We've been hearing a few low-key rumblings about an official Plants vs. Zombies board game for quite some time now, and it looks like all that waiting has finally paid off this morning! In partnership with Hasbro, Inc., renowned game developer PopCap has pulled the lid off a PvZ-skinned version of the classic world domination board game RISK, and has made the wonderful blend of franchises available for purchase right at this very moment.The double-sided game board should be immediately familiar to fans of the popular "plant defense" series of video games, with one side depicting the all-new town of Brainsborough (which looks like something taken straight out of Plants vs. Zombies Adventures), and the other side reserved for an iconic PvZ backyard scene. The two-player game will also offer three different ways to compete in head-to-head matches, including Tower Defense, Mission Objective, and Total Domination.
One of the many caveats to working in the video game industry these days is that mass layoffs and studio closings have become all too common: and neither small nor multi-million dollar companies are completely safe from the sways of the industry's constant changes and demands. So it is with a heavy heart that we here at Gamezebo have to announce today that Electronic Arts has made the decision to close down its North Carolina studio, which operated under EA's "All Play" label and worked on casual and free-to-play mobile games.The Escapist is reporting that the closing of EA's North Carolina studio has been confirmed by an anonymous source, and a quick click on the studio's now defunct website only seems to reinforce this fact. Luckily, the anonymous source has also claimed that "most" of the employees at the North Carolina studio have been offered jobs elsewhere at EA, so at least their talents will still be put to good use in the future."While there was no official reason given for the closing of EA's North Carolina studio, it's interesting to note that their latest mobile game, Monopoly Hotels, was recently rebranded as "Monopoly Hotels Moguls" just this past week, where it quickly rose once again to the top of the free-to-play charts.
A new study this week from specialty research firm EEDAR has revealed an insightful connection between how much a person is active in an online mobile game community, and how much they actually end up spending in the game itself. The study also comes hot on the heels of a recent poll conducted by Applifier, which revealed that the highest sources of discovery for a mobile game include reading a user review, hearing about it from a friend or family member, and seeing a friend or family member playing the game.In essence, EEDAR's study of 3,000 people who refer to themselves as mobile and tablet gamers has shown a direct correlation between gamers who spend more (referred to as "whales" in the findings) and gamers who share more: that these two gaming habits have simply become one and the same in the mobile games space. In every single category of sharing that was examined for the study, EEDAR found that the heavy-spending mobile gamer's tendencies to share about a game were at a significantly larger margin than other casual players and non-spenders.For instance, a whopping 94% of big spenders were likely to tell their friends about a game verbally, as compared to the 65% of low-spending players. Conversely, 91% of big spenders were prone to show their friends gameplay footage, over the 42% of more casual spenders. Other categories of sharing included giving a star rating in a storefront, writing a review on a storefront, and discussing the game online via various forums: each of which brought in a high showing of 76% and above for these "whale" gamers.
If a new game bundle pops up somewhere on the internet, and there's no one there to see it, is it still all sorts of discounted awesomeness? Why that's a silly question, of course it is! And the good thing about the internet these days is that even if a great new gaming sale or bundle sneaks its way into existence without a sound, then it usually isn't long before someone finds it and spreads the love to all ends of our humble cyber community.Which is why I'm sitting here writing this to you today: because there are a ton of great gaming sales and bundles going on this very moment, and it's my job to hit you with some knowledge to help my fellow gamers out! So this weekend, Android users will be able to snag a pretty wonderful new bundle at a next-to-nothing cost, while some big games over in the iOS camp are also enjoying some much welcomed price cuts. And don't even get me started on the many indie PC and Mac deals that have entered the fold as well!"But as always, what good is a gaming deal if there's no one around to buy it? So if there's anything I might have missed in my search throughout the internet this week, don't hesitate to bring us up to speed in the replies below!
Spend five minutes browsing the App Store and you're more than likely to come up with numerous games that feel identical in almost every way, from core gameplay mechanics, to features, to visuals. For every Temple Run and Candy Crush Saga that dominate the markets, there are dozens of smaller releases that follow the same pattern, hoping to land just a fraction of the user base of those giant titles. Even that kind of—relatively small—impact is difficult to pull off. Mobage's recent release, Monster Match, is a wonderful example of a game that encounters these struggles.Nobody understood the game's early challenges as well as Roger Royce, the Monster Match product lead. "For Monster Match's initial spark of inspiration, look no further than the childhood fascinations of a team that grew up playing the original release of Pokémon," Royce told us. "Monster Match is an attempt to prolong this imagination and rekindle the wonder [of a game like Pokémon] with new players." Royce credits games like Puzzle Quest, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Puzzle & Dragons as some of the gameplay's main sources of inspiration. As our review points out, there are numerous similarities to Puzzle & Dragons, proving that inspiration alone doesn't make a game stand out. Royce pointed out, "There's something about the puzzle genre that people almost always categorize as being a 'casual' experience. When we first started designing Monster Match we played lots of other puzzle games and discovered a trend that contradicted this notion of 'casual.'" Royce mentions strict timers as one of the first common elements the team wanted to remove. "If we were going to make a casual puzzle game, it was determined that the player should not be rushed into their gameplay decisions."
Get ready, investors: Candy Crush is coming to Wall Street. The Telegraph are reporting that King has filed the preliminary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission that will eventually lead to the company's initial public offering.In having filed an S-1 (just as Twitter did earlier this month), King has taken the first steps towards being listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange alongside other heavy hitters in the tech and gaming industry. But as a social gaming giant with seemingly unlimited potential, one called help but remember the rise, IPO, and tumble of the last company to wear that crown: Zynga.I'm not nearly financially savvy enough to weigh in on the how and why of Zynga's sharp stock tumble, but there's no doubt that it's a situation that will be at the top of mind for potential King investors. The companies are different enough that a straight comparison isn't really fair, but still, ZNGA is the undeniable elephant in the room here.
Get your sweet tooth ready, because there's going to be a whole lot of candy in your immediate future. After doing countless scientific experiments and spending the last year travelling through space and time, the candy-loving Om Nom is set to return once more this holiday season, in a full-fledged sequel to the original physics-based puzzle game, Cut the Rope. That's right: Cut the Rope 2 is on the way!Cut the Rope 2 is said to completely re-imagine the universe of cute green alien On Nom that mobile gamers have come to know and love so well, as new gameplay twists, characters, and interactive environments are all being added. And coming on the heels of the recent success of On Nom Stories, a series of episodic video adventures released by ZeptoLab on YouTube and serving as a tie-in of sorts to the apps themselves, Cut the Rope 2 will also feature an engaging storyline amidst all of the candy-eating, puzzle-based gameplay."
Good news for Android owners today! The Humble Mobile Bundle 2 is here, featuring six must-have titles for your mobile Android device at the cost of next-to-nothing! As always, this latest Humble Bundle is in support of both Child's Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well helping out the indie game developers themselves.But now it's time to get on to the actual games included in The Humble Mobile Bundle 2, because that's what we're all here for, right? Well right now, you can pay anything you want for the bundle and receive the following four mobile greats:"