You might think that everyone who had even the slightest inkling of interest in playing Flappy Bird would already have the game installed on their phones, but if the auctions on eBay today are anything to go by, that doesn't appear to be the case.First reported by USA Today, thousands of auctions for phones with the game installed on it have sprung up in the hours since Dong Nguyen removed Flappy Bird from the App Store and Google Play. And here's a twist you might not be expecting - some of them are actually getting bids.Or at least it looks that way at first glance.
Clash of Clans is a big game. #2 top grossing on the App Store for more than a year big (and as of this writing, #1). $1.5 billion to get a 51% control of the company big. BIG big.But what does this "bigness" really translate to in terms of day-to-day dollars? According to one hacker, the answer is around $5 million a day.Last night, the official Clash of Clans Facebook page was hacked by someone using the name 'Ethical Spectrum.' After posting a quick message to confirm the hack, an image was posted that allegedly depicts Supercell's in-house analytics dashboard, which revealed a revenue of $5.15m for February 7, 2014.
If you haven't gotten around to downloading Flappy Bird yet, you'd better get on that. By this time tomorrow, the app will be gone.Creator Dong Nguyen broke the news on Twitter less than an hour ago. While no specific reason has been given, it seems as though the overwhelming success/press coverage/hatred that the game has seen over the last few weeks has broken the man down completely."I am sorry Flappy Bird users. 22 hours from now, I will take Flappy Bird down," says Nguyen. "I just cannot take this anymore."In the tweets that followed, Nguyen goes on to say that it's not related to any legal issues, he's not looking to sell Flappy Bird, and that he still makes games.I suppose that overwhelming success really is overwhelming.
Tell me if this sound familiar: Everybody you know is talking about Flappy Bird, so you gave it a download. Two minutes later, you erased it from your phone (along with the contact information of everybody you know who recommended the damned thing).You like a good challenge, but you'd prefer something with a little more polish. A little more substance. Something that you'd be proud recommending, but at the same time, something that will kill you in seconds without hesitation. Something that keeps you coming back for more. Worried you won't find anything that's both difficult and divine? Don't worry - we've got you covered.
Here's a question for everyone reading right now: if you were stranded on a deserted island for a year and could only bring three video games with you to help pass the time, which ones would you choose? I forgot to mention that the deserted island conveniently has a fully charged iPad on the beach and a higher-end gaming PC made out of coconuts and palm trees.Well as for me, I would probably bring a handful of great iOS games, a couple of my favorite Double Fine adventures, and maybe even a bundle of indie games or two as well. Okay, so I guess that was WAY more than three games. But at least it's a good thing that we're not stranded on a deserted island, and that all of these things and more are currently experiencing some awesome price cuts all across the internet!"And as always, if your deserted island happens to come with a really long extension cord or some extra-large data storage capacity, please let us know of any other gaming deals we may have missed this week down in the replies!
We still don't really know how Flappy Bird went from obscurity to celebrity seemingly overnight - the number of theories I've read this week would put the JFK conspiracy to shame. Beyond that, though, there's been another question we've quietly been pondering. Has the game's instant notoriety translated into any real cash for creator Dong Nguyen?It has, it turns out. And it's a lot.In an interview with The Verge, Nguyen has revealed that the game has been raking in $50,000 a day. How? Advertising. Just… advertising. Flappy Bird has no in-app purchases, no premium version - it doesn't even cross-promote the developers other titles. Every single dollar that Flappy Bird has made has come from classic, old school, relatively crude in-app advertising.And it's working really well.
In the midst of their recent financial woes, Nintendo is currently looking at a great state of transition, or as others might even call it, a great state of turmoil. So to help get themselves out of this rut, the Mushroom Kingdom creators have been slowly investigating other areas of the industry, including the potential of game development on tablets and smartphones: something that most mobile gamers have been dying to hear for quite a while now.Maybe it's because of their bright and colorful worlds, or their quirky characters and lighthearted stories, but the general consensus has been that Nintendo games would just go hand-in-hand with the nature of mobile gaming. Well I'm not so sure."The last time we heard from the "Will they, won't they?" campaign, Nintendo has reiterated once again that the company will NOT be making their own mobile games going forward (but might still use the platform for certain kinds of game demos). However, they also recently announced their intentions to begin licensing some of Nintendo's biggest video game properties to outside parties, in addition to experimenting with a new operating system that would function in a similar way to what we have now with iOS or Android. And then of course, there's the whole spiel on potentially making educational Mario games on a Nintendo-manufactured Android tablet.
If you've ever jumped to new heights in Knightmare Tower or laid the smack down in Burrito Bison Revenge, you're already familiar - and probably enamored - with the works of Montreal-based indie game makers Juicy Beast. Gamezebo had the good fortune to interview studio co-founder Yowan Langlais last summer, and when we did, talk quickly turned to Toto Temple - a neat little multiplayer game they'd created as part of the Toronto Game Jam (or TOJam for short).Considering how fantastic the OUYA has been for multiplayer fun (hate on it all you want, but… Towerfall), their TOJam project seemed like a perfect fit for the device. Yowan didn't disagree. And now, six months later, we have our confirmation: Toto Temple Deluxe is coming exclusively to OUYA. The object of the game is fairly simple: get the goat, and keep it away from the other players as long as you can. With plenty of jumping and dashing, though, you can see how this would have the potential to be a frantic, crazy, Smash Bros-style good time.Expect to see Toto Temple Deluxe hit OUYA sometime this spring.