Archive for Mobile Games

Yahoo: We Also Bought Loki Studios

yahoo, loki studios, mobile apps, acquisitions, yahoo acquired loki studios, mobile gamesIn a tweet this afternoon, Yahoo revealed that it had grown its mobile team by 22 employees and four startup acquisitions this month.

Wait four?

That’s right, in addition to Astrid, MileWise and GoPollGo, the lumbering Internet giant bought Loki Studios.

The Palo Alto-based mobile gaming company, whose major game is Geomon, has a eight-person staff, most of whom are Stanford alumni. It appears all but the UX designer (and sole woman) will make the move to Yahoo.

“We are thrilled to be joining the exceptional folks at Yahoo!. We believe fully in their commitment to creating outstanding mobile products. We are excited to learn from, work with, and contribute to one of the most well-known pioneers of the tech industry,” Loki said.

 

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Groupon, Zynga and Pandora Are Giants of the Small Screen

mobile apps, groupon, zynga, pandoraGroupon, Zynga and Pandora a much bigger portion of their traffic from mobile users than any of the other top 50 digital properties, according to comScore’s first tally of Internet traffic across Web and mobile apps, released today.

When mobile users were tracked, Groupon’s traffic increased has 223 percent, Zynga’s increased 211 percent and Pandora’s 183 percent.

Groupon and Zynga have faced business headwinds in recent months.

Twitter, Pinterest and Yelp brought in more than half of their traffic from mobile users. LinkedIn and Facebook drew about a fifth of their unique visitors from mobile devices. Overall, mobile users accounted for just 7 percent of the visits to the top 50 most-visited sites.

Topping the list of the biggest properties across devices were Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon. Microsoft drew fewer visits from mobile users than its competitors.

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Monopoly Looks to Facebook Users to Help It Modernize Play Tokens

The game which is emblematic of the early 20th century economy, is embracing the 21st world of social media. The makers of Monopoly began holding a Facebook vote this week to let users decide which of its original playing pieces will be replaced and with what.

Monopoly has 10 million “likes” on its Facebook page.

Users can vote to replace one of the existing playing pieces, which include a top hat, shoe, thimble, iron, wheelbarrow, car, battleship and dog, with a more modern token. The candidates for introduction include a robot, helicopter, guitar, ring and cat. Several Facebook posts promoting the new tokens are sponsored.

The custom app tells users the tokens have all landed in jail and users will have to decide which ones to bail out.

The top candidates for elimination are, at the time of writing, the iron and the wheelbarrow.

While the turn to social media is new, Monopoly has kept its tokens relatively fresh over its 80-year lifespan. The original playing pieces were a lantern, purse, cannon and a rocking horse. During the 1950s, there was a horse and rider token.

Most users are joining in the fun, but a vocal minority is protesting that the classic game shouldn’t be changed.

“For shame, Hasbro! Monopoly is Monopoly. It doesn’t need to have its tokens ‘updated,’” wrote Allison Britting.

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Little Games: Big Business [infographic]

Mobile gaming is on the rise. Mobile games are the most popular App Category

Google’s Project Glass Unveiled | Reality Tech TV | Introducing Aviary

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Google Project Glass

Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses (The New York Times / Bits)
Yesterday, Google gave people a clearer picture of its secret initiative called Project Glass. The glasses are the company’s first venture into wearable computing. The glasses are not yet for sale. Google will, however, be testing them in public. Cnet A video of this augmented-reality experiment was posted by Google on YouTube showing someone wearing the glasses as he made his way around a variety of Manhattan venues, receiving up-to-the-minute updates as information streamed into his glasses. The Wall Street Journal / Digits Instant walking routes on maps, video chat, voice notes and a camera may be included in the glasses, Google suggests. Wired / Epicenter It’s also a timely means for Google to remind the public that its engineers have visions that transcend the current spats with Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, the DOJ and the European Union. continued…

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Tapjoy and PapayaMobile Team To Deliver Social Game Discovery on Android

Tapjoy and PapayaMobile today announced that they are partnering to launch Social Marketplace that provides users with recommendations on which apps to download. Both companies have released a flurry of announcements recently and this particular news could be great for developers and users alike. More after the jump. continued…

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Cross-Platform Flexibility Gives PlayPhone’s PXP an Edge

Revenues from virtual goods sales in social games is growing exponentially each year and has the potential to reach $4 billion globally by 2016. Nonetheless, successfully monetizing social games is no walk in the park, especially for those developers who may not have all the necessary resources. Luckily for them, the PlayPhone social gaming network just released PlayPhone PXP, a complete tool set of advanced virtual goods management tools supporting Android, iOS, and HTML5. More after the jump. continued…

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Game Personalization Platform Lets Developers A/B Test Virtual Items

Personalization in games is less talked about compared to various other topics such as distribution and monetization. That’s because it is difficult to discuss as actionable insights get lost among the heaps of data developers collect. Making breakthroughs in this space is a company called Swrve that I had a pleasure to sit down with and discuss their emerging platform. More after the jump.

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GREE, DeNA and the Mobile Social Gaming Wild West

Mobile social gaming network GREE has recently announced its plan to launch a cohesive mobile gaming platform by mid 2012. In addition, the Japanese giant is also projecting net sales of around $1.7B, a 40 percent jump from the firm’s previous projections. This news comes at a time when DeNA is aggressively laying out its plans for Mobage Global after achieving a net income of around $105M for the quarter. More after the jump. continued…

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Smule Raises $12M Round As It Continues Hiring Spree

Social music app developer Smule has raised $12M in another round of funding after having previously raised $13.5. Best known for its popular mobile apps such as the I am T-Pain autotune app and Ocarina, Smule will aggressively pursue the mobile social music market by continuing to innovate on its existing free-to-play apps. More after the jump. continued…

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