Mapnificent shows you the area you can reach with public transport from any point in a given time. It is available for major cities in the US and world wide. Drop a pin or look up your address and see how far you can go!
Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch has left the company and accepted a position with Apple. Adobe confirmed his departure, though Apple has not issued a comment on the matter.
“[Lynch] is leaving the company effective March 22 to take a position at Apple,” said Adobe in a statement. “Responsibility for technology development lies with our business unit heads under the leadership of Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Bryan Lamkin, who has recently returned to Adobe, will assume responsibilities for cross company research and technology initiatives as well as Corporate Development. We wish Kevin well in this new chapter of his career.”
Lynch’s career has included time at Adobe sparring with then Apple CEO Steve Jobs and asserting the superiority of Adobe Flash Player over HTML5. His personal history in software development, however, has had him working on Apple technology in various capacities over the years.
Source: PCmag.com
SuperData released its top digital games data for February 2013, which we’re publishing on [a]list daily as the first of a monthly column. Joost van Dreunen, co-founder and CEO of SuperData, provided insight for this month’s report.
“In February, the total digital games category grew 8.8 percent compared the same month last year, and reached $850.1 million in total sales. Month-over-month February showed a decline of 11 percent for the entire segment, as DLC taper off after the post-holiday,” noted van Dreunen. “Year-over-year digital sales for the month of February increased $69 million from $781 million in 2012 for the entire sector.”
SuperData’s report shows that the social game market continued to weaken, even as Zynga regained its leadership position on Facebook. Free-to-play MMOs saw an increase in revenue due to increasing conversion rate, while pay-to-play MMOs fell drastically especially when looking at the trailing twelve months since February 2012. The report noted that World of Warcraft continues to bleed users.
“The mobile games segment grew as spending breached the $11 threshold. In February the average revenue per paying user across all categories was $11.13. The sector shows continued momentum, and we expect this to last through March before tapering off in the early Spring,” noted van Dreunen. “Newcomer among the top three grossing titles was Simpsons: Tapped Out (EA Mobile), which replaced Rage of Bahamut (Mobage).”
“With the dust settling after the 2012 holiday spending, the DLC segment returned to normal spending levels at $312 million in February, up from $232 million a year ago. Consistent with Electronic Arts’ focus on the digital download, the publisher dominated the market this month with two of its titles Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 among the top,” he concluded.
En Masse Entertainment has announced that Tera: Rising has 1.4 million users following its February launch as a subscription-free game with new content. The company also says it has seen a 10-fold increase of maximum concurrent users compared to before Tera’s subscription-free evolution.
“We’ve been blown away by the waves of players logging into Tera, and we’re seeing amazing growth in both registrations and daily users. It’s always great to eclipse the one-million-player mark, and at our current rate, it won’t be long before we hit two million,” said Chris Lee, CEO of En Masse Entertainment. “This success is pushing En Masse even harder to deliver more content and improve our service, so stay tuned!”
To celebrate the success of Tera, En Masse is announcing Dracoloths Rising, a five-day event to hunt large monsters for special drops and prizes.
Draw Something 2 was confirmed by Ryan Seacrest, the host of American Idol and radio host for New York’s Z100. “I somehow convinced them to give me #DrawSomething2 first . . . this may be the best Mariah & Randy have ever looked,” Seacrest tweeted.
It is believed that Ryan Seacrest and his Draw Something 2 tweet tie to a new show he will be producing. The new show will be based on a Draw Something and Pictionary.
Source: SlashGear.com
PETA launched a PR stunt concurrent to the release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The organization handed out leaflets at midnight launch events, telling gamers to rethink their actions against the digital creatures.
“We always root for the underdogs (and undermice and underpigeons, etc.) at PETA,” said the company in a blog post. “And when playing StarCraft, I had noticed how the Zerg were treated more like animals than like other people. I couldn’t help but wonder if there would be an analog to PETA in the world of StarCraft. Tonight, my dream will come true.”
“So remember, while Zerglings are not real, there are many equally ‘strange’ and exotic animals we share this planet with who deserve our empathy. Just because crocodiles and snakes look alien to us, that doesn’t make it OK to skin them alive for a handbag, shoes, or a belt,” it added. “And if we had to share our world with the Zerg in reality, I’d like to think that we’d make an effort to understand and respect them rather than sending out the battlecruisers — because the alternative to having empathy for other beings is about as grim as it gets, whether you’re a Terran, a Zerg, or a Protoss. OK, whoa, that got kind of serious there. What I am saying is look at the cute Zergling! How could anyone ever want to hurt a Zergling.”
“A Zergling is capable of killing its prey 32 distinct ways,” he added. “It’s teeth are strong enough to carve through titanium and its bite can dent starship armor. Zergling drool can bore through a country ham in 3.2 seconds, and it can survive on a tenth the oxygen a human needs. Worst of all, millennia of evolution have eliminated anything like an emotionally stable Zergling — these critters spawn pissed off, and things don’t improve from there.”
Source: HuffingtonPost.co.uk
Nonstop Games, a Singaporean-Finnish gaming company has received $2.9 million from Creandum and Lifeline Ventures. The company’s CEO, Juha Paananen, previously ran Asia-Pacific business development for Nokia out of Singapore and is brother of Ilkka Paananen, CEO of Supercell.
“Supercell is a good target for success,” Juha Paananen said. “When we pass them on the top list, I’ll send my brother a note.”
The company, which used to be known as GamesMadeMe, was working on HTML5 titles but is now shifting to mobile. “It’s never that black and white,” Paananen said. “The press wants to paint it as you have to go either native or HTML5. HTML5 might happen at some point but realistically, the app stores remain the main distribution channel at the moment.”
Source: TechCrunch.com
Tapjoy has hired Jeff Drobick as its new chief product officer, where he will start working on the company’s product roadmap. Drobick has experience as Geeknet Media’s president and CEO and prior to that was Vice President of Information Management & Delivery (IMD) and Product Development at eBay.
“We’re incredibly excited to have Jeff Drobick on board as our Chief Product Officer,” said Tapjoy president Steve Wadsworth. “To bring in someone of Jeff’s pedigree and caliber adds yet another well-versed industry veteran to our executive leadership team. Jeff’s combination of bidded ad platform expertise and the proven delivery of data-rich applications will have a significant impact on our product roadmap and how we serve our clients and partners. The CPO role is vital at any technology company, particularly in a sector that moves as rapidly as mobile. This addition also speaks to the incredible opportunity ahead for Tapjoy, as we refine and focus our product roadmap and position the company for our next phase of growth.”
“Tapjoy sits at the white-hot intersection of mobile app developers, advertisers and consumers, and it’s precisely the type of company I get excited about,” said Drobick. “I can’t wait to embrace the incredible new challenges and opportunities within this space and execute our vision and strategy, delivering the best products for our partners.”
Kabam has announced that it has brought on Mike DeLaet as senior vice president of worldwide business development. He has over 15 years of experience, having worked at Sprint Nextel and Glu Mobile.
“Kabam is a top mobile developer with what I believe to be the strongest mix of monetization systems, core game play and high production values,” said DeLaet. “The company has already achieved remarkable success, and I am excited to lead our efforts to reach global scale.”
“Kabam’s focus on global strategic business partnerships is becoming increasingly important as we continue the disruption of the games industry,” added COO Chris Carvalho. “Mike DeLaet has a proven track record of contributing to companies’ player and revenue growth and we have big goals for him to help take our games into new platforms and geographies.”
Richard Garriott has hit his Kickstarter goal of $1 million for Shroud of the Avatar. Over 15,000 backers have given more than $1,065,000 to the RPG project.
Now that the game has hit its initial goal, stretch goals have been set up for pets at $1.1 million and seasonal weather at $1.2 million. Also, more bonus awards have been added to the pledge tiers.
Source: Kickstarter.com
