Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Connected TVs Surpass Blu-ray Disc Players in App Delivery ? Ahead of Forecast, According to NPD

Connected TVs Surpass Blu-ray Disc Players in App Delivery ? Ahead of Forecast, According to NPD

Connected TVs Surpass Blu-ray Disc Players in App Delivery â€" Ahead of Forecast, According to NPD

Port Washington, New York (PRWEB) March 02, 2015

Connected TVs edged out Blu-ray Disc players to become the third most prominently owned device that delivers apps to TVs in the U.S.

According to The NPD Group Connected Intelligence Connected Home Report, as of the fourth quarter of 2014 there were 22 million connected TVs installed and accessing the Internet, a significant increase from 13 million one year ago. Ownership of Internet connected TVs is now more common than Internet connected Blu-ray Disc players, of which U.S. consumers own 20 million. Video game consoles and streaming media players, however, are still the most used TV app platforms and rank number one and number two respectively.

Consumers' transition from disc to digital is impacting adoption of Blu-ray Disc players and along with it their value as a digital distribution platform. This shift in ranking makes TVs a more popular digital distribution platform than Blu-ray Disc Players, although often these devices are built by the same company.

The proliferation of connected TVs will be positive for viewers and digital content distributors alike as access to streaming programming will reach more homes and more of the TVs in each home. By 2017, there will be 47 million connected TVs within 30 million U.S. Internet homes delivering content through apps, according to the Connected Intelligence Connected Home Forecast Report. Increased sales, connectivity, and usage trends led the TV to become a more prominent connected device ahead of forecast.

“Going forward the key to success for connected TV and attached content device manufacturers will be the availability of apps from top TV networks,” said John Buffone, executive director, Connected Intelligence. “This aspect of the app marketplace will become even more critical during 2015 as HBO and Showtime follow CBS and become available without a cable or satellite pay TV subscription.”

Methodology

Connected Home Report
More than 5,000 U.S. consumers, age 18 and older were surveyed through the fourth quarter of 2014. The number of installed and internet connected devices includes those that deliver broadband applications and must actually be connected to the Internet. Connected TV and streaming media player ownership survey results were calibrated to life-to-date unit sales from the NPD Retail Tracking Service.

Connected Home Forecast Report
The Connected Home forecast is based on NPDs quarterly Connected Home surveys conducted among more than 5,000 U.S. consumers, age 18 and older. Using the NPD Consumer and Retail Tracking services, historical installed base reporting is mapped to sales trends for each device category. Coupled with internet connection rates, these data are used to project a view of the connectable and connected device installed base.

About The NPD Group, Inc.

The NPD Group provides global information and advisory services to drive better business decisions. By combining unique data assets with unmatched industry expertise, we help our clients track their markets, understand consumers, and drive profitable growth. Sectors covered include automotive, beauty, consumer electronics, entertainment, fashion, food / foodservice, home, luxury, mobile, office supplies, sports, technology, toys, and video games. For more information, visit http://www.npd.com and npdgroupblog.com. Follow us on Twitter: @npdtech and @npdgroup.


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Media Day at Colorado's Historic Frontier Trading Post this Wednesday

Media Day at Colorado's Historic Frontier Trading Post this Wednesday

Media Day at Colorado's Historic Frontier Trading Post this Wednesday

United States Department of the Interior

La Junta, Colorado (PRWEB) March 02, 2015

MEDIA ADVISORY

Media are invited to join USA National Park Service (NPS) park rangers, students and teachers at historic Bent's Old Fort in La Junta Colorado this Wednesday, March 4th. Bent’s Old Fort, a unit of the United States National Park Service located on the Santa Fe Trail in Colorado’s Otero County, is being reconstructed virtually in the video game Minecraft and also as a fully immersive 3D virtual reality (VR) environment.

As previously reported by Denver NBC affiliate KOAA News 5, 9News Denver, and Denver Business Journal, the Minecraft video game component of this novel history and culture project is already underway. This Wednesday starting at 2:30pm Mountain Standard Time (MST) Colorado high school and college students will meet with teachers and USA park rangers and interpreters at the historic trading post to gather surveying data and take photographs and video to further advance the Immersive Bent's Old Fort project.

Journalists and reporters are invited to participate and conduct on-site interviews with students, teachers and park rangers involved with the project. Media who wish to attend may contact NPS park ranger Rick Wallner for specifics and directions to the fort:

Rick Wallner
National Park Service, Bent's Old Fort
Office phone: (719) 383-5024
Cell phone: (719) 469-3712
Email: rick_wallner(AT)nps.gov

Both the Minecraft and fully immersive VR renditions of Immersive Bent’s Old Fort, along with corresponding history curricula and teaching materials, will be available free of charge to the general public and to schools around the world. Online virtual tours of the immersive fort will be available to schools as a complement to the in-person tours currently conducted on-site at the fort by National Park Service rangers.

One of several new activities under the Immersive Education Initiative’s Immersive Arts and Culture and "Learn to Earn" programs, Immersive Bent’s Old Fort is being developed in collaboration with the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, the City of La Junta Colorado, Otero Junior College, and Colorado’s East Otero School District.

CASTLE OF THE PLAINS

Known as the “Castle of the Plains,” Bent's Old Fort was a 1830s - 1840s adobe fur trading post on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail where traders, trappers, travelers, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade. A unique center of cultural exchange at the time no less than seven different languages were spoken at the fort including English, Spanish, French, and numerous American Indian languages. Today, living historians recreate the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of the past with guided tours, demonstrations and special events.

Bent’s Old Fort served as an instrument of Manifest Destiny and a catalyst for change in the United States. The fort’s influence with the Plains Indians and its political and social connections in Santa Fe helped pave the way for the U.S. occupation of the West and the annexation of Mexico’s northern province during the U.S.-Mexican War. Along with El Camino Real, the Santa Fe Trail was part of a trade network linking Europe, New York, and St. Louis with Santa Fe and Mexico City. Opened in 1821, the Santa Fe Trail followed old trade routes established by American Indians that were later used by Spanish, Mexican and American troops, traders and other travelers.

Development of Immersive Bent’s Old Fort began in January 2015. To participate, or for more information, visit http://ImmersiveEducation.org/fort

PRESS CONTACT

Barbara Mikolajczak
Immersive Education Initiative
http://ImmersiveEducation.org
barbara.miko(AT)ImmersiveEducation.org
(617) 997-1017

THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS WORLDWIDE

The Immersive Education Initiative is a non-profit international collaboration of educational institutions, research institutes, museums, consortia and companies. The Initiative was established in 2005 with the mission to define and develop standards, best practices, technology platforms, training and education programs, and communities of support for virtual worlds, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality, simulations, game-based learning and training systems, and fully immersive environments such as caves and domes.

Thousands of faculty, researchers, staff and administrators are members of the Immersive Education Initiative, who together service millions of academic and corporate learners worldwide.

Chapters support the rapid and continued growth of Immersive Education throughout the world, and constitute the geographically distributed structure of the organization through which regional and local members are supported and enriched. Chapters organize officially sanctioned Summits, Days, workshops, collaborations, seminars, lectures, forums, meetings, public service events and activities, technical groups, technical work items, research, and related activities.

To learn more visit http://ImmersiveEducation.org

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More Video Games Press Releases

Livefyre Studio Joins Elite Twitter Certified Program

Livefyre Studio Joins Elite Twitter Certified Program

Livefyre Studio Joins Elite Twitter Certified Program

(PRWEB) March 11, 2015

Livefyre, the leading real-time content management and engagement platform, today announced that Livefyre Studio has been accepted into the exclusive Twitter Certified Program. The program recognizes outstanding services that help businesses utilize Twitter’s platform at its maximum potential.

Livefyre Studio, which the company launched in November 2014, is the only content management platform built exclusively for user generated content that lets marketers collect, manage, design and deliver custom real-time experiences without having to write a single line of code. As a Twitter Certified Product, Livefyre Studio now has full access to Twitter’s API’s, ensuring that Livefyre customers can easily search through every piece of Twitter data about a specific brand, topic of event and display only the best user generated content.

The Twitter Certified Program helps organizations discover the best products that will make them more successful on Twitter. Products invited into the program first endure a rigorous selection process, in which their functionality, technology, financials and customer satisfaction are extensively vetted. Only the leading products are selected, and as members of the Twitter Certified Program, they’re considered strategic partners to Twitter.

“Twitter is the number one social content curation source requested by our customers and a core part of the Livefyre experience,” said Jordan Kretchmer, founder and CEO of Livefyre. “We’re thrilled to add Studio to our list of Twitter Certified Products, as it signifies a continuation of our strong and long-standing partnership with Twitter.”

Livefyre Studio is Livefyre’s second product to be accepted into the Twitter Certified Program. Storify by Livefyre joined the program in May 2014.

About Livefyre
Livefyre helps companies engage consumers through a combination of real-time content, conversation and social curation. The new Livefyre Studio puts billions of pieces of content at a marketer’s fingertips and lets them integrate that content into their digital marketing assets, websites, and mobile apps to increase traffic, user engagement and revenue. Livefyre is powering real-time content marketing experiences for over 1,000 leading brands including AOL, Bravo, CBS, Conde Nast, Cox Media Group, Dow Jones/WSJ, FOX Sports, Mashable, NASCAR, Showtime, Sony PlayStation, Sports Illustrated, Unilever and Universal Music Group. Livefyre acquired social storytelling platform Storify in September 2013 and social application provider Realtidbits in November 2013.

Founded in 2009 with offices in San Francisco, New York, London and Sydney, Livefyre was named one of the best places to work in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times two years in a row and 2013 Corporate IT Software Company of the year by the World Technology Network. For more information, visit http://www.livefyre.com or follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @livefyre or @storify.

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Media Contact:
Lexi Monaghan
Livefyre Communications
lmonaghan(at)livefyre(dot)com
(925) 915-0640


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More PlayStation Press Releases

The Golf Club Collector?s Edition Comes to Consoles Next Month

The Golf Club Collector?s Edition Comes to Consoles Next Month

The Golf Club Collector’s Edition Comes to Consoles Next Month

The Golf Club Collector's Edition is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC Next Month!

Walnut Creek, CA (PRWEB) March 16, 2015

Maximum Games, in partnership with HB Studios, has announced a spring release of The Golf Club Collector’s Edition, a gorgeously detailed, extensively customizable golfing game for PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PC. The game, which offers zero mid-round loading times, fully customizable courses, and a Collectible e-Book, will be available on April 28, 2015.

The Golf Club Collector’s Edition gives players an unsurpassed amount of control to create and publish their own courses online, in addition to playing those offered upon purchase. Using the in-depth “Greg Norman Course Designer”, golf fans can conceptualize and bring to The Golf Club community any number of fantasy courses that they construct from start to finish.

“One of the most impressive aspects of the game is the community built around it, which includes players from around the world who have designed incredible courses modeled after real-world links,” said Len Ciciretto, President of Maximum Games.

The freedom extends to gameplay, as well, as players will dictate the precision of each swing using expressive controls. The Golf Club Collector’s Edition asks players to rely on their own senses and feel for the game to perform successful shots, providing a unique and very true-to-life golfing experience.

“We’re not giving anyone an easy round,” said Alan Bunker, CEO of HB Studios. “We want players to feel like they are out on a real course, learning and improving their skills all the time.”

Adding to the authentic nature of the game are incredibly accurate environments. Interchangeable themes lend a graphical realism with varied wind effects and seasonal themes, each offering their own unique challenges.

With epic online tournaments and no load times between holes, players will immerse themselves in the pure, uninterrupted game of golf, moving seamlessly from green to green in solo or multiplayer games.

“This is a game for people who love golf, and love creativity,” said Christina Seelye, CEO of Maximum Games. “It’s a game you can pick up and find something new each and every time you play, which adds incredible value.”

The Golf Club Collector’s Edition tees off April 28, 2015. For more information visit http://www.maximumgames.com.

About Maximum Games

Maximum Games is committed to providing quality entertainment for the gamer in everyone. Our mission is to give all people, regardless of age or interest, a solid gaming experience. We deliver premier, cross-generational console and digital titles around the world, pushing our creative limits to foster innovation in video game entertainment. For more information, please visit http://www.maximumgames.com.

About HB Studios

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, HB Studios is an electronic entertainment software company that specializes in creating console, mobile, handheld and PC games. To date, HB has shipped 45 titles, selling over 23 million units, and contributed to 19 others. More information about HB Studios and its products can be found on the company's website, http://www.hb-studios.com.

About Greg Norman

One of the world’s best-known professional golfers, Greg Norman has transcended the game to become arguably the most successful athlete-turned-global entrepreneur in history. A phenomenal golfer, Norman dominated in the 80’s and 90’s holding the #1 world ranking for 331 weeks. Norman has 91 international wins to his name, including two British Open Championships. In recognition of his accomplishments on and off the golf course, Norman was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001. In addition to Golf Course Design, Norman has many business ventures that extend the Greg Norman brand globally. He serves as Chairman and CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises, a multinational corporation that comprises several companies and divisions including Greg Norman Wine Estates, Greg Norman Australian Prime, Greg Norman Production Company, Greg Norman's Australian Grille, Greg Norman Interactive as well as many other merchandising and licensing initiatives. Visit http:// htt p://www.shark.com.

“PlayStation” is a registered trademark and “PS4” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.


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Monday, March 16, 2015

Revealing the Data Behind Blockbuster Video Games: Gaming Analytics Innovation Summit, San Francisco, April 29 & 30

Revealing the Data Behind Blockbuster Video Games: Gaming Analytics Innovation Summit, San Francisco, April 29 & 30

Revealing the Data Behind Blockbuster Video Games: Gaming Analytics Innovation Summit, San Francisco, April 29 & 30

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 03, 2015

It’s no secret that the world is increasingly driven by data and the video games industry is no different, with many companies looking to capitalize on the Big Data buzz to drive better decision-making and business success. As well as building a solid infrastructure to allow for a data-driven culture, it is important to understand what the achievable aims are when attempting to gain data-driven insight.

The Gaming Analytics Innovation Summit returns to San Francisco on April 29 & 30 and offers the opportunity to hear case studies from some leading analytics executives in the industry today. Attendance is essential if aiming to understand how data is shaping the video games industry, instill a data-driven culture, use analytics to guide an organization towards success, or are just getting started on an analytics journey and want to hear how industry pioneers have overcome the challenges that they have faced when putting data at the heart of the decision-making process.

In his presentation ‘Boosting Detection in Call of Duty’ Arthur Von Eschen â€" Senior Director of Game Analytics at Activision â€" will discuss how his team is using principles similar to fraud detection to analyze player data and identify gamers who cheat. Steven Stalzer â€" Director of Analytics at Turbine Games â€" will also discuss how metrics are used to analyze millions of in-game events to provide real time insight and analytics in his presentation ‘Telemetry Data in Shadow of Mordor.’

In addition to Activision and Turbine Games, speakers from Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Studios, Electronic Arts, SEGA, Riot Games and many more will share their expertise on how data analytics is allowing companies to create more personalized products and understand how players behave in game as well as in marketing efforts.

“We’ve created this event to allow analytics practitioners to discuss the most important issues facing those working in the gaming industry today,” said David Barton, Head of Analytics Channel at Innovation Enterprise and summit creator. “From creating a data science team to gaining actionable insight and everything in between, attendees will leave with the knowledge and tools to drive their teams forward.”

“The diverse speaker line up will leave attendees with the inspiration and depth of knowledge to drive their teams forward.” All summit content will also be available post-summit via ieOnDemand.

Register by this Friday, March 6 using the discount code GAIS200 to receive $ 200 off any 2 day event pass. To view the full line up, or for more information please visit http://theinnovationenterprise.com/summits/gaming-analytics-san-francisco-2015.

About Innovation Enterprise:

Innovation Enterprise, a CFO Publishing company is an independent business-to-business multi-channel media brand focused on the information needs of Senior Finance, Operations, Analytics, Big Data, Strategy, Digital, Innovation and Sports executives. Products include IE.Summits, ieOnDemand, ieWebinars, ieWhitepapers and more.

Whether it's delivered online, or in person, everything Innovation Enterprise produces reflects the company's unshakeable belief in the power of information to spur innovation.


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