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Waterloo – Open Text™ Corporation has announced the release of Vignette Content Management 8, an enterprise-scale web content management solution that gives marketers broad new capabilities to use the Web as a strategic force to drive campaigns, customer conversion and loyalty, and ultimately profitability.

Built on more than 10 years of experience in managing the world’s most sophisticated websites, Vignette Content Management 8 introduces a new ergonomic design that makes it easy for business users to create websites, microsites and landing pages on-demand, while staying within branding and technical guidelines. The ergonomic design caters to specific personas in marketing or other departments, providing tools, designs and other resources based on their roles. This critical functionality brings speed and flexibility to marketing teams — a new level of agility that can make the difference in competitive efforts to reach customers via the Web.

“Successful enterprises embrace the Web as a critical component of revenue generation, and to provide an interactive and immersive experience that connects with customers,” said James Latham, Chief Marketing Officer of Open Text. “Vignette Content Management 8 brings together the enterprise-class capabilities customers need to gain the full value of the Web. The solution offers leading capabilities that deliver engaging, personalized content populated by video, rich media and social interaction. Its flexibility and ease of use helps marketers be more effective, allowing them to focus on the message – not the tools.”

With a focus on brand consistency and time-to-market, many marketing teams need a Web content management solution that empowers efficient communications with target audiences while managing message consistency across a complex series of websites, fueled by diverse audiences, languages and contributors. Vignette Content Management 8 offers a simple way to create and manage Web experiences by streamlining the management of Web layouts and structures. This includes page management, site and navigation management, content production, taxonomy and task management.

Adopt and Adapt

To help customers overcome the cumbersome and costly migration, training and adoption issues often found in enterprise software upgrades, Vignette Content Management 8 has been specifically designed to help users move easily to the new interface at their own pace. Users have the option of continuing to use their familiar interface or to adapt to the new interface as needed. Called Compatibility mode, the feature’s progressive upgrade options minimize training costs, risk and impact to ongoing operations. Read the rest of this entry »

Calgary – HappyUFO has released their debut title, DungeonSHIFT: Secret of the Blood Chrysanthemum. A casual game for those seeking to sink their teeth into a bit more of a challenge than the average, DungeonSHIFT combines an engaging story with a unique “Jigsaw Riddle” style of puzzling. Search through clues and create the key to opening doors that get in your way all the while following the story of Joachim, a hero who left his family behind in search of a cure that would save mankind from a mysterious plague. Unlock your way through 20 brain bending levels, featuring hand drawn environments from the artist who brought Illutia to life. DungeonSHIFT: Secret of the Blood Chrysanthemum is available for download directly from HappyUFO for $10.24 CDN.

Montreal – Ubisoft has released a bit of news and a few screenshots for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 2 iPhone title. Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery for iPhone and iPod Touch lets players discover an exciting chapter of the Assassin’s Creed® II storyline. They follow Ezio as he travels to 15th-century Spain to rescue fellow assassins being held under the guise of the Inquisition, only to uncover a Templar plot to sail west and discover the New World. ”

Montreal – On the community building front, Vanilla Forums has closed a $500,000 (CAD) Round A funding for its innovative, open source community forum software. Vanilla also released its forum hosting platform and additional premium features for its rapidly growing customer base. Both this funding and the new forum hosting platform and business oriented premium features solidify Vanilla’s position as a leading open source community forum solution.

Vanilla Forums closed a Series A funding round led by Montreal Startup, with a significant investment also made by Denver, CO based eonBusiness. Silicon Valley based Klein Venture Partners and Denver, CO based Norseman Capital also contributed to the round. Vanilla, located in Montreal, will use the investment to expand its marketing, development, and sales efforts. “Montreal has a vibrant entrepreneur community and is a hot-bed for open-source software,” said Mark O’Sullivan, Vanilla’s CEO.

Vanilla Forums also announced the immediate availability of their forum hosting platform. The Vanilla Forum hosting platform enables customers to quickly and easily deploy a community forum solution without having to write a single line of code. Vanilla also released two new premium features, custom domains and ad-removal, that enable seamless integration with a customer’s existing web presence. Vanilla plans to release additional premium features including custom css, single sign-on, and forum analytics in the near future.

“With over 19 million forums on the internet, forum software is more relevant than ever,” said John Stokes, Managing Partner at Montreal Startup. “Vanilla were the first to recognize that forum solutions must evolve into proactive tools that help businesses to both grow and interact with their customer base and we are excited to help facilitate Vanilla’s growth in this market.”

“Vanilla proves that forums are much more than the origin of social media – they’re an important and compelling part of its future,” said Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Director of Design and User Experience at Digg.com.

“It’s been amazing to watch Vanilla grow since they participated in TechStars this past summer. They’ve got great technology and are a super team. We’re thrilled to see them put together this round with some great investors.” said Brad Feld, Managing Director at Foundry Group and one of the co-founders of TechStars. “Vanilla is already one of the most popular forum solutions on the Internet, and I’m excited to watch their continued growth.”

Toronto – TVOKids has launched its first iPhone app for preschoolers. As a leading provider of innovative, educational and entertaining multi media content, TVOKids is excited to add Melvin’s Marvellous Words to its offerings.

Based on the Ontario kindergarten curriculum, Melvin’s Marvellous Words is teacher tested and developed in conjunction with TVO’s in-house educational specialist. Inspired by the popular TVOKids and tvokids.com game of the same name, the app is a fun and interactive word-matching game that helps preschoolers learn to read common, high-frequency words. Learning these words prepares preschoolers for reading, and makes them feel more confident as they begin to read.

“Parents will find that Melvin’s Marvellous Words is an effective educational tool for preschoolers who are always on the go,” says Patricia Ellingson, TVO’s creative head of Children’s Media Content and Programming. “It challenges young minds in an interactive and educational literacy game that makes learning fun.”

Now, for a limited time only, Melvin’s Marvellous Words is available free at the Apple App Store. The app will be on sale for $1.99 at the Apple App Store starting February 1.

Vancouver – Mingleverse Laboratories is offering Vancouver organizations free use of its award-winning 3D Audio Visual internet communication service for the entire duration of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The offer is being made in response to the call by Translink, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) for a massive reduction in vehicle trips in Vancouver during the games.

“The Mingleverse Mingle Room service is for everyone and is the first real alternative to travel. By providing organizations with our immersive communication service they will sound and interact just like being in the same room together,” said Ron Stevens, Co-Founder and CEO of Mingleverse. “Instead of clogging up the streets, and having staff delayed and frustrated, any Vancouver company or organization can use Mingleverse to work, collaborate and communicate as if they were physically together – for free – during the games.”

Translink, metro Vancouver’s regional transportation authority, made the call this week via a statement on their website, which reads in part: “Our public transit and road networks will experience a significant increase in traffic, and there will be road and parking restrictions close to Games venues, particularly in downtown Vancouver, and along key routes. Whether it’s changing travel choices to leave the car at home, shifting travel times to avoid peak periods or removing the need to travel altogether – it all helps get athletes and officials to their events, while reducing the number of vehicles on the road.”

In addition, Translink has initiated a voluntary “TravelSmart Olympic Pledge” program designed to provide a way for all Vancouver businesses and organizations to publicly demonstrate their commitment to traffic reductions during the games. To obtain a free Mingle Room, simply sign up for a Mingleverse account and mention Mingleverse in your organization’s pledge.

Several high profile organizations in Vancouver have already signed on to use Mingleverse during the games, including representatives of the Vancouver Board of Trade and The Telus World of Science.

“Science World will certainly be looking at using Mingle Rooms to help manage teams that will be working remotely during the Olympics. It could also help to coordinate some of our province-wide science programming,” said Bryan Tisdall, President & CEO. To further encourage Vancouver organizations to participate, Mingleverse pledges to provide the top 5 most active “teleworking” companies with a free virtual Mingle Room for a year.

“Mingles can replace the need for most physical meetings and live venues,” Stevens said. “We encourage businesses to make use of this technology, try something new and help make the logistics of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver much more efficient, reducing traffic, emissions and frustration.”

Canada-wide – Mplayit, the company best known for its groundbreaking new social mobile app stores on the Facebook platform, today announced plans to bring their technology to major new international carrier partners. Mplayit has been available for Telefonica O2 customers in the United Kingdom since November 2009 and today the company announced new partnerships in Canada with Rogers and with Australian market-leader Telstra.

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Vancouver – Spark FX 2010 is fast approaching, and they have a full slate of events happening. With 8 films, more than 30 speakers taking part in 17 presentations, a party, a mixer, hundreds of industry attendees and, of course, T-Shirts! SPARK FX 2010 is helping to start the year off with a bang (along with that other winter party). Taking place January 27 – 31 at VanCity Theatre on Seymour, full event tickets are $200.00 for members, $250.00 for non-members – it is also possible to purchase tickets to individual sessions and films which may better suit your schedule or areas of interest.

The films are almost fully confirmed – a mix of classic films and recent blockbusters – and there is an unbelievable line-up of industry speakers led by ILM veteran John Knoll. There will be film makers talking about their work on virtually every big effects film of the past year including Avatar, District 9, Transformers 2, GI Joe and half a dozen more. If you’re eager, you can buy a pass now for full access to all the main speaking sessions. Full passes include the 3-day conference, 2 party tickets and an event T-shirt.

Brought to you by the SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter, SPARK FX 2010 is sponsored in part by Telefilm Canada, Vancouver Economic Development, BC Film, Digital Domain Vancouver, Annex|Pro, MPC, 3vis, Visual Effects Society, Visual Effects Association of BC, Graphic Designers of Canada – BC Chapter, and Women in Games Vancouver. If you need a place to stay, the Sheraton Wall Centre is the official partner hotel of SPARK FX 2010.

Montreal – Catch Me! If You Can is an iPhone and iPod Touch game from ODD1 that pays tribute to a classic arcade game. Available in both free and premium ($1.99 usd) versions, this chasing game through colorful mazes presents a thief fleeing from three guards who try catch him to… take his place and get rich!

As player, you first take on the character of the thief and must collect a maximum of gold nuggets. If you’re caught, the roles are reversed and you become one of the guards who each have a unique special power. Your goal, then, is to catch the thief and switch back to your original role – starting again to get rich! But be careful… the rules can change and you might need to catch all of the thieves who keep appearing out of nowhere!

The game features a “Story” mode with progressive levels to unlock, and a “Challenge” mode for more fast-paced action. Players can also join the “Band of Thieves” community to send their gold into the collective “Treasure Vault.” The faster players accumulate and share gold, the faster new levels and content will be unlocked!

The free version includes the first three levels of the “Story” mode as well as the “Band of Thieves” community feature, which is key to the release of new, generally free content. All levels and the “Challenge” mode are available in the premium version.

ODD1 also recently released a game based on the TV show Grossology for Tribal Nova and Nelvana. Kids become special agents and dive into the Grossology universe to play four gross missions or to use the level editor to create their own mini games to challenge their friends. There is also a free version which can be played online.

Terrace – Rusty Axe Games has released the Financial Guru Value Pack for Windows based PC home computers. Financial gurus rejoice as they can now show their financial acumen playing Rusty Axe financial strategy games… and at the cash register by picking up all of our most popular games bundled together for one low price! Real Estate Empire 2, Real Estate Empire and Big$hot have all been bundled together into the Financial Guru Value Pack for $29.99.

Real Estate Empire 2 is a goal based game that is easier to pick up and play than it’s predecessor. Big$hot is a turn based property management game featuring simple game mechanics that allow for complex business property management strategies. Real Estate Empire is the classic house flipping game that teaches people how and when to buy, fix up and sell houses through an ever changing economic climate and against cutthroat AI adversaries.

Vancouver – Mountain Equipment Co-op™ (MEC), Canada’s leading outdoor retailer, and the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC), Canada’s national public avalanche safety organization, have deepened their longstanding partnership by developing a new software application – or app – that enables iPhone users to obtain detailed and regionally specific avalanche information.

Available free of charge, the avalanche app provides users with a similar experience and the same depth and breadth of information as is available through the CAC’s website.

The application was conceived and financed by MEC, which contracted a local digital agency, Idea Rebel, to design and develop the app. The CAC provided technical assistance to the project.

“As an outdoor retailer, supporting the CAC and the app’s development go hand-in-hand with MEC selling technically advanced avalanche gear,” said George Weetman, MEC’s web marketing manager. “Promoting avalanche awareness and safety is an example of MEC’s ethic of corporate social responsibility.”

“MEC has long been one of our most loyal and generous sponsors,” said CAC Executive Director Ian Tomm. “This app is yet another example of MEC’s creative and innovative approach to helping us do our work in public avalanche safety. We are deeply grateful for their support.”

The app provides avalanche bulletins, weather forecasts, incident reports and realtime weather for seven avalanche-prone regions of British Columbia as well as links to similar information for national and provincial mountain parks in BC, Alberta and Quebec.

Vancouver – The BCTIA has opened nominations for the Technology Impact Awards, which celebrate the successes of our industry and the companies, people and innovation that continue to put British Columbia on the map and who serve as role models for others in our province.

The Awards Categories are:

Technology Awards
Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology
Excellence in Product Innovation
Best Application of Technology

Company Awards
Most Promising Start-up
Emerging Company of the Year
Company of the Year

Personal Recognition Awards
Team of the Year
Community Leadership
Person of the Year

Vancouver – The CATA special interest group Women In Technology (BC Chapter) are holding a breakfast seminar on January 27th at the SFU Segal School of Business (500 Granville Street) titled Generational Differences in the Conception of Work Life Balance. The seminar, which features speaker Melissa McCrae, PhD Candidate (HRM) and Director of Graduate Studies, SFU, takes place from 7:30 – 9:30a.m. Tickets are $15.00 per person and include a continental breakfast. Those who are interested in attending can register online.

Calgary – Ph03nix New Media has launched the iPhone Game Rebate program, the first system that provides cash rewards to purchasers of iPhone games. The innovative new rebate program lets iPhone game publishers and developers reward their customers with cash incentives, while users can enjoy discounts of 50% or more on newly released games.

“Offering rebates to iPhone users creates a whole new world of promotional opportunities for iPhone game publishers and developers,” said Jon Lam, CEO and Founder of Ph03nix New Media. “This is the first program of its kind for the iPhone, which means we’ll see a lot of exciting initiatives as companies use this program in unique and creative ways.”

Rebate promotions through the iPhone Game Rebate program will feature individual games or groups of games from specific companies, and may vary in terms of reward. The program is flexible and can offer rewards for any iPhone game or app. Publishers or developers interested in participating in the rebate program can inquire via e-mail.

To kick off the rebate program, Ph03nix New Media is offering a $1 rebate for the purchase of any iPhone game from now until Jan. 31. Registration for the rebate program is simple; to get started users only need to register online, and then they can redeem their rebate for this or any future promotion by sending in their iTunes receipt. Once the proof-of-purchase is received, a cash rebate will be sent to the registered user’s mailing address.

Toronto – Location-based services (LBS) company Cellflare has launched Version 3.0 of their GPS mobile application in the Apple’s App Store for the iPhone™.

For the release of 3.0 Cellflare has redesigned the interface, graphics and registration process to create ease of use, clearer presentation and increased functionality. Key new features for Cellflare are Friends on the Map and in addition Cellflare has improved the efficiency of its core tracking program which should allow for longer battery life.

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Vancouver – Following IUGO’s massively successful Zombie Attack! games, ZA! and ZA! Second Wave, the indie studio has launched a free version of ZA! Second Wave titled Zombie Attack! Bridge Defense. As the titles suggests, the lite version contains the bridge map for users to sample kill a variety of zombies with cool new weapons. Second Wave features more maps and hordes of challenges in the full version. IUGO also recently unveiled their web site’s nice new design – head on over to check out its shiny awesomeness and all of IUGO’s titles today – and don’t forget to vote for IUGO and other great Canadian games, publishers and studios in our Reader’s Choice Canadian Video Game Awards – only one week left to vote!

At CES: Palm released details about their developer kit for webOS during their 3D gaming announcement at the Expo, where they introduced several graphics-intensive game titles for webOS, from leading game developers EA Mobile™, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Laminar Research. Demonstrated at Palm’s CES event, the games will be available today in the Palm App Catalog for Palm Pre customers.

“We are very excited about the potential of webOS as a platform for mobile 3D gaming,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “This is a key application category, and we’ve worked closely with some of the leading game developers to deliver a great game experience for our customers.”

“Recent improvements to Palm webOS represent major advancements in enabling world-class mobile gaming,” said Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile. “These innovations have allowed us to quickly bring our best IP to the platform.”

The developers introducing titles today have had early access to the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK), which extends the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK) with a set of tools, documentation and APIs that let developers write plug-ins for their webOS applications. The PDK lets developers easily integrate C and C++ code into their webOS applications, enabling new functionality, including immersive 3D games. A public beta version of the webOS PDK is scheduled to be available to all developers in March.

“The performance of the platform allowed us to create these great games in a limited timeframe,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “webOS allows us to deliver an outstanding gaming experience, and we look forward to bringing our best games to Palm customers worldwide.”“We expect the plug-in model to play an important role in the evolution of the webOS platform, just as plug-ins have with web browsers,” said Mitic. “And with this plug-in, we are making it super-simple for developers to bring the hottest games to webOS.” Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – Only days after announcing PressDisplay.com support for the Sony and Kindle devices, NewspaperDirect Inc., the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine distribution, announced that PressDisplay.com is available for mobile phones running the Google Android mobile operating system, including Google’s latest handset, the Nexus One.

Starting today, PressDisplay.com subscribers can point the Web browser on their Android phone to www.PressDisplay.com and enjoy any of the more than 1,400 local, national and international titles currently available on the world’s largest online newspaper and magazine kiosk. Unlike other news aggregation sites, which provide a limited sample of free news stories from an assortment of news sources, PressDisplay.com offers full-content newspapers and magazines in an intuitive digital format that replicates the printed edition.

PressDisplay.com has also been optimized for Android, making it extremely easy to browse and read entire publications, including all images, cartoons, puzzles, and even advertisements. Navigational controls and gestures such as tables of contents with sections, zoom and pan, and page scrolling are supported. Other advanced features include full graphics and text views, auto-jumps that link articles spanning different pages, cross-title search, article sharing, commenting, text-to-speech, and access to back issues.

PressDisplay.com is popular with consumers who want access to multiple news sources, and corporate customers who need to monitor printed media for business-critical news. With more than 1,400 full-content digital replicas of newspapers and magazines from 93 countries in 44 languages, the website is also the standard in more than 2,500 libraries worldwide. Some of the prestigious titles from around the world available on PressDisplay include The Washington Post, USA Today, Toronto Star, National Post, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Daily Mail, Irish Independent, L’Equipe, Il Giornale, Iltalehti, Bangkok Post, Kommersant, and De Volkskrant.

“We believe in giving readers what they want: their favorite publications, in their entirety, presented in a familiar, intuitive format, wherever readers are, and on whichever device they prefer,” said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “And, in addition to providing the broadest range of distribution choices for our customers, we offer a proven paid content business model to our publishers — at no operational cost to them.”

Effective immediately, publishers of the hundreds of private-label SmartEdition newspapers powered by PressDisplay technology can offer their subscribers their e-editions on Android devices. Whenever PressDisplay.com supports a new device, it is also made available to NewspaperDirect’s publishing partners for their own SmartEditions.

Waterloo – Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (IMS), a world leader in telematics and mobile media solutions announced today the upcoming availability date of XTop Mobile. XTop is a Smartphone and PC downloadable application that seamlessly leverages the internet connectivity from your Smartphone, enabling you to surf the web and open attachments on your laptop/PC immediately after they arrive on your Smartphone. With XTop, you never have to search for a WiFi hotspot again. XTop will be available through several leading content portals and wireless carriers by March 31st, 2010.

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Montreal – Funcom is delighted to announce a key nomination for its newly established Montreal based company, Funcom Games Canada. The award-winning Miguel Caron – who brings with him over 15 years of organizational leadership experience – has been appointed to serve as the CEO for Funcom Games Canada Inc.

“We are thrilled to have Miguel join us at Funcom,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “Our Montreal based Company is central to a string of new business initiatives in Funcom, both in the high-end MMO space and in the casual MMO space. Mr. Caron will be

Miguel Caron

instrumental in developing and expanding those initiatives. We have already found Quebec and Montreal to be an excellent location for business and we look forward to further expand our operations here under the leadership for Miguel.”

Miguel Caron has a proven track record of driving strong, sustainable revenue and productivity gains within highly competitive national and global markets. Mr. Caron will take on leadership of several strategic initiatives for Funcom, in several different areas of the exciting MMO games segment. One of his first mandates will be to lead the growth in employees at the Montreal company.

“Funcom is renowned for quality productions such as ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ and the ‘Longest Journey’ series. I have found its management team to be extremely competent, which is of course a key aspect of being successful in such a competitive market. I look forward to bringing my business experience to help that management team generate even more value to all Funcom stakeholders,” stated Miguel Caron, the newly appointed CEO of Funcom Games Canada.

Mr. Caron has led successful public and private businesses such Lyrtech Inc. He was instrumental to the growth of many high-tech companies and won many awards like the Arista price for best young entrepreneur of the year for mid and large size company as well as the Deloitte Canadian Fast 50.

Funcom is a world leading independent developer and publisher of online games, and was founded in 1993. There are currently over 300 talented individuals from over 35 different nationalities working at Funcom, spread out across offices in Norway, China, Switzerland, Canada and the US. This makes Funcom one of the most multi-cultural game development studios in the world. The company is responsible for multiple award-winning titles such as the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ and ‘Anarchy Online’ MMOs, as well as the ‘The Longest Journey’ and ‘Dreamfall’ adventure games.

Vancouver – Independent development studio Slick Entertainment, best known for its work on the award-winning N+ for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, announced today that it would put the pedal to the metal at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with its newest gaming creation, Scrap Metal™. A certified Scrap Metal™ demoist at Microsoft’s CES 2010 location (Booth #7144, Central Hall) will offer tech journalists and gaming enthusiasts alike the opportunity to check out the new racing title expected to launch on Xbox LIVE. Arcade this spring. Registered press and other attendees are invited to stop by the booth at any time, although guaranteed media appointments can be scheduled by contacting Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications.

Drift around corners with guns blazing and take out legendary competitors in the fast-paced, top-down racer, Scrap Metal™! Fight your way through explosive, action-packed missions and defeat cunning bosses to add their vehicles to your garage. Customize newly-acquired cars and return to the track to blast through more enemies. Then, jump online with Xbox LIVE® to race against friends and crush their cars with the wheels of a massive monster truck in pulse-pounding online multiplayer matches.

Langley – GoalsOnTrack.com has just announced a 2010 New Year release version which can help you better set, track, and reach personal and professional goals. Using GoalsOnTrack.com’s simple, attractive web 2.0 style interface, people can set goals just about anything they want, from staying fit, to landing a job, to buying a home, or traveling around the globe. GoalsOnTrack.com can help you easily create a S.M.A.R.T. based goal, and then keeps you focused and on track with user-defined supporting tasks or action steps. By consistently adding and completing these tasks, the web site keeps track of your real progress on the goal, and you will be motivated to see the result of your effort toward accomplishing your goals. Beyond that, GoalsOnTrack has just released a rich set of features, such as vision board, habits tracker, etc.

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Vancouver – Taking Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) one giant leap further, Smoking Gun Interactive has sent players and radio and space enthusiasts a message from the Moon, which you can listen to right here.

The gaming community at Smoking Gun Interactive’s “X” online experience at exoriare pulled off a world first over the holidays, as their efforts to probe deeper into forbidden mysteries actually led them off-planet for the first time in gaming history. A generation ago, communication with the moon was the sole province of NASA. Now, with “X”, the amateur enthusiast community has planted their own flag, using extra-planetary transmissions as part of an interactive gaming experience.

For a two-week period ending with the New Year, amateur radio dishes around the planet tuned in, attempting to pick up a series of scheduled signals being broadcast live from the moon that would hit most locations on the planet over the course of the broadcasts. The lunar transmissions came as a climax to a unique online game experience called an alternate reality game that started with a graphic novel but soon had readers becoming players, as part of a resistance effort against a global conspiracy dating back thousands of years. Guided by mythology and ancient temples, players hacked into government surveillance systems and satellites in a desperate attempt to find a missing NASA scientist and uncover the truth behind humanity’s existence on earth.

The Message from the Moon brought a climax to the first chapter of Smoking Gun’s “X” universe, but the message itself suggests that there is much more to come in these “final days of the Age of Man”. Referencing Egyptian obelisks, pyramids, and other symbols of Freemasonry, the message warns that humanity is ruled by a group of “Watchers” who “sit in our high places”. The truth about these groups has been lost, buried and forgotten, and humanity’s only hope is that the coming war will reveal “the Truth”. This is the first time in history an entertainment company has actually used and incorporated a message from space into the plot of a story, as a means of adding depth to the game experience.