Honored – “Real Rewards for Digital [Gaming] Achievements”

If you’re a gamer like me, you’re proud of your achievements. You’ve probably spent hours upon hours leveling up, training, collecting, and fighting to get your achievements. These achievements are saved onto your consoles & gaming networks, but what happens when you upgrade? What if you want to show off your achievements from multiple networks?

This is where Honored comes in. Honored allows you collect data across various platforms such as Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Steam, etc and share them all in one location.

Based on gaming achievements, you will be rewarded badges, which can then be purchased for real swag.

Ok, and let’s be honest, these awesome badges look like Pokemon badges.



 

 

 

 

Take a look at the campaign video below.



Click here to contribute via Indiegogo. (You’ll even get perks like being one of the first beta testers, swag, and badges!)



 

 

Let’s make this happen, please?

As of Monday, November 18, Honored has received $3,534 out of their $25,000 goal with 20 days remaining.

Silly Wild Games Studio, Trying to Censor the Internet

via @TheDailyDot.

What happens when a video game studio attempts to take down TotalBiscuit, a popular video game critic's, Youtube video? The Internet takes up arms against the studio, of course.

According to The Daily Dot, Wild Games Studio, creator of Day One: Garry's Incident, claimed that the reason why they filed to take down TotalBiscuit's video was because "Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our license."

I don't know about you, but this sounds like crap! Fair Use, anyone? Section 17 U.S.C. 107,  contains a list of various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as CRITICISM, COMMENT, news reporting...." TotalBiscuit's video would probably be classified as criticism, and even may fall into the comment category.

According to Kotaku, Wild Games, has since, withdrawn its complaint from Youtube.

Here is TotalBiscuit's original video:



And for those of you who are curious about Wild Games Studio's "Day One: Garry's Incident":

Alec Baldwin Could Have Been in GTA V!

via @Gamespot.

For those of you who do not know what GTA V, or Grand Theft Auto Five, is, it Take-Two's wildly successful video game that was recently released. This game was the first entertainment to reach sales of a billion dollars within three days!

According to Gamespot, who reported it from IndieWire, Baldwin stated in his character would have been a cop-killer and "And I turned them down because [the character] was a cop killer... And I didn't want to get near that [because] of my reputation; I have enough problems with the press as it is. I said no." I think it's pretty interesting that Baldwin believes in the power and reach of this video game- enough to believe that the game would affect his reputation.

I wonder if Baldwin is having regrets based on the explosive success of this game now, with what could have been a lucrative contract with possibly royalties. Baldwin could have joined the ranks of celebrities such as Samuel Jackson.

Do you think he missed out?

Square Enix Files for Trademark in Japan

via @ Siliconera.

Square Enix, the parent company of the wildly successful final fantasy franchise has filed for a trademark "ロスとクルセイド(rosuto kuruseido)," or "Lost Crusade."

Wonder what it will be, some are speculating that Lost Crusade may be a mobile game.

More news to come!

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix out 2014

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 has been unveiled by Square Enix due in 2014 for PS3.

This game will include Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded (cinema only).

When your "likeness" is used in a video game

[caption id="attachment_363" align="aligncenter" width="300"] "Ellie" from The Last of Us (left), Ellen Page (center), Ashley Johnson (right)[/caption]

via @Forbes, @Kotaku, and @GameInformer.

When I first stumbled across the game, "The Last of Us" I was surprised at how familiar the character "Ellie" was. That's when I realized that Ellie looked a lot like Ellen Page.

What makes this an even more weird scenario is the fact that Page is the star of Quantic Dream's "Beyond two Souls."

Page was asked about her likeness to Ellie on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" session in which a fan asked "Have you seen any footage of 'The Last of Us' and would you have taken the role as Ellie if approached?" and in which she responded "I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness, but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated." Talk about awkward!

Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckmann, responded to such speculation by merely pointing out that Ellie was not played by Page, but by an Actress named Ashley Johnson.

While starMedia, reports that Ellen page was suing Naughty Dog for using her image in the video game, I could not find any evidence of the lawsuit.

This is definitely an interesting scenario. Can celebrities sue video game companies for using their image? What would it take for the suit to succeed?

Curious, indeed.

Will the Success of Video Games End the Box Office?

via @Bloomberg.

With the recent explosive success of Grand Theft Auto V, which took in over $1 billion easily within the first week, many may be wondering if the success of the video game industry equates to the death of Hollywood. I mean, logically speaking, if the video game industry is taking a bigger profit from consumers, this extra money must be taken from a different industry, right?

Video games are no longer associated with the middle-aged person playing in their parents' garage. In fact, playing video games may now be the "cool" thing to do! While this is an interesting development, I personally do not think video games will be replacing the movie industry, even though it has become a pretty common occurrence to see users merge all the cutscenes to a video game as a "movie" and upload it to youtube.

I personally am guilty of watching cutscenes as movies because sometimes I just want to see how the story of the video game plays out, without spending hours and hours and hours playing the video game... (plus, I'm pretty terrible at first-person shooter games...).

It will be interesting to see how these two industries are affected, whether the increase in profits for the video game industry will lead to a decrease in profits for the movie industry.

Take-Two files for Trademarks for Codex, Carnate, and Double Take.

via @GameSpot

Take-Two, is a publisher, developer, and distributor of video games. Take-Two owns Rockstar Games, which is the creator of the wildly popular game, Grand Theft Auto, and 2K Games, which is the creator of the 2K Sports titles and numerous other video games such as Borderlands and Bioshock.

The trademarks for Codex, Carnate, and Double Take were filed September 30th and each trademark had applications for downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.

According to the trademark application, electronic publications includes graphic novels, comic books, short stories, books, magazines and periodicals. Downloadable software will be available for accessing, reading, and cataloging electronic publications and gathering data, details, and comments relating to an individual user's collection of electronic publications.

Physical publications will include graphic novels, comic books, posters, trading cards, artwork, short stories, magazines, periodicals, books, and photographs.

Entertainment and educational services will include providing an interactive website featuring news and information about authors, publications, and the publishing industry; on-line journals, blogs featuring news and information about authors, publications, and the publishing industry; publication of graphic novels, comic books, short stories, books, magazines and periodicals; publication of electronic, non-downloadable graphic novels, comic books, short stories, books, magazines and periodicals

Codex's trademark applications can be found here: downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.



Carnate's trademark applications can be found here: downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.



Double Take's trademark applications can be found here: downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.



Wonder what Take-Two is up to. Only time will tell, I guess!

KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 ReMIX Official Launch Event - Sunday 9/8/13

This past Sunday was the Official Launch Event for Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX that was at the Anaheim Marriott. 

My friend and I arrived at 11:15am even though the event was scheduled for 12pm and the line was long!



But we met some really cool people dressed in awesome costumes! 









I should make a shirt that says, "I waited in line for 5 hours in the sun, and all I got was this stupid poster." Except it's not a stupid poster and it was an interesting experience.

Lesson learned: get to these kind of events E-A-R-L-Y!

Kingdom Hearts Axel Commission by Sketchcraft

so this amazing artist Rob Duenas, also known as sketchcraft, drew me this gorgeous picture of Axel from Kingdom Hearts.

To see more of his amazing art, click here. 

Disney Unveils Another Trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6evXfWypM2A&feature=share&list=UUiiRfR-7GZKOkMGjyktxxIA