Activision Family Game Summit 2013, Plus Some Duck Dynasty News

By Nathan Young on November 9, 2013

On Thursday, the Activision Family Game Summit was held in New York City. This event was named as the best social media summit in 2012! And the hashtag #ATVIFamGames was trending on social media during the event! The event was hosted by Korie Robertson from Duck Dynasty and she gave out some exclusive information for all of you Duck Dynasty fans!

First, a Christmas album called Duck the Halls is now out in stores and on iTunes! The album has already debuted at #1 on the Country Albums chart and No. 4 on the Top 200 Albums chart with more than 69,000 copies sold. Every member of the Robertson family took part in the recording of the album, from Uncle Si’s version of “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” to Willie’s “Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Christmas,” which he co-wrote with Dallas Davidson, to Missy Robertson’s beautiful rendition of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and Sadie’s “Away In A Manager” Learn more at: http://duckthehalls.com/

Second, a Duck Dynasty Christmas special will premiere on A&E on Wednesday December 11th at 9 pm Central. Judging by the promo shown on A&E, it’s going to be worth watching! By the way, Korie and Willie Robertson were at the CMA Awards in Nashville the night before the summit. Did you see them twerking?

And third, Activision and A&E are partnering to produce the Duck Dynasty video game that will come out in late 2014. Here’s hoping this video game that will be available on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One will have a version of the classic game Duck Hunt, that would be awesome! Now on to the summit!

The Activision Family Game Summit was full of great information all families should follow. Korie Robertson gave some advice to all parents about using technology in the house. As you can imagine, the lives of The Robertson Family is much busier since their TV show is a huge success! But they do try to live a normal life just like everyone else. Pediatrics have recommended that all children should have no more than two hours of screen time every day. Even though Korie’s kids are teenagers, she still sets limits on technology. For example, no technology is allowed while eating dinner at the family table. And all technology is turned off after 9 pm every night!

These days, many games can be played via a smart phone. These games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds can be played for free. But you can always spend money to buy extras on these free games. And I am sure you have heard of these horror stories where people have thousand dollar bills because of playing mobile games. This summit gave some great advice to parents to keep your kids safe while playing games. Here are some great rules all parents should follow!

Free to play means items inside the game do cost money. Some parents have learned that rule the hard way.
Parents can put limits on the amount of purchases on-line with your credit card. You can also block kids from using a credit cards to purchase things within a game. And never give out your password.
Educate kids on what to put on their profiles online. Kids should never put personal stuff on their profiles like addresses, e-mail, or a phone number.
Never give out their friends list, parents should also check their kids friends list periodically. You can also shut off the friends list via parental controls.
Multiplayer Online Games means you or your children will be playing games with strangers. Parents can shut off multiplayer in the parental controls.
Parents, as soon as the game system is set up, do the parental controls so kids are safe! With online connections and motion-detection now in gaming, you need to make sure your kids are safe while playing games!
Even if you don’t think something is fun, your kids might love it. Give that new game you don’t know about a try. You never know, your kids might like it.

Before I get to the games, all parents should know about the ESRB rating system. Every video game comes with a rating on the front cover. You should know what each rating means! Did you know that you can download a free mobile app that will let you search the ESRB ratings? You can also search the ESRB rating on every video game online by going to: http://www.esrb.org

On to the games that were previewed during the summit! These games that were previewed will be available on the new Playstation 4 and Xbox One gaming consoles! The first game previewed was Angry Birds Star Wars. This game will be a multi-player game where all players work together to advance to the next level.

On the new game Wipeout Create and Crash, you will be able to create your very own custom Wipeout course! I know many people watching or playing Wipeout have said they could make their own perfect Wipeout course, now you get that chance!

On the new game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the voices from the Nickelodeon show will be voicing in the video game! And you will have the ability to switch from Turtle to Turtle during gameplay. There will also be two new Hasbro Transformers games called Transformers: Ultimate Battle Edition and Transformers: Ultimate Autobots Edition!

Spongebob Squarepants is coming out with a new game called Spongebob Squarepants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge. One feature is you can drop out of the game and come back in where you left off. And Moshi Monsters, over 80 million kids have played Moshi Monsters, this is a popular franchise! And the new game Moshi Monsters: Katsuma will be a popular Christmas item!

And the most popular game franchise for kids, Skylanders is back! In fact, Skylanders: Giants was the most popular console game for kids in 2012! The new game Skylanders: Swap Force will be available across all game consoles! One great feature is you will be able to jump in and out of the game. No more losing your turn! Skylanders Swap Force characters will have 2 parts – top and bottom that can switch out with 16 other characters parts. And all past Skylanders characters will be compatible in this new game! I am willing to bet this game will again be the most popular with kids in 2013!

Video games are a great way for kids to be more graceful winners and losers. And family game nights with video games, board games, or sports are great bonding time for families! Parents, make sure you get your kids video games or board games for Christmas. You will not regret the decision! Maybe next year, I can be at Activision Family Game Summit in person!

Follow the Activision Family Game Summit on Twitter @ATVI_Family.