Posts Tagged ‘android’

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EVO’s back. Now sporting Android

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Ah the EVO game console. Remember that interesting little take on “another” type of gaming platform? If not, you wouldn’t be the first, but Envizions did make some considerable waves a few years back when the offered up a Linux based gaming platform, that reportedly “shipped” and then immediately “sold out.” Riiiiiiight. Well it looks like the EVO is showing it’s head again, this time with Android powering the party.

Appropriately titled the EVO 2, Alabama based firm Envisions Computer Entertainment Corporation has recently announced that they’re going to give it a go again, but instead of Linux, eager gamers will find Android under the hood. Envizions is targeting a fall U.S. launch with a select European launch to follow thereafter.

From a hardware POV, the EVO 2 promises a Samsung 1.2 GHz processor, 512 MB of DDR2 RAM, as well as an EVO TV remote, and naturally a game controller. And if the PS3 slim is still shoehorned in/on/above your amp, DVD player, etc., you’ll be happy to know that the EVO offers up big promises in a tiny package, with svelte dimensions of only 17cm x 11 cm x 3 cm (or 6.6 in x 4 in x 1 in). And while this hardware package is nothing truly groundbreaking, Envizions is already looking down the road, and has indicated that they’ll be adding 3D motion sensor capabilities by the end of this year. Assuming that the device actually ships, and doesn’t mysteriously “sell out.”

Running on what Envizions is dubbing a “modified” version of Android 2.2, the EVO 2 will be the first gaming console of it’s kind. Obviously with an Android powered OS, this provides gamers with a real-time gaming playlist, as well as social friends connectivity.

The MSRP of $249 falls right in line with competitors in the marketplace, but can they offer the same bells as whistles as Sony and Microsoft? Probably not, but that’s exactly what Envizions is banking on. By making the console of the “open” variety, I would imagine that Envizions is trying to capture the market that’s tired of “illegally” modding their consoles, only to get the smackdown from “The Man” every time a system update comes along. And this is just fine and dandy with Envizions. Applying the same magic, the EVO 2 is (or will be) the first crowd sourced gaming console. Envizions will let the community in on the overall direction of the console via Twitter and Facebook, as well as the EVO 2 web platform. To be sure, they’re not letting the vast majority of us in on which circuit goes where, but rather, launch location, hardware color, package design, and product image are all up for grabs.

To get the ball rolling in terms of content, Envizions has already posted their SDK, but require an annual fee of $149 for software support. A fair-enough price, provided that the system and company can deliver on their promises. To sweeten the deal, the first 1000 developers that apply for the program, will have their annual fee waved.

“Game development for EVO 2 is cheaper for developers so they have the opportunity to create games on a platform that will increase their return on investment. Developers can also submit pre-existing Android games”, comments Envizions Founder and CEO Derrick Samuels, in a statement.

Again, this isn’t the first time that Envizions has created quite a buzz with their “non-traditional” offerings. I for one, would love to see this become a reality, as market competition only breeds benefits for us, the end consumer. And speaking of alternatives….one has to wonder if the folks at Envizions aren’t already thinking about, or in talks with one of the major cloud based gaming services, as the crossovers are bound to happen. So who’ll grab Envizions first? Gaikai? OnLive? Playcast?

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DeNA via ngmoco acquires Euro Mobile studio Rough Cookie

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Ngmoco has recently announced their successful acquisition of Dutch mobile game studio Rough Cookie. The acquisition further expands ngmoco’s global presence, as well as falling right in line with DeNA’s previously mentioned European expansion plans. Through the acquisition, Rough Cookie firmly plants an ngmoco/DeNA flag on EU soil, as the company prepares for the global launch of their games focused social network, Mobage.

“Rough Cookie’s values and creative capability are a perfect match for ngmoco,” Neil Young, CEO, ngmoco, said in a statement. “We are delighted to formally bring Rough Cookie into our family of companies. At ngmoco, it’s important for us to anchor the Mobage service with great first-party games and Rough Cookie will be a key studio in achieving that goal.”

And while ngmoco has previously favored iOS devices, the acquisition of Rough Cookie will now bring a number of successful Android based titles into the fold. Rough Cookie, founded in 2008 has produced Star Defense for iOS, as well as We Farm and We City, both for Android. You’ll remember that after presenting Star Defense at the WWDC keynote, the title rocketed to success, making it the top-selling App Store game in the summer of 2009. Likewise, the title brought home a Dutch Game Award, as well as making Pocker Gamers’ Top 50 iPhone Developers of the Year for iOS devices.

Likewise, Rough Cookie is a win for DeNA/ngmoco, as the games house has further expanded it’s development focus to include not only iOS and Android devices, but they’re also working on dark horse Windows Phone 7 based titles.

The Rough Cookie acquisition shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as Young mentions above, as ngmoco and Rough Cookie have a long established track record of collaboration. Rough Cookie was on board for ngmoco’s successful Touch Pets, as well as the music title, Pulse: the Game, and as previously mentioned, We Farm and We City for Android.

“We are very excited to be joining the ngmoco and DeNA family,” says Rouch Cookie co-founder Danny Hoffmann in a statement. “We had great experiences and results on the projects that we have worked on with ngmoco, and we are truly proud to join the leader of mobile entertainment.”

Moving forward, Rough Cookie and ngmoco have stated that the Dutch firm is already hard at work developing an unnamed ngmoco flagship title for the upcoming Mobage global launch. Powered by ngmoco’s ngCore, the upcoming title is slated for both iOS and Android devices at it’s release.

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Japan’s GREE acquires OpenFeint for $104 million

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Announced late last night, Japanese mobile gaming platform GREE has plunged into the global gaming market with a massive purchase: OpenFeint.  According to the statement, GREE has acquired OpenFeint’s outstanding securities for $104 million.  In addition to the buyout, GREE is pumping the firm full of additional cash to fuel accelerated growth of the already massive platform.  OpenFeint staff members are expected to stay aboard, including CEO and founder Jason Citron, as GREE has also worked long term incentives into the deal.

In combination, GREE/OpenFeint will reach 100 million users worldwide, with a healthy 75 percent arriving from OpenFeint, who’s numbers have grown to include over 19,000 games developers in just two years.  GREE intends to incorporate their own social gaming and platform experience into the OpenFeint model and drive mobile social gaming to new heights.

“At GREE, we are socializing the next evolution of games and, as the best-in-class US-based mobile social network, OpenFeint is the ideal partner for us to offer the best mobile social games to the largest global audience,” said Yoshikazu Tanaka, founder and CEO of GREE in a statement.

The new OpenFeint/GREE program is already off to a head start, as the companies also announced a massive international expansion plan, with offices slated to soon open in Beijing, Singapore, and London.  The company is aggressively seeking top talent, and plans on doubling in size over 2011.

With over 19,000 traditional and free-to-play games developers taking advantage of OpenFeint’s connectivity and other offerings, the firm is the world’s largest cross platform social gaming network for smartphones.  Over 5,000 games incorporate OpenFeint technology, including App Store and Android Marketplace top sellers Fruit Ninja and Tiny Wings.  And one of the most obvious wins for GREE is OpenFeint’s already existing partnerships with leading mobile carriers, resulting in coverage on over half the US market share.

If OpenFeint’s name and Japanese investment rings a bell, you’ll remember that social/mobile gaming competitor DeNA has already provided investment in OpenFeint.  I guess we now know what “outstanding securities,” GREE is speaking to.  So the question remains: what happened with DeNA?  It would have appeared to any outside investor that DeNA was well on their way to an acquisition.  Initial investments to test the technology and relationship waters, and then, bam! the acquisition.  However, DeNA’s offices were raided by the Japanese FTC on antitrust suspicions this past December, possibly presenting a snag in DeNA’s otherwise full steam ahead acquisition aspirations.

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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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Kongregate launches Kongregate Arcade – Google approves, and then disapproves.

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Leading free, browser-based flash gaming platform Kongregate has recently announced the launch of Kongregate Arcade, a feat that now places them on top and is the world’s largest collection of free mobile flash games. Needless to say, we all know that flash and iOS devices are a no go, and Kongregate seems to be capitalizing on this, as they’re sure to draw swarms of Android carrying gamers to their doors. Kongregate Arcade serves two vital mobile gaming needs: a growing library of over 300 different titles for Android users to choose from, as well as a a healthy blend of player achievements, profiles, and a snazzy navigation interface, giving players (almost) immediate access to almost every type of gaming genre they could imagine.

A strong feather in the Kongregate cap, the Arcade now allows gamers the freedom to play from their PC, and then seamless carry on with their gaming experience while on-the-go. Likewise, Kongregate’s publishing platform, a favorite of independent gaming developers, now has added value, in so much as these same (and new) flashing gaming based developers have an entirely new platform to consider when working with Kongregate.

As we’ve seen over the course of 2010, Android is clearly on the rise, overtaking Apple’s iOS, and rapidly closing in on Research In Motion’s dominant market share, according to the most recent comScore numbers. And while there’s still plenty of profit to be made on iOS devices, it’s clear that the spread of Android means a higher possibility of user uptake, thus…Kongregate is clearly banking on Android fans considering Kongregate as the “go to” source for all things gaming.

“In creating the Kongregate Arcade, we wanted to solve the game discovery problem that all Android owners have shared,” said Jim Greer, CEO of Kongregate in a statement. “It was important to reinforce our mission to provide gamers with great free games anytime, anywhere, and to broaden the reach of the Kongregate community across multiple platforms. The arrival of Kongregate Arcade is the perfect next step in that strategy.”

At launch, Kongregate Arcade is packed with over 300 free mobile flash based games, with more titles added every week. Arcade staff members will hand select new titles to be added based on compatibility with the mobile platform, as well as the ability to be played on a touch screen device. Building on these 300+ titles, Kongregate says that they’re actively courting Android/Flash gaming developers to create content exclusively for Kongregate Arcade.

Kongregate Arcade is available for download directly via Kongregate’s website.

Update: It seems as though for some unknown reason, Google has pulled the app from the Android Marketplace, just hours after going live. No statement has been provide by Google reps, however, I’ve got to wonder if Kongregate’s publishing methods are to blame. Meaning, games the are approved and published by Kongregate are not subject to the same stringent approval process as if they were published by Google directly.

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ComScore: Android closing in on iPhone

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Leading metrics firm ComScore has recently published it’s MobileLens report, with Google’s Android OS making a strong showing across the board. The report, which covers August – the end of October found that Google, read:Android based devices now account for 23.5 percent of the U.S. smartphone marketshare.

Looking at the numbers in terms of OS, it appears as though RIM’s BlackBerry is still leading the pack, commanding a 35.8 percent marketshare, with Apple and Google now fighting tooth and nail for the number two spot. At the end of October, 2010, Apple held 24.6 percent of the market, while Google, 23.5 percent.

What’s also important to keep in mind with these numbers is, not only are they now 2 months old, but the growth rate. As referenced above, in July Google held a 17 percent marketshare, while 3 months later that share had jumped to 23.5 percent, a 6.5 percent gain. At the same time, Apple had only increased it’s share by 0.8 percent. If this trend remains on track, it’s very likely that Google might already have a lead on Apple at the time of this publication. Also noteworthy; during the same time, RIM’s marketshare dropped a significant 3.5 percent. Doing a bit of cocktail napkin math, it’s entirely possible that Google may now be nipping at the heals of RIM’s once commanding lead.

While this seems happy happy joy joy for Google, it’s not the best news for games and apps developers. A lack of a single, unified hardware specification means that each and every device has it’s own unique set of “can do’s” and “can’t do’s”. Why would this matter? Other than the obvious set of unique challenges various forms of hardware present, according to ComScore, gaming is also becoming increasingly important to smartphone owners. While up only 1.4 percent, 22.3 in July to 23.7 percent in October, gaming on smartphones has overtaken music listening usage, and is closing in on the social networking category, with less than a percentage point between the two.

It’s also important to keep in mind, as pointed out by Kyle Orland of Gamasutra, the ComScore survey did not take into account iPod Touch devices, which, while not mobile phones, will do just about everything else an iPhone will do (and iPad for that matter – although it’s size format does significantly disqualify it from this survey).

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A shift in direction at Zynga?

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

When mobile gaming really came to the forefront, and a number of social games companies had successfully implemented mobile versions of it’s games, there was one glaring hole in the bunch: Zynga. The social gaming giant which has garnered most of it’s profits from players on Facebook was a bit late to the mobile party, and up until a few months ago featured only a handful of titles available for mobile. Granted, they’ve been making moves to catch up, most notably with their iDevice version of their smash hit FarmVille. Note: iDevice. Zynga’s not said a word about Android, and it’s growing market share. Until now.

Announced at Facebook’s mobile event , Zynga’s first Android device title will be … Farm Poker. An odd choice you say? Perhaps not. Zynga’s second most popular title garners around 36 million monthly and 6 million daily active users on Facebook. Not too shabby. Toss a little bit of cross promotion of your other titles in there via Facebook’s single sign on, and it looks like a recipe for ultimate success.

According to Chris Morrison at insidesocialgames.com, Zynga is also angling to make Zynga Poker the worldwide standard in Hold’em, adding Chinese language support to the game back in August.

But why Poker? Why not take your number 1 hit, and continue that train a-rollin’? There are a number of factors involved, least of which is FarmVille’s growing age and shrinking user base. The addition of FrontierVille has helped Zynga keep, if not boost, userbase numbers, but there’s certainly a bit of cannibalization from one title to the other.

The other factor to consider in Zynga’s decision to push Poker is it’s independence. Remember, Zynga Poker is akin to “The Cheese Stands Alone.” Poker is the only Zynga title that was specifically left out of the exclusive Facebook Credits deal that went down early in September. Over the past year Zynga has made significant moves to liberate themselves from Facebook dependency, with varying success. Poker games certainly attract a unique segment of gamers – one that Zynga could be trying to repeat their gathering and nurturing, turned bluff and raise strategy on.

One more factor to keep in mind with Zynga Poker is Zynga’s application to patent “Virtual Playing Chips in a Mulitiuser Online Game Network.” Note that the patent does not file for coins, credits, vcash, etc., but rather, refers directly to Chips. As far as I’m concerned, nothing says poker louder that the term “Chips”. If in fact Zynga is trying to corner and establish the global Hold’em standard, patenting the monetary mechanism involved would certainly be a good way to do it.

Combined with Poker’s relative freedom from the rest of the Zynga stables, their possible bid at cornering the global Hold’em market, a Chinese localization, and the seemingly unstoppable spread of Android, Zynga Poker may very well mark the beginning of a significant shift in strategy at Zynga.

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SGN builds bridge between iPhone and Android gamers with Skies of Glory

Monday, July 19th, 2010

SGN, aka Social Gaming Network, has recently announced their connecting bridge between iPhone and Android handheld gamers. The “bridge” comes via the first multi-platform mobile game that allows iPhone and Android users the ability to compete against each other, although playing on two very different platforms.

SGN’s “Skies of Glory” was first launched in December of 2009 for iPhone, and is now available to eager Android owned gamers, provided they have an Android phone above v2.0. These models include the EVO, Nexus, and Droid.

SOG

As a clever touch, in multi-player mode, Android users (and presumably vice-versa) can spot iPhone based players for a quick and dirty dogfight 30,000 ft. in the air. Set in World War II, “Skies of Glory,” pits players in authentic replications of planes from the era in multiplayer battles over graphically rich terrains.

SGN’s entry to the Android market is assisted by Revo Solutions Games, the same development partner they worked with on the iPhone version of said game. The decision to enter the Android gaming front follows current industry trends that have seen a rapid rise in adoption and overall usage of the “other” smartphone out there. In Q1 of 2010 alone, Android has garnered 26.6 percent of all North American smartphone sales, a YoY increase of over 500 percent.

To this end, SGN and Revo Solutions Games developed an Open Platform Multiplayer Framework to work with a variety of platforms including today’s industry leading smartphones, as well as those down the road. The platform is also engineered to take advantage of all that today’s smartphone has to offer including EDGE, 3G, and WiFi technologies, thereby providing the end user with the maximum ability to connect.

“Mobile phones are unquestionably the gaming platform of the future. Smartphones are becoming accessible to all, and we are really excited to offer a true multi-platform, multiplayer social mobile gaming experience through ‘Skies of Glory,’” said SGN CEO Randy Breen. “As more and more people connect with family and friends through gaming, we continue to facilitate that connection regardless of users’ device or platform preferences.”

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Google acquires Social App. Dev. LabPixies

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Announced earlier this week, Google has made yet another acquisition, this time Tel Aviv based social apps. Developer LabPixies. According to the Google announcement, the LabPixies team was one of the first developers that worked on iGoogle widgets, all the way back in 2005.

LabPixiesLabPixies provide widgets ranging from games and entertainment to productivity tools like calendars and news feeds. Along the way, they’ve managed to provide a number of global OpenSocial-based gadgets for Mountain View. And while these gadgets are significant in their own right, it’s the ‘other’ things that LabPixies produce that makes this acquisition of note: iPhone and Android smartphone games such as Flood-It!, Flood-It!2, Line-Up and Trio. Flood-It! alone has been downloaded over 2 million times since it’s launch in March of 2009.

As mentioned above, this is just another day, another acquisition for Google. The month alone Google has snatched up mobile visual search startup Plink, web video co. Episodic, and most notably, stealth hardware company Agnilux. The Agnilux acquisition has already started fueling rumors of an Android based tablet device may or may not already be on Google’s radar. Looking back through 2010, Google has purchased Microsoft Office sharing service DocVerse, photo-editing startup Picnik, email solutions co. reMail, and social search firm Aardvark.

While details surrounding the purchase were not disclosed, TechCrunch reports that TheMarker (in Hebrew) is citing the price to be close to $25 million. They also astutely point out – not a bad price for a company that only ever raised $1 million in angel funding in 2008.

As part of the deal, LabPixies will remain based in Tel Aviv, and will work to expand the presence of the iGoogle brand across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As well as develop some snazzy Android apps, we’re betting…

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Zynga poised to release iPhone, iPad, and Android versions of FarmVille

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Spotted by the eagle-eyed folks at Superannuation, the URL’s FarmVilleiPad.com, FarmVilleiPhone.com, and FarmVilleAndroid.com have recently been snatched up. Three guesses as to who the registrant it.

FarmVille_iPadFair enough, trick question, as Zynga was not specifically named as the registrants of these domains, Superannuation did confirm that whomever purchased the above mentioned URL’s also registered FarmVille.com. Connecting the dots between the two isn’t that far of a leap. Also of interest, FarmVilleSMS.com was also registered, further implicating Zynga, as one of their few mobile gaming apps, Mafia Wars, also functions and can be played via SMS.

There’ve been no leaks in the way of screenshots or other media (the above image is merely speculation), so at this point it’s up in the air as to what the interface and gameplay will look like. Given the wide and rising popularity of ngmoco’s ‘We Rule’, a free-to-play strategy/farming game for iPhone, again, not a giant leap to guess that Zynga would approach the gameplay in a similar manner.

This mobile version of FarmVille would be Zynga’s entry to the iPad and Android market. While the above mentioned ngmoco, by contrast, has been heavily invested and committed to the iPhone mobile gaming platform, Zynga has has their own reservations. Just shy of one year prior, Zynga head honcho Mark Pincus commented to PocketGamer.biz, “…the jury’s still out on how well the platform is going to monetize.” This was pre-OS 3.0/microtransactions, and it looks like someone is obviously changing their tune.

And although FarmVille has enjoyed massive success on Facebook, it should be interesting if they can light the same fire on mobile gaming devices. 9 month ago, I would have said, “Baby, Light my Fire.” However, given Zynga’s proverbial dragging of the feet to get into the game, they’re already a step behind what other games developers have been working on for quite some time now.

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