Village Gamer

With a contingent of more that 70 participating companies, Canada’s audiovisual industry will be out in force at MIPCOM 2011, showcasing an outstanding line-up of television and digital media products. The companies will benefit from the enthusiastic support of Telefilm Canada, highlighting their vitality, creativity and solid international reach.

As part of its solid and diversified programming, the Canadian industry’s youth production activities will be prominently featured at MIPCOM this year. Indeed, 42 of the exhibiting Canadian companies either produce or distribute youth content, and for half of these companies youth production constitutes their main area of activity. Read the rest of this entry »

UNIT4 Business Software’s parent company UNIT4, a provider of business software for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC™), has announced the results of a survey undertaken by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC), which has found that many higher education institutions are not meeting business-change management requirements as a result of rigid enterprise software that is costing them between $100K and $1 million to make changes after the software is installed. Read the rest of this entry »

Rock Hippo Productions has announced that starting this Thursday, the studio will launch major updates for its popular online cartoon style third-person action shooter MicroVolts, as well as its upcoming online multiplayer action combat game Brawl Busters.

“What’s better than an update to your favorite game but two updates for two awesome games at the same time, said Howard He, President and CEO of Rock Hippo Productions. “Constantly creating fun and fresh new content for MicroVolts and Brawl Busters is really important to us and our players and there will be a lot more fun in store.” Read the rest of this entry »

Produced by Victoria’s Reboot Communications, the 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference will take place at the Victoria Conference Centre next February 15th through 17th. The conference is recognized as one of the top tier events in North America, and anyone working in the information privacy and security fields will benefit from the speakers, discussions and networking at the conference. Attendees from every level both within government and private industry with an interest in cutting edge policy, programs, law, research and technologies aimed at the protection of privacy and security will find topics of interest to them.
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iStockphoto has announced the first Italian iStockalypse, a five-day photography event being held in Milan and surrounding villages this September 28th through October 2nd. The Italian iStockalypse is organized in partnership with Canon, a world leader in imaging products and solutions, which will provide its leading photographic equipment and educational resources as part of this sponsorship. Read the rest of this entry »

Electronic Arts Inc. and Sports Illustrated have announced details of an exclusive marketing partnership between the internationally renowned Need for Speed™ and Swimsuit franchises, bringing together the worlds of fashion, video games, cars and beauty in a first-of-its-kind partnership. The deal will see 2011 SI Swimsuit Cover model Irina Shayk and popular Swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen play guest starring roles* in one of this holiday’s most anticipated releases, Need for Speed™ The Run. The action-packed racing game, which is currently in development at EA Black Box, takes players on a heart-pounding cross-country race from San Francisco to New York. In addition, the partnership powers a new SI subscription bundled offer featuring Need for Speed The Run assets and both EA and SI will execute significant cross-promotion across in-game, TV and social media. Read the rest of this entry »

TransGaming Inc. has announced that EA Sports™ FIFA Soccer 12 has been brought to the Mac platform using TransGaming’s Cider Mac enablement product. FIFA Soccer 12 launches today and will be available on Mac through many EA Sports distribution channels, including TransGaming’s leading digital distribution site for Mac games, GameTree Mac. Read the rest of this entry »

Distribution360 will be  showcasing more than 200 hours of content including new kids, lifestyle and factual series at MIPCOM 2011.  Attendees can sample the offerings and meet with Distribution 360 representatives at Booth #02.10 when the conference takes place this  October 3rd through 6th in Cannes, France.

“We look forward to a successful MIPCOM, and are pleased to bring strong content in the kids, lifestyle and factual space,” said Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier, Head of Sales, Distribution360. “We’re very excited to meet with potential buyers in the market for fresh new content that is sure to appeal to a wide variety of audiences.”

In the Kids and Youth genre, Distribution360’s slate includes: Read the rest of this entry »

Merging Media 2011 has announced that Jennifer Newman Rutsky and Sean Elbe have each won a full pass to the October 27th & 28th conference after participating in a Twitter and Facebook promotion. Tickets for the conference, which will be taking place at The Woodwards Heritage Complex, are still available for purchase.

In other event news, the deadline for Pitch 360 and a chance to win this year’s $10,000 BC Film Development Award has been extended to October 5th in order to encourage more up and coming media producers and developers with innovative projects to participate.

Eight participants with innovative cross-media projects will be selected to battle it out a la ‘Dragon’s Den’ style for the grand prize at the Pitch 360 sessions on October 28th, hosted by new-dad-to-be Victor Lucas. The organizers are accepting early to late stage development projects for consideration, so get your submissions in today. If I had more confidence, a lot more knowledge about production, a team and a fully fleshed out plan, I’d enter the Pitch 360 program in a heartbeat. The BC Film Development Award would at least get the cross-media project idea I’ve been sitting on for a year off the ground.

X-Men™ Destiny is available today at retail stores nationwide, and Marvel Entertainment’s newest iteration of the super hero franchise places gamers into the role of a young mutant just discovering their powers. The choices they make, along with the alliances they forge, will determine which side of the mutant cause will reign supreme. X-Men Destiny gives players three all-new playable mutants and an original story penned by acclaimed Marvel writer Mike Carey, delivering an action-RPG experience where players have ultimate customization of their mutant’s powers, development and destiny.

X-Men Destiny for Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and Wii™ was developed by Silicon Knights, while the Nintendo DS™ version of the game was developed by Other Ocean. The games are published by Activision and carry ESRB ratings of T for Teen and E10+ (DS version). Read the rest of this entry »