Diner Dash comes to Xbox Live Arcade

We’re fans of Flo’s adventures here on GamingAngels.com. Hudson just sent us a press release with details that Flo is making her way to the console. Diner Dash will be coming to Xbox Live on November 18. It will be the first time the casual game from Playfirst is on the Xbox Live Arcade. “Diner Dash will feature the classic gameplay that fans have come to adore along with updated HD graphics,” said Sabine Duvall, vice president of product development at Hudson Entertainment. “With a brand-new 8-person multiplayer mode, a whole new group of players are going to enjoy Diner Dash.” Diner Dash will be in 3D and players will still be taking control of Flo helping her run the restaurant as smooth as possible. These games still stress me out. I handle enough time crunches in real life! A cool feature is the ability to play with co-workers in

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Playrix Celebrates its 5th Anniversary – and Everybody Wins!

This week, Playrix Entertainment celebrates its 5th year creating family friendly casual games. To celebrate, they are offering everyone a 50% discount on all of their original titles, including their newest releases, Gardenscapes, Fishdom: Spooky Splash, Fishdom: Harvest Splash, and Playrix’s first published title Elementals: The Magic Key. Playrix Entertainment started out as a hobby for brothers Igor and Dmitri Bukhman, which they were eventually able to grow into a still blooming company. Not only are they expanding their library of titles for the PC, but they have announced plans to branch out into other platforms, such as the iPhone, Mac, Wii, and DS. “Our 5th Anniversary is a chance for us to stop, look back and celebrate what we have evolved into. On behalf of the whole Playrix team, we would like to thank our fans for their loyalty and support. The company’s main asset is our talented and

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Featured Interview – Games That Give!

A few weeks ago, a new site that makes it simple and convenient for casual gamers to give back simply by playing some of their favorite kinds of games caught my attention. It’s called GamesThatGive.net and it just launched this summer, offering people who play casual games at any level for any amount of time a great way to become more socially responsible and give back. I had actually been looking for something like it to get behind and was surprised that there wasn’t really anything else out there. I had the opportunity to talk to co founder and CEO, Adam Archer this afternoon to find out more about what they stand for. GA: So, tell me about your role at Games That Give Adam: I’m the CEO and one of the co founders with Games that Give. We came together because we shared a vision, which was we wanted

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CafeMoms Launch 20 New Casual Games

This back-to-school season, moms steal some time for themselves and try out more than 20 new casual card, puzzle, arcade, word, and strategy games at CafeMom.com as they partner up with Arkadium to launch a new games section on their site. “In our recent Digital Mom research study with Razorfish, we confirmed that more than half of moms are playing games regularly. Those are the same women spending time on our site,” said Paul Bannister, EVP, CafeMom.com. “The games section launched just in time for back to school season as moms take a deep breath and look for ways to unwind and relax. Games, leader boards, gaming groups and player profiles keep moms interacting and connected with one another on the site.” “With the launch of games on CafeMom, Arkadium is now the largest provider of casual games to sites targeting women,” said Jessica Rovello, co-founder and president of Arkadium.

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Happy 10 year Anniversary to Pogo.com!

People have been playing very addicting games on Pogo.com for ten years now. Pogo.com launched in 1999 as a start up and has grown to millions of users around the world. Pogo.com players have logged more than 6 billion hours and 8 billion game sessions on the site. We were part of that number on Sunday! Pogo.com doesn’t just sit back on their success. Along the way they have continued to innovate with addition of chat during games (2000), paid subscription with Club Pogo, Pogo Minis, Pogo micro-transactions and a new home page which will premier on October 2009. “Whether you just have five minutes for a quick game break to escape from your busy day or a couple of hours to be immersed in Pogo’s rich community gaming experience, we are so proud that Pogo.com has been a pioneer in bringing online fun to millions of users worldwide for

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Featured Interview – Her Interactive

Here is the first in what I hope will be a regular series of featured interviews with strong, successful, creative, interesting people and companies out there in the casual space today. Her Interactive is one of those companies which I believe has a strong, positive approach to creating games targeted toward females that challenge us to think critically, while still having a good time – without being all pink and frilly. I was able to ask a few questions of Amy McPoland, VP of Marketing at Her Interactive, a company which has always created and supported great games that challenge us and make us think to talk about the face of women in the industry, creating games for women, and what’s in store for Her Interactive. GA: First, please tell me a little bit about your role in Her Interactive. Amy: As the VP of Marketing, I’m responsible for the

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Join Us For Our Pogo Party! Sunday, September 27th!

[ Come join us at Pogo.com THIS SUNDAY at 7 pm Eastern/ 4 pm Pacific where we will be playing 3 fun, social, casual games in exclusive GamingAngels rooms and handing out all sorts of fun Pogo prizes! You will win just by playing! We will be playing Poppit, a fun balloon-popping color matching puzzle game which is a Pogo.com favorite, Yahtzee Party, a cool spin on the classic dice throwing game I know I always played growing up, and Bingo Luau, a great social way to play pattern Bingo in a sweet island atmosphere. Join us in the "Ze Gaming Angels Party" rooms in the "topics" tab in Poppit, the 3-card "Speedy" tab in Bingo Luau, and the "Classic" tab in Yahtzee Party. There are three rooms in each game, you might have to click on these tabs and scroll down to see them. Stop by any of those

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Square Enix teams up with PopCap Games for Gyromancer

It’s really a match made in heaven. One of our favorite Casual Games (not really so casual) company, PopCap Games is teaming up with the king of RPGs, Square Enix for Gyromancer. Puzzle gameplay from Bejewled Twist and Square Enix’s background in RPG and experience points help to create a new game in the puzzle/RPG genre. In Gryomancer, players assume the role of a deadly mage Rivel who is trying to rid “Aldemona Wood of a brooding darkness.” There are 10 stages to collect the monsters using Bejeweled Twist battles to fight evil. “We’ve always enjoyed a strong partnership with PopCap Games and Gyromancer represents our goal of developing unique gaming experiences, ” said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. “We believe that Gyromancer will appeal not only to core gamers, but will further introduce the RPG genre to casual gamers as well.” I hope

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Downloadable Shockwave Games Under $6.99

Shockwave, part of the Nickelodeon Kids and Family family has cut prices on over 700 of its most popular downloadable games to $6.99 beginning today. This pricing is extended to individual customers without restriction, future purchase requirements, or subscription, although Shockwave does offer a subscription service with unlimited access to downloadable content for $5 per month. “Shockwave has been the value leader in the casual game industry ever since we introduced our innovative Shockwave Unlimited subscription service several years ago,” said Dave Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group. “This new price point now sets the standard for value on individual game purchases. Shockwave users can choose unlimited access to every game on the site for a low monthly fee or buy individual games for their permanent game collections at low prices, with absolutely no commitment to future purchases.” Start saving here!

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Gaming Angel Spotlight: Dawn

When I was younger and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered with the word, “Happy.” Looking around me, I think I am doing well in that arena. I live in a beautiful home in an incredible city with my hubby and our super cute puppy dog. This year we started teaching Lindy Hop classes, and built some gardens in our side yard and have grown all sorts of fun stuff – even peashooters. I am a pretty big Harry Potter fan, as well as many things to do with magic. I have always liked writing, mostly fiction, but haven’t had that much time for writing (or reading) for fun in a while. At the moment, I am a little more than a week away from beginning the third term of nursing school and am very excited about the clinical opportunities

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