Astro Ape is beating its chest right out of the gate. The studio's CEO, Chieh Huang (pictured center), is already making claims that it builds a better product than the compeition, namely Zynga, Pocketgamer.biz reports. Astro Ape makes mobile social games like Dessert Heroes and Office Heroes, which Huang claims enjoy 70 percent retention, meaning 70 percent of its players are regular customers. Unlike Facebook, the mobile space has yet to find one dominant creator, so Astro Ape just might have a chance at becoming that company.
However, with Zynga laser-focused on mobile thanks to Newtoy and its improvements to Mafia Wars and FarmVile for iPhone, that window of opportunity is quite small. Astro Ape about to release Monsterz Revenge, its third game, doing the same thing it has always done: launch games with polish. That's exactly how the studio plans to defeat Zynga:
It sounds like a basic concept, but I think it's getting lost a bit today in social gaming. Our users come into our apps because they want to play our games, not because we spam them with invites, requests and other offers. Monsterz Revenge is really a convergence of this new stream of talent that we've brought in, and the lessons we learned from Office Heroes and Dessert Heroes. It's definitely our best title to date.
Those sure sound like fighting words, but we'll see soon enough if Astro Ape has the oomph to back them up. Until then, mobile is fair game, so jump right in.
[Image Credit: NY Post]
Have tried either of Astro Ape's current games? Do you think this studio has a shot against Zynga and the other big developers?
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn mobile gaming. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn mobile gaming. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Năm, 29 tháng 12, 2011
Thứ Sáu, 16 tháng 12, 2011
Finally, hang out with your Android buddies in Hanging With Friends
It looks like Tuesday is unofficially Zynga Game Day, as the company just announced that Hanging With Friends is now available for free on the Android Market. Keep in mind, this comes just minutes after the company revealed Mafia Wars 2. Even better news than the fact that Android players can get in on Zynga With Friends's second mobile game is that it's now cross-platform ready.
Yes, now you can play both your iPhone-toting friends and your best Android-owning enemies buds in this crazy take on the classic pen and paper game of Hangman. In case you're unfamiliar, Hanging With Friends takes the popular turn-based exchange of the wildly popular Words With Friends and applies that to a wacky game of Hangman, but with some twists.
For one, players who choose their word for an opponent are limited by the letters provided to them. Then, that challenge is sent to a player who must guess the word with a limited amount of guesses. This exchange of posing challenges and guesses continues asynchronously until one player loses all of their balloons and falls into a pit of lava or other various deathtraps.
Luckily, you have a series of power-ups at your disposal that can restore some of your guesses or reveal letters that may or may not be part of the word your friend chose in secret. Of course, these boosts cost Coins, which you can accumulate over time by winning Hanging With Friends matches or purchasing them outright in-game.
Gallery: Hanging With Friends on Android
Of course, the Android version contains all of the features that its iOS counterpart sports, like the ability to play up to 20 games at a time, in-game chat and push notifications. Finally, you can add friends via your existing With Friends account, or just connect to Facebook (like everyone else) to find more folks to crush with your wordsmithery. Have at thee, Fandroids.
Click here to download Hanging With Friends on the Android Market Now >
Are you psyched that Hanging With Friends has finally come to Android? What other Zynga games do you hope to see on Android phones on the future?
Yes, now you can play both your iPhone-toting friends and your best Android-owning enemies buds in this crazy take on the classic pen and paper game of Hangman. In case you're unfamiliar, Hanging With Friends takes the popular turn-based exchange of the wildly popular Words With Friends and applies that to a wacky game of Hangman, but with some twists.
For one, players who choose their word for an opponent are limited by the letters provided to them. Then, that challenge is sent to a player who must guess the word with a limited amount of guesses. This exchange of posing challenges and guesses continues asynchronously until one player loses all of their balloons and falls into a pit of lava or other various deathtraps.
Luckily, you have a series of power-ups at your disposal that can restore some of your guesses or reveal letters that may or may not be part of the word your friend chose in secret. Of course, these boosts cost Coins, which you can accumulate over time by winning Hanging With Friends matches or purchasing them outright in-game.
Gallery: Hanging With Friends on Android
Of course, the Android version contains all of the features that its iOS counterpart sports, like the ability to play up to 20 games at a time, in-game chat and push notifications. Finally, you can add friends via your existing With Friends account, or just connect to Facebook (like everyone else) to find more folks to crush with your wordsmithery. Have at thee, Fandroids.
Click here to download Hanging With Friends on the Android Market Now >
Are you psyched that Hanging With Friends has finally come to Android? What other Zynga games do you hope to see on Android phones on the future?
Thứ Ba, 13 tháng 12, 2011
Finally, GREE reveals what everyone actually cares about: the games
Japan's mobile social gaming network GREE has leaked details regarding its global expansion through OpenFeint ever so slowly. Painfully so, in fact. Now, Andriasang reports that DeNA's archenemy has finally announced a number of big time games that will be right there with GREE's launch on iPhones and Android phones in the US and abroad. How does some DDR sound?
Konami revealed that it's bringing the iconic dance machine arcade-gone-mobile game, DanceDanceRevolution, to GREE. Capcom is in on the global GREE launch, set to happen between April and June 2012, with a mobile version of Resident Evil Mercenaries VS and Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, which is already available for iPhone. Tecmo Koei is bringing over a version of its hit Dynasty Warriors franchise to GREE as well.
This is all well and good, but we have one concern: All of these games, including those from Japanese game makers we didn't mention, appeal to a very niche, dare we say "hardcore" audience. While part of GREE's global expansion is to merge with OpenFeint (and likely many of games under that Western service's umbrella), the network is going to need games that appeal to a mass audience to live up to its expectations of beating Nintendo.
GREE claims that, after the merge with OpenFeint, its games will be exposed to 150 million players. But 150 million players or not, those players are going to need all types of games to be interested in. Granted, we're still a long ways away from the GREE global launch. Oh ... about that.
Konami revealed that it's bringing the iconic dance machine arcade-gone-mobile game, DanceDanceRevolution, to GREE. Capcom is in on the global GREE launch, set to happen between April and June 2012, with a mobile version of Resident Evil Mercenaries VS and Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, which is already available for iPhone. Tecmo Koei is bringing over a version of its hit Dynasty Warriors franchise to GREE as well.
This is all well and good, but we have one concern: All of these games, including those from Japanese game makers we didn't mention, appeal to a very niche, dare we say "hardcore" audience. While part of GREE's global expansion is to merge with OpenFeint (and likely many of games under that Western service's umbrella), the network is going to need games that appeal to a mass audience to live up to its expectations of beating Nintendo.
GREE claims that, after the merge with OpenFeint, its games will be exposed to 150 million players. But 150 million players or not, those players are going to need all types of games to be interested in. Granted, we're still a long ways away from the GREE global launch. Oh ... about that.
Zynga thinks it could double its paying players after going public
How? No clue, but Zynga CEO Mark Pincus seems to think it's possible. That's what the head of the FarmVille maker told 100 investors at a luncheon (with chicken, mashed potatoes and spinach salad) held in a Boston hotel, according to Reuters. "We could see that doubling," Pincus told the room during a presentation likely similar to the one posted online last week ahead of going public.
However, the Zynga chief gave no time line for the lofty claim, nor how the company would make it happen. As it stands, about 7.7 million of the social game giant's 219 million monthly players were payers for 12 months prior to Sept. 30, according to Reuters. However, Zynga did reveal that it now welcomes 13 million daily players across mobile devices, way up from the recently reported 11.1 million
A hefty chunk of those daily players seems to come from Words With Friends. You know, the game so addicting that it supposedly drove Alec Baldwin to throw a fit on an American Airlines plane? That one. "He wanted to play it even if it meant getting off his flight to play it," Pincus said, revealing that the game gained some 8 million players in the past year.
And, when you think about it, mobile could be exactly where Zynga doubles its paying players. Zynga is full steam ahead on both iPhone and Android phones, having released eight games for the platforms in 2011 alone. The battle plan? Zynga could reach audiences outside of its massive network by gaining prominence on various app stores. And that just might work.
What do you think of Zynga's mobile games thus far? Could the company grow its 3 percent of paying players into 6 or even 10 percent through iPhone and Android?
However, the Zynga chief gave no time line for the lofty claim, nor how the company would make it happen. As it stands, about 7.7 million of the social game giant's 219 million monthly players were payers for 12 months prior to Sept. 30, according to Reuters. However, Zynga did reveal that it now welcomes 13 million daily players across mobile devices, way up from the recently reported 11.1 million
A hefty chunk of those daily players seems to come from Words With Friends. You know, the game so addicting that it supposedly drove Alec Baldwin to throw a fit on an American Airlines plane? That one. "He wanted to play it even if it meant getting off his flight to play it," Pincus said, revealing that the game gained some 8 million players in the past year.
And, when you think about it, mobile could be exactly where Zynga doubles its paying players. Zynga is full steam ahead on both iPhone and Android phones, having released eight games for the platforms in 2011 alone. The battle plan? Zynga could reach audiences outside of its massive network by gaining prominence on various app stores. And that just might work.
What do you think of Zynga's mobile games thus far? Could the company grow its 3 percent of paying players into 6 or even 10 percent through iPhone and Android?
Thứ Ba, 20 tháng 9, 2011
OpenFeint co-founder leaves, Gree International head becomes CEO
Well, that sure was quick. Just months after Japanese social game network Gree acquired OpenFeint (for a cool $104 million, mind you), the latter's co-founder and CEO has left the company, VentureBeat reports. The Burlingame, Calif.-based mobile social game network's 26-year-old co-founder Jason Citron has moved on to new opportunities, and has been replaced by Gree's head of international operations Naoki Aoyagi (pictured).
"In just over 24 months, OpenFeint has grown to over 120 million users across 7,000 games," Aoyagi said in a release. "I thank Jason for his leadership growing the company and wish him well in his new adventures." But, according to VentureBeat, the old switcheroo might not have been so cut and dry.
VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi reports hearing rumors that Citron had been fired from the company before contacting OpenFeint and Citron, both of which declined to comment on the news until Aoyagi made the above statement in a release. However, both companies aim to announce their plans for integration between the U.S. operations of both companies in the coming weeks.
In other words, Gree's westward expansion into the U.S. through OpenFeint is imminent, and Gree will likely have even more of a say in how OpenFeint handles things now with a former Gree executive at the reins. Gree hopes to turn U.S. mobile gamers into the apparently wild spenders that Japanese mobile gamers tend to be.
However, direct Japanese competitor DeNA has already launched its Mobage mobile social games platform in the U.S. through recent acquisition ngmoco, and already has support of major U.S. carrier AT&T (though, it is AT&T). It looks like this holiday season will prove whether Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to their new rivals, not to mention existing western competitors like Zynga and EA, both of which have global and mobile ambitions. At any rate, it's going to be a very merry Christmas for mobile gamers.
[Image Credit: VentureBeat]
Do you think Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to DeNA under its new management? What do you hope to see from Citron now that he's freed himself from the company he helped bring up to this point? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
"In just over 24 months, OpenFeint has grown to over 120 million users across 7,000 games," Aoyagi said in a release. "I thank Jason for his leadership growing the company and wish him well in his new adventures." But, according to VentureBeat, the old switcheroo might not have been so cut and dry.
VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi reports hearing rumors that Citron had been fired from the company before contacting OpenFeint and Citron, both of which declined to comment on the news until Aoyagi made the above statement in a release. However, both companies aim to announce their plans for integration between the U.S. operations of both companies in the coming weeks.
In other words, Gree's westward expansion into the U.S. through OpenFeint is imminent, and Gree will likely have even more of a say in how OpenFeint handles things now with a former Gree executive at the reins. Gree hopes to turn U.S. mobile gamers into the apparently wild spenders that Japanese mobile gamers tend to be.
However, direct Japanese competitor DeNA has already launched its Mobage mobile social games platform in the U.S. through recent acquisition ngmoco, and already has support of major U.S. carrier AT&T (though, it is AT&T). It looks like this holiday season will prove whether Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to their new rivals, not to mention existing western competitors like Zynga and EA, both of which have global and mobile ambitions. At any rate, it's going to be a very merry Christmas for mobile gamers.
[Image Credit: VentureBeat]
Do you think Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to DeNA under its new management? What do you hope to see from Citron now that he's freed himself from the company he helped bring up to this point? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
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