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Microsoft Advertising has joined forces with Pepsi to launch a mini interactive game on Xbox Live based on the current Pepsi Max Kick In The Mix TV advertisement featuring leading footballers. The custom game features three levels, with users and their avatars getting the chance to take on Pepsi Max footballers in a game of skill while running across the crowd (re-creating some of the scenes from the ad).

Toy brand Hasbro has partnered with One Direction to produce a new line of toys and games based on the boy band. Featuring all five members of One Direction, the product will include fashion dolls and mini-figures.

BBC Worldwide has launched a free-to-play online game based on its hit TV show Strictly Come Dancing. Strictly Keep Dancing is available in the UK at StrictlyKeepDancing.com and has gone live in the US as Dancing with the Stars: Keep Dancing.

Jay-Z is rolling out a game on Facebook. The game play on Empire is a take on the artist’s life story, with characters able to follow a successful narrative from hustler through to hip-hop star and business mogul. Yes, Empire is all about moving up the ladder from the Marcy Housing project in Brooklyn – via rap battles – to the rich and cool spots of Manhattan and beyond.

I Am Playr, the online football game from social games publisher We R Interactive, has broken the 1 million monthly active users barrier, picking up an average extra 100,000 users a week during the last month alone. The game’s virtual economy has also seen Red Bull sell more than 1.5 million cans and power 45 million training drills.

LEGO has rolled out its Super Heroes Movie Maker app to enable kids to make stop-motion films on the iPhone starring those LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes. “Simple tools and guides make it easy to shoot, edit, even score your movie with music,” says the toy brand.

Leading BBC programming brands such as Top Gear and Jane Austen are set to go gaming on Facebook following a new deal between BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment & Games and social games publisher 6waves, writes Maria Stadtmueller.One of the first games to launch, Top Gear: Speed World, will mark the first-ever Top Gear social game and will enable fans of the world’s biggest motoring entertainment show to compete in stunt-filled races and take on extreme challenges taken from the show’s history.

Looking for a bit of Star Wars branding? Well, Microsoft has rolled out the Kinect Star Wars app to let users feel the Force. This brings the Kinect Star Wars universe into fans’ social networking world so that Facebook and Twitter accounts get the look and feel of the iconic Star Wars opening title sequence. Released to promote the Star Wars game on Kinect.