Category Archives: Social

Reminding us that EA has at least a tiny finger in the Angry Birds pie is news of the publisher’s placement on a list of the most successful apps of all time.

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Is Zynga the evil emperor of the social scene, or does the problem extend beyond everyone’s favourite scapegoat? Nathan Grayson reports.

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Catapult distressed avians at greedy porcine thieves on your social network. Assuming you can’t hide your smartphone and Facebook isn’t banned in your workplace, this may have made your day and ruined a vital report about plumbing supplies. You can post high scores to your news feeds to irritate your less-skilled friends, and soother their tempers by gifting them with power-ups for their own record attempts: Sling Scope, King Sling, Super Seeds and Birdquake.

Thanks, Gamespot.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg told DICE attendees the birthing of social service Call of Duty: Elite was problematic for everyone involved.

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Two neat little apps will be free to European Vita owners thanks to Sony’s Discovery Apps scheme.

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GREE is setting up shop in San Francisco in order to facilitate the launch of its global platform during Q4 this year. The Japanese network operator, and social and mobile game developer, plans to use the time before launch to build relationships with local developers and publishers. Titles are to be offered through the firm’s existing service, along with that of OpenFeint – its most recent acquisition – and the first two will go live next month. It’s Japanese service boasts 190 million registered users, and it expects to its fiscal year-end sale to reach $2.1-$2.5 billion. Currently, the service offers over 7,500 games from more than 20,000 partners, and has its own internal development studio. Other offices for the firm are located in Beijing, Dubai, London, Sao Paulo, and Seoul. Thanks, Gamasutra.

Siliconera has gotten to the bottom of a Square trademark it uncovered this morning called Rebellion Overdrive, and turns out its a new episode for the Japanese, GREE social game, Knights of the Crystals. The North American version on Facebook ends on February 29. So much for hoping it was one of Square’s Unreal Engine 3 games.

With three successive IP launches under its belt, Insomniac looks to be one of the surest bets for innovation in the industry. Nathan Grayson talks to CEO Ted Price about the shape of things to come.

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PopCap’s next game is a Facebook-only affair, according to IndustryGamers. Solitaire Blitz joins the casual developer’s other social network efforts, Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz, in March. A social version of Solitaire seems like an oxymoron, but PopCap has promised to work its magic on the classic single-player card game. Expect a small-scale beta soon, and see a trailer through the break.

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THQ has announced an agreement with digital development studio Innovative Leisure, a new company formed by games veterans which reads like a list of who’s who of the industry, to publish the firm’s titles.

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Crytek’s once-mysterious GFACE has resolved into a cross-platform online games platform, with social network and streaming games service.

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Capcom has announced it will release Monster Hunter With Everyone: Card Master, known as Minna to Monhan Card Master in Japan, via DeNA’s Mobage mobile social gaming platform. Pre-registrations started today for the card battle game developed by Gloops. Each card is based off characters and monsters from the Monster Hunter series, and it allows players to form guilds, gather cards, and battle other guilds. The game will be released on feature phones and smart phones with microtransactions starting February 21. Thanks, Andriasang.

Rovio has announced Angry Birds is heading to Facebook in time for Valentine’s Day, and to celebrate, the firm will be hosting a launch event in Jakarta, Indonesia. The game will contain full-screen capabilities, leaderboards, higher quality animations, new power-ups you can earn or purchase for $0.99 such as earthquakes and bigger, better birds. The firm told Penn Olson that 40% of users were more interested in buying the power-ups, compared to 3 to 4% in other games. Thanks, Gamasutra.

Sterne Agee’s Arvind Bhatia has highlighted some disturbing figures in Zynga’s finances.

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ZipZapPlay’s Facebook game Baking Life is to close, giving players no option to transfer purchases and progress to another game in PopCap’s casual stable.

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EA’s announced a collaboration with Katy Perry that sees the popstar get her very own collectors edition of upcoming Sims 3 expansion Showtime. The CE will come with a bonus stage, stage props, fashion and others that will be Perry themed. Other items surrounding Perry will also make their way into future Sims titles. There’s a trailer of it all in action below the break.

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Disney has announced a new Facebook game in the works at Playdom – Marvel: Avengers Alliance. Players recruit and train Marvel heroes and villains to build up a fighting force, and can even take custom characters to PvP matches. Individual characters can also be powered up with something called ISO-8, which probably costs money. Destructoid has a trailer and a pile of screens, so hit the link to check ‘em out.

VentureBeat reports the Call of Duty: Elite mobile app will arrive on the App Store on Tuesday, US time, and release for Android one week later. Mobile versions of the social service were expected alongside its Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sim-ship, but were delayed after heavy demand caused launch hiccups. The apps allow members to check stats, view maps of past encounters, edit load outs, and browse challenges among other useful features.

Thanks, CVG.

After a turbulent start, sharp drops, and subsequent levelling, Zynga stock has taken another tumble. Investors were apparently not impressed with early 2012 releases, letting shares drop in value by 3% to close at $8.91. Gamasutra reports trading was even worse during the day, coming perilously close to an all-time low. The social games publisher just released Scramble with Friends, its first mobile and second overall release since going public late last year with a record IPO.

Zynga has launched its hidden object game, fittingly titled Hidden Chronicles, through Facebook. The game is set in a Victorian estate and is in a similar vein to Playdom’s Gardens of Time which boasts 7.6 million MAU. Hidden Chronicles was announced
in October, and is the first new title from the social game maker since going public in late 2011. A video for the game is posted below. Thanks, Gamasutra.

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