We combine legal expertise with sector understanding and insight into the transformational trends impacting businesses today – and tomorrow Timely updates and industry-leading Insights – ensuring you receive content you need to help you drive your business forward What's on the horizon for Digital Regulation by evolving flexible and imaginative approaches to everyone's work - and life - needs Osborne Clarke has advised the press wholesaler 4Press on the territorial takeover of Fritzenschaft & Partner and the business combination with Frankenthaler Pressevertrieb.  based in Machern in the district of Leipzig was created in 2023 from the merger of the three companies Verlagsgrosso Nord Verlagsgrosso Ost and Presse Vertrieb Berlin Led by Katharina Horsch-Littig and Joachim Sander as well as the management team consisting of Axel Muß the company is Germany's largest press wholesaler in terms of the number of press outlets supplied the delivery area is to be significantly expanded again through a takeover and a business combination: 4Press is planning to acquire the distribution area from Fritzenschaft & Partner GmbH (F&P) this area covers the south-eastern part of Brandenburg as well as parts of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt and is to be transferred to 4Press by the end of 2024 subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities.  4Press is also preparing a business combination with Frankenthaler Pressevertrieb GmbH & Co The latter supplies around 4,500 retailers in southern Hessen the Palatinate and northern Baden-Württemberg from its headquarters in Frankenthal/Pfalz FPV's shareholders are three private shareholders and ten publishers/national distributors The business combination is also still subject to the approval of the respective shareholders and the antitrust authorities.  the distribution area of 4Press would comprise around 22,000 press retailers in future The Osborne Clarke team that advised 4Press on the acquisition and the business combination Susanne Schricker (both Antitrust and Investment Control) Dr Martin Soppe (IP) and Carsten Dau (Commercial).  Frankenthaler Pressevertrieb was advised by Dr Axel Klumpp (Menold Bezler) and Dr Steffen Bangert (Falk).  Fritzenschaft & Partner was represented by Andreas Volz (Ose Sturm Volz) Mit dem Adventure-Game "Caravan SandWitch" steht das erste Spiel des kleinen französischen Indie-Studios Plane Toast in den Startlöchern Darin begebt ihr euch auf eine grosse Reise die eurer Spielfigur und natürlich auch euch allerlei abverlangen soll sich mit ihrem Erstlingswerk in den Fokus der internationalen Gaming-Community zu spielen In unserem Test der PlayStation-5-Version verraten wir euch wie uns das Spiel des in Südfrankreich ansässigen Entwicklerteams gefallen hat In "Caravan SandWitch" schlüpft ihr in die Rolle von Sauge die sich in der postapokalyptischen Welt Cigalo auf die Suche nach ihrer verschwundenen Schwester macht Während ihrer Reise soll sie jedoch noch über allerlei weitere Mysterien und Geschichten über eine geheimnisvolle Hexe stolpern Das verraten wir euch an dieser Stelle natürlich nicht Doch während unserer Zeit mit dem Spiel verstärkte sich in uns zusehends das Gefühl die wir unterwegs mit anderen Einwohnern und Überlebenden auf unserem Weg knüpfen Was das Indie-Abenteuer von anderen Games mit postapokalyptischem Setting ist die überaus wohltuende und positive Atmosphäre um die Verbundenheit zu anderen Menschen (oder auch Robotern) Ein weiterer gravierender Unterschied zu anderen Spielen mit Postapokalypse-Setting: Es gibt kein Game Over Der Fokus von "Caravan SandWitch" liegt ganz klar auf der entspannten Stimmung und der Erkundung dieser faszinierend gestalteten Spielwelt ist euer ständiger Begleiter während dieser Reise euer Van/euer Wohnmobil mit dem ihr die wundervoll designte Spielwelt erkundet Dank eures treuen Gefährts könnt ihr selbst normalerweise unzugängliche Areale erreichen die ihr im Laufe des Abenteuers freischaltet Um die Suche nach Sauges verschwundener Schwester fortsetzen zu können könnt ihr auf eine vielseitige Antenne oder auch einen schmucken Greifhaken vertrauen Euer Wohnmobil ist gewissermassen ein Schweizer Taschenmesser auf vier Rädern während wir im Laufe der beschwerlichen Reise uralte Ruinen und andere Mysterien erkundeten WOG.CH - Der grösste Schweizer Onlineshop für Games Erkundungsabenteuer in einer Sci-Fi-Welt im Provence-Stil Wüstenplanet-Erkundung kann ausprobiert werden JPGAMES.DE Die ganze Welt der japanischen Videospiele Im Rahmen der Opening Night Live haben Knights Peak und Windup Games das „herzerwärmende 3rd-Person-Open-World-Abenteuer“ Hela angekündigt das von skandinavischer Folklore inspiriert ist Die Welt fühlt sich für unser Team sehr authentisch an und ist hoffentlich auch für ein größeres Publikum etwas ganz Neues“ Und weiter: „Wir wollen diese verspielte und skurrile Welt dass sie sich ernsthaft und herzlich anfühlt und letztendlich eine sehr bedeutungsvolle Geschichte für unsere Spieler webt.“ Hela soll für PC-Steam und bisher unkonkretisierte Konsolen erscheinen. Eine Steam-Seite ist bereits online Unten seht ihr noch einmal den Ankündigungstrailer von der Opening Night Live Bildmaterial: Hela, Knights Peak, Windup Games Sad. Hatte gehofft, man dürfte als Gewürzketchup-Flasche spielen. oh iwie hab ich genau das gestern verpasst xD Toll^^ Hela sieht richtig klasse aus. Gab ja doch noch nen Highlight mehr^^ Tyrant ist eine Serie von den Machern von Homeland Im Zentrum der Handlung steht eine amerikanische Familie die in die Wirren eines Staates im Mittleren Osten hineingezogen wird Die US-amerikanische Dramaserie Tyrant aus dem Hause FX erzählt von einer Familie, die sich plötzlich in den politischen Wirren im Nahen Osten wiederfindet. Barry Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) ist der jüngste Sohn eines Diktators der bereits seit 20 Jahren im Exil in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika lebt Bewusst hat er sich von den politischen Machenschaften seiner Familie distanziert und sich im Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten eine eigene Existenzgrundlage inklusive Familie geschaffen Für Barry läuft das Leben endlich in geordneten Bahnen droht die heile Welt von Barry aus den Fugen zu geraten: Anlässlich der bevorstehenden Feierlichkeiten macht er sich widerwillig mit seiner Familie auf den Weg in seine Heimat Sobald er jedoch in den von Kriegen und innere Unruhen zerrütteten Landstrich zurückgekehrt ist wird Barry in diverse Angelegenheiten verwickelt die schon bald den familiären Rahmen sprengen und politische Ausmaße annehmen Barry Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) ist der Sohn eines Diktators im Nahen Osten und hat sich bereits vor 20 Jahren von den Machenschaften seiner Familie abgewandt Barry hat sich eine stabile Lebensgrundlage in Los Angeles aufgebaut und eine eigene Familie gegründet Jetzt kehrt der verlorene Sohn in die Heimat zurück und wird schneller von seiner Vergangenheit eingeholt vollkommen unabhängig von Barrys einflussreicher Familie im Nahen Osten Dementsprechend hatte Molly bis dato nur sporadischen Kontakt mit Barrys Familie und deren Kultur Er ist in erster Linie dafür verantwortlich dass Barry den weiten Weg in seine Heimat auf sich nimmt um bei der Hochzeit mit seiner Familie anwesend zu sein Die Dreharbeiten zu Tyrant fanden unter anderem in Marokko statt Hauptsächlich dienten jedoch Originalschauplätze in Israel - darunter Tel Aviv Eine Wahlkampfveranstaltung von Bill Clinton crushen, den Palast von Saddam Hussein stürmen und - wie in "Ocean’s Eleven" - ein Casino infiltrieren: Die Kampagne von "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" drückt ordentlich aufs Gaspedal und bietet Popcorn-Action am laufenden Band Ob die Solokampagne auch spielerisch gehaltvoll ist Soviel vorweg: In diesem Jahr gelingt den Machern in gleich mehrerer Hinsicht eine handfeste Überraschung Mit dem im November 2020 veröffentlichten "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War" thematisierte das Entwicklerduo bestehend aus Treyarch und Raven Software die Wirren des Kalten Krieges "Call of Duty: Back Ops 6" lässt diese Ära hinter sich und rückt die Zeit danach in den Fokus Die Mauer zwischen West- und Ostdeutschland ist längst gefallen und im Irak rückt eine Koalition aus 42 Ländern im Rahmen von Operation Desert Storm gegen Diktator Saddam Hussein vor Um die Alliierten bei ihrem Vorrücken zu unterstützen werdet ihr in der Auftaktmission in der Rolle von CIA-Agent William "Case" Calderon nahe der kuwaitischen Grenze abgesetzt um den irakischen Verteidigungsminister Sayeed Alawi in Gewahrsam zu nehmen Doch kurz nachdem ihr Alawis Konvoi erfolgreich stoppen konntet Anscheinend haben es auch sie auf Alawi abgesehen Das Problem: Minuten später ist Alawi bereits tot - erschossen von dem aus heiterem Himmel auftauchenden Ex-CIA-Agenten Russell Adler Details zum Warum möchten wir an dieser Stelle nicht spoilern Nur noch so viel: Der Tod Alawis hat zur Konsequenz dass Case zusammen mit seinen Kollegen Troy Marshall und Frank Woods fristlos entlassen wird nachdem man dem Staat so viele Jahre treu gedient hat Doch die beiden wollen ihren Namen reinwaschen und schlagen kurz darauf an der bulgarischen Schwarzmeerküste nahe Burgas ein neues Hauptquartier in einem ehemaligen KGB-Safehouse auf was genau die paramilitärische Vereinigung als Nächstes plant und wie all das mit den jüngsten Entwicklungen beim CIA zusammenhängt die Raven und Treyarch seit dem Bestehen der SubmMarke "Black Ops" abgeliefert haben - vollgepackt mit frischen und mutigen Ideen toll vertont und in der Mehrzahl der Missionen so designt dass ihr Probleme auf vielfältige Art und Weise lösen könnt Im DVD-/Blu-ray-Bereich bei World of Games findet ihr alle aktuellen Blockbuster und die werden euch erst noch portofrei nach Hause gesandt The creators share the story of the most hated “Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: the Puppy Monkey Baby is horrible.” licked a man on the face and led a conga line with the men out of their apartment The response was as polarized as could be, with a mix of disgust and adulation exploding online. And though you may not think being called a “Horror-Hallucination of Brand Awareness” was a good thing it turns out that that’s exactly what creators Monty Pera and Don Marshall Wilhelmi were going for Monty Pera, creative director and art director of “Puppy Monkey Baby”: In 2016, Don and I were working for BBDO advertising agency. We’d met at McCann years earlier and became friends Then I encouraged him to come over to BBDO Don Marshall Wilhelmi, creative director and copywriter of “Puppy Monkey Baby”: “Puppy Monkey Baby” was our first assignment for Mountain Dew We were on some other account and we got a call in July or August before the Super Bowl and were put on this assignment We didn’t know that it was a Super Bowl ad at first though but they hadn’t decided yet if it was going to be a Super Bowl spot so we were just going about our business trying to create a concept Then we got a call telling us it was for the Super Bowl It’s probably the biggest TV investment that they can make because it’s one of the few times during the year where people pay attention to ads what they’re looking for is to get attention — they want to get talked about there’s kind of this running gag in the ad world that as there were a few years in a row where monkeys were in everything Pera: Those are kind of all the familiar tropes of the Super Bowl ad Those are the ones that win the ad meters and various ranking systems that the industry uses to measure these things it’d become kind of a cliché to have a talking baby or a monkey or a dog Wilhelmi: It was really just an inside joke between us so why not just take all the great Super Bowl ads and mash them together and see what happens But it tickled us so much when we were talking about it that we decided to write it up it ended up being sort of serendipitous for the product because Mountain Dew Kickstart had these three main ingredients: Mountain Dew something that was just barely legally fruit juice we thought that maybe it was more than just some silly idea Wilhelmi: TV shows like to kind of inflate what it’s like to pitch an idea to a client They make it seem like there’s this one big meeting and you pitch it and then it’s this big deal you generally pitch a few different ideas and you have scripts and a few mood boards for each which are just these still images that get you in the headspace for what you’re talking about This was probably the second or third time we were pitching to them on this assignment and “Puppy Monkey Baby” was our favorite and our boss’s favorite Pera: I can’t remember what any of the other ideas were we had the script and the mood boards and I’d made this really bad get rid of that because that’ll just scare the shit out of them.” Wilhelmi: I remember the meeting because it was in an odd place Typically we would have the meeting at the agency or at the client’s headquarters but this was in a rented office space in Midtown Monty and I tend to have this bad habit of working on a presentation all the way up until the last minute some of the people on our own team hadn’t seen it yet one of the people on our team was just crying laughing Pera: We had a lot of conversations about this during our meetings with them but there’s something about Mountain Dew that’s sort of an anomaly — that’s sort of baked into their DNA It’s this bright green drink with a bunch of sugar and caffeine it’s not this homogenous drink like Coke and Pepsi Anyway, they see Mountain Dew as really unique and there is this amazing amount of loyalty for it There are some really hardcore Mountain Dew drinkers and that’s their thing so it’s a very unique product and that certainly informed the tone of their advertising which is why they went for “Puppy Monkey Baby.” Wilhelmi: The pitch went over really well — like go make it,” but with a Super Bowl ad it’s a much higher profile because it’s such a big investment So this had to get buy-in all the way to the top and part of that is testing it’s really tough for an ad like “Puppy Monkey Baby” to go through testing but in the case of “Puppy Monkey Baby,” we made what’s called an animatic which is a really low-fi animated version of your commercial This is before you hire a director or anything so it’s purely from us and what we’re thinking about The client hires a third party to test these things and they claimed that this was the most polarizing ad they’d ever tested and polarizing isn’t good in the testing world Most clients don’t want half of the people hating their ad If you were looking for a reason not to do it The good thing was that the people who liked it really but the testing company very specifically didn’t recommend the ad Pera: Mountain Dew really stuck their neck out, both with the testing and internally. Mountain Dew is owned by Pepsi and Pepsi does a lot of conservative advertising, so the Mountain Dew brand manager, Greg Lyons and “Puppy Monkey Baby” was one of the weirdest productions ever drawing it is easy because there’s no physics involved We had a lot of weird intellectual conversations about it Wilhelmi: We were helped a little bit because we knew that the puppy was going to lick the face of one of the guys in the commercial We knew it was going to be “Puppy” — lick — “Monkey” — lick — “Baby” — lick and that was there from the very beginning as we wanted to be able to separate the monkey from the baby which worked because the long arms are really fun There were also a lot of production realities with how you want it to look We didn’t want it to be a slick CGI character that was just placed in a room so we wanted to do it as practically as possible we had some directors who thought it would be a CGI animal had worked a lot with practical effects and he had a really quirky style He was based in London and he had a lot of relationships with puppeteers in London so he had a strong vision for how to pull this off We awarded him the job and shot it in London because all the resources were there already it took five puppeteers to control Puppy Monkey Baby One guy was on the floor doing the feet and imitating this sort of toddler shuffle then there was a puppeteer on each arm because each arm had its own stuff to do The head had to be upright the whole time so that’s another puppeteer There was also a choreographer to be sure all five puppeteers moved in concert This was all happening while those three actors were on the couch pretending those puppeteers weren’t there — they did a great job but we wanted more realistic movement and expressions for it so we auditioned a bunch of pugs for the role of the head we went with a dog named Lottie because she was calm enough to sit for a 3D scan of her head we shot the dog being carried around on a green screen and licking peanut butter off of a balloon for the licking part We probably have 15 minutes of footage somewhere of a dog just licking a balloon we took that footage and put it on the puppet in post people were criticizing the “bad CG,” and we were like “We spent so much time making this puppet!” There were all of these happy little accidents with how weird and jerky the puppet’s movements were which is something we never could have had with CGI Post took about four or five weeks and it went pretty smoothly too we knew that he was only going to say his name That was always in the script because it had this nice cadence to it — “Puppy Monkey Baby” — but it was tough to figure out what he was going to sound like but we didn’t want word to get out about the ad either so we had to audition people with other words like Pera: We auditioned some heavy hitter voice talent The client had heard him doing it in the meetings and he always liked Don’s voice for it so it was the client’s idea to just use Don Pera: They made a doll of it later and each of my kids have one I just hear Don’s voice say “Puppy Monkey Baby” out of nowhere Wilhelmi: The ad was coming together really nicely in post and we were thrilled with the final product it was just everything we hoped it could be Pera: Someone on the account team was in the war room monitoring social media right after the commercial aired Wilhelmi: Apparently it was trending even before the next spot was over What the fuck was that commercial #PuppyMonkeyBaby — Vanessa Lopez (@cute_emoqueen) February 7, 2016 I need a plushie or action figure of #puppymonkeybaby seriously! It's crazy! https://t.co/ktABU4A01w — Doc_Gamer (@Doc_Gamer) February 7, 2016 "PuppyMonkeyBaby" is the most fucked up thing I've ever seen in my life. — MrSteele ? (@MrPunsOfSteele) February 7, 2016 Lara O’Reilly, Business Insider, February 7, 2016, excerpt from “Mountain Dew’s Weird ‘Puppy Monkey Baby’ Super Bowl Ad Completely Split Viewers’ Opinions”: Some think it’s the best of the game; others think it’s the stuff of nightmares depicts a “Puppy Monkey Baby,” a hybrid creature drawing on some of the best stars of Super Bowl ads from previous years The Frankensteinesque Puppy Monkey Baby monster prowls around a living room repeating the words “puppy monkey baby.” Then the creature licks a man’s face it grabbed attention among the dozens of other brands airing ads on game day The #PuppyMonkeyBaby hashtag was trending on Twitter long after the ad aired Wilhelmi: We knew it was going to be polarizing Though I couldn’t tell if people were leaning into the fun of it being creepy or if they were genuinely creeped out because people were also making birthday cakes of it for five-year-olds It’s also kind of obvious that the whole point of the ad was grabbing people’s attention and creating online buzz there are a few examples of ones that really go viral The best example is the Old Spice one with Isaiah Mustafa from 2010 That’s kind of the gold standard of the viral internet Super Bowl commercial many other companies have tried to follow suit though that’s true of a lot of advertising in general over the past decade — the point is to go viral online the online buzz only lasts a short time and “Puppy Monkey Baby” was just like that I’m sure there are some who still love it though as Mountain Dew has a huge place in internet culture Pera: What’s cool was — and this is a credit to Pepsi and Mountain Dew — they didn’t exploit the character in a commercial way afterwards but he wasn’t put on every point-of-sale and they didn’t make any more commercials with him It aired there and a few more times and that was it Wilhelmi: While “Puppy Monkey Baby” trending was cool what happened after the commercial aired was even more exciting — that was really the best part of this whole experience for us There was all this crazy fan art and cakes and cake pops and people making game mods with the character Kyle Burles, illustrator: I don’t know anyone who liked Puppy Monkey Baby as much as I did I drew him in a Dark Knight Returns parody cover So many people were viscerally offended by him and tell me that they despise him so that just makes me want to draw him all the more Wilhelmi: People made some very impressive costumes too Jose Cuellar, Puppy Monkey Baby fan: I usually like to plan out my Halloween costumes in advance I was in the costume shop and I saw a pug mask and it occurred to me that I could make a Puppy Monkey Baby costume The response I got was kind of all over the place People who knew the ad loved it and wanted to take pictures with me One guy wanted to fight me because he didn’t like that I was wearing a diaper to his party so I got out of there before anything happened and went to a bar instead they let me in with my can of Mountain Dew Kickstart but it was also strange for it to be coupled with all these people saying they were so disturbed by it but we also found him to be kind of charming Wilhelmi: Some people called him a creepy demon but we always saw him as this charming oddball Todd Hooper, tattoo artist and owner of Pacific Sangha Tattoo in Redondo Beach CA: I saw the commercial when it first came out and I loved it I went online and saved a picture of it in my phone for a tattoo I decided that I just had to fucking get this thing done so I asked one of my artists and he just did it one day That’s so awesome!” Other people have no idea what it is the thing is weird as fuck and he’s highly disturbing It kind of reminds me of that movie Freaks from the 1930s and the theme of the movie is that the “freaks” are the caring and cool people while the stars and the “beautiful” people are total fucking assholes I’ve been in the tattoo culture most of my life the weirdest-looking people are just the best people That’s like my whole philosophy and Puppy Monkey Baby goes right along with that That’s why so many people still love the guy Brian VanHooker is a staff writer at MEL specializing in pop culture food (especially pizza) and long form oral histories He is the co-creator of the comic book "Barnum & Elwood" and "The Tramp," a comedy pilot starring John O'Hurley He also hosts a TMNT interview podcast called "Turtle Tracks" and was once called a "Good Guy" by Mr