Archive for March, 2011

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WildTanget releases BrandBoost in the UK – Cadbury and Namco Bandai take full advantage

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

WildTangent has recently announced the arrival of their BrandBoost advertising platform on UK shores.  With this initial market entrance, WildTangent is making a big splash, offering both Cadbury and Namco Bandai “campaign firsts” on Facebook.  The two also now carry the distinction of being the first brands to use the platform outside of North America.

Cadbury

The long standing Chocolatier is board offering users a number of virtual goods within, appropriately targeted, Cupcake Corner, Happy Aquarium, and Mall World.  The mechanism for eligibility?  Simply play a round or two of branded, “Race Season” mini-games.  Cadbury will reward players with a free virtual gift directly tied to the company’s offerings: in-game desserts that can be served to customers.  The ROI for Cadbury is increased engagement with the brand, as well as providing a uniquely positive experience.

Namco Bandai

As a digital world product, Namco Bandai is taking a different route via BrandBoost.  With their UK campaign, the company is promoting <em>Dr. Kawashima’s Body And Brain Exercises</em> for Xbox Kinect.  The campaign is slated to run across a multitude of social games, but no specific titles were mentioned.  Again a “do something in exchange for something else,” campaign, Namco Bandai will reward players with in-game items to those who watch a video ad about the Kinect game.

“We are always looking to combine innovation with effectiveness, and we’ve been delighted with how BrandBoost has performed,” said Mary Bond, Head of Digital for Target Media, Namco Bandai’s agency in a press statement. “As well as being a UK media first, it reached the target audience en masse in an engaging Facebook environment.”

You’ll remember that WildTangent’s BrainBoost made <a href=”http://www.fatfoogoo.com/2010/10/wildtangent-and-crowdstar-partner-to-bring-branded-sponsorships-in-game/”>waves</a> just before Halloween last year when they partnered with CrowdStar to offer most of the same as mentioned above.  In this article I pointed out the demise of Microsoft’s Massive in-game advertising unit.  For the longest time, IGA was a sensitive and controversial topic, with many citing the method as a distraction to their gameplay.  Fast forward 10 years, and it would appear as though the in-game advertising model in itself was/is not flawed, but rather the “how” “when” and “why” seems to have been addressed and solved.  The jury is still out on the ROI and effectiveness of the BrandBoost (and similar) methods, but from what my radar is picking up, there’s not but much, if any resistance to the program.  And clearly, WildTangent’s expansion into the UK market is a sign that they’re on to something good.

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Free Realms arrives on PlayStation Network

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

And there we have it friends, Sony Online Entertainment’s Free Realms is now available, for free, via the PlayStation Network. The wildly popular free-to-play, family focused virtual world game/activity currently boasts a massive 17 million registered players user base, and that’s just from their PC and Mac computer based version.

In adding Free Realms to the PlayStation network, Sony is making a historic step in the world of gaming. In addition to a number of other accolades, Free Realms now carries the distinction of being the first free-to-play MMO to arrive on any gaming console. You might be thinking, “Ok, so what?” Normally, I would think the same, however, this decidedly marks a shift in games console thinking and positioning. Until now, if you wanted to play it, you had to pay for it (outside the realm of demos, of course). Those that wanted to play and pay-as-they-go were restricted to a desk, mouse, and keyboard. With the addition of Free Realms, this is no longer the case. Likewise, since Sony has already gotten users used to the click, click, download convenience (while having your credit card details stored), the likelihood of additional transactions is quite high. For me, there’s always that moment of hesitation at my desk. On the couch, I might be far more likely to click, click, sold.

“SOE has set the standard for MMOs on the console with two incredibly successful, innovative and exciting new massive online game worlds for the PlayStation®3 system — first with DC Universe Online and now Free Realms,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “Our games extend the current lifecycle of the console with the added value offer of bringing tens of thousands of people together, in a game world, to socialize at community events, compete in combat activities and engage in a diversity of gameplay experiences, for years to come.”

And remember the 17 million registered users mentioned above? Any takers on how fast Sony will double this number? By creating and platforming a title that can be enjoyed by everyone from 8 to 80, Sony has the killer combination. Whether it’s a round of mini-games, home decorating, or adventure and exploration, you’ve covered a massive swath of gamers, and packaged it in a graphically rich world. Ninjas, Warriors and Wizards all take part, as well as future Mario Andretti’s and 49ers.

Rated E10+, Free Realms is now up for grabs on the PlayStation Network, and offers one month ($4.99), three month ($12.99), six month ($24.50), one year ($29.99), and lifetime ($34.99) memberships.

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Nexon adds Dungeon Fighter Slayer Edition to iOS – thoughts on Nexon’s bigger plan

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Nexon has recently unleashed their popular MORPG Dungeon Fighter for iOS devices. Known as Dungeon & Fighter in all territories other than North America, The title is one of Nexon’s hottest properties, with over 200 million registered users, and now available for play on the go.

According to Nexon, the Dungeon & Fighter Slayer Edition is optimized for all iOS devices, and created by Neople, a fully owned subsidiary of Nexon. While this might be a “special edition” of Dungeon & Fighter, Nexon has taken the higher road, and is not pushing a watered down version of the title, but rather, has included a plethora of content not found on other versions of the game. Content includes Ancient Dungeons, as well as a playable Mage class to name a few. Neople/Nexon have also taken advantage of the unique interface offered by iOS devices, as players now have access to a pinch and zoom in/out of the mini-map, as well as use on screen directional keys for movement. The title still retains it’s long standing side-scrolling game play, a mechanic players have come to love and expect from Nexon.

“The iOS release of Dungeon & Fighter Slayer Edition represents a significant step forward for the Dungeon & Fighter franchise,” said Hyun-Jong Kim from Nexon Mobile in a statement. “Both longstanding fans of the franchise and new players alike will now be able to take the enthralling action of the Dungeon & Fighter universe with them on the go.”

Now if this were any other company offering yet another version of a title, I’d promptly yawn and move on. However, this is Nexon we’re talking about here. If you’re not familiar with Nexon, in a nutshell, if you like free-to-play, or paying for bits and pieces as you go, aka microtransactions, you’ve got respect to pay. While certainly not on the level of Apple, it’s fair to say that Nexon has done for games what Apple via iTunes did for music. I’ll explain:

Apple started a revolutionary program and idea with the advent of the iTunes store. It provided a safe and legitimate mechanism whereby users could pay for what they want, and download it directly to their computer. Not coming from the exact same starting point, Nexon sought to put games piracy to bed, once and for all. Their logic? Let the games loose for free, and then charge users for what they want along the way; be that a sword or potion here, or a map or additional levels there. For the longest time Nexon pushed this business model, and is not reaping the rewards. However, this was primarily browser based gaming via Nexon’s portal only.

Within the past week, we’ve seen Nexon port KartRider and their long standing flagship MapleStory over to both iOS devices and Facebook (and other social networks), as well as lead a financing round for a promising social games development house, A Bit Lucky. It’s a fair statement to make that something is definitely afoot at Nexon. With that said, Nexon is still at the pivot point, meaning, they’re now bringing their popular titles over into the social/mobile world. I see this as phase one of a much larger plan in the works. Once Nexon is settled and established in this playfield and worked out all the kinks, I believe this will be the time when we see Nexon’s investment in A Bit Lucky start to pay off, as the firm will undoubtedly produce Nexon’s next “big hit.”

Only time will tell, but it might be time to keep a closer eye on what Nexon’s up to, as Q1 is rapidly coming to a close. Next phase? My money’s on a Q4 ’11 release, just in time to take full advantage of the upcoming iOS, and most probably Phone 5.

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Google to launch Android in-app payments this week

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Google is gearing up to officially support in-app transactions on the Android Market this week. You might remember that they made the announcement back in January, and it appears as though all systems are go sometime this week. Google is encouraging developers to upload and test their microtransactions enabled apps via the Developer Console asap, as the big G wants to ensure that the secure billing mechanism is lock tight before unleashing the function into the wild.

Android Developer Ecosystem Manager Eric Chu writes, “In preparation for the launch, we are opening up Android Market for upload and end-to-end testing of your apps that use In-app Billing. You can now upload your apps to the Developer Console, create a catalog of in-app products, and set prices for them. You can then set up accounts to test in-app purchases. During these test transactions, the In-app Billing service interacts with your app exactly as it will for actual users and live transactions.”

All fine and dandy, but aren’t in-app purchases already available on Android? Certainly! Zong, BOKU, PayPal, and PlaySpan all have 3rd party enabled in-app purchasing mechanisms, so what’s the big deal?

The big deal here is that while on paper, nothing groundbreaking or new, but rather, making the platform far more attractive to both developers and consumers.

Developers

By enabling their own in-app transactions, thereby cutting out any 3rd parties, Google has effectively given the green light to developers to port their title from iOS, which, of course, already supports in-app transactions. Granted, not an easy task, but with the proliferation of Android, and now combined with a direct billing method to the actual vendor of said app, I can’t imagine a developer who would pass this option up. The revenues speak for themselves.

Consumer

Likewise, this new feature for Android could signal a much larger project in the works at Google. A project we’ve already seen, but perhaps haven’t put the two together yet. I’ll explain. By enabling in-app transactions directly via Google, the company is now allowing users a very simple, no frills method whereby they can simply buy away via the credit card details stored within a Google Checkout account. No 3rd party with your details, or no need to re-enter that 16 digit string every time you want to make a purchase. Credit card details stored with Google. Android now offering in-app purchases via Google Checkout. Google teams with MasterCard and Citigroup to enable NFC payments (and files a patent). See where I’m going with this?

Google Checkout has long been a property that’s been a quiet one in the mix. It’s been the payment mechanism that Google always seem one or two steps behind their competitors on. And while Mountain View may have been keeping this sleeping dragon quiet for a while, the combination of in-app purchases, Android, and NFC technology could just be the beginning of a whole new way of business at Google.

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Nexon Dungeon Fighter headed to Xbox LIVE arcade

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Free-to-play innovator Nexon has recently announced a publishing deal with Microsoft Game Studios to bring the popular MORPG Dungeon Fighter Online to Xbox LIVE Arcade users everywhere.

With over 200 million registered users worldwide, Dungeon Fighter is a heavy weight in it’s own class.  While most of Dungeon Fighter’s audience coming from Asia, the game recently set a new record for concurrent players; registering 2.2 million concurrent players across China, Japan, and Korea.

The Xbox LIVE Arcade version of Dungeon Fighter Online won’t be a simple port, but rather will be co-developed between Nexon and Softmax.  Softmax has an appropriate pedigree, having worked on The War of Genesis and Magna Carta.  Nexon’s dev studio, Neople will take lead on the project, and Microsoft will do the publishing via the Microsoft Game Studios.  Likewise, Microsoft will handle the localizations into Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian, and French, while Nexon will handle Chinese and English language support.

“This agreement is a significant step forward for Nexon,” said Min Suh, Nexon’s chief executive officer. “For some time we have been seeking opportunities to expand beyond online PC gaming and move into new platforms like Xbox LIVE Arcade. With the help of Microsoft Game Studios’ deep development and localization experience, we anticipate that Dungeon Fighter Online will bring enjoyment to entirely new audiences on Xbox LIVE Arcade.”

This announcement arrives only days after Nexon’s <a href=”http://www.fatfoogoo.com/2011/03/a-bit-lucky-lands-5m-in-additional-funding-led-by-nexon/”>investment</a> in A Bit Lucky.  Likewise, SOE just <a href=”http://www.fatfoogoo.com/2011/03/sony%e2%80%99s-free-realms-headed-to-playstation-network/”>recently announced</a> that they own Free-to-Play hit Free Realms will be arriving on the PlayStation network later this year.  Call it coincidence, but it looks like we’re in the middle of a reverse flow of games.  Meaning, free-to-play was born from a number of problems, but it’s always been a bit out there on it’s own, at least in the way of “found on my console.”  Free-to-play and the microtransaction business model have fought a long and hard fight, and it looks like they might now be ready for prime time.  If this in fact the case, and if Nexon has broken into the console market, how long will it be before Zynga strikes a deal, and Wii, PS3, and Xbox owners can farm direct from their console?

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Flurry shifts devs into high gear with Game Acceleration Program

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

San Francisco based game grower and monetizer Flurry has recently announced the launch of its Game Acceleration Program, or GAP for short for iOS and Android based platforms. The program seeks to entice developers to the Flurry side of the fence by offering a wide range of development, and perhaps more importantly, marketing tools to maximize the potential of their product. Included in the package is everything from soup to nuts: full analytics, game design and dev coaching, financing, distribution, and again, marketing. As an added bonus, the Flurry GAP program is designed to not require developers to hand over their IP rights in exchange for entry into the program. Quite the contrary, Flurry is only requiring developers to utilize their proprietary Flurry AppCircle, an application-recommending network. Devs are required to use this code until agreed upon costs are recuperated. No word on whether or not these recuperation costs vary from developer to developer.

Leading the Flurry GAP charge is experienced industry veteran Jeferson Valadares. Valadares is no stranger to games development and monetization, bringing over 10 years of experience to the table via some of the biggest names in the biz; Electronic Arts, Playfish, and Digital Chocolate. His experience ranges from mobile to Facebook, and he’s been involved with AAA titles including FIFA, Harry Potter, and Need for Speed to name a few. Having started off his career helping brands build online and mobile games, Valadares is in a unique position to pass along his experience and passion for the industry to up-and-comers.

“There is no greater thrill than working through the design and iteration process with game studios to create a hit game,” saidJeferson Valadares, Flurry general manager of games. “Whether we’re collaborating with a brand or an indie gaming developer, Flurry GAP will share best-of-breed game design principles to deliver fun and engaging application experiences that increase retention and monetization.”

According to Flurry, the GAP program isn’t just about garage coders seeking to make it big (although there’s a healthy seat at the table reserved for this group). The program also welcomes brands looking to “gamify” their current applications. Additionally, the Flurry GAP program seeks to guide current games studios through the process of flipping their business model from Premium to Freemium.

“With roughly 10 million iOS and Android devices activated each day, the mobile space is as important of a channel as online and primetime TV,” said Simon Khalaf, Flurry president and CEO. “Flurry reaches over 40 million active consumers each day through Flurry AppCircle – we want to help companies of all sizes better reach and monetize that audience.”

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A Bit Lucky lands $5M in additional funding; led by Nexon

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Social games developer A Bit Lucky may be enjoying the luck by name only, as their pool of creative talent is obviously up to the challenge, at least in the minds of investors. With only one title out to date, Lucky Train, the Silicon Valley based developer has already garnered the attention of Accel Partners’ Seed Fund, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Blumberg Capital, SV Angel, The Founder Collective, Felicis Ventures, Charles and Kai Huang (Co-Founders of Red Octane), Mark Jung (Co-Founder and CEO of IGN), David Lawee (Head of M&A at Google), Joshua Schachter (Founder of Delicious), Lerer Ventures, and XG Ventures.

If the list reads like a who’s who, you’re not alone. And if the previous $2.6 million from the aforementioned investors was enough to get the ball rolling, free-to-play games developer and publisher Nexon has recently led a second round of funding for A Bit Lucky, resulting in an additional $5 million. Obviously an interesting move for Nexon, as this clearly signals their growing interest in Facebook based gaming. The question is, for the company the practically invented the free-to-play business model, are they a bit late to the Facebook/social gaming party? Perhaps not, as one of A Bit Lucky’s pillars is cross platform social games, with the emphasis being on the cross platform. Given that Lucky Train is one of the higher rated and favored games on Facebook, with the focus on cross platform, the additional audience and revenues via additional platforms is enormous. Furthermore, given Nexon’s scope and existing product offerings, porting them through to multi platform use could expand Nexon’s user base tenfold.

“A Bit Lucky is an exceptionally talented team making this a great investment,” said Daniel Kim, Nexon America’s CEO. “We’ve known Frederic for many years, and the whole team is very talented and understands the dynamics of the market very well. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be part of the trail that A Bit Lucky is blazing in the social media game space.”

From the executive standpoint, Nexon’s new investment also gives them a seat at the decisions table, i.e. the Board of Directors. Likewise, David Lawee (Google) and Andrew Trader (Zynga) will also now hold Board of Directors titles.

”We are very excited to get Nexon’s support to create the new generation of high quality, ubiquitous social games,” said Frederic Descamps, CEO of A Bit Lucky. “Nexon invented Free-To-Play and virtual goods in gaming and we are looking forward to benefiting from their expertise.”

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Amazon launches Android App Store, puts Google on notice

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

The App Store. For the longest time, this phrase was associated with one place, and one place only; Apple. Either the patent for this phrase was overlooked, or simply denied, as Amazon.com has recently announced their own “App Store” vending Android OS apps. Likewise, it looks like Google just got a serious competitor.

TechCrunch first started circulating the news about an impending App Store for Amazon back in September of last year, and it looks to be spot on. January saw an open call for developer submissions, and three months later, Amazon is pulling the trigger. Again, while the initial news called a number of dead-on items, Amazon has managed to remain tight lipped about a few features that are clear USPs.

Amazon’s new App Store allows consumers to “Test Drive” just about any Android application directly from within their browser. Wow. Without getting into the highly technical wizardry that makes this happen; When a user clicks on “Test Drive,” Amazon triggers an Android emulator to launch. The emulator runs on flash, but allows for direct control of the app under consideration. Naturally, as an emulator, apps that take advantage of location and/or gyroscopes/accelerometer will not function properly, but just about every other feature remains true to the physical “real-world” counterpart.

To make sure that there’s a steady stream of traffic running through the Amazon App Store, the company has also instituted a “Free App of the Day,” program. Obviously, this has tremendous pull, as free apps will be selected by Amazon staffers, and provide an incentive for eager Android owners to return regularly to check in on their “Freebie.” Likewise, this freebie includes an upside for the developer(s). Amazon’s shake down works like so: If your app is selected to be the Free App of the Day, you’ll still be eligible for a 20% cut of the previously set list price. In other words, your decently selling app at $10, moving 1500 copies/per suddenly drops to free, you move 150,000+ copies in one day, and you still get a 20% cut. Bonus!

And now for the good news. Amazon’s launch of the App Store for Android now puts them in the driver’s seat of a car they know all too well: distribution. This marketplace marks the first serious competition to Google’s own official Android Marketplace. Taking cues from previous user experiences at the Google store, and adding a dash of Apple magic, Amazon has enacted a stringent app submission process, whereby they’ll be screening every app submission. This flies in the face of Google’s own process whereby screening standards can be a bit “relaxed.”

The one downside that Amazon is currently facing is combating the built in Android App market currently supplied on many Android devices. Instead of one clicking through to an app store, users would have to visit Amazon.com and then access the store. But then again, how long will it really take for an amazonappstore app to appear?

Amazon.com is a massive and long standing member on the digital front. They already sell their own hardware via the kindle, and now an Android apps store? Anyone want to lay their money down on how long it will take for Amazon to drop the Kindle OS, and start installing Android? My guess – Christmas 2011.

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Facebook snaps up Snaptu

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Overshadowed by AT&T’s purchase of T-Mobile U.S. over the weekend, it appears as though Facebook has just made another purchase, this time targeting London based Snaptu. The pull? Snaptu has been hard at work developing Java based technology specifically targeted at providing as much smartphone-esque interactivity for non-smartphones. Snaptu is also responsible for a feature-rich, if not 100% complete, Facebook experience on non-iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.

Snaptu’s Facebook for Feature Phones currently operates on over 2,500 individual items, obviously something that Facebook felt was enough of a draw to make it their own. Directly from Snaptu:

The Snaptu team is excited to announce today that we recently agreed to be acquired by Facebook. Earlier this year, we announced the launch of a new Facebook mobile application to give people a great mobile experience on a broad range of feature phones. The Facebook for Feature Phones app currently works on more than 2,500 devices.

We soon decided that working as part of the Facebook team offered the best opportunity to keep accelerating the pace of our product development. And joining Facebook means we can make an even bigger impact on the world.

You might remember that Snaptu had recently stuck a deal with Facebook to provide an official Facebook for feature phones application. Clearly, Facebook was impressed. Post deal, pre buy, Snaptu had also struck similar deals with LinkedIn, as well as currently supporting Twitter and Picasa amongst others.

The takeaway here is; if there was ever any doubt about Facebook’s commitment to mobile, the Snaptu acquisition should clearly send warning signs to any would-be competitors. I’ve personally found a number of occasions where I’d check something on my iPhone app, only to have to head to the laptop to fully interact with friends on Facebook. Now, it seems as though Facebook is putting the screws to it when it comes to their mobile strategy. Moreover, with Apple teasing the Lion OS with a number of striking similarities to iOS, the border between mobile and non is rapidly shrinking. Those that are already planning on a strong mobile strategy now will be the future winners. Given the Facebook’s lightning speed, and seemingly endless rollout of features, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of Snaptu specific items included in a Facebook app update in the very near future.

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Playa Games opens the beta doors on BloodGame, adds Thorsten Rohmann as COO

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Hamburg, Germany based Playa Games GmbH has recently announced their newest edition to their browser based games collection: BloodGame. The title is now in an open beta, and available for consumption. And while browser based games are relatively nothing new, Playa is banking hard on BloodGame, with CEO Hannes Beuck claiming that this title surpasses any previous browser based gaming experiences, featuring revolutionary graphics quality. Playa is also expecting to double their number of current players from the current 10 million up to 20.

“The continuing rapid growth of the number of players in our industry guarantees lasting success,” said Beuck. “However, the type of user also plays a role. We focus on markets with players who are loyal to high-quality browser games and willing to reward quality with in-game purchases. Not just the quantity but also the quality of the gaming community is relevant for the future of the games industry.”

Having two top titles, Shakes & Fidget and SoccerStar, Playa is now aiming to take browser based gaming to the next level. According to Playa, the secret to success is not in one hit after the other, but rather a focus on knowing how to get the very best out of your talent pool. “We have a highly experienced and motivated development team. Their high commitment makes it possible to meet our quality demands and to develop next-generation browser games,” said Beuck. The high level of quality is not limited to the graphics; the German BloodGame version also features character speech by German voice artists for famous Hollywood films such as “The King’s Speech”, “Mission Impossible 1-3″ and “Spiderman 1-3″.

Adding to this “culture of talent,” Playa has also recently announced the addition of COO in Thorsten Rohmann. Previously involved in the financial sector, Rohmann is no stranger to gaming, having won the German Developer Award for “Legend – Hand of God” in 2007.

Within their native Germany, Playa Games has been recognized as the fastest growing developer of successful browser games in 2010. To have a view of what Playa’s working on, as well as the ability to take their “next-gen” browser based game BloodGame for a test drive, give them a visit at playa-games.com

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