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Richard Garriott Returns to Game Industry
Richard Garriott is returning to the video game industry after a lengthy absence. The man called Lord British by his fans is moving into the social media business with his new company Portalarium.
Read the story here.
New Survey Reveals Social Gaming Phenomenon in U.S. and U.K.
PopCap Games, maker of some of the world’s most popular video games, unveiled the results of a survey targeting “social gamers”: Consumers in the U.S. and UK who play games on social networking platforms such as Facebook and MySpace. More than 24% of respondents said they play social games regularly, indicating a total social gamer population of approximately 100 million in America and the United Kingdom alone. And contrary to prevailing stereotypes, the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman.
Read the story here.
Madden Facebook Game on the Way
Madden NFL has traditionally been a cash cow for EA but the next game that comes out might not cost you a penny. EA Sports boss Peter Moore says they want to bring Madden to Facebook.
Read the story here.
Analyst: Social Game Revenues to Hit $1.3B in 2010
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian shared several predictions for the social gaming market based on data provided by CrowdStar chairman Peter Relan, including insights on Facebook Credits, Apple’s iPad, and his firm’s forecast that worldwide social game revenues (virtual goods, advertising, and offers) will nearly double in 2010 to $1.3 billion.
Read the story here.
Interview: Social Networks will Overtake Consoles as Game Platforms
Alex St. John cofounded online gaming outfit WildTangent in 1998. The company pioneered micro-currency payment systems in which players use real dollars to pay for virtual gold coins for game playing; the other option: opt-in to watching advertisements.
In December St. John jumped to the chief technology officer job at Hi5, a social networking Web site that has been more successful in Latin America, Europe and Asia than in the U.S., where it ranks below Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Classmates.com.He believes gaming is moving to social networks, and that this means Microsoft and Nintendo won’t release new versions of their game consoles.
Read the story here.
Three Twitter Games You Must Try
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a hardcore gamer. I play games as often as possible. But for the most part, I play those games on consoles. But over the past couple days, I’ve started playing some Twitter-based games on the Web. Many of them aren’t very good, but I found three titles that I really enjoyed playing.
Because of that, I’ve decided to share those with you in this roundup. Each title is offered on its own site, but requires your Twitter credentials to work. Whenever you achieve things within a game, it notifies your Twitter followers. The experience is fantastic. Let’s check them out.
See the story here and discuss it in the forum.
Quick, Cheap Social Games Gain Ground
“Dark Void” is more than just a wild new flying and shooting title from Redmond’s Airtight Games.
The video game, which goes on sale next month, is turning out to be a metaphor for what’s happening in the Seattle-area game industry.
See the story here and discuss it in the forum.
EA Launches Need for Speed Nitro Social Gaming App on Facebook
Recently we saw EA launch a Facebook game for its much anticipated Dante’s Inferno, which lets users send others to hell. Now Electronic Arts has launched a Need for Speed Nitro social application on the Facebook platform. The game is fun and interactive and can be experienced by players and everyone else in their social network.
See the story here and discuss it in the forum.
Foursquare May Bounce Social Media into Money-Making Mode
Playing Foursquare involves exploring restaurants, pubs and coffee shops in major metro areas. The payoff for playing can range from special deals or freebies at eating and drinking establishments to scoring points, Boy Scout-like badges and “mayorships,” essentially bragging rights for hanging out at particular locations.
“Foursquare, the thing that’s unique about it is that it has the opportunity to monetize restaurants, locations and activities that people would do — a little bit better than Facebook or Twitter does,” said Michael J. Lis, owner of Speck Media, a Chicago marketing firm.
See the story here and discuss it in the forum.
The Rules of Netiquette for Online Gaming and RPGs
There are two points newbies need to keep in mind. The first is that there is a human behind every character, and there are good guys and bad guys both online and off, so you need to be cautious in your interactions. The other is that there is a universal expectation of respect among players that you will need to uphold. So you need to play both nicely and safely. As with any online activity where you interact with people, like blogging or wikis, there are certain rules you should always follow.