The acquisition brings together two of the most significant developers in App Store history, both of which have built their considerable reputations exclusively through their efforts with the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s a step that represents a big milestone in the life of the App Store’s maturing ecosystem.

On the surface, it doesn’t appear at this point as though the merger will affect what most App Store users see. According to ngmoco’s CEO Neil Young:

Freeverse, much like us, is comprised of true game-makers. Now with our combined forces, their titles can reach more people and the talented folks at Freeverse can keep doing what they do best, which is making great games.

Freeverse won’t undergo any changes in terms of its name, branding or management now that its owned by ngmoco. All Freeverse games will likely now include Plus+ network features, which allow gamers to have a more social experience akin to an Xbox live for iPhone users. Freeverse was already a partner involved in that ngmoco-started endeavor, beginning with Flick Fishing.

Even if the effects of this acquisition aren’t immediately apparent or even visible to the average consumer, that doesn’t mean this doesn’t represent a significant change in how the App Store operates. Freeverse is just the beginning for ngmoco, and a way to diversify its brand. The maker of Eliminate Pro and Touch Pets Dogs has itself acknowledged a shift towards producing primarily free-to-play games in the press release announcing the acquisition, which depend on additional purchases of in-app content to generate revenue:

Last year ngmoco added top executives from the games, platform technology and web sectors and launched its leading player network, Plus+. The company shifted its production structures to build free-to-play games.

Now it can offer more traditional single-purchase games via Freeverse to get the best of both worlds while establishing strong, coherent brand identity. It will also quite easily be able to adopt and implement one model over the other if either one becomes much more obviously profitable or preferable to consumers.

Mergers and acquisitions will help smaller studios like ngmoco that made their name on the App Store go toe-to-toe with big production studios like EA Mobile and Gameloft, which were established players long before Apple’s mobile gaming device lineup ever existed. It’s good news for App Store shoppers, since ngmoco has been nothing but innovative to date and should now be better able to continue bringing quality titles to market.

But it’s also a sign that the tumultuous, super-heated forge that was the App Store in its inception is cooling, and that the landscape is taking on a much more static guise. A status quo is asserting itself, and with that, a definite aristocracy of content providers that will become harder and harder to knock off their perches. Games will become more less varied and surprising, but quality will improve.

I hesitate to comment on whether or not this is ultimately a good thing for iPhone users, but I think it is. As with any new market, the frontier days are fun, but maturity and establishment brings with it more focused efforts at improving quality and lowering cost for consumers. It’s time the App Store started getting much better at what it does well, even if some innovation is lost in the bargain.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Is There Any Demand For a True Gaming Phone?

That’s a huge step for the micropayments business model made possible by the introduction of in-app purchasing in iPhone OS 3.0. It marks the first real evidence that developers can make good money offering a “freemium” model on the iPhone platform, with users getting the initial product for free, but paying for in-game rewards and additional content.

ngmoco appears to have found the sweet spot in add-on content where users don’t feel like they’re being extorted by a game’s in-app purchasing system. Eliminate Pro uses a system in which players earn rewards for in-game achievements that can be used to purchase armor and weapon upgrades. The catch is that you only get a certain amount of time during which game play earns you points. You can keep playing for free, but in order to get more rewards, you have to pay for more usable time.

Users can buy blocks of active time using the in-app purchasing system, in $1, $10 and $30 dollar increments. Players seem to have taken a shine to the system, since in-app purchases alone account for all of Eliminate Pro’s gross revenue. ngmoco also has a strong community and social media promotions effort in place behind the new title.

The company’s other title that depends heavily on in-app commerce, Touch Pets Dogs, hasn’t yet mirrored the success of Eliminate Pro. It hasn’t been available in the U.S. store for quite as long as Eliminate Pro, but I suspect the fact that its target audience skews much younger has more to do with its weaker performance. Eliminate players are far more likely to be in a position to have access to a pay-capable iTunes account.

No doubt ngmoco and other developers will try to repeat the success of Eliminate with other apps based on the same model. Personally, I’d be happy to see more games along the same lines, so long as developers remember that “freemium” does not mean “artificially handicapped.” Eliminate Pro works so well because it’s fun even if you don’t make use of the in-app purchases. As a result, users feel that ngmoco is operating in good faith and are willing to spend money on enhancing their experience.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities

Even though the apps are indeed free to download and install on your device, it should be noted that both of these apps represent the latest attempts to capitalize on Apple’s in-app purchasing system, in perhaps some of the most diabolical ways yet. ngmoco has recently used in-app purchasing to sell level packs for Rolando 2, which can now be downloaded for free with Chapter 1 included.

Eliminate (Free, iTunes Link)

Space marines, jumping, shooting, glowy surrounding, what more could you ask for? Eliminate is the first fully functional, original IP (not that we’re saying it isn’t derivative, mind you) first-person shooters to hit the iPhone platform, and it’s been highly anticipated as a result. It features global matchmaking for multiplayer combat over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks. Sorry, no EDGE, but it probably couldn’t handle the action anyway.

There’s also Plus+ network integration so you can track your stats and invite your friends and contacts to go toe-to-toe in deathmatches, and compare stats on the leader board. And the game includes a leveling and credit for weapon and armor upgrades and customization. Sounds pretty good, right? Now the bad news.

Eliminate is free to play, but it definitely gives you an advantage to pay. As the cleverly designed opening sequence relates, you are equipped with a set amount of energy in Eliminate, and when said energy runs out, you no longer earn credits for kills. Energy refills over time, or you can simply buy more using the in-app purchasing system. Credits allow you to upgrade weapons and armor.

You start with 30 power cells of energy. Based on my trials, that will probably last you about 10 to 15 minutes of play, if that, though I’m not sure of the actual conversion rate. Once you expend any points, a countdown clock starts until you charge again. The clock lasts around 240 minutes, so you are recharged every four hours, basically. You can buy additional power cells in blocks of 20, 280, and 975 for 99 cents, $9.99 and $29.99 respectively if you’re not the patient type.

The game is fun, and works surprisingly well given the touch controls you’re stuck with on an iPhone or iPod touch, and you can practice against bots or play without earning credits for free any time you want. All of which means that ngmoco is being pretty fair with its use of in-app purchasing this time around. Basically, you pay to progress, but the game is still enjoyable by all without that aspect. It’s a nice blend, and one that I predict will be hugely successful once Eliminate hits wide release.

Touch Pets Dogs (Free, iTunes Link)

I admit to once having owned a tamagotchi. Or if not owned, at least permanently on loan from my sister. The problem, of course, was that they always proved more of a nuisance than anything else. All of the demands of a real pet, and none of the benefits, like companionship or snuggle-ability.

Touch Pets Dogs follows in the footsteps of Nintendogs and other pet simulators before it. You pick out a puppy, name it, and then begin taking care of, playing with, and training it. It has a Sims-like interface for checking on your dog’s skills and happiness level, and even their Job status, which is a unique feature introduced by the ngmoco sim. You can train your dog to follow a career path, which makes it even more like The Sims.

There’s actually a lot to do in Touch Pet Dogs, and you gain levels as a dog owner in different areas, just like your dog can gain skills and job levels. It’s much richer than any other pet sim I’ve played, and it managed to keep my interest for more than one play-through, which is a record I think.

The in-app purchasing component to Touch Pets is fairly devious, though. You have to pay for food, which seems extremely cruel, since it’s such a basic necessity for your dog’s well-being. Luckily, your food automatically refills to a maximum of two bowls, and does so relatively quickly, so you can still play without having to cough up micropayments, but it will be harder to keep your dog hale and hearty. You can also buy more Puppy Bucks by converting food that you buy via iTunes.

The Future of iPhone Gaming?

Both of these new games from ngmoco show different types of attempts at capitalizing on the iPhone’s in-app purchasing system. It’s a thorny issue to navigate, since on the one hand, you could stand to make a lot more money than by selling apps in a more traditional manner, but on the other, you could inspire the rancor of your customers if you appear to be using the system unfairly. In my opinion, ngmoco’s done a good job of treading that thin line thus far, and it looks like they’re committed to making changes to make sure they strike the right balance.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities

ngmoco recently introduced a social gaming platform that was billed as the iPhone’s Xbox Live equivalent. Plus+ is meant to track players’ in-game achievements, rankings, and allow them to challenge one another to compete in asynchronous multiplayer battles. It’s a well-designed system, and it works well, but since only ngmoco titles are supported, it feels a little limited.

All of that changes today, as another independent game maker has announced a partnership with ngmoco to include Plus+ features in its titles, as well. Freeverse, maker of Flick Fishing, Moto Chaser, and Grunts, among many others, is the company in question, and Plus+ support has been officially unveiled as coming to Flick Fishing, and to the upcoming space conquest and trading game Warp Gate. While no other games are officially on the Plus+ list as of yet, it’s likely more will quickly follow pending the success of the initial launch.

Thanks to Plus+ integration, Freeverse gamers will now be able to take advantage of all of the same features ngmoco fans have enjoyed, including building cross-game friends lists, unlocking in-game awards, seeing what their friends are playing, and challenging friends to try to beat their own top scores.

At the time of the original launch of Plus+, I expressed hope that other iPhone gaming companies would follow suit with social services of their own. ngmoco apparently had the much better idea to try to license its service with other development companies, which makes for a much more cohesive experience for gamers. It’s done a good job of not tying the Plus+ brand inextricably to the ngmoco label, so that it should port well to other third-party developers without too much concern about promoting a rival included as part of the deal.

It’s currently unclear whether or not you’ll be able to see if your friends have both Freeverse and ngmoco games from the Plus+ dashboard in either game, but it would only make sense to do so, since exposure should, in theory, be beneficial for all parties. While Plus+ doesn’t have an open SDK, like OpenFeint and ScoreLoop, it looks like ngmoco is definitely open to advances, and in my opinion, it’s easily the best designed of the three services.

It’ll probably depend heavily on how this partnership with Freeverse fares, but hopefully other companies will be quick to jump on the bandwagon and throw their support behind Plus+. Good candidates for future consideration are Digital Chocolate, makers of Tower Bloxx, Chocolate Shop, and countless other titles, and the big fish, Gameloft, which could potentially win the service enough cred to draw attention from someone like EA, which would make it the defacto iPhone social gaming network, beating out all other contenders.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

ngmoco’s Plus+

The company who dazzled your iPhone with hits like Rolando, Rolando 2, Topple (my favorite) and others, recently introduced their service called Plus+. This service allows users to challenge your friends on the network (or via Twitter) and track awards and top scores on leaderboards.

For more information, check out Darrell’s review of the service. From what I have been able to find, the Plus+ service is not open to outside developers at this time.

OpenFeint

If you are a fan of Aurora Feint, you’ve likely heard of their social gaming service called OpenFeint. This service allows users to interact similarly to Plus+, but is based around a concept they call “social discovery.” Some unique features to OpenFeint-enabled games include chat rooms for more open social discussion, the ability to see what other OpenFeint-enabled games your friends might be playing (and buy them from within the app), and the largest user base of games supporting its service, with over 100 games based on OpenFeint.

For developers, if you’re interested in integrating OpenFeint into your next masterpiece, its SDK is free to try and is available here. The size of your user base, or if an app is paid vs. free, determines the cost per user for developers to integrate OpenFeint’s service into their applications.

Scoreloop

Another service to enter this market is Scoreloop, a company and service formed by previous Apple and NeXT employees. Scoreloop is based around the simple objectives of global high scores and player challenges. Much like the other services, it also features integration with social networks such as Facebook, and allows for custom avatars and personalized profiles for tracking records and high scores. Scoreloop’s “economy” is based around coins, which helps to provide a unified scoring system between games, allowing users to maintain their collection of coins and gain or lose more via challenging other players.

While perhaps not as fully featured as other services, like OpenFeint, Scoreloop is, however, the first to announce that it is working to release its service on other devices, such as the Android platform. With a larger target market and a cheaper cost of entry for developers, Scoreloop could easily become more popular than OpenFeint (not to mention it’s user interface is more customizable to fit your application). For developers interested in Scoreloop, check out their free SDK here. Bug Landing, by the Scoreloop developers, is also a free application that features integration with this service.

Will one rise above the rest?

As Twitter became popular, we saw a plethora of competitors enter the market, from Plurk to Jaiku to Pownce. At the moment, a similar effect is starting to happen among these social networking services. Where on the console platform, each manufacturer has produced their own service, Apple has yet to bring any sort of unified service to its users. Since we all have an Apple ID for iTunes, Apple could easily integrate a beautiful solution so you can keep one central list of your gaming friends, awards and achievements.

Will Apple continue to stand by and allow multiple social gaming network services to evolve on the iPhone platform, or will they step in to offer their own service?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2

Among console gaming fans, there is little doubt that Xbox Live is the current pinnacle of social online gaming. Sharing stats, matchmaking, ranked play, and messaging are all combined in a symphony of interactivity unmatched by the PS3, and certainly not by the Wii. Ngmoco wants to bring some of that social connectivity to iPhone gaming, and has thus launched Plus+.

Plus+ is initially launching only on Star Defense, an update to which is now live in the App Store with the added features. You can sign up for an account from within Star Defense, and registration is relatively painless. Plus+ is also one way to test out push notifications, if you’re looking for more apps that can handle the new iPhone OS 3.0 feature.

Services offered via Plus+ are game awards (like achievements or trophies on Xbox or PS3), leaderboards, a friends list and direct challenges. You can have two types of contacts in Plus+, followers and friends. The names might be familiar if you’re a Twitter user, and for good reason: They represent exactly the same types of relationships. Followers are people who’ve added you, but who you’ve not added, and Friends are people you’ve added yourself.

Push notifications come in when you complete a challenge map. Once you’ve lost your base, you have to option to Direct Challenge any of your Plus+ friends, which will send them a push notification making them aware of the fact. You can also issue an open challenge via Twitter.

I’m excited for what Plus+ will do for asynchronous multiplayer gaming on the iPhone platform. Hopefully Gameloft, EA and other major iPhone publishers will follow suit with gaming networks of their own. I have no friends yet, so I can’t tell if push notifications are working well. Add me and let’s tango, if you’re a Star Defense owner. My Plus+ name is in the screenshot.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

Apple announced the winners of the 2009 Apple Design Awards last night at a special ceremony hosted by John Geleynse, director of Software Technology Evangelism, and Shann Pruden, senior director for Developer Relations. These awards are an annual affair to recognize “technical excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in iPhone and Mac software development.”

The depth and breadth of submissions has been accelerating, as interest in the Mac and iPhone has picked up over the last few years. As a point of comparison, the iPhone awards last year were handed out to early pre-release apps because the App Store had not even launched yet. There were about 1,700 web apps in Apple’s online directory, and this year there are over 4,000 web apps and more than 50,000 native apps available in the iTunes App Store.

Rather than being split out into categories for best game, best user experience, best application, and so on as has been the practice in past years, this year’s awards were simply organized into Mac and iPhone showcases. Here are the 2009 winners.

iPhone Developer Showcase

MLB.com At Bat 2009 from MLB.com

Postage from Rogue Sheep

Topple 2 from ngmoco:)

Tweetie from atebits

Mac OS X Leopard Developer Showcase

Billings from Marketcircle Inc.

BoinxTV from Boinx Software

Things from Cultured Code

Versions from Sofa

Student Awards

Wooden Labyrinth 3D from Elias Pietil

Fontcase from Pieter Omvlee

iPhone OS 3.0

AccuTerra Beta from AccuTerra

This last entry is pretty interesting. We saw lots of exciting and innovative apps in the WWDC Keynote on Monday that take advantage of the new features of iPhone OS 3.0, but AccuTerra was not presented there. The technologies utilized in this new hike tracking app are pretty extensive, though. I’m definitely looking forward to checking this out when it becomes available.

For more information about this year’s winners, here are some articles from TheAppleBlog that mention a few of them…

Weekly App Store Picks: March 14, 2009 (Topple 2)

Tweetie for Mac Update: Now With Video Tweeting

Billings 3 Brings Welcome Updates, Fresh Design

BoinxTV: Broadcasting for the rest of us

BoinxTV Now Shipping

Task Management With Things

12 Subversion Apps for OS X

Keep Your Fonts Together With Fontcase

Fonts 201: Font Management Apps for the Mac

Task Management With Things

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Alongside being the season for frivolity and festivity, it’s that special time of year when the game industry ramps up the release schedule and hustles all the latest would-be hits out their studio doors and on to our computer and console screens.

Looks as good as it plays (cartoon finger not included)

This year, sat next to the DS and PSP, a new contender has joined the handheld race: with the iPhone being touted as a proper platform for gaming, the App Store is bursting at its digital-seams with fresh-faced gaming delights.

One of these bright young things to arrive at the App Store is Rolando, a puzzler-cum-platformer created by London-based game studio HandCircus. The publishers, ngmoco, seem to specialize in releasing weird, wonderful and compulsively fun gaming experiences: the kind of games which play just as good as they look, and they look appetite-whettingly delicious.

Immediate Fun

Opening with a clever playable menu screen, Rolando starts showing you the ropes — and letting you twist, turn and touch them — from the very start. And, as you progress through the game, the main menu grows, becoming more vibrant, adding new toys and revealing characters hidden in the shadows. A seriously smart and considerate move by Hand Circus, in that fun pervades the traditionally mundane menu screen.

The visual design, by Finnish artist Mikko Walamies, is a joy to behold, surpassing the mass of half-baked twaddle prevalent in the App Store. The characterization is particularly accomplished. It’s as if the little guys and gals always existed and you’re just dropping in on their ice-cream colorful world to help out. The good guys are amusing, smart and yet vulnerable. The bad guys are dark, horrid, grumbling beasts.

Tilt ‘n’ Touch

Big Puzzles and Big Bad Guys

Each level is a blend of physics-based puzzle solving and traditional platforming, rolling up the most effective features of other games – Lemmings, Katamari Damacy, Mario.

 Across the ‘net there have already been utterances of Rolando’s similarity to Sony’s flagship PSP-title Locoroco. If anything, this is somewhat flattering for both parties: Rolando’s actual control and gameplay mechanic is a leap beyond that of Locoroco’s, integrating the latter’s simplicity and rendering it more so intuitive with touch commands and tilt control.

Conveyor belts, bombs and diamonds at the fireworks factory

And for all it’s simplicity, the controls actually achieve a satisfyingly effective level of versatility; tap and drag to select a few Rolandos, tilt to get them rolling and then swipe up to make them jump. And just touch an object to interact with it, such as tapping the button on a cannon to release a bomb or cranking a lever to open a gate.

A typical stage will have you aiding your merry band of Rolando’s across spikey pits, through mechanical doors, past slidey gates and over rivers of gunk, and possibly escorting Rolandoland’s snoozing King.

Scruffy Tunes

Manchester's Mr. Scruff

Not only am I from the UK, I’m a Manchester lad. I’m from the city that brought you The Smiths, 10CC, Autechre, Joy Division (and Factory Records too) and Jim Noir.

I’m exceedingly proud of the musical heritage of my hometown and particularly pleased to tell you that the music for Rolando was provided by Manchester’s very own Mr. Scruff.

Plucked from Scruff’s own back catalogue, the soundtrack fits the game perfectly — like the last piece of a funky jigsaw. Taking away the sound, the game is an outstanding specimen compared to its piers — colorful, joyous, moreish — ngmoco and HandCircus went above and beyond the call of duty by incorporating Scruff’s sounds, bringing even more polish to an already gleaming gaming experience.

Summing Up

Turning the Cogs

Not all of you will share my immense enthusiasm for Rolando.

Not everybody may thrill at the occasionally devious and frequently challenging puzzles or reminisce at the retro joys of hopping, skipping and jumping through dark caverns and over perilous spikey pits.

Nor will everybody grin giddily when the good guys get cheeky and the bad guys mutter their comic threats and I’m afraid that not everyone will groove along to the soundtrack, despite it’s ear-wormingly catchiness.

Cheeky Rolandos

But, fortunately, I know that most of you will: you’ll thrill and reminisce while grinning and grooving all the way through Rolando.

You’ll also pick up on many more of the multitude of delights which I failed to mention here (both because an article should only be so long and because it’s such a pleasure to discover these things for yourself).

At the end of it, you’ll tell your friends, you’ll tell folk sat near you on the bus, you’ll tell everyone with an iPhone in earshot, because this is the kind of game that makes you feel good. And because what we have here is the benchmark for what a complete iPhone (or touch) gaming experience could be and, furthermore, should be.

Rolando ($9.99) is available now on iPhone and iPod touch at the App Store.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories