Client News
September 8, 2010 – Engadget – Nyko Wand+ Review
“The Nyko Wand+ is the solution, putting the MotionPlus right inside a stock-size controller, as it should have been in the first place. In some ways, it’s better than first-party.”
Client: Nyko
August 25, 2010 – AP – Target Adds Service to Electronics Offerings
“Target is known for being cheap and chic. But now the retailer is making a big push to become known as a destination for electronics.”
Client: Target
August 16, 2010 – CNET – How online education can make the grade
“The ambitious quasi-start-up aims to cobble together the factors that make Wikipedia and Q&A services so appealing–fast, free access to knowledge, channels of communication outside the classroom–but with the backing of a respected journal publisher and the approval of teachers.”
Client: Scitable
July 29, 2010 – Financial Times – Serve-yourself media plays on iPhone, Android
“I have been testing PlayOn on my iPod touch which installs a server on my PC and can stream video content to the iPod, ranging from my Netflix instant-play movies to Hulu TV programmes and Pandora personal radio stations.”
Client: PlayOn
July 28, 2010 – Kotaku – Gunnar 3D Phenom Glasses: A Slick Extravagance
“These feather-weight glasses include spring-tension hinges and rubber grips. The three times I used them in movies I ended up forgetting they were even on my head. Fantastic fit and feel.”
Client: Gunnar Optiks
July 28, 2010 – WIRED – At Target, No More Games Behind Glass
“Target’s videogame department has finally ditched the irksome glass case. The big box retailer completed its remodel and expansion of its videogame department this year. As of June 2010, all 1740 stores in the chain have been updated to make shopping for games a little bit easier.”
Client: Target
July 20, 2010 – TechCrunch – Facebook Game With a Mission: Waste Management to Launch Oceanopolis
“Waste Management and its subsidiary Greenopolis are diving into social gaming with a new Facebook app called Oceanopolis. According to the site, Greenopolis members have earned 6.7 million rewards and the physical recycling kiosks have recovered 3.5 million bottles, cans and other items thus far.”
Client: Greenopolis
July 8, 2010 – CNET – Exclusive hands-on: Get the full version of Hulu on your iPhone (or iPad) with PlayOn
“The makers of PlayOn, a useful media-streaming program for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, have a new solution, in the form of an iPhone version of the PlayOn app.”
Client: PlayOn
July 7, 2010 – NY Post – Softkinetic a crowd-pleaser with interactive Sorcerer’s Challenge
“For the upcoming release of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the company designed a wall-sized interactive game (programmed by Softkinetic Studios themselves) that allowed anyone strolling along to act the part of a powerful magician — by, of course, exploding stuff with blue light and making brooms dance.”
Client: Sofkinetic
July 7, 2010 – ESPN – The Best Of E3
Client: Nyko
July 6, 2010 – Forbes – The Microsoft Kinect-Like Game In Hollywood That’s Not From Microsoft
“The game, called “Sorcerer’s Challenge,” was made by a company called Softkinetic, the other gesture-controlled technology company you haven’t heard of. It was created by the company’s game division, which is headed by the former executive producer of Kinect, Mike Nichols. It’s also been set up in a couple of New York City locations around Wall Street and Macy’s.”
Client: Sofkinetic
July, 2010 – Entertainment Weekly – 21 HOT New Videogames
“Five minutes with this haunting side-scroller on the E3 show floor and we were utterly captivated. It’s not every day you come upon a game that evokes avant-garde, black-and-white pre-WWII European cinema — and makes you desperately want to see more.”
Client: Limbo
July, 2010 – Spectrum – Building the Lego Universe Online: Lego tries to construct a new empire with pixels, not plastic
“But even as its creators iron out the final technical and security hurdles, Lego Universe is already set to grow. It will launch with six thematic worlds, with two to four new expansions each year. Ultimately, the goal is to break down the fourth wall between plastic and pixels, so that someone can buy a box of Lego bricks in a store and play with them online or off. “
Client: Lego
June 29, 2010 – Popular Mechanics – Softkinetics, the Other Motion-Control Software Company
“Like Microsoft’s forthcoming Kinect interface, the Softkinetic iisu system uses depth-perceiving cameras to free users from any sort of physical controller.”
Client: Softkinetic
June 18, 2010 – Mashable – Who’s Spending the Most Money on Social Games?
“Which people are sending the massive amounts of money that’s fueling this market, though?…Virtual currency platform Social Gold performed a four month study in order to find out.”
Client: Social Gold
June 16, 2010 – Le Monde – Nature’s Scientific Facebook
“Nature is a venerable institution, dating back 140 years. The authority of the British journal for scientific publications is well established.”
Client: Scitable
June 14, 2010 – Fox & Friends – Father’s Day Gadget Gifts
Client: Gunnar Optiks
June 7, 2010 – Industry Gamers – iPhone 4 Taking Games to ‘Next Level,’ says Developer
“Mayra San Martin, Director, Digital Business Development at Sega, told us, “We are absolutely thrilled that Apple has brought so many improvements and new features to the iPhone. The 6-axis input device gives us the opportunity to extend our existing games as well as design new games especially for this new feature.”
Client: Sega
June 6, 2010 – Wired – Nature Publisher Aims to Save Planet by Democratizing Science
“Nature Publishing Group has disseminated information between scientists for more than 140 years, starting with the prestigious Nature journal. Now, it hopes to reach out to college and high school students, in part because so many of them lose interest in hard science around that time.”
Client: Scitable
June 2, 2010 – The New York Times – Amazon to Sell Its E-Reader at Target
“Beginning on Sunday, the Kindle e-reader will be sold in Target stores nationwide, the company announced on Wednesday.”
Client: Target
May 21, 2010 – CNET – Why I mothballed my media center PC
“It’s hard to overstate how useful this program is, especially for video playback…With PlayOn, just drop the video files in a selected folder on the computer hosting the program, and you’re all set.”
Client: PlayOn
May 21, 2010 – Engadget HD – Google TV: Who is the competition and what are they saying about it?
“This piece of media streaming software has served to bring some of the internet’s most liked and least flexible content to TV connected streamers for the last few years. If there’s a way around a Hulu block for Google TV or anyone else slow to write an app, it’s likely to be PlayOn.”
Client: PlayOn
May 17, 2010 – Bloomberg Businessweek – Target to expand its video game section
“Target Corp. is boosting its consumer electronics and video game offerings and changing the department’s layout to make it easier for shoppers to find what they’re looking for and better compete with rivals like Wal-Mart Stores.”
Client: Target
May 17, 2010 – USA Today – Science survey: professors value research bucks over teaching chops
“Obviously, they can’t all be better-than-average (teachers),” says report co-author Vikram Savkar of Nature Education, the electronic learning division of the Nature Publishing Group, which produces some of the scientific world’s most high-impact journals. “It’s not a real secret in the world of science that research, not teaching, is what really counts.”
Client: Scitable
May 12, 2010 – Family Circle – Gifts for Dads & Grads
“Powermat Home Recharging Mat: The lucky new owner can store away all his individual chargers in favor of a sleek one-plug dock that wirelessly juices up to three, depending on size. Target.com, $100″
Client: Target
May 11, 2010 – Mobile Marketer – Game Trail drives sales of iPhone games via mobile video
“There have been 10,000-plus purchases made from the App Store via the Game Trail, an application for Apple’s iPhone that claims a 10 percent browser-to-buyer conversion rate.”
Client: The Game Trail
May 7, 2010 – USA Today – Kids solve puzzle game with virtual magic marker
“Max & the Magic Marker is a perfect blend of platform-puzzling and creativity. When kids draw things inside the game, they become invested in the experience. They aren’t just playing the game, they are creating it. Don’t miss this one.”
Client: Press Play
May 7, 2010 – New York Post – Let there be Science: Bringing knowledge to the masses with Scitable
“Enter Scitable: a social network whose primary goal is to put all the knowledge of the scientific community in your hands…This is a place for educators and people seeking to learn. This is a place for science.”
Client: Scitable
May 6, 2010 – New York Times – Help in Shaving Minutes Off Your Underground Commute
“With so many games in Apple’s iTunes store, choosing one is a challenge. The Game Trail (a free app, with a corresponding Web site at TheGameTrail.com) offers video previews and reviews to help speed your selection.”
Client: The Game Trail
May 6, 2010 – TechCrunch/Crunchgear – Scitable: a social network for science research and education
“Scitable is currently being used by students and instructors in 160 countries. Only 40% of the current users are in the U.S.”
Client: Scitable
April 27, 2010 – New York Post – Q&A with Softkinetic bigs Michel Tombroff and Mike Nichols
“Softkinetic , which has recently plucked Mike Nichols from his perch as Project Natal Executive Producer for Microsoft, is at the forefront of 3D gesture recognition.”
Client: Softkinetic
April 23, 2010 – VentureBeat – Social Gold takes a blast at the tyranny of Facebook Credits
“Vikas Gupta, chief executive at Jambool in San Francisco, wrote in a blog post that Facebook’s new currency could actually hurt the purchasing of apps. Credits are supposed to accelerate the spending of money on Facebook’s free-to-play apps.”
Client: Social Gold
April 23, 2010 – All You – ALL YOU May Sweepstakes
“Win a Target prize pack for Mother’s Day!”
Client: Target
April 22, 2010 – Fast Company – Fast Talk–Gesture Technology
“Tombroff, 46, is developing software to analyze images captured by 3-D cameras and working with EA Sports, Texas Instruments, and Panasonic to make avatars move based on users’ actions.”
Client: Softkinetic
April 21, 2010 – Reuters – PluggedIn: Gesture tech eyes growth
“’We believe the market for 3D gesture control will be as big as the mobile telephone market. The reason for that is 3D gestures (technology) apply to video games, television, PC and to consumer appliances. It’s going to become very pervasive,’ said Michel Tombroff, chief executive of Brussels, Belgium-based Softkinetic.”
Client: Softkinetic
April 4, 2010 – New York Times - Developers Scramble to Strike iPad Gold
“As the creators of a best-selling iPhone game called Doodle Jump, the Pusenjaks were well aware of the financial opportunity that the iPad represented. So over the weekend they joined perhaps thousands of other software developers in an unusual scramble that drew people from as far away as Australia…Doodle Jump for the iPhone, which involves catapulting a four-legged creature up a series of platforms, is near the top of that pile, having sold more than 3.5 million copies at 99 cents apiece in a little over a year (Apple pays developers 70 percent of the revenue from app sales). The challenge for the Pusenjaks will be to recreate that success on a new device that, if it sells well, could significantly expand the market for apps.”
Client: Lima Sky
March 31, 2010 – BBC News – iPad apps to cost more say developers ahead of launch
“‘We are really testing the waters on pricing,’ developer Igor Pusenjak of Lima Sky told BBC News. ‘For a lot of us it is an early experiment to see how people will react but I wouldn’t be surprised to see prices go down to 99 cents really early as happened on the iPhone,’ he said.”
“One of the most successful developers designing for the iPhone and the iPod Touch is Dave Castelnuovo of Bolt Creative. He is the co-creator of Pocket God which is centred around a tropical island peopled by characters called The Pygmies…’We don’t have an iPad yet, which is a disadvantage, and we want to test the game and put it through its paces so we know there are no bugs and it works well and takes advantage of the screen, the tilt sensors and improved graphics,’ said Mr Castelnuovo.”
“Rohit Singal is the chief executive officer of SourceBits, an app factory that develops for a number of clients from Coca Cola to General Electric. While nearly half of the 200 strong company is working on iPhone and iPad apps, Mr Singal agreed not having the device to try things out on was a concern.”
Client: Lima Sky / Bolt Creative / Sourcebits
March 29, 2010 – New York Times – A Start-Up Has Survived to Beam Up Your Gestures
“The 3-D cameras used to cost $5,000,” said Michel Tombroff, the chief executive of Softkinetic, which makes software for the 3-D gesture recognition systems. “That price has come down to $50 or less for the bill of materials.”
Client: Softkinetic
March 19, 2010 – NBC Bay Area Morning News – Gadget Friday Gunnar Computer Glasses
Client: Gunnar
March 18, 2010 – Forbes – How Holidays Drive Virtual Goods Spending
“The company [Social Gold] looked at how the most recent holidays, from October last year onwards, impacted virtual goods revenues both during each holiday week and during the holiday itself. New Years topped both categories, with virtual goods revenues seeing a 50% increase during the holiday week and 65% increase on New Years day. Valentines Day saw the second highest holiday revenue bump for the day itself, with a 48% increase.”
Client: Social Gold
March 18, 2010 – Kotaku – Max & The Magic Marker Micro-Review: What If The DS Was My TV?
“The graphics are as vibrant and smooth as a bowl of fruit while Max is in action, but swap art styles and become crayon scribbles when the game is paused. In the land of game reviewing, little touches like these are appreciated.”
Client: Press Play
March 17, 2010 – Forbes – iPhone’s ‘Pocket God’ App
Client: Bolt Creative
March 12, 2010 – GameSpot – Limbo First Look: Limbo is a hostile place to be in as we gingerly try to find our way through this twisted world.
“Limbo is a concept that began six years ago and recently won awards for visual and technical excellence at the 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards.”
Client: Playdead
March 12, 2010 – Gamespot TV – Today on the Spot – God of War III, True Crime, Fat Princess PSP
Client: PressPlay
March 12, 2010 – IGN – GDC 10: Limbo Hands-on
“As soon as I put on the pair of headphones in front of me and took my first steps in Limbo, I was hooked. It’s simple, pretty, hauntingly awesome when it comes to sound, and ready to keep puzzle fanatics on their toes.”
Client: Playdead
March 11, 2010 – Ars Technica – Limbo is quiet, subtle genius… coming to XBLA
“The problem with dreams is that things never work the way you think they should. Try turning on a light… nothing happens. The branches of that tree may turn out to be the legs of a spider. You never feel safe, not exactly, because anything can happen. That feeling of uncertainty and unease is what Playdead had in mind when developing Limbo, a game that’s coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, hopefully this summer.”
Client: Playdead
March 8, 2010 – Maxim – The NYC Goldmund Media Room: Gaming Heaven
“God may have created the world in seven days and then rested, but we’re convinced he returned on Day 8 to create the Goldmund Media Room, a stylish new entertainment area that debuted in Manhattan’s Flatiron District in late February. It costs a cool $1 million, so it took us 4.7 nanoseconds to accept an invite for a private demo of the space, including a two-hour, once-in-a-lifetime session of Final Fantasy XIII and Battlefield Bad Company 2 on Xbox 360.“
Client: Goldmund
March 6, 2010 – Agence France Press – Videogame makers racing to develop iPad games
“Besides games, one of Sourcebits most successful products is “Knocking Live Video,” which allows iPhone owners to share live video with each other and has attracted over 750,000 users in just three months.”
“Mike Rasmussen of Durham, North Carolina-based Republic of Fun, publisher of “Slug Wars” and other iPhone titles, agreed, saying the iPad opens up all kinds of new possibilities for game makers.”
Client: Sourcebits and Republic of Fun
March 4, 2010 – CrunchGear – Goldmund home theater system will blow your socks off
“The item right after building a house with secret passageways everywhere is calling up the guys from Goldmund and having them come by and install their top-of-the-line sound system. They invited me up to their brand new showroom here in New York and I’ll say, I was damn impressed.”
Client: Goldmund
March 3, 2010 – IEEE Spectrum – A Gaming Glove That’s Fast Enough for Pros
“Engineers have always tried to come up with better controllers and input devices for video games, but many PC gamers still use their keyboards. Gaming gloves have always seemed like a good idea in theory, but in practice they could never compete. But now there’s the Peregrine glove, which uses simple conductive strips to replace numerous hotkey commands with simple hand gestures.”
Client: Peregrine
March 3, 2010 – New York Times – And the Best Oscar App Goes to…
“For those with a history of making perfect Oscar picks, you might want to try The Red Carpet, which is offering a $1 million prize for correctly predicting the winners in 24 Oscar categories.”
Client: Bite Interactive
February 19, 2010 – Bloomberg – Facebook Said to Offer More Payment Options for Items in Games
“Developers would prefer to have Facebook Credits as an option — rather than being the exclusive payments provider — because purchases made with Facebook cost them more, said Vikas Gupta, chief executive officer of Jambool Inc., also known as Social Gold, which offers an in-game payment system.”
Client: Social Gold
February 17, 2010 – WIRED.com – Television Will Soon Watch You (for Instructions)
“The days of rifling through couch cushions for a television remote could be coming to an end, as 3-D gesture-recognition technology finds its way into set-top boxes following a deal between Intel and Softkinetic-Optrima.”
Client: Softkinetic
February 12, 2010 – CNNMoney – Gadget Makers Go Red for Valentines
“…Verizon is oh so not alone in their romance gadget ambitions. Target, believe it not, is doing a heavy marketing campaign for an iPod nano. It’s about $150. And a cute little Phillips set of iPod headphones.”
Client: Target
February 10, 2010 – Reuters - Accessory Makers, App Developers Eye Apple’s iPad
“Brian Meehan, head of product development at software company and app developer Sourcebits, said the company has created a dedicated team of 80 developers to craft apps for the iPad. The company is based in Bangalore, India.”
Client: Sourcebits
February 2, 2010 - Yahoo Tech News – Game Accessory Manufacturers Make Big Money
“As Nyko and a number of other manufacturers have shown, there is no end to the possibilities for Wii accessories, which quickly began outselling Xbox 360 accessories shortly after the Wii’s release.”
Client: Nyko
January 27, 2010 – New York Times – For Gamers, the iPhone Is a Player
“‘The iPhone 3GS actually blows both of them out of the water,’ said Dave Castelnuovo, founder of Bolt Creative, the developer of PocketGod ($1), the top-selling iPhone game.”
“When fellow iPhone or iPod Touch owners are nearby, most new games will let you challenge them, through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. I dashed through a few rounds of Super Monkey Ball 2 ($5) with my children this way. I used a first-generation iPhone, one child used an iPod and the other used an iPhone 3GS.”
Clients: Bolt Creative / SEGA
January 15, 2010 – Bloomberg TV – Bloomberg News Video – Invasion of the Apps
“There’s practically an app for everything. You can turn your phone into bubble paper. Check the weather. You can also torture pygmies on a small deserted island…That’s Pocket God, Apple’s top-selling app.”
Client: Bolt Creative
January 11, 2010 – Associated Press – CES Gadgets: Gaming Glove
Client: Peregrine
January 10, 2010 – Sunday Times – 3D televisions, pocket-sized tablets and . . . Lady GaGa
“If 3D TV isn’t enough to keep you happy, how about sets that do not need a remote control? Softkinetic, the technology company, is working with various electronics firms to put its technology inside television sets.”
“Smash pirates, build rocket ships, fly to distant lands — what more could a small boy (or a grown man) want? Lego made a splash with Lego Universe, an online game that will no doubt be draining piggy banks across the world.”
Clients: LEGO Universe / Softkinetic
January 5, 2010 – CNBC – RIP: The Remote Control
“‘The momentum they have created around [Natal] has created a lot of momentum in this industry,’ says Michel Tombroff, CEO of Softkinetic, a 3D-gesture recognition middleware provider that recently struck a partnership with Texas Instruments. ‘They have validated you can use 3D cameras to build consumer products…This has applicability in many areas and people don’t yet understand how far it can go.’”
Client: Softkinetic
December 14, 2009 – Fox News – Tapped-In: 2XL ATV Offroad
“Okay, here’s our big game pick of the month. If you want to get your adrenaline going, check out 2XL ATV Offroad, a new offroad racing game…Offroad has everything you’d expect a top-notch racing game to have–astounding 3D graphics, ultra smooth animation and quality sound.”
Client: 2XL Games
December 8, 2009 – TIME – The Top 10 Everything of 2009: Top 10 Video Games
“Exhibit A out of dozens of quality iPhone games this year: Geo-Defense Swarm, a rich, fast-paced, visually stunning take on the tower-defense genre. Tricked out with neon-glowing candy colors that show off the iPhone’s ridiculously overpowered display, Swarm is a little masterpiece of interface design, balanced game play and clever level design.”
Clients: Critical Thought Games
December 7, 2009 – Crunchgear – Review Part Deux: Gunnar Optiks
“I’ve never gotten headaches, but I did notice a marked improvement in how my eyes felt after wearing the Gunnars for a couple of days. Now, without them, I notice the strain on my eyes a lot more.”
Client: Gunnar
November 25, 2009 – Forbes – In Pictures: 10 Fun Ways To Shop Online
“For the people who have everything, consider buying something never seen before. Use a site like Zazzle to print custom T-shirts, or MojaMix to create a custom cereal.”
Client: MojaMix
November 23, 2009 – Woman’s Day - Target SkullCandy Pipe iPod Speaker Dock Giveaway
“With all the new iPods on sale at Target this holiday, you know both you and your loved ones are going to want to share your tunes with everybody. What better way to do so than with the fashionable, easy-to-use Skullcandy iPod Speaker Dock?”
Client: Target
October 29, 2009 – FastCompany.com - It’s 2009: Where Is My Online Cereal Builder?
“The last time you ordered a custom PC online, you finished configuring and wondered: what kind of world do I live in where I can’t do this with cereal? The gods of oat and honey have heeded your cry. MojaMix is an online cereal building tool that lets you custom-mix your own grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and sweet stuff into a 12-ounce bag, which is then mailed to your house.”
Client: MojaMix
October 16, 2009 – CNET.com – Crave giveaway of the week: Gunnar gaming shades
“For this week’s installment of the weekly Crave giveaway, we’ve got a little something for all you folks who like to game a lot–or have to sit all day in front of a computer screen: the new stylin’ Gunnar Optiks MLG Legend digital performance glasses, which are designed to reduce eye fatigue and increase visual performance.”
Client: Gunnar
September 12, 2009 – WIRED.com – 7 Questions With GamersGate CEO Theo Bergquist
“As a dad, I was very pleased to see a kids’ game section that seemed to have had a fair bit of thought put into it, and as a geek, I was very pleased to note that, unlike Steam, GamersGate does not require that you install and run client software on your computer in order to play your games.”
Client: GamersGate
September 5, 2009 – New York Times – Turning to Tie-Ins, Lego Thinks Beyond the Brick
“Five years after a near-death experience, Lego has emerged as an unlikely winner in an industry threatened by the likes of video games, iPods, the Internet and other digital diversions…In 2010, the first board game designed by Lego will go on sale in the United States, while its new virtual reality system, Lego Universe, will make its debut on the Web, with children able to act out roles from Lego games and build toys from virtual bricks.”
Client: LEGO Universe
September 3, 2009 – FinancialTimes.com – Pocket God Earns iPhone Worshippers
“Pocket God, an iPhone application that achieved brief omnipotence in the best-seller list and lasting adoration from gamers, serves as a pocket guide on how to make an impact on a platform where more than 65,000 apps are now vying for consumers’ attention.”
Client: Bolt Creative
August 1, 2009 – ABC News10 Sacramento – Game Guys Review: Nyko’s Wand Wii Remote
“If there’s one thing that’s been lacking as far as the Wii’s accessories and peripherals are concerned, it’s that there are no third-party or store brand controllers for it. Thanks to Nyko, that’s no longer the case. Recently the company released their Wand Wii remote and it’s the first third-party Wii Remote to legitimately hit the United States.”
Client: Nyko
