According to my friend (whose best man writes for Jalopnik), they stopped using SiteMeter with the redesign, so I wouldn't read too much into those numbers.
Not quite.
Earlier today I wrote in a piece on The Next Web that Gawker Media has seemingly removed its openly-displayed Sitemeter statistics on all its blogs, perhaps so nosy media reporters can’t get the inside track on how well the new redesign is performing.
More good Sony news, hackers can unban themselves and ban innocent people.
Important detail. Hackers can not get any one else's console banned. It is only Sony that are banning anyone (and apparently doing so based on criteria that means it is possible for legitimate users to be banned).
It is not possible for someone to ban your console remotely, it is only Sony (erroneously or correctly) that can ban you from PSN.
I kind of wish that gaming magazines would take a principled stand and not do any stories or ads about Topware "You want to blacklist them? We'll blacklist you."
Of course, that would require gaming magazines to have principles.
I remember old EGMs mentioning they got threats for low scores.
They apparently lost ad money for not caving. Didn't change the scores anyway.
Edit: Wait, actually your friend could be right, since the pageviews don't really plummet until three days after the redesign. So, uh, never mind.
That doesn't seem impossible either. For three days, people start to quit the site, even as others flock there to get a look at the mess. As a result page views average out to be somewhat normal. Then everyone gives up on it.
I used to visit Kotaku quite a bit but since the redesign I've started going to Joystiq instead. Not that I think it would matter at all, or that it's some kind of personal protest, just that...their site kinda sucks now.
There were 22 games that sold over 100,000 units in January, vs. our estimate of 16 games and 18 last year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops sold half of our estimate of 1.5 million units
Call of Duty: Black Ops = 0.5 x 1.5 = 750,000
Guitar Hero (and other Hero music games) sales were down 56% from last year.
Rock Band sales were down 80% to $2 million.
Zumba Fitness over 300,000 units.
Donkey Kong Country Returns roughly one-third of our estimate of 500,000 units
Donkey Kong Country Returns = 0.33 x 500,000 = 165,000
SORRY GAF EARLIER I READ THIS AS TWO-THIRDS
uDraw sold well below estimate of 300,000 units
Just Dance 2 sold over half of our estimate of 1 million units.
Just Dance 2 = 500,000 (although we don't know what "over half" means. Unsure about this one?
Piper Jaffray
Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 750k units and held the #1 position for the month
Dead Space 2 = 441k units (different than the number in the OP) [Lacking PC?]
uDraw Studio & Tablet = 26k
NBA 2K11 = 261k units
Red Dead Redemption = 94k
We believe there is a 50/50 chance that GTA V will make it into the FY12 period
Telltale has plans to take us back to the kingdom of Daventry, confirming its King's Quest reboot is currently underway. "We have agreed to a multi-title, multiplatform deal to reboot the King's Quest franchise," Telltale SVP of marketing, Steve Allison, announced during a press event last night. "Much like we did with Tales of Monkey Island, we're rebooting King's Quest with all new episodic games and multiple series." He provided no details beyond that, but promised more would be revealed at E3 this June.
King's Quest is one of the most influential and highly-lauded adventure series of all time, spanning eight canonical games (and a trivia game) throughout the '80s and '90s. The series is the brainchild of Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra Entertainment. Currently, the rights to the franchise are owned by Activision.
Jesus Telltale, how many games are you working on?
P.S. - WTB sequels for Loom, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, Kyrandia, Space Quest, <insert more awesome adventure games here>
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Playing all episodes of an arc/season straight through feels no less awesome than any other full game experience. Is there something about their games that just screams "I was created as quickly as possible" to you?
I don't know that they even spend less time on them than they would otherwise.
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Playing all episodes of an arc/season straight through feels no less awesome than any other full game experience. Is there something about their games that just screams "I was created as quickly as possible" to you?
I actually just played straight through Sam & Max season two, and it was friggin' fantastic. Great writing, interesting puzzles, and a very nice slow burn that makes the eventual revelations even better--not only that Bosco's extreme paranoia was justified, but the moment that he finally meets T-H-E-M is even funnier when you consider he's been in fear of these guys since the last season. (I about hurt myself laughing on that one.) And what they did with the Soda Poppers. My God. Now that is a company that's willing to listen to criticism and have a good laugh at themselves.
At any rate. It's a little amazing that, years after people were going on and on about how episodic content is the way of the future, and only Telltale has managed to pull it off. The only other people that have even tried are Valve and American McGee, who somehow thought the world would want 23 goddamn episodes of his Katamari Damacy ripoff.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Sam & Max season one was fun.
I absolutely loved SBCG4AP!
I hadn't played anything else they've done though.
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Sam & Max season one was fun.
I absolutely loved SBCG4AP!
I hadn't played anything else they've done though.
Sam & Max, season two. You must play it!! So much better than the first season, as good as that was. You can get the Wii collection of it on-disk from Gamefly or some used place dirt-cheap.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Sam & Max season one was fun.
I absolutely loved SBCG4AP!
I hadn't played anything else they've done though.
Sam & Max, season two. You must play it!! So much better than the first season, as good as that was. You can get the Wii collection of it on-disk from Gamefly or some used place dirt-cheap.
Maybe, I kind of want to grab it on the 360 since that's where I downloaded the first season. I really wanted to play Wallace and Gromit, but I couldn't justify the price per episode.
I really need to catch up on their games using the PC and buy them off their site. They do discount deals periodically, yes? I really want to play the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games their making.
Edit: Also SBCG4AP is hilarious. If you guys haven't played it, but it off the Wii or TellTales web site...it's great.
Edit #2: Unless you hate Homestar Runner or don't find them funny, and in that case, you'll hate it. :P
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Playing all episodes of an arc/season straight through feels no less awesome than any other full game experience. Is there something about their games that just screams "I was created as quickly as possible" to you?
I don't know that they even spend less time on them than they would otherwise.
I played about an hour or so of one of the Sam & Max episodes that I got for free (the Abraham Lincoln one) and I checked out the demos to Strong Bad & Wallace & Gromit and I just wasn't impressed. They weren't terrible or anything, but they just didn't feel as funny or as clever as the better games in the genre back during its heyday (like Space Quest, Quest for Glory, the original Monkey Islands, the original Sam & Max, etc.).
Of course, it's possible that my taste in gaming has changed since then and adventure games just aren't for me anymore, but I did rather enjoy the one Phoenix Wright game that I played. Speaking of which, I should pick up the rest of those sometime.
The only Telltale game I really played through was Tales of Monkey Island. And while it was flipping amazing, the whole episodic feel, with it starting and stopping, just felt kinda off to me. I can't really explain it, and I know it makes no damn sense. But I dunno, it's kind of the difference between watching one of the Futurama movies in full, and then watching the same movie in its syndicated 4 episode version. There's just this weird ass difference.
I tried playing Sam and Max, but after episode 2 I just couldn't get into it. I could see the quality, but I didn't find it funny or entertaining much at all.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Maybe, I kind of want to grab it on the 360 since that's where I downloaded the first season. I really wanted to play Wallace and Gromit, but I couldn't justify the price per episode.
I really need to catch up on their games using the PC and buy them off their site. They do discount deals periodically, yes? I really want to play the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games their making.
Edit: Also SBCG4AP is hilarious. If you guys haven't played it, but it off the Wii or TellTales web site...it's great.
Edit #2: Unless you hate Homestar Runner or don't find them funny, and in that case, you'll hate it. :P
Yeah, both Steam and Telltalle themselves do discounts on PC every now and again. I got S&M Season Three and SBCG4AP for, if I remember right, $15 apiece. I do dig Homestar Runner, but for some reason I never did play the game. That'll change soon, though.
Sam and Max actually take a while to warm up, and don't really start firing on all cylinders till midway through the fourth episode. Max runs for president against a giant robot Abe Lincoln, fer chrissake. And he does so like this:
Liked King's Quest back in the day, but I haven't really liked anything that Telltale has done so I'll be skipping that. Maybe it's just their episodic nature - if they spent more time on a single game, I might be more interested.
Playing all episodes of an arc/season straight through feels no less awesome than any other full game experience. Is there something about their games that just screams "I was created as quickly as possible" to you?
I don't know that they even spend less time on them than they would otherwise.
I really like telltale, but they do have some extreme asset reuse going on. I thought Tales of Monkey Island was infamous for only having three models. I would love to see them skip the episodic style and go balls out on one game. They should do that for Bone.
That's nothing noteworthy. The game is about to be released. It's in retail stores sitting in the backrooms. Lots of games get uploaded at that point. It's not like Crysis where actual code was leaked. The only difference is that now there are PS3 versions.
Rakai on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
2011: The Year Game Companies Cried Themselves to Sleep
But according to the first few comments on that page, not the PC version? But I thought that all PC gamers were filthy pirates and console gamers were saints who would never pirate in their lives!
2011: The Year Game Companies Cried Themselves to Sleep
But according to the first few comments on that page, not the PC version? But I thought that all PC gamers were filthy pirates and console gamers were saints who would never pirate in their lives!
PC version has DRM.
Rakai on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
2011: The Year Game Companies Cried Themselves to Sleep
But according to the first few comments on that page, not the PC version? But I thought that all PC gamers were filthy pirates and console gamers were saints who would never pirate in their lives!
Now now, the only reason people say such things is because a greater proportion of PC gamers are pirates.
Maybe, I kind of want to grab it on the 360 since that's where I downloaded the first season. I really wanted to play Wallace and Gromit, but I couldn't justify the price per episode.
I really need to catch up on their games using the PC and buy them off their site. They do discount deals periodically, yes? I really want to play the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games their making.
Edit: Also SBCG4AP is hilarious. If you guys haven't played it, but it off the Wii or TellTales web site...it's great.
Edit #2: Unless you hate Homestar Runner or don't find them funny, and in that case, you'll hate it. :P
Yeah, both Steam and Telltalle themselves do discounts on PC every now and again. I got S&M Season Three and SBCG4AP for, if I remember right, $15 apiece. I do dig Homestar Runner, but for some reason I never did play the game. That'll change soon, though.
Sam and Max actually take a while to warm up, and don't really start firing on all cylinders till midway through the fourth episode. Max runs for president against a giant robot Abe Lincoln, fer chrissake. And he does so like this:
I had a similar experience to Rainbow, loving the shit out of these games when I was growing up in the 90's but not finding the downloadable episode even slightly amusing. Looking at that youtube clip, I think it's pretty easy to understand how a middle school student could find that hilarious but someone who is now an adult might find it just stupid.
Maybe, I kind of want to grab it on the 360 since that's where I downloaded the first season. I really wanted to play Wallace and Gromit, but I couldn't justify the price per episode.
I really need to catch up on their games using the PC and buy them off their site. They do discount deals periodically, yes? I really want to play the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games their making.
Edit: Also SBCG4AP is hilarious. If you guys haven't played it, but it off the Wii or TellTales web site...it's great.
Edit #2: Unless you hate Homestar Runner or don't find them funny, and in that case, you'll hate it. :P
Yeah, both Steam and Telltalle themselves do discounts on PC every now and again. I got S&M Season Three and SBCG4AP for, if I remember right, $15 apiece. I do dig Homestar Runner, but for some reason I never did play the game. That'll change soon, though.
Sam and Max actually take a while to warm up, and don't really start firing on all cylinders till midway through the fourth episode. Max runs for president against a giant robot Abe Lincoln, fer chrissake. And he does so like this:
I had a similar experience to Rainbow, loving the shit out of these games when I was growing up in the 90's but not finding the downloadable episode even slightly amusing. Looking at that youtube clip, I think it's pretty easy to understand how a middle school student could find that hilarious but someone who is now an adult might find it just stupid.
Well, you'd think that... But people still watch and enjoy South Park. So...
I didn't know Sony was also coming out with a tablet.
So, as it stands, Sonys making a Playstation Phone, a Playstation Tablet, and an actual Playstation handheld.
The Xperia Play is an Android Gingerbread (2.3) Phone with game controls built around the PlayStation Certified branding and the PlayStation Suite. From the Sony Ericsson group.
The S1 is reportedly focused around Sony's streaming content service Qriocity, but will run Android Honeycomb (3.0) and also be PlayStation Certified. No game controls though. And it's being made primarily by the VAIO group with input from others.
The NGP is a pure handheld console (no Android), with the added benefit of being able to run titles built for the PlayStation Suite.
Different niches serviced from different Sony brands. The real middle ground between them would be an iPod style PMP with Android, a button slider, and PlayStation Suite. So... an Xperia Play without the phone.
I was going to bring up Chris Kohler's recent article comparing that scenario with Sega's various attempts in the 32 bit era but you already seem to have come up with my answer. All three devices are clearly aimed at different markets, it seems astoundingly stupid to compare it with Sega's clusterfuck. I mean really, the only difference between it and Apple's strategy is the existence of a dedicated gaming handheld. Hell, I'm actually surprised he didn't bring up Vaio's too, cause hey, it's portable and can play games, right?
No, I meant, it's 'We are blacklisting you because you gave this game a 6.'
I'm going to go ahead and take the same position I did the last time something like this was brought up, I don't care. It's all marketing. Providing game "journalists" with free copies, not giving certain game "journalists" with free copies. Whatever.
"I've heard some pessimistic comments on 3DS capabilities before the launch from some game creators but they obviously have not seen Super Street Fighter IV 3D or Resident Evil games on the 3DS. When I first had the chance to see 3DS I went over the moon three times because of the 3D vision, hardware spec and the extensive network functions. With Super Street Fighter IV 3D you will see the best yet graphics on a handheld with specially tuned shaders and effects. I also think those game creators should stop slacking and just start making good games rather than whine about the tools given!" - Yoshinori Ono
Ono's been blabbing on to the press a lot lately. He really needs to shut up.
I guess he's talking about SSFIV 3D being the 'best yet graphics on a handheld' at launch? Cause, you know, NGP and all. But even then, I haven't seen anything from SSFIV 3D or RE Revelations that comes close to matching Infinity Blade.
You know, Bizarre was based in the UK. Maybe part of this is Activision being pissy about the UK government shooting down the proposed video game industry tax credits?
I'd say this isn't a case of "maybe". They've wanted to drop as much UK dev as they can without the tax incentives. Poor sales of Blur gave them the excuse they wanted.
Obsidian gets busy. At least its strongly hinted by gamebanshees buck.
Of particular note is my nearly 30-minute Q&A with Feargus. Would you like to know exactly what Project Virginia is? Do you want the very first details about Obsidian's secret "Defiance" project? Perhaps you're interested in learning about yet another project they've taken on that utilizes a license that they simply "could not turn down"? Or maybe you'd just like to know what the future holds for the Icewind Dale series?
I had a similar experience to Rainbow, loving the shit out of these games when I was growing up in the 90's but not finding the downloadable episode even slightly amusing. Looking at that youtube clip, I think it's pretty easy to understand how a middle school student could find that hilarious but someone who is now an adult might find it just stupid.
I'm 35 and thought that was hilarious, thank you very much. And I'm also the dude who thinks Bulletstorm isn't funny in the least.
Posts
Not quite.
http://bloggasm.com/how-to-continue-tracking-gawker-medias-page-views
They're still being tracked as before.
Edit: Wait, actually your friend could be right, since the pageviews don't really plummet until three days after the redesign. So, uh, never mind.
It is not possible for someone to ban your console remotely, it is only Sony (erroneously or correctly) that can ban you from PSN.
I remember old EGMs mentioning they got threats for low scores.
They apparently lost ad money for not caving. Didn't change the scores anyway.
Proper of them.
Why I fear the ocean.
That doesn't seem impossible either. For three days, people start to quit the site, even as others flock there to get a look at the mess. As a result page views average out to be somewhat normal. Then everyone gives up on it.
I used to visit Kotaku quite a bit but since the redesign I've started going to Joystiq instead. Not that I think it would matter at all, or that it's some kind of personal protest, just that...their site kinda sucks now.
I really hope Retro are patting themselves on the backs really hard for that game.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/18/kings-quest-reboot-coming-courtesy-of-telltale/
Jesus Telltale, how many games are you working on?
P.S. - WTB sequels for Loom, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, Kyrandia, Space Quest, <insert more awesome adventure games here>
EDIT: The fan project that apparently just had episode 3 of 5 released yesterday.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Playing all episodes of an arc/season straight through feels no less awesome than any other full game experience. Is there something about their games that just screams "I was created as quickly as possible" to you?
I don't know that they even spend less time on them than they would otherwise.
I actually just played straight through Sam & Max season two, and it was friggin' fantastic. Great writing, interesting puzzles, and a very nice slow burn that makes the eventual revelations even better--not only that Bosco's extreme paranoia was justified, but the moment that he finally meets T-H-E-M is even funnier when you consider he's been in fear of these guys since the last season. (I about hurt myself laughing on that one.) And what they did with the Soda Poppers. My God. Now that is a company that's willing to listen to criticism and have a good laugh at themselves.
At any rate. It's a little amazing that, years after people were going on and on about how episodic content is the way of the future, and only Telltale has managed to pull it off. The only other people that have even tried are Valve and American McGee, who somehow thought the world would want 23 goddamn episodes of his Katamari Damacy ripoff.
Sam & Max season one was fun.
I absolutely loved SBCG4AP!
I hadn't played anything else they've done though.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
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Sam & Max, season two. You must play it!! So much better than the first season, as good as that was. You can get the Wii collection of it on-disk from Gamefly or some used place dirt-cheap.
Maybe, I kind of want to grab it on the 360 since that's where I downloaded the first season. I really wanted to play Wallace and Gromit, but I couldn't justify the price per episode.
I really need to catch up on their games using the PC and buy them off their site. They do discount deals periodically, yes? I really want to play the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games their making.
Edit: Also SBCG4AP is hilarious. If you guys haven't played it, but it off the Wii or TellTales web site...it's great.
Edit #2: Unless you hate Homestar Runner or don't find them funny, and in that case, you'll hate it. :P
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I played about an hour or so of one of the Sam & Max episodes that I got for free (the Abraham Lincoln one) and I checked out the demos to Strong Bad & Wallace & Gromit and I just wasn't impressed. They weren't terrible or anything, but they just didn't feel as funny or as clever as the better games in the genre back during its heyday (like Space Quest, Quest for Glory, the original Monkey Islands, the original Sam & Max, etc.).
Of course, it's possible that my taste in gaming has changed since then and adventure games just aren't for me anymore, but I did rather enjoy the one Phoenix Wright game that I played. Speaking of which, I should pick up the rest of those sometime.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
I tried playing Sam and Max, but after episode 2 I just couldn't get into it. I could see the quality, but I didn't find it funny or entertaining much at all.
Yeah, both Steam and Telltalle themselves do discounts on PC every now and again. I got S&M Season Three and SBCG4AP for, if I remember right, $15 apiece. I do dig Homestar Runner, but for some reason I never did play the game. That'll change soon, though.
Sam and Max actually take a while to warm up, and don't really start firing on all cylinders till midway through the fourth episode. Max runs for president against a giant robot Abe Lincoln, fer chrissake. And he does so like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ZL2GD93dA
Twitter
I was waiting for Puzzle Agent for WiiWare as it was announced for it, and its never shown up. I may have to grab it for the PC.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I really like telltale, but they do have some extreme asset reuse going on. I thought Tales of Monkey Island was infamous for only having three models. I would love to see them skip the episodic style and go balls out on one game. They should do that for Bone.
Full PS3 and 360 versions of Bulletstorm leaked.
2011: The Year Game Companies Cried Themselves to Sleep
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
But according to the first few comments on that page, not the PC version? But I thought that all PC gamers were filthy pirates and console gamers were saints who would never pirate in their lives!
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
PC version has DRM.
Now now, the only reason people say such things is because a greater proportion of PC gamers are pirates.
my twitter | my youtube
That makes me laugh.
Edit - Oh shit TOTP
Um... pirates and doom everywhere or something
Twitter
Except Nintendo. They cried to the bank. They were tears of joy.
I had a similar experience to Rainbow, loving the shit out of these games when I was growing up in the 90's but not finding the downloadable episode even slightly amusing. Looking at that youtube clip, I think it's pretty easy to understand how a middle school student could find that hilarious but someone who is now an adult might find it just stupid.
Twitter
Well, you'd think that... But people still watch and enjoy South Park. So...
I was going to bring up Chris Kohler's recent article comparing that scenario with Sega's various attempts in the 32 bit era but you already seem to have come up with my answer. All three devices are clearly aimed at different markets, it seems astoundingly stupid to compare it with Sega's clusterfuck. I mean really, the only difference between it and Apple's strategy is the existence of a dedicated gaming handheld. Hell, I'm actually surprised he didn't bring up Vaio's too, cause hey, it's portable and can play games, right?
I'm going to go ahead and take the same position I did the last time something like this was brought up, I don't care. It's all marketing. Providing game "journalists" with free copies, not giving certain game "journalists" with free copies. Whatever.
Ono's been blabbing on to the press a lot lately. He really needs to shut up.
I guess he's talking about SSFIV 3D being the 'best yet graphics on a handheld' at launch? Cause, you know, NGP and all. But even then, I haven't seen anything from SSFIV 3D or RE Revelations that comes close to matching Infinity Blade.
I'd say this isn't a case of "maybe". They've wanted to drop as much UK dev as they can without the tax incentives. Poor sales of Blur gave them the excuse they wanted.
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/101629-i-went-i-saw-and-ive-returned-with-treasures.html
It seems to indicate that the future looks positive for Obsidian after the rather bleak time that was 2009 and early 2010.
I'm 35 and thought that was hilarious, thank you very much. And I'm also the dude who thinks Bulletstorm isn't funny in the least.
It seems like Obsidian actually wants to enter the Free2Play market. DDM updated their client list
http://www.ddmagents.com/DDM%20Clients%20Company%20Overview%2020110207.pdf
Agreed.