Leo Sark

At the recent AppUp event in San Francisco I had a chance to checkout the Intel AppUp store at their booth. Most of you probably have never heard of AppUp, but it was launched in September of 2010 and currently has a selection of over 3,500 apps. That app selection seems almost laughable compared to 134k+ apps on the Android store and 121+ apps on the iTunes store, but Intel seems to be optimistic (not like they have a choice not to) that they will get some traction in 2011.

Currently their Windows store is up in running, and some blockbuster mobile titles such as Angry Birds are available for purchase. In fact AppUp is the only way to play Angry Birds on your PC. Unfortunately there are no numbers available with regards to the size of App Up’s user base, so it is still a high risk choice for developers unless they already have an existing title which they’d like to port over to AppUp, which supports C, C++, .net, Java & Unity. Intel tries to assist developers with porting their games to AppUp by working with their preferred porting providers, as well as offering to cover porting costs for certain developers.

Intel is heavily betting on the rise of touch screen netbooks, laptops and monitors that are being released, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad s10-3t (netbook). The s10-3t is basically a hybrid between a tablet and a laptop. It comes with a rotatable screen that you can flip over and turn into a tablet, then flip back over and open to use its built in keyboard as you would on any normal netbook/laptop. So for those of us who would like a portable touch screen productivity tool, the new wave of netbooks may be the best choice.

Until Intel releases their numbers for AppUp and provides some serious incentives for developers to come on board, I predict that it will be very difficult for them to gain significant traction.

The mobile social gaming network Mobage, the offspring of DeNA and ngmoco, has finally launched in Japan on April 26 on iOS and Android. Mobage has 20 million users from ngmoco and 25 million users from DeNA, bringing its total starting userbase to over 45 million players. Currently Mobage is in talks with major cell phone manufacturers to OEM its app on their devices.

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So you have an idea for a promising Facebook game, or an application? One of the most critical business decisions you will have to make is which development partner you should hire. Here is a list of key elements you’ll need to take in account during your development partner selection process to help you minimize risk and position your application for success;

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Nexon, the Korean gaming giant, has just announced that it’s entering the mobile and social gaming markets by bringing two of its most popular titles onto Facebook and iOS. KartRider Rush will be available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad as well as the Android devices, while Maplestory will be launching on Facebook. Despite what some other blog sites may have reported, KartRider will not be launching on Facebook. Rather KartRider will be a freemium title with single player gameplay and Facebook connect functionality to enable players to compare their scores against their friends.

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Many of us have been wondering how long it would be before more hardcore games appeared on Facebook. At both the Flash Gaming Summit and the Game Developers Conference I had a very interesting conversations with the Unity platform developers who showed me some new games and shared a few stats regarding the Unity 3D engine and its emergence on Facebook.

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Social Times recently attended the “SF Game Developers Workshop: A Post Mortem of Ravenwood Fair” hosted by Yetizen. The featured speakers included John Romero and Brenda Brathwaite, seasoned gaming industry veterans who shared their experiences with regards to the Ravenwood Fair project (facebook.com/RavenwoodFair). Ravenwood Fair has recently surpassed 10 million MAUs (over 1.1 million DAUs) and is one of the best monetizing games on Facebook. Read more

It is no secret that the social gaming companies on Facebook have undergone explosive growth in the past several years. As with any rapidly expanding industry, several market leaders have emerged. How much can we estimate they’re earning?

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