Video game industry, $100B in revenue by 2017, driven by Mobile Gaming

Mobile gaming could drive entire video game industry to $100B in revenue by 2017 | GamesBeat | Games | by Dean Takahashi: "... Asia is becoming the biggest driver of economic value in mobile and online games, with the best companies’ revenue growth and profit margins becoming the envy of foreign competitors. Merel predicted that Asia and Europe combined could take more than 80 percent of the global revenue share for mobile and online games. Nine of the top 10 game M&A deals of 2013 had Asian buyers, compared to eight out of 10 in 2012. Thirteen out of 15 game initial public offerings from 2011 to 2013 were by Chinese, Japanese, or South Korean companies...."

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Creativity, Eccentricity

Why creative people tend to be eccentric: "In fact, creativity and eccentricity often go hand in hand, and researchers now believe that both traits may be a result of how the brain filters incoming information. Even in the business world, there is a growing appreciation of the link between creative thinking and unconventional behavior, with increased acceptance of the latter."

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Libon Open Chat, HTML5 IM tech

Libon Open Chat takes on WhatsApp with HTML5 IM tech
The new feature in the Libon app lets you IM with contacts, even if they're not Libon users themselves. Source: Libon Open Chat takes on WhatsApp with HTML5 IM tech | CNET TV

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Social casino games

Social casino games the highlight at 2013's Casual Connect conference | GamesBeat | Games | by Dean Takahashi: "Social casino games take the old card games and slot machines and turn them into more social experiences. They are usually free-to-play games, where players can spend real money on virtual coins but can’t cash them out. As such, they are considered entertainment and not gambling. In real-money online gambling, players spend real money and can take home real winnings. Real-money online gambling is seeing a resurgence as regulators seeking tax revenues are beginning to permit it in various jurisdictions around the world. Social casino games are benefiting from that resurgence as well as renewed interest in casino games as social experiences. Eilers Research said today that Caesar’s Interactive Entertainment has now surpassed Zynga as the largest social casino game publisher in the world thanks to the success of its Caesar’s Casino, Bingo Blitz, and Slotomania titles. These have 18 percent of the market, while Zynga’s social casino games have 15 percent, followed by IGT with 14 percent."

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HTML5 Video Element, Interactivity

HTML5 Video Element to Gain Interactivity - Streaming Media Magazine: "... Chuck Hudson: Sure. So the video element is a new element inside HTML5 through the media API library that allows, without any outside plug-ins, to stream video for the users’ viewing inside the browser environment. Along with that it provides various additional features, things like providing different sources so that different browsers can all use the same video experience. Troy Dreier: Well, I know that getting video to play back in a browser has been a goal for a long time, playback in a browser without requiring additional plugins. And you were talking about today making the video element interactive, right?..."

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Hitman canceled on next-gen devices, mobile game in development

Trailer for Hitman: Absolution Original Hitman developer IO Interactive was hit by layoffs last year, canceling several projects to focus exclusively on the stealth franchise. The Danish studio is reportedly working on a separate triple-A Hitman game (source infra)-- Hitman 'canceled on next-gen devices, mobile game in development' - Gaming News - Digital Spy: "According to the LinkedIn profile of senior designer Richard Knight (via Videogamer), the game was formally canceled last year. The canceled Hitman project was tipped to be a reimagining of the series, featuring first and third-person combat, microtransactions and leaderboards. According to network engineer Anthony Pressacco, the studio is now working on mobile and tablet games, including an unannounced Hitman project for iOS and Android devices...."

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Apps, Games, Startup Failure

Chris Poole on his startup failure --

Chris Hates Writing • Today my startup failed: "... Building any business is hard, but building a business with a single app offering and half of your runway is especially hard (we created DrawQuest after the failure of our first product, Canvas). I’ve come away with new found respect for those companies who excel at monetizing mobile applications. As we approached the end of our runway, it became clear to us that DrawQuest didn’t represent a venture-backed opportunity, and even with more time that was unlikely to change. DrawQuest got some traction, but found that selling paint brushes in a drawing app is a lot harder than selling extra lives in Candy Crush. There’s just not the same emotional ‘I can’t play if I don’t pay’ urgency. “I definitely have a new appreciation for game designers,” moot tells me." - source: TechCrunch

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Republique, New iPhone game warns of dangers of surveillance state

New iPhone game warns of dangers of surveillance state | Fox News: “Republique,” a Kickstarter project released by small developer Camouflaj is an episodic stealth game in which the player must guide a young girl named Hope to freedom after she is earmarked for destruction by a shadowy, totalitarian state.

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Social Media, Games, 2013 Review

Social Media & Games: 2013 Year in Review | Pillsbury Social Media, Entertainment & Technology Team - JDSupra

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Android Developers, Increasing Market Share

Move over Apple iOS --

Android Developer Interest Is Catching Up To Its Market Share – ReadWrite: "... today's developers simply can't ignore Android's and outsized and rapidly growing installed base. Practical wisdom would say that the tide of developer interest in Android has to shift eventually, just because it is so massive and global. New survey data from Vision Mobile and Evans Data shows that the shift developer interest may indeed be starting to gravitate to Android while still remaining strong iOS...." (read more at link above)

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CrossFire Game Made $1 Billion Last Year

An Online Game You've Never Heard Of Made $1 Billion Last Year - Business Insider: "CrossFire, a South Korean first person shooter by SmileGate, took in nearly $1 billion in revenue last year, making it the most lucrative free-to-play game online, according to Super Data Research....League of Legends comes in second on the list with $624 million earned in 2013. World of Tanks, World of Warcraft, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike Online round out the top 10 with each earning well over $100 million during the last year."

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App Revenue Rises in Asia, Driven By Google Play

Many Western game makers were initially skeptical about breaking into China’s app marketplace because of piracy and the difficulty of monetizing games. But Wandoujia’s data showed that mobile gamers are now more willing to spend money on in-app purchases. From April to November 2013, the average revenue per paying user for massively multi-player online games grew a massive 400%, beating growth in Japan (282% year-over-year) and Korea (342% year-over-year). (source App Revenue In Asia Grew A Massive 162% In 2013, Driven By Google Play | TechCrunch)

• For China, where only 3.5% of devices have Google Play installed, Distimo partnered with Wandoujia, one of the largest alternative Android app stores in the country, to get data from more than 300 million users...According to Wandoujia, games by foreign developers “have a big opportunity to reach millions of gamers in China,” as evidenced by the popularity of titles like Temple Run 2, Subway Surfers, Angry Birds, and Fruit Ninja, all of which were among the top seven titles in the country last year;

• Local developers still dominate non-game apps;

• China’s domestic market is so large that it can support an entirely independent ecosystem;

• The 3.5% of Chinese users who do have Google Play on their phones are a relatively international demographic. Just 65% of the apps they purchased were made by local developers, compared to 87% for Wandoujia’s users;

• Android users have a hungry appetite for in-game purchases, bucking the old myth that Chinese users won’t spend money for services. (source supra)

For more data, see the full report.

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Alibaba mobile games, Taobao shopping app, Laiwang chat app

Games, games, games . . .

China’s Alibaba launches mobile games on its Taobao shopping app and Laiwang chat app - The Next Web: " . . . Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has launched today its first batch of games on its Taobao Mobile marketplace app, as well as its messaging service Laiwang. Android users can now visit ‘Game Center’ on the updated Taobao Mobile app to download the single game available there or ‘Come Play’ on Laiwang to download another two games that have been rolled out by Alibaba. The updates for the iOS apps are still pending, but will likely be live in the near future. . . ."

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