Social game maker Zynga surprised investors with news that it will give up plans to seek a license to offer gambling in the U.S.. According to one source, the plan may have been a longshot all along.…
Read MoreResearch
Zynga and NewSchools Venture Fund create accelerator for educational gaming startups
Zynga is partnering with NewSchools Venture Fund to launch an accelerator program for educational gaming startups.…
Read MoreWhy Nevada’s first online gambling license is more symbol than substance
Casinos and social gaming sites have a lot riding on new laws and licenses that will turn on the taps to online gaming revenue. One company is set to finally open shop as soon as May -- but its license strictly limits where it can operate and what it can play.…
Read MoreSocial sports betting: market is huge but big payout is unlikely
A social gaming site called Fanhood invites players to buy tokens and make sports wagers with their friends. While they may entertain sports fans, sites like this have little hope of being part of recent moves towards legal online gambling.…
Read MoreWhat stays in Vegas: how Nevada’s online gambling law will — and won’t — change social gaming
Nevada became the first state in the country this week to legalize online gambling -- but don't expect this to change the fortunes of companies like Zynga anytime soon.…
Read MoreCan a new database help get Zynga back on track?
Zynga has deployed nearly 100 nodes of MemSQL, the hot new database from two former Facebook engineers. It might not be a magic pill for Zynga's woes, but it could help the company boost revenue and even build new types of games.…
Read MoreHow the cloud helped social gaming firm Wooga prepare for its Android invasion
Berlin's highly successful games studio is moving into Android, starting off with a new version of the hit Diamond Dash. It seemed like a good time to get a snapshot developer perspective on coding for the big two mobile platforms.…
Read MoreDerby Jackpot is off to the races with real-money social gaming
Bridging the gap between hardcore horse-betting and social gaming, New York-based Derby Jackpot is beta testing an online game that lets players bet real money on live horse races. The launch comes as social gaming giant Zynga also makes inroads in real money social gaming.…
Read MoreLessons from Zynga’s continued struggles
For starters, don't build your company on a platform you don't own, accept the low retention rates for social games, and narrow your focus.…
Read MoreFacebook works on game quality, social to keep users from calling it quits
For Facebook, the name of the game is getting more social gaming hits, using word of mouth and the new App Center to recommend games to friends that will turn users to players to payers, as company executives said Thursday to reporters in Menlo Park.…
Read MoreFacebook Q3 delivers, shows a hint of mobile
Facebook grew ad sales 36 percent, and even sold $100 million worth of mobile advertising. Its real money will come from the web for the immediate future.…
Read MoreToday in Social
Zynga isn’t the only social gaming company that’s struggling. It’s a tough business. Electronic Arts, that is managing its evolution into digital…
Read MoreToday in Connected Consumer
You would be hard-pressed to find a set of relationships more fraught right now than those between major social platform providers and…
Read MoreA social gaming manifesto
Zynga is in turmoil. Since its IPO, Zynga stock has cratered, and it lost its COO. Its emerging mobile strategy has failed to impress. With increasing competition, it’s worth understanding whether Zynga’s troubles are unique to the company, or whether it is social gaming itself that is struggling.…
Read MoreAmazon launches social gaming studio, kicks Zynga when it’s down
Amazon enters the social gaming market with its key incumbent in Nasdaq free-fall. Does it really want to compete in a business with unproven monetization, or does it just want to make some games for Kindle owners to play? The unit's first game launched Monday.…
Read MoreToday in Social
It has passed into conventional wisdom that both Facebook and Zynga have mobile “issues.” Today’s Wall Street Journal rehashes Zynga’s mobile woes.…
Read MoreToday in Connected Consumer
The Facebook-Zynga relationship has become deeply unhealthy. Shares of Zynga were falling through the floor in mid-morning trading today after it posted disastrous…
Read MoreBetable allows social games to add real money gambling
Betable, a UK-based startup, is introducing a platform that allows developers to easily add real-money gaming into their apps. The company is announcing a private beta developer program and plans to open the platform to all developers before the end of this year.…
Read More“Unleashed” Zynga shows steady progress
It’s been less than nine months since Zynga started to hint at the strategy that would launch its next stage of growth and reduce some of its dependency on Facebook. In fact, the company is showing steady progress in implementing that vision. Third-party developers and Zynga competitors would be wise not to discount Zynga’s momentum.…
Read MoreFacebook should be worried about Wooga’s HTML5 exit
The reasons cited by games factory Wooga when it pulled out of developing mobile browser-based games for Facebook's platform are not going to be fixed anytime soon - and that fact should be cause for concern in the social network's quest to conquer mobile.…
Read MorePeak climbs into social gaming’s top tier, eyes Asia
The Turkish social gaming company Peak says it now has more daily active users than EA or Wooga, and it hopes that expansion plans for south-east Asia could give Zynga and King.com a run for their money too.…
Read MoreForget reward points: AmEx gives users Farmville cash
American Express is teaming with Zynga on a reward program that will link offline spending on its Serve pre-paid cards to in-game rewards in Farmville. It's an ambitious attempt at boosting the reach of AmEx's Serve product and tying real-world spending to online virtual rewards.…
Read MoreIndustry Moves: Tylted; XING AG; Future Publishing; mDialog; Telegraph
The latest hires in the tech and media industry...…
Read MoreToday in Social
Doomsayers are seeing a tough Nintendo year – its first loss in for-evah – as a sign of some kind of tectonic…
Read More