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Digital Chocolate buys Sandlot Games
Mobile game developer Digital Chocolate, one of the biggest developers on the App Store, has acquired Sandlot Games, makers of Cake Mania and a few other popular App Store titles. Sandlot has offices in Seattle and Eastern Europe, and Digital Chocolate says it plans to use the developer to expand operations in both places. Unfortunately, there's no word on how much the deal is worth. Both companies have seen plenty of app downloads, and have big titles on multiple platforms, including Apple's devices and the PC, so this is likely a substantial acquisition for both sides. As Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins says, "We expect to be the leading game company in at least 5 of the 7 cities where we now have development studios." That said, I don't think this is the last we'll hear of either company. This space is extremely volatile at the moment, and it's just as likely that we'll see Digital Chocolate pick up more developers as it is that we'll see a larger company buy out the whole company if so inclined. [via Touch Arcade]
Digital Chocolate picks up $12 million in funding round, mostly from Intel
Digital Chocolate is one of the biggest iPhone developers that no one talks about much, but maybe that'll change now that the company has picked up a whopping $12 million in venture capital. The company behind a huge amount of iOS titles of all kinds (with more than 100 million mobile downloads total) has raised a total of $54 million so far, and most of this latest round of funding came from Intel, along with a few other venture capital firms. Digital Chocolate seems like a rarity among many App Store developers. While much of the movement on the App Store has been hit-driven, Digital Chocolate instead uses a shotgun approach, delivering lots of different apps that reach their audiences in a variety of different ways. Not all companies can pull a strategy like that off, but whatever Digital Chocolate is doing obviously seems to be working.
Mafia Wars trademark battle heats up with revealing Zynga letter made public
Digital Chocolate is suing Zynga over its use of the name "Mafia Wars," an alleged trademark infringement -- this much we know. Last night, however, Joystiq acquired the full, 157-page complaint. The crux of the suit is Digital Chocolate's common law trademark claim to the name "Mafia Wars," though the company never formally registered the name (as Zynga did last summer). In registering the trademark last July, Zynga claims under penalty of perjury that it has "belief no other person, firm, corporation or association has the right to use the mark in commerce, either in the identical form thereof or in such near resemblance thereto as to be likely ... to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive." It's on this stipulation which Digital Chocolate hinges its lawsuit, and the company has proof that Zynga knew about DC's version of Mafia Wars.%Gallery-100583%
Digital Chocolate suing Zynga over Mafia Wars trademark
Put down that Mafia Wars Slurpee! Trip Hawkins and his company Digital Chocolate claim that one of Zynga's biggest Facebook moneymakers isn't actually owned by Zynga -- in name, at least -- and he would really like you to quit giving them credit. According to Courthouse News, Digital Chocolate seeks to have Zynga "enjoined from using the Mafia Wars name," "ordered to deliver up all Mafia Wars products," and "engage in corrective advertising costing twice what Zynga spend promoting Mafia Wars." Which means you should stop drinking that Slurpee, like, right now. Litigation is stemming from Digital Chocolate's previously trademarked mobile game of the same name, Mafia Wars, where players "must advance their characters through levels of a fictional crime syndicate by completing tasks." DC also claims that, in speaking with Zynga last year about the trademark rights, "Zynga attorneys responded with a letter promising to stop using the name." In its defense, a Zynga rep told Joystiq, "We are surprised and disappointed by Digital Chocolate's lawsuit. The timing of the action appears to be opportunistic, and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously." The United States Patent and Trademark Office lists Zynga's first filing date for a game under the name "Mafia Wars" as July 1, 2009, though no filing under that name could be located with Digital Chocolate as the applicant. Digital Chocolate has not responded to requests for comment by press time.
Ngmoco's iPhone titles nominated for a few GDC Online awards
Nominations have been announced for the Game Developers Choice Online Awards (to be announced at the upcoming GDC Online conference in Austin), and iPhone developer Ngmoco has secured a few spots in among the rest of the big PC game developers. We Rule picked up nominations for Best Online Game Design, Best Online Audio, and Best New Online Game, and Godfinger was recognized in the Best Online Visual Arts category. iPhone developers Booyah and Digital Chocolate also got nominated, but both of those companies were chosen for their Facebook titles, not their iPhone creations. So congrats to Ngmoco -- the company has certainly made a splash on the App Store with its freemium model, but these nominations show that former EA exec Neil Young's company is competing on quality with much larger PC titles like League of Legends, Aion and Dungeon Fighter Online. The awards will be given out at GDC Online, taking place October 5-8 in Austin, Texas.
Digital Chocolate: We're owning single-digit search on the App Store
We've mentioned Digital Chocolate and their App Store releases before, of course, and we've even mentioned just how prevalent they are -- they've been extremely prolific in releasing new titles, and as a result, they've posted on their website that they are more or less ubiquitous in search results. They say on their official blog that any search of a "single digit" on the App Store search window has about a 20% chance of pulling up a Digital Chocolate release. If you search for "D," "H" or "3," they're the number one hit. I don't actually know anyone that searches "D" anywhere ("You know what I really want to play tonight? A 'D' related game!"), but it just shows how many releases they've got out there. That does get them plenty of downloads -- they also say that they're number one in downloads on the platform as a whole, with 40 million downloads already of their software, with 1.5 million reviews (!) total -- but I think it says more about the App Store in general, and that we're not quite as far along as it might seem. If one company could so easily own, say, Amazon's search, you'd just say that Amazon needed a bigger catalog, no? 85,000 is certainly a lot of apps (especially in the realm of mobile software), but in terms of the platform's progress as a whole, it's still in its infancy. So we're definitely in for more growth. Even Digital Chocolate sounds a little surprised that they're so prevalent, and I think as the App Store ecosystem grows and we get more and more companies with popular titles in different areas, we'll see the search results become more diverse.
X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Tower Bloxx Deluxe, Panzer General: Allied Assault
Up for offer on Xbox Live Arcade today are two diametrically opposite titles. Tower Bloxx Deluxe is a puzzle game that requires a grand total of one button to play, while Panzer General: Allied Assault is a strategy / card / board game with more rules than you can shake several sticks at. Depending on your mood, present company or your feelings toward the construction industry, either game might appeal to you. As such, they are both priced equally at 800 ($10). Watch the latest episode of XBLA in Brief to find out if either one is for you. Download the trial version of Tower Bloxx Deluxe Download the trial version of Panzer General: Allied Assault [iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly. [RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly.
This Wednesday: Panzer General assaults Tower Bloxx Deluxe on XBLA
This week's Xbox Live update wages war on one of humanity's oldest foes: the block. We're sorry it's come to this, but we're afraid we can stomach their shenanigans no longer and, come this Wednesday, we're enlisting the aid of Panzer General: Allied Assault for 800 ($10) as we begin operations. Our first target will be Tower Bloxx Deluxe, with an estimated damage total of 800 ($10). It's a good introductory target that should benefit us in the longer conflict to come against the blocks. And if you're having second thoughts about all of this, remember how they're always making us push them here and pull them there -- and have you forgotten all of the climbing? We're standing up for the little guys and those archaeologists who've had enough tyranny from those six-sided symmetrical impeders, so if you can't get behind that, we suggest you pull up those hemp pants of yours and barefoot it back to the treetop commune or wherever else you hippies call home nowadays.
Tower Bloxx Deluxe to lay foundation on XBLA
Digital Chocolate has announced that it's bringing its iPhone and PC game, Tower Bloxx Deluxe, to Xbox Live Arcade. The game tasks players with building incredibly tall (and architecturally unsound) towers. The game will include new features not seen on previous versions; specifically, new competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. Tower Bloxx Deluxe will debut on October 21 for 800 ($10). Check out some screens (of the PC version) in the gallery below and find a trailer after the break. You can also try out a simplified 2D version of the game right here. %Gallery-75100%
Digital Chocolate to use OpenFeint for scoreboards, achievements
Developer Digital Chocolate (who, according to that recent slideshow report, is one of the most frequent publishers of content to the App Store) has announced that they'll be going with OpenFeint for their social networking features. We've been covering OpenFeint for a while here on TUAW (and we've interviewed them before as well). The platform is designed to let devs add social features and multiplayer to their apps quickly and easily. And that's exactly what Digital Chocolate will be doing with it, apparently -- they'll be putting scoreboards and achievements into their games on the App Store.This hardly means the end of the ongoing battle over social networking and app developers on the store. But platforms like OpenFeint, Plus+, and others continue to stack up developers under their respective umbrellas, and it remains to be seen just who will prevail.
HandyGames releases App Store analysis presentation
Top20 iPhone Games Analysis 09/2009 View more presentations from HandyGames Germany. The folks over at German developer HandyGames originally put together this slideshow presentation for their own internal use, but they determined that it actually could be useful for almost anyone following iPhone releases and their development, so they released it out into the world. And they were right -- there's some good info in here. Basically, they did a survey of the top 20 apps, both paid and free in five different regions of the world on the App Store, and then compared different qualities of all of those apps to see what the most successful apps had in common. What did they find? Things like the fact that the majority of top 20 apps do not use all caps for the title and use an original IP for their releases. The differences are interesting as well: most paid apps are made by recognizable developers, while most free apps are made by smaller publishers. Free apps receive many, many more reviews than paid apps, though (if I'm reading the presentation right) they tend to be rated lower. Chillingo is the App Store's most prolific top developer, while Digital Chocolate releases games most often, with a full 1.5 releases per week since (I suppose) they started publishing games. Very interesting stuff, though the numbers still require a little backgound knowledge to deciper (Backflip Studios appears in a few rankings, even though they've only just started releasing games last month -- popular games, but only a few games nonetheless). Cool to get an overall snapshot of the kinds of games that are doing well on the App Store so far.
First Look: 24: Special Ops for iPhone
Digital Chocolate has nabbed the 24 license (along with a few sounds and music bits) from Fox, and they've released an iPhone game based on my favorite TV show ever. Unfortunately, things don't get quite as good as they probably should, but the run-and-gun gameplay mixes it up with a nice variety of minigames, so if you're a 24 completist (and have an iPhone -- apparently this doesn't work for iPod touch at the moment), it might be worth spending the $5.If not, there's a "lite" version on the App Store which will take you through the game's first few "hours" (in reality, just a few minutes per segment) of stages. The game itself features Jack Bauer backed up by Chloe doing what else but saving Los Angeles from various terrorist threats. The grid-based action gameplay is simple but fun, and the shooter stages are broken up with encryption and driving minigames. None of it is brilliant, but just like the show, watching Jack Bauer kill bad guys is usually good enough.It's too bad they didn't do more -- 24's strengths have always been in its breakneck story pace and twists and turns, and just from playing the first few hours in the lite version, this seems like a Jack-and-Chloe story only (Bill appears in a suit on the menu screen, so apparently he shows up later, in some role at old CTU). If there are any cool story twists or turns, they take place more than four hours in -- it would be great to see Michelle or even Nina (if this is before Day 3) again, but I doubt we get that. Still, it's got Jack killing and blowing stuff up, and that's never a bad thing.
Trip Hawkins believes iPhone is 'freaking out' Nintendo & Sony
The founder of EA and mobile developer Digital Chocolate, Trip Hawkins, thinks iPhone is the best thing since sliced bread Sega Genesis. In an interview with VentureBeat, the exec said, "We make as much money with these [iPhone] games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms." In fact, mobile developers are making so much money with games for iPhone, at such a low overhead, that Hawkins believes the iPhone is "freaking out" Sony and Nintendo.And though Hawkins' company publishes games on the web and Facebook as well as for Apple's devices, he believes competitors (including Blackberry) to be stuck in the past. "Everybody else is a couple of years behind Apple" -- a notion that he credits to the iTunes Store's relative ubiquity among consumers even before the iPhone existed. "They've spent years building up those iTunes accounts and it's much easier for the money to flow." And not forcing consumers to convert to a ridiculous points currency probably doesn't hurt that flow either.
