EA sinks its teeth into Trade Nations developer Bight Games

Sometimes they're just way too easy to pass up. EA, veteran games publisher and now proud owner of PopCap Games, has purchased Charlottetown, Canada-based mobile game developer Bight Games for an undisclosed amount. (And just when you thought EA had little money left to throw around.)

Bight Games is best known for freemium iPhone games, or mobile games that take on the Facebook games payment model, like Trade Nations. In fact, the developer recently brought it's popular iPhone game published by Z2Live, Trade Nations, to Facebook.

Bight Games will join the existing EA Interactive (EAi) development division in Canada, though according to a blog post written by EAi lead Barry Cottle, EAi and Bight Games already go way back. The team has helped in the creation of several unnamed EAi mobile games, so I guess we can think of this as the two simply tying the knot after dating for so long--so cute!

"The freemium game model in mobile is here to stay, and it's growing fast," Cottle writes. And the guy has a point. Just look at games like Smurfs Village for iPhone by Capcom, which we all know probably did a little too well. But that's just one of likely hundreds of successful freemium games on smartphones. And EAi looks to dig deeper into that gold mine once the deal closes later this month.

Father's Day iOS Game Sale: Scratch dad's gaming itch on the go

Madden NFL 11 iOS
Alright, just admit it: Father's Day is less than two days away, and you still didn't get him something. (I got mine a grill ... shh!) Don't worry, we've got you covered--well, EA, Gameloft and Firemint do at least. We're just the messengers. All three iOS game creators have started Father's Day sales for tons of great games to give your pop on the cheap. With game's like Madden NFL 11, Real Racing and Real Soccer 2011 for just $.99, your dad is gonna' love these mobile gaming gifts. Here are the games you can find on sale in the Apple App Store (each link will direct you to the game's App Store page):

EA (Electronic Arts):

    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – $.99
    Command & Conquer: Red Alert – $.99
    Command & Conquer: Red Alert HD – $1.99
    Dead Space – $2.99
    Dead Space HD – $4.99
    Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp – $.99
    FIFA 11 – $.99
    FIFA 11 HD – $4.99
    Fight Night Champion – $.99
    Madden NFL 11 – $.99
    Madden NFL 11 HD – $.99
    Monopoly – $.99
    NBA Jam – $.99
    NBA Jam HD – $4.99
    Need For Speed Hot Pursuit – $.99
    Need For Speed Hot Pursuit HD – $4.99
    Need For Speed Undercover – $.99
    Need For Speed Shift -$.99
    Need For Speed Shift HD – $4.99
    Reckless Racing – $.99
    Reckless Racing HD – $.99
    RISK – $.99
    RISK HD – $1.99
    Sim City Deluxe – $.99
    Sim City Deluxe HD – $.99
    Tetris – $.99
    Tetris HD – $1.99
    Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 HD – $2.99


Real Soccer 2011
Gameloft:

    Eternal Legacy – $.99
    Eternal Legacy HD – $.99
    Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game – $.99
    Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game: HD – $.99
    Fishing Kings – $.99
    Gangstar: Miami Vindication – $.99
    Gangstar: Miami Vindication HD – $.99
    NFL 2011 – $.99
    NFL 2011 HD – $.99
    Order & Chaos Online – $.99
    Real Soccer 2011 – $.99
    Real Soccer 2011 HD – $.99
    Spider-Man: Total Mayhem – $.99
    Spider-Man – Total Mayhem HD – $.99

Real Racing 2
Firemint:

    Real Racing -- $.99
    Real Racing HD -- $1.99
    Real Racing 2 -- $4.99
    Real Racing 2 HD -- $6.99


It's safe to assume that each of those games with the letters "HD" at the foot of its title are for iPad only. And while EA and Firemint hit it on the nose with games a dad would go gaga for, we're a bit confused by some of Gameloft's choices. Unless your dad is a major nerd (like us), we doubt he'll dig Order & Chaos Online. Though, at least this company is the only one to offer a soccer game, so kudos to them for that. And even if you're no baby's daddy, you're free to treat yourself--just don't forget to get a little something for who truly deserves it: old poppa dukes.

EA's John Riccitiello speaks out on The Sims Social Facebook launch date... or doesn't

In EA's most recent earnings / conference call, CEO John Riccitiello was questioned about the expected popularity of EA's upcoming (and highly anticipated) Facebook game, The Sims Social. While the game's Facebook fan page already has 868,000 Likes, Riccitiello still wouldn't reveal just what percentage of the franchise's user-base are predicted to make the transition to this new social version.

That's not all Riccitiello held back though, as a launch date will likely never be released before the game suddenly appears on the platform. Why? Competitive advertising. As reported by Gamasutra, Riccitiello explained the company's decision, both on the lack of an announced release date, and on withholding any predictions as to traffic:

"We aren't going to put out the stats. They're highly sensitive competitive comparisons, which is one of the reasons we're also not giving you a launch date. It's relatively easy for a competitor to buy all the relevant advertising, say 24, 36, 48 hours prior to a release."

This, says Riccitiello, would greatly impact (and not in a good way) EA's chances of marketing the game itself, as its competitors will have beaten EA to the proverbial punch. Alas, for now, that seems to be all we'll be told about the game's launch date beforehand, but you can be sure that we'll let you know when the Sims Social finally goes live. We can't wait!

Do you have a prediction for when the Sims Social will launch? How many of the franchise's established fans do you think will immediately jump on board with this Facebook version?

Zynga, Playdom, EA and Bioware vets cause a Rumble with new freemium studio

While many a story has come to light recently, detailing high-level game designers jumping ship to Zynga, here's one where a fairly big gun under the big Z's umbrella has left for new pastures. To be specific, John Yoo, lead designer on CityVille, is one of a few industry veterans that have joined with Greg Richardson [pictured], of former BioWare/Pandemic fame, in the creation of a new freemium (free-to-play) game studio by the name of Rumble.

After speaking with Rick Thompson, the founder of another major social games company - Playdom - the two partnered to form Rumble. Rounding out this new package are former EA employees Mark Spenner and David O'Connor. With these big names in their camp, Richardson's goal with Rumble is to create games that are free to play (supported with paid add-ons), but lie somewhere in between the expensive world of high-end PC games and the extremely casual games represented by many Facebook titles.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Richardson has faith that this middle ground holds a lot of merit. "We saw this third hill, and we think it's the biggest of the three hills," he says. This isn't to say, though, that Facebook games are out of the picture, as Richardson confirmed that they will use the social service, but will also focus on mobile devices and PCs through the browser.

In addition to developing its own games, Rumble will publish other developer's titles. While no specific details were announced about any of Rumble's specific games (we can expect the first sometime early next year), Richardson did list many of the company's areas of inspiration, which lie anywhere from Zelda and Super Smash Bros. to Diablo and Civilization. Regardless of the game in question, he says that Rumble looks to avoid overly complex gameplay. With this many areas of inspiration, we're definitely interested in seeing what Rumble comes up with, but for now - the possibilities are endless.

Are you excited in trying out this apparent middle-ground of freemium games that aren't too challenging, but aren't too basic either?

Theme Park on iOS is an expensive, slow-moving experience

Back in August, we learned that EA would be bringing the classic Theme Park franchise to iOS as a freemium (free-to-play) experience. While the game has yet to be released in the US iTunes marketplace, Canadians can get their hands (or fingers, as it were) on the game via their store. We've taken the chance to play the game ourselves, and have found that while the transition to mobile has been a smooth one technically, it's a much more limiting experience than fans of the franchise would have hoped for.

To start, you'll be given a small theme park where the pathways, garbage cans and more have already been placed for you. You'll tap on squares of varying sizes to choose attractions and shops from a list, which vary in size according to the size of square you tapped on. For instance, the smallest squares can house many of your food and drink stalls, along with small rides like the series' famous Bouncy Castle. Items like the Ferris Wheel or Pirate Ship Ride go in "medium" sized boxes, while roller coasters require the largest boxes on the map.

Unfortunately, many of the game's attractions are locked based on your level, with leveling up being a fairly slow process of repeatedly tapping on existing attractions to earn a few experience points every few seconds / minutes / hours. As you play, you'll unlock other large areas in your theme park (complete with their own templates for item placement), with each area being themed according to your choice (a list of options like Knights vs. Cowboys and Pirate are available). However, the process of filling each area in your park is a slow one, due either to the aforementioned level-locked items and the fact that the rest of the "cool" items cost Tickets, or premium currency, to purchase. For instance, a Skull-Train roller coaster costs the equivalent of more than $60 to purchase. That's, again... $60 for a single ride (and it's one of the cheaper ones!). This doesn't appear to be a misprint, as the vast majority of the game's rides cost Tickets and are just as overpriced.

You can complete missions to earn extra experience points, helping you to level up faster, but either way, what we're ultimately left with is a set of rides that you'll likely need to build duplicates of, in multiple sections of your park, just to fill things out, unless you're willing to shell out Tickets to really make things "fun."

While there are some social features available, like the ability to visit your friends' parks, it doesn't look like you can actually do anything while you're there. You can also hire your friends as staff in your park, but, again, this seems to have little purpose in the grand scheme of things (and if you don't have enough staff to fill every role in your administration building, you'll be left to do so with even more Tickets).

Gallery: Theme Park iOS


Unfortunately, Theme Park's transition to the mobile platform is a bit of a disappointing one. While you are given a roller coaster for free after finishing the game's tutorial, the simple fact that so many items cost (lots of) Tickets to purchase puts a really negative feeling on the entire experience. Sure, playing around in Bouncy Castles and Hedge Mazes was fun as a kid, but what if that's all your theme park contained? Would you still want to go there? Perhaps, but only because it was free. That, I'm afraid, is the same deal with this launch version of Theme Park on iOS. As a free-to-play experience, there's a bit of joy to be had here in the short term, but it definitely loses the grandeur of past series installments.

Are you excited to try Theme Park on your iOS device once the game launches in the states? Would you pay as much as $60 or more for a single ride in a game?

The Sims Social maker EA wants you ... to make it lots of ad money

And unfortunately, it doesn't sound like you'll have much of a choice. EA, co-creator of Playfish's The Sims Social on Facebook (and arch nemesis to Zynga at this point), has announced EA Legend.

This is the company's new platform to provide marketers and advertisers with "campaign and audience insights across mobile, social, online and console games reaching over 300 million people worldwide," a release reads.

In other words, you're more valuable to EA than you might already know. The publisher wants to use the information you provide them inadvertently through gameplay to rope in ad and marketing deals not just through its Facebook games but all of its games. More specifically, EA said it can provide advertisers with (prepare for buzzword overload):

    Key cross-platform campaign performance indicators such as impressions, clicks, unduplicated reach, demographic profiles, social media buzz, and ROI metrics.

    Segmented audience insights based on demographic, psychographic, and social data.

    Ability to drill down into the factors that impact campaign effectiveness including audience engagement, audience segmentation and type of creative all measured over time.

EA Legend
What's that again--psychographic data? This may all sound like something out of "1984," but it's nothing new. If you think other game creators don't do this type of stuff, then here's your wake-up call. We won't know exactly what information about us EA will provide to advertisers through Legend until it makes advertisers see green at this year's Advertising Week event in New York City on Oct. 4. And if EA keeps using words like psychographic, we may never know.

[Via All Facebook]

What do you think about this new EA Legend program? Do you think it's something worth worrying about, or is this just business as usual? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment