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PopCap bringing Bejeweled 2, Peggle, and more to PSN
While Xbox Live Arcade enthusiasts have been enjoying some of these titles for a while now, PopCap has finally hopped on the PSN bandwagon to bring select titles to Sony's network through a partnership with Sony Online Entertainment. Bejeweled 2, Zuma, Heavy Weapon, Peggle, and Feeding Frenzy will all be coming to the PlayStation Network. But hey, even though PSN users are late to the party, at least getting some of those Trophies won't be incredibly impossible, especially in the case of Bejeweled 2.Bejeweled 2 will be available today on the PlayStation Store for $9.99 (plus applicable taxes). The rest will follow "soon thereafter," so keep an eye on Joystiq to find out exactly when.%Gallery-43427%
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.
Peggle XBLA to release in first half of 09, pricing now in question
Gamers, from hardcore to casual alike, have been waiting with bated breath for official release details regarding the Xbox Live Arcade release of Peggle but, according to Wired, the wait will soon be over. PopCap Games has confirmed with Wired that the XBLA and iPhone versions of its popular plinko-esque casual game will see release in the first half of 2009. While the company wouldn't detail a release schedule, gamers have at least some idea when the long-ago announced title will be released. In a strange development, Wired also reports that PopCap declined to comment on pricing details for the XBLA version of Peggle but we thought details had already been confirmed. In a story we reported on in September, PopCap Games vice president Greg Canessa told Uncle Gamer Radio that the upcoming XBLA release of Peggle would release at 800 ($10 USD) in an interview. X3F readers can listen to the the original interview with Greg Canessa here [Thanks, Jay]. Unfortunately, the Uncle Gamer site was experiencing technical difficulties at the time this article was published. X3F has contacted PopCap to help clear-up the pricing confusion.
Peggle coming to iPhone in March
The last vestiges of our dwindling global economic workforce will cease if rumors of Peggle coming to iPhone are true. According to Wired, PopCap Games announced Peggle's next mobile destination via its "official" Twitter feed. The company wouldn't comment further, and actually went so far as to remove the tweet; however, the internet doesn't forget, as evidenced by the image we captured above.Peggle was actually one of our Top 10 games back in 2007. Hopefully, the company removed the tweet not because it was incorrect, but because it intends to keep the secret until iPhone Peggle receives FDA approval. The Peggle must flow.Update: A PopCap representative confirmed to Joystiq that Peggle on iPhone is "launching in early March."
Popcap offers a firm 'maybe' to DSiWare
In a Gamasutra feature interview, Brandon Sheffield asked PopCap cofounder Jason Kapalka about the possibility of his company taking their super-popular casual games to download services they have yet to serve -- which means WiiWare and DSiWare. While Kapalka indicates a strong desire to continue with DS development after Peggle: Dual Shot, he's not completely sold on the DSi's download store yet: "So the DSi -- yeah, maybe, it's hard to say," Kapalka said, reiterating that "\We're definitely doing DS stuff." Still, prospects look a lot better for DSiWare than WiiWare: "It needs to be seen... like the Wii is cool, but WiiWare, I don't know yet; I'm not clear that WiiWare has actually turned out to be as big of a success as they were hoping at this point."See also: Wired's impressions of Peggle: Dual Shot
Puzzling: PopCap's 'family friendly' zombie game
PopCap Games, known for turning players into zombies with games like Bejeweled and Peggle, is set to actually make a game about zombies. It won't be Left 4 Dead or RE5 industrial-grade undead blasting, though – in true PopCap form, this zombie-fest will be family friendly ... and likely quite, um, infectious.Speaking to TheBBPS, PopCap's Garth Chouteau said that the game, due in "a few months," would be "worth the wait." He calls it the "zombie apocalypse, The PopCap way; no blood, no gore, but blood-curdlingly fun and addictive just the same." So ... match four decapitated heads? Or, more seriously, something like The Last Guy? Take your best shot at what you think its gameplay will be like in comments. And remember: the zombie apocalypse will happen, someday.
Plenty of exclusive weirdness in Peggle: Dual Shot
It would seem from this 1UP preview that Peggle: Dual Shot is more than a simple stripped-down port of PopCap's PC hit. While it does contain levels from the original Peggle and the new Peggle Nights, it will also feature a selection of 15 unlockable levels designed by Dual Shot developer Q? Entertainment. 1UP's use of the term "Q-inspired" leads us to think that they may use themes or elements from other Q? Games like Lumines, Every Extend Extra, Gunpey, and (probably not) Ninety-Nine Nights.To access these new levels, you go through a convoluted process that basically consists of playing a game underneath the bottom of the level in which you bounce off of and collect gems!Also new to the DS is (obviously) a touchscreen control system that compensates for the reduced accuracy on the smaller screen with a zoom feature. You're still allowed (or forced) to set up your shots using minute single-pixel adjustments!
Peggle: Dual Shot tumbles into stores this March
PopCap Games has announced that the DS version of Peggle will be released in March of next year, back from the original winter 2008 release date. The DS game, titled Peggle: Dual Shot to ensure that people know it's a DS game and don't try to cram the cartridge into their computers, is being developed by puzzle experts Q? Entertainment and will feature mysterious new features.We don't care what it's called or when it comes out. As embarrassing as it is to be caught up in a trend, Peggle is much more addictive than a cutesy, glorified pachinko game should be, and we are completely on board. Although now that we think about it, maybe Peggle is exactly as addictive as a pachinko game should be, given all those people who are actually addicted to pachinko.The other two new PopCap games, Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins and Mystery P.I.: Portrait of a Thief, are still on track for winter.
Peggle: Dual Shot coming to DS Mar. 3, 2009
We always took PopCap to be a rather friendly company, one which excelled at making those work-time lulls just a little more tolerable. But it's with the impending release of a DS version of Peggle, dubbed Peggle: Dual Shot, that the developer's true and frighteningly insidious nature is revealed. Be sure to circle March 3, 2009 on your calendar -- one of the last calendars ever made -- as that's when the world will slump into an inescapable cesspool of inactivity, one bereft of eye contact and bulging with constant shouts of "FEVER!" Buses will crash, cities will crumble and nobody will care about anything that doesn't involve a unicorn. We'd try and stop this calamity, but we doubt we'll be able to figure out how to stop playing all the other versions of Peggle before then.
Bejeweled 1.02 is out
The most important addon of all has been updated to version 1.02 for compatibility with patch 3.0.2: PopCap's Bejeweled has a new version ready for download on their site that will work just great with the new patch. And there's a new feature, too: PopCap says so many people asked for a little minimap relief that they've added an option to either turn the minimap icon off completely, or move it around the minimap wherever you like.Unfortunately, the endgame got nerfed so much that odds are you won't die in raids until Wrath, so that part of the addon probably won't get used much. But my flight paths have felt empty without the gems to match since Tuesday -- the new version of Bejeweled is the most welcome addition to my addon folder.
Popcap spinning out Bejeweled Twist in October
PopCap games has announced Bejeweled Twist, a "new spin on the match-3 genre" due out next month. The game will be officially unveiled October 27 at an event at Seattle's Experience Music Project Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame. It will launch as a $20 download on PopCap's website. As to what the new "twist" on the genre will be, PopCap isn't saying. The game has reportedly been in development for three years, so we're curious what the team has done with that time aside from swimming in a pool of casual gamer money. Our best guess is that Popcap has taken the Bejeweled board and rotated it 45 degrees. What a twist!
WoW Insider Interview: PopCap's T. Carl Kwoh and Moongaze, maker of the Bejeweled addon
PopCap's Bejeweled addon for World of Warcraft is coming out today (we did an in-depth preview of it earlier this week, in case you missed it), and to celebrate, we sat down with the addon's creators to see how it came about, and why this addon release (officially endorsed by another well-known gaming company) is so important.Michael Fromwiller is a student at San Jose University, but in the WoW community he's better known as Moongaze, creator of the popular Lunarsphere addon. He also created another addon called Besharded a while back, which was an unofficial clone of PopCap's Bejeweled, a game he'd played a lot on his cell phone. PopCap heard about the addon, and when word got around to T. Carl Kwoh, a senior producer at the company, they decided, rather than shutting down the unofficial version, to try and hire Moongaze to make it official.Our interview with both of them, which starts after the break, covers how the game came together, how Moongaze took influences from both PopCap and WoW to fit one game inside another, and why inserting another game into World of Warcraft doesn't exactly mean there are holes in Blizzard's game.
Peggle priced, detailed for XBLA
The second quarter has come and gone, and while our XBLA download queues have be left decidedly Peggle-free, PopCap's Greg Canessa remains adamant that the addictive puzzler is still on its way. In a recent interview, the PopCap exec blamed the game's tardiness on the addition of further polish and improvements, including 4-player local and online multiplayer over Xbox Live. Goodbye, free time! Canessa also let slip Peggle's XBLA pricing of 800 Microsoft Points ($10), and while a firm release date for the title still remains up in the air, puzzle addicts can rest a little easier knowing that their addiction-of-choice is still expected to drop like so many colored pegs sometime before the year is out. [Via X3F]
Peggle XBLA priced at 800MS points, adds 4-player multiplayer
One of the most addictive and deceptively simple titles in the PopCap catalog is Peggle. The concept is simple. Destroy all orange orbs by shooting a ball into an open area. Think Plinko with orbs. Once you make the shot the ball bounces around the environment raking up points and combos for hitting -- and thus destroying -- all of the colored spheres in the environment. Sounds enthralling, doesn't it? Well, it is and soon Xbox 360 users are about to join in the fun. In an interview with Uncle Gamer Radio, vice president of PopCap Games Greg Canessa announced the upcoming XBLA release of Peggle will hit the service for 800MS points ($10 USD). Need some perspective? When it originally launched on PC the title sold for $19.99. Additionally, Canessa finally revealed up to 4-players will be able to compete both locally and over Xbox Live. Peggle has yet to land a firm release date but Canessa did confirm the previously announced level packs will not be ready when the title ships unlike some other DLC. As long as they don't go all Lumines Live! on us, we're willing to listen. [Thanks, Virtonian]
Bejeweled add-on coming to World of Warcraft
There are many ways to deal with the boredom that can sometimes strike during lengthy World of Warcraft sessions -- other than walking away from the computer to partake in a more enjoyable activity (that's just unthinkable). Some people level up new characters. Some people head to the Barrens area to spew their hate-speech towards like-minded scoundrels. However, the virtual denizens of Azeroth will soon be wasting their time using a popular, real-life time wasting engine -- PopCap's uber-successful casual puzzler, Bejeweled. The in-game add-on began as a homebrew Bejeweled clone from Michael Fromwiller, cleverly titled Besharded. Fromwiller developed the add-on as a method of killing time during long raids and farming sessions, but it wasn't too long before PopCap caught wind of the MMO mini-game. Instead of issuing a timely cease and desist, the casual gaming colossus hired Fromwiller to create a more polished version of the application. The add-on will launch this coming Thursday -- it would probably be wise to put in as much quality time with your WoW-playing acquaintances before then, as you won't be seeing them again for quite some time.
WoW Insider's preview of PopCap Games' Bejeweled addon
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_previews_Popcap_s_Bejeweld_addon_for_WoW'; As anyone who's ever stayed up late for a raiding or grinding session will tell you, World of Warcraft is already an addictive game. About the only thing you could do to make it more addictive is have a game company like PopCap Games (they make some of the most popular casual games around, from Bejeweled to Bookworm to Peggle) stick one of their time-wasters in an addon. And so when PopCap came to WoW Insider earlier this week to tell us that they're planning to do just that, our minds understandably exploded.They sent us a beta version, and for the past few days, we've wasted as much time in Azeroth as in real-life. That's not exactly true -- I've been leveling up my fishing and cooking lately, and the addon has been really helpful with all of the downtime and flight time (even if I do miss catching a cast every once in a while because I'm on a big streak). After the break, read more about just how the free Bejeweled addon (to be released later this week from PopCap) will devastate all of your formerly empty downtime in Azeroth, and check out our gallery to see the beta version of Bejeweled being played on the live realms.%Gallery-32336%
SEQUEL FEVER! Peggle Nights available now
Which is terrible news, by the way. We've been trying to write this post since the weekend, but have been unable to escape Peggle Nights' "just one more go" vortex. Its predecessor, Peggle, was the game that massacred productivity on a global scale last year, even managing to controversially trounce Mass Effect in our Game of the Year awards. The $20 sequel, which is now available at PopCap's site (it'll hit other game portals next month), boasts "60 all-new Adventure Mode levels and 60 new Challenge Mode hurdles, along with a new "Peggle Master" power-up, new kinds of style shots, achievements, and other special bonuses." And yes, we just copied and pasted that from the press release so we could go back to playing it.
Bejeweled franchise downloaded 350 million times, sells 25 million units
The crack refinement corporation disguising itself as a game company -- also known as PopCap Games -- has announced that the Bejeweled franchise has sold over 25 million units across all platforms. The definition of "all platforms" would consist of online, mobile, retail, "in-flight" and other channels. PopCap also noted that the Bejeweled series has been downloaded 350 million times from the interwebs and makes up one third of the company's billion-plus downloads. The game has earned over $300 million in revenue through sales and "tens of millions" in online advertising. Jason Kapalka, co-founder of PopCap, says online distributors wanted no part of the game when it released eight years ago -- he vividly remembers buyers telling him, "It's not even a game."
Peggle DS confirmed for real
Remember when PopCap very carefully denied the rumors about a DS version of Peggle? That denial was worded in such a way that it ensured that PopCap wouldn't be too embarrassed when they decided to tell people that they really were planning to release the game that they'd just said they weren't planning. PopCap officially announced Peggle for the DS, coming this winter for $30, at the Casual Connect conference yesterday. It will have all of the original Peggle levels as well as new ones.The coolest part? Though their influence is nowhere to be found in the single released screenshot, the development of Peggle has been outsourced to Q? Entertainment, best known for Lumines, Meteos, and being awesome.Vice president Greg Canessa also announced that two other PopCap games, Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins and Mystery P.I.: Portrait of a Thief, otherwise known as Not Peggle vol. 1 and 2, would be released in the fall.
PopCap bringing Peggle to DS this winter
We allowed ourselves to get our hopes up for a DS version of the terrifyingly addictive Peggle earlier this year, only to have them crash down around us. Now though, it seems we can sweep up the pieces of our hopes, assemble them once again and send them flying on the back of a magical unicorn into a rainbow-filled sky: PopCap has confirmed a DS version of the game will arrive this winter. If you've already played the game, you know it's a little like pachinko on crack or steroids or whatever drug means really fun and addictive. If you haven't played the game, then we'd urge you to think very carefully before starting, at least if you have any hopes of carrying on a normal life. Oh, and PopCap will also be bringing two seek-n-solve games, Amazing Adventures and Mystery PI to the system, not that you'll have time for them, what with all the Peggle.
