Posts Tagged ‘MMORPG’

Imagine being whisked away to a land of talking pink squirrels, bouncy ivory trees, and an iconic little white cat in trouble. Well that’s exactly what you’ll encounter in Sanrio Digital’s Hello Kitty Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) featuring Hello Kitty and all of her fluffy, friendly pals. Players can create a human avatar and explore Hello Kitty’s world, saving her from Dream Land and restoring peace to Sanrio Harbor and beyond. We got our hands on the Premium Edition of the game, and our review, along with some thoughts from the VP of publishing and business development on the near universal appeal of the little white cat with the red bow, is below the jump.
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Social gaming has some 250 million+ players on Facebook alone, its top companies have valuations in the billions, it attracts heavy investment from major corporations like EA, Disney, and Google, but here’s something social gaming doesn’t really have: Its own Wikipedia entry. As of this writing, Wikipedia’s Social Games entry is a placeholder, while the “Social casual games” entry is less than 100 words long, and even more shocking, comes with an editor’s note, “This article may not meet [Wikipedia's] general notability guideline.” Seriously! By contrast, even though they’re niche genres relative to social gaming, Wikipedia’s MMORPG entry is almost 4000 words, while the entry on first-person shooters is over 3000. So what’s the deal? I put the question to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, for his take:
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Microsoft has done a massive overhaul on its popular search engine Bing today with the notable addition of Bing Entertainment which will provide an avenue for users to discover and search for media and games. By integrating easy to access casual games and other media, Microsoft hopes for searchers to stick around longer. Microsoft has been active in proliferating Bing’s features, recently adding the ability to search Facebook fan page content and popular Facebook feed as well as incorporating Twitter.

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We recently wrote about social gaming companies receiving funding, highlighting SGN’s success in securing $2m in funding from Tomorrow Ventures and Zynga supposedly raising $147m from Japan’s SoftBank amidst a competitive market. As the dust settles, another significant player announcing a round of funding is Playdom who just raised a $44m round from Bessemer, New World and Steamboat Ventures. Playdom has been quite active in the areas of acquisition, ramping up its efforts to position itself as one of the top social game publishers around.

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We here at Social Times watch social games on a daily basis, and in light of the social gaming phenomena and some of the recent analyses of the subject, we are proud to introduce our 6 part series regarding the evolution of the gaming industry from version 1.0 to 2.0. We’ll be discussing how the rise of digital games on new platforms have disrupted the old video game industry paradigms and enabled new audiences who might never have embraced gaming to participate with their own set of behaviors. We’ll also take a look at the fundamental aspects of Gaming 1.0′s evolution to 2.0 in light of Tim Chang’s ‘Emerging Business Models’ session at Casual Connect 2009. Our desire is to help social gaming entrepreneurs and investors navigate through these waters. Read on for part 1, where we introduce the decline of Gaming 1.0 business models and introduce Gaming 2.0.

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This week has been shockingly fun for the visitors of E3 – from the advent of Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 to the Playstation®Move system that uses a wii-like controller – there’s not been a shortage of announcements that will be renovating the current entertainment landscape. Amidst the flurry of announcements is a deal between Yoostar Entertainment Group and CBS that will feature select CBS TV titles in the upcoming launch of Yoostar2, a social karaoke-based video game. Read more after the jump.

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Social gaming has a unique appeal that’s taken the traditional industry by storm. One can now go on slideshare.net and find an influx of presentations on what features social games should include, but there’s not much availability of literature, asides from works from Nicole Lazarro, that invigorates the intellectual mind about the appeal of social gaming to average consumers in a comprehensive manner. A new white paper released by Clubv3 details the emotional experience players look for in a social game. The advice for developers is to provide: recognition, low perceived effort, reduced barriers to play, and a sense of community.

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Social Gaming Titans Zynga and DeNA are suiting up for a battle of epic proportions. Zynga’s aggressive plans for eastward expansion seem to be solidified by an infusion of $147m from Japan’s SoftBank. Despite Zynga’s potent warchest, Japan’s DeNA already has a strong foundation on mobile and PC Platforms. DeNA is also turning up the heat by announcing a $27.5M investment in a social gaming fund called Incubate Fund No.1 Limited Partnership of which it will own 83.3 percent. Read more after the jump.

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Acquiring investment isn’t a simple task – as many indie game developers have come to know. Despite jaw-dropping requirements some VC’s may pose, there are players in the social gaming space making headway, the latest of which is Sneaky Games. The Austin-based social gaming company announced raising a ‘six-figure’ investment from angels and Liahona Ventures. Sneaky Games launched their first game called Fantasy Kingdoms on Facebook in April and currently has 294,000 MAUs. Read more after the jump.

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Mobile and social games developer Digital Chocolate just announced a multi-million dollar revolving line of credit from Bridge Capital Holding, a subsidiary of a Silicon Valley-based full-service business bank. Digital Chocolate’s expansion into the social and mobile gaming scene seems to be paying off as they actively update their Nanoverse series on Facebook as well as their recently launched city builder Millionaire City that currently has 350K MAUs. Read more after the jump.

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