CasualGames
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Virgin Media launches Play Games portal for TiVo
Many of us don't see TiVos as game consoles, but Virgin Media would beg to differ -- there have been over a million game sessions this year on its edition of the DVR. Accordingly, it just launched a Play Games portal to court this growing audience. Besides putting games in one handy location, the hub saves game states and ranks favorite titles. Virgin is also recruiting more developers to expand Play Games' fledgling catalog. While the casual gaming focus is unlikely to stop serious players from pre-ordering an Xbox One or PS4, it may be enough to keep TiVo owners on the couch long after their favorite show is over.
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.
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]
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.
Airport diversion: Adrenaline Golf Online
I think the iPhone really solves the 'sitting at the airport with hours to kill' problem quite well. As iPhone owners, we know we can browse the web, catch up on email or the news, even check to see why your flight is late. I have another suggestion. Give Adrenaline Golf Online [iTunes link] a try. It is one of the few games that really harnesses the power of 3GS graphics, but look quite good if you are on older hardware, and it works fine on an iPod touch too. The game is basically miniature golf, with a pretty accurate physics engine. There are 72 courses in 3 different game modes. You can play online with golfers all over the world, or just play by your lonesome. There are 4 different playing environments for 18 courses, which is how you get a total of 72. There is beach, forest, lava, and night. The animation and rendering of water and reflections is really stunning. The game play is challenging, and I easily blew an hour working through a couple of the courses. All the courses have 3 difficulty levels, and have interesting challenges in getting your ball in the hole past a series of animated obstacles. I'm not really a big game person, but I was instantly hooked by Adrenaline Golf. If I have any criticism it is that it is hard to predict how a particular hole will play and how far the ball will roll. Eventually I got the hang of it. It might seem a little pricey at U.S. $4.99, but I think the effort involved in making this game was substantial, and I didn't mind the higher tariff. If you're stuck at an airport or have time on your hands I suggest giving this game a try. I think it is especially good for people who like pool and miniature golf. Here's a gallery of some screen shots: %Gallery-79255%
MotionX: Poker Quest
One of the first apps I downloaded when I inherited my brother's old iPhone was MotionX Dice. It was brilliant in its execution: 3D dice rendered with loving detail, lots of custom dice and perfect use of the accelerometer. MotionX games are variations on a theme, however, and they've taken their MotionX Poker system, wrapped it in an Egyptian theme, and cranked up the fun. The game is simple: roll the dice to get a hand, choose which you keep and which you put back, and repeat until the hand is over.What's the big deal about a dice-based poker app? Well, for one, it's one of those games you can pick up and play within seconds. Dice poker, for whatever reason, feels less like "real" poker, and my brain tends to relax more than it would playing a "real" poker game (such as Apple's Hold 'Em game). It's mostly a casual game, but there are enough stats and surprises to keep you playing after the initial gee whiz factor wears off.To keep games fresh, designers often add unlockable content and statistics. With Poker Quest, the unlockables come in the form of additional themed dice, levels and "my treasures." The treasures are triggered when you achieve a notable event, like "Win ten career hands." The stats are plentiful including how much you've played, how much you've won, and a detailed breakdown on what hands you've had when you play. I didn't unlock any levels, but the gameplay shouldn't change, just your surroundings.Dice poker games are relatively easy to craft and they are very easy to play. It's nice to see MotionX bringing some style to the genre, however. Their trademark animated 3D dice and gorgeous textured backdrops add just enough flair to the poker dice game to make things really fun for repeat play. If you're still not sold, try the free version of MotionX Poker Quest [App Store link]. The full version costs $2.99 [App Store link], which is a fair price if you like dice, poker or quick, casual games.%Gallery-43166%
Rockstar's Dan Houser disses casual gaming, explains process of rebuilding NYC
Dan Houser, Vice President of creativity for Rockstar Games, has apparently never enjoyed the visceral thrill of creating a Mii in his own likeness and entering the boxing ring with a similarly Mii-ified version of Adolf Hitler -- or else we assume he wouldn't have dropped the following foul-mouthed quote in an interview with New York Magazine: "Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming." Poignant, no?He goes on to explain that while the warm reception of Nintendo's latest console is "fantastic", gamers still want games with production values and narratives that rival those of big-budget movies, much like the titles produced by Rockstar. The rest of the interview is actually a very intriguing look at how the Grand Theft Auto IV team meticulously built a city using the Big Apple as their inspiration, but something tells us that the rest of the story might get overshadowed by that one particular sound bite.
The Office game is better than you'd think
When thinking of TV shows to transform into games, The Office isn't the first on the list. The show is light on the sort of sophomoric hijinx that usually passes for humor in games and pretty heavy on the talking. That said, the casual game version of NBC's hit show actual fares a bit better than one might expect, earning a four-star review from Gamezebo.If you've played Diner Dash, you're already familiar with the time management fetch-and-return gameplay of The Office, though there's an added twist of competing against another cubicle dweller. Judging from the demo we played, the writing's nowhere near as sharp as the TV show's (big surprise), but it's at least true enough to be respectful. (We do, however, take umbrage with the addition of a laugh track to some of the game. Seriously, guys? A laugh track?) We're not sure it would qualify as a necessary purchase, but fans of the show will probably find a few minutes of diversion.(Full disclosure: The author occasionally contributes to Gamezebo.)
MySpace launching games channel in 2008
Looking to cash in on the ever-growing casual games market, MySpace has officially announced MySpace Games, a new feature to the social networking site that will allow users to add hundreds of casual games to their profile pages.MySpace Games will be developed with the help of Oberon Media, a casual game company specializing in delivering those cookie-cutter formulas we know and love to every format imaginable. Launching in 2008, MySpace Games appears to be a response to the immense popularity of Facebook Applications, which allows users of the MySpace competitor to add and share specialized widgets to their profile pages.No word yet on what the MySpace games will look like, but it's likely they will continue the "ugly" aesthetic Rupert Murdoch has worked so hard to maintain.[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
Thrill to the first video of Dirty Dancing: The Game
It's a well-known fact that putting Baby in any sort of corner is a crime punishable with death by firing squad or (in some states) lethal injection. But Dirty Dancing: The Game is a whole other story. Judging by this video, Dirty Dancing: The Game should be placed in the corner of a latrine in the corner of the Diarrhea Only infirmary in the corner of a rocket being shot into the sun that accidentally gets sucked through blackest space to the corner of Planet Pleasegodbejoking.You know what we like best about this trailer? How there's almost no dancing, dirty or otherwise. That's the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile.
Casual games bridge generation gap, report finds
Popcap Games -- makers of casual hits like Bejeweled, Peggle, and Bookworm Adventures -- have published the results of a recent survey on families and casual gaming. According to the press release, a staggering 92% of the adults surveyed believe that casual gaming gives them common ground to relate to their children and grandchildren.Other stats reinforce the correlation between gaming and education, with 47% of parents noticing that playing casual games increased their child's aptitude in various categories (Hooked on Bookworm worked for me!).Stat lovers can view the entire press release after the break.[Via GameSpot]
Ubisoft CEO plans for the casual future
Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot sees a dramatic increase in the size of the video game market in the near future, driven by the influx of new customers. Since a lot of these new customers are casual gamers getting into the mobile, PC, and, of course, DS and Wii platforms, Guillemot believes that his company must make games other than Tom Clancy's X (for example.)He outlined Ubisoft's strategy in three parts: "triple-A blockbusters" for hardcore gamers, more casual fare for families, and user-generated content. Maybe that last one explains who designed their Imagine series covers.We hope that this means that equal effort is being put into all of these approaches. Casual games aren't going to help a company if they're shoddily put together on a minimal budget.[via Next-Gen]
BBC not revealing 'major move' into games [update]
[Update: The BBC denies the report. "The presentation will not reveal a major move into the games industry and is in fact just reflective of the way in which various sectors of the entertainment industry are now converging and can learn from each others methods of working."] According to a report on Scotland on Sunday, the BBC will reveal plans to become more involved in the world of computer games during next week's Edinburgh Interactive Festival. The BBC's new media controller, Simon Nelson, is expected to deliver a keynote detailing the corporation's approach to game development and how it hopes to expand upon the limited efforts by its kid-centric CBBC and Blast labels.Speculation suggests that games could be delivered through the BBC's iPlayer system, an on-demand online video service that enables users to download and view previously aired programs. Disposable casual games loosely tied to BBC television shows seem like the logical outcome here -- certainly more likely than an episodic Dr. Who adventure game (it's Dalek-tible!). If the report is accurate, TARDIS users need only travel forward a week to learn the specifics.[Via MCV]
Lifetime: Games for women
There are moments you just couldn't make up the story if you tried -- this is one of those times. Lifetime network, television for women, and RealNetworks (yup, they're still around) are joining up to make downloadable games for women. The first game will be Sally's Salon and releases July 25. The game has players "direct Sally through a virtual beauty salon by performing and customizing beauty services and hiring employees." Kind of sounds like Diner Dash and Cake Mania, but minus the entrepreneurial feminist ideals.The game will be promoted online and on Lifetime's television network between reruns of Unsolved Mysteries and Golden Girls (oh Rose, you still bring a smile to our face). Apparently Lifetime and RealNetworks have been collaborating since 2004 and the games section of Lifetime's website is its most popular with million of games played on topics such as "makeovers, prom dresses and cleaning." Ah yes, Lifetime casual games, doing its part to show women their place in the 21st century.
Conjecture Countdown: One more day!
With only one more day of waiting before the debut of the diminished E3, we've decided to get serious and offer up some real predictions about what we will -- and won't -- see at the show. Check after the jump for the breakdown, by writer, of the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of our E3 hopes and fears.
Chris Early moved from MS Casual Games to G4W Live
Microsoft just announced that Chris Early, studio manager for Microsoft Casual Games – they're the group that does that whole Xbox Live Arcade and MSN Games thing – is being moved to a new, arguably more challenging position, inside the Redmond behemoth: General Manager of Games for Windows Live. Like an awkward teenager, the nascent online service is still struggling to identify itself while everyone else waits; meanwhile, its sibling Xbox Live service enjoys widespread acclaim and a strong brand identity.But Early's no online gaming rookie, he previously served time with Gamespy and MPlayer.com before moving to Microsoft. While this move – effective July 9th just after the beginning of Microsoft's latest fiscal year which began on the 1st – should bring some much needed clarity to the G4W Live product, we're nervous the now (more or less) smoothly operating XBLA service may suffer yet another executive setback.
Brother Bleszinski fears Wii, gives publishers terrible ideas
Not that we're any better in the ideas department (see: right), but Tyler Bleszinski (President of SportsBlogNation, older brother to Cliff) is stating the obvious a bit too loudly for our liking. Publishers can turn a larger profit with a mini-game fiesta for Wii with significantly less development time than games for the "hardcore" audience? Do you not realize they are listening?Invited to the floor by one N'Gai Croal, Bleszinski weaves a tale that we've seen plenty of times, but not so much recently now that the Wii is really picking up steam. Anecdotal evidence of gaming grannies plunking down cash for games like Cooking Mama and Wii Play, instilling fear of the casual market crushing our beloved past time.While he makes it clear that he doesn't believe bringing new gamers to the fold is bad, or that games designed for the core players will die out, he does believe that the former can not become the latter. Let's face it: your grandpa playing Wii Bowling is not going to lead him into playing Gears of War or The Legend of Zelda anytime soon.
Has Sony failed to understand the casual gamer?
In a recent interview with GI.biz, Nintendo VP of marketing, George Harrison, said that Sony and Microsoft have both attempted to woo the casual gamer but both failed due to a lack of understanding of the casual gamer. Specifically, Harrison mentioned the Sixaxis as Sony's failure:"We can already see some of the things they've tried. For last year's E3, at the last minute, Sony rushed out their Sixaxis controller as an effort to respond to the Wii remote. We saw Microsoft roll out Viva Piñata as their killer app for the Pokemon set. And neither of those worked really well.It's true that Nintendo knows how to dominate a certain kind of casual gamer market, but it seems a bit disingenuous to be writing off the Sixaxis as a failed attempt to capture Nintendo's market share. Sony has never particularly positioned that motion-sensitivity of the Sixaxis as a lure to the casual gamer. They've marketed it as a feature that adds to existing games and allows you to do things you've never done before (see LAIR and Warhawk). It's true that they have utilized the motion sensitivity aspect of the controller to create more easily accessible games like Blast Factor, flOw and Super Rub-a-Dub, but unlike Nintendo, thats that's clearly not their whole focus.
LocoRoco players need something new to play on PSP, reminds creator
There are a few people that purchased a PSP system to play the innovative LocoRoco. To this day, the title stands out as one of the happiest, most original titles on the platform. While there's nothing wrong with the large number of mature games on the platform, gamers that enjoy LocoRoco have been thoroughly neglected by Sony. Tsutomu Kouno, creator of LocoRoco, spoke at the Nordic Game Conference about PSP's lackluster offerings for that demographic: "We have to increase the number of casual games, games that LocoRoco players will want to play.""There are too many sequels for PSP, only sequels, so I want to make a new game for PSP ... I have five or six new game ideas either for PSP or PS3, but I actually want to make them for PSP - for the people who bought LocoRoco, or bought a PSP because of LocoRoco, and like casual games."It's great to see a developer want to work exclusively for the handheld. Certainly, we could use some original titles in addition to the stellar sequels that we'll also be receiving. But Kouno ... didn't you also talk about a LocoRoco sequel at this same conference?
