Rango filmmakers launch a promo deal inside Zynga's FrontierVille game

In a step up for social gaming, Zynga, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies are announcing that the animated film Rango will be integrated into Zynga’s social game FrontierVille as part of a special advertising deal.

Zynga, the biggest social game company on Facebook, has created an in-game quest based on the Rango film to promote the film’s release in theaters on March 4. The deal is the first in which Zynga has integrated a major … Continue Reading

Groupon China launches after rumors of a bumpy start

Gaopeng.com, the joint venture from Tencent and Groupon, which offers group buying deals to Chinese consumers, has officially opened. The venture supposedly got off to a clunky start, with reports saying the site went live in mid-February for a day before being hastily taken offline, but now Groupon has officially launched the site.

Groupon is betting on having a strong local organization which it can leverage when trying to penetrate the notoriously difficult—but tantalizingly lucrative—Chinese … Continue Reading

Get your Kindle on at AT&T stores starting March 6

AT&T has joined the ranks of Staples, BestBuy, and Target and will start selling Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Beginning March 6, shoppers keen on getting a hands-on experience with the device can hit an AT&T store nationwide.

AT&T will only offer the $189 Kindle 3G (the same price as Amazon’s website), not the megapopular $139 WiFi-only version. AT&T is not promoting the device with special offers or add-on deals either. Basically, the only upswing for consumers … Continue Reading

Gmail implodes for 150,000 users (updated)

Around 150,000 Gmail users woke up to a nasty surprise over the weekend: their Gmail accounts — including email, chats, attachments and contacts — had disappeared into the cloud, the Huffington Post reports.

It could have been worse for Google. Initial estimates had placed around 500,000 users with Gmail account trouble, but Google later revised that number to 150,000, or less than .08 .02 percent of Gmail users. The company is aware of the issues, … Continue Reading

Kontagent launches real-time social app monitoring system

Once upon a time, analytics companies could update their data once a day for social media companies. But in the age of Twitter and fast-moving communications, social applications developers need to know what’s going with their traffic in real-time.

That’s why social-analytics firm Kontagent is stepping up today with its real-time social app monitoring system. Kontagent president Albert Lai says that for the first time, social app developers can get real-time insights into the behavior … Continue Reading

Bigpoint expands to US with Electronic Arts digital distribution deal

In a big endorsement for browser-based digital game distribution, German online game firm Bigpoint is announcing today that it will distribute online games for gaming powerhouse Electronic Arts.

Under the deal, Bigpoint will make EA’s online-only games such as Battlefield Heroes or Tiger Woods Online accessible on Bigpoint’s distribution channel, which has more than 180 million registered users for its browser-based online games. The deal is a kind of coming of age for Bigpoint, a … Continue Reading

Clickatell scores $12M to rejuvenate texts with bulk messaging

E-mail, tweets, location-sniffing geofencing—the good old text message is still the way to go if you want to reach not just the technologically hip, but virtually every cellphone owner. Clickatell, the Redwood City, Calif.-based SMS gateway company has built its business around business-to-consumer text messages, and offers a way for businesses to send out text messages in bulk, for instance sharing discount offers, ads, or other notifications.

The company also provides solutions for carrying out … Continue Reading

Europe's digital game revenue to grow 89 percent by 2015

Europe isn’t always viewed as a dynamic market. But a new report says that the digital game market is expected to grow 89 percent to $4.2 billion by 2015. That’s a healthy growth rate compared to the rest of the world, and it shows that game publishers could do more to milk the territory for overlooked revenues.

Europe’s revenue from digital distribution of games hit $2.2 billion in 2010. That number could be higher, but … Continue Reading

Our obsession with mobile games is growing (exclusive survey)

Our appetite for mobile games is growing, with more than a third of U.S. and U.K. adults saying that they play mobile games, according to a new survey. This is a huge shift in consumer attitudes and it could have a big impact on the structure of the video game business.

The survey found large increases in overall usage and frequency of mobile game playing among U.S. and U.K. adults. It reflects a big shift … Continue Reading

DEMO Spring 2011 starts off with a bang

The DEMO Spring 2011 conference in Palm Desert, Calif., has officially begun.

The conference kicked off with a welcoming reception and viewing party for the Oscars award ceremony last night in Palm Desert. Representatives from more than 60 companies — many of which are launching their products officially at DEMO — made an appearance at the reception.

And they’re making the most of the location — whether it’s cruising in a boat out on the … Continue Reading

Gaikai launches game streaming beta tests for four Electronic Arts games

Gaikai has launched a beta test of its game streaming service that allows gamers to play high-quality video games in a browser. The first games available are titles such as Dead Space 2 from Electronic Arts and they show that Gaikai has followed through on its promise to market games to people who want instant gratification.

The demo shows that you can play heavy-duty games on a computer where you haven’t installed the games. This … Continue Reading

SeaMicro drops another Atom bomb on the server market

Back in June, server startup SeaMicro dropped its Atom bomb on the server market, launching an extremely energy-efficient server using Intel’s Atom microprocessors. That enabled SeaMicro to get customers who delivered web pages to tens of millions of internet users across four continents. Now SeaMicro is dropping another Atom bomb.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is announcing a second generation of servers today that use a new 64-bit Atom microprocessor from Intel, improving the amount … Continue Reading

The Social Network's Oscars haul: Best adapted screenplay, score, editing

David Fincher’s Facebook movie “The Social Network” headed into the 83rd Oscars ceremony tonight with eight nominations, including the Best Picture and  Best Actor awards. It walked out with only three: Best Adapted Screenplay (for Aaron Sorkin), Best Original Score (for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and Best Editing (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter).

The film faced stiff competition from the likes of “The King’s Speech”, “True Grit”, and “Black Swan.” But given that The … Continue Reading

Microsoft takes over Halo with launch of upcoming Defiant Map Pack (video)

The baton has been passed in the Halo video game franchise. Microsoft‘s 343 Industries game studio has taken the reins from Bungie to develop future Halo games. This week, the company showed off the first result of that transition with the announcement of the Halo Reach Defiant Map Pack.

While the map pack isn’t as big an undertaking as a brand new game, it’s important in generating sequel revenues and is also key to reassuring … Continue Reading

A small game studio scores big with Torchlight (video)

Max Schaefer is the head of Runic Games, a tiny game startup with a big punch. He and his brother Erich have been making fantasy role-playing games for more than 15 years. They started Runic in Seattle a few years ago after stints at Flagships Studios and at Blizzard North, where they worked on the Diablo series. Now they’ve lived to tell the tale about making yet another hit game, Torchlight.

It isn’t easy to … Continue Reading

Social media tracker Syncapse grabs $25M in funding round

Social media provider Syncapse announced today it has finalized a $25 million round of financing from ABS Capital Partners to help brands track their reputations online.

Toronto-based Syncapse, which develops tools to help brands and marketers build their own social communities and track in real-time what consumers are wanting, said it will use the new funds to hire more sales, technical development and marketing staff.

Syncapse’s platform is a single dashboard where marketers and their … Continue Reading

Apple wises up by sharing its Mac OS X Lion code with hackers

Apple has taken the unusual step of sharing a copy of its Mac OS X Lion operating system with external security researchers, some of whom have published vulnerabilities with past Mac software.

That’s pretty progressive thinking for Apple, which has previously kept mum about cooperating with security researchers, also known as hackers, who have from time to time caused the company embarrassment by breaking the security of its systems and then telling the world about … Continue Reading

Nintendo 3DS starts selling in Japan — and gets hacked right away

Nintendo started selling the 3DS handheld game system this weekend in Japan, and fans lined up in chilly weather to get their hands on the new handheld which can be viewed in stereoscopic 3D without special glasses.

The system won’t arrive in North America until March 27 and in Europe on March 25. Nintendo typically targets its initial launches of new game systems for the Japanese market first and then it builds larger supplies to … Continue Reading