Category Archives: Social

If you were a key cog at the studio producing, eh, notoriously violent titles like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, would you be embarrassed to the explain to the “normies” in your life what you do? Jeremy Pope was, and that’s why he left Rockstar Games a decade ago and is pursuing projects that he sees as more palatable to him.

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GREE – one of Japan’s leading social and mobile developers – has released its third-quarter financial results. For the quarter ended March 31, the company’s profit has slumped, prompting a change in strategy moving forward.

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PopCap’s social spin-off to its popular tower defence title arrives on Facebook this month.

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Facebook gaming showed positive growth in the first quarter, but long term partner Zynga wasn’t a contributor to this success.

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DeNa has closed five titles hosted on its Mobage social hub in Japan, including Epic Games’ localised version of Infinity Blade Cross.

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Zynga, who acquired OMGPOP last year, have confirmed that Draw Something 2 is now available in the US for iOS devices. The sequel will feature a live social feed, player’s own gallery, a Free Draw mode that allows players to draw whatever they desire and share it with friends, new drawing tools and many new words.

Thanks to Polygon, who report the news was initially announced by Zynga CEO Mark Pincus during an investor call. The game is already available on iOS in Sweden (where it costs 22 kronor) and Canada (CA$2.99).

Zynga reported its Q1 earnings today, posting net income of $4.1 million compared to the $85.4 million loss the prior year. Still, not all is rosy in social gamesville, as sale fell 18% to $264 million.

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Brenna is never, ever going to give PopCap any money for Solitaire Blitz, and has no idea if this makes her part of the problem, or the solution.

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Although EA still isn’t keen to comment, it has made layoffs at at least one and probably two studios, with talk of a wider restructuring across its mobile and social divisions.

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The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society are all facing the chop, developer and publisher EA has confirmed. The company intends to close down all three games due to slumping player activity.

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Electronic Arts CCO Richard Hilleman believes video games aren’t mass market yet, with the closest medium to reach the sector being the social and mobile space.

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The SimCity Facebook page confirms that cheetah speed is now available in-game. Some servers have been lucky enough to have the fastest speed available for quite some time, but even those of you in the busiest regions should now have access. Maxis also noted that update 2.0 is on the way.

Thanks, Blue’s News.

One Zynga shareholder and former employee has filed suit against the social publisher, claiming lower-level staff and general investors were blocked form selling stock while executives made a packet doing just that.

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The Kickstarter campaign for Richard Garriott’s new social RPG Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues has ended. The crowdfunding drive was more than successful, pulling in $1,919,275 – close to twice its goal of $1 million. 22,322 backers ponied up at an average of $85 each, significantly higher than the typical US RRP of a new release. If you include pledges made directly through the game’s website, the total is .$2,050,509 and climbing. Forsaken Virtues is the first of five planned annual episodes in the RPG series, due in October 2014 on Linux, Mac and PC.

Thanks, Joystiq.

If you can stomach looking at the word “Nissan” from time to time, head over to Origin to grab the Leaf Station, a free piece of DLC bearing the car manufacturer’s brand. The charging station gives a one-time boost to business happiness in surrounding areas, boosts happiness for each sim that uses it, requires no water, power or workers, and produces no waste or pollution. The DLC will be available for just six months.

Thanks, games.on.net.

Big Fish Games is a social and indie PC developer that I admittedly hadn’t heard of until today, nor do I recognise any of its titles. Regardless, it made $220 million last year alone, and has surpassed $2 billion lifetime downloads. Next round is on them right?

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Candy Crush Saga developer King.com has rebranded as it announced a string of significant milestones. It seems that 50 million of you are playing its sweet puzzler on a daily basis.

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PopCap has quietly unveiled Plants vs Zombies Adventures, a social adaptation of its much-loved tower defence effort now in beta on Facebook. Only a few players are onboard, with wider availability expected during northern spring. The “highly accessible” social spin-off promises exclusive new plants and zombie and all-new forms of combat, sending players on road trips to counter the undead menace in new locations, and was outed by domain registrations earlier this month.

Well well well, what have we here? Zynga has relaunched its online gaming portal and removed a requirement to login via Facebook. You can still use your social network ID if you like, but its yet another sign of the casual, mobile and social publisher’s decreasing reliance on Facebook. Reuters reports the relaunch hasn’t impressed investors much; stock climbed just 1% to $3.38 after hours.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Free-to-play Harry Potter social network and experience Pottermore is coming to PlayStation Home. Sony has promised more information soon, for now leaving us wqith this teaser trailer.

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