Round Up: Negreanu Poker; Pop Stars & Wombs; Happy Feet

–I-play has signed a deal with poker champion Daniel Negreanu for some branded mobile content. First they are releasing a series of 100 made-for-mobile video clips spanning the basic fundamentals of poker right through to more advanced topics such as tournament play, no-limit strategy, tells/bluffs to Hot Tips from Negreanu in Las Vegas. This is a departure from I-play’s normal business of mobile games. That’s coming later this year, and is described by I-play as a “next generation mobile poker game”, with the bonus being that the artificial intelligence in the game is being tested against Negreanu…so the people who learned from his clips and try out their style against him. Negreanu is a champion player, so the should benefit in the same way that Kasparov Chess benefited from the chess master.

–Talpa Scandinavia, the Sweden-based formats engine set up by John de Mol and Strix executives, has a couple of mobile shows on the boil, reports C21 Media. One is an 8-week series which gets wannabe pop stars to submit via mobile video, which is collected into short collections that people can vote on, with the popular ones made available in full. Another one is the ‘interactive antenatal clinic’ Call Me Baby, which provides information on parenthood as well as giving “the chance to broadcast images from their womb, produce facts about themselves and establish communities via mobile and the web”.

–Artificial Life has signed up with Warner Bros to make a mobile game based on Happy Feet, which makes sense considering the company has already put out Virtual Penguin. The new “Happy Feet” mobile game will consist of six mini-games that closely resemble key scenes and themes from the award-winning movie. The mini-games can also be played as separate games. (release)

–Gameloft has signed a deal with DreamWorks Animation to create a mobile game based on Shrek the Third. The game will be released across 170 operators in more than 75 countries in conjunction with the film’s May 18 release. In the press release I received Michel Guillemot, president of Gameloft, is quoted as saying “we look forward to collaborating with DreamWorks to capture the trademark humor and originality featured in the Shrek series in our products”, which implies they haven’t started making the game yet. I hope this isn’t so, I hope DreamWorks gave the company more than 3 weeks to make a mobile game…Reuters has some more.

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