By Nadia Oxford on Mar 1, 2011 in Business, Casual Games, Facebook
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The console market and the social games market differs in numerous ways. One market, for instance, tends to inspire a lot of grumbling and hatred from the other (we’ll leave you to determine which is which). More notably, publishers of console games want their audience to eventually detach themselves from the quest at hand in order to pick up the sequel. Social game developers, however, want to hang on to their users for as long as possible. A user who tends...
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By Nadia Oxford on Feb 16, 2011 in Apple, iPhone and iPad, Social Games
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Smurf Village is a social game for the iPhone by Capcom Mobile. The game is free-to-play, but as is the norm with social games, players can perform microtransactions and buy a special breed of currency with real-world money. In the case of Smurf Village, players can buy “smurfberries” to help them purchase special items and bonuses.
That’s exactly what one eight-year-old player did–but she went on a bit of a bender and bought $1,400 worth of...
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By Scott Steinberg on Feb 15, 2011 in Business, Digital Distribution, Disruptive Tech
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In the latest episode of Game Theory with Scott Steinberg, entitled “Video Game Developers vs. Publishers: Who Wins?” we take a closer look at the state of the modern games industry. Exploring the shifting balance of power following in the wake of new business models, gaming devices and online technologies, the new documentary film also examines whether there’s a place for independent developers in today’s increasingly cutthroat business world.
In...
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By Doug Dyer on Feb 2, 2011 in Digital Distribution, Disruptive Tech, Distribution
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I’ve seen the future of mobile gaming and I’m sorry to say that it has nothing to do with mobile games. Oh sure, while mobile video games will always have a place in the mobile gaming world, they will not be the primary revenue driver. Not by a long shot. In fact, in the not-too-distant future the primary revenue drivers in mobile gaming will actually be console, online, and PC games. Not console, online and PC games repurposed and redeveloped for mobile...
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By Nadia Oxford on Jan 25, 2011 in Casual Games, Cloud Computing, Culture
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If you need evidence for the growth and maturation of video games, consider the rapid expansion of game-related jargon. Long gone are the days when you just pulled out “the Nintendo” if you wanted to click around for a few hours. Sure, there was some pseudo tech-talk about how many “bits” a system had. And Sega formulated a beauty of a lie with a mysterious technology called “Blast Processing” that helped Sonic the Hedgehog make...
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