If you owned a small company and Zynga asked you to sell yourself for a dump truck full of money, what would you do? While most of us would probably jump into that pile of money Scrooge McDuck-style, Game Closure, which assembled a coveted HTML 5-based multiplayer software development kit, has politely declined and will continue to do things its own way.
The Guardian is reporting that Facebook is in the process of creating a dedicated gaming team in Europe similar in scope to what they're already doing in the US. "In the US, we have a team of engineers, product managers and partnerships folks who only do gaming, from Zynga down to two-person shops," said Christian Hernandez, director of business development and partnerships at Facebook. "Now we're creating that same unit in Europe too."
As was widely predicted, Facebook filed for its initial public offering today, with a staggering value of $5 billion. What wasn't expected, though, was just how much of Facebook's revenue came from the platform's biggest game developer.
Trademarks are tricky beasts, especially during these litigious times. When you're naming your company, product, or service, you have to be very careful to avoid using a word that someone might drag you into court (or demand a fee) for. Companies that are particularly sue-happy when it comes to trademarks are known as "trademark bullies." But who's the worst bully around these days? Here's a hint: it's not Tim Langdell.
Facebook has released a list of the most popular games on the platform and, surprisingly, the top spot didn't go to Zynga. Instead, Playdom's hidden object game Gardens of Time proved to be the most popular Facebook game of 2011.
Microsoft finally announced they are launching their own iTunes-competitor for PC apps within its upcoming Windows 8 operating system (see related article: Gamasutra). The Windows App Store is slated to be released in beta in February 2012, and will allow users to buy games, apps, ebooks, digital magazines, within app, subscriptions, and in app purchases. But is it a case of too little, too late? In the past, Microsoft was successful using its monopoly in the Windows OS to buy, copy, and cheat it's way to win in new markets.
Last week, Facebook unveiled a major update to its mobile site. Along with all of the visual changes came some pretty big news for gamers: Facebook users could now play HTML5-based games on Facebook using their mobile phone. Nine games have been available since launch, and with a week to ponder, we decided it was time to dig a little deeper and analyze just what we thought of Facebook's HTML5 gaming.
Facebook announced a lot of changes in how it does things today: announcing a newly designed profile page around a timeline, which will enable users to share a lot more of what they are doing, wanting, listening to, watching, and playing. The changes are big, I tell you, BIG!But let's talk about games. We are a games site, after all.