Games Gateway

Venture Capital Increasingly Invests in the Video Game Industry

2008-07-30T09:59:41-07:00

I've noticed in the past several months a significant uptick in the quantity and value of VC deals in the video game space. I thought it might be interesting to all of you to have some of this deal information in one place, so I will start aggregating it here on this blog. And in case you are wondering, yes, investors are also making equity deals for companies developing games with meaningful messages, for education, information and advocacy. Government and foundation funding are not the only resources.

Here are two new deals noted in Digital Media Wire:

Game Developer Start-up Heatwave Lands $7.5 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 29, 2008 - 6:30am.

Austin, Texas - Heatwave Interactive, an independent game developer start-up focused on titles that crossover to film and television, announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $7.5 million first round of financing from Syncom Venture Partners.

Austin-based Heatwave was co-founded by former Electronic Arts and Sony Online executive Anthony Castoro, and entrepreneur Donn Clendenon. "We internally fund the development of new concepts and screen them through an exhaustive evaluation process," said Heatwave CEO Donn Clendenon. "Once a concept makes it through this process, Heatwave raises development funds, partners with talented developers and leverages strategic relationships to bring our products to market." The company said the funding will go towards its Central Studio, which will develop new and licensed video game properties for exploitation across multiple media channels.

Asian Online Game Community Garena Secures $2 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 29, 2008 - 11:11am.

Singapore - Garena, a Singapore-based company that hosts online game tournaments, has raised $2 million in angel funding from investors including Skype co-founder Tovio Annus and the government of Singapore, Alarm Clock reported.

Garena counts over 5.5 million registered users for its advertising-supported service, which supports LAN games, casual games, and various leagues and tournaments. The company also has a deal with MTV Asia that lets its users watch MTV programs, music videos and animation content on an integrated player.

Visionary, Educator, Dreamer, Randy Pausch Passes Away

2008-07-28T10:24:37-07:00

Randy Pausch of the Carnegie Mellon University Center for Entertainment Technology passed away yesterday from pancreatic cancer.

As co-founder of CET, Randy, in his down to earth, direct, easy way, created a mecca for innovative thinking in interactive media. With the vision of tech development as it was going to be, Randy knew that teaching the next generation of creative minds the latest in tools, what makes good storytelling, the process of good product design would benefit the interactive and gaming community, the University, and the US.

He touched hearts and minds when he spoke of his battle with cancer not as a focus on his health, but turning it into a focus on his dreams and what it takes to achieve dreams. He did a Last Lecture and wrote "The Last Lecture,' which became a NY Times bestseller.

Goodbye, Randy. We miss you.

New Massive Multiplayer Online Gamer Magazine

2008-07-23T14:54:54-07:00

by Limor Schafman

Massive Gamer, a new MMOG and virtual world magazine is hitting the street. Focusing on all things massive, this print magazine is launching its first issue with an 88 page zine highlighting "Funcom’s popular Age of Conan MMOG on the cover, and features articles delving into Cryptic Studio’s Champions Online, Turbine Inc’s. Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria expansion, EA/Mythic’s Warhammer update, and much more."

A full news website and enewsletter are to follow, but not up yet, which is interesting given the fact that they are focusing on virtual space. Print 1 yr. subscription is $24.99 and up from there.

Casual Games Meetup Redux

2008-05-04T21:25:31-07:00

by Limor Schafman

The Games Gateway DC meetup on Casual Games on April 30th provided an interesting cornucopia of information. Brian Judy, President of Red Aphid and flash games instructor at American University lead the talk.

You can find the talk outline and hyperlinks at the special Red Aphid page, and I will include some of the highlights and additional links here:

- the Casual Games Association is a valuable resource of news and factoids regarding casual games
- Wikipedia has a very informative history of casual games
- Addicting Games is a capture sight for a variety of casual games, also Real Arcade, Great Day Games which produces Mini Cap games, and Miniclip
- Games Tap offers free games, news, and different ways to connect with other players, also Pop Cap
- Most casual games are made in flash [see Newgrounds a flash game portal] and are PC games, and mobile continues to grow as a cg platform [see EA Mobile]
- iPhone SDK is open to game developers and apparently Apple offers a reasonable profit sharing with developers to incentivize development [unconfirmed 70/30 split for the developer]
Social networking groups such as Facebook are realieasing SDKs for game development
- Advergaming - the combination of games used to extend brand recognition,interaction and loyalty is growing as a format as well. Burger King's games portal and the games themselves proved of interest. Here is the number two burger retailer in the US and it decides to use games to attract and gain traction with teen youth. The site looks good, but I'm not sure if anyone is playing any longer [check out those leader boards]. As an additional side note, In-game-advertising, which includes all forms of advertising and games is estimated to reach $2B by 2011, with advergaming reaching $344M by that year. [See emarketer.com]

Discussing what makes casual games so attractive and addictive both to players and to developers, the Meetup came up with these attributes:
- ease of design and development
- satisfies the need for competition
- non-thinking
- simple to learn
- hard to master
- need some level of skill, which also develops over time
- player can't predict the outcome
- quick in/out of game play; player doesn't need to dedicate a lot of time to attain a 'win-point'

Casual games are becoming deeper in games play. Some MMOs are now being done in flash. The line between casual games, MMOGs, augmented reality, and other elements of real and virtual worlds are starting to blend, and this will continue into the future. Some at the Meetup are waiting for the day that the holodeck becomes a reality. Fully immersive game play and virtual reality have long been a games desire...which is why I decided to work in the theme park business long ago. Now all these worlds are converging. How cool is that! Hope to see you at the next Games Gateway meetup.

MTVu Launches New Serious Game

2008-04-30T19:05:53-07:00

MTVu, known for its funding support of the award winning serious game, Darfur is Dying, has once again taken one of the most difficult topics in our society and dealt with it head on - youth AIDS.

Here is the full press release:

mtvU & KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION LAUNCH POSorNOT.com TO CHALLENGE STIGMA, FIGHT SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS

Wyclef Jean, Fall Out Boy, Will.i.am, Alyssa Milano, Say Anything, Perez Hilton, Angels & Airwaves, Atmosphere and Many More Helping Fuel Game’s Viral Spread

Developed in Partnership With POZ Magazine, “Pos or Not” Confronts Stereotypes Through Personal Stories of Americans Living With and Without HIV/AIDS

New York, NY – April 30, 2008 – mtvU, MTV’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning college network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation, in partnership with POZ Magazine, today unveiled "Pos or Not" (www.PosorNot.com): an online game that challenges stereotypes and breaks down the barriers that may prevent people from talking openly about HIV/AIDS, getting tested, and using protection. People from across the U.S.– half of whom are living with HIV and half who are not – share parts of their lives for “Pos or Not” by divulging their HIV status to help dispel myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Players confront their own HIV stereotypes as they guess whether a profiled participant is positive or negative based only on a photo and a few personal details, such as what they do on the weekends or their favorite kind of music.

Among the participants who are positive, we’re provided a window on the circumstances in which they learn their HIV status – including after the birth of a child, calls from ex-lovers, and long-postponed HIV tests. HIV negative participants share how the disease has touched their lives, claiming boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers and best friends. Every individual stresses that HIV affects everyone and that the only way to truly know your own or some else’s HIV status is by getting tested.

While “Pos or Not” confronts stereotypes and popular misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, it also provides users with information about HIV prevention, as well as local HIV and STD testing resources from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). In addition, players are invited to join the game to help underscore that there’s no way to tell a person’s HIV status from how they look or what they do.

Several of the most requested acts on college campuses and major pop culture figures are also lending their efforts to help stoke the online viral spread of “Pos or Not,” including Wyclef Jean, Fall Out Boy, Will.i.am, Alyssa Milano, Say Anything, Perez Hilton, Angels & Airwaves, Atmosphere, The Spill Canvas, 30 Seconds to Mars, Aesop Rock, Motion City Soundtrack, All Time Low and Rise Against. Beginning today, these and many others are sending the game to their fans, families and friends, via a feature that allows users to share “Pos or Not” with everybody in their e-mail address books with only a couple clicks.

"‘Pos or Not’ is an urgent analogue to HotorNot.com, designed to capture college students’ attention and harness the viral nature of the Web in the ongoing fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS,'" said Stephen Friedman, GM, mtvU. "‘Pos or Not’ was created to shatter myths, challenge assumptions and promote responsible sexual behavior – and we salute every participant, as well as the team of college students who conceived the game, for breathing life into it."

“‘Pos or Not’ confronts the stigma and stereotypes that fuel the continued spread of this disease some 25 years since the first diagnosis,” said Tina Hoff, vice president and director of Entertainment Media Partnerships at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “‘Pos or Not’ has the powerful effect of allowing young people across the country to learn more about those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and in doing so hopefully form a more personal understanding of the disease.”

"The HIV-positive community has the unique ability to debunk myths and dissolve dangerous stereotypes around HIV/AIDS," said Regan Hofmann, editor-in-chief of POZ magazine. "Having a face-to-face encounter with a person living with the virus can also positively affect the choices people make regarding behaviors that can lead to their contracting HIV. I think that ‘Pos or Not’ is a wonderful way to allow the HIV community to serve as an awareness and prevention tool for those who are – but who do not believe themselves to be – at risk."

“Pos or Not” was inspired by the winners of the “Change the Course of HIV Challenge,” a nationwide competition that asked college students to propose a viral, Web-based game that would creatively engage people to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. The winning concept was submitted by a team from the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy and included designers Brendan McLeod and Matthew Laurence, programmers Chris Camilleri and Gabriel Montagne, and artist Chip Lundell.

College students helped conceive “Pos or Not” and are pioneering the future of digital activism every day, so mtvU, the Kaiser Family Foundation and POZ Magazine are calling on users to imagine ways the game can be even more viral and impactful. Anyone with a vision for how “Pos or Not” can be effectively executed on other platforms (mobile, social networks, etc.), remixed, or in any way serve as an even more powerful call to action on the HIV/AIDS epidemic are encouraged to send ideas to MyIdeas@PosorNot.com. mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation are committing to incorporate the best concepts into future versions of the game – or a completely re-imagined iteration – so it continues to evolve and reach more people.

“Pos or Not” follows on the success of “Darfur is Dying” (www.DarfurisDying.com), mtvU’s student-developed videogame – now played more than 3 million times by over 1.5 million people – designed to spread awareness of and spur action to end the genocide in Darfur. “Darfur is Dying” is a narrative-based simulation where the user, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian, negotiates forces that threaten the survival of his or her refugee camp. The game is a key element of mtvU’s nearly four-year, student-led, Emmy Award-winning Sudan campaign.

Representatives from mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation will be presenting “Pos or Not” at the fourth annual Games for Health Conference, taking place May 8 – 9 in Baltimore, Maryland. To learn more about the conference, please visit http://www.gamesforhealth.org.

About The Kaiser Family Foundation: The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis on health care issues to policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public. The foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries. Information on HIV/AIDS is available at www.kff.org, and a daily news summary report on developments in HIV/AIDS is available on www.kaisernetwork.org, the Foundation’s free health information service.

About mtvU: Broadcast to more than 750 college campuses and via top cable distributors in 700 college communities nationwide, mtvU reaches upwards of 9 million U.S. college students – making it the largest, most comprehensive television network just for college students. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, mtvU can be seen in the dining areas, fitness centers, student lounges and dorm rooms of campuses throughout the U.S, as well as on cable systems from Charter Communications, Verizon FiOS TV, Suddenlink Communications, AT&T u-Verse and nearly 70 others. mtvU is dedicated to every aspect of college life, reaching students everywhere they are: on-air, online and on campus. mtvU programs music videos from emerging artists that can’t be seen anywhere else, news, student life features and initiatives that give college students the tools to advance positive social change. mtvU is always on campus, with more than 500 events per year, including exclusive concerts, giveaways, shooting mtvU series and more. For more information about mtvU, and a complete programming schedule, visit www.mtvU.com. mtvU also owns and operates the College Media Network, the largest interactive network of online college newspapers in the US , and RateMyProfessors.com, the Internet’s largest listing of collegiate professor ratings. The College Media Network comprises nearly 600 campus publications that serve institutions including Brown University, the University of Illinois, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and Duke University , with a combined enrollment of over 5.5 million students, reaching an average of 5 million unique users each month. RateMyProfessors.com reaches approximately 2.9 million college students each month, via the site’s more than 6.6 million student-generated ratings of over 1,000,000 college professors.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 150 channels worldwide, owns and operates the following television programming services - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN/THE N, VH1 CLASSIC, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, all of these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than 300 interactive properties worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless and interactive television services and also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.

About Poz: POZ is the premier lifestyle, treatment and advocacy magazine for people living with--and those affected by--HIV and AIDS. The award-winning magazine and website (poz.com) provide the most complete and expert HIV/AIDS information available in the United States. Together, the magazine and website reach more than 70 percent of all of those living with HIV/AIDS who are aware of their status. The website provides extensive opportunity for both public and private social networking and represents one of the largest communities of openly HIV-positive people in the world. For more information, please visit poz.com.

Games for Health & Games for Change Conferences

2008-04-26T11:05:03-07:00

Games for Health is holding its conference in Baltimore from May 8-9, 2008. The agenda covers everything from games for doctor training, to casual games for explaining health issues to those who are ill.

Games for Change will also be holding its conference soon, June 2-4, 2008, at Parsons, New School of Design in NYC. Full details can be found here.

From Fierce Mobile Content: Oberon Media re-brands as I-play

2008-04-26T10:56:11-07:00

Multi-platform casual games firm Oberon Media--which acquired mobile game publisher I-play in May 2007--announced it will now operate under the I-play brand, stating the new identity "communicates the scope of the company's newly integrated publishing division." According to Oberon/I-play, which also snapped up interactive TV entertainment developer PixelPlay last summer, the brand consolidation affords developers, licensors and content partners access to a single publishing entity positioned to deliver casual games to the online, mobile and television screens. In conjunction with the name change, I-play will launch a new consumer website showcasing its casual games and related mobile content--the site is now live in the U.S., with a European counterpart scheduled to follow.

Related articles:
I-play lands Deal or No Deal license for U.S.
I-play: 79% of gamers satisfied with mobile
I-play gambles on mobile gaming sweepstakes

From Digital Media Wire: Play Hard Gets $5 Million for Casual Online Sports Games

2008-04-26T10:50:32-07:00

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2008 - 7:00am.

Foxboro, Mass. - Play Hard Sports, a developer and publisher of casual online sports games, on Wednesday announced its launch and a $5 million first round of financing, led by New Enterprise Associates.

"Our online games will free players from the couch, allowing them play nearly whenever and wherever they want," said Play Hard founder and CEO Jeffrey Anderson.

Foxboro, Mass.-based Play Hard said it will, among other things, look to fill the void left after Electronic Arts' decision to discontinue its "Madden NFL" franchise for the PC.

http://www.playhard.net

Making Media Matter Conference on Feb 7 Eve Features Games For Change

2008-02-04T12:23:35-08:00

American University's Center for Social Media's annual Making Your Media Matter conference kicks off on Thursday, February 7 at 5:30 pm in the Katzen Arts Center at American University. The opening panel on Thursday is on games for social change, and features games like World Without Oil, A Force More Powerful, PeaceMaker and ICED! This panel, moderated by Suzanne Seggerman, co-founder of Games for Change, promises an overview of the emerging gaming field and the opportunities available to filmmakers, non-profits and other activists interested in using new media to address social issues, and will give us all a first-hand look at some of the best new social issue games. After the gaming panel, please join us for reception from 7 - 9, co-sponsored by our friends at See3 Communications.

Friday starts at 9am with the Plight Entertainment panel, and there are panels on media that crosses cultural boundaries, what's new in online platforms and distribution, and what promises to be a phenomenal keynote address by Byron Hurt and Sonya Childress of Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. You can view the full agenda here.

NASA Wants to Play Games

2008-02-04T07:43:15-08:00

NASA has issued an RFI for the development of an MMOG that will both be used as a collaborative work space and as a STEM educational tool. This may be a bit much to bite off given the completely different contexts, styles, depth, and information in which each group of gamers will want to participate. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see the government paying attention to this very affective collaboration and marketing tool called gaming. The RFP is anticipated to release in March 2008. RFI submissions of interest must be sent in by February 15th.