Tag: kinect

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News Video Games

Avengers: Battle for Earth video game headed to consoles [UPDATED]

Avengers: Battle for Earth video game

Avengers: Battle for Earth

The Avengers video game looks to have a title — Avengers: Battle for Earth.

On May 3, 2012, a day before the film was released in the United States, the domain name avengersbattleforearth.com (Whois) was registered through the brand protection company MarkMonitor.

The name was registered by Marvel Characters, Inc. and is currently listed on Ubisoft’s nameservers: nic1.ubisoft.com and nic2.ubisoft.com.

While there has been speculation the game may have been delayed, cancelled, or simply couldn’t work, the newest domain registration hints that it may be officially announced soon.

[UPDATED May 10, 2012:. Ubisoft officially announced “Battle for Earth” in a deal with Marvel Entertainment, LLC. According to the press release, “This game will be released this fall for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft with Kinect™ for Xbox360 and Nintendo’s Wii™ U™ system.”]

Talking about this story: Joystiq, Forbes, Kotaku, /Film, Comic Book Movie, Game Rant, Just Push Start, Comic Book Resources, Game Informer, Complex.com (blog), Side Mission, io9, Shogun Gamer, Attack of the Fanboy, Digital Trends, MCV, Computerandvideogames.com, Kotaku Australia, OnlineWelten.com, Neoseeker, Neogaf, ZoKnowsGaming, Playstation Lifestyle, games.on.net, Gamespot, HardGamers, Videogameszone, Gamesaktuell.de, gamona.de, gry-online.pl, gram.pl, Judão and All Games Beta

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News Trademarks Video Games

Microsoft files trademark for “Avatar Famestar” for video game services

Avatar Famestar

It appears Microsoft is working on something new for the Xbox called “Avatar Famestar” according to a recent trademark filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

On February 13, 2012, filed to trademark “Avatar Famestar”.

The goods and services covered in the trademark filing (Serial Number: 85541451) cover “Downloadable software for video game services” and “Providing an online portal for video game services and social networking”.

As of today, Microsoft has made no announcement as to its plans for “Avatar Famestar”.

Last year, Microsoft released Avatar Kinect, which  lets your personalized avatar interact with or hang out with up to seven other friends in 24 virtual stages ranging from a late-night talk show set to outer space to a sports tailgate party.

[Update 1 on Feb. 18, 2012 5:41am:  A resident of China is cybersquatting on the domain name AvatarFamestar.com.  The name was registered shortly after this story went online.]

Discussion: Joystiq

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News Video Games

Ubisoft registers MotionSports Adrenaline Urban Jungle domain names

Motion Sports Adrenaline: Urban Jungle

Ubisoft released ‘Motion Sports Adrenaline’ in late October on the Kinect for the Xbox 360.  The video game lets players participate in extreme events like wingsuit, rock climing and other dangerous activities.

Now it looks like Ubisoft might have downloadable content planned for MotionSports Adrenaline that could be available soon based on two recent domain registrations made by the company.

On November 17, Ubisoft registered the domains motionsportsadrenalineurbanjungle.com and motionsports-adrenaline-urban-jungle.com.

At the time of this story going online, neither of the domain names resolve to a web page. 

Based on the title alone, one would guess that it could involve activities like stunt biking or street rollerblading.

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News Video Games

Microsoft to release the Xbox Kinect Accelerator; it registered the domains

Xbox Kinect

With the one year anniversary of the debut of the Kinect taking place earlier this month, a lot of news has been coming out on the motion sensing device for the Xbox 360.

One of the announcements is that the Kinect SDK for Windows, which enables developers to create new uses for the Kinect, will be available commercially in early 2012.

With all the activity and buzz, it also looks like other features for the Kinect will be available for developers called the “Xbox Kinect Accelerator”, according to two recent domain registrations by Microsoft.

On November 9th, the company registered XboxKinectAccelerator.com and XboxKinectAccelerator.net.

Nothing has been announced by Microsoft yet. 

It’s possible the Xbox Kinect Accelerator could be something similar to the Microsoft Research Accelerator which is used by programmers to help accelerate code execution. 

It could also be an accessory for the device or a Startup Camp to get developers up to speed on programming, but until Microsoft reveals more information, nothing will be known for sure.

[Update 2 November 18, 2011: Microsoft has officially launched the site.  “If you are a developer or existing team/startup focused on building a business that takes advantage of the Kinect and Natural User Interface technologies, then the Kinect Accelerator is where you need to be. Through this program, Microsoft is supporting entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators like you to bring to life a wide range of business ideas that leverage the limitless possibilities Kinect enables. Following a competitive screening process, ten finalists will be chosen for this unique three month incubation program running from March to May, 2012 in Seattle, WA. The Kinect Accelerator is “powered by TechStars” using the same mentor-driven methodology pioneered and proven in New York, Boulder, Seattle and Boston. Mentors for the Kinect Accelerator include a broad base of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the industry as well as executives from Microsoft Studios, XBOX, Microsoft Research and other Microsoft organizations.”  More here.]

[Update 1 November 15, 2011 at 3:17am EST:  Microsoft has now registered the domains KinectAccelerator.com, KinectAccelerator.net and KinectAccelerator.org.]

Discussion: Ubergizmo

(Photo of Kinect sensor as shown at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo via flickr)

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News Video Games

Nearly a month after acquiring domain name, Microsoft starts redirecting Kinect.com to Xbox web page

Xbox Kinect

Earlier this month, I was the first to report that Microsoft acquired the domain name Kinect.com for its controller-free add-on for the Xbox. 

However, if you typed the URL, kinect.com, into your browser’s address bar in the past 30 or so days, you were taken to Bing’s search engine results page for the keyword “Kinect.”.  The exact URL: http://www.bing.com/search?q=kinect&form=MSSRPD

Today, Microsoft released its second-quarter results which were helped by the success of its Kinect game device. 

“Sales at the company’s entertainment-and-devices division jumped 55% on the success of the company’s Kinect motion-based controller, which were a hit during the holiday season and boosted sales of Xbox 360 consoles. Operating profit for the division has surpassed $1 billion so far this fiscal year.”, writes The Wall Street Journal.

Though the change looks to have taken place in the past week, redirecting the domain name Kinect.com from Bing’s search engine results to the Xbox Kinect page appears to coincide with the release of the company’s second quarter results.