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Spicy Horse receives $3M in funding, working with PopCap
American McGee's Shanghai-based Spicy Horse studio has secured $3 million in investment and is currently working on a project with PopCap Games' Shanghai studio. Gamasutra reports that Spicy Horse, which has finished production of Alice: Madness Returns for EA, will focus on "3D social, online games" going forward. McGee detailed some of this for us in an interview a couple months back. McGee says that Spicy Horse's PopCap collaboration will be a freemium multiplayer title that will initially launch in Asia. A PopCap representative told Joystiq that the information is accurate, but the company is "not providing additional details at this early stage." McGee said the investment will allow the company to execute a two-year plan and bring five games to market. PopCap Games recently acquired ZipZapPlay, who should have at least one new Facebook game out by year's end. PopCap expects to have "four or five" titles on the social networking platform by the end of 2011. The company already has Bejeweled Blitz, Zuma Blitz and ZZP's Baking Life.
Plants vs Zombies down to $3.40 on Steam until Thursday afternoon
Though they may not know it yet, folks who've yet to get down with PopCap's horticultural undead defense sim are having a great day. It's never been cheaper to pick up Plants vs. Zombies -- until Thursday at 1PM ET, the game's marked down to $3.40 on Steam.
PopCap buys ZipZapPlay for Facebook expansion
PopCap Games has acquired ZipZapPlay, a social games company in San Francisco. The acquisition gives PopCap further inroads into the Facebook game space, which it is currently in third place behind Zynga and EA. ZipZapPlay created Baking Life and Happy Habitat -- yeah, we'd never heard of them either. The financial terms of PopCap's acquisition weren't revealed. ZipZapPlay CEO Curt Bererton (pictured, being eaten by the dragon couch) and CCO Mathilde Pignol will stay on at the San Francisco studio of 17 employees. The company will retain its name and will report to PopCap's social games VP. PopCap expects to have "four or five" games total on Facebook by the end of this year, which includes the already-released Bejeweled Blitz, Zuma Blitz and ZZP's Baking Life.
TUAW's Daily iOS App: Unpleasant Horse
Unpleasant Horse is the first iOS game put together by a division of the developer PopCap Games, the folks behind hits like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies. The app was originally rejected due to some violent content, but it's back on the App Store, rated appropriately and ready for a free download right now. The game was put together in a 24-hour game jam session, and as much as it pains me to say this about a game essentially put together by PopCap developers, this rushed development schedule shows in Unpleasant Horse. You play a horse jumping through the clouds with a few wrinkles in gameplay, like "pleasant horses" that you need to drag down as far as possible to earn points, or birds that give you an extra mid-air jump. It's all pretty straightforward -- you jump from cloud to cloud for as long as you can. I'd like to say the game feels like Tiny Wings, but it's not quite that elegant, despite some colorful art. There are no real extras either, with no other game modes and no Game Center integration. Still, PopCap started 4th & Battery because it wanted to experiment with some edgier ideas, and since the game is being given away as a universal version for free, I can't really complain too much. Here's hoping PopCap finds what it set out to find with 4th & Battery, and then gets back to making the well-crafted games that it's known for.
Unpleasant Horse trots, nay, prances onto App Store
Unpleasant Horse, the first title from PopCap Games' edgier 4th and Battery division, is available now for free on the iOS App Store. Bouncing back from an Apple rejection earlier this month, the game made its intended April launch in a photo-finish. In Unpleasant Horse, players tap the angry winged bronco from cloud to cloud, tearing small birds apart and dropping more pleasant horses into the meat grinder below. Also, once down there, little meaty bits pop out. Yuuup, Peggle it ain't.
Unpleasant Horse rejected by Apple, 4th & Battery appealing
PopCap subsidiary 4th & Battery is so edgy its first game, Unpleasant Horse, has been rejected by Apple. On its official Twitter account, the company stated that the game was rejected for "mature content." Shortly thereafter, 4th & Battery said it was appealing the decision, and promptly deleted its initial Tweet announcing the rejection. A studio rep tried to smooth things over by tweeting: "Anyhoo, we still love Apple. Honest. We even had (and liked!) a Newton back in the day. Hope we get an appropriate rating for the game!" The game was intended to be available for free on iOS devices later this month. We've contacted PopCap for a statement on whether plans have changed, and will update when we hear back. Update: A PopCap representative tells Joystiq that it is "not issuing any statement at this time." We've been told that 4th & Battery may make an official statement soon.
PopCap launches edgy '4th & Battery' label
Say "hello" to PopCap Games' little friend: 4th & Battery. The "experimental" label was created to give PopCap's designers and developers a sandbox to create the games that don't fit into the casual game studio's image. Essentially, 4th & Battery is the Touchstone Pictures to PopCap's Disney-esque public persona. The new label is expected to produce several games per year, with Unpleasant Horse being the first out of the stable. The game will have players taking on the role of a winged horse who destroys small birds and knocks more pleasant horses out of the sky -- into a meat grinder. The game will be available for free on iOS devices later this month. So, yeah, 4th & Battery is totally what a mid-life crisis manifests as when you've made a fortune off games like Bejeweled and Peggle.
PopCap considering IPO, not likely revealing any new IP in 2011
We're just gonna level with you, folks -- we're scared. Frankly, reading this weekend's CNBC report that Plants vs. Zombies developer PopCap Games is considering an IPO worries us greatly. In so many words, it means that the quirky indie studio could go from private to public, meaning that the company could go from being beholden to itself to being beholden to investors. It also means that PopCap could expand far more rapidly -- and that you could own a piece of the action. As it stands, the studio pulled in over $100 million last year in revenues and, according to CNBC, is the third largest Facebook developer -- handily besting Disney's user numbers with just two games of its own (versus Disney's 37!). PopCap doesn't deny the possibility of the IPO -- it evenregistered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission -- with company prez David Roberts saying, "I do think we'll be ready internally. Whether the market is ready remains to be seen. It has got to be right for us." Amazingly, CNBC also asked Roberts if he would comment on the long ago trademarked "Yetitrain" name. He didn't. That name, however, is still amazing. Unfortunately, we may not be hearing anything about it anytime soon. Roberts stated, "Don't hold your breath" when asked about the possibilty of a new franchise being announced this year.
Totally crazy, totally canceled indie games, and the people who made them
From World of Goo dev Kyle Gabler to Plants vs. Zombies director George Fan (and everything in between), GDC's "The Failure Workshop" panel was full of thrills. Each of the panel's developers brought a project that never managed to make our acquaintance, offering a detailed explanation of what went wrong. Gabler, of 2D Boy, kicked the chair out from under his studio's robot-based sidescroller Robot and the Cities That Built Him when he and his cohorts finally decided that it simply wasn't very fun. After months of mock-ups and brainstorming, the game was finally turned into a fairly basic prototype (playable here) that sealed the project's untimely fate.
Survey finds a quarter of adults in the US and UK are 'avid' mobile gamers
Just how many cellphone users can be considered gamers these days? According to a new survey from PopCap Games and Information Solutions Group, about a quarter of adults in the US and UK have played a game on their phone in the past week, which makes them an "avid" gamer in their eyes, while about a third have played a game in the past month. If you dial things down to just mobile gamers with a smartphone, however, the number of avid gamers jumps to a hefty 83 percent, with 45 percent saying they play on a daily basis. What's perhaps most telling, though, is that 55 percent of smartphone users say they play games in general most often on their on their phone, compared to just 22 percent who play most often on their desktop or laptop computer, and 20 percent who opt for game console. Hit up the link below to check out the complete results in PDF form.
What's in a Name: PopCap Games
During another long night of shakes and sweats, suffering from what was surely some PopCap Games withdrawal, we pondered the origin story of the electronic pharmaceutical giant's name. We spoke with PopCap Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Jason Kapalka for the answer: "First thing is that [PopCap Games] wasn't our name originally. The original name was 'Sexy Action Cool,'" Kapalka told us. "Back at university in Edmonton, there was an inside joke because some people had a basement suite with this big movie poster of Antonio Banderas in Desperado. It had this movie quote at the top that said: Sexy. Action. Cool." "It became an inside joke on how nobody could imagine using Sexy Action Cool in a real sentence. We'd walk around saying, 'You see that movie?' 'Yeah, it was sexy, action, cool.' Or 'That couch? That couch is really sexy, action, cool.'" The company founders snagged the related URL (which now directs to PopCap proper) and continued to not think much of the name, at first. As the site grew, however, it became clear that "Sexy Action Cool" was an awkward destination for mass-market family games.
Bejeweled 3 (probably) coming to iOS
Here's some good (if obvious) news to kick off your weekend right. PopCap Games' Garth Chouteau says in a recent interview that yes, in case you were wondering, they will probably bring Bejeweled 3 to iOS. The latest version of the original gem-matching masterpiece was released on PC a while back, but many players held off in order to buy it on iPhone and iPad. Chouteau says that while "we're traditionally somewhat slow to adapt our games to other platforms after launching them on PC/Mac... Bejeweled 3 for iPhone/iPad is probably something we'll do...eventually...!" I can't say I blame PopCap for taking its time -- of course they want to sell copies of the desktop app, and with a game as simple as Bejeweled, I'd imagine most people would rather play it in a mobile form. But even though they go slow, PopCap eventually hits as many platforms as possible, so we'll see Bejeweled 3 on iOS at some point. The company is organizing a meetup at the Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco later this month so perhaps "eventually" will be sooner than we think. I'll be there in person, and if there are any new iOS games to speak of you'll be the first to know.
Peggle faithfully recreated in LittleBigPlanet 2
Having both Peggle and LittleBigPlanet 2 on the same plane of reality meant this had to happen sooner or later. With Peggle already on every platform known to man, and LBP2 molding itself T-1000 style into every game imaginable, why wouldn't we get the Plinko puzzler recreated in Sackboy's world?
LG G-Slate spotted in Korean music video, 3D cameras and all?
Oh LG, did you really think you could slip an entire tablet past the eagle-eyed gadget obsessives of Korea? The G-Slate has been one of the more mysterious devices launched at CES this year, but it now appears to have shaken off some of its shyness and made a cameo appearance on K-Pop star Seungri's latest music vid. Our Korean correspondents inform us that Seungri's band Big Bang has had a relationship with LG since the introduction of the cheap and cheerful Lollipop handset (video evidence after the break), so it's not unreasonable to believe this young chap has an inside line on LG's upcoming hardware. His video shows an LG-branded slate at 0.53 and 1.52, and although we get only brief glimpses, one of them suggests a dual-camera array on the back, which seemingly corroborates earlier rumors of the G-Slate bringing some 3D voodoo to the market. Skip the break and see for yourself. [Thanks, Alan Yi]
Xbox Live Deal of the Week: 50% off Bejeweled 2, Uno Rush, Tetris Splash
Casual cost-cutting news now as this week's Xbox Live deals are now live. Through Sunday, Gold members can grab Bejeweled 2, Uno Rush, Zuma, Tetris Splash and Feeding Frenzy 2 for half-off their usual prices.
PopCap and Taito team up to bring Pop Tower to Japan
PopCap Games and Taito announced a partnership this morning that would oversee the launch of a new "dedicated mobile social game service" in Japan. The service is named, appropriately enough, Pop Tower. The service will add an "all-new metagame with RPG elements" to several of PopCap's titles (Bejeweled, Chuzzle, and Zuma were all named), unifying multiple PopCap properties under one persistent leveling system. Beyond unnamed new modes being added and the RPG metagame, additional "social elements" will give players the opportunity to communicate with friends. As we've come to expect with most games moved from the Western market to the East, microtransactions will play a major role in the monetization of Pop Tower's titles, allowing for the purchase of "in-game virtual goods and premium service options." And hey, if that means we can play as Björn the Unicorn across multiple PopCap titles and persistently level him up, consider us sold.
15 Minutes of Fame: Laura Shigihara, voice of WoW's Singing Sunflower
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. If you haven't yet lost hours (days? a week? ... more?) inside the zany fun of PopCap Games' mind-blowingly addictive Plants vs. Zombies, you owe it to yourself to click over right this minute (we'll wait here, promise) and take a whiff of those zombies on the lawn for free on the web. Wait, another game? Why should a WoW player like you care? Because the irresistible game with the irresistible theme song (above) is coming to Hillsbrad come Cataclysm in a new quest line celebrating the PopCap hit, and the adorable voice of songstress Laura Shigihara follows close behind in a commemorative Singing Sunflower pet. Shigihara, herself a longtime gamer and WoW player, has won the hearts of the WoW Insider staff with her impishly sweet songs -- the latest, last month's light-hearted Blood Elf Druids. My little fourth-grade daughter adores Shigihara; my big, burly coworkers sigh over Shigihara; and I, uh, seem to edit more than my fair share of posts to the beat of an endless zombie march across the lawn. Join us after the break for an exclusive chat with Shigihara herself about World of Warcraft, Plants vs. Zombies, singing sunflowers and more.
Bejeweled Blitz Live rated by German, Australian boards
Bejeweled Blitz Live has been rated by Germany's USK and Australia's classification board. The Australian listing is quite vague, giving the impression the title could be bound for retailers on PC, but the USK classification blatantly declares it as an Xbox 360 title. Perhaps it will appear for both. Developer and publisher PopCap Games tells Joystiq it is currently "not commenting" on the matter. PopCap introduced Bejeweled Blitz to Facebook gamers almost two years ago, and added Zuma Blitz this year. Let's see if PopCap can beat the ESRB's hat trick of announcing its games.
Sunflower sings about blood elf druids
It's no secret that we love Laura Shigihara, the composer for Pop Cap's amazing Plants vs. Zombies and now the voice of Cataclysm's singing sunflower pet. Shigihara has stepped into the WoW machinima world with her own original song and video, Blood Elf Druids, an adorable song making a plea to Blizzard for the inclusion of blood elf druids. Shout-outs to Tooga the turtle are pretty obscure, which makes it even more fun. It's adorable, catchy and a great first shot at machinima. There's even a behind-the-scenes video posted here. If this is the quality of song we're getting for the first video, I cannot wait to see what's coming next. An orc ballad, perhaps? I can only hope.
Handmade Plants vs Zombies figurines are just so precious
Etsy user AnUnclesMonkey recently homebrewed a quartet of Plants vs. Zombies figurines -- all based on living species from the game. Act quickly, and you could even purchase one, including the Torchwood, Kernel Pult, Hypnoshroom or Peashooter (seen here).
