Angry Birds downloaded a billion times
The milestone, announced in a post on Rovio's website, has been reached in just 29 months, with half the total coming since last November, when the game crossed the 500 million download mark. More >
The milestone, announced in a post on Rovio's website, has been reached in just 29 months, with half the total coming since last November, when the game crossed the 500 million download mark. More >
Rachet & Clank and Resistance developer Insomniac Games has revealed Outernauts, its first Facebook game. In the adventure RPG, players take on the role of a member of the United Earth's Outernaut force whose task is to capture and tame exotic aliens and tackle pirates. More >
NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell unveils his first project since moving from EA last summer.
Survey pitches new features, including leaderboards, offline play and removal of ads, after 1.9 million users leave in a month.
3Brenda Brathwaite on how a quarter-century's worth of experience translates to social game development.
Total revenue was $321 million (£198.3m), an increase of 32 per cent year on year, while bookings - revenue from virtual goods and ad sales before deductions, such as Facebook's 30 per cent cut - rose 15 per cent to $329 million, a new record for the company. More >
Facebook's updated S-1 filing with the US Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) reveals that Zynga, through Facebook Payments revenue, direct advertising and thirdparty ads on its game pages, accounted for 15 per cent of Facebook's revenue of $1.05 billion - some $157.5 million. More >
2The app, available now at the source link below, contains an initial seven games: Saints Row The Third, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, Magicka, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings, Orcs Must Die, and Farming Simulator 2011. More >
Loot Drop, the social gaming studio founded by Doom creator John Romero and his wife-to-be Brenda Brathwaite, has been revealed as the developer of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Commander. More >
Giordano Contestabile charts the way we've moved from playing videogames alone to playing together.
Ubisoft is working on a cloud storage system for save games, allowing players of its games to switch seamlessly between devices without losing their progress. More >
Electronic Arts has attempted to put a positive spin on Zynga's acquisition of New York studio OMGPOP, saying the reported $180 million buyout of the Draw Something developer shows what good value EA got when it acquired PopCap last year. More >
1A survey of over 2,000 mobile app developers has found evidence of waning interest in Google's Android OS for a fourth consecutive quarter. Gamesindustry.biz reports that the survey, conducted by Appcelerator and analyst firm IDC every three months, polled 2,173 developers and found that 78.6 per cent expressed interest in developing for Android. More >
1Australian developer Halfbrick Studios says it intends to expand the likes of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride to "web platforms and Facebook" following the acquisition of Spanish firm Onan Games. The Valencia-based company developed Mandreel, which enables developers to support iOS, Android, Flash and HTML5 from a single C++ codebase. More >
Zynga is one of a number of firms keen on an acquisition of Draw Something developer OMGPOP, according to reports. TechCrunch reports that Zynga is already in talks to buy the New York-based developer of what is now the most popular game on Facebook with 12.2 million daily active users, and has been downloaded 30 million times on mobile devices. More >
1OMGPOP's Draw Something is now the most popular Facebook game in terms of daily active users, unseating Zynga's Words With Friends. The New York studio's Pictionary-like game has 12.2 million daily active users on Facebook, according to AppData, ahead of Zynga's Words With Friends on 8 million, CityVille on 7.9 million and Hidden Chronicles, on 6.7 million. More >
Facebook paid out $1.4 billion (£883.9 million) to app developers last year, according to the company's games product manager. Speaking at GDC in San Francisco yesterday, Matt Wyndowe said the figure showed how serious Facebook was about its role as a gaming platform, with his team's regular meetings with Facebook's senior management further reinforcing the point. More >
Zynga has moved to reduce its dependence on Facebook with the announcement of its own social gaming portal, Zynga.com. The site will host not only Zynga's own games but other studios' as well. While users can log in with their Facebook accounts, they are no longer limited to connecting with those on their friends lists, but can play with other members of the site. More >
The Facebook Credits virtual currency may be in breach of US antitrust laws. The claim comes from US legal firm Newman Du Wors, which in a white paper states that, by forcing app developers to use the currency, Facebook is preventing competition on its network, and has created an "illegal tying arrangement." More >
4Online gambling appears to be Zynga's next big revenue stream, after CEO Mark Pincus said it was "a good natural fit" for the company's games. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference in San Francisco yesterday, the controversial CEO said his company was already well-positioned to capitalise on the popularity of online gaming thanks to Zynga Poker, which has 30 million monthly active users. More >