Category Archives: Mobile

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.

Some startling figures have come out of Nielsen Games’ latest exposé of gaming trends in the US.

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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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“We’re talking with Sony games now. We are really trying to take it in areas that haven’t been done before and have stayed out of the marketplace because the ideas simply weren’t exciting enough. So while the gaming world is waiting for the KISS games that are going to explode, we’re busy taking the brand to places where no band has gone before. We’re talking with Angry Birds, KISS and Angry Birds, which will become a deal. It’s just endless what we can do, but we only do things when it’s right. Just because there are games, and just because there’s this or that out there, unless the deal is right and unless the content is exciting to our fans, we don’t do it.” – Gene Simmons on extending the KISS brand to video games and Angry Birds. Thanks, IndustryGamers.

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.

The iOS and Android Steam app, announced last week, is now openly available. Launched last week in a closed beta, it allows you to chat with Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, view screenshots and user-generated content and all the rest of it. It’s free: install it.

Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood has said the studio is to announce “new titles – both on platforms we’ve previously visited (including the PC and the world’s leading consoles), as well as exploring spaces completely new to us,” speaking in a statement regarding the developer’s 2012.

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Mojang has announced via Twitter the firm’s Minecraft: Pocket Edition has sold over 700,000 copies on Android since its launch in August on Xperia Play. The game was released for other Android platforms in September for $6.99. Thanks, Gamasutra.

Reuters reports that Zynga has made four recent acquisitions, all mobile developers. Perhaps the most notable is its September purchase of San Francisco-based Page44, which ported World of Goo to iOS; the port has sold over 1 million copies. In August, Zynga got hold of fellow San Franciscans HipLogic, and New York team Astro Ape. Further afield, a December deal netted the German Gamedoctors in December. Zynga went public in December with the largest tech IPO since Google, but has suffered fluctuating stock price in the interim.

Here is a trailer for a video game which made me laugh aloud. This is by way of being a calendar event.

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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.

Nimblebit’s Ian Marsh has revealed iOS smash hit Tiny Tower has over 1 million monthly average users – and notches up 10 million play sessions per day. That’s a lot of checking on your tiny, freemium-powered skyscraper, the joys of which netted an Apple game of the year award. Nimblebit’s SkyBurger is also doing well, with 11 million downloads at up to 30,000 per day despite dormant marketing.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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.

Rovio has announced that 6.5 million people downloaded Angry Birds to their smartphones on Christmas Day, double the number of phone activations estimated to have occurred over the holidays. “We’re really excited to have such a massive number of new people get acquainted with Angry Birds over the holidays — we have exciting new releases lined up for 2012, and can’t wait to introduce them to the public,” Rovio’s Ville Heijari told AllThingsD. The figure represents all three versions of the game: Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio, in both paid and free downloads. The number of downloads for the game is up over Christmas 2010, when 2 million people acquired the game on both iOS and Android devices. Thanks, Joystiq.

Rockstar’s Android and iOS release of PS2 era classic Grand Theft Auto III is so faithful to the PC version that a number of existing mods can be used with it. You won’t need to jailbreak your device or anything like that, but head over to The Tech Erra or XDA Developers for iOS and Android users respectively to get a full walkthrough.

Thanks, games.on.net.

Another gut punch for faithful fans of the series doomed to never make any money, ever.

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Engadget reports the latest Japanese firmware update for Sony’s Tablet S added support for the PlayStation 3′s Dual Shock controllers. The controller apparently works wirelessly after initial, wired ste up and works with PlayStation Suite certified titles. Japanese gamers have been provided with a free game to celebrate the addition. The Tablet P has not been so fortunate. If your streaming-games-service-sense are tingling, you’re not alone. That’s the smell of the future, that is.

Thanks, MTV Multiplayer. [image]

Pocket Gamer reports Gameloft’s third tribute to all things modern and war-like has made the jump from the App Store to the Android Marketplace. As well as a surprisingly lengthy single-player campaign, the mobile release packs in 12-player multiplayer. Modern Combat 3 boasts improvements over its precursor including a sprint button, fancier graphics, and more unlockables and bonuses. You can grab it for £4.99 or territorial equivalent.

Nokia was working on a wireless controller it used for playing Halo and Prince of Persia in 2004, two years before Wii came to market.

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Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has launched a new service almost certain never to reach anywhere else. Andriasang reports users of mobile music streaming services can now access the PlayStation Game Music Service. It provides tunes from popular games, ranging from Final Fantasy XIII-2 to Dynasty Warriors to the Yakuza series – there’s even a range of sound effects, for all those situations when you really have to hear the PS3 start-up chime. Um. Well, it could be useful in D&D games when you really need to rock that chocobo vibe. PlayStation Game Music is available through NTT Communications, MTI, Enterbrain, Oricon and Dwango, with other portals expected to get on board soon.