Announcing the DiscoveryBeat Apps Contest, sponsored by Flurry
We’re holding a contest in conjunction with our DiscoveryBeat event to be held on Dec. 8 at the Automattic Lounge on Pier 38 in San Francisco. The DiscoveryBeat Apps Contest is being sponsored by Flurry, which recently launched its AppCircle app recommendation engine for the iPhone.
Getting apps discovered is no easy task when there are tens or even hundreds of thousands of competing apps on a social or mobile platform. So the event is all… Continue Reading
Sony’s MAG can stage massive online combat (with video and beta codes)
Sony’s MAG is an experiment in group psychology. In this online game, 256 players can engage in first-person combat in the same online session. The question is whether the games will be organized duels between armies, or a crazy free-for-all where it’s every soldier for him- or herself.
I played the beta of MAG (which originally meant Massive Action Game), a multiplayer-only online game debuting on the PlayStation 3 early next year. If the game works… Continue Reading
Adconion Media Group buys Joost assets, ending a long saga
Content network firm Adconion Media Group said today that it has acquired the assets of Joost, the online video service founded by Skype founders and the subject of a lawsuit drama this fall.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company was founded by Skype and Kazaa founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Adconion, which has 300 million monthly unique users, said it will pursue Joost’s new strategy, announced in June, of focusing on… Continue Reading
Roboni-I: The wandering robot that lets you play video games
South African firm Robonica hopes to conquer the hearts of gift givers this holiday season with hybrid entertainment that combines the interactivity of video games and the physical fun of toy robots.
The company’s first product, Roboni-I, is a robot with two wheels that wanders around on its own. Since you can play games with it and engage in robot activities on the web, Tom Dusenberry, head of North America for Robonica, refers to the launch… Continue Reading
Gravity Sling shows how virtual goods sales work on the iPhone
Riptide Games has revealed how well virtual goods sales work on the iPhone with its new game Gravity Sling. It’s yet another case study in how to get ahead in the iPhone economy.
There’s a lot of hope that virtual goods sales — known as in-app purchases on the iPhone — will help make Apple’s AppStore much more profitable for app developers. Virtual goods have generated huge revenue growth for Facebook apps this year, but the… Continue Reading
PlayMesh brings farming to the iPhone with iFarm
PlayMesh became famous on the iPhone when it launched its iMafia game in January. Now it has scored big again with iFarm, currently the No. 1 free app on the iPhone.
In less than 24 hours, iFarm has jumped into the top 25 ranks on the iPhone AppStore, claiming the position as the No. 1 farm game. This game is probably worth watching closely, since farming has become such a huge money maker on Facebook.
Zynga’s FarmVille… Continue Reading
HP beats earnings guidance but cites pricing pressures in PCs and printers
Hewlett-Packard reported better than expected earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter ended Oct. 31, but its sales were a mixed bag as the company dealt with falling prices for consumer PCs and printers.
The world’s largest tech company is a bellwether for the overall tech economy, and while pricing pressure has been tough, HP’s performance should give the industry hope that a recovery is still in the works in the larger economy.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company… Continue Reading
Review: Multiplayer gaming makes Modern Warfare 2 live up to its hype
A game can have a flawed single-player campaign, but still become a blockbuster seller because it executes multiplayer gaming so well. That’s the case with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has become the fastest selling video game of all time.
The single-player version of this first-person shooter game has 18 levels that last close to eight hours. It’s a gripping and visceral experience that lives up to the Call of Duty brand name. But… Continue Reading
Next Island to launch sci-fi adventure virtual world — with time travel
Next Island is the latest company to launch an ambitious virtual world. But this sci-fi adventure paradise comes with an interesting twist: time travel. The company is announcing today that it is building a world in MindArk’s massively multiplayer online virtual universe, Entropia Universe.
That means it has licensed virtual world technology from MindArk, whose technology is behind Planet Calypso, which until now has been the only virtual world in the Entropia Universe. Next Island will… Continue Reading
Zynga crosses 100 million users and expands beyond Facebook games
Zynga said today it has crossed more than 100 million unique monthly users for its social games on Facebook.
Thanks to the popularity of its casual Facebook games such as FarmVille, which has more than 65 million players, the San Francisco company has become the biggest developer on Facebook and the leading company in the emerging social games market.
That’s a pretty good achievement for a startup founded in 2007 and one that is surrounded by multi-billion-dollar… Continue Reading
Backflip proves indie iPhone developers can create multiple hits — and make money
Backflip Studios has managed to defy the odds on the iPhone by coming up with games that have become big hits over and over.
The Boulder, Colo.-based game studio has just six employees and has been around only seven months, but it has already made more than $1.75 million — by selling game applications in multiple forms, serving ads in them, as well as offering virtual goods. The success shows that with the right games and… Continue Reading
Intel and Sprout launch a consumer-powered Facebook promotion
Facebook reaches so many people now that big brands are trying to figure out how to reach its audience. Intel is using social media firm Sprout to launch a new kind of marketing campaign today that promises to drop Intel laptop prices if consumers sign up to be fans of Intel’s latest page on Facebook. The more fans sign up, the lower the price of the laptops will be when they go on sale on… Continue Reading
Roku adds 10 new free content channels for its set-top video players
Roku offers a trio of set-top boxes that can download movies and TV shows from the web and show them on your TV. Now the company is adding 10 new free content channels to its service.
You can use a Roku box with a Netflix subscription or the Amazon Video on Demand service to watch movies or TV shows on your TV. You connect a Roku box to both your TV and the web. Then you… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: Nook sold out, Sony launches online store, Bing gets slammed
We’ve been a little behind with roundup lately. Our apologies. Here’s the latest action:
Barnes & Noble Nook sold out — The bookseller’s entry into the eBook reader market is under way. The B&N Nook is out of stockk on the company’s web site and it is now taking orders for devices that will ship next year. Analysts say that the Nook wasn’t ready for shipment in huge quantities and B&N probably launched it anyway to head… Continue Reading
New speakers, sponsors for DiscoveryBeat; today is last day for early-bird discount
We’ve got some great momentum for VentureBeat’s upcoming DiscoveryBeat event, which will attack the problem of how to get attention for an app in the midst of a lot of noise.
One of our newest speakers is Randy Breen, chief operating officer at Social Gaming Network, where he oversees game development, business development, strategy and executive management. He has worked in the game industry since 1986 at companies such as Electronic Arts, LucasArts and Emotiv Systems.
Today… Continue Reading
French game maker Gameloft ditches the Android platform
[Updated] French mobile phone games publisher Gameloft said it is giving up on the Google Android platform.
The company said it is cutting back investment in making games and other apps for Android-based cell phones, even though Android has won a lot of attention lately with new models from Motorola and Sony Ericsson, according to Reuters.
“We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others,” Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said… Continue Reading
Playhaven creates lots of fan communities for iPhone game developers
Playhaven is making it easy for gamers to create fan communities around iPhone games. It does so by creating online forums for fans on its web site, with a new fan section for every iPhone game. Developers can then claim those game communities as official fan sites.
To date, 40 developers have launched official communities at Playhaven in its first month. Fans can join the online communities for free, and developers can claim the communities for… Continue Reading
Facebook bans offer providers Gambit and Tatto Media due to questionable ads
Facebook has banned offer providers Gambit and Tatto Media from providing offers in games and apps on the social network.
The development is one of the results of the recent scandal around the quality of offers in social games and apps. Some of the offers have been tainted as scams because they don’t tell consumers about hidden obligations or fees. Earlier today, Offerpal said that it was issuing a set of standards for its advertisers to… Continue Reading
eBay completes sale of Skype at $2.75 billion valuation
eBay said it has completed the sale of a 70-percent stake in Skype communications service for an amount that values the company at $2.75 billion.
The buyer is an investor consortium led by Silver Lake Partners, the private equity buyout firm. It includes participation from Joltid, the company founded by Skype’s founders. Other members include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
eBay is getting $1.9 billion in cash and a note from buyer… Continue Reading
Offerpal Media sets standards to lock out scam offers
[Updated with interview]
Burned by a scandal in its offer business over inappropriate promos, Offerpal Media is moving to set standards that forbid offers that are misleading, deceptive or otherwise objectionable.
The action is the first move the company has made since it brought in a new chief executive, George Garrick, a couple of weeks ago. The CEO transition happened in the midst of a debate over scam offers that were allegedly duping users into mobile subscription… Continue Reading