For anyone out there who remains unconvinced as to how important the casual gaming market is, the latest report by the Casual Games Association may help change your mind. The casual games industry rakes in $2.25 billion a year, according to the org’s latest … Read More »
Online Games
London – I’m still recovering from the jet lag and energy of last week’s Virtual Worlds Forum, where I moderated a couple panels, but managed to cobble together some notes from the inaugural conference/trade show. Incongruously (but very coolly) held in a cavernous, velvet … Read More »
Folks keep an eye out on K2 Network, Irvine, Calif.-based start-up that is a distributor of casual games and MMOs. The company has raised $20 million or so, with just over $16 million in Series B funding from Intel Capital, Greycroft Partners, Khosla … Read More »
Outspark, a San Francisco-based casual games publisher with offices in Seoul, South Korea, launched its North American games portal yesterday. Like Nexon‘s South Korean-developed MapleStory, Outspark games will be free to play — in addition to advertising built into … Read More »
Can web 2.0 principles revive the old school, hack-and-slash MMO? That’s the question that occurred to me when Henrik Bennetsen of the Stanford Humanities Lab showed me some YouTube machinima uploaded by players of Lord of the Rings Online, a fantasy MMO … Read More »
First it was music, then web video, and now it is time for MySpace to turn the attention of its 100-million plus members to casual games. The company has signed a deal with Oberon Media, and two companies will create a new casual … Read More »
These sites, in alphabetical order, offer food for thought with posts that will widen your perspective on the interaction of business and design in games, particularly in the realm of casual gaming. 1. Brinking by Nabeel Hyatt. Nabeel is a serial entrepreneur, currently co-founder of … Read More »
Yesterday Jane brought news of Google actively reaching out to game developers to partner with its Adsense/Adscape network. I just got word that San Francisco-based casual game ad network Mochi Media is partnering with London-based MyGame.com, a casual game site with a … Read More »
Earlier this month, MCV discovered that Google (GOOG) had filed for patents related to interactive entertainment. Today Tiga, the trade association for videogame creators in the UK and Europe, said that a product marketing manager from Google Adsense will speak at the group’s … Read More »
While Electronic Arts provoked a lot of conversation over the excessive purchase price of hardcore gaming studio Pandemic/BioWare last week, I think a quieter move by EA deserves about as much attention: They recently added a very curious feature to Pogo, its casual gaming … Read More »
While last week some called the popularity of the Wii a bubble that was on the verge of bursting, retailers are admitting that supply may, for the second year in a row, fail to keep up with consumer demand. So what’s going on here? … Read More »
Though others have hinted at it in the past, Radiohead’s move to offer its latest album, “In Rainbows,” as a direct download — for a price set by the consumer — is a first among high-profile bands. It’s also a watershed moment in … Read More »
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