casual games
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Facebook's Instant Games are leaving Messenger
Facebook's Instant Games, casual games that you can play with friends, have never quite found a home since they were introduced in 2016. While serious gamers tend to overlook them, free-to-play Instant Games are surprisingly popular with some estimates saying more than 20 billion game sessions were played over two years.
Germanium is addictive humility
Germanium, developed by Edamame, and compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch (iOS 7.0 or later), is entertainment stripped down to the core. In the app store, the description promises a 100 second challenge that, "will utterly destroy every bit of gamer pride in you." It almost mocks you stating that it was only cleared twice during pre-release testing, then points out the simple tilt controls and basic graphics, even describing itself as "exceedingly simple." Listed in the iTunes store for $1.29, it's well worth trying out this highly addictive, if frustrating game. In and of itself, this is a very simple game. Even the title screen, which contains the title, "Start game," and "Touch to start" is stripped bare. The goal of Germanium is simply to guide a white ball past colorful blocks, and survive for 100 seconds. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Each new color of block presents a new and different challenge as time goes on. The tilt control is very fluid and reactive, making it easy to keep control of the ball. For about the first fifteen seconds, I figured I would easily conquer this challenge, then, over the course of the next thirty, everything went downhill. Both sides allow the ball to go off-screen to the left and appear on the right and vice versa, helping to avoid the more colorful, daunting blocks as they increase in number, movement and size. It was extremely fast-paced, frustrating, addictive, and fun all wrapped into about 40-60 seconds at a time. The only negative I experienced was at about 50 seconds in, my iPhone screen would automatically dim. This is easily fixable by either touching your finger to the screen, or disabling Auto-Lock in the general settings. For only $1.29, the highly addictive Germanium is well worth the price. A short, concise distraction that won't run over 100 seconds is perfect for a handheld device as a way to kill time. Of course, any game that willingly calls out prospective players is definitely begging to be beaten.
Zynga adds Bitcoin to payment options, Bitcoin value soars
Casual games publisher Zynga is now testing the use of Bitcoin in its games, a decision that has had a drastic (if temporary) impact on the overall value of the virtual currency. "In response to Bitcoin's rise in popularity around the world, Zynga, with help from BitPay, is testing expanded payment options for players to make in-game purchases using Bitcoin," Zynga representatives wrote on Reddit. "The Bitcoin test is only available to Zynga.com players playing FarmVille 2, CastleVille, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles, Hidden Shadows and CityVille." Despite that relatively short list, the games mentioned are Zynga's most popular, flagship offerings, demonstrating that the company has quite a bit of faith in Bitcoin, an open-source, peer-to-peer substitute for real-world cash that has achieved impressive fame in the wake of numerous international economic catastrophes. Following Zynga's announcement, the value of Bitcoin immediately jumped to a high of $1,093 per Bitcoin, according to the Los Angeles Times. It has since receded to $955.60, and continues to drop, though overall Bitcoin value remains about $50 higher than it was immediately prior to Zynga's revelation. (Image: Coin Desk)
King claims 70 million daily active players, Pet Rescue Saga coming soon to mobile
King, which used to be called King.com it pulled a name change at GDC this year, has announced that it has 70 million daily active players, which is a crazy number. By far, King's biggest title is Candy Crush Saga. The company notes that the game has 15.5 million active players on Facebook every day. Candy Crush Saga is also a big hit on iOS, where it consistently appears in the top charts for both most downloaded and top grossing. King also announced its intention to bring Pet Rescue Saga to iOS. That game has 6 million daily players on Facebook, and King says it will be the third saga game (along with Bubble Witch Saga) to make the leap to mobile platforms. Pet Rescue Saga will arrive on both iOS and Android later this summer. King's success is just phenomenal. It's impressive for any form of media to reach 70 million people, and for that to happen daily is just crazy. This casual games market can blow up overnight and shrink just as fast (just ask Zynga), but for now, King is doing impressively well.
'Casual content' might account for only a small part of gaming industry's revenue
Monetisation of online games has been a hot topic for the past few years, fueled by the rise of the free-to-play business model and the undeniable accessibility of mobile gaming. At the Digital Game Monetization Summit in San Francisco, developers shared insights into the source of their revenue and recent development trends in social gaming. Rumble Entertainment CEO Greg Richardson argued that only 10% of the $50 billion spent on games last year was spent on "casual content" like social and mobile games. He believes that the tricks early Facebook and mobile games used to spread themselves virally may no longer work and that as a result, the future profit lies with people who self-identify as gamers. Online gaming website Kongregate revealed a detailed breakdown of monetisation and performance stats from its games, noting that its top games get the majority of their revenue came from people who spend $500 or more. Commitment was noted as the key to having successful game, with 84% of revenue coming from dedicated fans who played a game 50 times or more. [Thanks to Segun Adewumi for the tip!]
Smedley: Social network games not in SOE's future, PlanetSide 2 doing 'very well'
How successful is PlanetSide 2? "I can't give away revenue numbers, but it is doing an order of magnitude greater revenue daily than any of our other titles," SOE president John Smedley tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It is really doing very well." He also hints at SOE's future, which is not likely to include social games or Facebook titles. "I gotta tell you, I'm not a fan of the Facebook game. To me, they're monetization vehicles and not the kind of games I want to play or make. That's just me personally. So we'll stick to what we do best," he says.
Big Fish Unlimited lets gamers resume play on mobile, PC and TV, stay distracted at all times (update: HTML5 explained)
The perpetual crisis of casual gaming is that need for just one... more... turn. After all, those 29 levels of progress aren't coming with you to the office, are they? Big Fish Games wants to ease our consciences (or at least our egos) with Big Fish Unlimited. By using HTML5 to constantly save progress, the cloud service remembers exactly where a player was and ports it to the next device: it's possible to hop from a Android tablet, to a Roku box, to a Windows PC's browser without having to replay anything. The nature of the streaming games themselves won't give OnLive players second thoughts, but their lighter footprint won't demand as much from an internet connection, either. Most of the intended audience will appreciate the price -- the now active service costs $8 a month for access to more than 100 games from the full catalog, and free play is on tap for 20 of the games as long as you can endure periodic ads. Whether or not coworkers can endure another round of your hidden object games is another matter. Update: We've since talked to the company directly, and it turns out that the HTML5 is more for the cross-platform support; it's the server that tracks progress whenever you quit a given app.
Rovio marks one billion downloads, untold pig casualties across Angry Birds games
Yeah, yeah, we all knew that Rovio was doing gangbusters with Angry Birds series, but here's a little number to put it all into perspective: one billion. That's how many times the slingshotting birds have been downloaded, when you add up all of the titles and all of the platforms. Naturally, the company made a video to celebrate the accomplishment. You can find it after the break. [Image credit (McDonald's Sign): Alexis Bea / Flickr]
NCsoft KOs Punch Monster in Korea
If you've never heard of NCsoft's Punch Monster, you're not alone. Apparently the few people who have heard of it didn't want to play it, as the Korean gaming giant is closing down the casual MMO as of February 15th. ThisIsGame says that it's been some time since NCsoft pushed a major update onto the game's live servers, and a company spokesperson confirmed as much. "We decided to close it because we have barely sustained the Korean service. We will continue to develop and publish casual games with [the] experience we have gained so far." Punch Monster will remain playable in China and Japan for the moment, albeit under the name Blue Tears.
Richard Garriott blames Blizzard for ignoring the social gaming field
Richard Garriott, who heads up social games outfit Portalarium, publicly put the screws to Blizzard and other major MMO companies for overlooking the casual gaming space. In fact, he says that World of Warcraft's biggest challenger won't be from another AAA title, but from the "Zyngas of the world." Talking to Industry Gamers, Garriott accused Blizzard and EA of dropping the ball when it came to social gaming, which Zynga has since explored and exploited. "The only reason Zynga exists is because people like EA, people like Blizzard, failed to step in," he said. Garriott sees these small start-ups as having great potential in the near future. "I think within a few years, you'll see that's not really the case," he said. "I think you'll see that the quality level that comes up through the casual games will rival the quality of traditional massively multiplayer games and then, because it's not something you have to subscribe to, because it's something that virally spreads, and especially because, as people churn out of a big MMO they've got to go somewhere." Garriott's Portalarium is currently working on an upcoming project that is "much more like Ultima Online than people might expect."
Amazon starts 10 days of free games with Chicken Invaders 2
Amazon is offering a freebie game download each day for the next ten days. If the first game -- Chicken Invaders 2 -- is any indication, these games will be of the "casual" variety, so don't expect massive discounts on AAA PC games. But free stuff is free stuff!
Fruit Ninja live, bring your overcoat
Your virtual overcoat, that is. Students in a virtual reality workshop at the FH Wedel University of Applied Sciences cloned Fruit Ninja, the best-selling game for smartphones and tablets, in 3D using the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). The result is a life-size, fully immersive fruit slicing experience that transforms the casual game into a serious workout where players slay seedy sprouts with their (almost) bare hands. The life-size sword-slasher runs in CAVE, a virtual environment driven by four PCs, four rear-projection 3D displays, four infrared motion-tracking cameras, a 5.1 sound system and two "buttkickers" in the floor that rumble when a player's virtual steel blade encounters a bomb. To get the juiciest experience, players wear 3D glasses and hold a Wiimote for haptic feedback when hitting a fruit. Developers Thiemo, Alex, Matze and Moritz, media-informatics students at FH Wedel in Germany, took two weeks to complete the project. Perhaps next the foursome could tackle a 3D version of Angry Birds played from the point of view of the birds, Doodle Jump with real jumping, or Plants vs. Zombies with life-size zombies breaking down the front door. In any case, the 3D clone of Fruit Ninja, the fourth best-selling paid app on the App Store, is a delicious showcase of virtual reality technology and these students' skills. Continue to the full article to watch a short gameplay video.
Richard Garriott discusses ongoing plans for Portalarium
As much as some may poke fun at Facebook and other social media based games, those games have an enormous market share that's still growing. Let's face it: These games attract not only all manner of gamers but also the most casual of non-gaming users, such as your Great-Aunt Martha or partners who generally dislike video games. With that in mind, Edge caught up with Richard Garriott at DICE Summit recently to catch up on how things are progressing with his foray into the social gaming world: Portalarium. While we knew about Portalarium's initial offerings such as the card game, it appears that the company has much bigger plans in store. Garriott discusses the success of many of the titles in the social gaming space and how that relates to his own personal world-building experiences with Ultima Online. Further, he notes that Portalarium's current main title is "not a game about farming... operating a shop... [or] managing your pets." There is also some discussion of making in-game purchases tie to microlending sites like Kiva to benefit projects in other countries, which is certainly worth reading as well. If you're curious about where Portalarium is going or interested in reading some ideas from an industry vet, then pop over to Edge and check out the full interview with Garriott.
Richard Garriott on the state of social gaming
Legendary game creator Richard Garriott raised a few eyebrows when he announced a foray into social gaming last fall. The MMORPG maestro and occasional astronaut seemed a rather unlikely candidate for the casual games space after spearheading the likes of Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Garriott revealed that he's taking no prisoners when it comes to his new endeavor, offering his views on the large number of crapware titles cluttering the casual space as well as his company's plans to distribute its tools for free in order to help standardize the sector and raise the quality bar. "There's tons of small start-ups who we are seeing take lots of investment and lots of activity and large acquisition costs -- who are creating, literally, junk. Stuff that people aren't playing that much and if you play it it's not much fun," Garriott opined. Garriott's new company, Portalarium, has thus far produced Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack, both playable via Facebook, and is now shifting its focus to a new title that has more in common with UO. Details on the new game are slated to be revealed over the next two weeks.
Bing adds playable games to search results
At approximately 3:00pm ET, Joystiq blogger Richard Mitchell was assigned an article regarding the Bing search engine now including playable games in its search results. For example, if a user were to search the term "blackjack," the results page will include a playable version of blackjack embedded directly in the search engine itself. Furthermore, players can log into either Facebook or Windows Live to compare scores with friends. Mr. Mitchell is believed to have begun a game of Bejeweled 3 for research purposes. He has not been heard from since. Should any reader discover the whereabouts of Mr. Mitchell, please contact Joystiq immediately. For the sake of your loved ones, it is recommended that you do not examine the list of available games after the break.
TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Great casual games for iOS
Welcome to the TUAW Holiday Gift Guide! We've sorted the treasure from the junk and are serving up suggestions to make your holiday gift-giving a little easier. We're about to enter what has been, in the past, the busiest weekend for App Store purchases. After people everywhere unwrap new iPhones, iPod touches and iPads during this Christmas weekend, they'll run to their computers to set up iTunes, then go shopping out on the App Store for software for their new devices. But there are a lot of different games to choose from on the App Store, and especially for people who only use software casually, it may be tough to find a few solid titles beyond the usual suspects. That's what we're here for, and we've got a list of 10 great iOS games meant specifically for casual game players. If you're a more hardcore gamer, you'll know that there are lots of other titles on the App Store to enjoy, from the recent Infinity Blade to the classic Plants vs. Zombies. But the titles below aren't about strategy or action, necessarily -- they're just good, clean fun, using just one button (or in some cases, no buttons at all) to have a good time. Read on for some great suggestions on what to download first, even if you're not a gamer.
Consumer spending on video games reached $25 billion this year
Market research firm Newzoo recently published a report on the U.S. video game industry's sales performance during the current, nearly-finished calendar year, providing evidence for some trends you've probably already noticed. During the past 12 months, overall consumer spending on game software fell two percent year-over-year to $24.7 million, while console and boxed PC/Mac software lost 29 percent and 19 percent of their market shares, respectively. While these two former sales juggernauts waned, every other form of gaming software, including MMOs, downloadable PC/Mac games, mobile apps, casual games and social networking titles all saw sizable sales boosts over their 2009 totals. Check out the chart after the jump to see how these categories shook out. [Image credit: Flickr user AMagill]
Casual games competition site to offer college scholarships
Unlike other competitions that might, say, award efforts to design games for the greater good, ScholarGamers.com hopes to attract teens who simply excel at beating their peers in video games. It's a simple but effective pitch: "The concept of winning student scholarships for being an ultimate gamer should come as no surprise. After all, young athletes -- even bowlers -- can win scholarships for college based on their ability to play, score and outperform others. It's no different at ScholarGamers.com." Beginning November 1, when the site launches its first 2011 scholarship contest, Scholar Gamers promises to award "big cash for college" (first place nabs 10Gs) to several contestants who must work their way up from at-home Flash game phenoms to The Wizard-like big stage at Disney's BoardWalk Resort. But, you know, if you're that good at clicking smiley faces, why even bother with college? Just go pro.
Burnout: Report says Chinese gamers losing interest in MMOs
Is there a point at which oversaturation, cultural prominence and old habits collapse under their own weight? According to a recent survey by Chinese market analyst Niko Partners, trends are shifting away in China from hardcore MMO gaming to more casual fare like social networking games. GamesIndustry.biz reports that self-defined "hardcore" gamers in one of the largest MMORPG markets in the world have grown tired of the thousands of carbon-copy MMOs out there and have rebelled against the monotony by taking their business elsewhere. Niko Partners' Lisa Cosmas Hanson sees a pattern to this trend: "We believe that the Chinese market has taken up SNS (social networking site) gaming in earnest, and that the hardcore gamers have shifted their preferences to include these games alongside the casual gamers who naturally appreciate them. The hardcore gamers are growing weary of the monotony of themes in the Chinese MMORPGs, and they want to extend their social interactions to games that attract a more diverse user base." By 2014, the analyst says that there will be 141 million online gamers in China, and the casual games market will grow from 23% to encompass 30% of all online revenues -- approximately $3 billion US.
Zynga shutting down Street Racing game, offering credit for in-game purchases
Casual giant Zynga is shutting down its Street Racing game on August 2, immediately rendering void all the in-game items players bought with real money. Zynga offered no explanation in the announcement, simply suggesting that players try other Zynga games. Naturally, people whose fake worlds have crashed around them are upset, starting a petition in Zynga's forum to stop the game from disappearing. Zynga told Develop that it wouldn't be offering refunds on the money spent in-game, opting instead to give credits equivalent to the cost of any purchase made in the last 90 days, plus an extra 100 units of virtual currency, all usable in other Zynga games. Which is really going to satisfy the people planning to stop playing Zynga games when Street Racing goes away.
