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Activision have sent out the following press release
TRANSFORMERS™: DARK OF THE MOON™ VIDEO GAME SHIPS TO RETAILERS NATIONWIDE
New Action Game Thrusts Players into an Original Prologue Storyline to Blockbuster Film
Santa Monica, CA - June 14, 2011 - The colossal battle between the
AUTOBOTS™ and DECEPTICONS™ is underway as Activision Publishing, Inc.'s
(Nasdaq: ATVI) new video game Transformers: Dark of the Moon ships to
retail stores nationwide today. Created by acclaimed developer High
Moon Studios and based on Hasbro's legendary TRANSFORMERS property, the
game lets fans fight through epic battles as they unravel MEGATRON'S
sinister plan and is set in the world of director Michael Bay's upcoming
movie from Paramount Pictures that will be released in theaters on June
29th.
"The Transformers: Dark of the Moon game lets fans experience the
gripping battles and original prologue story that precede the highly
anticipated film," said David Oxford, Executive Vice President at
Activision Publishing. "The team at High Moon Studios has created an
amazing TRANSFORMERS narrative that unfolds through an epic
single-player campaign and allows fans to play as their favorite
characters in head-to-head multiplayer action."
"Activision has delivered a stellar prologue game leading up to the
blockbuster movie," said Mark Blecher, SVP of Digital Media and
Marketing, Hasbro. "Hasbro is looking forward to offering fans of the
TRANSFORMERS brand and gamers alike an exciting video game to expand on
the Transformers: Dark of the Moon experience this summer."
Featuring a new gameplay mechanic called Stealth Force, the
Transformers: Dark of the Moon game lets fans instantly convert to a
third, hybrid state that combines the weapons and firepower of Robot
mode with the agility and maneuverability of Vehicle mode. Set in
unique environments around the world such as the Jungles of Central
America, Siberian military facilities, urban cityscapes and more, the
game lets players assume the roles of a diverse roster of favorite
TRANSFORMERS characters through a heart-pounding campaign to save
mankind. Additionally, fans can play the game with or against their
friends around the world through intense, online multiplayer game modes
as their favorite iconic characters with the ability to personalize
their characters' look with numerous appearance, weapons and skills
customization options.
The Transformers: Dark of the Moon video game is rated "T" (Teen - for
Violence) by the ESRB and is available on the Xbox 360® video game and
entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer
entertainment system.
Additionally, Activision is releasing three separate games on the
Nintendo platforms developed by Behaviour Interactive. Available on the
Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held system and Wii™ system, Transformers: Dark of
the Moon Stealth Force Edition follows a prologue storyline and
harnesses the power of Stealth Force to focus gameplay on intense
vehicular combat, allowing fans to obliterate enemies at blazing speeds
with advanced weapons, defense systems and targeting capabilities as
they slalom between cars and dodge fire in a highly maneuverable vehicle
form.
For the Nintendo DS™, fans can choose their side with two distinct
titles, Transformers: Dark of the Moon AUTOBOTS and Transformers: Dark
of the Moon DECEPTICONS.
All Nintendo platform games are rated "E10+" (Everyone 10 and older - for Fantasy Violence) by the ESRB.
About Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company providing children
and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive
entertainment offerings based on the Company's world class brand
portfolio. From toys and games, to television programming, motion
pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro
strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of
well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP,
NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and
MONOPOLY. The Hub, Hasbro's multi-platform joint venture with Discovery
Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10,
2010. The online home of The Hub is www.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and
name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights
reserved.
Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com. © 2010 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
About TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
When a mysterious event from Earth's past erupts into the present day
it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone
will not be able to save us. Starring Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John
Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey,
Kevin Dunn, with John Malkovich and Frances McDormand. In cinemas
worldwide from 29th June 2011 in 2D and 3D.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor
of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a
leading content company with prominent and respected film, television
and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include
Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge
Pictures, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include
Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions,
Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International,
Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group and Paramount
Television & Digital Distribution.
About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc.
is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of
interactive entertainment and leisure products.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the
Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan.
More information about Activision and its products can be found on the
company's website, www.activision.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in
this press release that involves Activision Publishing's expectations,
plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking
statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and
uncertainties. Activision Publishing generally uses words such as
"outlook," "will," "could," "would," "might," "remains," "to be,"
"plans," "believes," "may," "expects," "intends," "anticipates,"
"estimate," future," "plan," "positioned," "potential," "project,"
"remain," "scheduled," "set to," "subject to," "upcoming" and similar
expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could
cause Activision Publishing's actual future results to differ materially
from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in
this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Activision
Publishing's titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of
the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature
of the interactive game market, Activision Publishing's ability to
predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms,
declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection,
product delays, retail acceptance of Activision Publishing's products,
adoption rate and availability of new hardware (including peripherals)
and related software, industry competition including from used games and
other forms of entertainment, litigation risks and associated costs,
rapid changes in technology, industry standards, business models
including online and used games, and consumer preferences, including
interest in specific genres such as music, first-person action and
massively multiplayer online games, protection of proprietary rights,
maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees,
licensors, vendors, and third-party developers, including the ability to
attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers that can
create high quality "hit" titles, counterparty risks relating to
customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and
international economic, financial and political conditions and policies,
foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of
suitable future acquisition opportunities and potential challenges
associated with geographic expansion, and the other factors identified
in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard's most recent annual
report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.
The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon
information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard
as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor
Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be
true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements
are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or
Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other
factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual
results to differ materially from current expectations.
# # #
HASBRO and its logo, TRANSFORMERS and all related characters are
trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2011 Hasbro. All
Rights Reserved. Game © 2011 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a
registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights
reserved.
All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.
Toonzone have sat down with an interview from Jeff Kine, the writer / producer of Transformers Prime. Anyone who went to BotCon would haev heard most of this already.
Saturday at the 2011 BotCon at the Pasadena
Convention Center, Toonzone News was able to catch up with Transformers:
Prime and G.I. Joe: Renegades writer and executive producer, Jeff
Kline, to talk about his work on those shows as well as the future of
G.I. Joe: Renegades . A veteran of animated shows, Kline has previously
worked on such projects as Men In Black: The Animated Series, Godzilla:
The Series, and Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot.
TZN: In Transformers: Prime, it was
an interesting decision to put Megatron out of action for about half the
season. But it did open up a lot of character development for
Starscream. Why did you decide to go that direction?
JEFF KLINE: Quite honestly, that's the exact reason we went that
direction. It was to allow for more time to develop characters that
maybe hadn't been as well developed, especially our new characters that
hadn't been introduced before in the universe. When you have Megatron
and Optimus together, it's really hard not to focus on that
relationship. We spent a lot of time with them. It almost required that
we get rid of one of them for a little while to spend some time with the
other characters.
TZN: At the Transformers: Prime
season premiere event you noted that you wanted to keep the Autobot cast
size small to give the advantage to the Decepticons. At the same time,
it did not make much sense to me for Wheeljack to come and go from the
Autobot team while the Autobots are in the middle of a war and need as
many troops as possible. Why have Wheeljack leave when the Autobots need
him more than ever?
JEFF KLINE: Because we thought that was true to Wheeljack's
personality and then we could bring him back. We're like the Native
Americans. We waste nothing of the buffalo. Everything that you've seen
up to this point will eventually be used again. The most time and cost
extensive part of CG is the upfront builds. If we built it, we're going
to find a way to re-use it.
TZN: How does the collaboration and
writing process with Duane Capizzi, Bob Orci, and Alex Kurtzman work,
and how involved are Orci and Kurtzman in the writing process?
JEFF KLINE: Kurtzman and Orci are so much more involved than I ever
thought they would be. The way it really started when we first got
together to do Prime, there wasn't really a Hasbro Studios. There was
some executives that had been hired and there was this need to be on the
air a year later but there wasn't any other infrastructure. So for the
first month or so, literally Duane Capizzi, myself, Therese Trujillo
(our animation producer), [and] Dave Hartman were working out of Orci's
and Kurtzman's lobby on the Universal lot. We would literally just spend
at least a couple of hours a day sitting in a room just throwing around
story stuff with them and some of the other people at their company.
And that continued for quite a while and then we brought on four full
time writers that first season: Joe Kuhr, Nicole Dubuc, Steve Melching,
[and] Marsha Griffin. That was kind of the next step. We spent a lot of
time and continue to spend a lot of time in writers' rooms breaking
story. Most animated series do not have the luxury of a writing staff.
It's mostly maybe one or two story editors and freelancers. But because
the mythology of Transformers was so deep, there's twenty five years of
it – the little book they handed me was six hundred pages of “These Are
The Rules” – we had the movies and we didn't want to contradict
anything. It really required everybody who was going to be involved
sitting around at the beginning really talking through where we want to
go, what we want to do. [Orci and Kurtzman] were involved in every step
of that process. And the main involvement – they approve all the
artwork, they are much more involved than I ever would have believed
when someone first told me that they were going to do the show.
TZN: Hasbro is now producing their
own shows in terms of the Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises. What is
this process like now compared to when you've worked on other big
franchises like Men In Black and Godzilla? Is it different at all?
JEFF KLINE: It's more similar than not. I would say the one place
it's different is—and I'm not a toy expert—it would seem that Hasbro for
a number of their brands has created this mythology behind them that
pre-exists me or pre-exists anybody buying the toy. When you buy the
toy, you already get kind of story whether it's on the back of the
package. There was so much more stuff to pull from on Transformers than
there had been on even on some of those other franchises. Part of that
is those twenty five years, but I would say the biggest difference to me
as opposed to some of the other shows where the toy company is really
only involved in making toys, these guys have lived with the brand for a
lot of years. They are an incredible resource for us. Whenever we have
questions, whenever we run big concepts by them, because they know them
better than us: which characters the fans tend to associate with, what
are they hearing on their e-mail chains. So they're more partner than
probably any other toy company I've ever worked with.
TZN: In Prime, a new interesting
character is the human antagonist Silas voiced by Clancy Brown. Going
forward what can we expect Silas involving himself in the Autobot and
Decepticon conflict?
JEFF KLINE: You are definitely going to see more Silas. I'm not
going to tell you where it's going, because it's definitely pretty cool.
But again, if we built it, we're using it. And if they turn into a
zombie, we're going to use it again.
TZN: What writer gets credit for the Ghostbusters references in Prime?
JEFF KLINE: I believe Marsha Griffin actually wrote most of that
riff, and I believe Duane [Capizzi] re-wrote a little bit of it. But I
believe he would throw that to Marsha.
TZN: Regarding the Unicron
references and the “blood of Unicron,” does that mean there is a CGI
model being built for Unicron that we could ever glimpse at some point;
in a flashback maybe?
JEFF KLINE: Hmm, let's see; we talk about it. I would say that we
try to pay off almost everything that we talk about in some way, shape,
or form.
TZN: I thought it was a great choice
to begin with a five part miniseries which was evocative of a lot of
cartoons in the 1980's, especially Transformers in the 80's. What was it
like, basically starting with a feature length movie for the show at
the beginning, and is it something you would like to do again with the
show moving forward?
JEFF KLINE: I think Kurtzman and Orci came on maybe around Labor Day
2009, and the idea was to get on the air before the end of 2010. Most
CG shows, even a lot of simple one, have a two year production cycle –
Kung Fu Panda's of the world and such. So we had half the time to do a
CG show – the most complicated one ever attempted for television, quite
honestly. So knowing we had to get on the air in 2010, the idea of
getting on with 13 episodes was impossible. We decided if we could get
on with a miniseries—maybe it will be three episodes, maybe it will be
five—and then pick up the series a month or two later and give the other
studio time to catch up. Again, a lot of your initial expensive time is
spent on that upfront buildup. I think literally the day before the
first part of that miniseries aired was the day the network got it,
maybe three or four days before. Polygon is our Japanese [animation]
studio, and they're incredible. They're the only guys that could have
pulled this off. But the miniseries grew out of both necessity, but then
once we had it we were like, “Oh, let's really blow it out. Let's make
it five. Can we do five by the end of the year?” “No, but let's try
anyway.”
TZN: And you did it.
JEFF KLINE: And we did it, which means now they expect it from us every year. That was stupid.
TZN: So would we see another miniseries again at some point?
JEFF KLINE: I don't think we'd do five episodes, but you are
definitely going to have multi-parters coming up. Already, if you look
at the storytelling there are groups of episodes you could put together
and that are thematically related. It's important that each episode live
on its own. You want people to be able to come to the show as new
viewers at any point during your airing and be able to catch up and be
interested. But we like telling complicated stories. We like showing
growth of character over time. We like turning a really important piece
of Transformers mythology into something more than a one-off. So I think
within the body of the season we build toward in our minds, something
of a miniseries at the end of every season.
TZN: As a writer and producer, what
do you prefer: a longer season of twenty six episodes where you get to
tell a fuller, longer story arc but is more work or a more lean and
abbreviated thirteen episode season?
JEFF KLINE: I always prefer more. It's the thing where once you're
in the middle of it, you're damning yourself for wanting more, because
those last couple [episodes] are always the hardest. But knowing you
have twenty six, you can actually roll character stuff out slowly and
actually grow relationships; that's always better. Also, it's easier to
get the best crew because you are offering more episodes. It's easier to
work a slightly better deal with your post house because you're
guaranteeing them more episodes. Every penny is onscreen. The more
episodes you know you are going to do up front, the better you are going
to be all around.
Artist Direct have posted a review of the Transformers: Dark of the MoonSoundtrack which goes on sale today which they give 4.5 / 5.
"Traditionally, the soundtrack to a Transformers film proves just as explosive and entrancing as the movie itself.
The soundtrack for Transformers: Dark of the Moon proudly upholds that
tradition—like any robust Autobot—but it's also the best in the series
so far. Each and every song displays an evolutionary heaviness that
would be right at home on Optimus Prime's personal playlist....
Bringing together the biggest and best names in rock and metal, the
soundtrack is just as much of an event as the film itself. Take a trip
to Dark of the Moon with it blaring now…"
You will now find toy entires for the Transformers Kre-O toyline and Transformers Kreon figures.
We have created three eBay auctions for some of our spare Botcon 2011 exclusive figures. All of the figures are sealed within their bags and start at cost price. The auctions are for Shattered Glass Galvatron,the Autotrooper 3-pack and Fisitron..
If you are after the figures, why not check out the auctions. If you would like to see more images of the figures, then you can check out our image galleries of our personal copies below.
Another TV spot for Transformers: Dark of the Moon has now aired and has also been published to YouTube by Paramount Pictures.
We have updated theTransformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.
Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:
You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.
I have added some more toy galleries this evening to complete our Botcon 2011 exclusive image galleries as well as bringing you a gallery of a figure that we purchased at the event, Beast Wars Neo Rockbuster. The image galleries this evening are of Transformers Animated Sideswipe, Transformers Animated Fisitron (Ironfist), Transformers Animated Autotroopers, Shattered Glass Galvatron, Shattered Glass Thundercracker as well as the aforementioned Beast Wars Neo Rockbuster.
Auto Assembly have sent out the following press release
Auto Assembly 2011 - A Special Announcement
Following Auto Assembly's announcement of Andrew Wildman as our tenth guest for this year's convention a few days ago, we're back with a new video that we wanted to share with all of you with a rather special message that we think you'll all love...
http://youtu.be/bKMmOVGIvzQ
Auto Assembly 2011 is taking place over the weekend of 12th - 14th August 2011 at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England.
For more details on the convention, to see a full list of all the guests and activities taking place over the weekend, or to book your tickets, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
We hope to see you all in August!
The Auto Assembly 2011 Team
Web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
Youtube: www.youtube.com/autoassembly
Twitter: www.twitter.com/auto_assembly
Forum: http://autoassembly.proboards.com
Email: autoassembly@aol.com
Tel: +44 (0)7860 948296
Auto Assembly 2011 is sponsored by
Toyz And Gamez - www.toyzandgamez.co.uk
www.transformertoys.co.uk
www.transformersanimated.com
Science Fiction Collectables - www.sf-collectables.co.uk
Big Bad Toy Store - www.bbts.com
3 Darths Comics - www.3darths.co.uk
Hobby Link Japan - www.hlj.com
Robot Kingdom - www.robotkingdom.com
Xyber Toys - www.xybertoys.com
Moonbase 2 Podcast - http://moonbase2.libsyn.com
Allspark.com are reporting that the Transformers Collectors Club exclusive Generation 2 Ramjet figure is starting to be delivered to US residents which means that if you ordered one, and are living within the US, you should expect the toy in the coming weeks. If you are overseas, the toys should also start to ship but depending on your choice of shipping, and the choice selected in the end by Fun Publications (as it doesn't always match) the toy could arrive any time from now to about 4 months time.