Casual Game News

Following an endless wave of hype, rumors, pomp and circumstance, Microsoft unveiled the third generation of Xbox earlier today at their headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Though I suppose the location didn’t matter too much. Press and gamer alike, you could watch it from anywhere - whether streamed to your desktop or sent straight to your TV via your soon-to-be-last-gen Xbox 360.

With the increasing rise in popularity of the mobile games industry, it seems like everyone is trying their hand at making their own mobile game these days: and that growing list now includes the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

We spend way too much time in our team Skype chats talking about how to do a better job of… umm… our jobs. Granted, much of it is brought on by my own anxiety about the gradual death of PR as a profession, as well as an unfortunate rebellious streak that drives me to subvert the establishment at any cost…. but the fact is — despite a rather solid reputation (I hope) within the industry — we still struggle constantly to secure publicity for some of our clients. What follows is a look into the thoughts we have as a PR agency that wants to constantly adapt to changing market conditions to stay at the forefront of our business.

Unless somebody happened to sneak up to your lawn recently and have a snack on your brains, then you’ve probably been aware of Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, PopCap’s new social take on their beloved Plants vs. Zombies franchise. In fact, the exciting social and “flower defense” hybrid has just gone live on Facebook as of this morning, so if you’re really feeling short on those brain waves, then you know right where to find them.

The end is near my friends! That’s right, Penny Arcade has announced this morning an official release date for On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4, the epic finale to the popular RPG series. The game will be released on June 7, 2013 on PC and Xbox 360, for $4.99 or 400 Microsoft Points, respectively, and will conclude the harrowing saga of Tycho Brahe, Scion of The Long Project.

ROBLOX, the popular social gaming site that encourages user-based creation has released a new lighting and shadow engine this week called Dynamic Lighting. When all is said and done, the innovative new technology will be able to light the millions of user-generated worlds that are currently available on the platform, and enable many users to look at ROBLOX in a completely different light.

Every Friday, we here at Gamezebo like to round up the best deals for our readers.  But unlike most weekend roundups, this week’s is particularly special.  Why?  Because there’s a deal in here that you’ll only find on Gamezebo!

Back in April, I had the good fortune of moderating a panel at the Social Casino Summit in San Francisco. The panel was about how to stand out in the crowded social casino marketplace.  It’s a topic that Michael Carpenter, CEO of Ruby Seven Studios, knows all too well.

We’ve been hearing a lot of rumbling (or squawking) around these parts lately about the hotly anticipated Angry Birds animated movie that Rovio has wanted to make. We already knew that a number of major studios were vying for the rights to purchase the film, but now we have official confirmation this week that Sony Pictures Entertainment has been the early bird to get the multi-million dollar worm.

We’re less than a day away from the latest Star Trek motion picture, and even if you’re not a Trekker, there’s a pretty good chance that this could be your summer movie of the year.  Of course, spending 133 minutes in the theater might not be quite enough to give you your fill of the final frontier. When you get home from the movies, you’re going to want to set phasers to fun!

Japan is the only country in the world where mobile games are regularly being advertised on television. And this isn’t about cheap night time slots in niche TV programs no one watches: DeNA, GREE, GungHo, and many other developers are paying for spots aired during prime time, on national TV channels, and in heavy rotation. This has been going on for years.

Your smartphone and tablet just got a whole lot more adorable, because King has announced this morning that their popular social game Pet Rescue Saga will be headed to mobile devices starting this summer. Pet Rescue Saga is currently the third largest game overall on the Facebook platform, with more than 6 million players visiting the unique and charming fairytale landscapes on a daily basis.

Some might argue that the greatest mobile games on the market these days feature a cuddly animal or two taking over the lead role, and if you happen to be a part of this crowd, then boy is tonight a night of gaming for you! So go make sure that Fido and Mrs. Butterscotch have been fed, because Gamezebo is here to give you a glimpse of all the new games headed your way on the iOS App Store tonight.

Google has announced today at their Google I/O event that the company’s Google Play marketplace for Android devices will be receiving a full-blown gaming service update, in the vein of Apple’s Game Center and Amazon’s GameCircle. 

Everybody loves video games, but if you’re anything like me, all of that game buying can really add up.  Isn’t it nice to have a chance to save on games every once in a while?  Big Fish certainly thinks so – they’re offering 40% off all PC and Mac games today.

We cover plenty of new games here at Gamezebo every week, but the number of games we’ve already covered that show up on new platforms?  It’s staggering.  This Wednesday and every Wednesday, Gamezebo is rounding up the games that aren’t quite new, but might be new to you depending on your platform of choice.  And who doesn't love new(ish) games?

Hey. I'm Dom. I'm one quarter of our four-man team Ghostbox, and we're making an endless runner for mobile featuring a cute dragon who can blow stuff up. Today I wanted to chat about some of the ways we're trying to make our game stand out from every endless runner you've played before, and hopefully turn you into a fan!

One of the first mistakes developers make when handling their own PR is emailing everyone under the sun who writes about games in any capacity. While initially that may seem like a good idea—I see you writing comments like “Isn’t that what you guys do?!”—writers are busy, and a generic pitch that isn’t in line with what they cover is a surefire way to get Marked As Spam and disappear from their inbox forever.

Triple Town developer SpryFox have announced their next game today, and it looks to be just as adorable and addictively fun as every other title in their impressive catalogue. Road Not Taken is described as a “puzzle game about life and loss,” and is inspired by the 1916 Robert Frost poem of the same name. 

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that we here in the Gamezebo camp are a little excited for Daedalic’s new point-and-click adventure, The Night of the Rabbit. Okay, so maybe we’re a little cross-the-days-off-our-calendar excited for this one, but who can really blame us? The game just looks all sorts of awesome.