DEADPOOL ALLOWS ACTIVISION TO RELEASE DEADPOOL VIDEO GAME TO A CAPTIVATED, SALIVATING AUDIENCE

Marvel’s Anti-hero Bestows Debut Video Game Unto Earth (and Future Moon Colonies) for Personal Gain

Mission accomplished!  I, Deadpool, have created the ultimate Deadpool video game masterpiece!  I call it…wait for it…DEADPOOL!  It’s pretty much the greatest thing I’ve made (besides my ill-fated root beer float hot tub incident of '93) and is available now in popular retail establishments and most major chimichangerias (like a taqueria…but with chimichangas!) across the UK.  Oh yeah, and those video gamey and comics guys at High Moon Studios, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), and Marvel Entertainment kind of helped, too.

“I'll never forget the day I threatened convinced Peter Della Penna, the head of High Moon Studios, to make a kick-ass, third-person comic book video game with extreme combat and bikini-exploding action, starring me,” said Deadpool, Big Chief and Head Honcho of Things & Stuff regarding DEADPOOL at High Moon Studios.  “Peter looked me lovingly in the eyes and said in return, ‘Deadpool, I'll do whatever you want; just please stop filling up my kitchen with pancakes!’  It was that first moment where I really felt like Peter and I had a connection – an understanding that has stuck with me to this very day.  Coincidentally, his family dog stuck with me too, you know…for leverage.”

Fans can rest assured that the first order of business while making DEADPOOL was purchasing a life-size replica statue of me for High Moon Studios, so that my outstanding team of talented, dedicated nerd types could gaze endlessly at it in order to make the digital me look as good as real-life me.  I also instructed them in the art of building a fast, fluid combat system that mixes all my upgradable bang-bangs with my mad kung-fu-chop saki skills and mutant abilities, so the Deadpool in DEADPOOL (i.e. that’s me…heh…), is a one-stop wrecking machine, perfect for stealth and balls-out explosive frontal assaults alike.  Forget walking away from explosions in slow motion – I jump right into them to see how hot they are…REGENERATIVE HEALING FACTOR, baby!

I also filled a windowless room with terrifying spiders and locked…er…hired veteran Deadpool writer Daniel Way and provided him with really, just a stupid amount of spiders a “package” to convince him to pen a script that would befit Marvel's most lovable character's debut as a leading man.  DEADPOOL is the rare game that plays withyou while you play with it, delivering a $#!t ton (it's just a better system of measurement, people – I can't stress that enough) of fourth-wall-eviscerating humour voiced brilliantly by yours truly, doing a bang-up imitation of what it would be like if a young up-and-comer I discovered named Nolan North were trying to sound like me (Got that?...).

I am currently available and accepting dating offers – please send full-body shots.  In other news, myDEADPOOL video game is also now available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and on Windows PC.  If you’re not into hard, packaged goods, the digital me is also available for digital download (Did you think I wouldn’t diversify my distribution network?  In this economy?  Newbs!) on the PlayStation®Network for the PS3 and Steam.  I will also be available later this summer on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360.  And of course, I…DEADPOOL, am rated PEGI 18!  Because if there’s one word that describes Deadpool, it’s “mature.” Want more information?  Well, let your fingers inappropriately caress your keyboard over to www.DeadpoolGame.com, or follow along atwww.facebook.com/RealDeadpool or on Twitter @RealDeadpool.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Deadpool

Formats:  PS3, X360 Out:  28/6/2013 Publisher:  Activision Developer:  High Moon

Official Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Vengeance Replacers Gameplay Video

The Replacers are back and ready to put you in the driver's seat of the new Vengeance DLC Map Pack...buckle up. Vengeance includes four new Multiplayer maps (Cove, Detour, Rush, Uplink), the new Zombies adventure “Buried,” and a new bonus Zombies weapon, the Ray Gun Mark II. Vengeance arrives on 2nd July on Xbox LIVE, with other platforms to follow. More info at www.callofduty.com/blackops2/dlc/dlc3-vengeance

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Formats:  PC, PS3, X360 Out:  13/11/2012 Publisher:  Activision

BECOME PART OF ASSASSIN’S CREED^® IV BLACK FLAG HISTORY

Ubisoft^® announced a unique interactive experience for Assassin’s Creed IV^® Black Flag fans, giving them the chance to be a part of Assassin’s Creed history.

137 lucky fans will be immortalised in an Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag 18th century style oil-painting, depicting an intense and epic Naval Battle on the high seas.  Brought to life by the masters at Beaux-Arts school in Paris, the 2.3 x 4.5 meter painting will be displayed online and in the Musée de la Marine gallery in France, from November 4 to December 3.

To becoming part of Assassin’s Creed history, simply send images of yourself expressing as much emotion and passion as you can muster. Share your entry via social media, watch the artwork progress over time, and ‘like’ your favourite faces. Members THE WATCH, the premium service for the Assassin’s Creed community, will have early access to the competition.

Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag tells the story of Edward Kenway, a young British man with a thirst for danger and adventure, who falls from privateering for the Royal Navy into piracy as the war between the major Empires comes to an end. Edward is a fierce pirate and seasoned fighter who soon finds himself embroiled in the ancient war between Assassins and Templars. Set at the dawn of the 18th Century, the game features some of the most infamous pirates in history, such as Blackbeard and Charles Vane, and takes players on a journey throughout the West Indies during a turbulent and violent period of time later to become known as the Golden Age of Pirates.

For more information, visit assassinscreed.com/defyhistory and immerse yourself in the Pirate life to win your place in history!

For more information on The Watch, please visit:http://www.assassinscreed.com/thewatch   

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

Formats:  PS3, WiiU, X360, XO, PC, PS4 Out:  1/11/2013 (PS3 WiiU X360)   2013 (XO)   TBA (PC PS4) Publisher:  Ubisoft

The Last of Us Review

All great games have flaws. Half Life 2’s character development focuses only on Alyx. Red Dead Redemption’s ludonarrative dissonance can reach unintentionally hilarious levels. Planescape Torment’s combat is about as enticing as yesterday’s greasy dishwater. Regardless, these games remain magnificent achievements. The most frequent criticism levelled at games however is also the most apposite: the writing. Games writing is not merely bad, it’s awful. From a troop of stubbly men shouting at each other through syrupy cod-philosophical meanderings (Yes, you Kojima) to the evocative emptiness of Dear Esther, it runs a whole spectrum of appallingly sophomoric trash. It’s sometimes argued that perhaps games simply cannot be well-written. Perhaps games are still wallowing in their juvenile phase. Every antagonist must threaten the very universe itself or, worse, New York! All emotions are overblown. All characters merely archetypes. Perhaps they should imply, as Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls do, rather than state. Perhaps, despite rare and qualified successes such as Ken Levine’s work and To the Moon, games should abandon the authored experience altogether and focus instead on emergent stories such as in Skyrim or Stalker. After all, it took film half a century to outgrow melodrama, and novels even longer. Yet, in delivering The Last of Us, Naughty Dog has answered all of the above doubts in the most emphatic manner imaginable.

            Joel, a hard-bitten survivor, must escort Ellie, a precocious smart-mouthed teen across a post-apocalyptic America because she holds the key to a cure for zombageddon. That The Last of Us’ story sounds cliché when summarised should not be cause for concern. Most stories do (An ambitious young nobleman seizes the crown at the urging of his evil wife then goes mad because of the guilt before being slain in a rousing swordfight by the righteous and rightful prince. There, that’s Macbeth - spoilers!). Story-types are few, and rely on commitment and execution for their heart. At the heart of The Last of Us are two characters, superbly performed by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, whose every nuance of expression and stance is reproduced by some seriously expensive mo-cap wizardry. As the game progresses through its four seasons, these are characters we very much come to know.

Neil Druckmann’s script lends the game weighty dramatic heft and thematic complexity. This is writing at its most poised and elegant, unafraid to simply step back and allow the characters to breathe, to walk or talk amid the ruins of a dying world. Where lesser developers would cram these silent moments with clumsy expository dialogue, Naughty Dog are confident enough in the player to let the silence speak for itself, aided only by the strains of Gustavo Santaolalla’s sparse soundtrack. The plot proceeds from character, as it should, and never once descends into cliché or excitable juvenilia. Druckmann and the game’s director, Bruce Straley, understand that those skyscrapers haunting Pittsburgh’s silent horizon need not fall upon us to be dramatic, that the Infected need not leap out from behind every fridge in cheap jump scares to elicit dread. And that men are the truest monsters of all.

            Combat is always dangerous and it’s easy to die if you don’t plan. The Last of Us is very much a survival horror, and this heritage is evident in the scarcity of ammo. On higher difficulties, it’s near impossible to progress without using stealth and carefully crafting (in real-time!) and rationing what supplies the game releases. Thus every encounter is a puzzle. Yet rather than being an exercise in controller-flinging fury, it instead transmutes into some of the greatest combat in any videogame. The human AI is frequently brilliant, flanking and hunting you while simultaneously being, crucially, just stupid enough to allow you to defeat it. The Infected AI is simpler but offers a more frenetic twist to combat. Naughty Dog’s masterstroke here though is the relative paucity of combat compared to most games. Even ones with genuine claims to excellence such as Bioshock Infinite could become tiresome with their unrelenting focus on combat, the only method of interaction with Columbia being to shoot the hell out of it for ten hours. The Last of Us’ combat is less frequent, but more intelligent and challenging and therefore more meaningful. No-one remembers shooting Generic Goon #87573. Everyone remembers taking down Phalanx in Shadow of the Colossus (you monster). Also, there are no red barrels.

            The level design is expansive and assured, offering multiple tactical options that beg to be replayed. Naughty Dog also know their world is one you’ll want to bother exploring, and have made scouring every inch as compellingly unnerving as it is necessary. Moreover, while rifling through drawers for scissors to craft your nail bombs with, you’ll occasionally come across visual vignettes that lend the world a genuine sense of place and serve to obliquely tell the story of those who survived and those who didn’t. The bloodstains I followed led me to scenes that gave me pause certainly, yet more importantly displayed Naughty Dog’s contempt for the moribund safety of well-worn videogame confines.  The Last of Us is an unapologetically provocative work, yet not simply for the sake of it. There is neither pretension nor gratuitousness here. Its core is a story that is relentlessly human, airy abstractions avoided in favour of a tale as urgent and personal as bone and blood. It is a story of a man who is far from a hero and a girl who is no damsel.

            Beyond even the superb setting, story and gameplay, The Last of Us succeeds in becoming more than the sum of its parts - its enormous success is important for the medium of games as a whole. It’s a title that ignores received wisdom. A new IP, it sold 1.6 million copies in its first week. It’s a triple-A  hardcore stealth game in an era when Ubi is gutting Splinter Cell to ‘broaden its appeal.’ It’s an old-school survival horror in a time when Capcom is busy ‘evolving’ Resident Evil 6 into something very far from its origins. It has a pony-tailed teenage girl on the cover. For those of us who have long chafed at being made to play as some grizzled super-soldier with two guns and regenerating health who’s involved in a helicopter crash every few minutes, The Last of Us feels like vindication.

            So what is its flaw? When Joel and Ellie crouch, Joel puts his arm protectively over Ellie’s shoulder in a perfect symbolic representation of the game’s main theme. In lesser games, this would be a cutscene full of violins and Enya. Typically, Naughty Dog allows the action to simply speak for itself.  After beating the game, you unlock skins for both characters, but if you equip them, for some reason Joel stops putting his arm over Ellie. Don’t equip the skins.

Gary Bowness

Games Booth Rating 10/10

PRODUCT INFORMATION

The Last of Us

Format:  PS3 Out:  14/6/2013 Publisher:  Sony Developer:  Naughty Dog

E3 Official Commented Gameplay Demo - Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag [UK]

New updates for Word Trick® 

New updates for Word Trick from Outplay Entertainment!

Word Trick iOS Free features:

·        Full screen iPhone 5 support.

·        Full screen iPad support.

·        New 2 player layout for Game Screen showing profile images (all devices).

·        New 'Chat' panel layout.

Word Trick iOS Paid features:

·        Those who purchase the paid version of the game will have a total of 50 games slots.

·        Those who already have the paid version of the game will unlock the extra game slots when they update.

·        Once a player purchases the paid version of the game, 50 game slots are unlock across all their devices and Facebook. 

Grab the game here and start playing now!

Word Trick on the App Store: http://bit.ly/10Ss0o3

Word Trick on Google Play: http://bit.ly/11AHGuB

Word Trick on Amazon Appstore: http://amzn.to/14ANxp8  

The soundtrack of a biker lifestyle: Deep Silver reveals details on the music in Ride to Hell: Retribution

Nothing goes better together than the sound of roaring engines and heavy guitars! Deep Silver today released more information on the soundtrack of the upcoming action game Ride to Hell: Retribution. The theme song is the track “Pressure and Time”, composed and performed by Rival Sons, winner of the Breakthrough Artist award at last year’s Classic Rock Awards show in London, UK. But the game contains even more Rock’n’Roll: the whole soundtrack consists of 27 tracks, which were composed and performed by the team at Pitstop Productions, using real instruments to emphasize the game’s rock and roll attitude. The soundtrack can be pre-ordered via Sumthing Else Music Works at www.sumthing.com/p/ride-to-hell-retribution/for $9.99.

The official music video for “Pressure and Time” by Rival Sons can be watched here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1MaDYbECSg

Ride to Hell: Retribution tells the story of a lone rider, Jake Conway, a man with either a gun in his hand or a girl on his lap (and on more than one occasion, both!). He’s on a merciless path of revenge against a brutal biker gang called The Devil’s Hand, armed to the teeth with an arsenal of deadly weapons to enact his vengeance on foot and on bike. The only law Jake answers to is his own.  Hit hard, ride fast and leave 'em in the dust.  Ride to Hell: Retribution is developed by Eutechnyx. The game will be available from June 2013 across North America and Europe for the Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft, Windows® PC and PlayStation 3.

For more information about the Ride to Hell universe, please visitwww.ridetohell.com. 

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Ride To Hell

Formats:  PC, PS3, X360 Out:  TBA Publisher:  Deep Silver

DEUS EX MACHINA 2 - FIRST PLAYABLE DEMO

The world's first interactive movie Deus Ex Machina 2, brings you the first playable demo, Fertilizer And Birth!  Deus Ex Machina 2 is the re imagination of the classic 1984 Game Of The Year, Deus Ex Machina, the first true multimedia video game ever made.  Written by Mel Croucher, creator of the original game, published by Automata, the first video games company in the UK, this brand new version is a darkly comic cradle-to-grave roller coaster of your entire life. It takes you on a surreal journey from before your own birth, all the way through the temptations and dangers of your life, and beyond your own death.  Christopher Lee's narration ranges from chilling to deeply moving as he takes over the role played by "Doctor Who" Jon Pertwee in the original version. The music's great too! The late lamented Ian Dury has been remastered for a "live" reprise of his original role, including his kick in the teeth duet against video games that encourage greed and violence.

Deus Ex Machina 2 has been translated into 19 languages, the soundtrack album has been released, and the book of the game includes the no-holds-barred inside story of how the computer games industry started and where it's heading. But before the reborn version of his classic game is let loose, Mel Croucher is determined to get as many players involved as possible to have their say on how it looks and plays. "All I had to do was stay alive for another thirty years and wait for the technology to catch up," Croucher says. "That and wait for the wonder of crowd-funding to be born." He declares, "Back in the day, we never sold out to banks, advertisers or parasites, we only ever dealt direct with our players. Now we can reward them in advance thanks to mechanisms like Kickstarter."

So, can you outwit your wriggly rivals and outrun the Squidcams? Play the first demo here now: http://bit.ly/1aue61T

For more information please visit the Kickstarter page at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1552445321/deus-ex-machina-2

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, The LEGO Group and TT Games unleash LEGO® Legends of Chima™: Laval's Journey

The Fate of Chima^TM Rests in Your Hands in the All-New LEGO Videogame Adventure for the Nintendo 3DS^TM and PlayStation^® Vita

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announcedLEGO® Legends of Chima™: Laval's Journey will be available for the Nintendo 3DS^TM and PlayStation® Vita handheld systems in Europe on 21^st June. A Nintendo DS^TM version will follow this Autumn, as will a free-to-play online world, LEGO Legends of Chima™ Online. The new games all complement a line of branded products and TV content based on the LEGO Legends of Chima™ action packed world ruled by eight animal tribes that tells the classic story of good and evil, friendship and family.

“Kids will have a great time embarking on new adventures, living out a fantasy of traveling to captivating worlds and discovering new things,” said Tom Stone, Marketing Director, TT Games Publishing.  “LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval’s Journey offers an entirely new and exciting virtual playground for kids to explore, build, solve puzzles, all the while playing as their favorite Legends of Chima characters.”

In LEGO Legends of Chima:  Laval's Journey, players embark on an amazing adventure with Laval, the brave warrior and headstrong prince of the Lion Tribe, who is determined to fight for justice. On this epic journey, Laval races to unlock the secret of the legendary triple-CHI armor before his arch-rival, Crocodile King, Cragger, can  manipulate its awesome power to threaten the balance of Chima.

Players leap, swing, fly and fight through 15 levels of intense action and gameplay, all while exploring the vast lands of Chima, discovering and unlocking more than 60 characters, collecting and using a variety of tools, and reaching secret parts of the game to access hidden collectibles.

In addition, players earn points in LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval’s Journey that can be redeemed through the Chima Vault, found online at www.lego.com/chima/the-vault, which houses an exclusive reward system.  The points give players access to exclusive items that they can use to enhance their experience in LEGO Legends of Chima Online when the online world releases later this year.

Developed by TT Games, LEGO Legends of Chima:  Laval's Journey is rated PEGI 7+. For more information, please visit. LEGO.com/videogames.com.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey

Formats:  3DS, DS, PSV Out:  21/06/2013 (3DS)   2013 (DS PSV) Publisher:  Warner Bros.

TERROR IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE!


The Trellborg Monstrosities by John Houlihan is a standalone adventure for both hardened Call of Cthulhu& Savage Worlds veterans and newcomers alike and is set in 1943 as the tide of war is finally turning against the Nazi war machine. Aiming to sate the hunger for new Achtung! Cthulhu adventures ahead of the release of the Investigator’s & Keeper’s Guides in September, this is the first in line of a new standalone 'Adventure Series' that will be released as a compilation in Spring 2014. 

Join a band of heroic investigators, including resistance partisans and British special forces, as they plunge deep behind enemy lines on the frozen Norwegian - Finnish border to confront an ancient horror and a terrifying artefact which could alter the course of the war. Based onThe Trellborg Monstrosities, the horrifying novella by John Houlihan which is included free with every purchase. 

Inside you will find everything that you need for hours of gripping roleplaying adventure including: 

- A standalone 56 page multi-part adventure for hours of spine-chilling play.
- Detailed maps of the frozen border of Norway and Finland, the village of Trellborg, and an abandoned Nazi camp with separate handout files.
- Four pre-generated investigator characters to get you straight into the action. 
- Rules for new skills, spells and equipment. 
- Includes the 65 Page Novella 'The Monstrosities at Trellborg' by John Houlihan set in the Achtung! Cthulhu universe featuring the character Seraph.

Requires the Call of Cthulhu 6th edition OR Savage Worlds rulebook to play. Each version can be purchased from RPGNow priced $11.99

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/115617/Achtung%21-Cthulhu---Adventure-Series---The-Trellborg-Monstrosities---For-Call-of-Cthulhu

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/115619/Achtung%21-Cthulhu---Adventure-Series---The-Trellborg-Monstrosities---For-Savage-Worlds

The Trellborg Monstrosities will be continued in Tomb of Aeons and The Crystal Void, the next two Seraph novellas that will be released as The Seraph Chronicles Volume One. 

For further information on Modiphius, Achtung! Cthulhu or the Trellborg Monstrosities please contact us herehttp://www.modiphius.com/contact.html 

www.modiphius.com
www.facebook.com/modiphius 

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN BETA PHASE 3 CONTINUES THIS WEEKEND ON PS3 & PC

                                                                    
Square Enix today announced that FINAL FANTASY® XIV: A Realm Reborn™Beta phase 3 will continue this weekend on both PlayStation®3 and PC.

Running across weekends through June and into July, Beta phase 3 brings a huge amount of new content to the fore, with the vast city states of Limsa Lominsa, Ul’dah and Gridania all available for players to explore.

Timings for the second weekend of Beta phase 3 are as follows:

Friday June 21, 10:00 a.m.  => Sunday June 23, 10:00 a.m. (UK Time)

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn is scheduled for release on August 27th 2013, for both the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC systems, and will be coming to the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system in 2014.

Related Links

Beta Sign Up: http://entry.ffxiv.com/beta/eu
Official Website: www.finalfantasyxiv.com
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FinalFantasyXIV
Official Twitter: @FF_XIV_EN
Official YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FINALFANTASYXIV
View the E3 trailer here: http://youtu.be/LWeTxlVXVTE
 

So when it came to assembling the cast of super-strong heroes and weirdos that were going to appear in my new game, DEADPOOL, from Activision Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Entertainment, I went through binders of men and women (heh…you…you guys remember that? That guy who did that?) to build the most genderfully diverse roster of freaks in spandex you’ve ever seen. I’ve recruited some of the most powerful, intelligent, lovely ladies from the Marvelverse for this game: Psylocke. Domino. Wolverine. The list goes on.

And uhh – heh – a certain catch du jour you may have heard of by the name of Rogue? The Southern belle with the kicks from Hell will be MY contractually obligated co-star!

Mmmmmm – check, please!

Okay. Play it cool, Pool. Gotta think of a really awesome line to impress a Southern lady this classy and elegant. <slicks back facial scarring> “Hey there, sugah… I hear you absorb powers. Well, you've certainly absorbed my affection!” No? Hmm…what about “How would you like to join Domino and Psylocke as the inaugural class of Deadpool’s School for Gifted Making Out?” and then I just stare deeply into her eyes for like 15 minutes in silence? Wait, okay, what if I was just like “Damn, girl, you must be Rogue, because you're sucking the life out of me…” NO! Okay, well, if we break up that'll be good, but…

GUH! This is difficult! Only now do I understand your burden, everyone on a reality dating show. You – you are the real heroes.

DEADPOOL is available 28^th June for Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and PC and is rated PEGI 18. For more information, please go to my website, like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Deadpool

Formats:  PS3, X360 Out:  28/6/2013 Publisher:  Activision Developer:  High Moon

Skylanders Named Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year;
Hot Topic Nabs Best Retailer of the Year for The Hunger Games

The top licensed properties and products of the past year have earned their highest honors: International Licensing Excellence Awards from the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA). Skylanders by Activision Publishing, Inc. was named Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year and Hot Topic received the Best Retailer of the Year Award for The Hunger Games. This year’s 15 Awards recipients were chosen from a ballot of stellar nominees via an industry-wide search and determined by a vote of LIMA’s membership. The winners of the industry’s most prestigious annual Awards were announced tonight at the LIMA Awards Ceremony during Licensing Expo 2013.

“It was a tough competition this year, as there were so many wonderful licensed properties and programs from all around the world to choose from – and our members rose to the challenge with a list of deserving honorees,” said LIMA President Charles Riotto. “The 2013 Award winners delivered outstanding entertainment value to consumers on a global scale, while helping to lead licensing industry growth for the second consecutive year.”

LIMA’s International Licensing Excellence Awards honor the best, most successful licensed properties, products and campaigns in five distinct categories: Art or Design; Character or Toy Brand; Corporate Brand; Film, Television, Celebrity or Entertainment; and Sports. In addition, awards are presented for the Best Licensed Promotion of the Year, Best Retailer of the Year and Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year.

The latest crop of Awards winners (listed by category) are:

ART OR DESIGN

• Best Art or Design Program of the Year
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar/The World of Eric Carle (by Eric Carle Studio/The Joester Loria Group)
• Best Art or Design Licensee of the Year
  • Kids Preferred for The Very Hungry Caterpillar/The World of Eric Carle)

CHARACTER OR TOY BRAND

• Best Character or Toy Brand Program of the Year
  • Skylanders (by Activision Publishing, Inc.)
• Best Character or Toy Brand Licensee of the Year – Hard Goods
  • LEGO (for Marvel Super Heroes)
• Best Character or Toy Brand Licensee of the Year – Soft Goods
  • Alfred Angelo (for Disney Fairy Tale Weddings)

CORPORATE BRAND

• Best Corporate Brand Program of the Year
  • HGTV HOME (by HGTV HOME/Beanstalk)
• Best Corporate Brand Licensee of the Year
  • Sherwin-Williams (for HGTV HOME)

FILM, TELEVISION, CELEBRITY, OR ENTERTAINMENT

• Best Film, Television, Celebrity, or Entertainment Program of the Year
  • Marvel’s The Avengers (by The Walt Disney Company/Marvel Entertainment)
• Best Film, Television, Celebrity, or Entertainment Licensee of the Year – Hard Goods
  • CVS/Pharmacy (for NUANCE Salma Hayek)
• Best Film, Television, Celebrity, or Entertainment Licensee of the Year – Soft Goods
  • Vans (for Yo Gabba Gabba!)

SPORTS

• Best Sports Program of the Year
  • National Basketball Association
• Best Sports Licensee of the Year
  • Junk Food Clothing Co. (for Vintage NFL)

PROMOTION

• Best Licensed Promotion of the Year
• 50 Years the Art of Soup: Campbell Soup Company (for Andy Warhol at Target)
• 
  

RETAILER

• Best Retailer of the Year
  • Hot Topic (for The Hunger Games)
  • 
    

OVERALL BEST LICENSED PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

• Skylanders (by Activision Publishing, Inc.)

For a full list of this year’s nominees and more information about our annual Awards program, visit the LIMA website,www.licensing.org.