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Tech

Ignite Game Technologies, the San Francisco-based online gaming startup that specializes in car racing games, has raised $5 million in new funding, bringing its total investment to $17.5 million. The company makes massive multi-player online racing games in which people compete in real time Read More »

Video gamers and Star Wars fans are a match made in heaven, but can they justify the development of what may be the most expensive video game in history? According to new data from Electronic Arts, “Star Wars, The Old Republic” will be a blockbuster. Read More »

 
 

It’s become a piece of widely-accepted startup lore to say that failure is an important part of success. But this trio of examples highlight the fact that entrepreneurs have as much in common with Tiger Woods as they do with each other. Read More »

Grey Area co-founder and CEO Ville Vesterinen, at GigaOM’s Mobilize 2011 on Tuesday, discussed a growing trend: location-based gaming. One of the company’s most significant discoveries about mobile games has to do with how little they seem to actually be played on the run. Read More »

6waves Lolapps, the newly-merged company that develops and publishes games for Facebook and other social networks, has launched a $10 million fund to invest in independent game developers. The 6L Fund is part of 6waves Lolapps’ play to become the”clear number two” to Zynga. Read More »

Adobe is looking to be the go-to resource for gaming with updated versions of Flash Player and AIR. Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will be 3D enabled for the first time and will offer 1,000 times faster graphics rendering performance. Read More »

The rise of gamification has become an increasing point of contention over the past year. Now it seems a spat between two leading figures has left the movement facing a divisive split. The controversy centers on a new book by Gabe Zichermann called Gamification by Design. Read More »

Is the 3DS the device to lead Nintendo into another decade of growth and profitability? Probably not. With the gaming industry focusing more and more on tablets, smartphones and touchscreens, the company will almost certainly have to rethink its slightly antiquated business model to remain relevant. … Read More »

Microsoft just released its Q2 results, and it’s clear the 360 has gone from being a drag on financials to contributing in a positive way. But one surefire way to expand the market further is by making the 360 available at the $99 price point. Read More »

Despite its commercial appeal, the Xbox gaming console has historically been notoriously unprofitable for Microsoft. But according to the company’s latest earnings report, Microsoft’s gaming division has finally started to earn its keep. Has the tide finally turned for the gaming console market? Read More »

W3i has come up with a new alternative app discovery product that it hopes will aid game developers to push downloads. It shows how app marketing is getting more creative to meet the growing demand of developers looking to get their apps noticed and downloaded. Read More »

Free-to-play games, which monetize through in-app purchases, now account for 65 percent of revenue among the top 100 games in the App Store, overtaking paid downloads, which were the most successful revenue model six months ago. It’s another sign that freemium rules for many developers. Read More »

More Must Reads

It looks like Zynga is polishing up the proverbial silver in the run-up to its planned IPO. The social gaming company has launched “PrivacyVille,” a new game-like tutorial that rewards users with zPoints, Zynga’s virtual currency, for learning more about the company’s privacy practices. Read More »

The “uncanny valley”– the quality of an animation or robot looking close to, but not exactly like, real life — may be set to get even smaller. MIT researchers have developed new computing techniques for reproducing the slight natural blur of moving objects in animation. Read More »

Gaming service WildTangent is opening a rental service later this year that will allow Android users to rent games and apply their fees toward purchases. It could be another tool for developers to unlock dollars from games on the Android platform. Read More »

Zynga continues to expand way beyond the farms that made it famous. The San Francisco-based social gaming company on Tuesday announced the launch of its first strategy combat game, Empires & Allies, the first title to debut out of its Los Angeles development studio. Read More »

There are half as many venture firms in existence today as there were in 2000 and venture capital fundraising has taken a nose dive from its pre-recession levels. But venture capital veteran William Quigely says it;s all good news for VCs and startups alike. Read More »

Game maker Valve kicked off a promotion today that allows fans to force the early release of Portal 2 if they buy a bundle of 13 independent games through its online store. It’s an innovative idea, though the execution makes the effort feel a little crass. Read More »

Freedom-loving developers have long used open-source licenses as a tactic to maintain the open availability of their source code. With the rise of closed hardware/software platforms like Apple’s iPhone, however, that tactic is being challenged. And that may not be a bad thing. Read More »

Earlier this week, Facebook introduced changes intended to foster the growth of games on its platform that are less spammy and more engaging. Game developers are worried their games will be less viral, but the good thing is Facebook is finally incentivized to help games grow. Read More »

Apple’s iPod touch is now the top-selling game handheld, beating Sony and Nintendo combined, said Steve Jobs today. iOS, the A4 chip and Game Center will only increase that lead as once again as Apple continues to out-game rivals that once held a market lead. Read More »

GameStop, the world’s largest game retailer with nearly 6,500 stores, is acquiring Kongregate, the free online game aggregator. The move brings GameStop into the casual, mobile and browser gaming world, with the promise it will market Kongregate to its customer base. Read More »

Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr and founder of game developer Tiny Speck, talks about his newly launched, massively multiplayer online game Glitch, why he chose 2-D instead of 3-D, and how he thought about starting a bank instead of a game company. Read More »

Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield’s new startup, Tiny Speck, has announced its first product, a massively multiplayer online game called Glitch. The 2D Flash-based game will start alpha testing soon and launch in late 2010, Butterfield says, and includes social elements such as collaborative puzzle-solving. Read More »

If Apple wants to dominate the living room, it will have to do better than the AppleTV. So with rumors abounding that the company is poised to launch a new consumer device, it’s time for a wish list as to what such a device would like … Read More »

Real-world games have been tried before, but population density has always been one of their biggest challenges. The gaming might be good in Shattrath, but go to Times Square and you’re alone. Could World of Warcraft’s loyal followers help it make the first big real-world MMO? … Read More »

You can tell a lot from a gamer’s hardware. And in the gaming world, nobody knows more about the platforms on which PC gamers run their games than the Steam game distribution network. In 2000, Half-Life was one of the best-rated, best-selling games of all time. … Read More »

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