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Of course there's a 'Candy Crush' fashion collection
The Candy Crush craze continues to reach new heights. Just when you thought a TV show based on the popular game was more than you could handle, well, that's not the only thing happening in time for summer. King, the app's developer, has teamed up with fashion brand Moschino on a collection of accessories and swimwear, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Candy Crush Saga. Available today (only until it sells out), the gear includes an iPhone case, bathing suits for men and women as well as a backpack, respectively priced at $70, $205, $300 and $650.
The 'Candy Crush' TV show debuts on CBS July 9th
For whatever reason, Candy Crush is making the jump from addictive game to primetime TV game show, and CBS has revealed it will premiere July 9th. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's a little too late to get cast as one of the two-person teams that will play the game. You and a partner are missing out on the opportunity to "use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards featuring next generation technology to conquer Candy Crush and be crowned the champions." That's the kind of action that will be available to you on Sunday nights this summer -- choose wisely, and remember Game of Thrones doesn't come back until July 16th.
Candy Crush is becoming a game show
Candy Crush, the once ubiquitous mobile game behemoth that's now played almost exclusively by my aunt, is getting its own game show. CBS announced on Tuesday that it is teaming up with King Games and Lionsgate to produce the hour-long series. Details on game mechanics are still sparse but the network did explain that 2-person teams will "use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards." The series will be executive produced by Matt Kunitz, the guy behind Fear Factor and Wipeout, however there's no word yet on who will host or when the series will premier.
'Miitomo' players are apparently abandoning Nintendo's app
Nintendo's first big foray into mobile gaming, Miitomo, boasts 10 million downloads, but it's more than a game -- it's a quasi social network that's apparently turning into a ghost town. It's generally understood that games see a big bump in players at the outset and gradually that number declines over time. For social networks, where the typical "gameplay," so to speak, is interacting with others, once the user-base declines, there isn't much else you can do. Just ask whoever is still on Ello. The folks at the SurveyMonkey Intelligence blog have been keeping an eye on Miitomo and have made some sobering observations on how Nintendo's smartphone app has performed since launch.
Activision officially owns the maker of 'Candy Crush Saga'
It's official: Activision Blizzard is committed to mobile gaming in a big way. The company has closed its $5.9 billion acquisition of King, making it the owner of Candy Crush Saga and giving it 310 million extra users. King will continue to operate independently, but make no mistake -- this is about filling a gap at a game publisher whose moneymakers are mostly limited to consoles and PCs. Between this, the purchase of MLG and the creation of a video studio, it's evident that Activision wants to have all the bases covered.
HoloLens (briefly) shown streaming 'Halo 5' and Netflix
We've known for awhile that you can beam practically anything to Microsoft's augmented reality headset, HoloLens, but seeing someone playing Halo 5 on a TV that seemingly appears out of thin air is still pretty damned neat. And it's not just Microsoft's disappointing first-person shooter that's getting the augmented-reality treatment: Candy Crush and a Netflix stream by way of an Edge browser window are on display as well. The clips below are brief and look pretty impressive, but based on firsthand experience with the device, these videos don't quite line up with the actual user experience.
Activision buys 'Candy Crush' developer King for $5.9 billion
Say what you will about the quality of Activision's output, but the company makes incredibly smart business moves. Like the announcement that it purchased Candy Crush studio King Digital Entertainment for a cool $5.9 billion. For comparison's sake, Amazon paid a paltry $970 million for Twitch while Facebook spent $2 billion on Oculus VR and $19 billion on messaging platform Whatsapp. Oh, and Minecraft only set Microsoft back $2.5 billion. Bobby Kotick and Co. definitely think this is a big deal, and considering just how many people play the mindless puzzler this is likely a smart investment.
Candy Crush Saga to jeopardize productivity of Windows 10 users
Know what game's coming to all versions of Windows 10 aside from the usual ones like Solitaire and Minesweeper? Candy Crush. Yes, the same sugar-filled time-sink that's already taken over a lot of people's souls through iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The game's coming later this year, presumably around the same time the new OS arrives. It will even come pre-installed with the platform for anyone who upgrades for a limited time following its launch. According to Microsoft, the game will feature cross-play options for Android and iOS devices, ensuring that you can't escape from its sticky, sweet grasp wherever you go.
'Snake Rewind' modernizes the Nokia game for touchscreen devices
Snake -- that addictive, reflex-testing mobile game on old Nokia brick phones -- is attempting a comeback. A version for modern smartphones and tablets called Snake Rewind will be released on May 14th by game developer Rumilus Design and Taneli Armanto. The latter's the Nokia engineer who preloaded it on the 6110 back in 1997 and the one you can blame for all those wasted hours and bouts of Snake-induced rage. For the young'uns who have no idea what it's about: the game gives you control of a slithering serpent during feeding time. You'd have to get its mouth in the same line as its pixel food, often by twisting and contorting its continuously elongating body using the keyboard. It might sound lame described like that, but over a decade ago, it occupied the throne Candy Crush is sitting on.
Quit playin' 'Candy Crush' or you'll hurt yourself
Humans are bred to lie, and while police officers probably receive the bulk of our untruths, doctors get a fair share as well. Like, when someone walks into a clinic complaining of a busted tendon in their hand, it's only natural that they'd say that they were, uh, playing Candy Crush too hard than tell the truth. It's the story that the San Diego Union Tribune is running with after an orthopedic surgeon revealed that a patient ruptured the tendons in their thumb while playing the addictive mobile game on their smartphone. Joking aside, Dr. Dori Cage has advised the public against the dangers of "texting thumb," a repetitive stress injury caused by the prevalence of smartphones. So, if you start to feel a soreness in your fingers or thumbs after an extended session, just put your device down for a little while, okay? [Image Credit: Bloomberg / Getty Images]
South Park skewers 'freemium' games
If your business model is conning kids into spending their parents' hard-earned app-store cash on in-app purchased "rewards," it's fair to say you deserve to be ripped. South Park did the honors with its "Freemium isn't Free' episode involving a Terrence and Philip-branded Candy Crush-style game created by Canada's "Minister of Mobile Gaming." After he exposits that it's just "harmless fun" (see the clip below) it turns out that its a diabolical scheme involving Satan and addiction. The (delightfully silly) plot is just a wrapper for the satire, of course -- which points out that such games suck players in by letting them spend virtual cash before introducing real lucre. As any Farmville addict can attest, they're also just "barely fun" enough to keep you playing. It starts off a bit slow, but ends with a rollicking finish including Satan's spot-on sum-up of the whole phenomenon. You can grab the episode here (US-only, sorry to say).
Candy Crush developer admits it can't really own the word 'Candy'
Although King's $7 billion empire is built on the slim foundation of its lone blockbuster, Candy Crush Saga, many thought its efforts to trademark "Saga" and "Candy" were a bit over-the-top. It now turns out the company isn't trying to crush every game maker that uses these words, and instead is taking each dispute on a case-by-case basis. To that end, it has cemented an out-of-court agreement to let the makers of Banner Saga and CandySwipe keep those monikers ("Candy" is only trademarked in Europe). Those two actually had legit challenges to the mark, but we imagine that other developers who deliberately used the terms to make a point (or for shits and giggles) may not get off so easily.
Candy Crush maker's IPO values company at more than $7 billion
King, the company behind the Candy Crush saga filed its IPO today, but is the maker another Zynga (Farmville), another Rovio (Angry Birds) or something else again? Nearly 100 million users play Candy Crush every day, and while the company's titles remain free to play, it depends on virtual goods, additional levels and content purchases to bring in the cash. Selling shares at $22.50, it's raised around $500 million for the company and its early investors, valuing King at around $7 billion. The company apparently isn't going public because it needed the money, however, but because it will give the company stock it can use to make acquisitions... and let investors cash out if they want to. Shareholders will be pushing the gamesmaker to repeat the success of Candy Crush, something that more recent titles, like Farm Heroes saga, haven't (so far, at least) been able to accomplish.
The company behind Candy Crush withdraws US trademark application for 'candy'
A few weeks ago, a group of game developers launched Candy Jam in protest of Candy Crush maker King's attempt to trademark 'candy.' The result? A barrage of rage inspired confectionary-themed titles were submitted to Apple's App Store. Well, it seems those efforts weren't for naught as King has confirmed withdrawing its application to lock down the sugary term in the US. Citing the acquisition of the rights to the Candy Crusher title, the company believes it's the "best option" for locking down IP stateside. However, this doesn't impact the EU trademark that sparked the original protest from devs. Of course, there's that IPO coming up soon, too. We reached out for comment and a spokesperson for the outfit offered the following: King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher. Each market that King operates in is different with regard to IP. We feel that having the rights to Candy Crusher is the best option for protecting Candy Crush in the U.S. market. This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP.
The folks behind Candy Crush Saga think their company is big enough to go public
Heard of game development studio King? No, right? You're forgiven, as most folks don't know the name of the studio behind one of the world's most popular games right now: Candy Crush Saga. Sure, it might just be Bejeweled with free-to-play mechanisms built in, but over 93 million people played it last month. Yes, really. And with those kinds of numbers, King apparently believes it's large enough to go public -- the company today filed for its initial public offering (IPO) with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Unexciting financial jargon aside, this means that King's hoping to raise a ton of cash (it's unclear how much) by offering stock to prospective investors; The New York Times is saying King "is expected to seek a multibillion-dollar valuation". If all of this sounds awfully familiar, that's because FarmVille-maker Zynga pulled the same move just over two years ago -- the story hasn't been as positive in the following years. Like Zynga, King is largely dependent on a single game for its enormous userbase (the 93 million who played Candy Crush Saga in December are pulled from an overall pool of 128 milllion -- over 70 percent of King's entire consumer base). Of course, only time will tell if King will ascend from one-hit wonder, like the Zynga example, to mega-franchise purveyor, a la Rovio with Angry Birds.
Apple bombarded with candy-themed games in protest at the word 'candy' being trademarked
Such sweet, sweet revenge. After the maker of the hugely popular Candy Crush series of games on the App Store somehow managed to trademark the word "candy" in Europe, other developers have started to fight back by blitzing Apple with an insulin-inducing array of Candy-themed game submissions. More than 100 hastily prepared titles have already been put forward as part of an organized "Candy Jam" protest against the trademarking of common words, including such gobstoppers such as CAN D, ThisGameIsNotAboutCandy, CanDieCanDieCanDie and the inimitable Candy_Game ("Press to hear Candy.") In the meantime, the developer at the center of the controversy, King.com, continues to pursue legal action against those who use any of words in its arsenal of trademarks, even those that have nothing to do with sugar. This apparently includes one poor dev who had the cheek to use the word "saga" in a Norse mythology-themed game called The Banner Saga -- a title that treads too closely to Candy Crush Saga, according to legal documents filed by King. What's more, now that King has also filed for new trademarks in the US, this whole saga (eek) could be about to get even sicklier.
Candy Crush Saga passes 500m downloads, Bejeweled fans shake their heads
I won't play Candy Crush Saga -- mainly because it bothers me that Bejeweled never reached the same level of mainstream popularity -- but a lot of people do play it. Developer King revealed to The Telegraph that a whopping 500,000,000 have played the game across web and mobile platforms. The color-matching puzzler debuted on Facebook in April of 2012, followed by an iOS version in November and finally an Android release in December. According to King, a staggering 78% of US fans play the game while watching TV, and Level 65 is the one that is most likely to trip players up. When players do hit a brick wall they always have the option of resorting to the game's in-app market for a help in exchange for cash, but the company claims 60% of players don't pay a dime. Of course, that still means that the other 40% are shelling out an unspecified amount of cash to get passed the more difficult levels.
The power of free-to-play app pricing
"Free-to-play." For mobile gamers, those simple three words (often abbreviated as FTP) have a host of different meanings. For optimists, it means people can play high-quality games with little or no financial investment of their own. For others, it's a game-crippling inconvenience that ends up getting in the way of a good time. This writer falls into the latter category of "just let me buy the game once and leave me alone," but as the success of FTP games like Candy Crush Saga has shown, I'm in the minority. In fact 82 of the top-grossing games on the iPhone are FTP. They're here to stay, so we should probably learn to live with them. What makes a successful free-to-play game? Geoffrey Goetz of Gigaom.com has written an incredible -- and long -- rundown of the free-to-play market that answers the question "Why is free-to-play pricing so effective?" The answer is simple to understand, but complex to fully explain. It works a lot like how your parents probably explained drugs to you -- the first hit is free, but from then on, you start paying. As a developer, how do you make that first "hit" enjoyable? It comes down to three major factors, according to Goetz: Flow, Intermediate Currency and Dynamic Pricing. Flow is a game's ability to get you involved in play, and keep you involved. This is done by giving you a clear task, such as gardening or clearing all the Jellies in a level of Candy Crush. Intermediate Currency is removing the obvious exchange of money from your transaction. That's why so many games have you buying gems or coins for in-game purchases instead of using your everyday money. Your brain doesn't see gems and coins as real money when you're spending them in real time. Finally, these games use Dynamic Pricing to give you the illusion of saving money when the game wants you to. You might balk at paying $5 for access to a fire-breathing dog in an iOS game, but holy crap! Did you know that same dog is only $2 if you buy him on Labor Day? Those are the kind of savings that will drive you from the picket lines! The rest of Goetz's article examines the other aspects of the free-to-play marketplace and is well worth your time to read. Gamer happiness with in-app purchases, how parents can control their children's app spending and an examination of the real expense of virtual goods are just some of the angles he covers that I've personally never considered. Head over to Gigaom for the complete article. Depending on where you're at in Candy Crush, you probably have anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours before you can play again anyway! Unless, of course, you want to throw down a few extra dollars...
Plants vs Zombies 2: First look
Right now, my iPad is my enemy. On it is Plants vs Zombies 2 (free, or more realistically, "free, but you are an IAP target waiting to be plucked repeatedly"), just released last night and since about 11PM yesterday, well, let's just say sleep and work went by the wayside. It's a funny kind of upgrade. There are bits about it I'm disappointed with, but overall, it has charmed me. You don't purchase PvZ 2. It's a free download. Instead, the emphasis has transferred to in-app purchases, with hardcore upsells throughout the app. If Candy Crush is the great Satan of IAP abuse, PvZ 2 is certainly an acolyte. I'd much rather pay US$10 or $20 for a full app than constantly be treated as a mark. But this is the way the App Store works these days. Visuals are the first big change you notice in PvZ 2. The artwork has lost the glossy beauty from the original PvZ. It feels more like an embedded web game (is "Facebooky" a word?) than the original. The designs are flatter, less three-dimensional, and while certainly playable, it looks more basic overall. The gameplay, however, remains delightful. I love the storytelling (yes, even Crazy Dave), the challenges, the new tools and the overall epic. In this version of PvZ, you work your way through a quest through time to bring Crazy Dave back to the present, so he can eat more spicy tacos. No one ever said PvZ was Shakespeare. The game starts off with a hint of dinosaur bones beneath the turf, a suggestion of the overall theme, then quickly throws you back to ancient Egypt where you battle historic-style Zombies. If you're familiar with the original PvZ, all your skills and strategies still apply, but there are plenty of engaging and fun new twists. I'm looking forward to other historic venues as the game continues. Features like plant food (that zap your lawn defenders into overdrive) and power-ups (pinching the heads off zombies -- more fun than it sounds, flicking and zapping your zombies) offer intriguing interaction updates. New plants, new obstacles and a bunch of new challenges (archaeologist zombies with torches, dustdevil storm zombies) provide plenty of play fun. In the end, PvZ 2 transcends "more of the same." It's a fun and noteworthy update, one that I'd have been happy to pay a premium for if PopCap weren't so insistent on keeping its hand outstretched for IAPs. It would be a far better game if they converted it to simple pay-then-play, but I suspect their bottom line has taught them how today's App Store market can optimize revenue. I really liked it as I played it, but I do hope I can do so without ever using any IAPs. Should PopCap reconsider and offer a single-payment option that reconsiders this approach, I'll be in line with my credit card.
Candy Crush updates with new power-up, episodes. Still no counseling feature.
Warn your family; say goodbye to your coworkers; and contact your support system. Candy Crush has been updated with two new episodes of sticky exploding candy goodness. Take a trip up Pudding Pagoda to see if you can clear all the rows. Once you're done, head to Licorice Tower and ask yourself why they haven't figured out a Red Vines power-up yet. Inquiring minds want to know. The new episodes bring the total number of levels in the game to 395, so seriously, your boss should understand all your extra lunch breaks. In addition, Crushers have been given a new weapon in the war against the high fructose horde, the Cake Bomb Blocker, which clears the entire game board. There is still no power up that offers counseling services for Candy Crush addicts. Keep your fingers crossed for the next update. The update also makes Candy Crush's plans for world domination clear with the addition of new supported languages. Speakers of Czech, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak and Polish must not warn their family of the upcoming Crush. Candy was coming, and now it is here. You can find Candy Crush 1.15.0 in the app store now. God help your souls.
