Happy Anniversary Propaganda
Vancouver – With a focus on Vancouver throughout February as the world’s best athletes compete in winter sports, Propaganda Games, Disney’s Canadian video games studio, is celebrating its fifth anniversary as a key part of the thriving Vancouver interactive entertainment community. The studio is also participating in the BC Canada Pavilion, an innovative exhibit open to the public, in downtown Vancouver.
Exclusive in-game development models and images from Disney Interactive Studios’ upcoming video game TRON: Evolution are part of an interactive touch screen exhibit in BC Canada Pavilion during the Winter Games, through February 28.
The province of British Columbia is hosting the BC Canada Pavilion on the fourth floor of the Vancouver Art Gallery. As part of the province’s celebration site at Robson Square, the Pavilion features state-of-the-art exhibits and interactive displays showcasing the best of British Columbia innovation and culture. The exhibit expects to host more than 250,000 visitors from Canada and throughout the world.
Propaganda Games, located in downtown Vancouver, employs more than 200 professionals between two teams. The studio is currently developing two major video games — TRON: Evolution and Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. Both games are scheduled to be released for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC.
“Propaganda Games is poised to deliver two of the industry’s prominent video games,” said Dan Tudge, vice president and general manager, Propaganda Games. “As part of Vancouver’s flourishing video games development industry, Propaganda Games has tapped into the enormous talent pool and represents Disney’s commitment to the community.”
TRON: Evolution is the highly anticipated video game slated for Holiday 2010. TRON: Evolution is the key to unlocking the TRON mythology as the game’s story takes place before the “TRON: Legacy” film, which will be released in theaters December 17, 2010.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned is an open-world action role playing game within the Pirates of the Caribbean world. The game is an original story set before the events of the films.
Montreal – Bingo Derby for Facebook is a true multiplayer game of chance that bingo buffs will enjoy as much as horse race enthusiasts. The goal is to bet your virtual money – at the right moment – on bingo cards whose rates change over the course of the round. Inspired as well by pachinko, a very popular game in Japan, Bingo Derby definitely has multiple facets to discover.
Bingo Derby becomes even more fun when you play with your Facebook friends. Encourage them to make risky bets… or have the last laugh by cashing in on a big bet!
The game is developed by C.A. Mobile, a Japanese company that specializes in the mobile industry and media integration. In order to break into the North American video game market, this Japanese company formed a partnership with ODD1 to help them launch a beta version of Bingo Derby, as well as to offer customer service and technical support.
This C.A.Mobile/ODD1 partnership will allow for the establishment of a long-term exploitation plan for Bingo Derby. Numerous updates are already planned, always aiming to adapt the game as best as possible to the North American market.
UK – BAFTA today announced the nominations for the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards. This year 40 different games have been recognized and together they represent some of the most popular, innovative and cutting-edge creativity in today’s gaming industry.
Assassin’s Creed II was nominated in six categories: Action, Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Game play, Story and Original Score. FIFA 10 was also nominated for Best Game as well as for Sports Game and Use of Online. Dragon Age: Origins was nominated in the Story category.
There is a Canadian connection in the Ones To Watch Award, which is presented in partnership with the Dare to Be competition. Terrace, BC 3D artist Murray Sinclair is part of the international team who worked on nominated student game Colour-Coded.
Toronto – The National Film Board of Canada and Warner Home Video present a new live-action/animated adaptation of Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life based on the book by Maurice Sendak. A film by the creators of the Oscar-nominated short Madame Tutli-Putli, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, features the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker. Produced by Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay and Marcy Page.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life will be featured as an exclusive short on the Where the Wild Things Are Warner Home Video Blu-ray out March 2. On February 28, the film will have its world premiere at the Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal (Montreal Children’s International Film Festival) followed by a special presentation with the directors and the puppeteers. The NFB will distribute a DVD scheduled for summer 2010.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life tells the story of Jennie, who once had everything. She had two bowls to eat from, two pillows, and for cold weather a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie didn’t care. In the middle of the night she packed everything she had in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favourite window for the last time. Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life follows Jennie’s surreal, suspenseful and unexpectedly moving journey to gain new experiences and realize her dream of becoming the star of the World Mother Goose Theatre.
Since 1997 Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski have formed the artistic partnership called Clyde Henry Productions. The pair have created award-winning films, ads, illustrations, comics, and music videos. Their first professional film, Madame Tutli-Putli, produced by Marcy Page for the National Film Board of Canada, received international acclaim – over 50 awards to date, among them the Best Short Film and Rail d’or prizes at the Cannes International Film Festival and an Academy Award Nomination in 2007. Lavis and Szczerbowski are currently working with the NFB and Silo Corporation on a feature film project entitled The White Circus co-produced by Lago Film (Germany) and Apple Film Production (Poland). In 2008 The White Circus was selected for development by the Sundance Film Institute’s screenwriting lab.
Montreal – Zebbo.com today announced the launch of its new payment solution introducing carrier billing using mobile platforms. The Zebbo application can be used to pay for downloads of applications, digital content and services purchased on mobile smart-phones. With this solution, the self funded startup provides a quick, simple and secure solution for Mobile developers to monetize their applications.
“The Zebbo team noticed the lack of a straight-forward mobile payment method in the market,” said Malik Yacoubi CEO of Zebbo.com. “The Zebbo solution now offers an easy, fast and convenient check-out to pay for your mobile apps and other services purchased on a mobile phone. The purchase simply gets billed on the users’ carrier bill”.
With a red-hot market churning out thousands of new applications and consumers relying on these apps to guide them through their daily lives, Zebbo.com is offering an efficient one-step carrier payment platform. The Zebbo solution offers developers a higher conversion for paid app downloads by offering consumers a simple process. Zebbo offers direct carrier billing that replaces complicated multi-step third party billing that can deter users from purchasing apps.
Zebbo works on all smart-phones and services the three major mobile platforms iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Zebbo is also integrating with Amazon Payments and more traditional payment methods like, credit and prepaid cards which will be available shortly. Integration of a virtual currency platform is expected soon after.
Zebbo covers USA, Canada and 21 European countries. Pay-outs can be found on the Zebbo.com website. Merchants have constant access to the Zebbo.com web portal which tracks activity, payout totals, number of users and much more.
Toronto – EnStream LP has announced the launch of the Zoompass™ mobile application for Android powered phones, now available for free download on Android Market™ and at zoompass.mobi. According to Robin Dua, President of EnStream, the Android launch re-affirms the vision that all Canadians will eventually use Zoompass as their mobile wallet, irrespective of their mobile phone of choice.
“We are thrilled with how quickly Zoompass is being adopted by Canadians. Canadians take their phones with them wherever they go, and many of them share the Zoompass vision of merging their wallet with their mobile phone to simplify daily transactions. We are proud to offer Zoompass application support for leading mobile platforms including BlackBerry, iPhone, and now Android.”
In 2009, EnStream launched the revolutionary Zoompass mobile application and began offering Canadians the first version of a mobile wallet. Zoompass already allows users to send money quickly and securely to friends and family and takes advantage of the newest technologies of Android powered phones to provide an outstanding user experience. With the ability to run applications simultaneously, friends can now “Zoom” each other without having to close other applications.
”With many recent announcements of popular Android powered phones launching in Canada, EnStream is excited to be able to offer Android users the full suite of Zoompass functionality.” said Dua.
With Zoompass, clients can import existing contacts directly from their address book, load and transfer money directly from their bank account or credit card, check account balances and view transaction history – all within one easy-to-use application. Zoompass makes it easy to send and receive money. Many are using Zoompass to safely and conveniently do things like split a lunch bill, request sports team fees, collect money for a group gift or pay a housekeeper, babysitter or dog-walker.