The FanTrust office is just a short walk along the water to the Olympic Torch. I’ve been making a regular pilgrimage to the flames, generally checking out the scene and hearing what the fans have to say about the Games, the Torch and the city of Vancouver. With almost as much bad press as Gitmo, our Olympic-Torch-behind-bars, has become a lightening rod for activists, tourists and even the Mayor, who all want to free the flame. In one of the world’s freest countries, our torch sits behind ...

We all know by now that games built on top of social networks' platforms are a big deal, but the results of a study commissioned by games manufacturer PopCap give some idea of just what the numbers are like. The survey estimates that there are about 100 million people in the United States and United Kingdom who play social games regularly, based on the 24 percent of survey respondents who identified themselves as such. More women than men--55 percent to 45 percent--identify themselves as social gamers, and the average age of ...

Content 360 Brands Bring Development Dollars to Cannes

Coca-Cola and advertising agency Ogilvy, have just announced they will award a €10,000 development contract at MIPTV 2010 for the best branded content idea to engage teens, as part of the 5th annual Content 360 Challenge.

The idea can take the shape of a TV show, a web movie series, a mobile application, ad game or other formats.

The Content 360 Challenge at MIPTV offers producers of all stripes the chance to pitch directly to media, brand ...

Information wants to be free and so do games. But where newspapers, music, and films are struggling to find a way to make money with free content, the games industry is just doing it. Online games have gone up by 22 per cent over the last year and the market is at a point where almost every other Internet user plays games online. Revenue for online games is forecast to hit $11 billion this year, a significant wedge of the $44 billion electronic game pie....

Games are the killer app on social networks. Tens of millions of consumers are opting to play simple, quick games on Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere — often via their mobile devices. An estimated 100 million people are recent devotees of social games such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Sorority Life and Bejeweled.

The gamers, many of whom eschewed traditional video-game consoles, have spurred revenue for Facebook. The 5-year-old social-networking site recently announced it was operating in the black — a major feat in an industry beset by doubts about its ability ...