Village Gamer

Spectators of the 2011 Kokanee Crankworx Freeride Mountain Bike Festival (at press time, the Festival’s website was not loading), the world renowned supercharged free ride festival taking place in Whistler this July 15th through 24th will be benefiting from a new mobile event app for smartphones. The new app will give spectators access to important festival information like event schedules, updated results, area maps and venue information.

David Snell, QuickMobile’s Chief Marketing Officer stated: “We are very excited to have been chosen to develop the Mobile Festival App for Kokanee Crankworx this year. Instead of having to carry around a paper Festival Guide during this 9-day sports event, athletes and spectators of this supercharged Mountain Bike Festival will now be able to access all their important festival information by simply downloading the Kokanee Crankworxs Mobile Festival App which was specifically designed to enhance the experience of the festival visitor while providing a greener solution for the event organizer.”

Toronto’s XMG Studio has been very busy lately. The studio recently joined forces with toy manufacturer Spin Master Ltd. to deliver innovative mobile gaming to the newly announced App Blaster. The collaboration is bringing a new dimension of realism to shooter games everywhere, giving users a truly unique way to interact with their favourite XMG sniper game, Marine Sharpshooter, which is currently being optimized for the App Blaster. With over 5 million unique downloads, Sharpshooter has become one of the most popular sniping games, making it a perfect fit for the peripheral.

“Working with Spin Master on this has been really exciting”, says Ray Sharma, Founder and CEO of XMG Studio. “It’s a great opportunity to really expand the expectations of what people consider to be traditional mobile gaming.”

This partnership marks a major strategic alliance of these leaders in their respective industries. The concept of combining an out-of-game experience with an in-game effect and using an interactive, real world object is extremely cutting-edge. The App Blaster will revolutionize the way future first person shooter games for mobile devices are played – less button mashing, more strategic aiming. Now, with the innovative toy-making and consumer expertise of Spin Master, coupled with the mobile gaming savvy of XMG Studio, sniper-fans everywhere can have something incredible to look forward to with a far more intense game-play experience, bringing them closer than ever to the skill and precision of the real thing.

“What we have here with App Blaster is very cool and very innovative,” says Dave Colebrook, VP Marketing at Spin Master.  “Gamers haven’t yet seen this type of gaming, so we’re glad to be working with such a company as XMG to bring this to concept to life.  This is just the beginning of this kind of interactive gaming.”

In addition to some awesome updates to one my favourite game titles, Cow vs Aliens, XMG Studio has also recently two great new games in Apple’s App Store that you might be interested in checking out.

Degrassi: A story-driven game based on the hit TV series, it has already reached a #1 ranking in the App Store’s “Role Playing” category. As their first days of school unfold, players make important decisions, engage in meaningful conversations and play their way through classes, all in the ever-familiar locations of Degrassi. The player is free to forge his or her own pathway through the game, ultimately resulting in a different ending depending on which choices were made. Degrassi is the most watched drama on MuchMusic in Canada, and highly rated on TeenNick in the U.S. It’s an interactive role playing game that allows the user to build and maintain relationships with familiar characters from the popular TV series.

Louisville Slugger Homerun Challenge: There are plenty of baseball games, and even some home run derby apps, but Louisville Slugger distinguishes itself in a few ways in that it’s extremely accessible with simple, responsive swipe controls. The game has crisp hand-drawn artwork, multiple game modes, stadiums, and Louisville Slugger bats modeled after original Louisville Slugger models. (published by our partner mLamb Productions)

Electronic Arts Inc.  has announced that it intends to offer $550 million of Convertible Senior Notes due 2016 in a private placement. EA also expects to grant the initial purchasers in the proposed offering an option to purchase up to an additional $82.5 million aggregate principal amount of notes solely to cover overallotments. The notes are being offered only to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933.

The notes will be convertible into cash and shares of EA’s common stock, if any, based on a conversion rate to be determined. Interest on the notes will be payable semiannually in arrears on January 15 and July 15 of each year, beginning on January 15, 2012. The notes will mature on July 15, 2016, unless previously repurchased or converted in accordance with their terms prior to such date. The interest rate, conversion rate and other terms of the notes will be determined at the time of pricing of the offering.

In connection with the pricing of the notes, EA intends to enter into privately-negotiated convertible note hedge and warrant transactions with affiliates of one or more of the initial purchasers of the notes (the “option counterparties”). EA anticipates that the warrants will have an exercise price that is up to 75% higher than the closing price of EA’s common stock on the date the warrants are issued. The convertible note hedge transactions are expected to reduce the potential dilution with respect to EA’s common stock upon conversion of the notes. However, the warrant transactions could have a dilutive effect with respect to EA’s common stock to the extent that the price per share of EA’s common stock exceeds the strike price of the warrants. If the initial purchasers exercise their option to purchase additional notes, EA may enter into additional convertible note hedge and warrant transactions.

EA has been advised that, in connection with establishing their initial hedge positions with respect to the convertible note hedge transactions and the warrant transactions, the option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates will enter into various cash-settled over-the-counter derivative transactions with respect to EA’s common stock and/or purchase shares of EA’s common stock concurrently with, or shortly following, the pricing of the notes, and may unwind any such cash-settled over-the-counter derivative transactions and purchase shares of EA’s common stock in open market transactions following the pricing of the notes. These activities could have the effect of increasing, or preventing a decline in, the market price of EA’s common stock concurrently with or following the pricing of the notes.

In addition, the option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates will modify their hedge positions with respect to the convertible note hedge transactions and warrant transactions from time to time after the pricing of the notes, and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of notes, by purchasing or selling shares of EA’s common stock or the notes in privately-negotiated transactions and/or open market transactions or by entering into and/or unwinding various over-the-counter derivative transactions with respect to EA’s common stock. The effect, if any, of these activities on the market price of EA’s common stock or the trading price of the notes will depend on a variety of factors, including market conditions, and cannot be ascertained at this time. Any of these activities could, however, adversely affect the market price of EA’s common stock and the trading price of the notes, which could affect the ability to convert the notes and, to the extent these activities occur during the observation period related to a conversion of notes, could affect the amount and/or value of the consideration that holders receive upon conversion of the notes. Read the rest of this entry »