Angry Birds flies (and crashes) past half a billion downloads [Video]

The Angry Birds games are, for all intents and purposes, a cultural phenomenon at this point. And that's chalked up to more than just how many times the games have been downloaded--the things are dang near everywhere. Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka announced at Slush 2011 in Finland that its flagship game series has been downloaded over 500 million times.

And, according to TechCrunch, the game reportedly experienced 100 million of those downloads in the past two weeks alone. As of earlier this month, the game enjoys over 130 million monthly players and over 30 million daily players. To put things into perspective, the equivalent of over half of Zynga's monthly player base across all of its games is playing a single game.

Rovio is doing everything in its power to keep the money-printing franchise relevant. Everything from Angry Birds plush toys to t-shirts and a cookbook have been released. (Let's not forget about the feature film that's slated for 2014.) And to celebrate, Rovio created this nifty video showing off how awesome it is. The red bird literally soars through milestones, one of which being that 200,000 years worth of Angry Birds has been played to date.

No wonder Rovio is eying up a $1 billion initial public offering. However, many wonder whether the franchise can remain relevant as the Finnish developer skyrockets toward its goal of 1 billion Angry Birds players. To ensure everything goes according to plan, Rovio looks to bring the birds into new game genres. Angry Karts, anyone?


[Image Credit: Mohamed Raoof]

Do you think the Angry Birds can go up from here? What type of Angry Birds game would you like to see next?

How FarmVille-maker Zynga is changing the game industry

Some might say Hollywood has had the biggest influence on gaming, and others will argue that the late Steve Jobs is one of the most important figures in gaming. FarmVille-maker Zynga is also wielding a pretty big hammer, though you might be hard pressed to find many game makers who will freely admit to it.

Save for MMO maker Todd Coleman. The KingsIsle creative director, responsible for the kid-friendly MMO Wizard 101, says that Zynga games were a major inspiration for Grub Guardians, an online tower defense game that also serves as a companion game to Wizard 101.

"We're taking a trick from the Zynga playbook," he says. "The trick is that players like to connect to a game's advancement curve, they like to make forward progress from whatever device they have handy."

In this case, players who want to get ahead in Wizard 101, but don't have a computer handy, will be able to do so by playing Grub Guardians. Play a few rounds of the tower defense game in whatever browser you have handy (and later on iOS and Android devices), then score new items and experience for your pet in Wizard.

"Sometimes players take 15 minutes, sometimes two hours, sometimes just 30 seconds to play Wizard. We thought it would be interesting to expose smaller, more digestible entry points to make advancements in the game," Coleman says.

The one way Zynga isn't influencing this MMO developer? Metrics. Zynga is notorious for crunching numbers and then using them to drive the game making process. Coleman maintains that when it comes to making games with more complexity than, say, FarmVille, you can't just rely on data to make decisions. Sometimes, he says, you just have to go with your gut.

Coleman and crew's guts seems to be leading down the right path (Wizard 101 has 13 million unique users a month, according to the Gamasutra article), though it's also hard to argue with Zynga's number crunching ways when a simple game like FarmVille brings in 28 million players a month. In the battle of gut vs. numbers -- numbers win. Or do they?

Quote of the Moment: 'There is no right way to do [social games]'

That's what Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price (pictured) said to GameSpot during an interview. The company has recently created Insomniac Click, its very own social games studio. But forming a social games wing has had deeper effects than simply making executives see green. Social gaming has apparetly permeated how the studio approaches its core game franchises like Resistance and Rachet & Clank on the PS3.

"What we are learning as we get further into social game development is the importance of on-boarding, the importance of social hooks, and reaching the broadest audience possible while delivering a AAA experience," Price told GameSpot. "These are things that we of course considered in console development, but as we are building social games we have to be even more focused on particular aspects of development, and because of that, we are learning a lot that also applies to our console games. And as a result, we are learning lessons that we probably wouldn't have learned if we were purely focused on our console games."

In other words, social games have had a visible effect on how the studio creates and maintains its existing console games. No, you won't come across farms to grow as you fend off the alien invasion, but you might "share" the fun with your friends. Price went on to say that the existence of Insomniac Click has led the studio to consider a bigger focus on community in its games. Then, the Insomniac head gets even more real for a second.

"Well, most of us are trying to figure out exactly where we want to focus in terms of making our mark in social games, because there is so much experimentation happening every day, and there is no right way to do it," Price said. "That's what is exciting about it." (And we seriously doubt Insomniac Games is alone there.)

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

What do you hope or expect will come from Insomniac Click? Do you think social games will have a lasting effect on the games business overall?

Supercell blows up on Facebook with real-time multiplayer Gunshine.net

Many seem to believe that hardcore or traditional gamers are waiting to be captivated on Facebook. Helinski, Finland based social game developer Supercell would be one of them. After five months of open beta testing, the company has formally released Gunshine.net to Facebook, an isometric, real-time multiplayer RPG (role-playing game) for the core gaming crowd.

The game already exists on the website of the same name, but this version is said to combine an open world and real-time combat with social features like hiring friends and team creation to take on daunting bosses. Gunshine.net takes place in a dystopian, sci-fi world where players do battle on an isometric map. Players arrive in a pristine island called Dreamwake, tasked with fighting off infected citizens and later uncover just what's going on here.

Ultimately, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen wants to prove that this type of social game can work successfully on Facebook. "We intend to get ahead of the curve and challenge the big guys," Paananen said in a release. "With Gunshine.net, we wanted to reach a niche group of gamers that enjoy playing a rich, MMO-style game in a sci-fi, dystopian setting, and we wanted to prove that this type of model works on Facebook. Our next step is to widen Supercell's reach by launching games that offer similar styles of rich game play, but with themes that have broader appeal."
Gunshine.net Intro
Gunshine.net currently hosts 160,000 monthly players and 20,000 daily players, according to AppData. The game certainly looks impressive, with full 3D visuals, and a heavy focus on plot before getting to the multiplayer aspects. We've yet to see traditional-style games do well on Facebook aside from the few strategy game makers, but perhaps blowing up a few zombies in an RPG is just what the doctor ordered.

Click here to play Gunshine.net on Facebook Now >

Are you excited to jump into a new Facebook RPG?

Shrek would fit right in with CastleVille's characters [Video]

Zynga sure knows how to hold onto a good thing when it has one. The company has released the teaser trailer for CastleVille, the next game in its famed 'Ville franchise. And this might be the most well-produced Zynga game trailer to date. It's on the short side at just a mere 48 seconds, but touts some 3D animation that, while not on a Dreamworks level, certainly looks the part.

In fact, we were almost expecting an ogre-like creature to appear on-screen at some point. Of course, that doesn't happen. But what we do get to see is a few of the characters that we'll meet in CastleVille like Tom the Cupcake Dragonslayer, Rafael the Playboy and Yvette the Fair Maiden. The gameplay in CastleVille, based on what's shown in the trailer, has players build their kingdoms from scratch and embark on "an epic quest for true happiness." (Whatever that means.)

CastleVille was revealed at the recent Zynga Unleashed press event, and boasts a soundtrack recorded by a full orchestra, a first for a Zynga game ... and likely any social game, for that matter. Before the game hits, you can "Like" its Facebook page to have a say in how much the company donates to Direct Relief, Save the Children and Water.org. Of course, there are some unlockable in-game goodies for you, too. The next 'Ville is almost here, but can it top the last?


Are excited to dive into the next big 'Ville game from Zynga? Do you think CastleVille can do better than even CityVille?