Games.com Blog: “Popcap goes casino crazy with domain registrations” plus 17 more |  |
- Popcap goes casino crazy with domain registrations
- Square Enix brings freemium RPG to Japanese social network
- Zynga pulls Farmville from MSN Games
- Baking Feature Battle: Cafe World's Design-A-Cake versus Baking Life's Cupcake Creator
- PetVille Midnight Crypt items give a wink, nod to The Shining, Poltergeist
- Mafia Wars rolls out trigger-happy trailer to promote $25K contest
- Is FarmVille changing everything? Games biz bigwigs speak out
- FarmVille LOLs: Girl quits broker job and outs her boss as a FarmVille jerk
- Rixty offers free Facebook Credits for Coinstar users
- FarmVille Unreleased Goldstrike Watermelon, Zucchini & White Daisies
- FarmVille Unreleased Yellow, Red, Green, Purple, Pink & Blue Tractor, Seeder, Harvester, Bulldozer
- FarmVille Unreleased Hot Rod Bulldozer, Blimp, Chrome Plane, Gold Tractor & Seagreen Scooter
- FarmVille Unreleased Alien Horse, Flamingo & Dumpling Squash
- FarmVille Unreleased Bounce House, Hippo Fountain & Upper Falls
- FarmVille Unreleased Crops: Bluebell, Foxglove, & Hot Pink Aster
- YoVille Alligator is here and YoVille Lounge is giving one away
- YoVille: Group Buying Returns
- Google snaps up virtual currency platform Social Gold for $75 million [Rumor]
| Popcap goes casino crazy with domain registrations Posted: 11 Aug 2010 12:00 AM PDT  Super-sleuth Superannuation first noticed the newly-registered domains, which combine various Popcap game names (Bejeweled, Big Money, Chuzzle, Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, "PvZ," Zuma and the Popcap name itself) with various gambling-related (bingo, casino, keno, lottery, lotto, poker, scratch, scratchcard, slot and slots). The new domains likely indicate a continuation of Popcap's deal with British site JackpotJoy. That deal has already led to online gambling games such as Bejeweled Bingo and Zuma Slots that can be played for free or with real money. I suppose there's a chance these new domain names could indicate some new, real-world gambling initiative by Popcap, but it seems unlikely. While these gambling games aren't likely to appeal to all social and casual gamers, it's nice to see that some of Popcap's brands seem to be gaining earning power outside of the games themselves.
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| Square Enix brings freemium RPG to Japanese social network Posted: 10 Aug 2010 11:00 PM PDT  RPG-maker Square Enix's "exploration" of the social game space seems to be continuing apace -- in Japan, at least. SiliconEra reports that the company has released classical RPG Knights of the Crystal on Japanese social network GREE.With a look reminiscent of the company's popular Final Fantasy series (thanks to Final Fantasy Tactics A2 artist Ryoma Ito), the game is reportedly a standard turn-based RPG in the Square Enix mold. One major difference from most Square Enix RPGs, though, is that the game is being offered as a free-to-play game on browsers and mobile phones, with money generated from in-game item sales. This isn't the first time Square Enix has dabbled in Japanese social gaming -- previous titles on GREE include historical tactics game Sengoku Ixa and farming adventure game Chocobo's Crystal Tower. The company hasn't been nearly as active (or, um, active at all) in the American social gaming scene, but they've given every indication that they're interested in breaking in. It might not be the long-rumored Facebook Final Fantasy, but it'll have to do for now, we suppose.
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| Zynga pulls Farmville from MSN Games Posted: 10 Aug 2010 10:30 PM PDT Filed under: Farmville  As Inside Social Games notes, it seems like an odd move for Zynga, which has lately been trying to decrease its dependence on mega-network Facebook. Then again, it's not the first time Zynga has decided to pull its games from a social network -- see the company's canceled relationship with relatively minor network Tagged. While having access to MSN's millions of users surely didn't hurt Farmville, Zynga likely decided their resources were better spent focusing on other markets, such as Japanese mobile phone networks, for instance. As we saw with Zynga's canceled Facebook game Street Racing, sometimes the opportunity cost of the status quo outweighs the benefit of leaving things as they are. We've reached out to Zynga for a comment on the move and will let you know if and when we hear back.
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| Baking Feature Battle: Cafe World's Design-A-Cake versus Baking Life's Cupcake Creator Posted: 10 Aug 2010 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Cafe World     And thirdly, Baking Life's feature has been around the longest and they've got a better sense of humor about this personalized cakes business. Just look at the monster cupcake below that I managed to whip up using their Cupcake Creator:  Pretty neat, huh?
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| PetVille Midnight Crypt items give a wink, nod to The Shining, Poltergeist Posted: 10 Aug 2010 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: PetVille  While I wile away the hours, cleaning up my pet's leftover tacos, I find myself hoping (praying even) that PetVille will release a suite of Mad Men related items. It looks like I'll have to wait a little longer to get my hands on a Pet Draper or dress my pet in one Joan-inspired hip hugging dress with gold pendant -- this week's release, a collection called Midnight Crypt, takes on more gothic overtones.Some of the highlights from this new spooky collection include the limited edition Shimmering Twins (25 PetCash), inspired by those super creepy twin girls in 'The Shining,' a Poltergeist Programmed TV (18 PetCash), a nod to the movie Poltergeist and the Three Wolves Painting (9 PetCash), an homage to the Three Wolf Moon internet meme. I'm seriously considering shelling out for all three of these items. Of course, there are quite a few more items in the Midnight Crypt collection -- a few outfits, furniture, other decor -- though only a few can be purchased with coins, like the carpet and wallpaper in the pic to the left and -- probably the best coin item -- an antique vampire hunting kit.    What items do you plan to buy from PetVille's Midnight Crypt collection? Leave a note in the comments below.
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| Mafia Wars rolls out trigger-happy trailer to promote $25K contest Posted: 10 Aug 2010 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Mafia Wars In addition to blowing up an armored truck, Mafia Wars is giving away $25K as part of a promotion for the recently released Vegas expansion. To promote the promotion, Mafia Wars creator Zynga released this graphic-novel style trailer, where generic mafia members steal a truck from NYC, roadtrip to Vegas, snag more cash, then walk into the sunset with moneybags in hand. There's bullets; there's bloodshed; there's even a babe -- good thing the long arm of the ESRB doesn't extend to Facebook games.
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| Is FarmVille changing everything? Games biz bigwigs speak out Posted: 10 Aug 2010 09:00 AM PDT To say the game industry is undergoing a transformation would be an understatement. The entire playing-games-on-one-system paradigm is rapidly shifting, as more people play games on multiple devices -- consoles, PCs, and increasingly the iPhone, iPad, or even the favorite medium of the Games.com - The Blog! crew, Facebook (along with other social networks). And, more people are starting to play games, period. In this new video series, Game Theory, video game industry bigwigs like Sims creator Will Wright and Fable creator Peter Molyneux talk about the tectonic shifts in the industry and, of course, social games come up more than once. This pair of videos might be too 'inside baseball' for most of you, but if you dabble in gaming trends, this might be worth a few minutes of your time. I am still amazed at how much of an impact that FarmVille, Pet Society and others have had on the traditional video game console business. Social games might be classified as "casual," but there's nothing casual about the wake up call these non-traditional games are giving the traditional game industry.
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| FarmVille LOLs: Girl quits broker job and outs her boss as a FarmVille jerk Posted: 10 Aug 2010 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville  Here's what The Chive has to say: Since Jenny's boss installed a "little office snitch" to monitor everyone's computer time, Jenny thought it was time to turn the tables on her boss. Here's what she discovered -- her boss spends 4 hours per week on Scottrade, 5.3 hours per week on TechCrunch, and for the coup de grâce... 19.7 hours per week playing FarmVille! At the time, Jenny's surname has yet to be confirmed. So I'll just like you guys to know there's no way Jenny can be your -- this here -- humble Games.com blogger. Especially since if we DIDN'T play FarmVille in this office, we'd definitely lose our jobs! A fact like that certainly takes your head for a spin, doesn't it? Update: Peter Kafka of "All Things Digital" interviews the owners of The Chive to ask if Jenny is real. [Source]
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| Rixty offers free Facebook Credits for Coinstar users Posted: 10 Aug 2010 08:00 AM PDT  It looks like PayNearMe isn't the only credit-card-free virtual currency service giving away bonus Facebook Credits to attract new customers. Coinstar partner Rixty is now offering up to 105 free Facebook credits to entice users to try out its service.There are two ways for users to get the free currency, and both involve taking your extra loose change to a nearby CoinStar machine coin-counting machine. Just changing your coins for a cash voucher nets you 10 free Facebook Credits, but using those proceeds to buy Facebook Credits directly from Rixty gets you a bonus of up to seven percent of your purchase. That bonus maxes out at a $150 purchase (and 105 Facebook Credits) so don't even think about converting your entire savings account into Facebook Credits (via Rixty) and making a tidy 7% profit on the transaction, because we thought of it first and it won't work. The offer, which started yesterday, runs until Sept. 7, so start smashing open those piggy banks. And remember, a penny saved is a penny earned only under very specific circumstances.
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| FarmVille Unreleased Goldstrike Watermelon, Zucchini & White Daisies Posted: 10 Aug 2010 07:30 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Over the last few days many unreleased crop images have come our way, such as Foxglove and Bluebells, excitingly FarmVille Freak Rainexel found even more!The images below feature unreleased Goldstrike Watermelon, Zucchini and White Daisies. Hopefully we will be able to plant these crops soon!  This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Unreleased Yellow, Red, Green, Purple, Pink & Blue Tractor, Seeder, Harvester, Bulldozer Posted: 10 Aug 2010 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville   This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Unreleased Hot Rod Bulldozer, Blimp, Chrome Plane, Gold Tractor & Seagreen Scooter Posted: 10 Aug 2010 05:45 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Check out all of these exciting unreleased FarmVille vehicles! This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Unreleased Alien Horse, Flamingo & Dumpling Squash Posted: 10 Aug 2010 05:30 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Here are some new exciting unreleased FarmVille items! One is an alien horse, perhaps part of the UFO theme. A pink flamingo that appears to be an animal not decoration. And finally, Dumpling Squash, possibly a limited edition crop. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Unreleased Bounce House, Hippo Fountain & Upper Falls Posted: 10 Aug 2010 05:15 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Thank you to FarmVille Freak Teresa for finding these unreleased FarmVille Bounce House, Hippo Fountain, & Upper Falls. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Unreleased Crops: Bluebell, Foxglove, & Hot Pink Aster Posted: 10 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Thank you to FarmVille Freak Teresa for finding these unreleased FarmVille Bluebell Crop, Foxglove Crop, and Hot Pink Aster Crop items! This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| YoVille Alligator is here and YoVille Lounge is giving one away Posted: 10 Aug 2010 04:30 AM PDT Filed under: YoVille  We are giving away a free alligator to a lucky player. Find the alligator status on our Facebook Fan Page, and reply to it for a chance to win a cute green pet. This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
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| Posted: 10 Aug 2010 04:00 AM PDT Filed under: YoVille  The group buying feature will be returning very very soon due to popular demand! This feature will operate as it did before and allow you to receive certain YoVille Items for Massive discounts. For those of you that weren't around for this feature before let's check it out now! What is Group Buying? Group Buying is an opportunity for players to get some awesome deals on items! The catch is that you have to spread the word among your friends and get a certain amount of people to sign up before the timer is up to receive the deal! Everyone that opts in and signs up will get the deal if you reach 100,000 so make sure to let your friends know! How Do I become part of Group Buying? To become a part of Group buying you will click on the Group Buying Banner. This will take you to the Group Buying page and allow you to click "Count Me in". Once you click this you can watch the numbers rise of other players that are signing up as well you should receive confirmation email that you signed up. If enough people sign up you'll receive another email with a link to buy the items advertised at a discount. Please be patient as once you potentially hit the 100,000 mark it may take some time to roll out these announcement emails to everyone. You will have this chance to buy these items for approximately 3 Days ! Please note that if you opt in for these deals there is no obligation to buy. Just in case make sure to set change your spam settings on your email account to avoid any issues of emails being directed to your wrong folders ;) How do I share this with My Friends? To share this opportunity with your friends and help get more players to sign up make sure to click the "Like" option at the upper left hand corner. This will allow you to post a feed and let everyone know. *Please note this opportunity will only be available via Facebook* - Platinum Ninja This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
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| Google snaps up virtual currency platform Social Gold for $75 million [Rumor] Posted: 10 Aug 2010 01:24 AM PDT  Google is still staying mum on the rumors that it's planning to launch a game-driven social network called 'Google Me' in the near future. However, it's undeniable that the search giant is making a serious play for the social gaming space, having -- in the past months -- invested a big chunk of change in FarmVille-creator Zynga, purchased SuperPoke Pets! creator Slide, and now, has also acquired Jambool, which owns Social Gold, one of several platforms for virtual currency payments in the business. Essentially, if you've developed a social game and are looking to add software that will power the virtual good/payments part of your game -- Social Gold might be one of your go-to guys ... if you haven't already committed to using Facebook Credits, that is. Google nor Jambool have officially confirmed the purchase yet, but sources tell TechCrunch that Jambool was bought for $55 million, plus another roughly $20 million "in an earnout." It has also been reported that Google has recently been in talks with several social gaming companies, including Playfish and Playdom (which was purchased by Disney weeks ago) to be part of the company's Facebook rival that they've been working on behind the scenes. [Via Tech Crunch and Worlds in Motion] What do you think of Google launching a Facebook rival? Do you think it would make for a better social game experience?
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