Posts Tagged ‘popcap’

Popcap, now at home in SFO, Booyah brings aboard Jason Willig

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Now that the Royal Wedding has come and gone, we can all collectively turn our attention back to the gaming at hand.  And while Obama’s birth certificate, and the demise of Bin Laden are sure to make headlines for the next foreseeable future, two gaming industry significant events took place over the weekend, both centered around the great City by the Bay; PopCap acquires ZipZapPlay, and Booyah has recently appointed Jason Willig to drive forthcoming social and mobile initiatives.

PopCap

Announced on Friday, Seattle based PopCap Games has acquired SFO based ZipZapPlay.  This acquisition further fuels PopCap’s depth of Facebook games, as well as provides PopCap with a Silicon Valley address, practically a pre-requirement by today’s industry standards.

CEO Curt Bereton and CCO Mathilde Pignol are expected to stay on and continue to drive game design and development.  Likewise, all seventeen original employees will stay on, and presumably become members of a founding team, as PopCap’s expansion of ZipZapPlay’s studios is inevitable.

“The team at ZipZapPlay is one of the best in the social games space, and combined with our existing group in Seattle gives us the opportunity to dramatically expand our development resources,” said John Vechey, PopCap co-founder and VP of Corporate Strategy and Development, in a statement. “While the acquisition creates immediate cross-promotional and operations benefits, this is a strategic move with huge long-term potential; we believe ZipZapPlay can help us further evolve and expand the definition of social games.”

Looking forward, PopCap expects to have four or five Facebook titles by the close of 2011.  Their initial offerings, Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz are already attracting close to five million DAU’s, thus placing them in third position behind Zynga and Electronic Arts in terms over largest overall Facebook games developers.

Booyah

And speaking of Electronic Arts…while EA’s brain drain is now a common story, it looks like the Redwood City, CA firm has lost another executive.  This time to social, web, and mobile entertainment producers Booyah Jason Willig has recently been appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer, where he’s expected to drive the company’s expansion initiatives.

“Adding Jason to the Booyah executive team is a huge win for us,” said Keith Lee, CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “His depth of knowledge and experience will help accelerate Booyah’s continued growth and development within in the social/mobile industry.”

Willig arrives at Booyah with over a decade of interactive entertainment industry expertise.  At EA, he oversaw the operating activities and strategic initiatives with the Hasbro unit.  Willig has also been counted amongst the LucasArts, Gas Powered Games, and Vivendi Games rosters, and has a depth of experience in product development, retail and digital publishing, business development, and analytics.

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PopCap opens experimental games center in Druidic chamber below Seattle

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Named after the company’s HQ address in Seattle, PopCap Games has recently announced the opening of 4th & Battery, a new initiative to foster experimental game development. According to PopCap, the new design center is located in a, “secret druidic chamber below one of Seattle’s largest parks.” I’m not making this stuff up.

Chamber dwelling PopCap designers and developers will have free reign at 4th & Battery, where they are encouraged to let their minds’ run wild and focus on creating small, simple, and the occasional edgy games. And given the lab’s location, it’s fair to say that this team of devs and designers are by in no means under the constraints of a corporate situation.

“4th & Battery is a pressure valve intended to keep our heads from exploding,” explained Ed Allard, Executive Vice President of Studios at PopCap in a statement. “The PopCap brand has become closely associated with ultra-high quality, polish and attention to detail — which is a great thing. But our standard game development process is therefore long and involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th & Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops.”

And while this sounds great in principle, 4th & Battery is still under the gun when it comes to results. The project is expected to push out several games a year, mainly small, arcade style games aimed at a wide gamut, including PC, Facebook, and iPhone. Eager to prove their point, and give audiences a preview of what they are in store for, 4th & Battery’s initial offering is titled Unpleasant Horse, and is geared towards “Mature” audiences. And by “Mature” I certainly hope we’re talking about booze, boobs and bongs and not blood, bullets, and bombs. Unfortunately, the game description reads more like similar game mechanics put with an “Unpleasant” ending for trampled horses. Read: The glue factory awaits.

“4th & Battery is a purely experimental, creative label with none of the typical concerns like schedules, profitability, or even target audience. It’s kind of the video game equivalent of B-sides or short films,” explained Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PopCap in a statement. “Expect weirdness.”

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GameStop and Jolt launch Utopia Kingdoms, PopCap launches Zuma Blitz

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Nothing says The Holidays more than fresh, fun, and free-to-play, like new games. To this end, both PopCap and Gamestop and Jolt Online have recently launched new titles just in time for the upcoming Holiday season.

GameStop and Jolt Online launch Utopia Kingdoms

Launched yesterday, GameStop Corp. and Jolt Online Gaming have introduced a new free-to-play Facebook based game, Utopia Kingdoms. Built upon one of the longest running browser based games of all time (since 1998), Utopia, Jolt’s newest iteration includes all the classic elements of cunning and guile needed to succeed. As with it’s predecessor, GameStop/Jolt have made the game accessible to all, promising simple, easy-to-understand mechanics that will allow just about anyone to dive right in, and be up and playing in no time.

Players have a choice of 1 of 6 unique races, Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Avians, Elves or Dark Elves, and are tasked with commanding an army with 16 different battle units with 6 race-specific units. As with most Facebook based games, players can team up with friends and battle together, all the while learning new skills and strategies that ultimately lead to a unique game experience. Players may either focus on their armies and fighting strength, or conquer the world through crop harvesting and trade revenues.

“GameStop is a multi-channel retailer committed to video gaming. Jolt’s Utopia Kingdoms is a great example of how we provide our customers with online games they can play anytime, anywhere and on any device,” comments GameStop Executive Vice President of International Mike Mauler.

PopCap launches Zuma Blitz

If your Plants have versed some Zombies, or your jewels are all Bejeweled, no worries, as PopCap is back with a new installment of Facebook fun. Launched on Facebook yesterday, Zuma Blitz focuses on ball-blasting fun, and this Facebook title is the successful adaptation of PopCap’s hit Zuma franchise. Having already sold over 20 million units worldwide, this iteration of Zuma also features the games’ competitive as well as cooperative modes.

Specifically tailored to Facebook, Zuma Blast is compressed into a short, digestible, format of one minute per game. Players may compete with Facebook friends by clicking (exploding) as many balls as possible within the 60-second time frame.

Building on this competitive theme, Zuma Blitz on Facebook features weekly tournaments and leader boards, with new game levels introduced on a weekly basis. An XP system provides additional power-ups and capabilities, and a healthy dose of time extenders, score multipliers, and other in-game accelerants have been tossed in for good measure. And last, but certainly not least, PopCap has built in an in-game performance and status tool that allows Zuma Blitz players to keep tabs on not only their own, but friends’ status and progress as well. Stats include medals won, achievements earned and experience level.

This is PopCap’s second sociale game on Facebook, now joining the 40 million+ user Bejeweled Blitz.

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PopCap partners with Square Enix via TAITO to offer Pop Tower

Friday, November 12th, 2010

With DeNA’s amazing success story, it’s not hard to see why every games maker on the planet would want in on the Japanese market. PopCap has taken the partnership route, and recently announced a deal with the TAITO Corporation, a subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., to launch Pop Tower, a social game service for the Japanese mobile market.

Pop Tower will not be a slimmed down, on-the-go experience, but rather, feature custom built social adaptations of some of PopCap’s top shelf titles including Bejeweled, Chuzzle, and Zuma. Taking the experience one step further, PopCap and TAITO will tie all the games together in a completely new metagame that will feature RPG elements, and be specifically tailored to Japanese audiences. These custom built adaptations will feature completely revamped game modes, as well as include a number of social functionality, allowing Pop Tower users to interact with friends. Naturally, game and character customizations can be done via the in-game virtual goods mall, and/or premium service plans.

The announcement arrives directly on the heals of PopCap’s recent milestone of selling over 1 million units of its single player mobile games. Pop Tower is PopCap’s first entry into the mobile social gaming space; a sector that generated over $1 billion of revenue in 2009. Additionally, this is the first product released under PopCap Tokyo, and the company has been drumming up business in Asia in recent months, with major announcements in China and Korea. In China, PopCap has strategic partnerships with one of China’s largest social networking sites, RenRen, and in September announced an agreement with NCSoft to bring PopCap World to Korea.

“Social games on mobile devices looks set to dominate gaming worldwide and Japan is already ahead of the curve. PopCap is about identifying the curve and getting ahead of it. It’s not about being “trendy” or “first”; it’s about being the best; taking the talent and time to create something genuinely innovative. The Japanese game market is the second largest in the world, but historically, few Western companies have succeeded here,” comments PopCap Vice President for Asia/Pacific James Gwertzman.

TAITO SVP of Content, Akihito Shoji adds, “With Bejeweled and a host of other successful properties, PopCap Games is a casual gaming giant. The social game market is undergoing remarkable growth, and we have high hopes for this partnership. Mobile social game is a critical part of our overall strategy, with much of our resources devoted to the design and management of games that are not only fun pastimes, but also foster interaction and communication between players. We’re confident that our mobile social market experience and PopCap’s strong casual properties is a winning combination, and one that will deliver a whole new experience to the game users.”

Pop Tower is set for an early 2011 launch on a leading Japanese social network.

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PopCap and NCsoft to bring “PopCap World” to Korea later this year

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

PopCap has recently announced a collaboration deal with Korea based MMO provider NCsoft. Titled “PopCap World” this will mark PopCap’s first ever online multiplayer social game service, and will be developed and released by PopCap’s Shanghai game studio.

PopCap/NCsoft’s PopCap World is slated to debut in Korea later this year, and marks a major milestone for PopCap in terms of it’s global online and social developments. PopCap World will be operated by NCsoft and will have 13 PopCap titles including Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, and Zuma at launch. All games will be free to play, with premium paid elements arriving at a later date.

“When Disneyland first opened, it revolutionized the amusement park industry and ushered in the era of the modern theme park. In the same way, we believe PopCap World has the potential to redefine casual games in Korea and beyond by offering players the most immersive PopCap experience yet,” comments PopCap VP Asia/Pacific James Gwertzman.

“Our announcement today is just the beginning. We are very excited about our partnership with NCsoft – their formidable presence in the online market combined with PopCap’s leadership in the casual and social spaces makes for an interesting recipe that we look forward to serving up to players in Korea – and beyond,” he adds.

From NCsoft’s side, things look equally exciting, “We are thrilled to be collaborating with PopCap Games on this new project. PopCap is famous not only for the high quality of their games – they are a very talented developer – but also for appealing to an extremely wide audience. We look forward to a successful launch, and to opening up this new world of fun to both our existing Korean users, as well as a whole new audience for whom this may well be their first online game,” says NCsoft Vice President for Web Business Center, Mr. Whang.

It looks like this is just another plume in PopCap’s cap, and they show no signs of slowing the success. Since July 2008, PopCap’s Bejeweled has remained in the top 20 apps for iPhone, and Bejeweled Blitz on Faceook counts over 4 million active daily users. Zuma Blitz, a new multiplayer game, presumably tied to the original Zuma, is expected to launch on Facebook later this month. With a social platform of their own, AND a Facebook launch, PopCap and NCsoft may just be creating the perfect storm of buzz, marketing, and uptake.

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PopCap co-founder: Facebook Games are so yesterday

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder Jason Kapalka of popular games maker PopCap sat down with Alec Meer of GamesIndustry.biz to discuss the current state of affairs. The interview is packed with industry insight, but one juicy standout is his position on the social game boom taking place at Facebook. Flat out, Kapalka says that the Facebook market is becoming over-saturated, much in the same way casual and mobile did just years prior.

“”You’re definitely in the stage right now in social games where there’s a lot of bandwagon jumping, where everyone sees moneymoneymoney and suddenly all these new companies appear…,” comments Kapalka. “It happened before in mobile, it happened before in casual – in the past it’s tended to signal the beginning of the end. Not necessarily of the genre, but of the sort of golden era, where everything was a fresh blue ocean.”

So what’s keeping the popular games maker from Seattle alive in this “post peak” market? Kapalka points to PopCap’s diversity, primarily with it’s Bejewelled and Plants vs. Zombies hits. Just as with any good investment, PopCap is busy keeping their fingers in a number of various outlets and platforms, i.e. not solely tied to Facebook, an issue that Zynga has been trying to skirt around for quite some time now.

Likewise, Kapalka says that despite the mad buying spree some of the larger, traditional gaming houses are going on: EA/Playfish for example, as well as new firms like Zynga acquiring firm after firm, he says that the viral mechanisms that propelled these companies to the top has been shut down by Facebook. He notes that games developers have been forced to revert to the more traditional, “buying ads or have something that people are actually interested in play.”

When asked specifically about PopCap’s position in this “decline of the Facebook gaming scene,” Kapalka comments, “In general, it feels like the industry is caught up in the kind of games that we’ve always been doing. It feels less like we’re in a position where we have to argue about why casual games and other games like we do are legitimate forms of entertainment.”

He continues, “Anyone can look around now, they look on their iPhone, they look on Facebook or at the Nintendo Wii. It’s pretty obvious that casual has kind of won, casual is the new mainstream.”

So what does this mean for firms who have banked solely on Facebook? Is this the inevitable writing on the wall, which was bound to happen? Perhaps not right this second, but Kapalka’s take and insight as to perhaps the possible future is definitely worth the read.

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Researchers find smarter people in casual games players

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Researchers at East Carolina University Psychophysiology Department have revealed their preliminary findings in an ongoing study, that indicate significant increases in short-term cognitive acuity in casual games players. In other words … those that play casual games show improved short term memory functionality.

brainpowerEast Carolina University’s study found that test subjects that were exposed to playing casual games, specifically PopCap’s Bejeweled and Peggle, exhibited improved cognitive functions. The study commenced around the beginning of this year, and will conclude later this year, studies a wide variety of U.S. consumers aged 50 or older. The focus of the study is centered around the effects of games on subjects’ short-term brain power. Initial results indicate that sizeable improvements were made by the experimental group, when compared to the control group.

“The initial results of the study are very intriguing, in that they suggest that the ‘active participation’ required while playing a casual video game like Bejeweled provides an opportunity for mental exercise that more passive activities, like watching television, do not,” said ECU’s Director of Psychophysiology and Biofeedback Clinic, Dr. Carmen Russoniello. “Future applications could include prescriptive applications using casual video games to potentially stave off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-type disorders.”

Over 40 participants have already been studied, with more to come in the coming months. Participants had their brain waves monitored through an Electroencephalography (say that 3x fast), or EEG as it’s better known. The EEG measures participants’ brain waves as they complete a number of cognitive tests. Both speed and accuracy of tests are measured. The study finds that those who played Bejeweled or Peggle for 30 minute periods showed an 87 percent improvement in cognitive response time, and a whopping 215 percent increase in executive functioning over the control group. According to ECU, these changes are on par with similar cognitive interventions such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and cognitive remediation therapy. In other words … playing short amounts of casual games may find their way into medical treatment and therapy in the coming years.

“Video games with more complex rules and controls, and more sophisticated or detailed imagery — so-called ‘hardcore’ video games — might provide similar cognitive benefits for many people,” said Russoniello. “But those games take significantly longer to learn to play and appeal to a considerably narrower subset of the overall population, especially older consumers. In our experience, ‘casual’ video games are ideal both in terms of their accessibility and ease of understanding and because they appeal to nearly everyone.”

Download ECU’s full PopCap games study results here.

Note: although PopCap games were used as test examples in this study, they did not underwrite the study, and remain completely independent of its results.

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Blizzard takes one step closer to casual gaming?

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

One of the most respected and well know names in casual gaming, Greg Canessa is calling it a day as Vice President of Video Game Platforms with PopCap.  Prior to his current position, Canessa was the man in charge who launched a thousand ships with the business model he rolled out for Microsoft’s XBLA service.  He left this position and joined PopCap in February of 2007, and is now moving on again – this time to the 800-pound gorilla in the room, aka Blizzard.

wow_bejeweledAt this point, I think we’re pretty justified in letting the wild speculation run free.  Granted, Blizzard has been showing more and more interest in casual gaming over the past few months, with not only PopCap’s Bejeweled showing up on gamers’ radar’s back in September, but just a few weeks ago, Blizzard also tossed PopCap’s Peggle into the World of Warcraft mini-games selection.  Three guesses, the first two don’t count on who was spearheading this project?

So what’s really the dilly Blizz?  While Kotaku broke the news, Joystiq raises some very interesting points, and questions whether or not Canessa has nabbed one of the open positions Blizzard is currently advertising in the “Unannounced” section, or perhaps the elusive “Next-Gen MMO” category?  According to Joystiq’s inside source, Canessa will be working on an “unannounced project in the online space”.

wow_peggleAnother point to keep in mind here is that Blizzard’s COO Paul Sams has repeatedly made statements about the company’s interest in starting up an entirely new franchise.  Could Canessa’s appointment be the first signal in Blizzard’s interest in starting up a casual gaming platform?  Maybe browser based gaming?  Maybe social networking based play?  iPhone/mobile gaming?  Again, the speculation doors have been flung wide open by Blizzard’s highest profile move in this direction to date.

If Blizzard has in fact brought in Canessa for the purpose of fleshing out a casual games division, does this mean that they’re also interested in having a look at microtransactions?  While the producer of the #1 game worldwide certainly doesn’t need any more money, they might be foolish to not at least visit and review the concept.  With relative newcomer (in relation to Blizzard) casual game publisher Zynga reportedly pulling down nine figure revenues from microtransactions, just have a think for a moment what Blizzard and their mighty army of employees could tackle?

I’m quite certain Canessa’s departure is a blow for PopCap, but that’s not to say they don’t have a thriving business going as it is, and I’ll be interested to see where they take things from here.  On the flipside, PopCap now has a former high-level executive inside the mighty Blizzard citadel.  More PopCap casual titles to be implemented within WoW?  Plants vs. Orcs?  Zombies vs. Night Elves?  Let’s hold fire and wait and see.

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