Making Fun debuts as the video-game arm of Rupert Murdoch's empire

Media baron Rupert Murdoch is going into video games — but not in his usually splashy way. Although he could easily drop a billion dollars on the burgeoning games business, he’s instead placing an uncharacteristically cautious small bet.

News Corp., Murdoch’s media conglomerate, quietly got in the game business by purchasing Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game startup that is run by video game veterans John Welch, cofounder of PlayFirst, and Lee Crawford, cofounder of … Continue Reading

Mobile game maker TinyCo scores $18M from Andreessen Horowitz

When uber-investor Marc Andreessen moves into a market, you have to figure it’s hot. Today, his firm Andreessen Horowitz is investing $18 million in TinyCo, an iPhone-game publisher.

Andreessen, you may recall, cofounded Netscape, the creator of the first commercially successful Web browser. So take his word for it: Mobile gaming is hot, thanks to the popularity of smartphones such as the iPhone and tablet computers such as the iPad. While social games on Facebook … Continue Reading

OpenFeint and Adknowledge open up a new way to make money from mobile games

The days when game developers could only get 99 cents for a mobile game are fast disappearing. Now they’re figuring out new ways to make money. OpenFeint and Adknowledge are launching a new platform today called OFX 2.0 which rewards players for taking certain actions like installing a game.

It isn’t a new idea, but it certainly shows that game app makers won’t be hurting for ways to monetize mobile games. It is one more … Continue Reading

George Zachary: No bubble yet, but one's building

For the past seven years, George Zachary has led Charles River Ventures’ investments in a number of big firms, including Areae, Geni.com, GoTV, Millennial Media, Skyrider, SocialMedia Networks and (most notably) Twitter. He’s a man who can spot trends.

In his keynote address at the Founder Showcase event in Silicon Valley at the beginning of the month, Zachery covered a variety of topics – including his thoughts on the signs of another growing bubble. We’re … Continue Reading

Will Trion's Rift be cataclysmic for World of WarCraft?

Rift is one of the biggest bets in video game history. Trion Worlds has been building the fantasy role-playing online game world for almost five years and has raised more than $100 million to build the game and the dynamic online platform that hosts it. The game will finally debut on March 1 in North America and March 4 in Europe. The beta has been out for a while and Trion Worlds announced Thursday that … Continue Reading

A first look at Gears of War 3's super-bloody multiplayer (video)

The super-carnage video game Gears of War 3 is set to launch its public multiplayer beta in mid-April and debut on the Xbox 360 on Sept. 20. Alongside Halo, the Gears of War franchise is Microsoft’s best-selling video game on the Xbox 360 game console. Fans are chomping at the bit to get a close look at the game’s newest release, which will be the culmination of eight years of work for Epic Games on … Continue Reading

Room 77 and StackOverflow win Launch's big prize

The Launch conference, entrepreneur Jason Calacanis’ event for launching startups and products, just wrapped up in San Francisco, and the award winners have been announced.

There were a bunch of different categories, but three companies walked away with wins. Room 77, the new search and recommendation tool for hotel rooms, won the prize for best company launching for the first time. StackOverflow, the programming Q&A site that just launched a programming jobs service, won the … Continue Reading

Gamification company GreenGoose to close $500,000 funding round tomorrow

Gamification company GreenGoose will close a $500,000 funding round tomorrow after its popular presentation at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today. Its product demo attracted a series of angel investors, investor Bill Warner said on stage during the conference’s awards ceremony.

The company won the best overall startup award for Launch Pad companies at the conference — those are the startups that were offering demos in the pit outside of the presentation room at … Continue Reading

Get ready for the most social DEMO ever

DEMO Spring 2011, the industry’s ultimate showcase for new products, is just days away — and as the event’s executive producer, I can’t wait to show you the startups and speakers I have in store.

I’ve been trotting the globe looking for companies ready to take the legendary DEMO stage in Palm Desert, Calif. And one theme I’ve found that’s universal in nature is that everything’s going social.

I’m not talking about the unstoppable rise … Continue Reading

eEvent helps event organizers spread the word

eEvent, a startup that demonstrated at the Launch conference today in San Francisco, is looking to take on services like Eventbrite by offering organizers a new way to promote their events.

The company offers a full platform for managing your event, with features like an event website builder and ticketing, but the most interesting feature is the Ambassador program. It turns every attendee into a potential event promoter by offering prizes to people who encourage … Continue Reading

Find out where to meet friends with Echoecho

Everyone has been in that situation — stuck in a back-and-forth texting war with a friend deciding where to meet for coffee or lunch. It can be a bit of a hassle.

Echoecho is trying to make that process a little easier by showing where nearby friends are on a map and suggesting nearby locations to meet. The company unveiled its iPhone application at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today.

When one Echoecho user … Continue Reading

BrandYourself offers a DIY approach to looking good online

If you aren’t happy with what people see when they look you up on Google, a company called BrandYourself wants to help.

Of course, the pitch sounds awfully similar to Reputation.com (formerly ReputationDefender), but Reputation.com customers actually hire the company to create “good” content to show up in Google. BrandYourself offers a dashboard where you can manage that process yourself.

The company offers a free tool that you use to categorize the top Google results … Continue Reading

NeuAer uses radio signals to make your smartphone smarter

Startup NeuAer demonstrated some cool, almost science fictional technology for your smartphone today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.

The company has an Android application called ToothTag, which allows users to tag objects to create certain interactions. It operates via the radio signals given off by various gadgets, including BlueTooth devices. So you could use ToothTag to set up a trigger that would send an alert to your smartphone whenever your child (or, more … Continue Reading

Junar: the dashboard for cheap Web content production?

Apple tried to create a data-specific search engine called OpenDoc way back in the day — but that didn’t turn out too well.

Junar wants to try it again, this time attempting to solve the problem with a Web-based dashboard that lets users search the Web for data streams and plant the streams directly on a landing page. The company announced that it is launching today at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.

Users basically … Continue Reading

Graphight reminds salespeople to stay in touch

A company called Graphight just announced a new service that it describes as “eHarmony meets Mint.com for professional networking,” which it says will make salespeople more effective.

So does that mean? Well, Graphight is like Mint.com in that aggregates information from a number of online accounts — in this case it’s your social networks and email inboxes, where you might be doing professional networking. Then like eHarmony, Graphight recommends connections you might want to reach … Continue Reading

AudioMicro unleashes smarter way to download cartoons, tattoos, and more

Content, content, everywhere! Nor any bits to download. With apologies to Coleridge, AudioMicro thinks it’s found a better way to deliver content.

So AudioMicro is launching another four sites using the content delivery system it uses for its stock music and sound effect distribution site today, the company announced at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.

The four sites include Cartoonsy, a place that sells stock editorial cartoons for news publications;ChooseTattoos, a place to buy … Continue Reading

Skyrim gameplay trailer proves Bethesda's still got the epic touch (video)

The first trailer featuring actual gameplay for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim finally landed this morning, and it’s sure to make the wait for the game’s fall release as unbearable for gamers as it is for investors.

Skyrim is the fifth entry in Bethesda Softwork’s flagship Elder Scrolls series, and it looks to continue the series’ penchant for majestic open environments and swordplay. And yes, there be dragons.

Excitement for the game is palpable from … Continue Reading

Minus a partner, Accel puts energy in China cleantech

Updated

Accel Partners is planning to raise $2 billion in new funds and invest more broadly into energy opportunities in China, VentureBeat has learned, even as Peter Wagner, the man who led its cleantech efforts, is leaving the company.

The venture capital firm behind investments like Facebook and Groupon is looking to raise $1 billion for two China funds, one for early-stage investments, the other for later-stage opportunities. With those funds, Accel is eying opportunities … Continue Reading

140Fire brings interactive ads to live video

140Fire, which slaps interactive advertisements like polls on streaming video, announced that it is launching today at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.

The advertisements pop up like most other advertisements do on videos — as a small bar at the bottom of the video. But instead of linking viewers to a different site, the advertisement features a poll or a number of questions that viewers can answer as they continue watching the video.

For … Continue Reading

ShopSquad lets you shop online with experts

ShopSquad announced a new service today that helps online shoppers make smarter purchases with the help of experts.

The San Francisco company seems to have an initial focus on baby products. Chief executive Charles Katz demonstrated the product on-stage today at the Launch conference in San Francisco, where he pretended to need to buy a baby stroller for his sister’s new baby. He connected with a stroller expert in a video chat who interviewed him … Continue Reading