Gaming Archives - Page 3 of 4

After Successful 7 Year Run Glu Mobile Acquires Entire “Deer Hunter” Brand

Don’t make any mistake, the Deer Hunter franchise ain’t no duck hunt. In fact it’s one of the most realistic shooting/hunting game franchises on mobile devies, thanks solely to Glu Mobile. Glu Mobile announced earlier today that they have acquired the “Deer Hunter” brand in it’s entirety from Atari. The acquisition includes the trademarks, licensing, domain names and all worldwide intellectual property that pertains to Deer Hunter.

“The Deer Hunter brand has become iconic for hunting gamers since its inception in 1997. It is a strong fit with Glu’s leadership in 3D, high production value, freemium mobile gaming,” said Niccolo de Masi, Glu President and CEO. “Glu has generated more than $21 million in revenue from the Deer Hunter brand over the past seven years, and we are delighted to now add it to our growing IP portfolio. We expect this deal to have a long-term favorable impact on gross margins, and anticipate finishing the year debt-free with double digit millions of cash.”

“In addition to continued growth on smartphones and tablets, we see significant potential to extend Deer Hunter to emerging platforms like the Mac App Store, Google Chrome and Connected TVs to round out full coverage of the future Digital Living Room,” de Masi continued. “The Deer Hunter brand will continue to represent the highest-quality, most realistic hunting experience in gaming. We look forward to expanding on the brand’s success for many years to come, beginning with our launch this month of Deer Hunter: Reloaded.”

Glu Mobile specializes in feature packed arcade style gaming hits for mobile platforms including Deer Hunter, Contract Killer, Gun Bros and many more. The San Francisco based company assures us even more exciting news is on the way.

Razer Gets Enough Facebook Likes, Announces Left Handed Naga MMO Mouse

If you’re a gamer than you are well aware of Razer and their superior line of gaming peripherals. If you’re a hardcore gamer and hardcore fan of Razer than you know already that they had a Facebook contest of sorts to see if there was enough community support to back the release of a left handed Naga gaming mouse.

Well lefty’s rejoice as YES there were enough likes on Facebook to start production of a left handed Naga mouse.

“That Facebook post generated more buzz than we could’ve ever imagined, which proves that there have been a number of gamers that have had their needs ignored for some time,” said Razer CEO and Chief Gamer Min Ling Tan. “We pride ourselves on being gamers ourselves, and we all know that there is no substitute for gaming with your dominant hand.”

This isn’t Razer’s first time producing a left-handed mouse. Two years ago the company released a left-handed version of their popular DeathAdder mouse. There are only two professional gamer left-handed mice in existence and Razer is the proud manufacturer of both.

Source: Engadget

Rumors Surface About The Next Playstation To Be Called Orbis?

Rumors were hot and heavy on the internet Wednesday about the next generation Playstation console. According to many sites including TFTS the next generation Playstation console will be called Orbis. TFTS was quick to point out that the Latin word Vita, the name of Sony’s latest handheld system, is life. The Latin word Orbis, means circle. Perhaps Sony is working on a “circle of life” concept with the next generation console and handheld.

The most important details to the reader are probably release date and pricing. Well we are far away from pricing but if sources are correct we would see the Playstation Orbis in time for the 2013 holiday season so about a year and a half from now.

The console system is said to rock an AMD x64 CPU and an AMD Southern Islands GPU. That will give it the capability of playing games at a resolution up to 4096×2160 (how much is the tv going to cost to support that???). It’s believed that the PlayStation Orbis will support 3D gaming out of the box.

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New Start Up DimensionU Incentivisis Social Gaming For Kids And Injects Education

There’s a big challenge with large scale multi-player social games with themes aimed at the under 18 set. Capcom’s Smurf Village game felt the biggest pinch with the challenge which is monetization. Kids were playing Smurf Village on their parents iOS devices and draining their parents wallets until Apple intervened.

This issue is particularly challenging because kids make a great audience for these kinds of games. Enter Ntiedo Etuk and his start up DimensionU. DimensionU has found a way that should be ok with parents to let kids enjoy social gaming. What’s better is Etuk has focused on providing games that are age appropriate and interject educational elements as well.

According to this story at betabeat, DimensionU incentivisis learning by setting up a reward system, with the parents involvement, where the kids can earn prizes both tangible and virtual for learning accomplishments.

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Looking For A Date, Time To Play WoW Instead Of Match.com

Tired of dating the same losers, and plan on visiting sites like eHarmony and Match.com to fix that? You may want to hold that thought and start playing WoW(World of Warcraft) instead. A new infographic may change your mind on where you go first to find your ideal partner.

While they wouldn’t be the most desirable ones, you’ll have better luck it seems play hoping onto the MMORPG over any those dating sites.

Dan Porter: You Earned That Bump Like A Mother Fucker

One of OMGPOP's "The Wire" Inspired Meeting Rooms (photo: Business Insider)

Dan Porter the CEO of OMGPOP became a very wealthy man yesterday. After six years of producing games and the blockbuster hit Draw Something, OMGPOP hit the big time being acquired yesterday by Zynga.

During the press conference call yesterday Porter highlighted how Zynga got exactly what OMGPOP was doing with Draw Something. He also spoke about how Zynga would back their mission with future games. Porter will become the VP and General Manager of Zynga’s New York office.

Porter shot up in my book ten fold today when I read this walk through of OMGPOP’s offices in Business Insider. With Jason Kincaid gone from TechCrunch it’s hard to find segments like TechCrunch Cribs anymore.

Of course the news of the OMGPOP Zynga merger made the office tour piece a goto piece today. But what I found out when I viewed the story is that Porter has had all of their meeting spaces named after the hit HBO drama “The Wire”

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Zynga Officially Announces Purchase Of OMGPOP, Won’t Disclose Financials

Zynga held a conference call earlier today where they formally announced their purchase of OMGPOP the creators of the hit game “Draw Something”. Zynga’s head of mobile David Ko conducted the call from OMGPOP’s New York headquarters.

During the call Zynga announced that they are at 240 million monthly active users (MAU), and still have their sites on one billion monthly active users. Ko said that their mission at Zynga was to continue connecting people through games.

If for some reason you’ve been living under a rock and you’re not sure what OMGPOP or “Draw Something” is, it’s a Pictionary style game that you can play on your phone against your Facebook friends or completely random strangers. You take turns drawing one of three possible pictures, based on difficulty. Easy pictures like a leg or an arm will earn you one coin for drawing and guessing correctly. Tougher pictures like running or bacon will yield you two points. The most difficult category is often proper nouns like Lil Wayne or Lady GaGa for those you get three points.

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Live Blog: Zynga Press Event To Announce Purchase Of OMGPOP Developers Of “Draw Something”

2:31pm: Dan Porter says they will not be changing the name of Draw Something to Draw with friends

2:29pm: Chat and drawing saving coming to Draw Something.

2:28pm: Will this be the biggest deal for Zynga… David Koh not commenting on financials

2:23pm: Q&A time

2:21pm: Dan Porter: looking for a partner that can support them and keep going

2:20PM: OMGPOP/CEO Dan Porter becomes VP/GM of Zynga New York. Call is being held at OMGPOP’s NY offices. Dan Porter: 20 million users prior to Draw Something

2:17PM: 6 short weeks Draw Something has been downloaded over 35 million times. More than 1 billion drawings have been created as of last week.

2:16PM: David Koh: OMGPOP has released 35 casual multi-player games

2:15pm: Zynga has acquired OMGPOP

2:15pm: 240 million active players across Zynga. Offering Zynga platform to other developers.

2:14pm: Zynga’s mission, connect the world through games

2:14: David Koh chief mobile officer at Zynga is up first

2:13pm: Here we go. We are going over forward thinking statements

2:12pm: call is open audio is horrid

2:58pm: I think this is TV ON THE RADIO but not sure

2:57pm: A song called “Don’t let me fall” is playing on hold, is this some kind of re-assurance message that Pincus likes?

2:55pm: and now some great hip hop fusion

2:52pm: Venture Beat is reporting that the buzz out of ignition west is $250 million for OMGPOP

2:49PM: Zynga is about to announce their purchase of OMGPOP the developer behind the smash hit “Draw Something” no word on the purchase amount yet but most are speculating it’s between $180 and $300 million. Still listening to the hold music

2:47PM: listening to the wonderful hold music

Walmart & T-Mobile Tapped For Angry Birds Space Promotion

Walmart has signed up to help promote Rovio Mobile’s next big mega hit Angry Birds Space. The game goes live in app markets across the world tomorrow, and if there was a store to line up to buy the app the tent lines would be around buildings by now.

The newest installment of Angry Birds is very well developed and takes on it’s physics nature that the game is grounded on. To come up with physics principals pertaining to space and weightlessness Rovio consulted real astronauts from Russia and NASA.

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[REVIEW] Tritton Detonator Surround Sound Headphones For Xbox 360

As I said earlier this year around the time of CES, we love gaming here at TheDroidGuy. That calls for setting the phones down and taking a break from Angry Birds or Cut The Rope to get to some real console and PC gaming. Of course, with console and PC gaming there are a lot of areas that people look to get a good experience from, and one of those is sound quality. Among graphics and user experience, gamers want the sound of what they are playing to really bring the game to life, and there are a few ways you can go about doing this. Sure you can spend thousands of dollars investing in a fantastic home theatre sound system, but you can also invest just around a hundred bucks in a great pair of surround sound headphones. This is where Tritton headphones come into play.

Tritton is a company that makes surround sound headphones for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC gaming. I should start off by saying that this review will focus in on the some of the product lineup for Xbox 360, but PS3 and PC owners should still stick around because it should still be pretty applicable to the headphones you would be purchasing from Tritton as well.

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The first pair of headphones I will be talking about today are the Detonators. The Detonators are wired 50mm surround sound headphones, and man, are these headphones incredible. When you take them out of the box you will immediately notice the sexy black design that comes with the Detonators. The Detonators are all black headphones with a gloss finish on the exterior of the cups partnered by the Tritton logo, and the top is crafted with a soft, leather material with “XBOX 360” stitched in to remind users this has been licensed by Microsoft for use with the 360. The ear cups are also made with a leather material, companied by a nice orange accent in the interior of the cups themselves. I can say with confidence that these are the best looking pair of surround sound headphones I’ve come across yet. However, it doesn’t stop there, because these headphones really get their chance to shine when you put them on and jump into a game.

One thing I’ve noticed about Tritton headphones that I really like is the fact that I don’t feel like I’m riding in a helicopter when I put them on. The sleekness that you see when looking at them while they aren’t being used continues right into usage, and after a while you can’t even tell you’re wearing headphones. The overall performance of these headphones is fantastic as well. The highs are crisp and sharp, the mids hit just as they should delivering the core sound, and the bass booms at just the right amount to make you feel like you’re really in a game. If I’m playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and my buddy calls in an airstrike, I’m the first to know because I can literally hear the planes begin to fly towards the arena and drop bombs the entire way. The same goes when I am sneaking through a narrow corridor, and I can hear my enemy’s footsteps and they try to creep up behind me and use the element of surprise. If I’m playing Mass Effect 3 I feel like the characters are really speaking to me, and when I’m walking through a crowded city it feels like there are small conversations happening in every directions, and I truly am surrounded by others at all times. Racing games offer a very realistic sound of tires screeching and engines firing, and the Tritton Detonators make it a completely new experience. The 50mm cups really deliver a true-sound experience, and I cannot play without them. The quality of your friends talking into their mics is also fantastic, and the game sound and voice sound filter into the headphones at the right amount, because the headphones have a small adjusting bar that allows you to change the different volumes, mute yourself, and turn on SVM support as well.

If I had to say there was anything I didn’t like about the Detonators, it would probably be that squeezed my head a little too tight, but after about a week they were broken in and fit just fine. That goes for most headphones when you first buy them anyways though, so I don’t really see it as a big deal. Overall, these headphones bring together a fantastic gaming experience while looking great at the same time. Tritton Detonators are a great value, and anyone looking for a great gaming experience should look into picking some up. Head over to Tritton’s website to check out the rest of their collection, and be sure to check back this week for the review of the Primer and Trigger Headsets.

Wil Wheaton & Felicia Day Unveil New YouTube Series: Tabletop

Don’t worry Wil Wheaton fans, Tabletop is not a cooking show or guide to Wheaton’s favorite restaurants or restaurant apps. Tabletop is about board games.

Wheaton said on his personal typepad site that when his,good friend and hit Web series producer, Felicia Day asked him if he wanted to do a show on her premium YouTube channel,Geek & Sundry he said of course he did. That’s when his wheels started turning to come up with a cool idea.

Wheaton writes on his typepad site:
“Oh my god,” I said, “What if we did something that was like Celebrity Poker meets Dinner for Five, where we got interesting people we know together for tabletop games?!”

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Half Brick Purchases Onan Games

Halfbrick Studios, the Australian based award winning game developer behind Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride has announced that they’ve purchased Onan Games, a company based in Venice and behind Mandreel. Mandreel is a technology that allows games to support iOS, Android, Flash and HTML 5 from on C++ code base.

Mandreel will help Halfbrick create cross platform game titles quicker and in one development. Halfbrick CEO Shainiel Deo said: “Onan has created something that is incredibly powerful in such a fast-paced industry. It’s our goal to maximize reach and bring our games to new fans, and we welcome Onan into the Halfbrick family know that they will help us achieve exactly that.

Mandreel will be instrumental in the future development of Halfbrick games, however they will use the technology to immediately bring Fruit Ninja and Jetpack to Facebook.

Halfbrick has plans to license the Mandreel technology to their extended client base in the near future.

“We want to see our technology used by the best and most creative developers, and Halfbrick is undoubtedly one of the top studios in the world,” said Miguel Pastor, Onan Games CEO. “We can’t wait to see what awesome new ideas and projects will arise in the coming months.”

We Go One On One With Apsalar To Find Out How They Are Changing Mobile Gaming Forever

We were able to sit down with Apsalar, a Mobile Engagement Management company, as well as walk through the company’s offices. Right off the back when walking in, the look is prototypical start-up, with no cubicles, only desks in the open, relaxed, yet get-work-down type of feel. However, unlike most start-up companies, Apsalar has within a year evolved in a way most take longer to do. Originally, the company gave Mobile Game developers the ability to see cohorting stats weekly; they are now providing the same type of information daily to enhance what developers are looking for. When asked, Michael Oiknine stated,

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[Exclusive] Gameloft goes Social with Gameloft Live for Android

First details of Gameloft Live for Android. While in San Francisco for the Crunchies we stopped into meet with Gameloft. What we were able to see and preview is their newest application to be launched on the Android system. Gameloft Live will be their social experience rather than what they currently have in, in-games currently. Think the Sims and XBox Live having a baby.

You’ll be able to login with your Gameloft ID you currently have from playing past games or create a new one if you don’t. At the start you’ll have to set up your avatar in which throughout the Hub you’ll either look like or interact with. Thankfully they have the ability to have a Mohawk on your guy so I wasn’t feeling left out. Everything from how the hair looks, to what color it is can be changed. Your clothing style is also able to change however I didn’t spend enough time in that to let you know more. Your avatar while limited to just being in your Hub for now(We could only guess further Social aspects will be added later on) the main focus will be connecting with fellow friends as well as seeing achievements.

In each Hub you are also able to purchase new items to decorate the area, as well as different interactions that can and will take place. You’ll notice that there are “shiny stars” and for each one, clicking on them does something else. The fireplace does work as well (But doesn’t warm you up for those cold San Francisco days like today) and with clicking on wall reveals a Nova/Mr. And Mrs Smith type cache of weapons. Other stars are there so I won’t fully spoil the fun in finding them all. You can buy other Hubs as well with Gameloft cash you either buy with cash, or earn the ability to unlock things such as adding friends or achievements in games.

The main aspect, I believe, is to make Gameloft games more social and that’s what they do. The “dashboard” in which you see what your friends profile with either the games they’ve played, achievements unlocked, or others is a GIANT step up from what they had before. The interface is beautiful and extremely easy to use. Within a few minutes I no longer felt lost. Without dumbing it down making it intuitive as possible was a welcome sign.

The only other Social Hub for gaming I can think of, Open Feint causes me to want to violently vomit because of it’s visual design, Gameloft’s Social Hub is welcoming. Gameloft throws in the best of Sims and XBox Live in one and does it beautifully. While it never caused the Galaxy S II to stutter, I wondered how a lesser device might handle the game, I was assured the experience on any device. When pushed about if there was a specific tablet version coming out, while being told no at first, I was quickly told that unlike other applications viewing on a tablet is just as enjoyable if not more due to its increase in screen size since they don’t just down the size and call it a day.

Gameloft Live will also allow you to chat with friends who are in the application as well. High Scores are also a key area in which Gameloft has gone after, with the ability to break down world-wide or by country. Always nice to say you have more points than friends never hurts when you see them again or take a screen shot to email them. Tomorrow they will be doing a soft-launch and followed by a major push on Monday. Gameloft takes aim at bringing all your Gameloft Social needs and wants into one. While with any release on Android bugs are to be expected, updates will be happening as this is how the future of mobile gaming plus social could and will come together as one.