Digital Media News (week 09)
Date:
25 February 2013
Our round up of the week's biggest digital media news in Scotland and beyond
Local industry news
From the Mirror
"Ever wondered if you could be descended from a Victorian murderer? Distantly related to a Georgian highway robber? Blood relatives with an Edwardian thief? Now, a family history website is giving budding genealogists the chance to trace any villains in their family by publishing more than 2.5 million criminal records online… Family history website findmypast.co.uk is launching the records, which date from 1770 to 1934, in association with the National Archives."
From The Drum
"Edinburgh-based photoblogging platform Blipfoto has released an iPad app to capitalise on the growing amount of tablet users. The iPad app follows the launch of a dedicated iPhone app in December, which has caused a 25 per cent increase in traffic to the platform."
From Digital Trends
"'We're not working on Crackdown 3!' reads an update from Ruffian's Billy Thomson at the website for the studio's new game, Tribal Towers. 'Since Crackdown 2 was completed we’ve worked on a number of released titles, just as many prototypes and also some AAA projects that are yet to be released. The work we’ve done has seen us become a bit of an expert with Microsoft's Kinect camera, we now know the impressive CryEngine intimately and we’ve also become a dab hand with the more than capable Unity.' The aforementioned Nike+ game is the title that's helped give Ruffian its Kinect experience."
From the Herald
"Glasgow-based Park Circus, which specialises in re-releasing classic and cult films in cinemas, said there was a need to have a permanent French base to satisfy the demand in the country… Park Circus also confirmed its first major re-release into the French market will be a digital 3D restoration of Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder with screenings to take place in October."
From the Scotsman
"One of the creators of the £2 billion Halo games franchise is using software developed by an Edinburgh firm to create his latest title. Alex Seropian, who was also head of games development at Disney Interactive, has used LiveCode – a simple-to-use programming language made by RunRev – to create an 'interactive graphic novel' called Morning Star Alpha."
From Design week
"Publisher Canongate create what it says is an 'unprecedented' interactive book cover for Ruth Ozeki's new novel A Tale for the Time Being… The book is being published next month and is being released simultaneously as an ebook, audio download, hardback and paperback, and physical copies will feature an interactive cover."
From Travolution
"Meta-search site Skyscanner and digital marketing specialist Kenshoo say their collaborative 'sandbox' approach to keywords has helped them achieve some remarkable early results. David Mclean, head of search at the Edinburgh-based flight comparison site, said this has given it greater confidence in pursuing its ambitious international expansion plans. Earlier this month Skyscanner announced a trebling of its Asia Pacific numbers and plans to open an office in the US on the back of a 65% jump in revenues."
General industry
From Inside Mobile Apps
"Giordano Contestabile, who is a franchise business director at EA PopCap, was kind enough to share this slidedeck with us on how making Bejeweled Blitz freemium on iOS helped downloads go up by nine-fold. He adds that engagement and revenues are up five-fold as well. 'This was also about trying to give a wake-up call to a gaming industry that is still ambivalent about freemium,' he said."
From Venture Beat
"Monetization isn't a simple process for us mobile developers. Advertisements, paid installs, in-app purchases — these all can generate revenue for mobile app developers, but they aren't the only methods available. Our friends in the industry have taught us a number of other innovative strategies to monetize mobile apps. Here are seven of our favourites."
From The Next Web
"The BBC's commercial arm has announced a second programme for 2013. The six month programme is aimed at emerging digital media companies in the UK, with a view towards helping the selected startups gain traction and scale by working closely with them."
Reports
From Quartz
"After becoming the world's leading manufacturer of goods and largest emitter of carbon dioxide, China can add world’s leading consumer of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) to its trophy case. 'By the end of February 2013, China will have 246 million devices compared to 230 million in the U.S.,' says mobile analytics company Flurry, which estimates that its survey covers more than 90% of the world's 'smart devices'."
From Yahoo Finance
"In the first half of 2012, kids in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, South Korea, and Japan spent more than $750 million on different digital gaming activities, including downloading mobile gaming apps, purchasing virtual items in free-to-play computer and mobile games, subscribing to premium memberships, and acquiring digital games and DLC content for console and portable game devices. With growth accelerating, this will translate into over $1.5 billion for the year in these markets. This finding is based on GameByte, a syndicated global research product from Interpret LLC."
Events
From Interactive Scotland on Eventbrite
"Digital 2013 will explore the approaches of how leading organisations are “Designing their Digital Presence” and how they are generating a return on their investment - in terms of money, attention from customers, and value perceived by them. We will be exploring topics including responsive design, methods for analysing and making use of data, creation of compelling digital content, approaches to building profitable digital services and digital service definition."
The conference takes place on the 25 April at the SECC in Glasgow.
And finally ...
From the Scotsman
"A new digital archive is charting the changing face of Capital streets, with colour photos laid on historic pictures to create a unique vision… The website has been developed by the city’s library and information services with technical expertise from Eskimo Designs Ltd, a design agency based in Edinburgh."