Reflections on Casual Connect 2010

This year’s Casual Connect Seattle had a little bit of a different vibe for me. This is the first year I was able to attend Casual Connect on the opening day, so the energy was bound to be different from the start.It also snuck up on me a little, so there were a lot of last minute scheduling issues and preparations. But, I was geared up to see where everyone thought the industry was headed and hear about some great new games. When I got there and took a look around, however, I noticed that there were some things missing. Some of the bigger companies I was expecting to see weren’t there, and their presence was missed. It didn’t feel like there was a lot of news being released. I didn’t feel the excitement of new games and innovation that I had felt in the past. Some of the excitement

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Get the American Idol Star Experience

Interactive entertainment company Ludia and FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) have announced the release of American Idol Star Experience game today, May 26th, to coincide with the Season 9 finale of American Idol (the show). Idol lives on in every player as they put together online performances for friends and the entire Facebook community. Download the free performance creator for your PC and design your original stage performance with an avatar of your creation, one of your favorite rock, punk, pop, hip hop, disco, R&B or country hit songs, fun dance choreography, different camera angles, and flashy special effects, which you can post on Facebook for others to enjoy, rate, comment on, and discuss with others. “We are excited to release a unique game experience based on American Idol, one of the most important entertainment franchises in the world,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “American Idol Star Experience

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Social Gaming With Six Flags

Six Flags Entertainment announced today that it’s joining the ranks of Social Gaming with its entertainment based game, Mascot Park, in which players will create shows for their friends and cheer or jeer their friends’ shows. Creativity and cheers will earn fans and coins to improve the shows with new sets, costumes, and training. For those twistier players, you can also jump in and sabotage friends’ shows with special effects or pranks. “The Six Flags brand stands for fun and unparalleled thrills and the introduction of Six Flags Mascot Park brings that signature experience to the virtual reality world,” said Mike Antinoro, Executive VP of Marketing and Entertainment. “We want to offer fans a forum to entertain, amuse and interact while also recognizing the importance of integrating a unique experience to the online community.” Six Flags Mascot Park is a combined development effort between Six Flags, Noise and Making Fun.

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Win a chance to meet Perez Hilton for new Facebook game, The Big Bluff

You know Facebook gaming is cool when Hollywood shows up to celebrate the launch of a new title. himojo is launching The Big Bluff, a new social, multiplayer trivia game for Facebook. Players will be testing their trivia knowledge against celebs like Perez Hilton, Kristin Cavallari, Ashley Roberts, Cheryl Burke, Brody Jenner, Mark Ballas, Lacey Schwimmer, and Dr. Hollywood, among others. On May 24, from 8pm to 11pm PT fans can log in to The Big Bluff on Facebook for a chance to play against Perez or any of the celebs. But why play from your couch at home when you can attend the red carpet event at a hot Hollywood night club? GamingAngels will be there covering the event, but you can win a chance to have fun with us and all the celebs. Los Angeles area residents can enter to win by following @TheBigBluff on Twitter and re-tweeting

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Facebook and Zynga Commit

Facebook and Zynga announced today their newly signed five year “strategic” partnership aimed at enhancing social gaming experiences for everyone. “Facebook was a pioneer in opening their platform in 2007 and in just three years tens of millions of Facebook users play our games every day, from FarmVille and Café World to Treasure Isle and Mafia Wars,” said Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive officer at Zynga. “We are excited about Facebook’s long-term commitment to social gaming and Zynga, and look forward to working with them and other platform providers to bring the best social gaming experience to users worldwide.” It seems as though the partnership centers around the use of the new Facebook Credits, a form of “currency” used in many Facebook games in order to boost game play or purchase bonus material. Zynga is currently testing Facebook Credits in “select games” and will be expanding the Facebook Credits

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Women Social Gamers are on the rise

We love to make sure people know we’re gamers. We play games (alot) and wear our Gamer badge with pride. But a recent study found that most women don’t want to associate themselves with the term, “Gamer”. According to Q Interactive, the study conducted in January quizzed 770 women about their knowledge of online gaming and virtual worlds. Thirty six percent of respondents said that they play games on Facebook and 54 percent of those admit to playing social games every day. What were the most popular Facebook games? Not surprisingly, Mafia Wars and Farmville. Only 42 percent of the women considered themselves to be a gamer. Which is interesting because 67 percent of those surveyed said they consider playing games online from one to five hours a week to be okay. Q Interactive’s report found out that while they play social games, that 77 percent of them would stop

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John Riccitiello looks at potential target market

EA’s John Riccitiello is sticking to the idea that the target market for gaming is now larger and changing. “Conservatively, if I add up mobile users that play games, social network people that play games, people that play PC games online in Asia, all this stuff, this new audience – there’s at least a billion people gaming today, compared to a couple of hundred million just five years ago,” he stated in an interview with Nightly Business Report. “We have five times the audience we’ve ever had and it is growing in leaps and bounds. It’s no longer a niche.” That’s right five biiiiiiilion. Feel free to exploit away.

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Gravity Bear Expands the Social Game Experience

Today Gravity Bear unveiled their debut social gaming title, Battle Punks. Battle Punks gives players a totally new experience in the world of social gaming, with 3D combat game play, customizable avatars, and fantasy backgrounds. Start by building a unique avatar using their character creation tool, and then win weapons, spells, experience points, and treasure by showing other community members who’s boss. Choose from an array of battle gear and any weapons already won before each bout, all in specially designed 3D environments “Our goal with Battle Punks is to help people have fun and deeply memorable experiences with their friends through games”, said Phil Shenk, Co-Founder and CEO of Gravity Bear, “This is the primary mission of Gravity Bear, so our first title is designed from the ground up to be a shining example of that philosophy of community and fun. We can’t wait to build a new community

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Playfish opens new studio in San Francisco

There are alot of people looking for jobs right now, so we love to highlight companies that are hiring, particularly ones in the gaming industry. Playfish, a social gaming company, announced that they are opening a new development studio in San Francisco. The studio will be looking for local talent to help people play games together on social platforms. You can find out more about the office and what jobs they are looking to fill here. “Playfish and the Bay Area are both known for their cultures of excellence, attracting the best and brightest talent and a San Francisco studio enables us to benefit from the region’s skilled workforce,” says Kristian Segerstrale, CEO and Co-founder of Playfish. “Through our new team in San Francisco we plan to extend Playfish’s creative and collaborative culture and find new sources of inspiration in our mission to change the way the world plays games.”

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