I ain’t even mad…

Windows Phone Mango gaming hub gets new avatars, better Xbox Live

Windows Phone Mango is supposed to have over 500 new features and Microsoft continues to slowly detail what all of these will entail. The company showed off some of the new features in the gaming hub and mobile gamers should start to get excited.

I've always felt that one of the biggest advantages Windows Phone has is that it has Xbox Live built in. Hardcore gamers swear by this service and Windows Phone Mango will improve the mobile integration. From the Windows blog:

• Improved Xbox LIVE messaging: Read and reply to Xbox Live messages sent from another Windows Phone, a PC, or an Xbox console. We've also added more avatar delighters here. If a message contains certain emoticons (e.g. , ), you'll notice your avatar's expression change to reflect that emotion! (If a sender overloads a message with conflicting emoticons, your avatar will look bewildered.)
• Connect with Xbox Live friends: Find out if your Xbox LIVE friends are currently online through the friend status view. You can also search, browse, initiate, and respond to friend requests right from your Windows Phone 7.
• Integrated achievements and new comparison views: See the recent games your friends have been playing, and compare gamerscores and achievements for all Xbox LIVE games played on the phone, console, or PC.
• Edit your profile: Moved to a new city? Have a new motto in life? Now you can update your name, bio, motto, and location right from the phone.
  Improved Spotlight content: We've improved the news and info delivered to you via Spotlight in the Games Hub. Your window to the Xbox LIVE community will now be complemented with rich and vibrant images!
• Improved game request notifications: In Mango, you'll receive notifications for multiplayer game or turn requests and can track them in the Requests section of the Games Hub.

That's quite a good list of improvements but I'm really hoping we'll see developers push the bar on what we can do on mobile gaming with Windows Phone Mango. There are some other improvements as well, so hit the via link to get all the details.

Article: RSS via IntoMobile

PS3 price drop due August: How will Xbox respond?

There are rumours that Sony plans to slash the price of the PS3 to around 199, with some retailers likely to offer the console as low as 179. Can the Xbox 360 compete?

With all that Playstation Network hacking nastiness, PS3 fans have had their noses put out of joint by the security problems that kept them off PSN for weeks. Some good new might be on the way, however, as industry sources are reporting that Sony will cut the price of the PS3 - meaning you could soon snap one up for less than 200.

Since the PS3 launched the rival Xbox 360 has had price as a trump card but soon the top-end Xbox is going to be the same price as a PS3 - and it doesn't have Blu-Ray to tempt you into buying.

Although there are rumours of a new Xbox console next year, nothing has been confirmed and Microsoft might have to get creative to stay competitive. Hopefully this will mean more price cuts but we expect to see better Kinect bundles and other goodies to entice gamers to the 360 side of the fence. Either way, there could be some real bargains on the way.

Rains more in 1 hour

Amazon to launch UK based game download store in October

Playing US catchup

Amazon UK is set to get its own digital game download store, bringing the shopping service inline with the US.

The Americans have been enjoying downloadable games since 2009, with quality titles being added in November last year. Amazon.com has its ownspecial download section, stocked full of a series number of titles that you can pull straight from the cloud to your hard drive.

MCV is reporting that the service has seen severe delays, originally pegged for an April launch. Things are currently in testing phase, with everything on track for an Autumn release.

"Amazon can use its retail muscle to draw attention to PC digital downloads and even upset the established order, where Valve sits at the head of the table." a rival retailer told MCV.

Steam currently retains the disc free download crown. Amazon however, the worlds biggest online shopping site, could pose a serious threat.

Personally we welcome the digital download concept, provided you have plenty of bandwidth to play with, otherwise those desperate to play may find days of waiting before downloads complete.

Digital downloads? Or discs your thing?

Don Mattrick Debuts as New Zynga CEO, With Loss Expected in Q2

Former Microsoft Xbox head and new Zynga CEO Don Mattrick will helm his first quarterly report and conference call later today, after the company's founder and former CEO Mark Pincus removed himself from the top job several weeks ago.

Unfortunately for Mattrick, the San Francisco online gaming company is expected to report a second-quarter loss of seven cents per share, a decline from last year. On an adjusted basis, the loss will be less. Revenue is also expected to be down, around $185 million. Zynga will report after the markets close.

Such lackluster results might be the new normal for a while, with Zynga still in turnaround mode as it seeks to find lucrative new businesses, especially in mobile.

The tone and tenor of the new leader will be much watched by Wall Street, which will be interested in what Mattrick has in store. And although the Q2 results are not under his watch, Mattrick has already been at the job since July 8, working at its HQ in the city, having moved his family from up north to a house he owns in Silicon Valley.

One can expect a tougher message from Mattrick, who has a lot of experience in turnaround situations, and very little sugar-coating of the difficult situation that the company finds itself in now.

He might not get too specific, though, such as whether or not he will preside over additional staff reductions. Such cuts had already started under Pincus, who laid off more than 500 employees in June.

Pincus will apparently be on the call later today at the start, but only for a short while, as it will clearly be Mattrick's show from now on.

No Dice: Zynga Decides to Abandon Real-Money Gaming Efforts in the U.S.

In its lackluster second-quarter report today, at the very bottom of its press release, Zynga made a very important strategic announcement, saying that it would not pursue real-money gaming in the U.S.

It added that it would continue to evaluate its tests of such gaming products in the United Kingdom, where betting is legal. U.S. online gaming, in comparison, requires Zynga and others to jump a series of long-term and difficult hurdles.

While some investors had been counting on the potentially lucrative online business to be a potential growth area for the troubled San Francisco online social gaming company, management said it has decided to focus on fixing its core business instead.

Said Zynga in a statement:

"Zynga believes its biggest opportunity is to focus on free to play social games. While the Company continues to evaluate its real money gaming products in the United Kingdom test, Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a license for real money gaming in the United States. Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings."

No surprise, given this surprise, Zynga's stock is off 14 percent so far in after-hours trading.

Mad Catz's M.O.J.O. Microconsole Costs $250, Opens for Preorders

The M.O.J.O., an Android-based but TV-connected microconsole developed by gaming-peripherals manufacturer Mad Catz, will cost $250 when it goes on sale in December, the company announced today. That puts it near the high end of competing Android gaming devices, closer to the portable $300 Nvidia Shield than the TV-connected $80 GameStick or $100 Ouya. The M.O.J.O.'s website is now accepting preorders ahead of its Dec. 10 launch date, although the company said in a press release that the microconsole will only be available "in limited quantities" at that time.

I’m not a gamer because I don’t have a life…

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Sony's First TV Ad for the PlayStation 4 Is Basically "Testosterone, the Musical!"

Who is going to buy the PlayStation 4 when it launches on Nov. 15? Sony's first TV ad for the next-gen gaming console, which aired tonight during "Monday Night Football," makes the safe bet that it's young dudes:

Maybe not all the young dudes can sing Lou Reed this well, but let's have some suspension of disbelief.

"Perfect Day" is couched in three mock-multiplayer games: A sword-fighting game, a car racer and a war/sci-fi shooter. The commercial doesn't say exactly which games these are supposed to be, but some rough analogues in the PS4's launch catalog for the latter two are DriveClub and Killzone Shadow Fall. Hat tip to commenter GavinLacouette for noticing Imperial City from the Elder Scrolls series in the background of the first game.

Focusing on the games in this first ad, which was produced by BBH New York, is right in line with Sony's larger marketing around the console. They're catering to the hard-core gamers (again, traditionally, young dudes) who are willing to shell out $60 for a deep and "pure" gaming experience. As before, it's distinct from Microsoft's broader strategy with the Xbox One, which got its TV debut last month in a football-centric ad that didn't mention games at all.

The PS4 will cost $399 in the U.S. at launch, versus $499 for the Xbox One, which launches a week later, on Nov. 22.

Sims: March on Washington

There's certainly something to be said about the assumptions, say, Civilization builds into its simulations. Look at its winstates and what they value - technological progress, military conquest, economic superiority, and cultural domination. You don't win by eliminating hunger or poverty or by nuclear deproliferation or by having a particularly high standard of living. You get it for, for lack of a better way to phrase this, very American goals.

- Chris Franklin, from a post entitled "Keep Your Politics Out of My Video Games"

IGT Not Deterred by Zynga Scrapping Real-Money Gambling Plans

In its Q2 earnings report earlier this week, Zynga said it has abandoned its plans to pursue real-money gambling in the U.S. But Nevada-based IGT, which makes both physical and virtual casino games, said its plans are unaffected.

"What Zynga's finding out is that breaking into real-currency wagers is a difficult thing," said executive VP Robert Melendres, who heads IGT's interactive division. "They built their business as more of a causal social gaming business. We are well situated to take advantage of [real money], just as we've done in Europe."

Melendres's goal is "convergence": Bringing the experience someone might have playing, for example, a Wheel of Fortune slot machine (which IGT develops and manufactures) with the separately branded games of its social casino product DoubleDown Casino. In addition to getting cleared by regulators, he said part of the challenge is in the gameplay itself: Offering the same odds and the same "thrill" (his word) of risking real money that one gets in Vegas.

IGT acquired DoubleDown for $500 million in early 2012, one week before Zynga announced its now-scrapped casino ambitions. The Facebook-integrated site now offers roulette, blackjack, video poker and 37 slots games, which - like many of the innumerable competing social/mobile casino games - encourage users to purchase virtual currency, which is then what's (legally) wagered.

According to its Q3 earnings report, the company's social casino gaming revenue is up 105 percent year over year to $61.4 million, and monthly active users increased 28 percent from 5.2 million to 6.7 million in the same time frame. But Melendres said he is confident that IGT will be part of the "first meaningful wave" of real-money gambling for players in states that have legalized it, expecting to have a foot in the door by Q1 2014.

The real-money online gambling market, which H2 Gambling Capital said currently grosses about $30 billion worldwide, already surpasses other forms of social gaming and is expected to keep growing, as shown in this chart from Betable.

That ass!!!

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A Year In The Making, Machine Zone Launches Game of War, An Impressively Large MMO For iOS

While iOS games started out as either simple physics or casual simulation titles when the platform launched about five years ago, the bar has gotten steadily higher and more hard-core. Midcore studios like Kabam started to rise in prominence.

Now the iOS platform might be seeing is most hardcore title to date - a very, very massive multi-player title from YC- and Menlo Ventures-backed Machine Zone.

The company, which started out doing text-based RPGs a couple years ago like iMob, is launching Game of War: Fire Age. It's a title where players build and grow empires, train massive armies, forge alliances with other players to win kingdoms.

The game can handle hundreds of thousands of players concurrently in the same universe, which is not an easy technical feat. Blizzard's World of Warcraft, in contrast, typically handles a few thousand players simultaneously in a single realm. All movement on the game's map is visible to everyone else.

"We wanted to take the company to the next level and be really ambitious," said Machine Zone CEO Gabriel Leydon. "We decided to build some things that had never been done before. We had the capital to do it and the willpower."

Leydon didn't hire just typical game designers to build the title. He also found people who had experience in scaling massive systems. The game's user interface is in HTML5 and is rendered natively, allowing the company to handle different screen sizes.

The other really cool thing about the game's social capabilities is that there is a mechanical turk-like translation system where the players themselves translate chat in exchange for virtual currency rewards. That helps Game of War have really interactive play with a proper critical mass of users who can talk to each other, even if they don't speak the same language. The in-game chat system helps Game of War get manage slang and gamer speak, which a third-party translation system probably wouldn't handle correctly. If say, 50 players translate the same words in the same way, then the game will start using that translation automatically.

"It's like a highly structured Facebook," Leydon said. "My goal as a game designer was to create a feeling of what it would be to be a king, where you'd have a lot of people under you. You'd have to subjects, wealth and land."

Assuming say, the game grows to 1 million players, there might only be 20 kings in the game. To reach that level, players have to woo others to form alliances with them. Within those alliances, there are ranks for different officers.

"This is a very hardcore game. This is not Candy Crush," he said. "This is a complex system with a lot of potential trees of outcomes. If you're the type of person that's fascinated by systems like this, then this is for you."

Machine Zone used to be known as Addmired, and rebranded last year when it took $8 million in funding from Menlo Ventures. Leydon said this is what the company took the round for, even though its older titles like Original Gangstaz and iMob 2 were pretty lucrative early on.

With New CEO Mattrick At Helm, Zynga Reports Loss of $16M And Revenue Decline Of 31%

Zynga's revenues for the second quarter of 2013 declined 31% year-over-year to $231 million in the midst of a challenging transition that saw former CEO Mark Pincus hand over the reins to Don Mattrick.

The company had a net loss of $16 million compared to last year's net loss of $22.8 million during the same quarter (which also had $95.5 million of stock-based compensation expenses). If you account for that then, the company's net loss was $6.1 million compared to last year's net loss of $4.6 million based on non-generally accepted accounting principles. Zynga said when it laid off nearly 20 percent of its staff last month that it expected to see a net loss of between $39 million to $28.5 million so this is actually a slight earnings beat.

"We need to get back to basics and take a longer term view on our products and business, develop more efficient processes and tighten up execution all across the company," wrote Mattrick in the release. "We have a lot of hard work in front of us and as we reset, we expect to see more volatility in our business than we would like over the next two to four quarters."

Last quarter, COO David Ko said the company was in the midst of a "pause" to re-evaluate its entire game slate and that this decision would be financially apparent in this quarter.

This quarter's revenue is projected to be even lower in the range of $175 million to $200 million, with a net loss of $43 million to $14 million.

Through the company's pivot onto iOS and Android, Zynga has had to compete against older and historically smaller rivals from the Facebook platform like King and Kabam. Both of those companies have fared well with King's Candy Crush Saga bringing it the top grossing spot and numerous Kabam titles in the top 25.

In contrast, Zynga just has its longstanding Poker franchise in the U.S. top grossing 25. Even today, nearly 70 percent of the company's monthly active users remain on the web.

The losses in Zynga's user base from not being able to hold onto its core Facebook customers are staggering. The company's level of daily active users is not much higher than half of where it was a year ago at 39 million this quarter compared to 72 million in 2012. It also saw 187 million monthly active users, down from 306 million users in the same time period a year before.

The company's launches like Draw Something 2 have also underperformed without any slots in any of the top 100 charts and Zynga's other big mobile launch, Running With Friends, remains in 45th place in the U.S. top grossing chart. Zynga had six major releases this quarter including War of the Fallen, Draw Something 2, Battlestone, Solstice Arena and Running With Friends.

But older franchises like FarmVille and FarmVille 2 continue to do well as both games have grown combined bookings by 29 percent year-over-year.

Zynga's struggles in diversifying away from Facebook and missing the pivot to mobile ultimately convinced Pincus to give up the CEO role, although he remains chairman of the board and serves as chief product officer. It's now Mattrick's 15th day on the job.

Gameloft offers prepaid Game Cards in the UK

Not everyone knows how to download/purchase games from the app store his or her phone (or carrier) uses. What's more, not everyone knows what kind of games there are to download. For those folks, Gameloft prepared prepaid cards in partnership with UK-based retailers Game and Gamestation. The so called Gameloft Game Cards are available for 4.95 GBP, offering 5 games that work on "over 2000 handsets." Needless to say, these cards can also come with Android games.

I guess experimenting with distribution could prove beneficial for Gameloft (and other game publishers for that matter). This is especially true for people who want to buy some game(s) as a gift. Sending a promo code can't compete with the good ol' physical touch, even if it's just a voucher that will eventually lead to digital download. Or at least that's the way I see it. What do you think?

Adobe’s launching Flash Player 11, Air 3 bringing HD video and 3D gaming to all

While we've had access to Adobe's Flash Player 11 in beta form for months, the company announced it will finally get official, along with Air 3, next month. Among the many new features included are support for accelerated 2D and 3D graphics with a claimed 1,000 times faster performance than Flash Player 10 and Air 2. That's enough to enable "console-quality" gaming on both computers and connected TVs and on mobile devices (Android, iOS, Playbook) with a pre-release version of Flash 11 (a production release you can take on the go is expected in "the near future"). Other new options include allowing developers to package Air 3 along with their apps in a single install, HD video quality on multiple platforms including iOS, DRM for video rentals, 64-bit support and more. Check out Adobe's pitch to developers with a press release and demo videos after the break, including a look at the hit iPad game Machinarium which was built with its tools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkoBcA_hDf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqMCe4caFd8

Dragon Age: Inquisition Collectors Edition Unveiled For $170

Duke Nukem 3D hits Android, explosions ensue

As promised, our favorite cigar smoking, wise cracking first-person protagonist has hit the Android Market, and it didn't even take 15 years. The mobile version of the classic FPS is available now for Android 1.6 and up (that's according to the Market listing - its producers recommend 2.1 and up), courtesy of Tapjoy and Machineworks Northwest as a $0.99 download. And don't worry, there's plenty of Duke to go around.

The PS4 Wins November