Heyzap unveils 12 partners for its social discovery network for mobile games
Heyzap, operator of a social mobile gaming network, has unveiled a list of 12 mobile gaming leaders that are partnering with it to promote mobile games.
The partners include Spacetime Studios, Nubee, PocketGems, Bionic Panda Games, Magma Mobile, GameDuell, Digital Chocolate, Animoca, Fluik, Get Set Games, the BBC, and Vostu. All of the companies have integrated Heyzap’s free software development kit (SDK) into their games so that users can share their own gaming activity and … Continue Reading
How Zynga grew from gaming outcast to $9 billion social game powerhouse
Update: This article is now available as a 63-page e-book on Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.
Zynga has turned the video game world upside down in its short five-year history. As it’s poised on the verge of a massive initial public offering, the social game startup is now one of gaming’s great success stories.
But its success was never a foregone conclusion. In fact, most game industry veterans didn’t view it as a real game company. Mark … Continue Reading
Raptr unveils new data about Zynga’s social gamers
All eyes are on Zynga now as the social gaming company prepares to go public in an initial public offering. The social game maker has revealed some data about itself in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But Raptr, the social network for gamers, has been mining its own data on 10 million users for information about Zynga, and it is releasing it in a report today.
The data reveals that Zynga’s user base … Continue Reading
Reader poll: Which pundit best summed up the stock market slide?
The pundits were out in force today as they described the big drop in the stock market. Which quote was your favorite?
“Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America,” Barack Obama said. “No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.”
“Any company with an IPO planned for this week will probably pull it,” said Dow Jones Investment Banking deputy managing … Continue Reading
Facebook’s biggest untapped opportunities for game developers
Zynga may look like the all-powerful, dominant game publisher on Facebook. But Facebook wants you to know it’s not too late to get in on the action: There’s room for more game companies on the social network.
Sean Ryan, the director of game partnerships at Facebook, said that there are roughly 200 million monthly active users playing games on Facebook, out of its total of 750 million monthly active users. About 50 percent of the … Continue Reading
Reflections on GamesBeat 2011 and the road ahead in mobile games
Our well-attended GamesBeat 2011 conference took place this week, and here’s what you missed.
As I noted in a preview story on mobile games, the conference was all about the wide-open battle for control of the emerging mobile gaming market. The highlights below follow the chronological appearance of the speakers. It’s a long story, but it will tell you what the conference was like in case you missed it.
Fireside chat with Brian Farrell
Brian … Continue Reading
EA founder: we are in a dark age of video games (but Zynga is an exception)
Software licensing has hurt innovation in the video game industry — with social game maker Zynga being the exception to that rule — thanks to large game companies like Nintendo, said Electronic Arts founder and social gaming company Digital Chocolate founder Trip Hawkins.
“I think we actually had our golden age when game development was using floppy disks and it was an open free platform when we could all make games like we wanted to … Continue Reading
17 reasons to attend GamesBeat 2011
We’ve been writing a lot of posts about our speakers at GamesBeat 2011. But here’s a summary of why we think this will be the must-attend game conference for you.
We’re gathering the industry’s top CEOs, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investors, journalists, marketers, developers and other key executives for a two-day gathering at the elegant Palace Hotel in San Francisco, from July 12 to July 13. The event is co-located with our MobileBeat conference this year … Continue Reading
