Rovio Looks To 2013 IPO

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Rovio is looking for an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2013, with a New York Stock Exchange listing two or three years later. Rovio chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka said that there will be roughly a half dozen Angry Birds game releases next year and states that the Finnish company could grow to match the Walt Disney Corporation.

“That is the target,” he said. “There is no reason why we should not be able to build a company of that size.”

Vesterbacka pegged Rovio’s 2011 revenues around $100 million, a ten fold increase over $10 million in 2010.

Source: Reuters

Zynga IPO Raises $1 Billion

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Zynga raised $1 billion from its IPO, selling 100 million shares at $10 each. Despite some reluctance from certain analysts and rumors that the IPO could go for as low as $8.50, Zynga recorded a massive success on its first day on the market.

“Zynga and its games are becoming consumer brands and there is a lot of recognition for growth potential,” said analyst Colin Sebastian. “My guess is that the shares will be well-received.”

Source: Bloomberg

Homefront Balloon Stunt Results In $7,000 Fine

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TrashTalkFCM has been fined $7,000 for releasing hundreds of red balloons that ended up in the San Francisco Bay in March 2010. The marketing promotion was intended to spread awareness for the launch of Homefront during GDC.

“The company had expected the balloons to rise high enough into the atmosphere that they would disintegrate into tiny pieces, but weather conditions that day caused hundreds of the balloons to drift into the Bay, creating a hazard to birds and aquatic life,” wrote Dan McMenamin. “TrashTalkFCM, which has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, agreed to the settlement with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and signed it Monday after a 30-day public comment period, according to the water board.”

“The company, which assumed sole responsibility for the incident and cooperated with the cleanup and investigation, now has 30 days to pay the fine, according to water quality officials,” concluded McMenamin.

Source: San Francisco Appeal

BioWare: Why They’re Doing Command & Conquer: Generals 2

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BioWare shocked the gaming community when it announced that it as expanding its portfolio of games to include Command & Conquer: Generals 2 at new studio BioWare Victory. Executive producer Jon Van Caneghem says that the Frostbite 2 powered game will “set a new bar for fidelity in the strategy genre.”

“There are certainly going to be a number of differences between a shooter and a strategy game,” said Van Caneghem about Frostbite 2 built Battlefield 3. “But the possibilities are certainly opened up more when you have a great new engine to build upon.”

While there was some internal debate over whether to do a new spin on the franchise, though ultimately they decided against that. “In the end we listened to what the community wanted and what a lot of us as C&C fans wanted – a return to Generals!” asserted Van Caneghem. “It’s been a long enough wait!”

“It’s the series the C&C community has been asking for.” added BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka. “It’s also the bestselling game in the entire franchise, which is quite impressive when you consider the other games that have come out under the C&C banner. We also think the fiction has a lot of great possibilities. The tone of the series is a bit more serious and getting to work with massive armies and modern technology in a near future setting is really going to make for an intense, immersive experience.”

While certain incarnations of the franchise, particularly Red Alert, have a reputation for off-the-wall elements, Van Canegham said that won’t be the case with Generals 2. “We are definitely not making a departure from the tone of the original Generals. We think there’s a great opportunity to deliver over-the-top-action, but to keep the intensity high,” he said. “Generals is grittier than the other series in the franchise and we are fully embracing that.”

Source: PC Gamer

iTunes Tours The Beatles Album Covers

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The latest celebration of The Beatles albums being on iTunes is an engaging visual “tour” of their various albums covers. Check it out from “Please, Please Me,” all the way to “Abbey Road.”

{video link no longer active}

 

Liberty City Reborn

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A special Anniversary Edition of Grand Theft Auto III is now available on iOS and Android devices for $4.99 in the iTunes App Store {link no longer active} and Android Market. Nearly identical to the 10-year-old original game, gameplay has been optimized for touch-screen devices with resizable custom controls. There are two major improvements from the original: mission retry and an autosave mode. The game is listed as compatible with the iPhone 4 and 4S, 4th generation iPod touch as well as iPad 1 and 2. The list of supported Android devices includes HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, T-Mobile G2x. On the Android tablet front, Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S and Toshiba Thrive are supported.

Deadmau5 Forms Sound Shapes

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Sony has announced that Deadmau5 announced he is creating a variety of exclusive new tracks for the PS Vita game Sound Shapes. The popular dance music DJ recently appeared at the 2011 VGAs.

“Deadmau5’s forward thinking approach to indelible and infectious music mirrors the vision of Queasy Games, the developers behind the highly anticipated title,” reads the release by Sony. “During gameplay, explore a musical world in the form of a classic 2D side scroller, where every action creates a unique game sound track. During creation, players can lay down collectible notes and samples, as well as musical game objects and hazards. Players can then upload and share their creations with the community via the PlayStation Network (PSN).  Since music creation in the game is so much like creating digital music, Deadmau5 has utilized Sound Shapes’ innovative technology to create a selection of exclusive tracks to be played out in the single player campaign, as well as allowing users to create new music and levels with his custom beats.”

hi5 Gets Tagged, Acquired

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Tagged has signed a deal to acquire the social network hi5. The company will look to combine usersbases, give them access to services through either site and perhaps work towards an IPO in 2012.

“At hi5 my colleagues and I recognized the unanswered opportunity to connect new people online,” said Alex St. John, CTO of hi5. “Tagged is the perfect home for hi5 as it continues to prove itself as a major contender in social.”

“The way you compete with Facebook is you become the leader in some other space,” said Tagged CEO Greg Tseng. “The downfall of MySpace (and others) was they kept trying to compete head on with Facebook and then pivoted too late. One strategy is for us to grow and dominate and take other social sites and pivot them. My focus is building a company that’s lasting and independent and sustainable.”

Source: Wall Street Journal