Roundup: Street View blinded, curtain to rise on new PS3 and more

Roundup: Street View blinded, curtain to rise on new PS3 and more

Here’s the latest action:

It’s a pirate’s life for Asia — A new study indicates that software piracy is growing rapidly in Asia where the number of computer owners continues to skyrocket.

Street View’s prying eyes — Google must reshoot footage for its maps Street View tool in Japan… Continue Reading

Real Games executive tells how the recession will affect casual games

Real Games executive tells how the recession will affect casual games

John Barbour has been the president of Real Games — Real Networks’ gaming division that was set to spin off before the IPO market froze over — for just 14 weeks.

And he says that he’s never seen so much worry and anxiety in an industry… Continue Reading

Updated: Real Networks launches its first cross-platform game for iPhone and other platforms

Updated: Real Networks launches its first cross-platform game for iPhone and other platforms

[Update: The PR firm supplied incorrect release dates. The mobile phone versions of Tiki Towers debuted Dec. 3. The iPhone app is out Dec. 15]

Real Networks is moving into cross-platform mobile games as it diversifies from its focus on PC-based titles.

The first cross-platform game is… Continue Reading

Roundup: YouTube HD links, Del Biaggio charges, Korean game support, and more

Roundup: YouTube HD links, Del Biaggio charges, Korean game support, and more

YouTube gets links to high-definition videos It already offered HD videos, you just had to use a simple hack to access them. In other YouTube news, the company is offering a new service for adding sound to videos you upload.

Valley investor Del Biaggio nailed with fraud… Continue Reading

Real Networks moves into game consoles with Nintendo WiiWare game

Real Networks moves into game consoles with Nintendo WiiWare game

Real Networks, long-time maker of casual PC games, is moving into the game console arena for the first time with a new downloadable title for Nintendo’s Wii.

Real Networks announced today “Boingz,” a game with cute characters that you can move around the screen as if… Continue Reading

Big Fish Games raises $83 million venture round for downloadable games

Big Fish Games raises $83 million venture round for downloadable games

The party is on for video game entrepreneurs. Big Fish Games just raised the bar for the industry by reeling in a huge venture round by video game standards.

The Seattle-based casual downloadable games company raised $83 million in a first round of financing from Balderton… Continue Reading

DEMOfall 08: Real Networks launches RealDVD for ripping DVDs to PCs

DEMOfall 08: Real Networks launches RealDVD for ripping DVDs to PCs

Real Networks has a nifty new service dubbed RealDVD. You can basically load all of your DVDs into your computer’s hard drive — legally — so that you can watch them on the computer.

RealDVD takes an exact copy of a DVD and puts it on… Continue Reading

Hasbro sues Scrabulous makers, after EA Scrabble enters beta

Hasbro sues Scrabulous makers, after EA Scrabble enters beta

Hasbro dropped the long-expected hammer on Scrabulous today. The company sued the creators of the popular Facebook Scrabble knock-off, alleging copyright infringement.

The toy maker, which owns the Scrabble board game brand in the U.S. and Canada, also asked Facebook to take down the popular application… Continue Reading

Can Scrabble fight Scrabulous on Facebook?

Can Scrabble fight Scrabulous on Facebook?

Electronic Arts has taken many months to get its official Hasbro-licensed version of Scrabble onto the Web at Pogo.com and Facebook, but it’s launching the Pogo.com version today and will have the Facebook version out later this month. In the meantime, an unlicensed version of… Continue Reading