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Crash Bandicoot mobile game is 'On the Run' to an early grave
The Android and iOS title 'Crash Bandicoot: On the Run' will shut down for good on February 16th, 2023.
A swarm of 500 drones will plague New York City with advertising tomorrow
A swarm of 500 drones will invade New York City's skyline to sell you on 'Candy Crush.'
Activision Blizzard will let studios decide their own COVID vaccine policy
Its studio's don't have to follow Activision Blizzard's company-wide policy to drop its vaccine mandate.
Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion
Microsoft is buying 'Diablo' creator Activision Blizzard for a massive $68.7 billion.
Crash Bandicoot is landing on Android and iOS devices in spring 2021
When King revealed that it’s working on a Crash Bandicoot game for mobile in July, it didn’t have a release date for the title yet. Now, the developer behind the game (and Candy Crush) has announced that Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! Sure, that’s not an exact release date, but you now at least have an idea of when you can start spinning and sliding across Crash levels on your phone.
'Candy Crush Saga' devs are making a mobile 'Call of Duty' game
King, the developer behind Candy Crush Saga, is working on a Call of Duty game for mobile. Describing the project as part of a job listing for the company's Stockholm studio, King said it will "strive to transform the best console experience fans know and love, while also breaking new ground for mobile and redefining the genre." Call of Duty-owner Activision Blizzard bought King for just under $6 billion in 2015, but since the acquisition the developer has continued to focus mostly on its free-to-play Saga games. The new project will mark the first time King works on an Activision property, and, if successful, it could open the door for future mobile tie-ins for the company's other famous franchises like Destiny and Overwatch. Virtually nothing is known about the game -- not genre, not release window, not platforms. What we do know is that, while King says it's "collaborating on this project" with its parent company, it also says that it'll be responsible for "prototyping extensively," adding that staff "have the freedom to think outside the box," and will "be encouraged to stretch their expertise in ways to create surprising results," suggesting that it's King that will lead development.
The 'Candy Crush' TV show debuts on CBS July 9th
For whatever reason, Candy Crush is making the jump from addictive game to primetime TV game show, and CBS has revealed it will premiere July 9th. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's a little too late to get cast as one of the two-person teams that will play the game. You and a partner are missing out on the opportunity to "use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards featuring next generation technology to conquer Candy Crush and be crowned the champions." That's the kind of action that will be available to you on Sunday nights this summer -- choose wisely, and remember Game of Thrones doesn't come back until July 16th.
Candy Crush is becoming a game show
Candy Crush, the once ubiquitous mobile game behemoth that's now played almost exclusively by my aunt, is getting its own game show. CBS announced on Tuesday that it is teaming up with King Games and Lionsgate to produce the hour-long series. Details on game mechanics are still sparse but the network did explain that 2-person teams will "use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards." The series will be executive produced by Matt Kunitz, the guy behind Fear Factor and Wipeout, however there's no word yet on who will host or when the series will premier.
Activision officially owns the maker of 'Candy Crush Saga'
It's official: Activision Blizzard is committed to mobile gaming in a big way. The company has closed its $5.9 billion acquisition of King, making it the owner of Candy Crush Saga and giving it 310 million extra users. King will continue to operate independently, but make no mistake -- this is about filling a gap at a game publisher whose moneymakers are mostly limited to consoles and PCs. Between this, the purchase of MLG and the creation of a video studio, it's evident that Activision wants to have all the bases covered.
MP admits he was Candy Crushing it during a parliamentary meeting
We're sure there are many ways a politician can pass the time during a dull parliamentary meeting, but clearing a few levels in Candy Crush Saga probably wouldn't rank high on that list. Nigel Mills, a Conservative MP for Amber Valley, was caught doing exactly that last week, after he was filmed scooping up candies with his iPad in a Work and Pensions Committee debate. In a statement to The Sun he fessed up to the political faux-pass, but said he was always "fully engaged" with the discussion and "shall try not to do it [again] in future." The House of Commons has already jumped into action, but not in the way you might expect; it's now reportedly investigating the "breach of the filming rules" which caught the minister bang to rights. While the incident will certainly leave Mills a little red-faced, it's probably a nice bit of publicity for a UK game developer that's been struggling since its high profile IPO.
Candy Crush follow-up Soda Saga premieres worldwide
Mobile developer King has launched Candy Crush Soda Saga, an iOS and Android follow-up to its hugely successful matching puzzler Candy Crush Saga. Soda Saga features 140 levels across multiple modes, including the new Soda, Frosting, and Honey variants. The sequel also introduces new gameplay elements like Swedish Fish and Coloring Candy that reward large matching chains. Like its predecessor, Soda Saga is free to play, with additional turns and lives available via in-app purchases. Candy Crush Saga regularly ranks among the highest-grossing apps in both Google's and Apple's mobile storefronts, and publisher King pursued up to a $7.6 billion IPO valuation earlier this year before seeing a per-share downgrade afterward. [Image: King]
King is praying that soda will revive Candy Crush
Candy Crush Saga has made publisher King a lot of money since its release in 2012, but those days have passed. Seeing strong competition from other free-to-play games, King's third quarter results were dire, with revenues down 17 percent since the previous year and 13 percent from the previous quarter, and profits were down 38 percent from a year prior. The number of people who actually pay in to their free-to-play game model fell from 10.4 million to 8.7 million. So, naturally, the company has decided more Candy Crush is needed. Candy Crush Soda Saga saw its worldwide release on Tuesday and quickly rocketed to the top of the app charts. Well, it topped the "Free" chart, but according to App Annie's realtime data, it hasn't yet cracked the top 150 overall grossing, so how much it will immediately help reverse King's fortunes is anyone's guess. It's worth noting that King still has four games in the 20 top grossing on the entire App Store. That's a tremendous amount of success -- and money -- for a relatively small company, and has to make you wonder where all that cash is actually going. One place it certainly isn't being spent is in the development of original game ideas, as King has yet to actually publish a title that isn't clearly derivative of a popular puzzle game that came before it. King has already gotten in legal trouble for cloning games in the past, while also going on record to state that the company definitely doesn't clone games. It appears Apple might have some competition in the "reality distortion field" market.
Zynga continues to hemorrhage cash for the third quarter in a row
Zynga -- the company that used to take all your cash before you started giving it to Class of Clans and Candy Crush Saga -- is continuing to be exceedingly generous by spending all its cash without making any back, according to its newly released earnings report. The company, which is responsible for your Words with Friends and Farmville addictions, lost $57 million in its most recent quarter, following losses of $62.5 million and $61 million in Q2 and Q1, respectively. Despite the discouraging numbers, Zynga CEO Don Mattrick was surprisingly upbeat following the report, noting that he is "encouraged by the results of the quarter" and promising that the transitional period the company is going through will eventually pay off. King -- which has yet to come up with an original game idea -- and Clash of Clans developer Supercell have been thoroughly wiping the floor with Zynga for a while now, and it seems the company is just beginning to realize that there is no winning that fight. Zynga is now pushing its Zynga Sports 365 franchise as an evergreen option that could bring the company back into the black, so we'll have to wait and see how that goes.
I'd like to apologize to Kim Kardashian
I've been hard on Kim Kardashian. Well, not necessarily hard on her as a person, but I've always written about her iOS game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, in a negative way. I apologize for that. I still think the app itself is the kind that appeals to the lowest common denominator, and wouldn't bother wasting a dime on it, but for the first time since KK: Hollywood became a hit, I now have what I can only describe as some much needed perspective. That perspective came in the form of a quarterly earnings report from Candy Crush publisher King Digital Entertainment. In its report, King noted some disappointing numbers, including a 12% drop in paying users. Analysts have cried foul and recommended investors to hold off on King at the moment, and the company's stock has taken a beating as a result, down almost 25% as of this writing. But where does Kim Kardashian fit in? Well, her wickedly popular celebrity simulator, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has been sucking up loads of cash from App Store customers, and according to King, some of that cash was supposed to be going to them instead. "Competition within casual gaming is intense," the report reads, "with Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and 2048 going after the same demographics." King is blaming its failing App Store strategy -- which consists entirely of copying existing game concepts and rehashing them -- at least partly on Kim Kardashian's app. Thank you, Ms. Kardashian. To be clear: I'm not thanking the newlywed celebrity for costing King money, because I honestly don't believe KK: Hollywood is to blame for King's woes. What I am thankful for is the opportunity to view her celeb simulator in a new light. I still don't consider KK: Hollywood to be much of a game, but that doesn't really matter. What it is, is original, well made, and an absolute cash cow that deserves to be raking in money just like it has been. With a celebrity of the caliber of Kim Kardashian attached to it, the game had a pretty good chance of becoming a hit, but it was by no means a guarantee. In short, the Kardashian app was more of a risk than anything King has created in the 11 years the company has been around. Despite a US$7 billion IPO and more investors than any company could possibly know what to do with, King has yet to risk its now plummeting stock price on anything even remotely resembling an original idea. Now they're paying for it. Kim Kardashian -- whether or not she was deeply involved with how her game actually plays or not -- was able to do it on her first try. Bravo, Kim. Bravo.
King announces revolutionary, original mobile title... just kidding!
King, the $7 billion mobile game company that has made its fortune rehashing popular casual games of the past two decades, is back with another totally original title that is sure to further stuff its pockets with delicious microtransactions. Having completely milked the tile-matching genre for all it's worth, the company has turned its attention towards card games with today's launch of Pyramid Solitaire Saga. At this point, I'm actually pretty impressed with King's ability to take just about any already-successful concept and cram it into its own strange formula. Like just about every King game before it, Pyramid Solitaire Saga is level-based. Players can earn up to three starts on each level, and of course you can always pay for bonus items and shortcuts to completely remove skill or luck from the equation. But in the end, it's still just a solitaire game, of which there are countless examples in the App Store.
King, a $7 billion company, doesn't seem capable of creating an original game
There's been a lot of talk lately about a new "tech bubble" that we may or may not currently be in. This label applies to a lot of different things, from the booming smartphone and tablet market to health tech and smart home devices. But while I personally think the risk of a catastrophic tech crash is a bit overstated, there's one company that is most definitely riding high on borrowed time. That company is King, creators of Candy Crush Saga. Candy Crush Saga first debuted on Facebook way back in early 2012 before eventually making its way to app stores later that year. As everyone knows, the game is a huge hit, drawing huge revenue from its in-app purchases and rabid fan base. The success of the game eventually became a problem for King, which delayed its IPO late last year over fears from investors that King was a one-hit wonder. The thing about Candy Crush Saga is that it's not King's own invention, it's simply a tile matching game that draws heavily from games like Bejeweled, which had huge appeal as far back as 2001. This was in no doubt one of the things investors were worried about regarding King, and they still should be. Without doing much to prove it has a future making hit games, King eventually decided to file its IPO in March 2014 anyway, to the tune of over US$7 billion. That's a whole lot of cash for a company that has yet to demonstrate it is capable of creating a game without using other established titles as their base. And I don't just mean being inspired by another game or genre -- these days a truly never-before-seen game is a rarity -- but literally lifting just about every game mechanic from a different game that has no links to King whatsoever. Here are King's current App Store titles alongside the games that the company has lifted significantly from: In roughly the past two years, King has "adapted" some of the most popular puzzle games of the past 20 years and republished them as its own. That is quite simply an unsustainable business model. How unsustainable? Well rather than branch out a bit, King also has two other newer games currently available on the App Store, Farm Heroes Saga (another match-3 puzzler) and Bubble Witch 2 Saga (an updated version of its Peggle clone). And King's next big release? Candy Crush Soda Saga, which is exactly what you think it is. There are definitely some parallels to be drawn between King and Zynga, the once-master of casual games which has since fallen on hard times once the appeal of its wares wore off. The company behind Farmville launched its IPO in 2011 with an initial share price of $10. After hitting a price in the low $2 range, the stock now trades at around $3 per share and is in danger of losing its listing entirely. Like King, Zynga is a big fan of rehashing game concepts we've all played and enjoyed for years, but even with 17 current mobile games to its name, it still hasn't met even a fraction of the expectations that were set for it. Rovio, another big name in casual mobile games, has held off on any IPO chatter while adapting its hit Angry Birds franchise into a variety of genres from racing to role-playing. But even with high profile crossovers with other popular IPs like Star Wars, the company's 2013 profit was less than half of what it was in 2012. This is bad news for a $7 billion app company that has yet to prove it's capable of truly creating something gamers want from the ground up, rather than simply borrowing established ideas and giving them a new coat of paint. So if you're looking for a bubble pop, keep an eye on King, because it's riding on the biggest one in the land.
King crushes trademark dispute with Banner Saga, CandySwipe devs
Candy Crush Saga developer King settled trademark disputes with The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio and CandySwipe developer Runsome Apps, according to updates from both studios. "Stoic is pleased to have come to an agreement with King regarding Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, which enables both parties to protect their respective trademarks now and in the future," Stoic Studio wrote, referring to the ongoing tension between the two developers over the term "saga." King said in January that it wasn't against The Banner Saga's name, though its legal opposition to Stoic's own trademark filing remained. At the time, Stoic said it would make another "saga" game regardless of King's trademark. Runsome Apps wrote that it is withdrawing its opposition to King's trademark for "candy," and the Candy Crush Saga developer is pulling its counterclaim against Runsome Apps. "I have learned that they picked the Candy Crush name before I released my game and that they were never trying to take my game away," the developer wrote. "Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players." King withdrew its application to trademark "candy" in the U.S. in February, and saw opposition to its European trademark for the word in March from Cut the Rope developer ZeptoLab.
Candy Crush developer admits it can't really own the word 'Candy'
Although King's $7 billion empire is built on the slim foundation of its lone blockbuster, Candy Crush Saga, many thought its efforts to trademark "Saga" and "Candy" were a bit over-the-top. It now turns out the company isn't trying to crush every game maker that uses these words, and instead is taking each dispute on a case-by-case basis. To that end, it has cemented an out-of-court agreement to let the makers of Banner Saga and CandySwipe keep those monikers ("Candy" is only trademarked in Europe). Those two actually had legit challenges to the mark, but we imagine that other developers who deliberately used the terms to make a point (or for shits and giggles) may not get off so easily.
Investors unfriend Facebook stock, Candy Crush dev IPO not so sweet
Facebook's current status after the $2 billion acquisition of virtual reality outfit Oculus yesterday? It's complicated. The social media company's stock didn't rally on the news today, dropping nearly seven percent to $60.38/share (-4.51). Reaction within the games industry has been strong to the purchase. Markus "Notch" Persson swiftly cancelled a planned Minecraft port for Oculus noting "Facebook creeps [him] out." Candy Crush Saga developer King also had its initial price offering on the New York Stock Exchange today and swiped away 15.5 percent of its value, down $3.50 to $19. Bloomberg points out the drop is one of the largest in recent memory for a new stock. No word yet if King is trying to trademark failure. Tomorrow is another day.
Cut the Rope studio challenges King's 'candy' trademark in EU
Cut the Rope studio ZeptoLab submitted an official claim against King's trademark on "candy" in the European Union, in an attempt to cancel the registration entirely. ZeptoLab submitted its claim on March 20 in London. "Candy is an integral part of the Cut the Rope franchise, and we do not support King.com trademarking and preventing others from using it," ZeptoLab CEO Misha Lyalin said in a press release. King is the company behind Candy Crush Saga, and it attempted to trademark the term "candy" in the US earlier this year. The US trademark was approved for publication in January, but following backlash from the public and the IGDA, King withdrew its application in February. At the time, King said, "This does not affect our EU trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP." King's US trademark registration on the word "saga" was suspended in December.
