Archive for October, 2009

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

New details and screens from Petroglyph/True Games’ Mytheon

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Free-to-play games have been hitting the market at record pace lately, and while a number of them offer entertainment at a wide range of levels, there’s one in particular that’s got a ton of potential and promise; Mytheon. In the works for quite a while now, it looks like the Petroglyph folks are getting might close to a closed beta date.

1 5

Mytheon will be an online title that combines elements of action, strategy, and RPG game play, with a heavy focus on collectability and combat. As a free-to-play title, the game will be microtransactions supported, falling perfectly inline with True Games’ business model; an exclusive deal they signed back in August of 2008.

3 4

As the name suggests, Mytheon is heavily steeped in unique, ancient mythologies from around the world. Building upon players’ first supposition of Greek mythology, players start out their adventure by delving into the rich lore of ancient Greece. Future expansions are planned for further journeys through various different mythological pasts of assorted civilizations. As with many, if not all free-to-play/microtransaction supported titles, Mytheon will feature vast character customization options. Recognizing the need to keep players interested, the Petroglyph team is already focusing on ways to replay the game, while offering a unique experience each time. To accomplish this, Mytheon features a number of group, PVP and solo play options and varieties, each capped off with a fully featured, integrated social networking system.

And while the title is still in development, the folks at True Games are starting to warm up the plates, by encouraging the existing community to create their own fan sites, by way of a contest. The best Mytheon fan site creators will receive prizes and top honors, including closed beta access, and a $50 in-game currency credit to spend any way they choose. In addition, bragging rights also go a long way in online gaming, and the winning creator will have a link to his or her creation coming directly from the official Mytheon site. And if this wasn’t enough, the winner will also receive an exclusive interview with on the the Petroglyph developers.

“We can’t wait to see what our creative fans come up with for this contest and who can build the most compelling fan site,” said Peter Cesario, Director of New Business and Product Development at True Games Interactive. “Mytheon is such a unique game in itself that we think our community will have a lot of fun coming up with fun and interesting fan sites.”

True Games has now made the official fan site kit available for download via the official mytheon forums. Interested parties have until October 23rd to submit their entries, with winners being announced in early November.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Q2 sees China’s Online Game Revenue jump 40 percent to $906 million

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Perhaps it’s just simply a matter of timing, but recent figures from research firm Analysys International arrive hot on the heels of the Chinese Government’s announcement that they’re banning foreign investment, or ‘influence’ in the domestic online gaming market. Their recent report indicates that the Chinese online gaming market grew 39.5 percent year over year in Q2 2009 to a massive 6.18 billion yuan, or approximately $906 million.

W020090123324470898658Coming out on top was popular online messaging platform Tencent Holdings. While the company’s QQ messenger is still the primary driver for Tencent, they also operate a number of free-to-play games in the Chinese domestic market. In this Q2 report, Tencent managed to carve out 20.2 percent of market revenues totaling 1.24 billion yuan (~$182 million).

Taking the number 2 Q2 spot was Shanda Games, the recent spinoff from Shanda Interactive Entertainment, which pulled down 20 percent of market revenues with a revenue total of 1.23 billion yuan (~$180 million).

Rounding out the top three, NetEase.com, the recent winners of the highly lucrative Blizzard/Activision World of Warcraft operators license in China managed a healthy 12.7 percent of Chinese domestic market share. While only culling 780 million yuan (~$114 million), in Q2, it’s important to remember that NetEase.com has been through the ringer with Chinese regulators regarding the support levels that Blizzard would fill in the contract.

If these Q2 numbers are any indication, it seems like Niko Partners, who made projections and put some numbers to the page back in May of this year, are right on track. Their report indicates that by 2013, the Chinese online gaming market should reach an annual revenue number value of $8.9 billion. While the market shows no signs of slowing, in fact these numbers clearly indicate a continued growth, it will be interesting to see how the governments’ recent decision to pull the plug on foreign investments in the domestic gaming will effect this growth, and associated revenue streams, if at all.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

China says ‘No Way José’ to foreign investment in online games industry

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

It’s quite possible that the Chinese government would like to keep this one on the down low, it’s been revealed that they’ve officially cut off foreign investments in their lucrative online gaming industry. Apparently, the move is to strengthen the governments’ control and oversight of virtual worlds.

g228586_chinese-flag-640The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), China’s video game industry regulator and overseer, released a paper on Saturday stating that the government will now prohibit the investment of foreign funds and interest in domestic online gaming operations. This ban is includes joint ventures, wholly owned enterprises and cooperatives.

If the phrase ‘joint venture’ and China rings a recent bell, you’ll recall that the holdup for millions of Chinese World of Warcraft players was due in part to Chinese regulators that were concerned over publisher Blizzard’s provisions of technical support to NetEase, the Chinese game developer that earlier this year won the lincense to operate the title within China. This new directive seeks to cover this issue but also stating that foreign firms will no longer be allowed to “influence Chinese gaming firms through agreements or technology support.”

With China having one of the world’s fastest growing online gaming markets, with, according to the GAPP, growth estimates projected at anywhere between 30 and 50 percent this year to a whopping 24 – 27 billion yuan ($3.5 – 4 billion), it’s easy to see why investors would want to get involved.

What’s important to keep in mind here is that the timing of this announcement couldn’t be better for the Chinese government. With the GDC: China taking place in Shanghai, China is currently playing host to some of the most important and influential decision makers in the industry. A coincidence that they chose the day prior to the official opening day of the GDC to make the announcement? Highly suspect.

Ultimately, as the decree states, foreign investment has been cut off to games and publishers that operate in the Chinese domestic market.  It’ll be interesting to see how this effects gaming powerhouses such as Shanda, which have a number of partnerships and joint ventures currently in operation.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Red Rocket, “The Asian market should look closely at iPhone”

Monday, October 12th, 2009

With the GDC China event producing a number of insights and information about the current state of play, Red Rocket Games CEO Jung Suh spoke about mobile games, specifically the iPhone, and why even the Asian market should be seriously looking at it’s potential.

Red Rocket CEO Jung Suh

Red Rocket CEO Jung Suh

We’ve profiled Red Rocket last year, and covered the release of their music/rhythm platform Mevo and The Grooveriders. The company was co-founded by Suh, a co-founder of GameFly together with Scott Yu, a former EA technical art director, and have founded a Bellevue, WA/Shanghai based company focusing on making casual games for PC and mobile markets.

Speaking to an Asian market in Asia, Suh addressed the gaming potential of Apple’s iPhone, with “PS2 quality gaming in a little handheld device,” and pressing upon developers the short development cycles of one to six months, which is short enough to keep employees motivated, but also noted that with 546 Apps recently released in one day on Apple’s App store, it’s “a lot of Apps to compete with.”

While Suh did preach the benefits of developing for the iPhone, he did point out the stringent application process that all developers must submit to Apple before approval. Specifically, he spoke to the challenges that Red Rocket themselves have faced. The rejections can come from a wide variety of angles, including icons not matching color specifications exactly, as well as using commercial keywords in the app description, in this case specifically ‘James Bond’ – a no no under Apple’s TOS.

Suh also noted that Red Rocket’s own experience with iPhone game advertising has been “lukewarm”, however, advertising the game does up the chance of your app being discussed on app review sites, appropriately generating buzz. He also noted that early reviews of your App are extremely important. Suh did admit that “our friends and families and employees help with early reviews.” He also stated that 100 + ratings of any app are the crucial point needed for an applications legitimacy as a contender in the seemingly endless list of available applications for the iPhone. Red Rocket itself currently has four titles in the App Store, with a number in development. Suh noted that cross promotion of iPhone apps is essential. Even if you’ve got a great game available, it “may not be enough,” with external reviews and/or ‘staff recommendations’ from Apple may be the make or break moment for any application.

In addition to the 1-6 weeks that an iPhone app should take to develop, Suh also added that developers shouldn’t “spend lots of time” on development work unless they’re 100% certain that they’re working on a major title. “If you’re spending more than $30,000 on a game you’re probably not going to make your money back.”

Red Rocket currently has an international staff, and is now expanding from just developer to a developer/publisher roll. In exchange for publishing rights, Red Rocket provides marketing, iPhone developers metrics, and Apple contacts as part of a revenue sharing offer.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Free-to-play based ijji.com now topping 9 million users

Friday, October 9th, 2009

The free-to-play industry received yet another ‘we must be doing something right’ confirmation yesterday when it was announced that gaming portal ijji.com has now topped over 9 million registered players since launch in 2006. Ijji.com is the Irvine, California based subsidiary of South Korean ISP NHN.

ijjiDemonstrating compounded growth, 9 million users indicates that the portal has upped it’s user count by 40 percent in the last year alone. Focused mainly on ‘hardcore’ gaming titles, ijji.com offers a wide range of free-to-play titles including first person shooters, MMORPG’s, and racers to name a few. Most popular at ijji.com? Lunia, GunZ, The Fuel, Soldier Front, and Drift City.

“Gamers have made ijji.com their destination of choice because we dared to be committed to fast action, intense online games,” says Philip Yun, CEO of ijji.com’s host NHN USA. “The recent flood of new memberships serves as an amazing validation that we are on the right track, offering an unequaled collection of quality, hardcore games in one place.”

While ijji.com is now counting over 9 million registered users, they’re now only building on this success. Over the coming months, ijji has four new titles on tap. Soul of the Ultimate Nation is a fantasy based MMORPG, Alliance of Valiant Arms, a first person shooter based on the successful Unreal Engine 3, which is set in “the deserted urban streets of a modern day world war”, KARMA: Operation Barbarossa, an alternate reality FPS set in Europe under German control, and perhaps the most anticipate ijji release, Huxley, Webzen’s MMO that has strong FPS action and elements mixed in with a character advancement system.

Ijji.com features free to play gaming, both traditional Action and RPG games, along with a host of Card/Board games, flash based games, and wide variety of mini (casual) games. Titles are supported through various in-game customizations via the companies proprietary g-coin RMT system.

Tags: , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Sulake contracts, True Game expands

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

SulakeSulake, the Finnish parent company behind the successful virtual world Habbo Hotel is expected to lay off 40 staff members (20 percent of their global workforce). The news arrived yesterday via effected employee’s tweets, as well as articstartup.com, with layoffs to be focused in Helsinki.

Sulake employs approximately 300 people across 13 countries, and claims in the neighborhood of 12 million monthly unique visits to it’s tween-friendly virtual world Habbo Hotel. While Habbo Hotel features a number virtual celebrities’ represented in the world, in 2008 Sulake reported that they’d garnered around €50 million ($73 million) in revenues, but only turned a profit of around €1 million ($1.5 million).

In addition to Habbo Hotel, Sulake also runs the Finnish social networking platform IRC-Galleria, and recently launched another virtual world, Bobba, this time centered around a smartphone platform, with eventual plans to port the virtual world to a PC platform. Bobba is aimed at attracting an older demographic than then tween focused Habbo Hotel.

And on the other side of the coin….

Irvine, California based True Games, which recently announced the opening of a new development studio in Austin, Texas, seems to be on the growth warpath. Announced yesterday, True Games has now established an External Development Division and is now seeking to publish new content on it’s TrueTech gaming platform. Not limited to one genre, True Games seems to be seeking a full catalogue of offerings, including but not limited to RPG, RTS, racing, FPS, sports, action, simulation, and the list goes on. This content may be original or licensed online games that would be operated under the microtransaction model.

“We currently have several top quality products in development, but in addition to our own content, we also want to take advantage of our extremely capable TrueTech platform’s capabilities by operating additional online games. There are developers out there creating amazing online content, however, they don’t have the means to bring it to market on their own. That is exactly the kind of partner we are looking for,” said Jeff Lujan founder and CEO of True Games.

As for Sulake, it’s an interesting twist. While Habbo is one of the most popular destinations for their target market, taking in $73 million in revenues and only producing $1.5 million in profit is certainly cause to raise an eyebrow. With that said, the buzz surrounding Habbo has been nothing but positive for as long as memory serves, and a 20 percent staff reduction seems a bit out of the ordinary. A harbinger of darker days ahead for the Finnish firm? Hopefully not. And again, heading in a completely opposite direction, True Games seems to be poised to pounce on the microtransaction market. Their first release, Epic Warrior seems to be doing well in an already competitive market, a highly anticipated release just around the corner (Mytheon), a new studio in Austin, and now an external development team? True Games…one to watch.

Tags: , ,
Posted in industry news | 1 Comment »

 

League of Legends sets official October 27th release date, open beta soon

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

fatfoogoo client, and developers of the highly anticipated League of Legends, Riot Games have recently announced the official release date of October 27th on the title’s official message boards. This date will also serve as the official date of the retail version of this free-to-play title hitting store shelves.

Currently, the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) is in closed beta, but Riot Games plans an open beta invitation beginning later this month, ending with the official release. Although this will be the ‘official’ release date, Riot will be presenting the world with it’s own version of a soft launch, as the game will then be in a “pre-season” mode. This time period will be used by both players and developers as a time to get used to the game and play style, while the Riot folks work out any kinks or bugs in the game, and put the final polish on the product. According to the Riot Games post, “We believe that seasons are a great way to help facilitate competitive gaming and competitive communities.” The first official season of League of Legends will commence in the first half of 2010.

League of Legends is based upon a highly successful Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients, whereby players have a host of demons that they can then summon and engage in intense battles against each other. The game is free-to-play, and supported through various microtransactions, powered by fatfoogoo technology. “League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people’s minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free,” states Riot Games CEO and co-founder Brandon Beck.

In addition to the already in place cast of champions available to players, Riot has recently released details on two new champions:

Shaco, the Demon Jester

  • ShacoDeceive – Shaco stealths himself instantly and teleports to target location.
  • Jack In The Box– Shaco creates an animated Jack-in-the-Box at target location, which will wait, stealthed, to Fear nearby units and attack them when some come nearby
  • Two-Shiv Poison– Shaco’s Shivs passive poison targets on hit, giving them a miss chance and slowing them. He can throw his Shivs to deal damage and poison them.
  • Hallucinate [U] – Shaco creates an illusion of himself near him, which can attack nearby enemies. Upon death, it explodes, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
  • Backstab [P] – Shaco deals 30% bonus damage when striking from behind.

Heimerdinger, the Revered Inventor

  • HeimerdingerH-28G Evolution Turret – Heimerdinger lays down a machine gun turret. This turret gains experience from attacking units and can level-up, gaining boosted damage and armor.
  • Hextech Micro-Rockets – Heimerdinger fires a number of Champion seeking missiles, hitting random champions within it’s super long range
  • CH-1 Concussion Grenade– Heimerdinger lobs a grenade at a location, dealing damage to enemy units / turrets as well as stunning anyone directly hit and blinding surrounding units.
  • UPGRADE!!! [U] – Passively increases Cooldown Reduction; in addition increases Heimerdingers and his Evolution Turret’s Attack Speeds. Activate to heal and upgrade one of your Evolution Turrets to lvl 2 to gain Ur’Anium Rounds, or lvl 3 to gain Explosive Cartridges.
  • TechmaturgicalRepairBots [P] – Heimerdinger has increased Health Regen.
YouTube Preview Image

Find out more about League of Legends at www.leagueoflegends.com.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

Under the radar Playdom now pulling down “Upwards of $50 million” per year

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

As social and casual gaming continues it’s steady increase in usership, and associated revenues earned, a few names surface to the top as leaders in their field. Playfish and Zynga certainly come to mind, but there are a number of ‘others’ out there there are obviously finding success in what they’re doing. One such company, apparently flying relatively low on the radar, Playdom, is not only seeking additional funding, but turning a healthy $50 million in revenues per year.

playdomAccording to a post by insidesocialgames.com late last week, a reliable source within Playdom commented that the company’s “annual revenue is upwards of $50 million.” Not only is the company rolling in a positive cash flow, but they’re also raising a buzz amongst the VC crowd. According to Dean Takahashi, Playdom is raising a VC funding round in the double digit million, and seeking a valuation of somewhere between $100 and $200 million. According to one of Takahashi’s sources, “I think they’re going to be able to get that valuation.”

By no surprise, the social gaming company is monetizing via microtransaction sales of virtual goods, items such as weapons in it’s popular Mafia style game, and virtual clothing and customization options with it’s virtual world app Sorority Life. The company also rewards virtual currency to it’s users through participation in advertising offers, so a clear cut breakdown of revenues is unavailable at this point. Currently, the company has three of the top five social games on the MySpace charts, and has steadily been gaining traction on Zynga and Playfish’s turf on the Facebook games charts. Clearly indicating continued growth and expansion, Playdom has also recently launched it’s own Mafia game, Mobsters, for the iPhone.

The string of hits continues for Playdom, as last week they announced a deal with pre-paid card provider InComm. These pre-paid cards are aimed squarely at the highly lucrative teens market, or in other words – those that have yet to acquire their own credit card or mobile phone account. This target market makes up one-quarter of all of Playdom’s users. Likewise, the Mountain View, California company has expanded from 60 to over 110 employees in the past few months, have opened an office in San Francisco’s SOMA district, a respectable address for any digital firm, AND in June, landed a number of gaming industry veterans, including former EA #2, COO John Pleasants, who’s now running Playdom.

While Playdom still trails what some would consider the industry leader, Zynga, with 28 million users vs. 129 million, it’s important to keep the timeline of Playdom in perspective. Still a relative newcomer to the market, it seems as though Playdom is starting to assemble the pieces to what could very well be a very powerful puzzle.

With that it mind, it’s also important to keep perspective on where Playdom is at the current moment. Playdom may be enjoying success right now, but let’s not forget that they’re currently involved in a copyright infringement suit with Zynga, and a number of Playdom’s successes have really been only reverse engineered versions of other popular social games. The true test of Playdom’s ability to truly stand on their own two feet will come when they produce an original work, and drive it to the top of the social gaming charts.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

PAYMENT INDUSTRY EXPERT THOMAS AIGNER JOINS FATFOOGOO

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

fatfoogoo, the leading monetization software provider, has secured the services of payment and gaming expert Thomas Aigner. As Vice President of Business Development, Thomas will be responsible for strengthening the company’s continual growth by building up new and existing partnerships.

Thomas Aigner, 28, moves to fatfoogoo and the virtual world of in-game ecosystems after having worked for the online prepaid method specialist paysafecard. “The micro-transaction industry has a very bright future and fatfoogoo are taking it forward,” says Aigner. “They’re constantly developing and improving what they do, which is to offer a great white-label one stop solution for game companies.“

As Vice President of Business Development, his main task at fatfoogoo will be to build up strong relationships to existing and potential partners. “Seeing this development, it’s really exciting to be part of fatfoogoo now and managing their strategic approach for several markets,“ Aigner explains. “I’m also responsible for managing the relationships with our payment partners and of course taking care of our customers using the fatfoogoo platform.“

Thomas has built strategies for international roll outs in the past and taken part in several start ups. From 2005 to 2009, he worked within the payment industry as a Business Development Manager and later as Head of Sales at paysafecard, Europe’s leading prepaid payment solution provider.
Thomas is a graduate in telecommunications and media technique from the University of Applied Science St. Poelten in Austria. He is also a keen traveller with an enthusiasm for extreme sports and gaming.

Tags: ,
Posted in company news, fatfoogoo | No Comments »

 

Microtransactions to power CCP’s new DUST 514

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Microtransactions have seen a long and winding road in video games over the past few years. Originating in the Asian market as a way not only to prevent piracy, but to capitalize on a growing demand from gamers to pay for only what they want and/or use in their game of choice. And hot on the heels of Turbine’s announcement of a planned console based MMO, Icelandic developer CCP, of EVE Online fame, announced on Saturday that their newest offering, DUST 514, is not only squarely pointed at the console market, but will also be forgoing the subscription model and supported through microtransactions.

dust-514_05

DUST 514, a strategic FPS, is setting out on an entirely new path for gaming, bridging the gap between their PC only product, EVE, and this console based shooter. Players from EVE and DUST will be able to interact, predominantly through CCP’s New Eden social network, which is slated to launch early next year. EVE, which focuses on space combat, and DUST with deals with ground combat will be interlinked through the social network, and EVE players will be able to ‘hire’ DUST players to attack planets of districts of planets from them, with players of both games able to join the same Corps and Alliances. However, this link will not be available right off the bat. CCP hopes to expand the appeal and associated player base of it’s online world, but plans on doing it slowly. The link between the two will be introduced slowly in order to ease long time EVE players to these new arrivals. These new arrivals will also be under intense scrutiny, as a new flux of players could have a number of impacts on EVE’s economy, one that’s been the subject of scandals and controversies over the past year.

CCP said that they will not be implementing a ‘leveling’ system, common in most MMO’s. Instead, a series of in-game achievements, known as the “achievement matrix” that will unlock new customizable weapons and vehicles. There will be also no character classes, rather, players are defined by the equipment they carry/own.

And where might these customizations come from? Here’s where the in-game item shop, or “virtual items marketplace,” as CCP is officially calling it at this point, comes into play.

So it looks like we’ve got two top name studios, both CCP and Turbine that are gearing up to take on microtransactions in a big, big way. Turbine has already fired the first salvo, with the recent swap of Dungeons and Dragons Online from subscription to a free-to-play hybrid, to great success. DDO features a number of items for sale via microtransactions in their in-game shop. While CCP has not offered a hybrid version of play for their games, they are working on a console game that will link two different games together. When CCP implements this in-game item shop, with various equipment, weapons, etc. through microtransaction purchases could CCP consider allowing the water to flow back the other way? Meaning, if microtransaction purchases are a success in DUST, the question remains, would (or are the already?) take a serious look at the economic functions underway within DDO? On the other side of the coin, with Turbine’s DDO growing in numbers and microtransaction puchases, and recently announcing that they’re currently developing an MMO for consoles, could we see the same microtransactions monetization model from the Westwood, Mass studios?

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »