G4’s X-Play has named Marvel: Avengers Alliance the Best Social Game for the Year. The game beat out The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Draw Something, SongPop and The Grinns Tales.
The hit social game has also been nominated for the VGA’s “Best Social Game of 2012.” That award ceremony will take place Friday at 9:00 p.m. ET on Spike TV.
Source: Marvel.com
Newzoo reported that there is expected to be a 3 percent increase in consumer spending on games in Western Europe compared to 2011, higher if markets such as Russia and Poland are included, compared to 1 percent in the U.S. Growth in consumer spending in Europe and the U.S. is expected to pick up in 2013. An early indication of that trend is how the number of paying gamers has grown 17 percent in Western Europe and 36 percent in the U.S. over the last year.
“In brief, digital distributed content, online, smartphone and tablet games make up for the decline of boxed retail sales,” writes Peter Warman, CEO Newzoo. “Since the uptake of tablets and smartphones as gaming devices, consumers now have four typical screens to access their entertainment. Consumers are spreading their budget across these screens putting pressure on individual game revenues and making it a necessity for game companies to offer games across all screens. The PC still grosses most time and money, but already 22 percent of American and 21 percent of European gamers are using all four screens.”
The share of paying gamers has risen to 59 percent in Western Europe, 55 percent in the U.S. and while social network gaming market is down 7 percent in the U.S. there is still growth in Europe, particularly Germany. Germany also has the highest growth in money spent on online “casual” game portals while Spain is the fastest growing MMO market in Western Europe. The U.K. is the best in Europe for mobile game spending, in absolute figures and in growth.
Meanwhile, traditional game spending is not so rosy with console game spending flat in most countries, though Spain and Italy show double digit growth. PC Boxed sales are down in every country, most noticeably in Italy, Spain, France and Germany and PC Download games spending is down in most countries except Germany and Italy.
Source: Newzoo.com
Flurry Analytics indicates that mobile app usage is now more popular than web browsing. They estimate that Americans now spend 127 minutes per day with mobile apps and only 70 minutes using a web browser.
“As smartphone and tablet penetration continue to rise, the next step for mobile apps is to challenge television as the primary channel for media consumption. What seemed impossible just a couple of years ago, doesn’t seem too far fetched today, as more and more content becomes available via mobile apps,” writes Felix Richter, media relations manager for Flurry Analytics. “The pace at which mobile apps have changed our media consumption habits is truly breathtaking, especially considering the fact that the concept is only four years old. The app concept has already started spreading to the living room, where apps are starting to change the way we interact with video game consoles and television sets as well.”
“For the moment, it seems safe to say that apps are the medium of the hour and quite possibly the medium of the future,” concluded Richter.
Electronic Arts has announced new pre-order bonuses for Dead Space 3. GamesStop users will get the EG-900 SMG, while those who purchase from Amazon will get the Tesla Enervator.
The EG-900 SMG, is describe as a EarthGov-issued sub machinegun “built for urban warfare” being both compact and deadly with an internal hyper-accelerator for maximum damage. Meanwhile, the Tesla Enervator is a Sovereign Colonies device designed for electrocution and molecular destabilization in the target.
Those that pre-order the game will also receive the Limited Edition version of the game with the First Contact Bundle and the Witness the Truth Bundle.
The NPD is reporting that games industry sales dropped 11 percent to $2.55 billion in November year over year. Software, hardware and accessory sales all fell across the board compared to November 2011.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the best selling title for November at 7.5 million units sold. Halo 4 sold an impressive 3.2 million units, while Assassin’s Creed III saw 2.9 million in sales and Need for Speed: Most Wanted sold roughly a half million.
Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 managed a total of 1.26 million in sales for November after selling 750,000 during Black Friday, marking the 23rd consecutive month that Xbox 360 is the top selling console in the U.S. Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in November (hardware, software and accessories) reached $1.2 billion, also tops among consoles in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Nintendo sold over 1.75 million total hardware units in November, led by the 3DS with 540,000, followed by the Wii U at 425,000. The Wii sold 420,000 units and the Nintendo DS sold more 370,000 units, bringing lifetime sales up to 40 million units and 53 million units.
New Super Mario Bros U for the Wii U sold more than 243,000 units and saw a console attach rate of nearly 60 percent. Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS reached 2 million units in lifetime sales, becoming the second game for that system to hit that milestone in the U.S.
Reports are that Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has sold roughly 4.5 million copies. By contrast, the PC/Mac version of Minecraft has been purchased over 8.2 million times.
The $20 Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition sells roughly 50,000 copies a week, while the $27 PC/Mac version sells at about that rate as well. Minecraft: Pocket Edition for Android and iOS devices is also available for $6.99.
Source: Gamastura
In Japan, it’s not uncommon to see technologies and devices receive “-tan” incarnations, which are cute anime girl personifications. One of the most popular is Siri, the personal search assistant on the iPhone.
One unique element of the Siri-tan incarnations is an emphasis on her, er, rear. As it turns out “Shiri” (which is the name for Siri in Japan) simply means “butt” in Japanese — making her a good excuse for fan service (like artists in Japan need an excuse).
Here’s Siri-tan as a bookish looking girl.
Source: Kotaku.com
Gree has announced that 25 staff will be let go as a result of OpenFeint’s closure. Purchased by Gree for $104 million, the company recently announced that they were shutting down the service ahead of their announced deadline.
“Gree, which recently announced the closure of mobile social gaming platform, OpenFeint, is focusing its U.S. business primarily on its own titles and developer partner titles,” said Gree in a statement. “As part of the company’s internal U.S. reorganization, a majority of the Gree games platform team will be transitioned to new departments with redundancies in some areas. The overall Gree Platform business will begin transitioning to its operations in Tokyo as a part of this change.”
Zynga games are advertised pretty extensively online and, naturally, on Facebook. Turns out they’re seeing some street advertising in New York like the way a band or local play would be.
Or maybe she’s opening for Gov’t Mule.
Source: Kotaku.com
The series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn has released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy. It can be purchased all three ways right now at Amazon.
The web series debuted on Machinima Prime, costing nearly $10 million to produce but drawing almost universal acclaim. Catch the first episode here.
