Real's Casual Games Business Generates $34 Million in Q3, Gets New President - Video Game News, Video Game Coverage, Video Game Updates, PC Game News, PC Game Coverage - GameDaily

Good sign for Casual games, and no surprise that other areas of the company are struggling, they are involved in music via rhapsody and media via various arms including the famous real player. Fact is Apple and others are doing a better job. A smart move to turn things around would be to leverage their position in games and offer some slick cross platform tie ins to the games. People who buy games buy music make things easy for them.....

Come on your in a great position USE IT!

RealNetworks today announced its third-quarter fiscal results for the period ended September 30. Overall revenue grew five percent to $152 million, but the company did experience a net loss of $4.5 million. From a game industry perspective, Real's sales boost was largely attributable to its games division, which grew 19 percent to post revenue of $34.2 million.

Regarding its casual games, the company noted that 'growth was primarily driven by revenue from our acquisition of Trymedia in the second quarter of this year, and continued strength in subscription revenue.' Real added that it continues to believe that 'the casual games category is a strong and vibrant business with great growth potential, and we remain very optimistic about the future of our games business.'"

The metaverse Tour

Ok I'm going to use this as an introduction to various reports over the coming weeks on Virtual worlds and MMO's. I think its a nice video that proves a point.

The reports will cover predicted success and failures and why, the numbers to date and the need to for the industry to work more closely together before history repeat's itself and a whole bunch of money is just flushed down the drain.........

Also its an attempt to to bring a start to a group that is focused on open source API's for browser based games, virtual worlds and MMO's allowing brands, games developers, organizations, charities, record companies, film and TV studios etc.... to pick 1 or multiple virtual worlds and work with a developer and plug into that virtual world.

I'll be getting together with some people and setting up a Linked-in group as a starter.

Great News OPEN ID

"Your Gmail Account is Now An OpenID
from TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld

You may not know it, but you probably have an OpenID. If you have a Yahoo account, you have an OpenID. If you have a Windows Live account, you will soon have an OpenID. And today, if you have a Google e-mail account, you can also start using your Gmail address as an OpenID.

By joining the OpenID movement, Google completes the trifecta and adds all of its Gmail users to the hundreds of millions of Yahoo and Windows Live accounts that can also be used as a single login for any Website that accepts OpenID. While Google is more than happy to become an issuer of OpenIDs, what is not so clear is whether it will accept other OpenIDs for people who want to up for Google services."

Cooking Dash tops the charts

Cooking dash is topping the charts across the major casual portals.
with the Jewell quest franchise making the top 10 in across the major portals.

So no surprises in the casual genera! Time management and Match 3

Watch this space that new twist game that will soon be there.

Question is what is the next big genera for Casual games?

Blended, freeform casual, creative casual....or have we got stuck

Bejeweled Twist play it now!

Well last nights launch started very flat with a slide show of facts and figures I nearly switched of the broadcast. Not the greatest introduction but then finally the show started and watching with me was a marketing expert with 10 years experience. I loved the effort they had gone to with the launch and the potential for a really well executed marketing stunt, however the show tried to be funny but dragged it heels. Saying that though I have to realize that I was watching a web broadcast and not a professional camera team. So of course it actually could have been a lot better in real life.

The best bit and worth the wait was the video and game demo. On the plus side full marks for effort with the production its a great way to a lunch a new game. But clearly they are great game designers and not great marketeers or TV show producers. But then casual games have never really needed good marketing to date. But you have to start somewhere and so the bar is raised.

The new game looked amazing and I was wondering how it was going to feel will it actually be that different.

Having just played the game it really is genius as its so simple what they have done. The crucial thing is you can always make a move and you start to plan a head I loved the experience, the power ups are fun and I can see the fans really going for it and new players being attracted. I love POPCAP for not trying to do too much with the game engine they have given the fans what they wanted. If you love match 3 then its the next level.

And It made me smile as I actually designed a match 3 game 2 years ago using a very similar twist mechanic.

Well done POP CAP team no need for the Kaching machine this time its success is inevitable.

The Joy of JOYity: Bringing “Massive Multiplayer Trans-Reality” Games To Android Phones

The Joy of JOYity: Bringing “Massive Multiplayer Trans-Reality” Games To Android Phones: "What makes a great Android app? One that melds the virtual world with the real world in a fun or informative way. One app that does that in an impressive fashion is called JOYity and it comes from Zelfi, a German mobile gaming startup. JOYity uses the GPS in the Android phone to let you play games and go on adventures based on your location in the real world.

JOYity is a gaming platform in its own right. When you download the app you can play one of three games (YouCatch, Roads of San Francisco, City Race Munich) or design your own. In Roads of San Francisco, for instance, you have to go around the city picking up clues. When you get to a destination, a text or picture message tells you where to go next. It is a Scavenger Hunt with a story line. You can also design your own Scavenger Hunt games and play them with large groups of people."

Mear morsels - make sure you swallow!

If you want to read any of the full stories Google the text u lazy B's

Disney Pixie Hollow released

Jagex maker of Runescape launches casual website Fun Orb

Zomg gets over 120,000 applications for the Closed Beta

Fuel industries to launch virtual world from their all girl arcade portal

Game Station warns retail is very crowded (OMG really) just go into any store that sells games.

EA shouting about the significance of online. Of course online represents a large opportunity as it allows MASS market access to games (casual games has the greatest potential)

Best Of I-phone FingerGaming is Equilibrio, Villagers, and Topple

Activision confirms DJ hero (it was only a matter of time) soon it will be producer hero, Dead painting Star and "impressionist fever" the game where you can take off the president, your fav sports star and comedian.

Tonight its launched Bejewelled Twist

One of the most anticipated games is released tonight. Watch the live stream @ 7pm PES

Good luck guys. I Hope its a hit for you.

Reebok "in game deal" for Football Superstars

Don't you just love this industry.

In a time when there is doom and gloom and the cost of everything is rising just go shopping VIRTUALLY.

Reebok and IGA WW and Sports MMO Football Superstars have teamed up in the latest game sponsorship deal.

The free-to-download online game will be used by Reebok as a platform to launch its Ambassador Programme. Successful entrants to the programme will win a supply of Reebok boots and kit with in game currency, apparel for avatars, as well as an interview Thierry Henry.

THIS is a perfect example of contextual advertising well done guys

LittleBigPlanet scores 9.5 average on Metacritic | Casual games |

Its no surprise and well deserved. Expect a very large community to develop with constant uploads of user generated content.

Sony’s great casual hope for this year, LittleBigPlanet, is storming Metacritic, averaging ajavascript:void(0)n astounding 9.5/10 from the Western world’s major press.

Game Link - This weeks casual games news

Week Round up.

1) New Event to Be hosted called "The future is online"

2) Lead Economist talks about Eve and the virtual economy

3) Microtransactions make it to mobile with Supper Boom Boom

4) Game loft pledge 10 titles for Android (google)

5) Atari sale is completed

6) Sega launches free to play casual games site

7) Sony to launch digital distribution for PSP (big opportunity for casual games)

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The Future is Online, says GameHorizon | Game Development | News by Develop: "GameHorizon is to hold a MMO-focused event in Newcastle next week.

Called 'The Future is Online', the evening will take a look at what it takes to be successful in the online space, and how studios can make the transition to online."

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Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, the Lead Economist at CCP, developer of EVE Online, talks about the impact of what's essentially a real-world economy in a virtual world.

by Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, PH.D. on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
My Turn: The Birth of the First Virtual Nation

It has been over 30 years since online virtual worlds have started to emerge in the form of MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Over this time period several variants of virtual worlds have emerged, with each form having different opportunities and challenges for the developers.

Stating that the economy in EVE is realistic is wrong. The economy in EVE is actually just as real as our real life economies, by all measures and definition of economic value based on economic theory. This fact has great implications in terms of how to interpret information from economies in virtual worlds, and shows that economics must be used as a fundamental feature in the design and operation of these worlds.

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A sequel to last year's Super Boom Boom, the one-button action game features five stages with bosses, three unlockable extra stages, casino mini-games, a driving mode, and a nationwide leaderboard.

Gamevil claims that Super Boom Boom 2's microtransaction system will cover 98% of available handhsets, enabling players to purchase G-Points (in-game currency), which can be exchanged for new stages, items, and mini-games. The G-Points can be earned for free while playing the game, but users can bypass that step by purchasing them.

The company's previous forays into microtransaction-enabled mobile games include Baseball Superstars 2008, which reportedly saw 1.3 million downloads withing 10 months.

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Gameloft plans 10 titles for Android, Google's open source mobile platform.

Bubble Bash, which is currently available for the iPhone and other mobile devices, will be the first Gameloft title to launch through the Android Market content distribution system in the first quarter of 2009.

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Atari is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames. The acquisition will enable Atari to expand its distribution capabilities and online initiatives.

by James Brightman on Monday, October 13, 2008
Infogrames Completes Atari Acquisition

Infogrames' plan to buy the outstanding stock in Atari, first revealed back in March, is finally complete. The French publisher now owns all of Atari, as compared with 51.4 percent before the acquisition.

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Sega has taken the wraps off of a new casual games site with free-to-play games. PlaySega features a wide variety of titles in addition to Sonic-based gaming.

by James Brightman on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sega Launches Casual Portal PlaySega.com

It's been somewhat under the radar, but Sega has launched a new casual gaming portal with free-to-play games at PlaySega.com. The portal (currently in beta) features an assortment of arcade games, puzzle games, card games, quiz games, word games, sports games, and Sonic games, the first being Sonic at The Olympic Games. There are apparently more than 30 new titles in development for the site.

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SCEE: Digital distribution to "ignite" PSP development

The PlayStation Portable's new distribution methods will spur on creative development for the handheld, according to Zeno Colaço vice president of publisher and developer relations for SCEE.

Colaço described how the combination of digital distribution with the increased functions of the PSP 3000, announced at the Leipzig Games Convention, would make the handheld a more compelling platform for developers to work on.

Q3 see $148.m invested in virual worlds in Q3

$148.5m invested in virtual worlds in Q3 // News: "$148.5m invested in virtual worlds in Q3

Virtual Worlds Management has revealed that venture capital and media firms have invested more than USD 148.5 million dollars in 12 virtual worlds companies during the third quarter of 2008.

The study shows that the total investment in the virtual worlds space this year is over USD 493 million, with all but USD 22.4 million going towards the entertainment sector to build youth-orientated MMOs.

'Many smaller investments were made across a spectrum of youth-oriented virtual worlds,' explained Joey Seiler, editor of VirtualWorldsNews.com. 'USD 35.64 million was invested in seven virtual worlds aimed at kids through teens. That's up significantly from Q1's USD 16.03 million in eight youth virtual worlds and Q2, which saw no investment targeted at youth worlds.'"

The download business model needs an overhaul

For a long time now I have believed that the download model needed to be looked at and it seems that the industry is starting to try out new models.

One area I think they need to look at is the length of time that they allow free play on downloads. Game players get things quickly and 30 mins is more than enough.

In addition to that some have tested selling games above $19.99 and have had some success achieving the same conversion rate even when they priced the game at $29.99 and only allowed 30 min trial. However the overall yield was up 5 cents per download on other options.

Fact is developers are delivering much richer experiences and the download games stand out from the free content. It could be interesting to see if the pay by play model could work. So you top up your account and you are allowed to play any game on the site for a time limit based on how much credit you have. Pay as you go gaming.

This could open up a more penetration and better conversion rates.

You can read the whole story at the IGDA.

Real Arcades chart round up

The chart shows which games stayed in the TOP 10 for the longest period. The chart is only for sales on Real Arcade.

5 tit bits to digest

New Bejeweled coming soon

Entitled Bejeweled Twist, the new game has been in development for more than three years and the firm claims it ‘will bring a completely new perspective to the “Match-3” genre of puzzle games that the original Bejeweled pioneered eight years ago’."

Oberon gets 20 million
Credit crunch? What credit crunch? Wall Street worries aren't stemming the flow of cash into the games industry - I-Play onwer Oberon Media has just scored a $20m boost from a Chinese investor.

Warren Spector goes CASUAL
Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has unveiled the first details of his new project – and risked shocking his hardcore fanbase by revealing that it’s a family-friendly title.

Spector, creative director of Junction Point Studios for Disney, said that hardcore gamers “would be up in arms” when they heard news of project – but added that the hardcore market is “completely safe”.

Spore was designed for Casual gamers (oh shock really)
Will Wright has admitted that he designed Spore with purely casual gamers in mind – and that ‘hardcore’ players didn’t even get a look-in during testing.

Speaking to Forbes (via MCV), Wright said that he deliberately avoided targeting core gamers with the title, which has sold over a million copies since release last month.

Playfish hit big on Facebook
Just a year after its founding, London-based studio Playfish has stormed the Facebook charts to produce four of the top 12 games on the site ­– and says its success proves studios can make money developing games for social networks.

Playfish is responsible for five games on Facebook – Who Has The Biggest Brain?, Bowling Buddies, Geo Challenge, Pet Society and and Word Challenge – and has over 20m registered users, 1.5m of which play in any given day

Twist could make top 5.

Everyone will want to play new bejeweled and if it has a good twist it should see top 5. I actually did a prototype for a game called twist n turn which was a match 3 with a twist so It will be interesting to see what their twist is. My guess is that they have added another dimension to the game mechanic. I can think of several they could adopt so its quite exciting.

Gaming EVENTS Gamng CONFRENCEs Gaming SUMMITS

Latest EVENTS

Virtual Goods Summit October 10th California USA

Casual Games Forum October 30th London U.K

Game Connection November Lyon France

Montreal game summit 18th-19th November Montreal

Go mingle, do business, have fun, play games, talk about games and entertainment, listen to gaming gurus, see cool stuff, meet people.....its a hard life but somebodies gotta do it.

I would not recommend it its awful stay away don't go.

YouTube to expand to video game sales

YouTube is set to start selling videogames and experiment with new advertising formats to grow revenue, according to Reuters.





Move is an effort to monitze site
Google paid USD 1.65 billion for in 2006.
Estimate earnings about USD 200 million in revenue in 2009
until now the site relied on ad sales as its main source of income.

The Google-owned video streaming website already allows viewers to buy songs from music videos they watch with links to either Amazon's MP3 store or the Apple iTunes store. However, now YouTube users will also be able to buy videogames, such as EA's Spore through the Amazon link.

Google also announced the launch of AdSense for Games, a program that integrates video advertisements into web-based games. The search-engine specialist claimed to be working with game developers and publishers including Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media, games network Mochi Media, as well as beta advertisers such as Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures.

Avanquest toasts September DS casual sales success | Casual games | News by Casualgaming.biz

Accessibility proven again
UK software publisher Avanquest has today been cheering the sales success of its DS casual games - one of which even outsold core favorite Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in September.

Avanquest's Mah Jong Quest Expeditions and Jewel Quest Expeditions both made it into UK sales monitor ChartTrack's DS top 50 for September.

Simon Reynolds, European games director at Avanquest Software Publishing commented, “We have great belief in the products. They’re addictive, colourful and fun games suitable for any audience.

'The support from retail has also been fantastic and contributed to the success of the titles. We look forward to ongoing success with the ‘Click & Play’ casual gaming brand.”

Worth Watching

While watching a presentation by David Perry (which was very good by the way he presented this film)



This totaly ties in with some of the recent stories I have mentioned.

Games Don't Need To Emphasize War, Negativity

Parappa 's Matsuura: Games Don't Need To Emphasize War, Negativity Talking as part of an in-depth new Gamasutra opinion piece, Parappa The Rapper co-creator Masaya Matsuura has suggested that, if the game biz continues to focus on games that 'employ physical attacks' and war-like scenarios, then the future isn't that bright.

NanaOn-Sha's Matsuura, who tends to work with bright, cartoon-like visuals and is generally credited as the 'inventor' of the music game with 1996's Parappa The Rapper, is currently working on Major Minor's Majestic March for the Wii alongside Parappa artist Rodney Alan Greenblat.

As part of his impassioned editorial, Matsuura explains:

'Naturally, it is not an easy matter to simply divide human emotions into positive and negative. In our adult world, there are a vast number of things that obstruct our ability to gain positive emergence with each other.

We often are faced with negative emergence when placed in circumstances that expose our inferiority or inequality, and this brings about stress. War is an extreme example of where these negative thoughts can lead."

Ankama celebrates ten million Dofus players | Game Development | News by Develop

Free web MMO played in '150 countries'

French independent developer Ankama has revealed that its free-to-play MMO DOFUS has passed the ten million member mark.

Initially released in France in September 2004, DOFUS is currently available in seven languages, with a further three set for release soon."

Google announces plan to wean US off coal and oil - energy-fuels - 02 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment

Just to follow on form the story I just posted I came across this news. I know its not game related but it backs up my first point.

Google announces plan to wean US off coal and oil - energy-fuels - 02 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment: "nternet search giant Google – sometimes criticised for the amount of energy its servers use – now aims to do for the power grid what it did for the web.

Having conquered the market for web search by first simplifying how it is done and then linking advertising to users' search terms, Google Inc is now funding green technology and using its brand power to lobby for policy change.

Google launched a plan on Wednesday to wean the US off burning coal and oil for power by 2030, and cut oil use for cars by 40%. That will cost the nation trillions of dollars, but Google believes it should ultimately save money."

Global Perspective shift

Casual games and social networks are helping shit perspectives on a global scale.

Global perspectives are certainly shifting in a positive way. So many companies are becoming socially aware and millions of people are involved in positive groups or organizations that are for the benefit of other people across the world or in local neighborhoods.

More and more games or networks are appearing that teach us a multitude of things, some of these are very subtle but have a great impact on society.

So in the doom and gloom of the credit crunch, take a look around you and realize its not that bad. Keep making those games.