Gameloft Live enters the social mobile fray on Android, coming to iOS soon
Global games publisher Gameloft announced today its new gaming hub service, Gameloft Live. In a move that should surprise no one, the company has taken the concept and the name of a console gaming service (Xbox Live) and repurposed it for the mobile space with a dedicated Android app, available now, and a soon-to-be-released iOS app.
According to the press release, Gameloft Live is a new version of the multiplayer service already in many Gameloft-published … Continue Reading
DeanBeat: Game companies went on a $2.8B buying spree in 2011
The social and mobile games gold rush inspired lots of investments in 2011, as venture capitalists tried to find the next Zynga. But the year was also a big one for acquisitions, particularly as big companies such as Electronic Arts tried to outmaneuver the social game giant via acquisitions.
In 2011, 77 game companies were acquired for at least $2.827 billion, according to research by VentureBeat and other sources. We didn’t count the numbers for … Continue Reading
Exclusive: PlayPhone launches its smartphone social gaming network
PlayPhone is formally launching its smartphone mobile social gaming network today after signing up more than 3 million users worldwide. I guess you could say it’s a little behind in making that announcement, as it has so many users already.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company hopes to challenge rivals such as Gree/OpenFeint and DeNA/Ngmoco in the battle to create a huge social network of gamers on smartphones and tablets. PlayPhone’s entry into the competition is … Continue Reading
Gree files suit against DeNA citing antitrust law violation
Japanese social games company Gree and telecommunications firm KDDI have filed a joint lawsuit against DeNA, claiming that the social game developer and operator of the Mobage mobile social network is in violation of Japanese antitrust law.
The lawsuit alleges that DeNA failed to list links for games featured on its Japanese social network Mobage Town if the developers behind the games also appeared on Gree’s network. According to Gree, the company filed a cease … Continue Reading
Japanese firms battle for mobile social game supremacy
The Japanese are coming. In the wide open field of mobile social gaming, two large-scale Japanese companies, both of which have made major acquisitions of American firms, will soon be going head-to-head for worldwide dominance. Gree is expected to launch its global network sometime in 2012, while DENA’s Mobage network recently came out of beta on Android and will spread to iOS soon after.
In Japan, the companies are already carving up a mobile social … Continue Reading
Mobile social games firm Ngmoco hires chief marketing officer
Mobile social games firm Ngmoco has hired a former Mattel executive, Michael Staskin, as its chief marketing officer. His job will be to ensure that the company’s broader ambitions of creating a worldwide mobile social entertainment network take off.
Staskin (pictured right) has more than 15 years of marketing and communications experience. He joins an Ngmoco executive team that includes founder/CEO Neil Young and the recently hired chief operating officer Joanna Drake Earl. Japan’s DeNA, … Continue Reading
DeNA buys Chilean mobile game firm Atakama Labs
Continuing its acquisition spree, Japan’s DeNA agreed to buy Chilean mobile social game firm Atakama Labs. The companies didn’t disclose the acquisition price, but we heard a couple of months ago that the deal was valued at around $6 million during negotiations.
The deal shows that the mobile game sector continues to be a hot one as social and smartphone games take over from traditional feature phone gaming.
We wrote about Atakama Labs and its … Continue Reading
OpenFeint replaces founder with new CEO
OpenFeint‘s co-founder Jason Citron has left the company and is pursuing new opportunities. He will be replaced by Naoki Aoyagi (pictured right).
OpenFeint is one of the early successes in mobile games, proving a platform for making mobile games more social through leaderboards and challenges. Aoyagi will serve as the new CEO. He was previously head of Gree International, a division of Japan’s Gree. Gree purchased OpenFeint earlier this year for $104 million. That made … Continue Reading
China’s PapayaMobile reveals strong growth stats for mobile games
PapayaMobile, China-based maker of a mobile social networking platform for Android phones, now has more than 25 million users, up 940 percent since January 2010, the company said today.
More than 11 million paid transactions have been made using Papaya’s virtual currency, the Beijing-based company reported. Those numbers suggest mobile app and game developers are starting to get traction on the Android platform.
Papaya makes a mobile social network for game developers to use to … Continue Reading
Ngmoco names TV veteran as chief operating officer
Mobile gaming firm Ngmoco has named a TV executive as its new chief operating officer. The move positions Ngmoco to offer broader entertainment on its mobile social gaming network.
The San Francisco company named Joanna Drake Earl, former chief strategy officer and chief operating officer at Al Gore’s media startup Current TV, as head of day-to-day operations at Ngmoco. Her job will include driving the launch of Mobage, which is Ngmoco’s global mobile entertainment network.… Continue Reading
DeNA and Ngmoco launch Mobage mobile social network across globe
DeNA and its American subsidiary Ngmoco announced today they have launched the Mobage mobile social network in English-speaking territories around the globe.
The Mobage service sits on top of Google’s Android operating system and essentially creates a portal and social network for games. The service is a platform for developers to deploy their games so that they can be discovered and shared by mobile game users. Already launched in Japan, Mobage is generating $1.3 billion … Continue Reading
Venture capitalist Tim Chang describes the white-hot landscape of game investments
The emerging landscape of games is attracting a lot of money, thanks in part to excitement about Zynga’s upcoming initial public offering and some recent acquisitions such as Electronic Arts’ $750 million purchase of PopCap Games. Tim Chang, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, has kept his finger on the pulse of the game market for years and spoke about the opportunities in games at the recent Casual Connect game conference in Seattle.
Chang has … Continue Reading
NaturalMotion shows off a cool horse game for the iPad (video)
Game developer NaturalMotion showed off a cool, super-realistic horse simulation game on the iPad this week that wowed attendees at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle.
The demo proves it’s is one of the most technologically adept developers in the video game business.
While it took really spectacular technology to create the realistic horse simulation, the game itself was really simple. And that showed that NaturalMotion has learned from some of the mistakes of … 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
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
Kleiner’s Bing Gordon: gamers should make $3 an hour while playing
Online gamers should on average generate $3 of value per hour, regardless of the game they are playing — and game designers should aim for that target, according to Bing Gordon, partner with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
That’s the sweet spot for creating a level of satisfaction for gamers when they play an online game, Gordon said. For example, the amount of gold a player earns in online game World of … Continue Reading
And our latest and greatest speakers at GamesBeat 2011
Today we’re revealing the fifth set of speakers for our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference. Our slate of speakers will include Neil Young, founder and CEO of Ngmoco; Andrej Naborgoj, CEO of Outfit 7, the maker of Talking Friends; and Jason Citron, chief executive of OpenFeint, which was recently acquired by Gree.
This GamesBeat 2011 conference takes place July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
Neil Young is the founder and CEO of … Continue Reading
