, they are morelikely to take action than when watchingthe ad on TV alone.

Delving a little deeper - Zeebox

Zeebox in apption:

• Popularity gauge of programme • Twitter/Facebook commentary • Live Zeetags driving online purchase• News, apps and downloads• Chat/watch with (presumably unemployed?) friends about ‘This Morning’

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Cutting the middle-man - Apple TV

Apple’s vision for the future of TV is becoming clearer – here’s the dream:

• Build a TV set that is much cooler and easier to use than anything else out there

• Charge twice as much for it• Assemble, in essence, a cable company with tonnes of great content by

cutting deals with content providers• Pay the content providers practically nothing• Reduce cable companies to pipes and vehicles by redesigning and taking

control over the television interface• Capture a subscription revenue stream, the sort currently owned by cable

If this sounds like bullying, it’s something we’ve already seen them doto the music biz, namely:

• Give us your content and let us package it in the way we (and consumers) want

• Let us charge what we want for it• Take what we give you

If you find yourself in the unlikely position of sympathising with the TV industry,hold on just a cotton-picking minute. They’re extremely rich with resources andpower Apple’s fallen foes in the music, publishing and printing industry can onlydream of.

Only if Apple are willing to spend billions of dollars on content will they wrestlethe content away from the cable companies.

Source: BusinessInsider

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Mass Effect 3 release

Decisions with consequences – that’s what the Mass Effect trilogy hastraded off extremely successfully in the five years since its first release in2007. Mass Effect 3, the concluding title released in early March,sold 1.85 million units in its first week. This puts it ahead of both of itspredecessors, widely believed to be two of the greatest games evermade. And yet, there are forlorn cries from the faithful.

It seems as though all choiceslead back to more or less thesame ending – mon dieu! Fanstook to the blogs to voice theirdisappointment, with Mass Effect developer BioWare describing the feedback as “incredibly

painful”.

A miserable end for such a distinguished franchise? Happily not.

BioWare will produce a downloadable ‘extended cut’ for the summer - hooray for public outcry!

Insiders say thosewishing to see heroCaptain Shepard on abeach sipping

cocktailswill be disappointed.Rather, the end willfocus on dark, moodybits.

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Zynga’s Social Expansion

Zynga, the guys who wasted hours ofyour life with FarmVille and Empires &Allies, have long teased us with plansfor a social gaming platform – thosedevils!

On March 1st, Zynga revealed thatthey would be launching a beta laterthis month of their new Zynga Platformon Zynga.com.

Source: Taken from PLAYED Denuo’s March Edition

The platform will serve up existing Zynga games and new games by third party developers, with a social engine to help players connect and discover new titles.

The Zynga Platform allows other game developers to use its platform and API to host theirown games. Most recently, they announced that powerhouses Konami, Playdemic (makers ofGourmet Ranch), and Rebellion would be launching games on Zynga.com.

What does this mean for Zynga’s relationship with Facebook? After all, accounting for 12% ofFacebook’s revenue (through the 30% cut they get from all in-game payments and theadvertising revenue they generate from Zynga’s 240 million monthly active users), a break-upwould surely impact on Facebook’s upcoming IPO. Zynga.com’s General Manager ManuelBronstein remains committed to partnering with Facebook: “We have a great partnershipand relationship with Facebook, and we see Zynga.com as an extension of that relationship”.

Friendly words. Perhaps we’ll see whether Facebook will indeed benefit from this ‘extension’over the coming months.

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Hack of the month

D.I.Y. kinect games on your Xbox. Is it real?Check it out for yourself:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z83wzJwrBK0&feture=related

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Sales figures

Driven by strong sales in

the APAC region, Nintendo

3D’s latest mouthful of a

title takes top spot globally.

Elsewhere, Mass Effect 3

and Resident Evil are doing

the business, with CODModern Warfare still

pullingin sales so long after

itsNovember release.

Source: www,vgchartz.com

A good start to the year for

Playstation leading unit

sales. This result leaves the

PS3 (62.9m) just behind the

Xbox 360 (65.9m) in total

Lifetime unit sales – Wii still

way out ahead with 95.9m.

Source: www,vgchartz.com

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