The hit mobile game of the summer has a familiar face behind it. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is an adventure game for iOS and Android that lets players create their own celebrity and interact with the titular reality show star, her friends, and her frenemies. Following its release on June 25th, the game has quickly risen to become the third most popular free app in Apple's App Store and is in the top 10 free games on Google Play. It's also received a nearly perfect overall rating in both stores.
And although the game is free to download, the company that created it, Glu Mobile Inc., stands to make a pretty penny thanks to all of the in-app purchases that players are making (one player reported spending nearly $500 within the app in just a few days). One analyst projects that the "freemium" game could make up to $200 million annually from advertising and in-app purchase revenue, as Bloomberg reported recently. Glu Mobile's stock has also been on a tear since the release of the game.
If you were getting excited about playing Minecraft in virtual reality, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. The game’s creator Markus Persson just revealed on Twitter that he has canceled any possible deal for an Oculus Rift version now that Facebook has announced plans to acquire Oculus VR.
We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out.
— Markus Persson (@notch) March 25, 2014
Persson has shared his thoughts at length on his blog:
I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me. And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition.
Hear that noise? It’s the sound of millions of 14-year-olds sighing in disappointment. As a consolation, you can, however, still play this modded version for Oculus – Minecrift.
By Stephen Wells at Prism Casino:
The fact that half of the population of the Internet plays social
games on Facebook and Google+ caught our attention. That’s the reason
we’ve compiled some very insightful stats from great authorities on
social media and online games and put everything together in a brand new
infographic we present to you today titled: What Makes Social Games on
Facebook and Google+ so Popular?
By Kathleen De Vere at InsideSocialGames:
Disney has finally revealed what its first Disney branded Facebook game
will be and its not what many expected — Marvel: Avengers Alliance, a
combat RPG set in the Marvel superhero universe.
While it’s well known Disney Playdom
is currently working games based on Disney’s core brands, Marvel:
Avengers Alliance has been in development for more than a year.
According to USA Today, Playdom and Marvel were already at work on the game before Disney’s 2010 acquisition of Playdom for $563 million put both companies under the same umbrella. Disney acquired Marvel in 2009 for more than $4.24 billion dollars.
Disney Interactive’s director of communications, Brian Nelson tells
us the game isn’t the branded game Disney Playdom’s San Francisco-based
Dream Castle began staffing for in November either, as Marvel: Avengers Alliance was developed by another Disney Playdom studio, Seattle-based Offbeat Creations.
The game will be a combat RPG set in the wake of “the Pulse”, a
galaxy-wide disaster that has made New York the target of almost
everyone in the entire pantheon of Marvel villains. Players will take on
the role of a junior S.H.I.E.L.D agent, tasked with gathering the
world’s superheroes together into teams to protect the city. Disney is
hoping the game will balance between a casual audience and serious
Marvel fans, so despite its source material, the game will not be a
hardcore-player focused title. Nelson did not reveal if there would be
any connection between the game and the upcoming Avengers movie.
Disney has not announced a release date for Marvel: Avengers Alliance
yet, but the game will launch sometime in the first quarter. According
to Nelson, there are several more Disney-branded social games on the way
in 2012 and Disney Playdom’s Dream Castle is still working on what
Nelson refers to as a more traditional Disney IP.
Social gaming juggernaut Zynga has announced “Project Z,” a platform for playing social games and chatting with friends powered by Facebook Connect.
Project Z, also known as “Zynga Live” and “Zynga Direct,” lets users start their games on Facebook
and bring them to Project Z without interruption, and vice versa. It is
essentially a social network designed specifically for games and
chatting about games, but one that is powered by Facebook Connect.
Get on your dancing shoes and head for the hills. Entertainment
company Lionsgate has
teamed up with social gaming company Social Game
Universe to release a “Dirty Dancing” Facebook game based on the
1987 film of the same name.
“Dirty Dancing” allows you to team up with your Facebook friends and
help build Kellerman’s Resort, offer fun activities and dances to the
resort’s guests, spread romance and enjoy some music from the “Dirty
Dancing” soundtrack. The game has a retro look, designed using pixel
art, to give it an extra ’80s vibe.
In the game, you are tasked with running the resort and turning it
into a romantic getaway for guests. To do this, you drop so-called
“Romance Waves” around the resort to literally spread the love. You are
also tasked with improving the resort using the in-game watermelon
currency to buy virtual items like tennis courts and jukeboxes.
Of course, you can entertain your guests through dance shows. The
more dance shows you put on, the more Romance Waves you will generate.
Meanwhile, you can take pictures of your resort so you can store them in
a keepsake album and share them with your Facebook friends.
Additionally, you can visit your friends’ resorts and send them virtual
gifts.
The movie has more than 10.9 million fans on Facebook, making it
one of the 10 most-Liked entertainment franchises on the social network.
It has the 9th most Likes of any movie on Facebook and has more Likes
than any other ’80s movie on Facebook. Lionsgate appears to be tapping
into that large user base with the launch of this game.
Curt Marvis, Lionsgate’s president of digital media, said:
We are capitalizing on new platforms to drive additional,
incremental revenues for our successful brands — and Dirty Dancing,
with its incredibly strong Facebook following, was a natural fit for
extension into social gaming. We view this as a clear opportunity to
further monetize one of our most popular brands and we will continue to
identify and develop innovative brand extensions as we explore the
emerging platforms of the digital marketplace.
Before starting to write this article, I took a little time to check
out the game. Fairly early on during the tutorial which is designed to
show you how the game works, you have to take part in a dance rehearsal
which lasts for an hour in real-time, during which time you can’t do
anything else. This doesn’t exactly seem like the best way to get people
quickly hooked on the game. However, I’m sure it will find an audience
among fans of the film.
You can check out the “Dirty Dancing” game for yourself by installing
it on
Facebook.
Zynga has launched “Adventure World,”
its biggest and most feature-rich social game to date, on Facebook. The game allows
you to explore 5 worlds and 30 dynamic environments as you take on nasty
creatures and find clues to discover the lost secrets of El Dorado.
You can customize your own 3D avatar and choose from an inventory of
tools and gadgets — including machetes, grappling hooks, dynamite, whips
and pickaxes — to help you pass dangerous booby traps and make your way
across wild environments.
Of course, this being a Zynga game, you can recruit some Facebook
friends to help you make your way across the game boards. You can
control a crew of up to 12 friends and use their special tools and
abilities to help you battle enemies, solve puzzles and progress through
the game.
The total game board is more than 40 times the size of previous Zynga
games such as “FarmVille.”
There are also more art and game assets than any previous Zynga game
has had at launch — for instance, you will have to contend with 5 types
of snakes, 4 kinds of spiders and 2 kinds of rams as you work through
the game.
“Adventure World” has more than 200 quests and there are more than
20,000 objects across its 30 maps. You can also choose from more than
10,000 avatar variations so you will be spoiled for choice when creating
your avatar.
This is the first game that has been developed by the Zynga Boston
studio, which created a brand new game engine for “Adventure World.” The
engine includes advanced rendering technology with fast performance,
high frame rates and 3D environments. It also has a world editor that
allows the developers to create larger, more detailed game worlds and
interactive environments with puzzle-based gameplay.
Nabeel Hyatt, general manager of Zynga Boston, said:
When we joined the Zynga family a year ago, our goal was
to not only create a game unlike any other in the social gaming space
today, but to create a completely new genre. We call this genre social
adventure, one where players can explore, discover and team up with
friends on an adventure of a lifetime. We hope our players have as much
fun playing the game as we had building it.
The game, which was
announced last month, is being made available in 8 languages at
launch: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish
and Norwegian. The launch of “Adventure World” follows on from several
other social games and expansions to existing games that Zynga has
launched in recent months. These include “The
Pioneer Trail” for “FrontierVille,” “CityVille
Hometown” and “Hanging
With Friends,” while it has ported its popular “Words
With Friends” mobile game to Facebook.
You can check “Adventure World” out for yourself by installing it on
Facebook.
Zynga, the social gaming giant, has released
details of its new social game Adventure World,
expected to be launched in the next few weeks. The title is an Indiana
Jones style strategy game in which players are required to discover
historical artifacts to make virtual gold and experience points. If
Adventure World turns out to be a success, Zynga may be in a much better
position for its upcoming IPO, which remains stalled due to whirling a
stock market.
Here’s something that looks like a lot of fun. A group of students
from the Miami Ad School have come up with a game concept that adds
Monopoly-style gameplay to Foursquare. “Foursquaropoly,”
which is currently in development, provides you with $100,000 of
in-game cash that you can use to purchase real-world properties you have
checked into on Foursquare, as long as another player does not already
own that building. You can then charge other players rent as they
check-in to that location and increase your bank balance so you can
extend your property portfolio.
Electronic Arts
(EA) has opened up access to its Facebook version of “The Sims,” meaning that
anyone can now play “The
Sims Social.”
The game, which was announced
back in June, lets you interact with Sims belonging to your
Facebook friends as you guide your Sim through their life. You can share
your activity within the game with your Facebook friends and keep
everyone up to date on what is happening with your Sim. The game is free
to play, but you can pay for virtual goods such as clothes and items to
decorate your home.
“The Sims Social” underlines the fact that EA is focusing more on
social gaming. Indeed, the company has acquired PopCap Games, one of the
biggest social gaming developers around, for a sum
that could rise to $1.3 billion.
“FrontierVille”
fans, grab your 10-gallon hat, pull on your boots and hop on your horse
as a whole new chapter is coming to the Facebook game. Zynga has announced that “The
Pioneer Trail” is launching Friday on the social network.
In “The Pioneer Trail,” you will work your way across 3 distinct maps
— Beaver Valley, High Plains and Avalanche Pass — in order to reach the
safety of Fort Courage. To help you get to Fort Courage, you can select
3 of your Facebook friends to form your Trail Crew. You can designate
those friends as your crew’s doctor, carpenter and hunter, each of whom
have their own special abilities. This gives an interesting twist to the
game, as the more active your friends are on “The Pioneer Trail,” the
faster you will progress.
ZeptoLab, which we know for its best-selling game Cut the Rope,
launched Cut the Rope: Experiments, featuring the familiar monster Om
Nom who is discovered by a mad scientist “determined to study his
candy-loving behavior through a series of experiments.” The game
features three level packs with 75 levels in total.
Although the premise of the this new Cut the Rope title remains the
same — it’s all about swiping ropes, collecting stars and ultimately
feeding Om Nom — there are some differences included as well. For
instance, you’ll be using tools like a rope gun and suction cup to
complete levels. New soundtrack is also included, and there’s also
commentary by the Professor as he responds to Om Nom’s behavior and your
achievements.
As part of its Back to school campaign, EA is running one of those
weekend only promotions, offering many of its popular iOS games for
less. When it comes to the iPhone games, the following titles are now on sale:
No one could have predicted that the most popular genre of software for smartphones would have been games. When Apple launched the iPhone the App Store didn’t even exist, yet now it’s responsible for a sizable chunk of revenue for developers such as Gameloft. During the first half of 2010, the French gaming company scored 76.8 million EUR ($109.2 million) in terms of revenue; 30% of that (23 million EUR; $32.7 million) was from “smart devices”, in other words phones and tablets. This is inline with what the CEO of Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello, said a few days ago in an interview with Industry Gamers.
Disney Mobile and Marvel Entertainment are now offering the new CAPTAIN AMERICA: Sentinel of Liberty App for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch at a special price of $0.99. This is a limited time offer to coincide with the opening of Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios’ feature film “Captain America: The First Avenger.”The CAPTAIN AMERICA: Sentinel of Liberty app also launched this weekend on Android Market with a special price of $0.99 for a limited time. Android device owners can also download for free the official Captain America Shield Live Wallpaper. The wallpaper allows Captain America fans to tap to bombard their screen with bullets and deflect with the unbreakable shield!
Online gaming company Nexon has launched a Facebook version of its hugely popular game “MapleStory.” The social version of the game, which is called “MapleStory Adventures,” marks the first time that Nexon has branched out into Facebook games.
“MapleStory Adventures” takes the elements that made “MapleStory” a massive global hit — it has more than 100 million players all over the world — to the Facebook platform. The colorful, anime-style game offers action-orientated gameplay and engaging storylines, just like in “MapleStory.” However, the game has been simplified slightly to allow for shorter bursts of gameplay.
Zynga’s CityVille, the biggest social game on Facebook with more than 90 million monthly players, has taken Facebook by storm and is available in a number of different languages, but the popular social game has yet to hit places that don’t have access to Facebook — at least until now. Zynga has partnered up with Tencent, China’s leading Internet service company, to launch a region-specific version of the game called “Zynga City.”
Microsoft has been touting Avatar Kinect, since CES way back in January, and you can now finally it try out for yourself. The Kinect Fun Labs Gadget is available as a free download for all Xbox Live Gold members starting today, and even non-paying Live members can try it out during a limited trial that runs until September 8th. So just what is it? Partly a tech demo showing off things like new facial expression capabilities, but mostly another way for you to hangout with a few friends online -- up to seven in this case, in your choice of 24 virtual environments. Those looking to try something else a little different with Kinect will also be able to download the Kinect Sparkler 3D finger painting application this Thursday, although it'll cost you 240 Microsoft Points.
The official Tour de France mobile game is no longer something reserved for the iPhone and iPod Touch users – Android and BlackBerry smartphone owners can now join the party, too. The game is true to the original event, allowing you to assemble and manage a team of real cyclists competing in the Tour, including the current yellow jersey holder Thomas Voeckler and/or green jersey holder Mark Cavendish. That team should be comprised of riders with different styles — rouleur, baroudeur, sprinter and climber — to be able to win most if not all rounds.
Google is said to be preparing to launch a game network that would be integrated into Google+. The game network would offer developers a larger cut of revenue than Facebook and faster performance for their games.
