Rovio chucks up Angry Birds successor, hopes it will fly
Rovio has launched its follow-up to mobile gaming phenomenon Angry Birds, but this time even Android users will have to cough up to play.
The game is called Amazing Alex, and it will set you back 64 pence (99 cents) on iOS or Android, but it used to be called Casey's Contraptions when it was sold to Rovio by game devs Mystery Coconut. Rovio bought the rights to the game last year and has now tarted up the graphics and introduced some Angry Birds-inspired structure.
Angry Birds has been huge for Rovio, and for mobile games in general, but it's worth remembering that it wasn't Rovio's first attempt. The company had 50 or so failures before hitting the big time with Angry Birds, and since then has been extracting every possible penny from the franchise before it gets old. Read more...
Kindle Fire adds APIs for cloudy gaming features
Amazon has beefed up gaming on its Android-based Kindle Fire platform, in hopes that adding cloudy goodness will help bolster the device in the upcoming fondleslab wars.
The online retailer's new set of services, collectively called GameCircle, allow games to store various kinds of data in Amazon's cloud, where it can be accessed and shared by multiple players and devices. The three services Amazon is offering so far include Achievements, Leaderboards, and Sync.
Achievements allow game players to earn trophies, treasures, awards, and other prizes, and to maintain a list of the prizes they've won and ones they have yet to earn. Leaderboards allow players to track their high scores in games and rank their scores against those of other players. Sync automatically saves game state to Amazon's cloud, allowing players to pick up where they left off when they restore a deleted game or switch to a different device. Read more...
Full circle: MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson becomes advisor for Facebook casino app
Even Tom from MySpace knows that Facebook’s app platform is a powerhouse, and has joined a company called RocketFrog as an advisor.
The company has launched what it calls the “largest free to play online casino app” on the Facebook platform. I’m not a social games kind of guy, but there’s no doubt that people love to play around on Facebook, just ask Zynga.
RocketFrog’s founder, Brett Calapp, has a past chock full of gaming, including a stint as the President of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour. Here’s what he said about the app’s release today: Read more...
Is Sony’s PlayStation Network rebranding really necessary?
As device manufacturers eye the living room as the next great uncharted frontier (with an increasing nervousness about Apple’s impending TV set), they look for any “in” that they already have. Video game consoles provide as good of an entryway to the living room as there is.
We’ve already seen Microsoft expand the Xbox 360 software to include some TV integration, including voice control. Now Sony is preparing to make a similar shift, by transforming the PlayStation Network (PSN) into a full-fledged entertainment suite. To match that change, it will soon be rebranded as the Sony Entertainment Network.
The kicker is, the PlayStation Network is already an entertainment suite. In addition to playing and purchasing games, you can already rent and buy movies, stream music, and watch Netflix and Hulu Plus. Read more...
Swiss Govt: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal
One in three people in Switzerland download unauthorized music, movies and games from the Internet and since last year the government has been wondering what to do about it. This week their response was published and it was crystal clear. Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won’t suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products.
In Switzerland, just as in dozens of other countries, the entertainment industries have been complaining about dramatic losses in revenue due to online piracy.
In a response, the Swiss government has been conducting a study into the impact downloading has on society, and this week their findings were presented.
The overall conclusion of the study is that the current copyright law, under which downloading copyrighted material for personal use is permitted, doesn’t have to change.
Their report begins with noting that when it comes to copying files, the Internet has proven a game-changer. While the photocopier, audio cassette tape and VCR allowed users to make good quality copies of various media, these devices lacked a in-built distribution method. The world-wide web changed all that. Read more...
Five great games to play with the whole family
It's official. The holidays are upon us. And you know what that means: In the coming weeks you and your kinfolk will have ample time to sit cooped up together in one house for way too long.
It’s during these desperate times that you will search for something to keep the people related to you amused (and from strangling each other). And in these moments, a video game can be the perfect rescue.
Much like the board and card games of yore, video games can be a great way to pass the time with the entire family. They can offer everyone a chance to connect, a chance to laugh and, most importantly, a chance to totally crush one another in bit of friendly competition.
The members of your extended family don't play games, you say? Pshaw! They simply need a gentle and amusing introduction. Here are five video games to play with the whole fam damily. Read more...
Skyrim Expected to Generate More Than 450 Million Dollars in Sales
It was announced that Bethesda Softworks’® award-winning title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has enjoyed an enthusiastic reception by gamers across the globe. After shipping seven million units of Skyrim for the Xbox 360® video game entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and PC, Skyrim’s launch units are expected to generate more than $450 million in global retail sales. Read more...
Worms Crazy Golf tops iPhone Games of the Week
The strategy game series Worms is generally about big explosions and cartoonish wars, but the earthworm battle atmosphere is pretty well translated to golf with Worms Crazy Golf. A worthy title for the Games of the Week, it heads up a great list of titles that includes multiplayer, puzzle and action titles. Check them out below.
Worms Crazy Golf (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
Worms manages to hit a stride similar to Super Stickman Golf – a side-scrolling golfing game with crazy environments – and takes it up a notch. First is the Worms license, which adds a humorous and cartoonish bent to the game. Then, the game expands on the simplicity of its golf undertones by throwing in things like the ability to choose what club to use or add spin to the ball after it lands. There are also obstacles like groundskeepers and sheep with which to deal, resulting in a fairly deep golf experience that’s also light-hearted and fun. It has pass-and-play multiplayer, so it’s great for a party as well as alone. Read more...
Gum Drop! leads iPhone Games of the Week
This week was rather light in terms of large iPhone games with epic scale, so we’ll be highlighting a few smaller games in snackable bite-size format. Leading this week is Gum Drop! a new puzzle and word game from Chillingo aimed at audiences of all ages. You can read more details about this exciting game below, but be sure to check out all the top iPhone games this week for a variety of entertaining titles.
Gum Drop! (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Gum Drop! is such a simplistic and easy-to-learn game that it doesn’t even need a tutorial; you can dive right into the action and start mastering the game within moments. In this lightweight word puzzle game, gumdrops containing various words will be displayed along the left side of the game board. Clicking the icons on the right that correspond to those words will make the icons disappear, resulting in huge combos and the gumdrop stack shrinking. If the gumdrop stack makes it to the top of the screen, you lose. Sounds easy enough, right? Chillingo is certainly one of the master game developers at creating games that are fun for all ages, and Gum Drop! is no exception. Kids will truly enjoy the bright colors and the easy gameplay, and adults just might find this game to be fast paced enough to present a challenge at the higher levels. Just don’t tell the kids that they’re actually learning and not just playing a game! Read more...
Back to the future with a joystick for the iPad
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column pointing out how innovation in games is a different beast to innovation in hardware. New mobile hardware is released on a yearly basis, but you rarely see the sort of leap in hardware tech that you see from a home console. Clearly, it’s a good thing peripheral developers don’t listen to me, because a couple of joystick adapters made specifically for the iPad could cause a sea change in mobile gaming.
It’s funny to think of a joystick as a game-changing device, seeing as it’s such an essential part of console gaming, but for a largely touch-based game platform, going back to the future with some old-school tech from Logitech, complete with construction so the joystick snaps back into place like the real deal, might open up a whole new gaming avenue for app developers. Read more...
Google+ Games goes live
Google's new social network, Google+, took a big step forward Thursday by adding games to its site.
Google+, which is less than two months old, said Thursday afternoon that it's beginning to roll out a games button at the top of users' streams. The highly popular Angry Birds is one of the first games to be added to the site, along with Zombie Lane and Edgeworld.
Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, announced the gaming news in a blog post. Gundotra noted that users will be able to click on a Games button that will be placed above their streams. The button takes them to a games page, allowing games to be available when users want them and hidden when they don't.
"The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships," wrote Gundotra. "We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life. That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences." Read more...
5 hot social networking sites
The social networking scene is constantly in flux. The big 3 (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) are at the top of the heap right now. But challengers are springing up all the time, hoping to leverage the next big wave into a lucrative IPO.
Actually there are two giant waves in the sea of social networking -- mobility and games.
As people move from desktops and laptops to iPads and smartphones, everything is moving to mobile apps, says Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. "People have their phones with them all the time, not their laptops. When they communicate, whether it's verbal, text, or a social app, they use their phones."
And since people are on the move, the savvy social media companies are adding location into the mix, either by having people check-in wherever they are (foursquare), or by using GPS to connect people who are in close proximity (Color).
The second major trend is what Altimeter Group's Jeremiah Owyang calls "gamification." People don't just want to post updates and read updates from others, they want to play games. Read more...
Move Over, Apple: Amazon Launches Mac Download Store
Today, Amazon launched the Mac Download Store. This new venue offers hundreds of software and games for Macs, and this directly challenges Apple's own Mac store.
Amazon's offerings undercut Apple's products with lower prices. A search in the Apple website for Microsoft Office Home & Student 2011 Family Pack will yield a $149.99 price. The same program is being offered on the Amazon page for $115.00 for immediate download. Apple will ship the program to you. Read more...
Smartphone Piracy: ‘Life’s Too Short To Worry About It’
[While console providers and publishers are mum about the next generation of piracy prevention as implemented in the Sony NGP and Nintendo 3DS, smartphone developers share their best strategies to combat the scourge.]
Software piracy may have taken a heavy toll on the previous generation of handhelds, and it's a matter of concern for the new models, but when it comes to smartphones, developers shrug. There are more pressing matters, they say.
At least that's what anecdotal evidence from a handful of recent interviews indicates.
Exactly two years ago, then-Sony senior VP Peter Dille stressed the enormity of piracy's effect on the PSP: "We're convinced that piracy has taken out a big chunk of our software sales on PSP. It's been a problem that the industry has to address together."
That same month, Nintendo admitted that it lost trillions of yen a year thanks to software piracy, much of it due to R4 "flash carts" that allow users to download and play pirated DS games.
So it wasn't surprising -- with portable game piracy such a hot-button issue among publishers and analysts -- that Sony and Nintendo turned up the anti-piracy juice on their next generation of handhelds -- the Sony NGP and the Nintendo 3DS. Read more...
Dual- and Single-Screen Sony Tablets Focus on Gaming
As befits an evolving ecosystem, a new tablet from Sony will offer two screens instead of one. The dual-screen tablet, along with a single-screen model, will come with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet-optimized operating system and, to the delight of gaming fans, with PlayStation Suite software.
The single-screen version, code-named S1, will offer a 9.4-inch display and will be optimized for media entertainment. The two-screen model, dubbed the S2, is intended for mobile communication and entertainment, and both are expected to be released in the fall.
'Off-Center of Gravity Design' Read more...