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  • It’s Good to be King in Mobile Games #MGF2014
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    It’s Good to be King in Mobile Games #MGF2014

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    I am not talking about the makers of Candy Crush Saga, though I guess I could be. Spending the day at the Mobile Games Forum in London, the most obvious observation is this: to be successful in games in 2014, you need to have either have a lot of luck or an even greater amount of money.  How much?  I have heard through the grapevine that some ad campaigns are starting at $500,000.  Yes, I just said $500,000. And that is just for one ad campaign at launch.The problem is that with so many games being released, it's very hard to be discovered.  The best way is to get in the top lists of Apple's App Store or Google Play, but once you are in that top list you're spending a lot of the money you're making to stay on top. Plus you're crowding everyone else out and making it more expensive for them in the process.
  • 5 things you should know about from this year’s CES
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    5 things you should know about from this year’s CES

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    Another CES in Las Vegas has come and gone, and I have opted to skip the festivities.  Maybe it's because the one year I did CES in Vegas it was so crowded that I had to wait three hours for a monorail (there were no taxis), and even longer for blackjack table.  Maybe it's that after staring 10,000 versions of the same flat screen TV, my mind turns to jelly.  Or maybe I'm a homebody.Thankfully, the rest of tech press don't mind consumer product overload.  Here are five cool game trends or products to come out of CES this year.  On the whole, 2014 could be a good year for games.
  • 2014 Predictions from Gamezebo’s Founder, Joel Brodie
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    2014 Predictions from Gamezebo’s Founder, Joel Brodie

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    Looking over how well I did with my 2013 game predictions (>50% accuracy, thank you very much), the pressure is on for this year.  Do I play it safe (e.g., say Zynga will shed another 25% of its staff in layoffs) or throw caution in the wind?You know the answer.  Let's go game prediction crazy!"
  • Maybe online gambling won’t be made legal after all
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    Maybe online gambling won’t be made legal after all

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    Everyone in the games industry assumes that it's inevitable that online gambling will be made legal.   It's not a question of if, but of when.Online gambling has already been made legal in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware.  About the only thing that could turn the tide would be if a megalomaniac with a history of throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into political action campaigns decided he was against making online gambling legal.Enter Sheldon Adelson.
  • If it comes in 3’s, you can bet it’s a trend!
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    If it comes in 3’s, you can bet it’s a trend!

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    Lots of news in the social casino and online gaming space this week.  No, it is still illegal to gamble online in the US.  Though, there are so many land-based casinos opening up in American cities these days, it soon will not matter.  Seriously, who knew there were so many Native American reservations to plop down a Vegas-style casino in the US?But, I digress.First off, Betable raised a new round of $18.5 million to support its goal of enabling any developer to add real-cash gambling to their games.  So far, Betable only enables online gaming in the UK only, but they are well positioned for when online gaming is finally made legal in the US.  
  • Can you design the next Monopoly?
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    Can you design the next Monopoly?

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    If so, you could win $15,000 in The Money Game Design Jam, presented by Yetizen and AmTrust Financial this weekend. There is a catch, of course.  The game must be designed to model financial choices and teach high school kids to understand the impacts of basic financial decisions.  As examples, games could incorporate financial planning, choice modeling, cost benefit analytics, the time value of money, and budget planning.  It's all pretty dry stuff.  But that's actually why this event caught my eye.
  • TabTale Taps into Lucrative Kids App Market
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    TabTale Taps into Lucrative Kids App Market

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    It seems like everyone is working on mobile match-3 puzzle games "inspired" by Candy Crush Saga these days, from Yodo1/BonusXP's CaveMania to Wooga's Jelly Splash.  And there's good reason.  According to Think Gaming Candy Crush Saga is crushing it, estimated to be generating $630,000 a day.   But after meeting with Monica Warshavsky and Dana Cohen from TabTale at Casual Connect, I can't help but think that kids apps may be the way to go.  TabTale may not be as well know as King, but if you have a young child, you're probably very familiar with their games.  You just may not realize it.
  • How East Meets West in Mobile Gaming, and Why Yodo1 May Be the Future of Game Publishing
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    How East Meets West in Mobile Gaming, and Why Yodo1 May Be the Future of Game Publishing

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    The biggest mobile game market may still be the US, but the real Wild West of gaming continues to be China.  The Chinese games market is diverse, chaotic, and evolving in ways that no one would have predicted even a year ago. Yet the most interesting trend is this: East and West are converging into a single, global games market resembling more than Chinese than US model; and it's exemplified by Yodo1's announcement to expand from Chinese localization services to global game publishing.