It's not exactly a secret that Zynga isn't as successful as it was just a few years ago. Yet the thought of someone other than outspoken founder Mark Pincus as CEO is strange, and the idea of a console gaming veteran replacing him stranger still.
Among the many questions gamers had going into today's Microsoft XBox press conference was how the new console's relationship with indie games would change. Because while the 360 was a haven for indie games through Xbox Live Arcade and the Xbox Indie Games program, it certainly appeared that the Xbox One might be moving away from indies in "It's not you, it's me" fashion.
Following an endless wave of hype, rumors, pomp and circumstance, Microsoft unveiled the third generation of Xbox earlier today at their headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Though I suppose the location didn't matter too much. Press and gamer alike, you could watch it from anywhere - whether streamed to your desktop or sent straight to your TV via your soon-to-be-last-gen Xbox 360.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could earn Xbox Live achievement points in an iOS game? Well, Merry Christmas. Wordament, a Windows Phone game that recently made the jump to iOS, is letting players earn Xbox-style achievements as they play. What's next? Dogs and cats living together?
E3 week kicked off earlier today with the annual Microsoft press conference, though if we're being frank, it didn't really set a great tone for the next year in video games. Maybe I'm just getting old, but everything they showed felt like more of the same. More Halo, more Gears of War, more Fable - more… well, everything.
Given their recent display of copious spending, it's no surprise that social games empire Zynga will stop at nothing in order to increase their company's already enormous reach. Given their history of spending sprees and expansion over the past few years, it's almost surprising that it's taken them until now to begin to hint at expanding to the home console market.