Back in September, King was rumored to have taken the first steps towards offering an IPO when by filing an S-1 Form with the SEC (which, it turns out, wasn't true). Today they're taking one of the last. The company announced this morning in a press release that they have "filed a Form F-1 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of ordinary shares."This doesn't mean those share are for sale quite yet - or that we even know how many of them there will be or their initial price - but we're closer to finding out. The F-1 provides investors with all of the information they might need before making a decision regarding King stock. You can read the whole thing here.Once the IPO is live, King plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KING," and a whole bevvy of business names will be acting as joint book-running managers: J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, MofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital Inc., Deitsche Bank Securities Inc., and RBC Captial Markets, LLC. The first three of these will act as representatives of the underwriters in addition to book-running managers.How the stock will perform once it is live, though, is anybody's guess. Some might be quick to point to the rise and fall of Zynga (ZNGA) as a cautionary tale for investors, but despite their similar nature in some respects (both are providers of free-to-play games, and both were #1 in that market at the time of their filing), the two are incredibly different companies.
There are very few other games today that have managed to achieve "cult phenomenon" status as Mojang's Minecraft. The game's been sitting at the very top of the iTunes App Store "Paid Games" chart for as long as I can remember, and gamers have spent hundreds of hours crafting their own unique and blocky sandbox worlds. But despite the game's essential endless nature, sometimes you might be in the mood for some different kinds of crafting or sandbox adventuring.So we decided to compile a list of some other great games that are sure to make the Minecraft fan in all of us feel right at home. Maybe these games might change up that first-person crafting perspective, or maybe they might let you build some blocks on the moon. Either way, they're all decidedly Minecraft, but more importantly, they're all decidedly fun."The total amount of games like Minecraft today is positively staggering, and if I actually tried to write down every single one, then this list would quickly become as endless and infinite as your favorite sandbox-crafting games themselves! So if there are any other particularly good Minecraft-like experiences that we might have left out, be sure to point out your favorites in the comments section below!
With all the hype surrounding Soul Fjord lately, I thought it would be in my best interest to dust off the ol' OUYA this weekend and see what else had hit the console in the last few. One thing led to another, and after a few rounds of TowerFall (no matter what you planned on doing with your OUYA, as soon as you turn it on, it's always this) I somehow found myself trying to explain to my daughter how amazing the light cycle game from TRON was.How I got from a 2013 microconsole to a 1982 arcade game is anybody's guess. Let's just chalk it up to the organic nature of conversations.The OUYA has more than a few TRON light cycle knock offs in its store, so we downloaded a few in an attempt to blow her mind with early 80's awesomeness. Grid Racer was a functional enough clone, but it just didn't capture the spirit of the game that I was hoping to share with my daughter. Super Light Cycles was better, but it still left me wondering if my nostalgia was outpacing my enjoyment. Still, it was enough. The itch was scratched. It was time to move on.We proceeded to download a bunch of new games that we hadn't tried before (the OUYA is great for this, because even though the quality of games is all over the map, they're all free to try), and quickly found ourselves playing a bizarre little title called The Lickening.
Type 'Solitaire' into Google Play's search bar, and Google's digital marketplace will display hundreds, if not thousands, of different apps - many of which take different approaches to the aged-old card game.Solitaire Arena, a new title from developer MavenHut, focuses on Klondike Solitaire - a simple, yet complicated, form of the game that tasks you with sorting a deck of 52 shuffled cards into their unique suits in order from Ace to King.Solitaire Arena may sound like a lot of the other Solitaire titles that are available on Google Play, but it features a pretty unique tournament mechanic that makes it stand out from the crowd.If, like I, you reshuffle your deck and start your game of Solitaire from scratch as soon as you make a bad move or realise you aren't going to be able to finish your current game, you'll find Solitaire Arena's eight-player tournaments incredibly tricky.
Scouring Twitter activity through Topsy, download data from App Annie, and developer Dong Nguyen's own Twitter feed, Christina Warren from Mashable has written the best post-mortem yet on Flappy Bird. Her conclusion: no download bots were involved (sorry, haters!)In a story stranger than fiction, Flappy Bird languished in obscurity from the time it launch in April 2013 until November 2013 when the first "love/hate" tweet about the game appeared. From then, reviews started to trickle into the App Store at a rate of 20 a day. And then, boom! The game first appeared in the Top 250 Free Games chart on Dec 13, hit the Top 10 on January 10 and hit the #1 Free Spot on January 17. On January 24, the media took notice. And that's when things really got crazy.For the full timeline, read the full story, 28 Days of Fame: The Strange, True Story of Flappy Bird.
After a short break for Spring Festival (or as we in the West like to call it, Chinese New Year), China's gaming sector is back at work. And as we try to do every Friday, we're back with another 'This Week in China' round-up courtesy of our friends at Beijing's Laohu.com.This week you'll see a little bit of IPO rumor, a little bit of copycat fighting, and a (not so) little bit of layoffs. If you're looking to stay on top of Chinese gaming news in a more daily manner (and love the power of Google Translate), be sure to add Laohu.com to your bookmarks.
Is it wrong that sometimes I get more excited for all the amazing holiday deals in gaming rather than the actual holidays themselves? Well if you'd only take a look at some of the insane price cuts going on in support of Valentine's Day weekend, then you'll see why these deals are way better than a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolate (flowers wilt, chocolate gets eaten, but games? GAMES ARE FOREVER).Ahem. Anyway, this weekend lots of gaming storefronts have gotten into the lovey-dovey spirit and started offering tons of free games and sales to get you and your special someone in the romantic gaming mood. You've got a brand new bundle from Indie Royale, a massive Valentine's Day weekend catalogue sale on IndieGameStand, and a cool focus on multiplayer and co-op game sales over at GOG.com."So lay those rose petals on the iPad or keyboard, and get ready to scoop up some seriously awesome games this Valentine's Day weekend. And if there happen to be any other deals out there that may have slipped us by, please don't hesitate to let us know about them down in the replies!
Ah, love is in the air this Valentine's Day! I'm sure a lot of people will be making a fancy dinner at home for their boyfriend or girlfriend. Others might be going to a sold-out Broadway show with their husband or wife. But since you're here reading this article on Gamezebo, I've got another idea: why not play some great games with your loved one this February 14th?Maybe they're a fun way to collaborate or simply pass the iPad around, but the odds are your partner will love the following list of games almost as much as they love you! And if I'm being completely honest, I'd like to think that a lot of these games are way better than flowers or chocolate or front-row Broadway tickets, anyway."So be sure to hit the comments and let us know what you think of our Valentine's Day suggestions, or what some of your favorite games to play with your honey are!