http://www.gamasutra.com/topic/social-online Gamasutra Social/Online News en Copyright 2006, Gamasutra.com Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:40:02 -0500 Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:40:02 -0500 editors@gamasutra.com editors@gamasutra.com Game Industry News http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162363/Ask_Gamasutra_The_video_games_and_narrative_debate.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/162363/twiilight.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>Ask Gamasutra is a new monthly column that takes hot issues in the video game industry, and poses them as a question to the editorial staff. In contributing to this article, none of the editors read each other's responses. This is not about collaboration, but about the unique perspective that each individual Gamasutra editor offers. For this inaugural edition, we turned to recent comments from Twisted Metal designer David Jaffe, as stated in a recent ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162363/ Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162718/Facebooks_honeymoon_with_social_gaming_is_over_report_claims.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/162718/FB.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>After several years of incredible growth, Facebook's gaming market could be slowing down, according to a new study from analyst firm IHS. The report studied recent trends on the major social network, and found that the number of users playing games has stagnated over the last several months, and that increased competition has made it much more difficult for developers to attract and engage new users. Looking specifically at the platform's growth, IHS found that ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162718/ Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162674/Outplay_looks_to_create_Scottish_jobs_with_wellworn_genres.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/162674/doug hare.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>Outplay Entertainment was founded by brothers Doug and Richard Hare, both of whom have been driving forces in the Scottish video games space for a good while. The duo originally founded independent development studio The Collective in 1997, before merging with BackBone Entertainment in 2005 to form Foundation 9 Entertainment. Most recently, they revealed that the Scottish Government has granted Outplay &#163;2.25 million ($3.56 million) in funding, allowing them to create 150 jobs in the ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162674/ Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129764/Viximo_assists_game_distribution_for_the_avatarbased_Gaia_Online.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40431/gaia.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>Viximo, the distribution company that helps developers bring their games to new social platforms, has signed a deal with major social networking company Gaia Interactive to expand Gaia's game catalog and bring its internally-developed titles to other sites. In particular, Viximo will help Gaia bring its popular social game Monster Galaxy to the numerous other social sites in its network. In addition, Viximo will add a number of other popular social games to the avatar-based ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129764/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162456/Americas_missing_link_Corefocused_freetoplay.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40479/whale.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>If nothing else, the revenue figures unveiled when Zynga went public have proven that the microtransaction-based "free-to-play" business model for video games was not limited to places like China and Korea. Even America, the land of the video game console, has been catching on: according to upcoming research by DFC Intelligence previewed at Ayzenberg Group's [a]list summit in San Francisco on Thursday (and with subsequent data revealed exclusively to Gamasutra), North American gamers spent $1.1 ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162456/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162376/Mobile_social_developer_Z2Live_buys_Big_Sandwich.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40470/bsg.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>Seattle-based mobile social game company Z2Live (Trade Nations) has acquired Hoard developer Big Sandwich Games, an independent outsourcing and development studio based in Vancouver. Terms for the deal were not disclosed. "The acquisition represents a key part of our long-term strategy to build, operate, and scale genre-defining games," says Z2Live COO Lou Fasulo. The company has given all of its new members from Big Sandwich's team stock in Z2Live. The Big Sandwich purchase adds the ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162376/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162362/Indie_Royale_launches_firstever_Alpha_Collection_.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40455/alpha-collection.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>The Indie Royale game bundle site has debuted its first-ever Alpha Collection, with buyers being able to play and help fund to completion three in-development titles, including the vaunted Dwarf Fortress-esque PC, Mac and Linux title Towns. This now-available bundle was hand-picked to include three games with immediately fun, playable 'alpha' versions and current or imminent PC, Mac and Linux versions. Each of the developers has committed to providing updates regularly to all Indie Royale ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162362/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162364/Warren_Spector_We_have_a_chance_to_preserve_our_video_game_history.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40457/spector.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>As part of a new Gamasutra feature, Warren Spector, the designer behind Deus Ex and Epic Mickey, explains why it's crucial that the rapidly disappearing history of games is saved for future generations. "It's important for all publishers and developers (and even some gamers) to preserve our history for future generations," Spector said, in response to Gamasutra contributor John Andersen. "Unlike earlier media, like film and television, which were born at a time when historians ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162364/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162365/DeNA_continues_Chinese_expansion_with_Huawei_agreement.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40459/04_Mobage_section_home.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>Newsbrief: Mobile social company DeNA is continuing its push into the Chinese gaming space with a new agreement that will see its Mobage mobile games platform available via Huawei mobile devices in the country. Although the Android Market is not available in China, Huawei's third-party app store HiSpace is accessible to Chinese Android gamers. As part of this new agreement, DeNA's Mobage games will be made available via HiSpace. There are also plans for future ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/162365/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129785/Facebook_starts_new_European_games_division.php <p><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/40453/FB.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/>With social gaming becoming increasingly more popular worldwide, Facebook has decided to create a European games division to manage its relationships with overseas developers. Speaking to The Guardian UK, Christian Hernandez, director of EMEA business development and partnerships at Facebook, said that European companies like Wooga and King.com have demonstrated that Facebook needs to pay close attention to the games coming from that region. "In the US, we have a team of engineers, product managers ...</p> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129785/ Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500