‘Clash of Clans’ In Google Play Top Ten

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Analytics firm App Annie has released their latest numbers for the mobile market, with (as usual) some interesting data to look at. Their numbers are derived from the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store, and the company noted some interesting trends.

As industry observers have noted in recent months, messaging apps are an important driver for games in the Asian markets. Tencent showed this with their 2D sidescroller WeRun hitting the #1 spot for the top iOS game downloads based on the strength of Tencent’s WeChat messaging. This also propelled Tencent to the #2 slot for iOS publishers. As yet, though, Tencent hasn’t cracked the Top Ten for iOS publisher or game revenue, showing that downloads alone aren’t enough to make a great business.

App Annie also highlighted the success of Supercell’s Clash of Clans as it moved onto Android platforms worldwide, grabbing the #9 slot by revenue on Google Play to complement its #1 position on iOS by revenue. Cross-platform play is probably a feature that’s important to the title’s success, and it’s likely that Clash of Clans will move up on the Google Play revenue charts in the future.

An interesting development App Annie noted is King’s use of KakaoTalk in Korea to propel Candy Crush Saga in that country. “The release of a special version of Candy Crush Saga for Kakao in September allowed King to reach Kakao’s approximately 110 million users, and started paying dividends in October as the game and publisher climbed the revenue rankings,” noted App Annie on their blog.

Once again, the top publishers by downloads are weighted towards the West for both iOS and Google Play, but when you look at revenues Japanese publishers do much better. Monthly revenue for games is once again led by Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, and Puzzle & Dragons on iOS (#1, #2 and #3, respectively), with Google Play’s top three slots were held by Puzzle & Dragons, Candy Crush Saga, and Monster Taming (a game on Korea’s KakaoTalk).

King’s Pet Rescue Saga is doing well at #6 in iOS revenue (perhaps because of relentless promotion and TV advertising), while EA’s The Simpsons Tapped Out came in at #5 in iOS revenue. Machine Zone’s Game of War: Fire Age continued to post good revenue at #7 on iOS, while new entry Megapolis from Russian publisher Social Quantum leaped into the #9 position for iOS revenue (jumping 18 ranks).

The biggest movement on Google Play was from EA’s The Simpsons Tapped Out, which moved up six spots to claim the #8 ranking in revenue. Other Google Play games showed little revenue changes.

Celebrate The Holidays With Nintendo 3DS

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While Sony and Microsoft are pulling out all the stops for their console launches, Nintendo also has a holiday campaign to run for its systems. This 3DS ad puts the bullseye squarely on Nintendo’s core audience: young consumers and those who have nostalgic feelings about Nintendo properties.

PlayStation 4 Sizzle Reel

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While the PS4 has launched to a generally positive reception, Sony is quick to remind those who think the launch library is thin that more games are just around around the corner. While Knack, Killzone: Shadow Fall and other launch titles feature prominently in this sizzle trailer, there’s also Infamous Second Son, Kingdom Hearts III, DriveClub and far more.

Next-Gen Attach Rate Predicted

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With the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches, game publishers are hoping that users pick up a lot of their games alongside their newly bought hardware. However, according to one analyst, it’s a slightly smaller ratio than what the Xbox 360 saw at its launch.

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz stated that both systems will have an approximate 3.25 software attach rate – meaning roughly three games will be purchased alongside a new system during its launch. By comparison, the Xbox 360 had an attach rate of 4.2 during its holiday launch, while the PlayStation 3 had an attach rate of only 1.9.

Creutz expects this to mean an average of about 20 percent of systems sold will have any given launch title sold with it. Out of all those titles, Creutz believes Battlefield 4 will have the strongest attach rate around 30 percent, while Madden NFL 25 and NBA 2K14, two of the more popular sports games for the systems, will follow closely behind.

Meanwhile, games like Zumba Fitness, Fighter Within, Zoo Tycoon and Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition are expected to have less than 20 percent of an attach rate.

Source: Gamespot

‘League of Legends’ World Championship Viewing

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The audience for eSports is expanding, and the viewership numbers provided by Riot Games provides stark evidence of this. The League of Legends Season 3 World Championship was was watched by over 32 million fans worldwide, as South Korea’s SK Telecom T1 earned the Summoner’s Cup in front of a sold-out Staples Center. At peak, more than 8.5 million fans were watching at the same time. The growth over the Season 2 numbers was immense: The Season 2 World Championship was watched by 8.2 million fans, with 1.1 million watching at the same time. This includes global numbers from multiple Internet broadcasts and TV stations in China, Korea and other countries.

Putting this in the context of other popular televised sports, the audience for League of Legends‘ Season 3 finals was roughly equal to the number of viewers that watched the NHL Stanley Cup finals, which had over 5 million viewers on average for the six games in the series, with a peak viewership of 8.16 million.

Still, eSports have some higher targets to aim for. Looking at the most recent figures, the World Series had over 90 million viewers, the Super Bowl had over 108 million viewers, the NBA finals had over 120 million viewers, and the World Cup had over 1 billion viewers. Riot’s got its work cut out for it with Season 4 coming up.

Source: Riot Games

Better Voice Control For Xbox One

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Microsoft is more than ready for this week’s launch of the Xbox One, but it’s already working on a number of improvements for it to operate better. Among them is a new natural voice interaction support system, one that works in a similar manner to Apple’s Siri.

The company recently demonstrated this voice control in a video demonstration, showing how it makes it easier for users to look for content rather than giving precisely worded commands. Saying something like, “I feel like watching this movie (with the title replacing “this movie”) or “show me action/adventure games” will do the trick.

This is a hurdle for the company to get over, as its prior products haven’t really had the strongest natural voice support. However, with the help of Deep Neural Network technology, Microsoft believes it can get the job done.

No word yet on when this new tech will launch, but it’s likely to be available next year.

Source: The Verge

 

PlayStation 4 Hardware Cost Estimated

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With one million units sold in 24 hours’ time, Sony has proven that the video game market is more than ready for the next-generation. But does that mean the company will make a profit Not on hardware sales on, given the costs.

According to a breakdown from IHS iSuppli, the PlayStation 4 hardware is actually very close to the recommended retail price. This is a huge change of pace from previous iterations of gaming hardware, namely Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which were sold at an enormous loss.

The PlayStation 3 initially sold at a loss of $300 per unit, only to be trimmed down to a whopping $31.27 loss with the PlayStation 3 Slim in 2009. The PlayStation 4, by comparison, has a cost of about $381 to manufacture, $18 below the retail price of $399. That’s still a loss when you consider the discounts to retailers, shipping, marketing and other costs, but at least it’s closer to a profit. Once Sony sells a software title or two the PlayStation 4 should be profitable.

Another advantage going forward is the extensive use of industry-standard parts, which means Sony will see its costs going down with the usual reductions in parts costs for things like Blu-Ray drives.

Source: Forbes

‘Titanfall’ Exclusivity Explained

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Ever since its announcement last year, the first-person shooter Titanfall has been generated huge buzz among gamers. Still, some were concerned when it was announced that it wouldn’t be released on PlayStation platforms, instead remaining exclusive to PC and Xbox 360/One.

At the UBS Technology Conference, Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen explained the reasoning behind the exclusivity, especially to Microsoft.

“That’s a process that’s been done through the industry for many years,” Jorgensen said. “There are lots of single-platform titles. Obviously, you work with the first-parties to make sure the economics make sense for all sides, and we made that decision on Titanfall.”

He also explained the publisher’s relationship with Titanfall‘s developer, Respawn Entertainment. “It’s a business partnership. We’re trying to make sure that we’ve developed a great relationship with them,” he said. “We helped them on marketing, we helped them on development where they need it. And we try to maintain a strong partnership with them over time.”

As for sequels, they could see a release on PS4, but for the time being, it remains an exclusive. “So obviously it’s the first title that’s committed to a single platform,” he concluded.

Titanfall hits stores on March 11, 2014.

Source: IGN