Tag: Gaming

USA – Global food company PepsiCo has announced a new multi-year global partnership with game developer EA Sports to deliver football-centric entertainment experiences for fans as part of the upcoming game release ‘EA Sports FC’. As part of this agreement, PepsiCo brands – Pepsi, Gatorade, and Lay’s – will join forces with EA’s football gaming franchise, EA Sports FC.

This collaboration enables them to work together to offer happy gaming experiences for modern football fans, while also confirming PepsiCo’s commitment to engaging fan experiences that include football, music, and gaming.

Adam Warner, head of global sports and partnerships at PepsiCo, said, “EA SPORTS is an iconic brand in the realm of football and has revolutionized fan engagement. With PepsiCo’s history and extensive involvement in football and entertainment, our brands are uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of football fandom. This partnership enables us to reach football fans and communities worldwide, and to provide them with experiences that elevate their connection to the beautiful game.”

Meanwhile, David Jackson, vice president of brand at EA Sports FC, said, “For years, PepsiCo’s brands have been delivering memorable moments for football fans, and we’re energised to incorporate that rich heritage into our own experiences as we set forth on this remarkable journey with EA SPORTS FC. We’re proud to partner with PepsiCo to create more unmissable experiences that will undoubtedly captivate fans of the World’s Game.”

Hong Kong – Netflix has tapped virtual reality (VR) experience company Sandbox VR to create a VR experience based on the popular South Korean drama series ‘Squid Game’, which has been the platform’s most popular series to date. It is set for release in the latter part of 2023.

In the VR experience, players are transported to iconic ‘Squid Game’ locations, where they become contestants in a variety of pulse-pounding challenges inspired by the Netflix series and compete against each other to be the last one standing. 

After each game session, players will receive personalised highlight videos capturing their in-game reactions and recapping how their very own ‘Squid Game’ story unfolded.

Steve Zhao, founder and CEO of Sandbox VR, said, “Our mission is to bring people closer together through world-class immersive experiences. What could be a more perfect fit than Squid Game, the most widely shared and discussed television series of the past years. It’s an amazing opportunity to partner with Netflix to provide these fans the chance to transport themselves into the world of the show.”

Sandbox VR currently boasts six proprietary experiences based on both exclusive licensing of well-loved Hollywood properties as well as their own unforgettable intellectual property. All Sandbox VR experiences are developed by an in-house AAA gaming studio led by game industry veterans and are specifically designed for groups to play as social experiences. 

Netflix has been doing several campaigns and outdoor activations to promote some of its series including Trese, All of Us Are Dead, Money Heist: Korea, Red Notice, amongst others.

Singapore – Global clothing company H&M has announced the launch of its new immersive gaming experience called ‘Loooptopia’ on the popular online game platform Roblox. This follows the brand’s venture into the metaverse in November last year.

Made in partnership with metaverse studio Dubit, Loooptopia lets players experiment with materials and patterns in a playful way, creating the next virtual garment and wardrobe for their avatar.

In addition, it is an immersive 3D experience filled with social interaction, engaging environments, mini-games, styling sessions, alternate worlds, events and more. It allows users to experiment with their digital identity and learn about fashion and circularity in a fun, creative, and playful environment on the Roblox platform that’s connecting millions of people through immersive shared experiences, all while encouraging creativity and self-expression. 

At the heart of this interactive world is a vibrant city square which sets the stage for visitors to embark on play sessions in visually stunning alternate worlds like Rainbooow Fields, Neon Studiooo and Fabric Fooorest. In these environments, users can gather a variety of fashion ingredients by engaging in mini-games, styling sessions, live events and more. 

Users can style their avatar with newly created clothes, and compliment these with accessories, dance moves, music tracks and special effects to create an amazing performance on the runway. They can also catch up with friends to trade clothes, take selfies or just admire each other’s latest creations. When it’s time to change up a style, they can recycle old clothes to earn super-rare elements and become the star of the runway show.

Max Heirbaut, global head of brand experience for metaverse at H&M, said, “At H&M we want to encourage the emerging generation of digital natives to express themselves through fashion both off and on screen. H&M Loooptopia Experience on Roblox is an exciting new world that unleashes creativity and lets players create and evolve their virtual wardrobe on Roblox, so they can feel the most like themselves through their avatar.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Douthwaite, chief commercial officer at Dubit, commented, “We loved collaborating with H&M to build the H&M Loooptopia Experience on Roblox- the place on Roblox where anybody can be a fashion designer. H&M wanted to offer an experience that promotes fun and sustainability, in keeping with their brand DNA of style, creativity and culture. It’s been amazing to see the concept evolve from the initial design and workshop through to this iconic launch.”

Manila, Philippines – McDonald’s in the Philippines is jumping into the gaming space for its latest campaign. Called ‘Unbranded Menu’, the new campaign aims challenge gamers to hunt for McDonald’s ‘food-alikes’ across video games and then swap their inedible discoveries for actual McDonald’s items.

The campaign, made in collaboration with advertising agency Leo Burnett, began when the Philippines’ popular gaming personality Alodia Gosiengfiao found a Big Mac look-a-like inside Grand Theft Auto V and posted a screengrab of it. She then challenged her eight million followers to do the search. 

More gamers and streamers joined in and tagged their discoveries #ThisIsMcDonalds, which signalled the start of the hunt. 

Some of the Philippines’ top gamers and their fans are also already sharing pictures of unbranded and logo-free virtual food items that resemble the iconic French Fries, Big Mac, and Quarter Pounder sandwiches, amongst other McDonald’s food items. These have been found in classic video games like The Sims and Resident Evil; online multiplayer games like Fall Guys, Roblox, and PUBG; role-playing games such as Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy, The Last of Us, and Persona; and giant titles like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Cyberpunk 207, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Raoul Panes, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe Philippines and Leo Burnett Manila, said that the campaign was targeted at connecting with the Philippines’ 40+ million strong gaming community.

“Then we stumbled upon an amazing discovery: so much food in the gaming multiverse looks just like McDonald’s products, despite being unbranded. Why not hack this unbranded space to build brand love for McDonald’s through the gamer behavior of screen-grabbing milestones and discoveries for posterity or bragging rights?” he added.

To fuel the hunt, McDonald’s has also been giving gaming credits, consoles, and other gaming merchandise in exchange for screengrabs of food-alikes with the #ThisIsMcDonalds tag.

“It has been fascinating to follow this virtual hunt and watch gamers exchanging virtual food clones for the real deal. Leo Burnett’s idea taps into the relationship between gamers and food, which is a big part of gaming culture, and helps us to connect with a huge gaming audience in the Philippines and beyond,” Oliver Rabatan, McDonald’s Philippines chief marketing officer, further explained.

Singapore – Dentsu International has announced the launch of its exclusive dentsu gaming data and insight capability which aims to help brands connect more authentically with consumers and become part of the gaming culture.

For the launch, two specialist sets of data were fused with dentsu’s proprietary Consumer Connection System (CCS) research panel data, including gaming data from GWI Gaming and dentsu’s proprietary Southeast Asian research on gaming attitudes.

GWI’s data is available across 21 markets globally, including nine markets in Asia-Pacific. On the other hand, Dentsu’s data came from six Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. 

The data fusion allows brands to access high-fidelity portraits of gamers that encompass lifestyle and media attitudes, behaviours, and deep-rooted gaming habits. Moreover, the SEA data shows insight into gamers’ willingness to pay for in-game products versus similar real-life products. 

This is expected to open a new depth of insight available for strategy, planning, and activation.

Jamie McConville, dentsu gaming lead for APAC said, “The explosion of gaming genres and ways to play has led to an always-increasing variety of gaming behaviours. Our motivation-based segmentation provides an effective way for brands to identify relevant groups of gamers that consistently translate in every market and provide strong creative and behavioural insights for these audiences.”

This project is also in conjunction with dentsu gaming’s 42-page global report titled “dentsu: For The Game” last October, which includes an in-depth analysis of gaming culture and how brands can value-add to the gaming experience and develop a genuine and effective presence in the gaming ecosystem.

The said report also identified six gaming archetypes for brands to tap into. These archetypes have been named according to their primary motivations, such as “For The Revive”, “For The Hype”, “For The Party”, “For The Win”, “For The Immersion” and “For The Downtime”.

Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of dentsu Media APAC said, “There are an estimated 1.5bn people in Asia Pacific who game. Of these, over 40% are females and a quarter are Gen Z. 25% of them play to be part of a community, while 8% do it For The Win; to develop their skills and be praised.”

She added, “Simply grouping them together as “gamers” isn’t good enough. In the current economic context, marketers need to demonstrate how every dollar counts when building their brand. Therefore, it is critical brands are reaching the right audience and targeting effectively for maximum relevancy and to minimise wasted efforts as they venture into new virtual territory.”

Sunil Naryani, chief product officer for APAC at dentsu international also commented, “By supercharging our CCS data platform with proprietary gaming research data in Southeast Asia, we have built fully media-addressable gamer profiles which our clients can access for holistic insight across gaming preferences, media consumption habits and brand affinities, along with the ability to also activate these profiles today in their marketing campaigns for increased effectiveness.”

CCS and GWI’s fused data and insight are exclusive to dentsu gaming, and are accessible through dentsu’s agencies including Carat, dentsu X, iProspect, DENTSU CREATIVE, Merkle and the dentsu Japan network.

Established last year, dentsu gaming has been providing access to specialist strategy, activation, and original intellectual property (IP) development for brands seeking to connect with and navigate the gaming ecosystem.

Singapore – Insurance company FWD Group has appointed ONE Esports to drive the gaming and esports vertical of FWD’s flagship lifestyle app Omne, aiming to change the way the esports community feels about insurance.

The partnership will span across Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, deepening FWD Group’s reach and engagement within the gaming and esports community in Asia.

Omne is a new mobile app by FWD Group that empowers individuals with a unique set of value propositions centred on personalised goal-based journeys to help bring the best out of them. The app is also designed to help people celebrate living and empower micro-habits for everyday success.

As part of the partnership, ONE Esports will run an integrated marketing campaign aimed at boosting awareness and promoting the download of Omne. The campaign will see collaborations with popular gaming personalities and promotional content that will be amplified through ONE Esports’ digital channels.

In addition, ONE Esports will also produce exclusive experiences and contribute gaming and esports content, such as articles and videos, to be hosted on the app. These experiences include interviews with professional esports athletes, as well as a mini content series that gets up close and personal with esports personalities.

Troy Barnes, group chief transformation officer at FWD Insurance, said, “Our flagship mobile app, Omne, reflects our vision of changing the way people feel about insurance by anticipating their lifestyle needs. Asia’s increasingly digital and mobile population is one of the fastest growing regions in terms of esports audiences – a clear sign that esports is pushing into the mainstream. We’re excited by the possibilities to scale up our partnership with ONE Esports and build brand affinity with the passionate esports community in Asia.”

Meanwhile, Carlos Alimurung, CEO at ONE Esports, commented, “ONE Esports and FWD launched a successful partnership last year, and we are thrilled to expand the scope this year. Working with them on their Omne app avails more opportunities for us to create better fan experiences and grow the esports ecosystem across Asia.”

He added, “It is great to see FWD, an internationally renowned brand, doubling down on its focus and investments in esports, and we are honoured to be the platform of choice for their efforts to deepen engagement with the community.”

Singapore – M1 Limited (M1), one of Singapore’s leading Mobile Network Operators (MNO), has announced today that it is launching Zolaz, a cloud gaming subscription service that allows customers to play anywhere, anytime and on any device.

Zolaz caters to both mid-core and casual gamers with an ‘all-you-can-play’ on-demand gaming experience. Subscribers will be gaining unlimited access to over 400 high-quality PC and console titles including those by AAA publishers. Similar to Netflix and Spotify’s click-and-play model, games are streamed directly to users’ preferred devices without the need to wait for download and installation. A single account can be shared with up to four other profiles

Games in the catalogue include the BAFTA Games Award nominated first-person shooter, Metro Exodus, action RPG co-op from the Warhammer world, Warhammer: Chaosbane, as well as popular party game, Overcooked. Individual high scores and game history can also be stored directly on the cloud, freeing up device data storage.

“Cloud gaming has always been a possibility but its potential has so far depended on network speeds, data tariff, and latency. M1’s True 5G network resolves this with its high speed and low latency so that graphically intensive games can now be seamlessly played on-the-go and without need for expensive hardware,” said Manjot Singh Mann, CEO of M1. 

“M1 is on track to [roll out] nationwide 5G outdoor coverage by the end of this year. Zolaz is part of our 5G ambitions to develop and launch 5G commercial use cases across consumer, enterprise and government sectors,” Singh Mann added.

M1 customers can sign up for Zolaz online and in ‘My M1’ App. The cloud gaming subscription is priced at SGD14.98 per month with no contract. Customers who sign up now are also offered a one-month free subscription. 

The public will be able to experience Zolaz at M1’s flagship store at Peranakan Place from 2nd September. To celebrate the launch of the platform, M1 customers are invited to participate in their gaming tournament, Zolaz Battle Unlimited. Players must choose between Asphalt 9 or Chicken Invaders 4 to compete and submit their top scores by September 4th. 

The top four scorers of each game will be invited to compete against each other on 10 September. After pitting against each other in the semi-finals, the top scorer of each game will compete against TikTok Creators Alona (@pinoybrownie) and Denise (@denisealexis) from Hepmil Creators’ Network. The winner of each game in the grand final will take home the grand prize of a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 5G worth SGD2,398.

Singapore – Austria-based game publisher THQ Nordic has opened its office in Singapore as part of the company’s expansion to Southeast Asia. The new office will be tasked with serving the region, specifically public relations, marketing, and securing of SEA content creator talent for THQ Nordic and HandyGames’ slate of games in SEA.

The new Singapore office will be lead by Winson Lo as managing director with more than 10 years of experience working in the games industry; and Graeme Ching as the SEA social media manager, where he will be responsible for the digital and integrated advertising expertise for the company.

This is THQ Nordic’s second subsidiary on the Asian continent, following the incorporation of THQ Nordic Japan KK in October 2019.

Philipp Brock, marketing director at THQ Nordic, said, “Building on the success of our Japanese office, the next logical challenge to take on was entering the greater ASEAN region. With almost half of the world’s gamers located here, establishing a footprint poses not only a daunting challenge but a wholly exciting one as well. Plus and as always: our interest is long-term oriented, not just a quick pleasure.”

Meanwhile, Lo commented, “This region is one of big, open hearts and wonderful gaming fans. There is no better time than now to pick up our controllers, warm up our PCs and get to know this avid community.”

Singapore – Multinational tech giant Tencent has partnered with local social enterprise SOOS OIO to organise a series of parenting webinars, workshops and community gaming tournaments to serve the fast-growing gaming community in Singapore that has been growing at an unprecedented rate.

Both companies will embark on the partnership at this year’s Digital For Life Festival, a two-weekend event hosted by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) between 21 to 22 May and 28 to 29 May this year.

Through the various activities planned for the event, Tencent and SOOS OIO will work to demystify gaming for parents, engage youths to form healthy gaming habits, foster healthy familial relationships through gaming, and help them realise the benefits of games for everyone.

Stanley Sun, head of publishing technology services of Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) at Tencent, said, “We are proud to be part of the Digital For Life Festival to drive greater awareness about the importance of digital wellness, and how the digital sphere, including online gaming, enables new possibilities and empowers the digital society. As a game publisher, we continuously work to build a healthy and inclusive gaming ecosystem, in close collaboration with organisations like SOOS OIO in Singapore.”

Meanwhile, Pauline Phoon, founder of SOOS OIO, commented, “Play is an integral part of learning and we believe that video gaming constitutes play on a different playground. It offers development for every youth across cognitive, emotional and social aspects.”

She added, “Misconceptions around gaming often arise from a lack of understanding about the nature of games and the benefits it can bring. Together with Tencent, we hope to bring awareness among parents and community in Singapore about the various ways gaming can be leveraged for digital wellness, social and cognitive skills, and most importantly – as a means of connecting with children.”

Hong Kong – Integrated blockchain gaming and entertainment company Catheon Gaming has appointed a roster of board of advisors, composed of industry-leading veterans who collectively bring over a century of experience from some well-known gaming and entertainment enterprises globally, including Activision Blizzard, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Viacom, and King Digital.

The new board of advisor members are namely Philip Earl, Nainan Shah, Marcus Jacobs, Alex Xu, Daniel Yang, and Jason Hung.

With 14 years of global gaming and over 30 years of extensive corporate management experience, Earl was formerly the executive vice president at Activision Blizzard for over a decade and held roles including global leadership of the Call of Duty, Destiny and Skylanders franchises in Santa Monica, head of APAC in Shanghai and Sydney, as well as head of the international division in London, and chairman of the European Video Games Industry Association.

Meanwhile, Shah is a senior industry executive and advisor with over 25 years of experience in the video game industry. He was formerly the senior vice president for corporate strategy and development at Sony Interactive Entertainment, where he was responsible for merger and acquisitions, strategy, and the securing of new content for the platform. 

In addition, Jacobs brings with him over 20 years of experience across the gaming and online casino industries, half of which were spent at an executive level. He was a standing member of the executive management team at King Digital from 2012 to 2019.

Xu is the current CEO at top Chinese animation group and Aotu World IP-owner MultiMetaverse Inc. Having previously held the position of CEO at Leyou Technologies up until its US$1.5n acquisition by Tencent, and formerly served as chief business officer at Perfect World.

Hung has more than 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur in mobile technology and blockchain. He has advised more than 50 blockchain companies including Catheon Gaming, Evveland Metaverse, SoundofThings, Debond Protocol, and over 30 ICOs.

Lastly, Yang joins the advisory board with over 20 years of experience in driving growth and as a deal maker across blue chip gaming and media enterprises. He is currently the chief strategy officer at Aristocrat, a global gaming content and technology provider, where he leads their group strategy, long range planning, and corporate development efforts.

William Wu, chief executive officer at Catheon Gaming, commented, “We are pleased to welcome Philip, Nainan, Jason, Daniel, Marcus, and Alex to Catheon Gaming’s Advisory Board. Their expertise and proven track records in driving value creation across businesses will be critical in helping Catheon solidify its position as the leading blockchain gaming and entertainment company, and further accelerate the tremendous growth that Catheon has already seen to date.”