CGW – April 5 – Digital Game Sales on the Rise

by Wonacott Communications

This week several changes took place at some of the largest game publishers: Disney announced its decision to shut down LucasArts. The publisher will shift its model from developing games internally through LucasArts, to focusing on licensing the “Star Wars” brand. At Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda is set to take over as president in June and plans to review the whole company, after former president Yoichi Wada’s departure last week. In further Square Enix news, its Los Angeles office has eliminated positions in its marketing, public relations, accounting and IT departments as part of a corporate restructuring. Mike Fischer, CEO at Square Enix America, is rumored to be let go in May.

CGW - March 29 - Till Next Year, GDC

by Wonacott Communications

Today is the last day of GDC. During the week exciting announcements were made, valuable information was shared through a plethora of informative panels and winners were revealed for the 13th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards - with Journey sweeping the competition. Out of the ten awards, the game won six for Game of the Year, Innovation Award, Best Audio, Best Downloadable Game, Best Game Design, and Best Visual Arts. Sony gave away more details on the upcoming PlayStation 4. According to Sony Senior Staff Engineer Chris Norden, "The core gamers are our primary audience and are fundamental to PS4 gaming. They're the most engaged users and they're very important advocates for the platform. PS4 is architect-ed around their expectations. At the same time, we want to create a platform that can sail through a broad audience. The interface is designed to be fun, appealing, and accessible to the entire household." Another aspect of the next-gen console that he highlighted was that it will have a large hard drive, but did not reveal any details on the specifications.

CGW – March 15 – Eyes on PAX East and GDC

by Wonacott Communications

Today kicks off two major, back-to-back videogame industry events: PAX East starts today and runs through the weekend in Boston, and GDC starts on Monday, March 25 and runs throughout next week in San Francisco. Excitement is building as publishers reveal what will be shown at PAX East – Nintendo announced their lineup of seven Wii U and nine Nintendo 3DS titles, including Nintendo Land and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Ubisoft posted a message on its Might and Magic X website encouraging attendees to meet them at PAX East, and Blizzard announced that a PlayStation 3 version of Diablo III will be available to play at the consumer-focused show as well. With GDC right around the corner, I’m excited to see what new game and tech announcements will happen and who will bring home some Game Developer Choice Awards.

Who Won The Bing Challenge?

by Melissa Chan

As a public relations professional, it is essential to keep informed and stay on top of the news. We regularly monitor our clients’ and their competitors’ news so that we can conduct analyses and create specialized PR strategies based on the media landscape or react as needed. A tool that helps us do our job well for this particular purpose is a great search engine.

Recently, Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates participated in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) interview on Reddit where he openly answered questions on all topics, including one that questioned the quality of Microsoft’s Bing search engine. When asked “Do you guys really use Bing? I mean seriously...,” Gates challenged the community to take the “Bing challenge” and responded with, “Seriously Bing is the better product at this point. Try the challenge. I am biased but the work to make Bing better has been amazing.”

His confidence in the search engine piqued my curiosity, and I set forth on the challenge.    

The Best of SXSW

by Kia Gilstrap

My fellow tech geeks and entertainment junkies – the time has come and gone – South by Southwest (SXSW) wrapped Sunday night. The festival included the best the entertainment industry has to offer in music, film and emerging technologies. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to attend the festival. However, by means of PR support to our client, Music Mastermind (the company was at SXSW with their mobile music creation app, Zya, and we were sure to place the app on TechHive’s radar during their time at the festival) as well as Google Alerts and Twitter, I felt as though I was in Austin, TX.  Here are some of the highlights at SXSW:

Samsung Galaxy S4 Debut – What Do You Think?

by Chan Lim

Samsung was center stage (literally, holding a press event at Radio City Music Hall) of the technology media world late last week with the unveiling of its next flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4. Does the phone live up to the hype, and will I be getting one? Let’s take a look at the hype versus what Samsung decided to reveal.

<Courtesy of Samsung Mobile>

CGW – March 15 – Trend Alert: eSports

by Wonacott Communications

Over the past few years, eSports have continued to grow in popularity. This week, Major League Gaming CEO Sundance Giovanni spoke with Polygon and Forbes about the future of pro-gaming. He predicts that eSports will continue to grow in North America and Europe, eventually rising to the same level of popularity as currently seen in game-crazed South Korea. 

We’re Lookin’ for a Freelance/Contract PR Pro

by Wonacott Communications

This is pretty awesome: We’re looking for a strong mid-career level PR freelancer/contractor who can do it all, with an emphasis on media relations (pitching and placement) and writing (bylined articles, press materials, etc.). For the right person this could be a long term relationship with a steady flow of base hours/work each month. We tend to integrate our contractors into our account teams and treat them like one of the family.

CGW – March 8 – Competition is King for Core Gamers

by Wonacott Communications

eSports, competitive gaming, has been gaining popularity year after year. Professional gamers form teams, train daily and earn sponsorships to compete against the best in the world, while millions of fans watch for entertainment. As the following increases for eSports, a slew of fantastic opportunities flood in, including an abundance of new sponsors and an increase and demand for organized pro tournaments.

What Happens When a Good Game Meets the Right Advertising and PR Efforts

by Wonacott Communications

Cie Games, a Wonacott client, was featured on the recent Facebook’s earnings call as a successful example of utilizing the Facebook mobile advertising platform. The platform drove installs for the iOS game Car Town Streets. Through this initiative, Cie Games was able to achieve 40 percent lower cost per installation compared to other advertising.

Are You a Competitive Gamer?

by Wonacott Communications

Xfire’s newly launched Battleground, a fully automated online competitive tournament system, will bring competitive gaming to the masses, allowing them to challenge friends directly, set up personal tournaments, compete in sponsored tournaments for prizes and more. We worked with Xfire to spread the news far and wide this week, to sites including Got Game, Los Angeles Business Journal, PC Games N and VG 24/7. 

CGW – March 1 – The Great Migration

by Wonacott Communications

With all the recent talk about next-generation consoles, one can forget that many developers are drifting toward alternative platforms. To prepare for Game Developer Conference in a few weeks, organizers released a survey showing 58 percent of attendees’ next games will launch on either tablets or smartphones – consoles came in at 14 percent. It’s perfect timing as well, with Gartner predicting more than 1.2 billion mobile and smartphone devices will be sold this year. 

Wix Increases SEO, Web Traffic for Small Biz Owners

by Wonacott Communications

Small businesses may lack the name recognition of their larger competitors, but a slick, professional and useful web presence goes a long way toward gaining customer awareness and loyalty. The problem is, few small business owners can afford to pay the thousands of dollars it costs for a site built by a professional design firm. The solution? Wix.com, the leading free HTML5 web publishing platform.

Gamers – Start Your Engines: Cie Games Takes Auto Industry by Storm

by Wonacott Communications

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to own the Motor Trend Car of the Year or wanted take part in some of the biggest races NASCAR has to offer? Cie Games – the makers of Car Town, the world’s leading social and mobile automotive-based game – allows everyone’s auto industry dreams to come true, at least in-game, through its latest partnerships, which Wonacott recently announced on Cie’s behalf.

CGW - Feb. 22 - Drumroll…PlayStation 4 Revealed

by Wonacott Communications

Unless you live under a rock or were stranded on a remote island, you probably are aware Sony revealed its next-generation console, the PlayStation 4, on Wednesday. Although the company didn't show the console itself, Sony shared details on the system's interface, its new controller and exclusive launch games, includingDriveclub, Knack and The Witness. Gamers were up in arms about not getting to see what the console looks like (here's a prediction: it will be black and boxlike), but shouldn't gamers be more interested in what the console can do versus what the casing looks like?

Comparing Apples to Oranges: Why it’s Hard to Change the Way We Review Videogames

by Alex Van Lepp

How exactly should videogame critics approach a review for a given videogame? Should a review break down the mechanics of the game, focusing on gameplay and fun factor? Or should the reviewer approach a game experience from an artistic perspective, and offer criticism on how the game affects the player emotionally? The launch of Dead Space 3 recently brought this discussion to the forefront. The consensus is that it’s almost impossible to make a definitive choice and say one style of criticism holds more weight than the other.

Putting the “POW!” into “Power Broker”

by Wonacott Communications

Risk & Insurance Magazine’s annual Power Broker competition recognizes those insurance brokers who go above and beyond for their clients, offering comprehensive knowledge of practices, specialties and sectors and foresight into industry trends, working weekends and holidays to make sure client needs are covered 24/7, acting not just as a broker, but a partner.

CGW - Feb. 15 - Social’s Time to Shine

by Wonacott Communications

Years ago, social games were low-quality, non-stop clickathons that required energy to play. This resulted in a stigma for the videogames industry, with many saying social games weren’t a dependable market. Now though, the social games market has diversified with developers making high-quality titles to accommodate players and give them options such as synchronous play with friends. According to an IBISWorld report, social games will see $6 billion in sales this year, and the social games business has grown an average of 184 percent a year over the past five years. For the savvy publisher, social games weren’t such a bad investment after all.

GRAMMYs 2013: The World Was Listening – and Here’s What I Heard

by Sarah Arvizo

Sunday was “music’s biggest night,” and has already set a new wave of musical popularity and sales into motion. Nominees Taylor Swift and Mumford & Sons are Spotify’s featured “What’s New” artists, and The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” is at the top of the iTunes charts. Between some stellar and not-so-smart performances, I’ve highlighted my key findings here:

Source: The GRAMMYs Facebook Page

CGW - Feb. 8 - Investment into Mobile Game Developers

by Wonacott Communications

For the past few years mobile gaming's been making waves as the digital content market, which includes mobile and social gaming, exploded to ginormous proportions. Just last year, digital content accounted for 40 percent of the industry's $14.8 billion revenue, a 16 percent growth from 2011. Looking to capture a stronger share of the mobile market are major Japanese mobile gaming company GREE, who began its $10 million fund for mobile game developers, and GameStop's Kongregate, who announced the company is investing $10 million into mobile game developers. Mobile is truly hot right now and it won't be surprising if more publishers invest more of their resources into the growing platform.