“The Amazing Adventures of Thomas and Erin with Granddad – The Zoo” by John Vasey follows the fun-loving trio on a new outing to see gorillas, tigers, elephants and more

SYDNEY, Australia (MMD Newswire) August 30, 2011 — “The Amazing Adventures of Thomas and Erin with Granddad – The Zoo” (ISBN 1463522843), an illustrated children’s book by John Vasey, is the latest installment in a series of adventures that follow two precocious children and their grandfather at interesting locations.

Written as a sequel to the successful publication of “The Amazing Adventures of Thomas and Erin with Granddad – The Market,” the book continues Vasey’s emphasis on simple descriptions and colorful illustrations. This time around, the trio visits a local zoo where they see giraffes, elephants, gorillas and even a group of bears eating lunch. Thomas and Erin eat lunch at the zoo and eventually leave after a long day of exciting sights, sounds and smells.

“After the incredible success of the first book, I wanted to continue the theme of connecting grandchildren to their grandparent in a simple, straightforward way” says Vasey. “It provides an entertaining tale that any granddad can read to his grandchildren.”

Inspired by Vasey’s grandchildren, the real-life Thomas and Erin, the book is designed for children ages 5 and under. Young readers will identify with the children’s relationship with their grandfather, who loves spending time with them and provides a gentle and kind guide to the world around them. The book also features a space for children to draw a picture of their own grandparent.

“The Amazing Adventures of Thomas and Erin with Granddad – The Zoo” is available for sale online at Amazon.com and other channels.

About the Author

John Vasey is an experienced technical director of live music productions and is currently touring Southeast Asia with a production of “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.” He is also the author of two professional guides, “Concert Tour Production Management” and “Concert Sound and Lighting Systems.” Vasey is the proud father of three children and grandfather of the real-life Thomas and Erin.

At this year’s GamesCom, legendary Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono faced off against TEKKEN producer Katsuhiro Harada, in yet another epic battle over which fighting game franchise reigns supreme.

Following the panel and competition at Comic-Con 2011, fans in Germany got their opportunity to participate, pitting their two support groups against each other in a series of German-flavoured challenges. A highlight video is now available for download on the Capcom press centre.

Street Fighter x Tekken delivers the ultimate tag team match up featuring iconic characters from each franchise, and one of the most robust character line ups in fighting game history. With the addition of new gameplay mechanics, the acclaimed fighting engine from Street Fighter IV has been refined to suit the needs of both Street Fighter and Tekken players alike. Street Fighter x Tekken is headed to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, with more details on the PlayStation Vita version in the future.

Kind regards

Starting August 30^th Through Mid-September Karma Online Players Can Participate In the Axis Vs. Allies War, A Clan Match Event And A Happy Hour Event; All With Great In-Game Prizes  

Seoul, Korea, August 30, 2011 – Joymax, a leading online game developer and publisher, announced today that its first-person shooter World War II game, Karma Online: Prisoners of the Dead, has released new screenshots today and also announced all-new events to kick off the month of September. To learn more about the game, players can visit http://www.joymax.com/karma/

Axis vs. Allies War

The Axis vs. Allies War event will run from August 30^th through September 14^th. Players currently not belonging to a clan are free to choose their allegiance; otherwise they must follow under the camp and leadership of their clan master. The Gold Prize will be awarded to the Top Clan of the winning camp: 5,000 Silk will be awarded to the clan master (Silk can be gifted to clan members) with +50000KP and a Turkish Dagger (7 days) going to each Clan Member.  The Silver Prize, a Clan Mark Switch Coupon, will be awarded to the Top 5 Clans of each camp (10 in total), and for the Bronze Prize, a Victory Skin (lasts 30 days), will be applied to the nicknames of the winning camp members.

Points gained by individuals from general game play will be also counted towards total Clan & Camp points! Winners will be announced September 15^th and prizes will be awarded on September 20^th.

Clan Match

From August 30^th through September 14^th players can participate in the Clan Match event with the Top 3 Clans with the most accumulated clan points receiving the Clan Mark.  Prizes include: 1^st Place Clan Mark (30 days) + Berreta M92FS (7 days) + Quick Respawn (7 days); 2^nd Place Clan Mark (30 days) + Berreta M92FS (7 days); and 3^rd Place Clan Mark (30 days) + Quick Respawn (3 days). Winners will be announced September 15^th and prizes will be awarded on September 20^th.

Happy Hour

Between August 30^th and September 20^th players will get +50%KP and +50%EXP bonuses just by connecting and playing the game during “happy hours”.  The Happy Hour event times are from 12:00AM – 3:00AM and 5:00AM – 8:00AM and again from 6:00PM – 9:00PM*.

Joymax standard time (GMT+9)

About Karma Online: Prisoners of The Dead

Developed in conjunction with Dragonfly, and published by Joymax, KARMA Online: Prisoners of the Dead is the newest installment in the KARMA Online series, the top online first-person shooter series in Korea. Players go back in time to World War II, where they must choose to side with the Axis or Allied powers and join the fight for global victory – with a zombie twist.  In this virtual and historical simulation, players will be up against enemy troops as well as hundreds of the walking dead from the remains of the catastrophic battle. KARMA Online: Prisoners of the Dead will be available in English, German, Spanish and Turkish.

To become a fan of Karma Online: Prisoners of the Dead, players can visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/KarmaPOD or http://twitter.com/karmapod   and http://www.youtube.com/user/KarmaPOD 

                                                                                              ###

About Joymax

Since its establishment in April, 1997, Joymax has been developing and publishing quality games for the emerging online game industry of the 21st century. Based in Seoul, Korea, the company has published numerous titles for the PC market.  With its first MMORPG, Silkroad Online, the game has grown to offer service in over 200 countries since its 2004 launch. Joymax is a proven global entertainment company, providing multimedia content for all. For more information, please visit http://www.joymax.com

About Dragonfly

Established in 1995, Dragonfly is the developer of the world’s first Online FPS, Karma Online. Dragonfly’s broad credits also include co-developing famous titles with Activision, including both Quake Wars Online and Soldier of Fortune Online. Dragonfly continues to build on its other signature titles as it expands towards distribution overseas. For more information, please visit www.dragonflygame.com/eng/.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – August 30, 2011 – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for awesome games and interactive 3D on the web, iOS, Android, consoles and beyond, today announced the finalists for the 2011 Unity Awards. The finalists were chosen from an extensive and stellar list of games, entertainment and apps made with the Unity engine. Winners will be announced at Unite 11, Unity Technologies’ fifth annual developer conference taking place September 28 – 30, 2011 at the Masonic Center in San Francisco.

Unity Award finalists display some of the best and brightest professional and amateur talent within the video game industry across platforms from iOS and Facebook to PlayStation 3 and PC. The finalists in each category are:
Student

— 1916 – Der Unbekannte Krieg (Team 2 DADIU)
— Blokhead (Team Blokhead)
— Branch (Awesome Games DADIU)
— Broken Dimensions (Team Twisted DADIU)
— GLiD (GLiD)
— Unstoppaball (Matthew Zarzecki)

Non-Game

— A+E 3D (Apluse)
— Aircraft Marshalling Virtual Trainer (Heartwood Inc.)
— CliniSpace (CliniSpace)
— Let’s Create! Pottery HD (Infinite Dreams)
— Tiga Talk Speech Therapy Games (Tactica Interactive)
— Virtual History Roma (Mondadori Digital)

Cross-Platform

— BattleBall (Schell Games)
— Buddy Rush (Sollmo)
— Margaritaville Online (Exploding Barrel Games)
— Shadow Era (Wulven Game Studios)
— UberStrike (Cmune Games)

Graphics

— Cordy (SilverTree Media)
— Gears (Crescent Moon Games)
— Mini Motor Racing (The Binary Mill)
— Rochard (Recoil)
— Siegecraft (Crescent Moon Games)
— Sky Legends (Smart Bomb Interactive)

Gameplay

— BasketDudes (Bitoon)
— King’s Bounty: Legions (Nival Interactive)
— Pulse: Volume One (Cipher Prime)
— Rochard (Recoil)
— Sky Legends (Smart Bomb Interactive)
— Snuggle Truck (Owlchemy Labs)

Grand Prix

— BasketDudes (Bitoon)
— Battleheart (Mika Mobile)
— Battlestar Galactica Online (Artplant, BigPoint)
— Gears (Crescent Moon Games)
— Rochard (Recoil)
— Sky Legends (Smart Bomb Interactive)

Community Choice

— BasketDudes (Bitoon)
— Battleheart (Mika Mobile)
— Battlestar Galactica Online (Artplant, BigPoint)
— Boccia (Sainsbury or Preloaded?)
— Gears (Crescent Moon Games)
— Marvel Super Hero Squad Online (Gazillion)
— Monkey Quest (Behavior, Nickelodeon)
— Runespell (Mystic Box)
— Snuggle Truck (Owlchemy Labs)
— UberStrike (Cmune Games)

To cast a vote for the Community Choice award, simply visit http://unity3d.com/awards/!

About Unite 11

Unity Technologies is holding Unite 11, its fifth annual developer conference, September 28 – 30, 2011 at the Masonic Center in San Francisco. Unite 11 is an event for developers, publishers, enthusiasts and others interested in Unity to come together to learn more about the market-leading platform for creating high quality video games, training simulations, medical and architectural visualizations and other 3D interactive content — and how to get the most out of it.

Unite 11 will offer three days of learning including advanced hands-on class tutorials, technical sessions and an opportunity to attend awesome parties. David Brevik, the President and COO of Gazillion Entertainment and Co-Creator and Lead Programmer of Diablo and Diablo II, will give the opening keynote. This year’s sponsors include AikenLabs, Allegorithmic, design3, Electrotank, Exit Games, Intel, Luxology, Massive Black, Mixamo, NVIDIA, OpenFeint, Qualcomm, SoftKinetic and Sony Ericsson. Unity Technologies is hosting a Flash Day on September 27, the day before Unite 11 kicks off to give Flash users a crash course in Unity development. For more information on Unite 11 and Flash Day, simply visit: http://unity3d.com/unite/.

About Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies is revolutionizing the game industry with Unity, its award-winning breakthrough development platform. Unity Technologies has more than 500,000 registered users worldwide — including Bigpoint, Cartoon Network, Coca-Cola, Disney, Electronic Arts, LEGO, Microsoft, NASA, Nickelodeon, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., large and small studios, indies, students and hobbyists — all using Unity to create games and interactive 3D, like training simulations and medical and architectural visualizations, on the web, mobile, consoles and beyond. Unity Technologies is aggressively innovating to expand usability, power and platform reach along with its Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service so that it can deliver on its vision of democratizing interactive 3D technology. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has development offices worldwide. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unity3d
Twitter: http://twitter.com/unity3d

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (HD Veil Gameplay Trailer)

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (HD Gameplay Trailer)

Melbourne, Australia, 30 August 2011 – Australian consumer electronics manufacturer and retailer Kogan.com today announced record yearly growth for FY10-11.

With Australian shoppers migrating online to buy consumer electronics, home appliances and other goods, Kogan experienced a tremendous year of growth.

Key figures:

• The number of products purchased increased by 264% in FY 11 compared to FY 10, showing that more and more people are buying online.
• Traffic to kogan.com.au increased 104.28% in FY11 compared to FY 10 – showing that more people are researching and looking for hot deals online.
• While in store, customers spent 6.62% more time looking around in FY 11 compared to FY 10, showing that people are spending more time investigating the best deals and doing a lot of research online before making a purchase decision.
• Conversion rates (traffic which turned into customers) increased 85.42% – showing that shoppers are more willing to make purchases online, especially for big-ticket items.
• Revenue increased close to 100% in FY 11 compared to FY 10 showing that even though the price of consumer electronics is rapidly dropping, shoppers are buying more and more online, and the Kogan business is growing at a rapid rate.

Ruslan Kogan said the strong figures were indicative of the boom in online retail and Kogan’s constant innovation.

“We’ve been leading the online retail push in Australia for over 5 years now, and these figures show that Australian consumers are now migrating online in droves.

“While traditional retailers are reporting slowdowns and losses, Australian shoppers are reaping the benefits of the best prices and convenience of online stores. We’re innovating our business each and every day to ensure we keep giving consumers exactly what they want at unbeatable prices.

“Traditional retail is struggling, but it doesn’t mean the entire retail industry is in the same boat. As you can see, we’re experiencing tremendous growth with no sign of slowing down.

“While some bricks and mortar stores will inevitably close down, opportunities abound in the online space. We are creating new jobs every single day, and the team at Kogan has more than doubled over the past year,” Ruslan Kogan said 

Melbourne, Australia, 30 August 2011 – Australian consumer electronics manufacturer and retailer Kogan.com today announced record yearly growth for FY10-11.

With Australian shoppers migrating online to buy consumer electronics, home appliances and other goods, Kogan experienced a tremendous year of growth.

Key figures:

• The number of products purchased increased by 264% in FY 11 compared to FY 10, showing that more and more people are buying online.
• Traffic to kogan.com.au increased 104.28% in FY11 compared to FY 10 – showing that more people are researching and looking for hot deals online.
• While in store, customers spent 6.62% more time looking around in FY 11 compared to FY 10, showing that people are spending more time investigating the best deals and doing a lot of research online before making a purchase decision.
• Conversion rates (traffic which turned into customers) increased 85.42% – showing that shoppers are more willing to make purchases online, especially for big-ticket items.
• Revenue increased close to 100% in FY 11 compared to FY 10 showing that even though the price of consumer electronics is rapidly dropping, shoppers are buying more and more online, and the Kogan business is growing at a rapid rate.

Ruslan Kogan said the strong figures were indicative of the boom in online retail and Kogan’s constant innovation.

“We’ve been leading the online retail push in Australia for over 5 years now, and these figures show that Australian consumers are now migrating online in droves.

“While traditional retailers are reporting slowdowns and losses, Australian shoppers are reaping the benefits of the best prices and convenience of online stores. We’re innovating our business each and every day to ensure we keep giving consumers exactly what they want at unbeatable prices.

“Traditional retail is struggling, but it doesn’t mean the entire retail industry is in the same boat. As you can see, we’re experiencing tremendous growth with no sign of slowing down.

“While some bricks and mortar stores will inevitably close down, opportunities abound in the online space. We are creating new jobs every single day, and the team at Kogan has more than doubled over the past year,” Ruslan Kogan said

BTS with Josh Keaton

BTS with Christopher Daniel Barnes

One of The Best-Selling Mobile Games of All Time is Now Free for the First Time Ever  

Sydney, Australia – (29 August 2011) — EA Mobile™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: ERTS) and the world’s leading mobile games publisher, along with Blue Planet Software, Inc., the company that manages the exclusive licensing rights to the Tetris® brand, today announced that it will publish a free* version of the Tetris game set to launch exclusively on Android™ smartphones. Published on over 50 platforms and available in more than 185 countries, the Tetris game is one of the most-played video games in the world and has been embraced by hundreds of millions of fans globally. The free version of Tetris joins the recently launched SCRABBLE Free as EA’s second free offering on the Android platform. 

“Tetris is one of the most distinctive, well-known and popular video game franchises in the world and it gives EA the opportunity to grow its already-expanding customer base on the Android platform,” said Bernard Kim, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for EA Interactive. “Tetris has a strong legacy in the mobile gaming world and we’re excited to bring a free version of Tetris to yet another great platform.”

The free version of Tetris features new and improved visuals, the famous Tetris music and fan-favorite marathon mode that will challenge even the most seasoned of Tetris veterans. With touch screen controls, longtime fans and newcomers alike can control their game with their fingertips and slide, rotate and drop their Tetriminos into place to clear lines and rack up points. The free version of Tetris also lets players track their stats so they can keep the competition going and improve their high score.

“The Tetris brand is more relevant today than ever and we are thrilled to bring the game to yet another platform,” said Henk Rogers, President and CEO, Blue Planet Software, Inc. “Now, with the free version for Android users, fans can fall in love with the Tetris game all over again.”

The free version of Tetris is now available in the Android Market at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ea.tetrisfree_na&feature=search_result.  For more information about this product, please visit www.eamobile.com. 

EA Mobile has a solid reputation for its pioneering and market leadership in mobile gaming. For more information about EA Mobile, please visit www.EAMobile.com, join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EAMobile or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EAMobile.

*Wireless fees may apply.