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Casual game companies confident about their chances in the recession
Casualgaming.biz asked a who's who of casual games about how they felt the business would get by during the current financial horribleness. As it turns out, the polled companies expect to either weather the crisis or even benefit from it.A representative for PopCap said "When economic times are tough, the most broadly appealing, cost-effective forms of entertainment tend to not only survive – but thrive." This sentiment was echoed by the CEO of Oberon Media. Nickelodeon's Dave Williams, however, sees problems for companies who "need access to outside capital and high valuations to fund growth and investment and/or haven't reached profitability and need cash to fund existing operations." In other words, companies who rely on others' money to make their games. Not that we're Industry Analysts, but we fully expect the casual games industry to do well during this recession. It's pretty simple: these companies make video games -- often very enjoyable ones -- that do not cost sixty dollars.
PopCap sales up 85%, drug cartel revenues down
If you're looking for proof that PopCap's stash is still the most potent you can find, look no further. While PC sales took a 14% hit in 2008, PopCap Games has announced its year-over-year revenue has jumped 85%. Citing data from NPD Group, which does not take online sales into account, PopCap stated the biggest needle in the vein came in the form of Bejeweled Twist -- a franchise that has already hit the $300 million mark. According to our dealer PopCap, this boost in sales puts the developer within the top 20 video game retail publishers by dollar value, a first in the company's history. We'd continue writing this post, but we need to sell our computers to get more-of-that Pop.
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%
BioWare CEO is confident in the state of PC gaming
BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka is standing behind PC games, directly opposing all of the naysayers that shout the doom of PC gaming from on high.A recent article over at Computer And Video Games.com pointed to Muzyka's confident stance as well as his expression of changing the definition of PC gaming, such as counting in the large growth of MMOs, flash games, and other casual experiences that any PC user can easily access. "MMOs are one way that's occurring... And there are more people playing flash-based games and casual games, even core games that are played in a casual way, so maybe [they have] a more core experience and you only play them for short bursts or for half an hour or something," Muzyka was quoted as saying.One only needs to look at the success of games such as World of Warcraft or any other MMO, as well as the very healthy Steam distribution service to note that PC gaming is far from dead.
IBM exec: Games are great for employees
Hot on the heels of last week's news that employers are staying away from hiring WoW players comes this article from the BBC, quoting an IBM executive who says that gamers are actually exactly the kind of people you want on a team: David Laux, global executive in charge of games and interactive entertainment (wait, maybe that's why he's so keen on game players) says that casual games can improve memorization and the abilty to discern details, first person shooters can help with rapid decision making, and games like World of Warcraft can boost leadership skills. He says WoW specifically helps players learn how to work well on a team, assess risks, and put the group first to achieve a common goal.Which is true -- if you're actually the one in charge of groups. I'm of the opinion that it's very possible to play a game like WoW and get a nice boost to your leadership skills (leading a guild is often a job in itself), but I think it's also very possible that you could play WoW and not get a thing out of it -- I know quite a few people I've grouped with that I'd never want to have sitting next to me in a real office.The bottom line, as always, is somewhere inbetween the two opinions. If you're already interested in taking charge and being a leader, WoW is a great simlulation to let you do those things. And if you're already a lazy worker and interested in helping yourself more than whatever team you're on, WoW probably won't cure you of that (there are certainly plenty of selfish people running around the game every day). In short, if your hiring policies are based on whether or not someone plays videogames, you might want to reconsider them completely.
Expanding choices in social gaming and Flash MMOs
There seems be an endless tide of online games and virtual worlds being made available to us, with more always on the way. Some of them are well-known and need little introduction, such as Second Life, Playstation Home, and Facebook games, to name just a few. But there's plenty more out there, some of which falls into the standard 'MMO' category, although it's a label that we find is steadily blurring as time goes on. Darren Gladstone, Senior Writer at PC World, has put together "The Social Gaming Guide" for his Casual Friday column. In it he explores some of the mainstays of social gaming like the options found within Second Life and Facebook, but also sheds light on some lesser known alternatives. Gladstone discusses some of the choices gamers have with The Casual Collective, which he describes as "a cool casual-gaming waterhole created by the minds behind DTD," or Desktop Tower Defense. He looks at Whirled, an open-source gaming community which is home to Flash MMOs. "For players, Whirled is an awesome collection of hundreds of games, broken out by category and just waiting for you to jump in," Gladstone writes. Forthcoming Facebook integration will also add more dimensions to gameplay at Whirled.
Creator of Flick Fishing interviewed
Freeverse's Flick Fishing, which we took a look at last week, has shot to the top of the charts in the App Store, and OSX Reality sent us a note about an interview with the game's designer, Aaron Fothergill. His brother Adam put together the graphics and sound, and Aaron did the actual coding and design. Aaron says it's a tough racket putting iPhone games together -- you've got to balance quality (especially production values, something that we could probably use way more of on the App Store) with time and cost. Since iPhone games sell cheap, it's not an easy job making sure you don't go overboard investing way more than you'll get back on return. But of course, if you put in too little time and charge too much, users will call you out for selling high-priced junk.He also talks about Mac gaming in general, and immersion on the iPhone specifically -- casual games are doing well on the App Store, and some developers are saying that you just can't make an extremely immersive game on a platform where people are constantly being called, texting, and on the move. I have to agree with Aaron -- it's not that you can't be immersive, it's that you have to do it the right way. There's nothing wrong with short bursts of gameplay, but you have to realize from the beginning that that's what your users will be doing.And finally, he gives out some information about a Flick Fishing update that's incoming: the recently released 1.1 patch consisted of bug fixes, but the upcoming 1.2 update will add some new features, maybe even 8 player networked play.
E308: The future of FunOrb
Alongside a number of insights into the new Runescape HD release and tantalizing hints at the upcoming Mechscape, our discussion with Jagex yesterday morning yielded a few tibits about FunOrb. Jagex's under-the-radar casual games offering is built on the same technology as Runescape, implying some interesting things about the company's future plans. We spoke with Geoff Iddison and developer Henrique Olifiers about the project, and came away with some interesting viewpoints on Jagex's future development plans. Read on below the cut for hints at how casual gaming and browser-based RPG fun might combine into a new (and delicious) whole.
Nexon's new western targeted MMOG Sugar Rush in closed beta
Nexon America's Min Kim dropped a hint in late May that an upcoming MMO title was in development in their Vancouver studio. The big secret is Sugar Rush, a new casual based MMO romp and stomp with coin collection mixed into the fray. It is the first MMOG from that studio that is intended specifically for North American audiences. While Sugar Rush is free to play, it will sustain development costs via a microtransaction model "item mall" similar to many other free to play MMOs. The game is currently in closed beta and Nexon America is not accepting applications at this time, but we hear it may launch in the very near future. The development team working on Sugar Rush is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment. Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.It will be interesting to see how Sugar Rush does in North America. MapleStory is unquestionably highly successful. It put Nexon on the global radar and shocked the naysayers when MapleStory earned 29 million dollars in revenue -- not bad for a free to play MMOG! The whole western and eastern MMOG market juxtaposition is fascinating; many have shunned a lot of eastern games in discussing the western market and vice-versa. A video from the closed beta showcasing game play is after the jump. Let us know what you think.
The Social Gaming Summit: Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds
Friday the 13th: An inauspicious day for the superstitious crowd, but a great day for attendees of the Social Gaming Summit, held in San Francisco. The day saw a schedule full of great panels, populated by some of the industry's finest movers and shakers, among them representatives from Gaia Online, Nexon, Three Rings, and Gamasutra, among others too numerous to list here.A particular highlight of the conference for this blogger was the panel entitled "Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds", which provided a lively discussion on what it means to create a virtual social space, how to monetize free-to-play content, and what exactly is a casual MMO? Trying to divide attention between listening raptly and taking notes is difficult; here is the result, along with the panelists, after the jump.
The Digital Continuum: Crafting conundrum
Whenever I start playing a new MMO my interest in crafting tends to go through two phases: hope and realization. During the hope phase I find myself wondering what sort of cool things I could create. I also think about being able to use those creations in useful and interesting ways. My head tends to float up into the clouds as I contemplate all the great times I'm about to have with a game's crafting system.Then there's the realization phase, where my crafting dreams are crushed. This is the point when I start playing with the crafting system and moving through its inner workings only to find the same old thing: Talk to an NPC, get crafting skill of choice, look at recipe, gather ingredients and proceed to select how many I want before clicking a single button to create my item. When will developers admit that this is incredibly boring and at least try to spice things up a bit. They don't have to re-think the entire system. I would be perfectly happy with some evolutionary changes.
Is Facebook gaming 'the next big thing'?
Worlds in Motion recently covered events at the InterPlay Conference in San Francisco. InterPlay is devoted to social gaming, and is billed as 'the premier conference on the business of games on the Social Web.' Among the speakers at InterPlay were Charles Yong and Jing Chen, co-founders of Developer Analytics. The company offers a social networking metrics platform that provides a leaderboard of the top Facebook applications, where casual games predictably rank high. Their talk focused on the monetization of social games and the feasibility of adding greater depth to casual games, an opportunity that's drawing a 'significant surge of venture capital funding,' Worlds in Motion reports.On the topic of generating more revenue from social games, Charles Yong said, "Social gaming is where the really great monetization is at. You can prototype with little to no money down. The whole premise of this is that marketing cost is really, really low, compared to a real game, like Grand Theft Auto IV." Before casual gamers could take offense at this statement, Yong clarified that casual gamers can be hardcore about their chosen style of play, but "they haven't seen GTA IV, they haven't seen Half-Life 2, and real money is coming out of virtual goods and currency."
The Daily Grind: Do you only play MMOs?
We cover a lot of MMOs here at Massively, but that doesn't mean that it's the only type of game we're interested in. Many of us on the team love to rip into a good console game too, or other PC games of the non-MMO variety. Sure, being involved in more than a single MMO can take up a significant portion of gaming time, but it's safe to say that we do enjoy other types of games as well.If you've come to Massively, you likely at least have an interest in MMOs, if you aren't currently playing one or more of them -- but is that the only genre of game that you play? Do you like to play any of the current generation of consoles? Or perhaps you kick it old school with one of the awesome consoles of bygone eras? When it comes to the PC, do you only play the bigger games, or do you dip into the casual realm with titles such as Peggle? And what about those nifty handhelds, and cellphone games -- daily commute anyone?
Player vs. Everything: Learning by doing
In most MMORPGs, it's practically considered a right of passage to learn advanced concepts by the sweat of your brow and with a big helping of independent research. We're MMO players, after all! We don't need tutorials guiding us through the advanced aspects of the game. Right? They're for the weak and lowly fans of single player and casual games. We rely almost solely on forum information, lessons from more advanced players, and learning by doing (and we're darn proud of it). And as Tobold discussed a few weeks ago, you really have to do that stuff if you want to be a successful player.While raiding Karazhan last weekend, my guild brought a relatively newbish hunter along for the ride. Her spec wasn't terrible, and she brought a number of epics (albeit PvP epics) to the table, so we figured, "What the heck?" We didn't even get too worried when her DPS wasn't up to par. Things were going just fine until we got to the second boss fight and needed her to do a little chain trapping. A few wipes later, we realized that she had absolutely no idea how to use her frost traps effectively-- a core mechanic of her class. What was the problem there?Well, there's no game tutorial that comes in, holds your hand, and says, "Hey, pal. You're going to need to use frost trap effectively in the end game. Let's practice it a little until you get the hang of it." Most MMOGs just teach you the bare-bones basics of the game (like running, moving, and auto-attack) before they abandon you to the wild. You're expected to figure out the rest on your own, and eventually to hit up sites like Elitist Jerks or the World of Warcraft class forums to make sure that you're being all that you can be. Is this necessarily the best way to do things, though?
Piracy a huge problem for casual game devs
You perhaps remember when a hilarious chain of journalistic ineptitude lead to one publication reporting that 90 percent of DS users were using R4 chips for piracy. We scoffed at the obviously off-the-mark statistic at the time, but it's important to remember that there is another industry that does face such ubiquitous piracy: Casual gaming. According a piece penned by Reflexive director of marketing Russell Carroll, a staggering 92 percent of those playing the company's Ricochet Infinity pirated the game.Carroll goes on to weigh the various causes for the problem as well as possible solutions, but he also mentions that his company handles digital rights management in-house rather than outsourcing them like most of the industry. ... Are we the only ones that look at that fact and think that just maybe we've cracked "The Case of the 92 Percent Thefts"? Just saying.
Indian computer hardware sales driven with MMOs as "killer app"
According to a report on the burgeoning Indian gaming market (which to date registers sales of only $48 million), massively multiplayer online games are one of the major forces driving both the growth of the greater gaming industry and the sales of modern personal computers. Many are hoping that the Indian gaming market is going to undergo a similar boom as the one that has propelled China and Korea into competition with more traditional markets like the US, Europe, and Japan, with the report speculating an almost ten times growth in sales over the next decade.At present, the biggest bottleneck to success of the current generation of MMOs is the fact that most Indian homes currently lack broadband internet access. Game makers are hoping that a promised boom in broadband connectivity in the sub-continent, coupled with the proliferation of dedicated gaming cafes, will lead to a boom in the development of MMOs. At present, casual games are still the most played, as they are accessible to players with slow internet connections. It'll be interesting to see how the Indian gaming market develops over the coming decade, and whether it will be able to affect the direction of MMOs as the other asian markets have. The report is definitely worth looking at if you're interested in the business of games and globalization.
LotRO reps talk demographics, casual play, console plans
Yesterday Gamasutra published a five page interview about The Lord of the Rings Online with Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel and Adam Mersky.According to the interview, one third of LotRO players are over 35 because the license drew people new to MMOs -- people who came for "The Lord of the Rings first, the MMO second." Fans of LotRO often claim the game's community is more mature than that of competing games. "Sometimes game communities can be rough, just because of the nature of the competitiveness and the nature of the age range of people playing, and this is a pretty mature, fun place to be a part of," said Steefel.Steefel and Mersky also talked about the challenges of dealing with gold farmers, what the real definition of "casual games" might be, the pluses and minuses of adapting a famous work of literature, the competition, and Turbine's option to produce massively multiplayer games for consoles. As is the case with most Gamasutra interviews, the discussion is an excellent read if you want an inside look.
MMOs to get more massive, even mobile
As if our lives aren't dominated enough by raids, guild-runs, and the newest beta tests, it would appear that the next trend in MMO development is finding ways for games to reach you when you're away from the computer. At the recent Virtual Worlds Forum, business leaders have been salivating at the opportunities posed by expanding their IPs to mobile platforms. Moshi Monsters, an MMO from Mind Candy aimed at kids, banks heavily on their MoPod technology. MoPods are small, cheap, virtual pet-esque devices that kids can bring with them to school to keep plugging away at the game's puzzles on the bus or in the cafeteria.Then when you consider that Katsuya Eguchi, lead developer in the rumored Animal Crossing MMO, has talked openly about integrating mobile phone and PC applications into their new game, it could very well be the beginning of a new wave of mobile integration. Publishers are always looking for new ways to boost their numbers, and this would certainly be a very marketable away to go about it. It doesn't take a genius to imagine the possibilities of the technology: they could give players the ability to monitor the auction house from their phone or allow you to raise a pet on a portable gaming platform and then use it in-game. In addition to being marketable to current MMO fans, this sort of pan-technological approach to games also has a strong appeal to casual gamers, a coveted demographic if ever there was one.It's an idea that's probably still a long way from coming to light, at least for a mainstream MMO, but it's fun to speculate about, and it's a trend we'll definitely be keeping our eye on.
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]
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.
