Wagner James Au
|
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 |
1:16 PM PT |
Google’s Chrome OS has added a very interesting wrinkle to the future of online gaming. As we reported back in May, Google reportedly plans to fully integrate O3D, the company’s rich 3D graphics plug-in, into the Chrome browser by the end of this year. That gives Google a platform for game development that’d be a seamless part of its OS when it’s released next year. A number of developers are already creating games for O3D; for instance, here’s a demo for Infinite Journey (a screenshot of which is on the left), a visually engaging, Mario-style title showcased at the recent Google I/O conference. If consumers embrace netbooks pre-installed with Google OS, I think we’re likely to see O3D become an increasingly popular platform for games — at the expense of Windows-based PC games and web-based games powered by Flash.
But what do game industry insiders make of Chrome OS? I just reached out via email to several leading CEOs; here’s a sampling of their takes: Continue »
Wagner James Au
|
Monday, July 6, 2009 |
1:42 PM PT |
WoWPals is a new location-based service for World of Warcraft players who want to connect with other WoW fans, be they from halfway around the globe or right down the street. A spinoff of Israel-based company GamersFlux, the service extracts data from the World of Warcraft Armory web site, a searchable database of game content and players, and connects it to WoWPals users’ real-world location info. (It’s also integrated with Twitter, so WoWPals can keep each other updated via Tweets.) Moreover, it adds World of Warcraft to the growing list of services and applications with location-based functionality.
Continue »
Wagner James Au
|
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 |
5:00 PM PT |
The Social Gaming Summit kicked off in San Francisco today, bringing together developers, investors and bigwigs from social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Below are four of my favorite takeaways gleaned from the first few sessions:
Facebook Social Games Migrating Off Facebook
In the opening talk, Justin Smith, founder and editor of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games, pointed out that Facebook Connect was making social games increasingly playable outside of Facebook — on the web, via the iPhone, and most recently, via Xbox 360. This trend is so pronounced, Smith predicted that two years from now the majority of Facebook games will be playable outside of the social networking site. Continue »
Om Malik
|
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 |
7:26 AM PT |
If the growing number of games being played on it are any indication, then San Francisco-based micro-messaging service Twitter has the potential to become the next major casual gaming hub. The thought first came to me a few weeks ago, when I discovered Spymaster, a game that allows you to run your own spy ring. Every action in the game is tweeted to your followers. After an initial burst, the game activity has moderated somewhat, but in the meantime it got me thinking about Twitter-based games, of which there are many. Continue »
Wagner James Au
|
Monday, June 15, 2009 |
4:23 PM PT |
Jennifer Martinez
|
Friday, June 12, 2009 |
5:15 PM PT |
Offerpal Media, a Fremont, Calif.-based startup that links virtual currency from social games to real-world marketing deals, is suing startup Kickflip, alleging breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets and unlawful business practices, among other claims, according to court documents. Kickflip, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., is the creator of social games payment engine Gambit.
Offerpal alleges in the suit, which was filed in the Northern California District Court in late April, that Kickflip used Offerpal’s web service for two of its online gambling applications — Sports Bets and Bet Arcade — and applied the information it procured about Offerpal’s business model towards developing Gambit. If the court documents are any indication, the case will be an intriguing one to follow. From the filing: Continue »
Wagner James Au
|
Sunday, May 31, 2009 |
9:41 PM PT |
When Google launched its O3D browser plug-in for displaying rich 3D graphics last month, I was dubious that the virtual world industry would eagerly embrace it as a platform for future MMOs. Most of the larger casual virtual worlds, like Habbo and Gaia Online, run on Flash; Mozilla and the Khronos Group are already developing their own 3D graphics API for Firefox. There’s also a lot of insider buzz about Unity 3D’s web plug-in, which already has an install base of 10 million, a company representative recently told me, and is the chosen platform for several major MMOs in development. What’s more, the weak launch and hasty execution of Google’s own virtual world, Lively, suggested the company had given up on the space.
After this weekend, however, I think O3D deserves a closer look from MMO makers. Continue »
Wagner James Au
|
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 |
7:00 AM PT |
There’s a new entrant in the rapidly growing market for retail cards and virtual goods for online games today: the Zeevex Virtual Currency Exchange. The coin of the realm is Zeev Tokens, which can be purchased via retail cards sold at thousands of brick-and-mortar stores, redeemed and stored online, where it can be used to buy virtual goods from participating partners’ games. Continue »
Wagner James Au
|
Thursday, April 30, 2009 |
9:00 AM PT |
Booyah, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup developing a “playful life companion” for the Apple iPhone/iPod touch, just scored $4.5 million in Series A financing from the iFund of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (Om wrote about KPCB’s $100 million app funding initiative last year.) The funding comes a month after Ngmoco, another iPhone game startup, launched with Kleiner Perkins backing, announced a second funding round of $10 million. No word yet on what exactly Booyah’s product will be, but the announcement hints at an MMO linked to real-world activity. (At any rate, they’re currently taking sign-ups for a private beta test.) Its three founders — CEO Keith Lee, CCO Brian Morrisroe, and CTO Sam Christiansen — are all alum of World of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment, so expect a sleek, broadly appealing product designed with maximum stickiness.
Wagner James Au
|
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 |
2:00 AM PT |
When it comes to MMOs, freemium worlds for kids are enormously popular and lucrative; for the most part, however, the major game publishers have done little to pursue this market. That changes this month with the launch of Free Realms, a colorful virtual world from Sony Online Entertainment. Since this new franchise is targeted at kids, including girls, Sony changed its approach from the ground up. The developer of the Everquest series and other MMORPGs aimed at the 18-34 gamer dude demographic threw out long-held assumptions about what made online worlds appealing, and used market research to learn what kids actually wanted. Turns out that instead of dramatic backstories and complex gameplay, kids want free-form fun and tools for telling their own stories.
Has Sony’s kid-friendly effort succeeded? Based on my first-hand look at the beta version of Free Realms, I’d say yes — at least enough to prove that the big game developers can play in the space. However, I’m not convinced that Free Realms can capture attention away from Habbo, Club Penguin, and other scrappy pioneers in this field just yet. Here’s my take. Continue »