Dukes Digital Domain…

Are you eXcited?

Josh (aka Origami kid) is running a pretty cool tournament via Chaos Wars during December. You can win limited edition Rainbow Six: Vegas faceplates alongside t-shirts. To find out more hit this link, good luck!

It’s now only two days until MatchBox360’s XL LAN 2006 and I’m really surprised by how quickly the time has passed since it was first announced. This weekend should be a lot of fun as the entire crew of Matchbox360 will be at the NEC alongside a number of industry contacts. It will be good to catch up with all of them

I will try to blog live from the event. That really depends if I can get internet access on my mobile and laptop, but you can expect a lot of pictures over the next week.

Oh yeh, I created a page on my blog for XL so you’ll be able to view all the pictures, press releases etc

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This logo greets you as you walk into Pitch’s office.

Pitch launched their new social networking service yesterday. Cro is the lead developer behind the new service and for those of you that own a mobile phone, well you’ll be pleased to know that you can access the service for free. I’ve posted the press release below:

Social Networking Goes Mobile with Pitch

Pitch launches new mobile entertainment community with free content

20 November 2006 — Pitch, the UK’s first advertising-funded mobile content provider, today launched a brand new service offering users a fully-interactive entertainment community on their mobile handsets. Bringing the Web 2.0 social networking phenomenon to the mobile phone, Pitch’s new service features instant messaging, photo and video upload and sharing as well as access to an exciting new online community.

The new service will run alongside Pitch’s existing advertising-funded mobile content offer, so that in addition to free mobile content (videos, games, ringtones, screensavers and wallpapers) Pitch customers can enjoy a suite of social networking applications on their mobile phone.

Through the new service, Pitch customers can build their own mobile home page, complete with a unique user name (PitchTag) and inbox, allowing them to send messages to friends or groups, as well as participating in real time group chat with other Pitch members. Thus users can create and join interest groups, enabling them to stay in touch with old friends or meet new people with similar interests – all through their mobile phones. Pitch does not charge for this service, so the only costs users incur come from data charges, making instant communication significantly cheaper than sending a text through a network operator.

Creating a PitchTag tag allows a person or even a brand to promote their Pitch mobile space anywhere. Texting the tag to the Pitch short code (for example ‘Yourname’ to 87000) delivers an instant hyperlink straight to a specific home page. In addition, Pitch members can upload and share as many pictures and videos as they like, through the unlimited Pitch Albums feature.

A web application of Pitch, to follow in December, will complete the service, allowing customers to use and manage their Pitch profile from both PC and mobile.

Pitch CEO Lourens de Beer commented: “Web-based social networking is being embraced worldwide as the ultimate next-generation lifestyle tool, with a myriad of different applications and creative opportunities for individuals to express themselves and their opinions, interacting with each other in a unique space. For the first time, Pitch brings bring all the benefits of personalised social networking to the mobile handset, a medium perfectly-suited to this phenomenon. The mobile phone has taken next step in becoming the ultimate and indispensable social communication tool.”

Travelling around London is always best by the tube so equipped with my oyster card I headed into London’s West End to attend a number of meetings. While I was on the tube I noticed an Xbox 360 advert in the London Metro (free daily newspaper) which looked cool, as the lady turned the page I spotted another advertisement, then another… I was wondering what was going on? I was quite anxious to get a copy of the metro so I could see all of the ads.

Lucky enough, I managed to nab Tom’s copy of the metro. He had already noticed the volume of advertisements and posted up some news about it. OXM also picked up on this news. When I got home I took photos of all of the ads which you can view via my flickr page. To give you a guide of the hardware and games which were advertised in the London Metro, I’ve listed them all below.

Activision:
Tony Hawk’s Project 8
World Series Poker
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Call of Duty 3
Lego Star Wars II

Atari:
Test Drive Unlimited

Capcom:
Dead Rising
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Electronic Arts:
Need for Speed Carbon
FIFA 07

Konami:
Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Microsoft Game Studios:
Gears of War
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Ninety Nine Nights
Viva Piñata

Rockstar Games:
Table Tennis

Sega:
Phantasy Star Universe
Sonic The Hedgehog

THQ:
Saints Row
Smackdown VS Raw 2007
Cars

Ubisoft:
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Open Season

Hardware:
Xbox 360 console
Xbox 360 HD DVD Player
Wireless Headset
Wireless Adaptor
Wireless Racing Wheel
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Vision Camera
Xbox 360 Classic games

Samsung HDTV / Xbox 360 advertising

Go to Xbox.com if you want to find out more about the products… I would hyperlink all of the above but I’d be here until Monday

Edit: Joystiq has posted up some news about the media blitz.

Gears or War was announced over two years ago and I’ve keep an eye on its development right up until emergence day.

I got the limited edition box set and surprisingly I waited until I had finished work before letting it spin around my Xbox 360. When I did eventually play the game I was very impressed. I’ve only touched the surface of gears but I can already tell it is going to be a game which gets played a lot. Unlike other titles on the Xbox 360 I think Gears of War is the platforms killer app and it has my full attention. What do you guys think of it?

Pro-G the UK’s leading multi-format gaming site has posted up some coverage of Matchbox360’s XL LAN 2006.  Thanks very much chaps

Stratics.com has posted up an exclusive review of The Book of Games. I really like the following quote as it actually sum’s up the book rather well:

Both players of games, and parents of gamers need the tools necessary to determine what games are what. One such tool, is the Book of Games, Volume 1, a massive tome of information on games, hardware, and research. With over four hundred pages, this book includes information on all major categories of games.

You can find out more about The Book of Games via the official site or you can order a copy from Amazon.

A few weeks ago I had a meeting via Skype with the founders of gameXplore. On Sunday evening Bendik arrived in London for a four day visit. I linked up with him on Monday afternoon and we had a very interesting meeting about a number of very cool business opportunities. Later on in the day we headed over to the Landmark hotel to have a meeting with the Tom Gordon (CEO of AlienPants).

James Bonds Car.

Obviously I’m not going into any detail about what we were meeting about as some stuff will be announced soon. All of our meetings went extremely well and I’m really pleased with the end result. I’ve posted some pictures below:

Harrods.

Bendik Stang – Founder of gameXplore.

Bendik and I very happy with the sales results of the day.

No clue who she is or why I took the photo.