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Trade Nations dev picks up new funding, former Xbox exec Ed Fries
Here's another iPhone dev hitting the jackpot. Developer Z2Live is the company behind the hit iPhone social game Trade Nations, and it's picked up what's probably a nice chunk of change in a round of funding from VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Unfortunately, the actual total of funding hasn't been disclosed, but given the popularity of the game and its in-app purchase business model, there's likely six digits or more of money changing hands here. It's enough to attract some talent, too -- the company has also picked up Ed Fries to join the board of directors. Fries was originally a Microsoft executive who co-founded the Xbox Project and helped put together Microsoft Games Studios. More recently, he's been working on 3D printing at FigurePrints, a company that makes real-life printouts of in-game avatars. This position sounds like it will overlap with that one, but even so, Z2Live will most likely benefit from the experience.
Xbox veteran Ed Fries joins Razer in an advisory role, probably to work on something awesome
What do you do after spending nearly three decades tinkering with software -- from the humble Atari, through Microsoft Office, and into the modernity of Xbox gaming? Well, in Ed Fries' case, we're guessing you go to CES, find the wildest, most awesome gaming concept around, and sign up with its maker to help guide its development. Again, we're guessing that's what Ed's done, we can't know for sure what he'll be doing as a member of Razer's Board of Advisors, but there's no denying the proximity of the Switchblade's announcement and his joining the gaming peripheral company. Even if the kindly gent's focus isn't on Razer's portable gaming device, we imagine he'll be a good influence on other products going forward. After all, when has it ever been a bad idea to have more veterans on your team? [Thanks, JL]
Report: Steve Jobs was 'furious' over Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie
Apple hasn't shown a lot of initiative on the gaming side of things (this past "Back to the Mac" event was the first time the company even mentioned Steam coming to the Mac, something even Valve has admitted is a huge deal), but apparently Steve Jobs still has somewhat of a competitive streak. Former Microsoft exec Ed Fries (who I just talked with last weekend at BlizzCon, strangely enough) has told Develop the story of developer Bungie being bought by Microsoft, which was the event that turned Bungie from a high profile Mac developer into a studio that made Halo games specifically for Microsoft's then-new Xbox console. Fries says that a very frustrated Steve Jobs placed a call to Steve Ballmer, furious that Microsoft had nabbed Bungie, and Ballmer then asked Fries to call Jobs back to "calm him down about the whole thing." Fries did, and the talk eventually spawned an initiative on Microsoft's side to get some of their PC games ported over to the Mac. But as gamers know, Apple's desktop platforms have never been very gamer-friendly, and developers still say that even with the switch to Intel, Apple still has a little ways to go to make the platform a solid choice for gamers. I'd say the real catalyst in all of this is the iPod touch, more than anything else. Apple's App Store was a real breakthrough in terms of letting developers release and profit off of their software, and the iPod touch specifically has been a real boon for gaming (which, you could argue, has helped drive the recent resurgence in Mac gaming, including the Steam for Mac release and a few other high profile developers embracing the platform). We'll have to see if that happens with the Mac App Store as well -- most of the issues with developers right now have to do with technical issues rather than a lack of distribution channels, but having an easy way to release and update software on the Mac certainly won't hurt. [via Ars Technica]
Former Microsoft VP brings Halo to the Atari 2600
Sometimes you just can't stop a man and his dream. In this case, the man is Ed Fries, the former vice president of Microsoft's game publishing division, and the dream is a version of Halo for the Atari 2600. That actually started out simply as a way for Fries to learn to program for the 2600, but quickly turned into a full-fledged, Adventure-style game that made its debut at this past weekend's Classic Gaming Expo -- in cartridge form, no less, and with a label that'd look at home in any shoebox full of 2600 carts (check it out after the break). Just as impressive as the game itself, however, is the story behind it. Here's just a sample: It's around this time that I discovered the existence of what I call "Magic Land". I was working on a bug with the boss encounter and accidentally found myself completely outside the 64 room map. I was wandering through memory that was never intended to be interpreted as part of the map but the code was doing the best it could to interpret what was being thrown at it. Strange, misshapen monsters attacked me in even stranger ways as I wandered through this bizarre land that I had unintentionally created. I left a bug or two in the final game to allow others to find and explore this strange landscape as I did. Oh, did we mention you can play it right now? Hit up the source link below and prepare to forget that Halo Reach even exists.
