Report predicts that virtual transactions will be increasingly supported by advertising revenue.
Digital analyst eMarketer has predicted that advertising spend in social games will reach $220 million this year, up from $183 million in 2009, rising to $293 million in 2011.
The report says that while virtual transactions will remain the primary revenue stream of social titles like FarmVille, companies like Zynga and Playdom will increasingly capatilise on the opportunity to give advertisers access to their millions of users.
UPDATE: Realtime Worlds has confirmed that the company has begun broad staff cuts, having finished its 30-day consultation period, but has not indicated how many positions have been axed.
“Those staff that couldn’t be redeployed to new projects in the Art, Audio, Coding, Design, Production, and QA departments have regrettably been made redundant,” the studio said in a statement which did not confirm the status of Project: MyWorld.
17,000 sales in one week prompt Amanita to continue promotional offer. Regional sales statistics also revealed.
Amanita, the Czech indie developer resposible for PC adventure Machinarium, is extending its pirate amnesty having sold 17,000 copies in one week.
It’s hard to imagine a game more at odds with gaming’s current fashions than Demon’s Souls. As developers fall over themselves to reward players for the emptiest of achievements, From Software’s stern demand that players learn, understand and master its game’s systems, or else face severe punishment, seems anachronistic.
The graphics chip manufacturer blames low demand for GeForce cards and legal charges for the downturn.
The company's first quarter revenue reached more than $1 billion with a profit of $137.6 million, but the second saw a lower total revenue of $811.2 million. In the same quarter last year, the company achieved a total revenue of $776.5, posting a loss of $105 million.
If you’re a long-term Apple user, you’ll know what it’s like to go to sleep each night with a crumpled piece of paper under your pillow bearing scribbled names like Desktop Dungeons, Spelunky and Audiosurf – the titles of games that you’d really like to try out, but which have yet to make it across the OS X canyon.
The engine behind Rage and Doom 4 will only be available to games published by ZeniMax Media.
iD Software has revealed that iD Tech 5, the proprietary engine behind Doom 4 and Rage, will not be licenced to other developers, suggesting that the company is looking to move away from licencing its engines in future.
The Bethesda and iD parent company adds Arx Fatalis developer to its roster.
The announcement, made at QuakeCon 2010, reveals that the acquisition will position Arkane Studios as a Bethesda Softworks internal studio. Vice president of Bethesda Softworks, Pete Hines confirmed that Bethesda and Arkane are currently collaborating on a new game, but that it will be some time before any details are revealed.
Irrational Games unveils latest BioShock title, which trades the series' ocean setting for a city 30,000 feet in the sky.
Irrational Games have revealed BioShock Infinite, the third game in the BioShock series. Previously known as 'Project Icarus', the game swaps the underwater city of Rapture for Columbia, a floating city in the sky. Set in 1912, players assume the role of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent sent to rescue Elizabeth, a woman trapped in the city since birth.
The only strange thing about this talking wolf is the high quality of its conversation. “I could shoot you, you know,” I threaten the wolf, having already established that my daughter might still be alive inside its belly. That wasn’t picked from a dialogue menu; I typed it in. Without missing a beat, the wolf responds, “I’m afraid you’ll have to.” Sentient characters and interactive dialogue have been common this entire play session. Impressed? The game’s responses are driven by game designer Jason Rohrer.
Today, we get the definite feeling that Shinji Mikami doesn't want to be interviewed.
With a designer ball-cap pulled down over his face and his body slouched deep into his chair, Mikami is far from appearing the firebrand revolutionary that his work on Resident Evil 4 might hint he really is. But his apparent reticence is not entirely unwarranted. Undoubtedly jet-lagged and tired from a packed day of interviews, it's probably a case of catching him at the wrong time and the wrong place.
Namco Bandai RPG Tales Of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X claimed the top spot on the Japanese software chart during the week ended August 8.
The PSP release, which features remakes of Game Boy Color's Tales Of Phantasia Narikiri Dungeon and the original Tales game, 1995's Tales of Phantasia for Super Famicom, debuted ahead of two former chart toppers, Nintendo’s Wii Party and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara 3.
Microsoft is establishing a new development studio to create games for Windows phones and “emerging mobile platforms”.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has upped his Kinect shipment estimate for the fourth calendar quarter of 2010 from three to four million units.
“Based on updated channel checks, we believe that production quantities of Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensor could exceed our original expectations — suggesting to us potentially more aggressive launch plans for the device,” he said in an investor note.
Ubisoft’s controversial DRM won’t be used for upcoming World War II real-time strategy title Ruse.
The game will instead use Steam, ensuring that the single player campaign will be playable offline.
Toy Story 3 reclaims the number one spot from StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty in a week that sees no new top ten entries.
Despite last week's confident number one debut from StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, ToyStory 3 has reclaimed the top spot it lost to Blizzard's RTS sequel. StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty falls to fourth place, while second and third positions go to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Dance On Broadway. The top ten saw no new entries.
Google Ventures has reportedly made a $3-5 million investment in ngmoco as part of a new round of funding for the San Francisco-based iPhone/iPad publisher and developer.
ngmoco, which secured £25 million in funding in February and is now rumoured to be worth over $100 million, is perhaps best known for pet simulation hit Touch Pets Dogs. Another of its titles, We Farm, is currently the second most popular game on the iPad.
Sony Ericsson is reportedly planning to launch a PSPgo-like smartphone running Google's Android 3.0 operating system.
According to Engadget sources, the device is said to be in the late stages of planning and could be introduced as early as October 2010.
While the growth of the social gaming market continues to garner headlines, a new report from Strategy Analytics suggests that the MMORPG segment remains “a steadily growing segment” and one that’s “not replaceable” for serious gamers.
The company's ‘The World of MMORPG: a Tale of Two Regions’ report predicts that the genre will generate $6 billion in 2010 and $8 billion in 2014, following 17 per cent annual growth to $5 billion in 2009.
Rising Star Games has secured PAL publishing rights to Marvelous Entertainment's survival horror game Deadly Premonition.
Developed by Access Games and already released in Japan and the US, the third-person title puts players in the role of an FBI agent “in charge of investigating the brutal killing of a local beauty and solving the mystery of the Red Seed Murders”.
Publisher trade body ELSPA has announced plans to launch a UK download chart for PC games.
The association has formed a working group of members who sell PC games digitally, including Ubisoft, THQ, Sega, NCsoft, Mastertronic, Square Enix and three other “major publishers” due to be announced shortly.
All stakeholders have committed that sales data from third party resellers will be included, allaying fears that data from Steam will be missing from the chart.
Yesterday the publisher Random House announced that it had sacked Lee Child, author of the enormously successful Jack Reacher series of ultraviolent detective thrillers. In an act of what a Random House SEC filing has described as ‘gross insubordination’, Child was planning that the next in the series would be an erotic space opera. The job of composing the official Jack Reacher texts will now be delegated to a group of scriveners more sensitive to the publisher’s desires.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian believes that web giant Google’s increased focus on the games market is regarded within the company as a “strategic necessity”.
Writing in an investor note following the recent Google’s Think Gaming summit, he said that Facebook represented the elephant in the room.
