Holiday blockbusters: Franchises with most Facebook fans don’t always pull the biggest crowd

ListenFirst Media, a data platform specific to brands, examined the social fanbase (total Facebook fans and Twitter followers) of the most anticipated franchise and original holiday films of 2013 (with a look back at the top franchise and original films of 2012) and dug up some interesting insights as seen in the infographic below.

ListenFirst discovered that blockbuster films with the largest social fanbases don’t always equate to the biggest box office winners.

As a configurable platform, ListenFirst Media aggregates and analyzes data streams across social, digital, and traditional channels. The platform tracks 7,000 brands across more than 40 verticals, and establishes industry ­specific benchmarks to give competitive context on a brand’s performance in the marketplace.  They’re currently working with more than 30 clients in the entertainment industry, including major studios (Sony, Warner Bros, Relativity, Universal, DreamWorks, etc.), as well as Broadcast and Cable networks (NBCU, Food Network, Showtime, etc).

Click the image to see the full size graphic.

Top image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Win Free Xbox Swag with McDonalds' Holiday Promo

by Matt Liebl, GameZone, Posted Dec 4th 2013 10:00AM

This might come as a shocker, but a fast food chain is running a gaming promotion and its name isn't Taco Bell. McDonald's new One Hot Holiday game is officially underway and you can win free Xbox One prizes by simply buying select items off the menu. What's more is that one of our own GameZone staffers has already won a free month of Xbox LIVE Gold, so we know it's legit.

Every Quarter Pounder burger, Premium McWrap, or medium fries will come with a game sticker that you can peel off to see if you've won a prize. It'll notify that you've won something (if you're a winner, that is) and you'll have to enter the code here to claim your prize.

The list of prizes include actual Xbox One consoles with Forza 5, one month Xbox Music Pass, one month Xbox LIVE Gold membership, and game download codes for Aqua, Ms. Splosion Man, or The Maw.

Check out the full odds breakdown for winning a prize and the official rules here.

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Cut The Rope 2 On Track For Holiday 2013 Release

by Chris Buffa, Modojo, Posted Sep 27th 2013 1:00PM

After the entertaining Cut the Rope: Experiments and Cut the Rope: Time Travel, developer ZeptoLab finally counted to two. That said, Cut the Rope 2 will debut this holiday season, presumably on iOS and Android devices.

In series' tradition, the game stars Om Nom, the adorable lizard creature with an insatiable appetite. This time around, players can expect a re-imagined universe, new characters, tweaks to the classic puzzle-solving gameplay, interactive environments and a brand-new plot.

"We remain dedicated to our mission: examining the science of fun. That means building experiences that players love," said Misha Lyalin, ZeptoLab CEO. "Cut the Rope 2 is a massive step forward for the game. Amazing graphics, gameplay and characters drive a brand new experience that fans are going to love."

Details are a bit vague, but we expect ZeptoLab to unveil new pieces of information in the weeks ahead.

Tags: 3ds, android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, cut the rope, cut the rope 2, cut the rope experiments, cut the rope time travel, cut the rope time travel walkthrough, cut the rope walkthrough, IOS, ipad games, iphone, mobile game, mobile game cheats, Mobile Games, mobile gaming, nintendo 3ds, Nintendo DS, Nintendo3ds, NintendoDs, ZeptoLab

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Zynga spreading some holiday cheer with Toys for Tots

Zynga today announced its new charity drive, “Oh, What Fun!”, which will benefit Toys for Tots.

Oh, What Fun! is a drive that allows players to contribute to the charity, which brings new toys and books to less fortunate children. Players will be able to make in-game purchases within the participating Zynga games with 100 percent of the sale going directly to Toys for Tots. The drive will be rolled out over the next five weeks in seven of Zynga’s more popular titles: CastleVille, Words With Friends, FrontierVille, Bubble Safari, Draw Something and FarmVille. Meanwhile, various Zynga studios throughout the United States will host hosting in-office Toys for Tots toy drives benefit local communities.

Oh, What Fun! is the latest campaign from Zynga’s non-profit arm, Zynga.org, which has raised over $13 million to date through 75 in-game drives. To learn more about the different in-game packages, check out the latest Zynga blog post.

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Canadians get adorable, seriously stripped Wii Mini this holiday for $100

We're still trying to figure out what the value proposition is here, Nintendo has announced a new version of its mega popular Wii (not Wii U) console hitting Canada exclusively on Dec. 7. (No word on release elsewhere.) It's called the Wii Mini, a $100 matte black game box trimmed in red plastic, paired with a red Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk controller. What's the catch, you ask? Well, that's about it.

This revised Wii does not come with anything else other than what's mentioned on its official site (which came just hours after a Best Buy ad ousted the console). Oddly enough, that includes GameCube game support and internet access. Let's repeat that, so it really sinks in: The Wii Mini, for $100, does not come with internet access or GameCube game support.

Nintendo's newest take on the Wii may look gorgeous, but it has to be asked: Why even consider the Wii Mini when Canadians can pick up a normal Wii, complete with a Wii Remote Plus, internet access, GameCube game support and a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii for $50 more from EB Games in Canada? Well, at least we can see a few places the Wii Mini will could do well: nursing homes, daycare centers, schools. Wait, don't they already have Wiis?

[Via Engadget]

Will you buy a Wii Mini when it hits in Canada? Who can you see benefitting from this? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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CityVille Holiday Hills Neighborhood: Store homes until next winter

If you were really into the Christmas and Winter events that ended 2011 in CityVille, and have already filled your Frostdale Ridge neighborhood to the brim, you might want to check out another new themed neighborhood that has just launched in the game. The Holiday Hills neighborhood costs 20,000 coins, and while it's a larger neighborhood, it will still ultimately allow you to store 15 Winter Residences.

As we've come to understand (through unfortunate experience), these "winter" residences usually don't actually store all holiday residences, but you'll be able to see how many eligible homes you own before ever purchasing it. For instance, I still have four winter residences outside of storage, so I'm told that I could store those four and still have 11 storage spaces left over.

Of course, the process for building and filling this neighborhood is as you'd expect: You'll need to ask your friends to send you building materials, and then ask them again to fill out staff slots within the neighborhood to actually unlock storage for individual homes, and will see the neighborhood change visually to reflect the additional homes that have been put inside.

Is this neighborhood really worth it? Unless you purchased a slew of holiday homes last month, I wouldn't really say that it is. You can continue to purchase homes with the hope that they'll qualify as being "storable" inside the neighborhood, but even then it's a bit risky. Of course, the final purchase decision will be up to you, but I wouldn't blame you if you skipped this one entirely.

Will you purchase the Holiday Hills neighborhood in CityVille? Why or why not? Sound off in the comments.

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Cafe World Holiday Tree Lighting Catering Order: Everything you need to know

The second Winterfest catering order has launched in Cafe World, chefs, giving you a chance to earn a new recipe for completing this winter / Christmas-themed order with a three-star rating. Of course, as tends to be the case with such things, that's actually easier said than done.

For the cooking tasks, you'll need to serve Holiday Stollen (an eight-hour dish) 400 times, Holiday Cheese Ball (a three-hour dish) 500 times and Pumpkin Pie (a 12-hour dish) 500 times. If the first two dishes don't look familiar to you, it's because they're earned by completing goals in this limited edition Winterfest event. If you haven't completed enough goals to unlock one or both of them, you can bring up to 12 of your friends in on this order to help you out.

While you're waiting for dishes to cook, you'll need to also collect 21 different Christmas-themed items with the help of friends. You'll need to ask friends for seven Ornaments, seven Tree Lights and seven Tinsel. All three of these items are earned by asking your friends to send them to you via individual gift requests (or by simply purchasing them with Cafe Cash).

If you can finish all of these tasks within the first three days of starting, you'll receive the three-star rating, 15 Catering Points, 7,500 Cafe Points, 200,000 coins and the Roast Holiday Goose recipe. To be especially clear, you must finish with three stars to receive the free recipe, so if you pass the first three days and want the Roast Holiday Goose dish, you'll need to cancel your progress and start all over. If you decide, however, to simply push onto the finish and can do so within five days, you'll receive two-stars, 10 Catering Points, 5,000 Cafe Points and 125,000 coins. Finally, finishing at any point after the first five days earns you the one-star rating, 5 Catering Points, 3,000 Cafe Points and 75,000 coins.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Have you worked your way through either of these Winterfest catering orders in Cafe World? Sound off in the comments.

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FarmVille Winter Holiday Items: Mistletoe Goat, Land Expansion and more

In what might be the last update before Christmas, FarmVille has seen an additional set of items in the Winter Holiday item theme released in the store. This newest release includes animals, trees and more (all of the expected items), but also brings with is a new Winter Wonderland land expansion that's available to purchase for coins! Here's a full look at what is available.
Trees

Frozen Apple Tree - 6 Farm Cash
Big Frozen Apple Tree - 12 Farm Cash
Holiday Lantern Tree - 8 Farm Cash
Big Holiday Lantern Tree - 14 Farm Cash

As usual, these trees come in pairs, with tree collectors really only "needing" to buy the regular sized versions of each tree. The "Big" options are a waste of Farm Cash, as you can earn multiples of these trees over time by simply growing Mystery Seedlings that you've either received on your own farm(s) or gathered from friends.

Animals

Mistletoe Ram - 16 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Stallion - 30 Farm Cash
Mistletoe Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Golden Bell Pony - 24 Farm Cash
Spotted Quoll - 1.5 million coins
Tinsel horse - 26 Farm Cash
Big Golden Bell Pony - 26 Farm Cash
White Andalusian Horse - 26 Farm Cash
Candy Cane Cow - 24 Farm Cash

There are a few re-released animals in this set, so make sure to look through your collection(s) of animals before spending any Farm Cash so you don't do so needlessly.

Buildings

North Pole Palace - 25 Farm Cash

Decorations

Present Gnome - 12 Farm Cash
North Pole Arch - 120,000 coins
Polar Bear Cave - 25 Farm Cash

Unfortunately, many of this update's items have broken images when it comes to previewing them in the store, so if you're in a hurry for some additional holiday cheer, you'll need to wait until the folks at Zynga issue a patch that will make them show up (both in the store and on your farms).

Land Expansions

Drafty Domicile - 1 million coins

This expansion is the 16x16 state, and it boosts your maximum farm plots on your Winter Wonderland farm to 160.

All of these items (except for the land expansion) will be available in the game's store for the next two weeks. By the time they expire from the store, Christmas will have come and gone, but we'll make sure to let you know if any additional items launch in the Winter Holiday theme regardless.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Will you expand your farm to the 16x16 size, or are you more interested in spending coins (and Farm Cash) on the new Winter Holiday items released this evening? Sound off in the comments.

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FarmVille Holiday Hearth: Everything you need to know

If you thought Zynga was done releasing items to celebrate Christmas in FarmVille, think again. A new Holiday Hearth has rolled out to users' farms, allowing players to ask for Stocking Stuffers from friends. As you fill your stocking, you'll also be eligible to ask your friends whether they think you've been "naughty or nice" this year, and will have a chance at different items accordingly.

First and foremost, you can place your Holiday Hearth on any farm. From there, you'll need to start collecting Stocking Stuffers from your friends (or by purchasing them with Farm Cash). This isn't just a one-time deal, but you will fill your first stocking at 10 Stocking Stuffers. This gives you a free Forest Snowglobe as a prize. At this point, you'll be able to access part two of this event, which asks you to start a poll amongst friends as to whether or not they think you've been Naughty or Nice.

Depending on which way your friends vote, you'll be eligible for one of two prizes for free. For this first round of voting, the Naughty side will reward you with a Radiant Sun Tree, while the Nice side will give you a Starry Night Tree. You'll need just four votes to reach either extreme's prize, and you'll have two days to earn those votes (for one option or another) before these prizes apparently expire.
Once you have finished earning enough votes for one item, you'll be given a discount on buying the other item, depending on how many votes you received for that one. I personally received all four votes for the Starry Night Tree fairly quickly, for instance, and was then left to pay Farm Cash for the Radiant Sun Tree. This works in a manner that you're allowed to receive more and more votes for this item, up until you just need one more vote. As of this writing, you aren't allowed to earn the other item for free, as the game won't register any last votes that would have given it to you for free (we tested this on multiple accounts). In the case of this Radiant Sun Tree, however, you can earn enough of a discount (by having three out of four Naughty votes) to take the price from 12 Farm Cash down to 3 Farm Cash.
Through the rest of this event, we'll see four more items available via the Naughty and Nice polls: a North Pole Gnome and Black Snow Fantasy Horse for the Naughty side and a Gift Giving Gnome and White Snow Fantasy Horse for the nice side. While you may have a time limit to earning the four votes, if you finish before the time is up, you can immediately jump into the next stocking. For instance, the second stocking level requires 35 Stocking Stuffers in all and rewards you with a Holiday Carousel when you fill it.

Just remember to keep checking back with your Holiday Hearth so that you don't miss your chance at these free goodies. Or, if you can't wait, feel free to purchase each item for (ever-increasing) amounts of Farm Cash. Happy holidays!

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

What do you think of this Holiday Hearth feature in FarmVille? Which set of prizes are you most looking forward to winning - Naughty or Nice? Sound off in the comments.

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FarmVille: Send your most helpful neighbors a gift this holiday

See the large green and red present in the corner of your FarmVille gameplay area? That belongs to a new feature that will allow you to send an exclusive gift to your neighbors this Christmas. The game will determine some of your most helpful neighbors (presumably those friends that respond to the most help requests, send the most gifts or visit your farms the most), and will give you a chance to send them a Present Tree; however, there's a catch.

Each Present Tree costs 5 Farm Cash, so if you want to send one, you'll be spending 5 Farm Cash to purchase and send that tree to a friend. As of this writing, the Present Tree isn't available to purchase in the store, so you can't just buy yourself one. You will need to be sent a tree by a friend. You can choose friends individually, or you can send a tree to all five friends in bulk for 25 Farm Cash per click. If you send more than one tree (regardless of who you send them to), you'll receive a Teddy Bear Gnome for yourself.

Putting this into perspective, that makes the Teddy Bear Gnome 10 Farm Cash, which is cheaper than most gnomes released in the store (a nice thing to consider, if you're a collector). And, you'll be able to make your friends' day in the process of earning this gnome for yourself. One final thing to note is that this feature isn't as exclusive as it might appear, as simply closing the window and then re-loading it will show you a different set of friends. In this way, you can choose your closest neighbors or friends to send a tree to, even if they don't show up immediately in your selection, and it also opens up the idea of trading with your friends. That is, if you want one of these trees for yourself, find a neighbor that your trust and exchange trees so you both have one at the cost of just 5 Farm Cash. Simple, right?

There's no time limit listed for this feature, but as it does revolve around Christmas presents, you should be able to wait until closer to Christmas to actually send them to friends. Still, I wouldn't blame you if you got this out of the way early - these trees are awesome, after all.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Will you send some friends Holiday Present Trees in FarmVille? Will you send enough to receive the Teddy Bear Gnome? Sound off in the comments.

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FarmVille Winter Wonderland: Buy an Unwither Ring for your Holiday farm

If you've already purchased an Unwither Ring for your other three farms in FarmVille, you might be interested in purchasing another in Winter Wonderland to complete your set. Luckily, you can now do just that, as an Unwither Ring "For Winter Wonderland" has launched in the game's store. This particular ring comes in a festive red box, and while you might already be able to guess the price, I'm actually pleased to say that your guess would be wrong.

Instead of being priced at 250 Farm Cash, as most other Unwither Rings are, this one is instead priced at 199 Farm Cash. Does that make it cheap? Most certainly not, but it is a savings of almost $10 off of the "normal" purchase price. This isn't a sale price on this particular Unwither Ring (at least, the store says nothing about it being a "sale"), so this is likely just Zynga's way of giving us a bit of a break this holiday.

If you're interested in purchasing an Unwither Ring for Winter Wonderland for yourself or for a friend (what a great present that would be, huh?), make sure you do so within the next 21 days, as it will be leaving the store at the end of the month.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Will you purchase an Unwither Ring for your Winter Wonderland farm, or will you use this "discounted" price to your advantage and buy one or more as a gift for your most active neighbors? Sound off in the comments.

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CityVille: McDonald's is back with a Downtown Holiday Restaurant

Back in October, McDonald's came to CityVille by way of a large McDonald's business that we could place and master in our towns. After the promotion ended, this restaurant was transformed into a simple "Burger Restaurant," but it has been transformed back into a McDonald's for the holidays. This new restaurant is available to users level 7 and above, but if you never had one to begin with, you will need to purchase one to participate.

The McDonald's Downtown Holiday Restaurant costs 5,000 coins to purchase from the store, but if you already have a restaurant from the previous McDonald's promotion, you can't build another one. It still requires 100 Goods to operate and will give you 500 coins when those goods have been used. As with the previous promotion, you'll earn mastery points for continuing to supply and collect from this business, and if you earn enough points by the end of the promotion period, you'll receive an Arch Light for free.

Currently, a bug is present with this building, preventing some users from seeing their mastery point progress, If the mastery bug has affected your game, we'd recommend waiting it out, as Zynga has already acknowledged the problem and is working to resolve it.

Either way, you'll only be able to add a new Downtown Holiday Restaurant to your town until December 27, and will have until January 3 to master the building for the free Arch Light. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll receive that free, exclusive prize so what are you waiting for? Hop to it!

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Did you master the first version of the McDonald's Restaurant in CityVille? Is your game suffering from either of the bugs we listed above? Sound off in the comments.

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FarmVille Winter Holiday Items: Tinsel Gnome, Gold Tinsel Tree and more

With tonight's FarmVille update, we finally see a considerable number of items released in the Winter Holiday item theme. We've seen items released in this theme here and there over the past week or so, but now, the game is ready to celebrate with avatar costumes, animals, buildings and more! Here's a complete look at what's now available.

Trees

Silver Tinsel Tree - 8 Farm Cash
Gold Tinsel Tree - 14 Farm Cash

Here, instead of seeing a giant version of the same tree released in a pair, we see two different colors of decorations instead. Still, the same rule applies: there's no need to purchase the Gold Tinsel Tree as you can receive it for free from Mystery Seedlings.

Animals

Brown Spot Goat - 1 million coins
Giant Santa Sheep - 16 Farm Cash
Santa Sheep - 16 Farm Cash
Santa Dog - 12 Farm Cash
Santa Horse - 26 Farm Cash

What better way to make users spend Farm Cash than by offering giant and normally sized versions of the same animal. That's the case with the Santa Sheep above, so don't be surprised if we see additional animals released in the future with the same setup.

Buildings

Holiday Cottage - 15 Farm Cash

Decorations

Tinsel Gnome - 12 Farm Cash
Candy Fence - 800 coins
Winter Teddy - 100,000 coins
Candy Arch - 2,000 coins

If you can't tell from the picture above, the Tinsel Gnome is a poor gnome that has found himself wrapped in garland. Meanwhile, the Candy Fence is the same candy-cane-designed fence that we've seen released in the game in previous Winter Holiday / Christmas events.

Avatar Costumes

Miss Santa - 15 Farm Cash
Snowman - 10 Farm Cash

Here, the two costumes are re-releases from previous years, so if you can't see either in your store, you likely already have it/them in your virtual closet.

All of these items (apparently with the exception of the Winter Teddy above) will be available in the game's store for the next two weeks. Keep in mind that we have yet to see the rest of the Thanksgiving items that will be released in the game as well, so you might want to save some coins / Farm Cash for that theme as well. Ah, who am I kidding? Bring on the Christmas cheer!

What do you think of these Winter Holiday items in FarmVille? Are you excited to see the theme launching so quickly this year, or would you prefer it Zynga waited until after Thanksgiving to release these Christmas-themed items? Sound off in the comments.

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