Aeria Interview: Embracing Mobile Games

NOV. 8, 2012 • Aeria Interview: There is a flood of free-to-play publishers making bold moves to carve out territory on mobile platforms. While it cannot be contested that many consumers are now completely enamored with their smartphones and tablets, there are mounting questions about how many games these consumers will actually pay for on their mobile devices, and whether there is too much content vying for far too little prospective purchasers. .....

Zynga Cuts Back

OCT. 24, 2012 • Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus distributed an internal memo throughout the company announcing strategic cuts ahead of reporting third-quarter financial results. The measures undertaken include sunsetting 13 older games that were significantly reducin.....

League of Legends MAU Reaches 32 Million

OCT. 12, 2012 • League of Legends has become the poster child for successful free-to-play games. According to Riot Games, the League of Legends MAU has reached 32 million active users a month, based on a total of 70 million registered accounts. Further, the game is attracting 12 million players a day, with an average of 3 million people competing against each other concurrently any hour of the day, with 1 billion-plus game hours played each month worldwide. Leag.....

InnoGames’ Worldwide Strategy

SEPT. 26, 2012 • Europe is a strong market for the kind of enthusiast gamer-friendly online games that are starting to catch on via social networks.  The recent DFC report The Market for Browser and Social Network Games discusses how these games have done better in Europe than the U.S.  DFC Intelligence forecasts that the market for these games in Europe will reach $2.6 billion in 2016. There also is a higher proportion of core-themed strategy titles available.....

[a]list Summit: Did theSocial Bubble Just Burst?

SEPT. 05, 2012 • At the [a]list summit in February, keynote speaker Michael Pachter took exception with an observation by DFC Intelligence president and principal analyst David Cole. Cole’s statement that there is a “bubble” in social games, which was used in the summit’s opening address, presented by your co-author of this piece Steve Fowler. “I think David Cole said something that’s wrong,” Pachter, researc.....

OnLive’s Radical Restructuring

AUG. 20, 2012 • Cloud gaming service OnLive Inc. invoked a little known California process similar to bankruptcy called Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) on the 17th.  ABC is used by companies to sell their assets more swiftly than in a typical bankruptcy in order to pay creditors more promptly. In OnLive’s case, all assets were sold for an undisclosed amount to Gary Lauder who runs technology investment fund Lauder Partners. In the process al.....

Technology Supports Digital Resale

AUG. 13, 2012 • Back on July 3rd the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled in UsedSoft GmbH v Oracle International Corp. that software distributed by digital download could indeed be resold to a third party. “Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy – tangible or intangible – and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a license agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlim.....

Korean Game Publishers Post Financial Results

Aug. 9, 2012 • Financial results are in for several Korean game publishers.  Nexon Co., Ltd. saw its total revenue increase 12% to ¥22,876 million ($291 million) during the second quarter ending June 30. The bright spot was results from China, which saw an increase in revenue of 38% to ¥10,737 million ($136.7 million). Revenue in Korea and North America remained unchanged compared to the same period last year at ¥6,251 million ($79.6 million) and ¥1,515 mil.....

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