Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
Marina and The Diamonds are working on some new music, but Marina is being very secretive about it. Although the release has been delayed, she let’s us in on some secrets about the new album, and how alcohol changed her life.
Well this one is fresh off the presses. So all of a sudden something about the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi being hit by a thrown statue is the headline of the day. I say it’s the work of Ezio from Assassins Creed 2.
I feel bad for the Italian PM, however he is lucky Al-Tair wasn’t after him. Besides, the man will make a full recovery.
So really have you seen this clip? It is pretty wild! Well that Ezio sure has a sense of humour.
Anyhow enjoy the image by clicking on it.
Ubisoft has released the first of three Assassin’s Creed promotional short films on the World Wide Web via YouTube.
Developed by Ubisoft Digital Arts as well as Ubisoft’s Hybride Technologies (yes, the visual masterminds behind the hit films Sin City and 300) have unleashed a live action introduction into the world of Assassin’s Creed 2. Staring the game’s main character Ezio’s Father, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze. With a mix of live action combined with CGI backdrops and special effects the films will tell of the growth of Assassin’s Creed’s protagonist and how he came to be where he is now.
The film series will entice gamers to get more involved in this upcoming title (which by the way, I had the chance to demo and was AMAZING) and give them a feel of the Italian Renaissance period they will be playing in. With Assassin’s Creed 2 coming out November 17th, 2009, this little taste will have you begging for more.
And what’s this? We have the Assassin’s Creed Lineage video embedded right here after the break! CLICK MORE to see it! (more…)
Ubisoft’s Quebec studios created an original IP titled Battle of Giants, the series grew in popularity to spawn a sequel – Battle of Giants: Dragons which has hit store shelves For the Nintendo DS and DSi.
This unique game focuses on giant beasts (dragons in this game’s case) that you use and duel with other players. The 3D engine is quite impressive and the promise of a deep upgrade centric quest ensures that you’ll always be playing hard to get that extra power up to best your friends with.
Adding to the list is a cross promotional card game that takes the experience beyond the game.
Pretty cool stuff, now lets bring on Dragons vs. Dinosaurs
Nadeo? who’s Nadeo?
This was the first question I asked myself when we received this press release, however, it turns out this is quite the big deal! Trackmania, ever heard of it? The hugely popular mulitplayer racing game developer Nadeo with over 700,000 unique visitors per month has been consumed by Ubisoft to help build their online multiplayer offerings in the years to come.
“The acquisition of Nadeo is an important step in our expansion within the on-line gaming sector”, said Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft. “Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best on-line technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivalled reputation among a loyal and committed community. We are excited about the idea of introducing TrackMania® to an ever-wider audience and sharing the expertise of Nadeo’s teams with our Group’s other developers”.
Ubisoft, whom often acquires leading firms in areas they would like to increase their expertise in through shared knowledge will gain a strong boost in their online offerings through this acquisition. Can’t wait to see what comes of this!
So news about Ubisoft coming to Toronto isn’t exactly new, but this comic sure is!
Anyhow, it’s pretty fun stuff knowing what’s going to change around the city. Can you imagine andPOP actually having a full fledged interview with Ubi and their TO studio!!!??
Pretty cool stuff.
What else can we nab for our fine city?? How about Michael Practer?
As always click on the image to enjoy the comic in full sized glory!
Yep, that’s right Might and Magic are back yet again, but this time in portable DS goodness. While I’m still unsure on the mechanics of this Might and Magic title (strategy puzzler?) you cannot deny the awesomeness the trailer provides for a portable taste of fantasy brand goodness.
While Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is only coming out this fall, we have a nice little trailer to keep us excited until the actual release date. Developed by Toronto independent Capybara Studios, the Might and Magic brand continues to live on, on a much smaller scale. To see this trailer, continue on will this article. (more…)
Sheer moments ago, Ubisoft, along with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced plans to open up a new high tech studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This new Ubisoft studio, named Ubisoft Toronto came about from the Ontario Government’s invesement of $263 million (Canadian) over the next ten years into Ubisoft with Ubisoft investing over half a billion dollars themselves over the same ten year span.
With operations begining in late 2009, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat will be heading up Ubisoft Toronto, creating over 800 direct jobs over the next decade. Ubisoft will work on Triple-A games and will emulate the proven business model and creative excellence for which Ubisoft is know. (more…)
Ubisoft announced in a press release Thursday the launch of the Far Cry 2 space in PlayStation Home’s closed beta in North America and Europe. Far Cry 2 will be the first third-party video game environment for the PlayStation Home, a 3D social gaming community where PlayStation 3 users can meet and plan to launch games together. Users are able to create their custom character, decorate their virtual apartments, play mini-games and attend special events, among other activities.
The Far Cry 2 space in PlayStation Home will allow users to gather information about the game, learn about various strategic elements, and play mini-games related to the title.
With the announcement of its better-than-expected sales from Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Assassins Creed along with the purchase of the rights to the Tom Clancy franchise, which will see a number of releases in the near future, Ubisoft has recently made its strong presence in the gaming industry not only seen, but felt.
Adding to its momentum is the announcement that it has successfully negotiated an agreement with Gameloft to acquire its development studio in Pune, India.
“Following on the recent announcement of our new Singapore studio, this acquisition will reinforce Ubisoft’s presence in Asia and the southeast region in particular,” stated Christine Burgess-Quémard, executive director, worldwide studios at Ubisoft. “India has a promising future in the videogame industry and this is an opportunity for us to establish ourselves in the country.”
The studio, which was established in 2006, is home to 120 developers and tester who will initially focus on porting titles to handheld devices (mobile phones) and reinforce Ubisoft’s testing teams. Ubisoft hopes to be 200 developers strong within 12 months and plans to eventually grow the team to 500 people. An easy enough task considering Pune’s university system graduates 80 000 engineers each year.
The financial details of the deal weren’t mentioned along with any names of titles that the studio will be developing.
Unfortunately, until North America’s mobile phone technology catches up with that of Asia, no one really cares about mobile gaming.
Ubisoft raised its fiscal 07-08 outlook based on better than expected sales from key franchises.
Ubisoft expects full-year 07-08 sales to reach ?920 million (roughly $1.45 billion) rather than the previously estimated ?875 million (roughly $1.37 billion). Fourth quarter expectations were also raised from ?165 million to ?210 million.
Yves Guillemot, President and CEO of Ubisoft stated in a press release, “As expected, 2008 is off to be a record year for the videogame market and our games have performed remarkably well in this context. Assassin?s Creed and our Games For Everyone brands continued their strong performance and Tom Clancy?s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 had a better than expected start.?
A nearly-two-million-copies-sold-in-two-weeks better than expected start. And with the Tom Clancy license under its belt, Ubisoft has a very comfortable future ahead of them.
French developer Ubisoft announced today that it will be opening its 18th internal development studio in Singapore; its second in the region.
The decision to establish the new studio in Singapore is due largely to the willingness of its government to support the industry. Singapore is also home to a thriving local game industry as well as quality universities and training facilities.
“Singapore’s demonstrated interest and support for the video game industry made it a clear choice for Ubisoft?s continued international expansion,” said Christine Burgess-Quémard, Executive Director, Worldwide Studios at Ubisoft. ?Not only is it capable of ensuring the training and continued development of a highly skilled workforce specialized in interactive digital media, its quality of life and level of industrialization makes it uniquely positioned to attract and retain talent from throughout the region.”
“The Digital Media industry is key for Singapore and the development of high-growth, innovation-intensive sectors such as videogames is of significant priority to us,” said Mr Manohar Khiatani, Assistant Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. “We are delighted that Ubisoft, one of the world’s leading video game publishers and developers, has chosen Singapore as a site for the largest games studio in the region. We are confident that Ubisoft will be able to tap Singapore’s talent base and unique cosmopolitan mix to design creative games for the global markets.”
The studio will be headed by Olivier de Rotalier, director of Cost Control for its International Production studios, and will host a team of veterans who will work closely with other Ubisoft studios to help in the training process.
The Singapore studio is expected to open this summer and will eventually be home to 300 employees.
