The Humble Bundle is back on Android and brings with it some great new games never before seen on the platform. If you don’t know what Humble Bundle is, it’s a collection of games where you get to decide what the final price should be. Once you pay, one part of the money goes to the developers, one part to charity and the remaining to the people at Humble Bundle. Along with being able to choose the price, you can also select who gets how much share of the money.
In the latest Humble Bundle 4 for Android, you get a collection of five great games, including Splice, Eufloria, Waking Mars, Crayon Physics Deluxe and Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP. Moreover, if you pay over the average amount of $5.96, you also get Machinarium.
But wait, there’s more. Along with the Android versions of these games, you also get a Steam key for each of these games so you can play them on your PC or Mac. And each game also comes with its soundtrack.
If all that sounds enticing to you, head over to the website from the source link below and purchase the bundle before the time runs out.
If you want to have free applications and games available on the iPhone 4, then it is necessary to jailbreak the phone. This is basically software that is downloaded on the phone. With this the game and application availability will open up exponentially. For everyone who is not into technical aspects of the phone, here is a step-by-step guide to jailbreak the phone for ultimate application usage.
The first and foremost step to take is to open the internet on the IPhone and go to the search box. In this search box there are many key phrases that can be put in, but for the best results type in, “Jailbreak IPhone 4.2.1.”
Once this is done, hit the search bar and it will be possible to look at all the top softwares to jailbreak the IPhone 4. There are plenty of softwares available that can be bought. During this step it is important to research the software, look at the cost, examine the user reviews, and look at the warranty options to find the best option. If wanting to save money there are free options for softwares available.
Now that the choice is made about the software, it needs to be purchased, downloaded, and installed. These are followed normally by prompts on the phone.
After the software is downloaded, the IPhone 4 needs to be hooked up to the computer, whether it be a desktop or laptop. Once it is hooked up, it is necessary for the device to be recognized by ITunes. In case this doesn’t work the first time, keep trying. For the program to work, this step is mandatory. If the phone is already synced to ITunes, it would be a good idea to sync it again just to make sure everything is the way it was before.
Once the phone is synced, open the software that was purchased and click on the button that says “Jailbreak.” The program should start right away. During this process it is best to have the computer working on this task solely. If not, there may be chances the computer will crash.
After the software has finished running, a message should appear that says the restore is completed. Once this message is shown, it is highly recommended that you restart the phone. Once this is done, an additional icon should be on the screen.
By following this process, any IPhone 4 user will successfully Jailbreak their phone. Once the software is installed in the phone, there will be more applications and games at disposal to enjoy.
Walt Disney Animation Studio return with Wreck-It Ralph, a film steeped in the world of video games. But at its core, the digital overlay is simply the setting for a traditional, and heartwarming story of a guy who makes a friend.
Although the days of the arcade are on the wane to the point of extinction, there will always be a certain subset of people who have grown up with the influence of those institutions ingrained upon them. During the 80s and 90s, the arcade was a place where you could go to experience something new. It was a place to hide away for a few hours, or a place to socialize in a new way. For many it was an escape, while for others it was a babysitter, reassuring parents in the knowledge that they could leave their kids there and those kids would be content to hover around the games like moths around a light without even entertaining the thought of wandering off.
Over the years though, the evolution of technology has not been kind to these digital meccas. Prices went up, while the convenience and sophistication of the product moved to the home. A handful of arcades remain, but they are few and far between. They will always exist, however, in the hearts and minds of those that experienced arcades in their prime. It is to those people that Wreck-It Ralph has been promoted through trailers and promotional materials. But while the film is certainly heavily influenced by those unique days, the story is a deeper and more universal tale.
That arcade influence is at the heart of Wreck-It Ralph, but it is not the driving force. Beyond the flashy cameos of characters like Pac-Man and Street Fighter’s Zangief, there is a story of a lonely guy, badly treated and shunned through no fault of his own, who befriends another lonely and isolated character that just wants to be accepted. Like most of Disney’s animated films it is a morality tale, and one that is created to appeal to all ages. In that, it succeeds.
After 30 years as the unappreciated antagonist of a Donkey Kong-like arcade game called “Fix-It Felix Jr.”, Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) has begun to question his role. After being shunned by his fellow characters at the anniversary party for their game, Ralph decides that the only way he will ever belong is to prove that he can be a hero too. Things soon go wrong, and Ralph accidentally leaves a trail of mishaps in his wake, forcing his own game’s hero, Felix (voiced by Jack McBrayer), to come looking for him.
Through a bizarre turn, Ralph finds himself in a game called “Sugar Rush,” a candy-themed kart racer (created for this film, but bearing more than a passing similarity to Mario Kart), where he meets the annoying, but endearing Vanellope (voiced by Sarah Silverman). But Ralph’s journey has caused bigger problems than he knows. With Felix on his trail thanks to the no-nonsense Sergeant Calhoun (voiced by Jane Lynch), Ralph’s actions could spell doom for the entire arcade.
The hook of Wreck-It Ralph is, of course, the gaming-inspired world that Ralph and his cohorts inhabit, but that is actually a fairly small portion of the overall package, just as the toys were just the setup to tell a much deeper narrative in Toy Story. If anything, the promotion of this movie has been a little misleading. Although publicized as a gaming-centric film, the gaming icons are there for only a very small potion of the actual movie. Of the eight characters from real games in the poster above, their combined screen time may be five minutes, and three of those come in one scene at the beginning. That isn’t really a criticism though, just a note that the promotion of this film has been focusing so heavily on its ties to the gaming world that you may not expect to find that it is actually a minor aspect of it in the same way that toys are a relatively small focus of Toy Story. In both cases the world creates the rules, and in both cases the setup offers some original humor thanks to the subject matter, but the heart of the story runs deeper than that.
Director Rich Moore (Multiple Simpsons and Futurama episodes) certainly understands the nostalgic appeal of the arcade, but that world quickly takes a backseat to the story. The arcade environment is simply the vehicle that offers the filmmakers a clever and entertaining backdrop to tell a deeper and more heartfelt story of friendship and acceptance. It comes across a touch heavy handed for the more cynically minded, but there are moments that are actually fairly touching even if they are a bit predictable.
Wreck-It Ralph doesn’t quite hit that level of originality or emotional resonance of the brilliant Toy Story series, but it is possibly the best animated film of the year. Brave and ParaNorman both have a horse in that race as well, but the humor, originality of the universe, and story that hits all the right emotional notes, make Wreck-It Ralph the leader.
The artwork is also beautiful and expressive, and the characters emote a great deal. The voice cast is involved in the story, not just reading dialogue. Even when the story does begin to stray into predictable territory – and it does so heavily, especially at the end with the twist you’ll see coming from a mile away – the art can help keep you engaged.
Conclusion
Although the “hidden world of gaming” promised by the advertising is actually more of a background than a feature, Wreck-It Ralph has more than enough on its own merits to make a worthy entry into the Walt Disney vaults. There is a simple, but universal story at play that will appeal to all ages, and it succeeds because of the sharp writing, endearing animation, and great voice work. It is a touch formulaic, but ultimately satisfying and worth the time. Your inner child that still yearns for the days of the arcade will thank you for it.
Sonic Jump is the latest installment in the series of Sonic games for the mobile platform. However, unlike the other games that came before it, this is a brand new game and not a port from some other platform.
With Sonic Jump, the series has taken a new direction, and I mean literally at that. Instead of the previous side scrolling or the third person sprinting, Sonic Jump takes you straight up, as you vertically jump from one platform to another. We decided to take a look and see how well this new experiment works.
Title
Sonic Jump
Developer
SEGA
Platform
iOS
Android
Release Date
October 2012
November 2012
Content rating
4+
N/A
Size
97.7MB
N/A
Price
$1.99
N/A
Note: The game is currently only available on iOS but an Android version is expected in November.
Gameplay
If you have played Doodle Jump, you already know how to play Sonic Jump. You have a character that is constantly bouncing and you have to control him around so he doesn’t fall off the platforms or hit an enemy. You control the character by tilting the device left or right. To jump higher mid-air, tap once on the screen. You will have enemies to deal with and to take them down just jump towards them from below. Hitting them from the sides or the top means you will be the one taking the damage.
This is a Sonic game, so obviously there are rings to collect. You can collect as many rings as you can but if you hit an enemy or a spike strip you lose all of them. Hit something again when you have zero rings and you die. At times you will find safes during a level that you can use to store all the rings you have collected till that point so if you hit something you don’t lose all of them.
Along with the rings, you also have three stars to collect during the level. Depending upon the number of rings and stars you collected and the time you took to reach the top, you get rated in the end. You don’t need a great rating to complete the level; just reaching the top does the trick but you might want to play the levels again to get a better rating. Completing the level unlocks the next one.
There are three worlds in the Story model of the game, with 12 levels each. The first 11 levels have the same basic structure where you have to avoid all obstacles and reach the top. The 12th one is a boss level where you have to keep jumping to the top while avoiding as well as attacking the boss. SEGA has promised more levels in future through free updates.
There is also an Arcade mode, where there is no finish line and you have to keep going as high as you can, similar to Doodle Jump. You can compete with your friends through Game Center to see who can jump the highest in Arcade mode.
The pacing of the game in the initial levels was a bit slow and it was fairly easy to complete the level without breaking into a sweat. But by the second world things go up several notches and while before it hardly took any effort to collect all the rings and reach the top, you would now have a hard time even reaching halfway through the level without dying several times.
The shift in difficulty comes in right when you start thinking things were getting too easy and takes you by surprise. By the end of the second world, the sheer number of things you have to look out for while jumping is quite staggering and it’s hard not to die repeatedly if you aren’t paying attention. In fact, to be honest, I didn’t quite manage to finish the game in time for this review because I got stuck badly at this one level for a long time and am yet to finish it.
Helping you through the game are several power-ups that you can use, such as magnets that attract nearby rings towards you, shield for protection against enemies, etc. You can either purchase them using the rings you collected or you can also often find them within the level while playing. If you don’t have enough rings, you can purchase more using in-app purchase option.
While reading about the premise one might assume that the game would become boring pretty quickly but that does not happen. Sonic Jump introduces new gameplay mechanics at a frequent rate so with every other level you have a new challenge to look out for. The platforms you jump on eventually start sliding around, flipping upside down, crumbling underneath you and at times, completely disappearing. You have spike strips to watch out for, enemies that explode when you’re near them, fans that blow you sideways and giant boulders dropping down from the top. Keeping up with all of this requires the reaction times of a fly on Red Bull and perfect timing for the double jump or else you would soon have to start all over again.
Is the game exciting? Yes. Can it be frustratingly difficult at times? Yes. But I think the developers have managed to keep the difficulty level just high enough to make you want to keep playing and push harder instead of giving up immediately.
If you get tired of playing with Sonic you can also unlock other Sonic world characters such as Tails and Knuckles to play with instead but they can only be unlocked once you reach a specific level in the game.
Graphics and Sound
Sonic Jump uses the same typical colorful visuals that you have seen for a long time in the Sonic series of games. Even the sound is similar to the old-school 8-bit style sounds for some of the actions, such as jumping. Not that the game looks or sounds bad, in fact it looks pretty good on the iPad’s Retina display. It’s just the visuals and the sound feels a bit dated now after all these years.
Just look at the Rayman series, for example. That too has been around for a while now but received a major facelift recently with Rayman Origins and Jungle Run, which significantly freshened up the look and feel of the game while maintaining the basic look that the game is known for. The Sonic series has been around for even longer and is starting to look a bit long in the tooth. A major visual upgrade could inject some new life into the series and make it more appealing to today’s gamers.
Verdict
To dismiss Sonic Jump as a Doodle Jump rip-off would be a folly, because this game is much more than that. The basic gameplay might be similar, but SEGA has added enough bells and whistles to make this feel like an entirely different game, and a good one at that. The basic controls make the game approachable to anyone and the challenging levels will give some of the more serious gamers enough meat to chew on. The visuals and sound are definitely in need of a major refresh and this applies not just to this game but the entire Sonic universe but otherwise it’s not a bad looking game at all and looks especially good on high resolution displays.
For $1.99, Sonic Jump is well worth the money and worth checking out even if you’re not a particularly big fan of Sonic games.
Rating: 4/5 Pros: Fun, challenging gameplay, short levels make it ideal for pick up and play Cons: Graphics and sound can use some freshening up to keep up with the times
Nintendo revealed comprehensive lists of the best-selling video games of 2012 to date, shedding significant light on player tastes around the world. What games will publishers be investing in based on current trends?
Regional sales tracking firms like the NPD Group, Media Creates and others are often the only regular source for getting a picture of what people are paying to play in the video game market. As the balance between digital distribution and traditional brick and mortar retail even out, it’s become more difficult to accurately portray just what people like to play besides Call of Duty. It’s surprising then that Nintendo, one of gaming’s most secretive companies, revealed the top twenty bestselling video games from around the world during its recent earnings report. Nintendo compiled data from those previously listed research firms as well as Gfk International.
With breakdowns for the US, Europe, and Japan, the lists show not just what’s performed well this year, but helps gauge what types of games console publishers will invest in over the next few years as the transition to next-gen consoles begins in earnest.
The tops of the charts aren’t surprising based on how the industry’s past half decade. The top two best-selling video games in the United States between January and September 2012 were Madden NFL 13 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Electronic Arts also dominated Europe (Gfk tracks fourteen countries in the region), taking the top three spots with FIFA 13 on PS3 and Xbox 360 in first and second respectively with FIFA 12 on PS3 taking third. Nintendo dominated Japan, with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 taking the top two slots.
It’s deeper in the list that more revealing statistics emerge. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, was only the sixth best-selling game across 2012, beaten out by competitors like Mass Effect 3 and even Borderlands 2 (fifth and third respectively.) This means that while the sales tail on Call of Duty remains strong, it’s diminished from highs in 2010 with Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which dominated for months after their respective releases. The competitive shooting games was not as favored over the first nine months of the year as co-operative, campaign-centric shooters like Mass Effect and Borderlands. The rest of the list bears this out as well. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier came in at eleventh, where EA’s Battlefield 3 came in at fourteenth. Future Soldier was a May release, and it does sport competitive modes, but even that example supports the POV that multiplayer tastes in the US are shifting.
What of Europe? Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, and Mass Effect 3 were on the European list, but that was it for shooters. Nintendo published titles like Super Mario 3D Land, Wii Party and others were far more common in the region, boding well for the Wii U. Gran Turismo 5 also took eighth in Europe, reaffirming the strength of that brand for Sony abroad.
Japan was, again unsurprisingly, dominated by Nintendo and Square-Enix published games for handhelds, with three Capcom titles and two Namco Bandai titles sneaking in as well.
Microsoft bars games with the PEGI 18+ rating like Grand Theft Auto IV from the Windows 8 Marketplace in the UK. What will happen in the US?
Windows 8 is not earning Microsoft many fans in the video game development community. Marcus “Notch” Pearson, the creator of Minecraft, said that Microsoft is “ruining the PC as an open platform” with its new operating system that apes the contained, curated style of Apple’s iOS and OS X operating systems. His sentiments echoed those of Valve’s Gabe Newell and Blizzard’s Rob Pardo.
It would seem that Microsoft’s policies for selling games through the Windows 8 Marketplace are going to further incense those developers. Microsoft’s closed policy will see video games intended for adults only, meaning those games that could potentially receive an Adults Only rating from the ESRB in the US, will not be allowed on the platform.
GamesIndustry International reported on Thursday that Microsoft will indeed ban games rated for ages 18 and older, at least in the UK. Citing an article written by Casey Muratori which outlines Microsoft’s guidelines for apps sold on the Marketplace—apps cannot contain depictions that “glamorizes illegal activity,” “irresponsible use of alcohol or tobacco products,” or “excessive or gratuitous profanity”—this means that many games rated PEGI 18 cannot be sold through Microsoft’s store at all. Grand Theft Auto IV, the original version of Heavy Rain, and many other PEGI 18+ rated games would be blocked from the market.
Kotaku confirmed these rules were official and that no game can be sold through the Marketplace without meeting them. “No, you cannot distribute Windows Store apps without going through the Windows Store. The exception to this is for enterprise apps. Developers can, however, create and offer desktop apps the same way they always have—through their own site or distribution point.”
The question though is how these policies will affect the Windows 8 Marketplace globally. The UK’s PEGI rating system is different from the ESRB’s, designating some games that receive an M for Mature rating in the US PEGI 16+ and others PEGI 18+.
A representative of Microsoft’s PR agency handling the promotion of Windows 8 told Digital Trends, “We have nothing more to share beyond what is public on the Windows Dev Center (section 6.2 of the app certification requirements discusses ratings) and information on Rating boards for Windows apps.” Section 6.2 only restricts games with an “over ESRB Mature” rating, the same guideline that tickets what is and is not allowed on the Xbox Live marketplace.
Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski, the guiding hand behind the Gears Of War series, has departed Epic Games to pursue new opportunities.
In a completely unexpected development — seriously, nobody saw this one coming — Cliff Bleszinski has left Epic Games. A blog post appeared moments ago on the official Epic Games website announcing the decision, and saying that this departure would allow Bleszinski to “chart the next stage of his career.” Notably absent from the blog post however, was any mention of what this “next stage” might be.
What it lacks in solid information about the future though, the announcement more than makes up for in praise for Bleszinski’s work at Epic over the years. Assuming you don’t religiously follow the gaming business, you likely know Cliff Bleszinski best as the lead designer of the hyper-successful Gears Of War franchise. Those with more impressive memories will likely recall that Bleszinski also played a key role in the creation of such classics as Unreal, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Unreal Tournament. As a result (and likely due to Bleszinski’s gregarious, outspoken nature), he has become something of a figurehead both for Epic and for its most famous games.
“In 20 wonderful years with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski has grown into a true design luminary, and his contributions to the ‘Unreal’ and ‘Gears’ series have helped shape the game industry into what it is today,” said Epic co-founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. “Cliff leaves Epic with our gratitude for his many contributions, and our wishes for continued success in the next chapter of his life!”
Likewise, Epic president Dr. Michael Capps has nothing but praise for Bleszinski, saying, “In my 10 years of working with Cliff, his passion for creating video games of the highest quality has been unflinching. We are grateful for all of his hard work, and remain committed to making our fans happy and to always raising the bar in everything we do at Epic.”
As for Bleszinski himself, though he offers no commentary on what his next career move might entail, he did pen the following heartfelt message to colleagues at Epic prior to the announcement:
I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break.
I will miss the projects, the playtests, the debates, and most importantly, the people. Epic only hires the best of the best, and it has been a joy working with each and every one of you on a daily basis, whether you were hired weeks ago or decades ago. I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with a variety of disciplines, from code to art to marketing and PR – it’s been one big, rewarding learning experience. I’m confident that each project that is being built, whether at Epic, Chair, PCF, or Impossible will be top notch and will please gamers and critics alike.
As we stated above, Bleszinski is one of the very few game designers who, in the course of his career, successfully transitioned from notable industry figure to genuine celebrity. Though he was never the highest officer at Epic Games, his name and face are instantly conjured up in the minds of most fans when you mention either Epic of the Gears Of War series. Hoping to ascertain where the company goes from here, now that it’s lost both a key employee and its most famous face, we asked Epic what its plans might be, but unfortunately the company is either currently unable or unwilling to share any details beyond what you can find in that aforementioned blog post. We expect to hear further information from both Bleszinski and Epic shortly.
In Jetsetter this week, Starbreeze unveils its first original, Dragon Quest X disappoints, and Jump Games moves beyond India's borders.
Welcome back again to Jetsetter, Digital Trends’ weekly look at the international world of video games.
It was a busy week in the video game world abroad. Reports out of Korea suggested that that country’s big publishers Nexon and NCSoft were looking to purchase Valve; in Japan, it looked like Konami was going to stop farming Silent Hill out to European developers and give it to its premiere Japanese creator Hideo Kojima instead; and in Britain, Revolution Games greenlighted development on Beneath a Steal Sky 2. That’s not all that’s been going on beyond our borders though, as Jetsetter can attest.
* Starbreeze announces Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
At the beginning of September, Jetsetter reported that Swedish developer Starbreeze had signed a two-game deal with publisher 505 Games. The first title would be Payday 2, a sequel to Overkill Software’s multiplayer shooter. The other game though was more mysterious. All Starbreeze announced was a codename for the game, “P13,” and it said the game would be a collaboration with filmmaker Josef Fares. P13 debuted on Thursday as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a lush looking downloadable for PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. The story follows the titular boys as the try to find a cure for their dying father. As you can see from the image above, Starbreeze’s very first original game is quite a looker.
* Dragon Quest X nets 300,000 subscribers.
Japanese MMO culture is peculiar. While online role-playing games like Final Fantasy XI are played in the country, they’re far less popular than multiplayer RPGs like Monster Hunter played on portable devices but over local wireless connections rather than online. How popular are local multiplayer RPGs? Square-Enix sold 4.3 million copies of the multiplayer Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS within six months of its release. The company released the first fully online entry in the series, Dragon Quest X, this summer on Nintendo Wii. Not great, comparatively. According to Nihon Securities Journal (via Siliconera), there are only 300,000 Dragon Quest X subscribers paying the $13 per month fee to play. If Dragon Quest can’t get Japanese citizens playing MMORPGs in the millions, nothing can.
* Jump Games expanding to either Canada and Singapore.
Indian mobile game developer Jump Games—a purveyor of numerous movie tie-in games for iOS like Total Recall and Real Steel—is opening new studios in Singapore and Canada. “We’re clear that we need to have a studio outside India,” Manish Agarwal told MCV. Agarwal is the CEO of Reliance Entertainment, the parent company of Jump Games. “We’re looking at exploring the talent pool in either Singapore or Canada by opening a studio there because it’s going to take time for the local talent to develop.”
This is Jetsetter’s second week at its new Saturday slot. Any suggestions for the column? Drop us a note in the comments. You can also follow me on Twitter at @ajohnagnello.
BioWare and EA have just announced the Mass Effect Trilogy package. As the name suggests it will offer all three games from the popular sci-fi series and will hit all three major platforms.
The Mass Effect Trilogy will come in a premium foil box with exclusive artwork. There won’t be two versions of the package (male and female Shepard), but BioWare promises some special surprise for the female Shepard fans.
The Trilogy will be released on November 6 for PC and Xbox 360. It will become available later for PlayStation 3 as well. I guess EA has finally made a deal with Microsoft for the distribution rights over the first game and now BioWare is busy porting it to PlayStation 3. That’s probably the reason for the PS3 package delay.
Mass Effect Trilogy will cost $59.99 regardless of your preference of platform.
Mobile games developer Red Robot Labs welcomes their new Director of Content and Publishing John Davison. His history with the gaming industry bring a lot to the table for the start-up.
Mobile games developer Red Robot Labs focuses many of its games on location-specific elements, but with its latest hire, the company may be looking to relocate itself to the top of the gaming world. John Davison, a 20-year veteren of the video game industry, will call Red Robot Labs his new home as he settles into a role as the start-up’s Director and General Manager of Content and Publishing.
Davison’s most recent position prior to this announcement was Vice President of Programming for CBS Interactive Games, which left him as overseer of content for GameSpot and Metacritic. He had also served as editor for Ziff Davis’ network of tech and gaming sites. Essentially, if there is anyone that knows the gaming world, it’s John Davison.
Red Robot Labs, the team behind the well-received Life is Crime and Forever Drive–both available on iOS and Android–are happy to welcome Davison in from the world of covering gaming and into the world of making them. In a press release from the company, CEO Mike Ouye stated, “As a video game industry veteran with a proven entrepreneurial track record, John is the perfect addition to Red Robot as we aim to disrupt and innovate the mobile space for gamers.”
Davison is already staking his claim for what he plans to bring to Red Robot Labs and the gaming landscape as a whole. “There is a huge opportunity to build new products around the ways that gamers interact and discover content, and the team at Red Robot understands this better than any group I’ve ever come across. We want to empower gamers with technology designed specifically for them.”
Considering both Red Robot Labs’ and John Davison’s track records of innovation, creativity, and community, there’s a lot of promise in this partnership. Gamers everywhere should be on the lookout for whatever may come next from this team.
A new Google study analyzing search data related to best-selling games shows that user searches can predict a game's financial success.
Add video game industry sales analyst to the list of professions that Google’s ubiquitous search engine might wipe off the map. Like travel agents and record store clerks before them, the search data compiled by Google’s pervasive tools—used in everything from your web browser to your television—offers the same predicative and analytic insights as a market analyst. According to a new study compiled by Google, searches in its engine can predict 84 percent of video game sales.
“Understanding the Modern Gamer” compiled and analyzed “hundreds of millions” of searches related to the top 20 best-selling video games throughout 2010 and 2011. These searches came from both web browsers as well as mobile devices. The marquee finding in the study is that searches related to games in the ten months surrounding their release—through the online promotion cycle of trailers, previews, advertisements, and post-release promotion through DLC and further advertising—can predict 84 percent of those games’ sales.
“[Our] data demonstrates that 84 percent of sales can be predicted by all clicks during the 10 month launch cycle,” reads the passage relating AdWords clicks to individual game sales, “We used the regression coefficient from our analysis to create a predictive model and found that is a game accrues 250,000 clicks in the 10 months around launch, it will likely sell between 2 and 4 million units in the first four months after release.”
“The ever present relationship between gamer and game may be digital, but it has implications for real-world sales. There is a quantifiable link between what people search for and what they buy that enables us to predict game sales.”
It’s no great insight to discover that something that is popular by consumer interest is likely to sell well. What’s impressive about Google’s data is its accuracy. The study does acknowledge that other mitigating factors—namely television advertising, word of mouth, and the actual quality of the game—that need to be taken into consideration in the next round of study to improve the predictive quality of its data, but 84 percent based on searches alone is impressive.
There’s other interesting data to be found in the study, particularly the fact that mobile searches still account for the minority of interest surrounding a game. Just 1 in 5 buy searches—that is searches that include language related to actually purchasing the game—are made via mobile, meaning that PCs are still user’s primary tools for gathering info and shopping online. “Our data validates the belief that gamers, similar to all users, leverage mobile devices as secondary screens.”
The mobile gaming category is currently populated by two types of games, those that are meant to give you a “console quality” feel and others that are designed specifically with the touchscreen and the usage case in mind. While it’s nice to have high quality 3D visuals and extensive character and story driven games, in the end, the second category of games is the one that works the best and is the most popular.
HUEBRIX falls in the latter category. It’s a puzzle solving game for iOS and Android where you have to drag out paths and fill the shapes. Sounds simple, but it’s often the simple things that are the most enjoyable. We decided to find out if it that’s the case with this game.
Title
HUEBRIX
Developer
Yellow Monkey Studios
Noodlecake Studios
Platform
iOS
Android
Content rating
4+
Everyone
Size
20.9MB
17MB
Price
$0.99 (on sale)
Gameplay
In HUEBRIX you have to drag a stack of colored tiles across a grid of squares. The number of tiles in the stack dictate how further you can drag the stack, i.e., you can drag a stack of five tile upon five blocks. Your goal is to drag all the tiles across the entire grid and make sure every block gets covered by the colored tiles with no spare tiles left.
If that sounds complicated to you, watch the video below. I’d suggest not watching it entirely or else you’d spoil the solution for the puzzles for yourself.
You will comes across several other objects within the environment that determine how you spread the squares around. Certain squares are blocked, some can only be accessed by a stack of a particular color, some don’t let you progress beyond that point and some force you to move in one particular direction after you cross them. Some even add or subtract from the number of colored tiles you have. Sometimes, you can also go through one side of the environment and come out from the other.
The basic premise of the game is very simple and you hardly need any instructions to play. The real fun is figuring out how you can fill out the squares using all the colors and this can be ridiculously challenging at times, even on the easier levels. Personally, I’m a fan of games that require you to rack your brain to complete the level instead of just mashing a button relentlessly until everything on the screen stops moving. HUEBRIX offers just the right amount of challenge that, even at its most intense, only makes you push on further instead of giving up. And the solution always seems simple once you find it, making you feel bit stupid for not thinking of it before. And if you’re really stuck, you can use one of the 20 available hints to make your progress a bit easier.
Once you go through the 100-odd levels of the game, you can purchase up to 300 more levels from within the game using in-app purchasing. The levels are separated as packs and are of varying difficulty. The game comes with a starter pack, along with Easy 1, Medium 1 and Medium 2 level packs, and you can purchase, Easy 2, 3, 4, 5, Medium 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Hard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Insane 1, 2 and 3 level packs. You can also purchase additional hints and you get a pack of 19 and 99 hints. Each of these packs are sold for $0.99, except for the 99 hints pack which costs $3.99.
This is one area of the game where it differs from some of the previous puzzle games we have seen before on mobile, like Cut the Rope, for example, where new levels are added over time for free. I personally prefer this method, where you pay once and keep getting new levels as they are released for free and let’s face it, who wouldn’t? While what HUEBRIX does is not necessarily bad it does mean you get less bang for your buck. The 100 levels in the game are not much and you can go through them in a single afternoon. After that, spending the cost of an entire game ($0.99 right now) on a pack of 30, 20 or 10 levels (depending upon their difficulty) feels a bit much. While I won’t advise the developer to give away the levels for free, they could at least put in more by default or squeeze in more levels in the packs.
One last aspect of the game is that you can create custom levels using the level editor. You can then share these with people on GameCenter and download levels created by them. This feature is only available on iOS.
Graphics and Sound
HUEBRIX is a basic 2D game but still manages to look stunning thanks to a bright color palette, particularly on high resolution displays. As usual, the game is best enjoyed on a tablet but even on the small display of a smartphone the game is quite enjoyable.
The sound is also quite nice. There is a single tune playing on a loop in the background but it’s soothing and goes well with the theme of the game.
Conclusion
HUEBRIX is a simple yet thoroughly enjoyable puzzle solving game that anyone with a smartphone or a tablet and some spare time on their hands can enjoy. It looks stunning and is filled with clever puzzles. Sure, the in-app purchasing system could be a bit more generous to the players but otherwise the game is perfect for anyone who enjoys solving puzzles.
(The game is on sale right now and selling for $0.99. Final price as of yet is unknown.)
Rating: 4/5 Pros: Simple gameplay, clever puzzles, stunning visuals, ability to create and download custom levels Cons: Additional levels cost money and offer poor value
We give the campaign and multiplayer modes in Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown a hands-on test drive.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown shouldn’t exist. It’s an enhanced remake of an almost 20 year old PC strategy game, spruced up by Civilization architects Firaxis Games, and releasing for consoles (and Windows as well) during a crowded holiday 2012 season. It’ll sell for a “budget” price of $49.99 when it hits stores on October 9, 2012, but arriving as it does amidst a flurry of big-name releases like Resident Evil 6, Dishonored, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, the odds would seem to be stacked against it. And they sort of are.
Fortunately for 2K Games, Enemy Unknown isn’t competing with the blockbuster shooters and other standard-fare action games that tend to punctuate holiday lineups. It offers something different, the rarest gem of all in fact: a strategy game that is actually fun to play on a console, using console-style gamepad controls. The PC faithful will no doubt quickly rise to defend the PC release of Enemy Unknown, and more power to them. But after spending an hour-plus with my hands wrapped around an Xbox 360 controller for some campaign and multiplayer action, I’m happy to report that this console-based strategy game is no unicorn, it’s the real deal.
Those of you who are familiar with UFO: Enemy Unknown won’t be in for too many surprises. The game that you remember from 1994 is largely intact here, though it’s looking a whole lot better in 2012. The story opens with extraterrestrial activity on Earth prompting an investigation by a crack squad of specially trained soldiers. This scouting operation plays out as a largely scripted tutorial mission that teaches you the basics of movement, combat, ability use, cover, and — as your four-strong squad is whittled down to just one — permadeath.
The controls are surprisingly simple to get a handle on, with players guiding a command reticule around the map for each squad member’s turn. A border painted around the selected troop indicates the maximum movement range for the first half of their turn. Push the reticule outside that boundary and a more distant border appears, showing the max distance you can move when dashing, which consumes both halves of that unit’s two-action turn.
Combat actions and unit skills can be triggered by going into tactical mode with a press of the right trigger. The camera zooms into an over-the-shoulder perspective and a new list of icons appears at the bottom of the screen, an indicator of which abilities you can call on. From this perspective you can see which targets are in view and what your chances to hit it are. It’s a surprisingly light flow of data, but in the act of playing you quickly realize that it’s all the information you need.
Over the course of three missions (two if you don’t count the tutorial), I was able to get a sense of Enemy Unknown‘s tactical flavor. Again, UFO fans won’t feel lost here at all. The controls offer all the flexibility you might need for advancing through each environment while maintaining tactical control of the battlefield. The alien aggressors enter the fray in scripted, and sometimes unexpected, locations, but the game doesn’t feel cheap. The few times my attackers got the drop on me, it quickly became clear that it was my own tactical planning that was at fault.
Wrapping tightly around the turn-based action is a larger meta-game focused on building up your alien-fighting arsenal. All of this plays out from your underground mission control, rendered in the game as a cross-section view of various facilities. Between missions, you can visit the barracks to assign skill points you’ve earned among your finite number of troops and mess with their loadouts. You can also visit the research or engineering departments, directing their respective teams to focus their efforts in one direction or another. Alien materials picked up at the end of each mission fuel your research team’s efforts, and their discoveries can then be produced as actual gear to outfit your troops with by engineering.
There’s also a situation room where you’re able to monitor the general state of the world as aliens descend. The panic level of each nation determines whether or not it’s helping you in your fight against the invaders. Let one nation’s panic level get too high, and you’ll lose any associated support from there. Throughout the game, players are presented with decisions to make. Even the location of your starting base is accompanied by a choice, since the different regions of the world offer different benefits, such as reduced prices and build/research time.
In terms of missions, you might be presented with a pair of reported E.T. sightings that need to be investigated, with the caveat that the panic level will rise in whichever of the locations you choose to not visit. There are also some missions that you’re simply locked into. One early task, for example, was assigned to me by the shadowy Council charged with waging war against the alien invaders. There was no choice to be made in that case; the Council handed down orders and I, faithful soldier that I am, responded.
The meta-game disappears completely in Enemy Unknown‘s 1v1 multiplayer matches. Instead, each player has a budget of points to work with and the ability to spend those points on forming a squad of up to six units, pulling from either/both the human and alien factions. The size of the budget varies according to the match settings, but the general idea is that both players are limited by the same resource constraints to come up with the most effective team that they can. There are a lot of variables at play, to the point that even just building your multiplayer match team can take quite a bit of time, but the game thankfully allows players to save lineups that they’re particularly fond of.
The flow of a multiplayer match is much faster than that of a campaign battle, largely because there’s a time limit on each player’s turn. The default right now is set at 90 seconds per side, which means you’ve got 90 seconds to issue orders to all six of your units. In practical terms, that window felt just a bit too short at the beginning of the match, though the time-per-turn is fortunately one of the many pre-match variables that players can adjust.
Beyond the 90 seconds, I blame part of the rushed feeling on a clunky interface. The actual controls are well-designed, but the preview build’s command reticle wasn’t as sticky as it could have been with cover points, which resulted in me sometimes moving a unit to an out-of-cover position. The D-pad-controls for cycling through the various combat options in tactical view wasn’t as responsive as it could have been either, to the point that I’d sometimes have to press left or right multiple times for the command to register. These issues were present in the campaign missions I played as well, though there are no time constraints to rush you along there, making the clunkiness much more manageable. This is all based on playing with a preview build of the game, of course, but it’ll be something to watch for in the final release.
Overall, XCOM: Enemy Unknown seems to deliver on its promise of re-creating a classic PC game from 1994 for modern audiences. The basics of what made the original worth revisiting with a remake are still very much intact, and the console-specific control scheme works shockingly well. The overall presentation, particularly with the cutscenes, voice acting, and so forth, definitely speaks to the budget price tag, but the actual play — at least in the handful of early missions and one multiplayer match that I sampled — promises all of the tactical flexibility that fans of the original will go in expecting to find.
If there’s one thing Gameloft’s good at, it’s consistently bringing console quality games to the small screen. Some of these are perhaps too close to some of the console titles out there, close enough to be labelled as clones, but for those who want to experience some of the audio visual glory that they are used to seeing on the big screen in the palm of their hands, these games have rarely disappointed.
The newest title to fit this description is Wild Blood. The first Gameloft game to feature the exceptional Unreal Engine, Wild Blood promises gory hack and slash action with stunning visuals that the engine is known for. Let’s see how well it manages to do that.
Title
Wild Blood
Developer
Gameloft
Platform
iOS
Android
Release Date
September 6, 2012
N/A
Content rating
12+
N/A
Size
771MB
N/A
Cost
$6.99
N/A
Note: The Android version of the game is not out yet but is expected some time later this month.
The Premise
Our hero in this game is Sir Lancelot, who is having an affair with King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere. When the king finds out about this, he goes berserk and sets out to destroy Lancelot, and everything in his path. He employs the services of the evil sorceress Morgana, who opens the Hellgate and sets all sorts of not very nice creatures upon the land. Oh, and she also captures the Queen Guinevere and holds her hostage. Now Lancelot has to stop the carnage going about him, kill Morgana, free Guinevere and make it home in time to catch Medieval Britain’s Got Talent. Okay, so I made up the last part.
The story is not much and just an excuse to shove that massive sword through all sorts of evil hell spawn. And Sir Lancelot is perhaps the most boring lead character in the history of gaming. He even looks like he’s slightly bored. You don’t really care if he saves the day or gets used as a mop by one of the ogres in the game. If you have played Horn that we reviewed last week, you’d know that even that young blacksmith’s assistant was more involving a character than this fancy knight. Heck, even Pac-Man was a more involving character.
Gameplay
Wild Blood is an action-adventure game with a third-person camera view. You use the left side of the screen as a joystick to move the character around and the right side to control the camera. The right side also has buttons for all the weapons and attacks that you will be using.
To attack enemies, you get a host of weapons, from swords to axes and a bow and arrow. You can upgrade these weapons using gold coins you collect by killing enemies, opening chests and breaking pots and barrels spread around. You will also often come across civilians who are held captive. Breaking their cage releases them and in return they give you some more gold.
Other uses for the gold is purchasing potions for restoring health and mana. You can also purchase additional powers that you can use a limited number of times depending upon your mana. These powers are usually devastating attacks that can take down enemies in one blow. You can upgrade these powers to cause even more damage.
You can also use the gold (a significant amount of it, mind you) to instantly revive yourself after you die, or you can choose to use the restart the game at the last checkpoint, which could be close by or somewhere far away. At times you have no choice but to keep replaying a significant section of the game because the damn checkpoint is just so far back and you don’t have enough gold to instantly revive yourself. This is where you might be tempted to use the game’s in-app purchase option to purchase additional gold by spending real money.
Most of the game has you running around and battling enemies. The enemies come in great variety, 20 of them in fact, and it includes some bosses. The boss battles are all well spaced out and every time you think things are getting too easy the game throws one at you. The other enemies are also quite varied in their attacks and range from mildly annoying to extreme pain in the nether regions.
Other things you do in the game involve opening chests, as mentioned before, except there is another type of chests that has you solving puzzles. The puzzles involve moving blocks around and in return you get a lot more gold than from the usual chests. The puzzles reminds strongly of the game Unblock Me, except here they are easier. These serve as a nice diversion from the usual action but they are also the only type of puzzles you’ll be solving. And they are completely optional.
While the general hack and slash action is enjoyable, there are two things that make the game fairly frustrating. First of all the joystick controls suck. This is extremely apparent when you’re trying to run, or use a special attack that involves directing yourself towards the enemies. The number of times you miss your enemies and run straight past them is not funny. Also, you can’t turn, so if you miss the enemy, you end up raging alone in some corner wasting your mana while the enemies are half a mile away from you.
Another area where the control situation crops up is when you are controlling a ballista in the game’s many moments. It would be easier to give someone instructions over the phone to control a real ballista instead of controlling one of these in the game. Even the tiniest motions moves the thing around as if it’s some pea shooter and you need to be extremely accurate to kill, which means even before you can line up your shot you are killed by the enemy, who all happen to have their own projectile attack and don’t have to deal with terrible controls at their end.
The other more atrocious problem is the camera. First of all, it seems all enemies have decided before they spawn that they are not going to be anywhere inside the view that you see on the screen. Each one appears perhaps as far away as possible, so you have to run to them to kill them. What’s worse is that moving the camera around is extremely slow. You have to keep swiping on the screen like an idiot to make the camera turn 180 degress and by then the enemy has probably moved. Half the time in the game is spent adjusting the camera and pointing it in the right direction so you can see what you’re supposed to kill. At this point you seriously start wondering if the Queen is worth rescuing and start contemplating on letting Morgana keep her as her pet.
One last issue for me that others may not have is the feeling of having done all this before. It’s not just about the fact that the game takes heavy inspiration from the God of War series in practically everything it does but more with the genre itself. The third-person action adventure genre is probably older than the real King Arthur and doing the same things again and again has become terribly boring. Bringing games that have started to feel stale on the consoles to mobile doesn’t make them any more interesting. You can marvel at the visuals for a while, but it doesn’t take long to realize you did the same basic things ten years ago.
What I’m saying is that mobile doesn’t need more recycled titles from old genres. Games like Super Hexagon that we saw last week work because they do something new and even though the game probably had 1/100th the budget of Wild Blood it will hold your attention for longer and will you have you coming back more often. We need more games like that. Not just the same old FPS, racing or action-adventure games. + There is a multiplayer mode as well, but it’s not really about skill but rather who has the most fanciest weapons and armor around. If your weapons aren’t upgraded you won’t last ten seconds, even though most arenas have 4-5 players right now. Also, being against smarter and more powerful human enemies only further exposes the game’s inherent flaws.
Graphics and Sound
Having an Unreal Engine in a mobile game is a surefire recipe to have great visuals. We have already seen what this engine can do on game such as the Infinity Blade series and even on Wild Blood it does a great job. The game looks stunning throughout, especially on the new iPad with the Retina display. Gameloft has also made good use of the engine’s prowess by creating amazing level and enemy designs. In short, it all looks great.
The game is only available on iOS right now and an Android version is coming some time this month. There is going to be an optimized version for devices running the Tegra 3 chipset but it remains to be seen if there would be a version for other devices as well and if so how will their visuals differ. I doubt the gameplay would be any different so what all is said above should apply to the Android version as well.
Sound-wise there is not much to say. The soundtrack is passable (it sounds ridiculously similar to The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack in the menu where you have to solve the puzzles to open chests) and the weapon and enemy sounds are the usual affair. The dialogues are cheesier than a cheese burst pizza and the voice acting is lame. The character mouths do move this time around but they don’t move with what they’re saying. Lancelot could be swearing at you for all you know.
Conclusion
It might seem as if I have been harder on this game than usual but that’s just because I expect big budget games from big developers selling for big bucks to be more than just console game rehashes. It’s time mobile game developers stopped looking at what the folks on the consoles are doing and started doing something new designed specifically with the touchscreen in mind.
Wild Blood is a fine game if you don’t mind having the same sort of gaming experience that you have on the consoles. Of course, the camera and the controls still suck, but they would probably be fixed and then the game would have few real flaws. And besides, it makes for a great showcase for your hardware, particularly if you have the new iPad as the Unreal Engine gives it a nice workout. But if like me you’re bored of this genre and were looking for something new, give this one a pass.
Rating: 3/5 Pros: Great visuals, wide variety of weapons and enemies Cons: Botched up controls and camera, cheesy dialogues, lacks originality
The Wii U has an official launch date. Here’s a look at the games that will be available when it launches.
It is almost expected at this point. Any time a new gaming system is released, you hear the inevitable calls of how amazing the launch lineup will be. It is almost a given that inevitably the company releasing the new gear will utter something along the lines of “this is our best launch lineup ever.” Unfortunately it rarely works out that way anymore and launches are typically plagued by an anemic selection.
This is a lesson that Nintendo knows well. The 3DS was plagued by a meager selection of games at launch, and still hasn’t managed to offer a library that impresses. Several prices drops of the hardware have helped make the system somewhat successful and a few big releases have helped, but the lack of major titles continues to hamper the handheld’s potential. Judging by the launch lineup of Nintendo’s new console, that won’t be a problem for the Wii U.
So far Nintendo has unveiled 51 titles that it is considering launch titles. Some of these will be available on November 18 when the Wii U is released, while some will be part of the “release window,” meaning they will be available sometime between the Wii U’s launch and March.
Part of the reason for the robust selection is the ported versions of titles that have been, or will soon be released on other consoles. While games like Mass Effect 3 and Madden 13 probably won’t get anyone to buy the console on their own (especially if they have those games on other consoles already), it will give die hard Nintendo fans that are Wii users the chance to play some of the best games of this year and last.
Below is a list of all 51 games Nintendo has confirmed:
Like its publishing partner for multiplayer shooter Fuse, Insomniac Games is done with single-player-only games.
Earlier this month, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau proudly touted that he was finished greenlighting development on games that are only for solo players. The Insomniac-developed, EA-published Fuse, formerly OverStrike, certainly fits the bill. Like so many shooters these days, Fuse is playable solo but it’s built with four players in mind. Resistance 2 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One are Insomniac’s experiments in co-operative play that gave birth to Fuse, but the studio has a rich heritage in single-player games. Is it giving up the single player ghost?
Just like Electronic Arts, Insomniac is done developing single-player-only games.
Speaking with Gamespot, Insomniac CEO Ted Price said that the nature of the modern game industry means that the era of games like the original Ratchet & Clank is over. “I can’t imagine that any game we’d do from here on out will be single-player-only,” said Price, “The [industry] has changed. As gamers, we have always been social, but thanks to the way technology has evolved, it’s much easier for us to play together. And it’s much easier for developers to create experiences where you can play together. So we want to encourage that with all of our games because ultimately, in my opinion, it’s often more fun to play with a friend.”
To reiterate, solo campaigns aren’t disappearing from EA or Insomniac’s games. After Gibeau’s words circled the web last week, the executive was quick to say that EA would still make single-player content. “You can have a very deep single-player game but it has to have an ongoing content plan for keeping customers engaged beyond what’s on the initial disc,” Gibeau told Kotaku, “I’m not saying deathmatch must come to Mirror’s Edge.”
Price mirrored the sentiment. “We understand that a large portion of players are interested in that single-player experience. A lot of us gamers are interested in both. I love single-player games but I also love multiplayer games, and I think Fuse offers you the opportunity to do both without having to skimp on either side.”
Skimping on either side is definitely the concern when it comes to incorporating online and social elements into every game. EA’s SSX for example would have benefitted from a greater focus on how the game played by a single person rather than incorporating intrusive annoying social features and micro-transaction-based gear acquisitions. Insomniac games have often benefitted from that sort of focus. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time is a crafted single-player-only game and it happens to be the finest thing the studio has ever made.
How can a goliath international company reach the brilliant amateurs who will shape the next generation of tech? Pit them head to head in an entrepreneurial Hunger Games.
I’d like to tell you about the one camp mostly likely to attract future billionaires of the world, but first, the back story.
Way back in 1995, I had a close look at IBM. At the time, by the company’s own description, it was in danger of becoming irrelevant. As part of a first step towards major change, it dumped every one of its advertising agencies worldwide, and switched to Ogilvy & Mather.
At Ogilvy, I was a small part of the team that helped IBM shift its brand from arrogant to what we called internally, “Magic you can trust.” Think: TV commercials with nuns walking down the street in Paris with their ThinkPads, and you get the idea.
But it’s what happened next that really matters. IBM didn’t just change its image; the whole company changed. it shifted from a hardware company to a services firm. It not only started acting smarter, in 2008 it started selling the idea of building a smarter planet.
IBM has boiled smart down to three words: instrumented interconnected intelligence.
Let’s get back to the camp. It took these three words and used them as the standard for a series of worldwide entrepreneurial competitions called IBM SmartCamp.
Drew Clark, of IBM’s Venture Capital team, says that at first he was a bit nervous at the prospect of going into a diverse assortment of cities and putting out a call for entries around “instrumented interconnected intelligence.” Could they find enough qualified entrants in — say — Barcelona, Istanbul or Copenhagen? Yep.
“We were overwhelmed with interest,” he reports. “Everywhere we go, we are discovering new companies that have stunningly good ideas, capable teams, and are on a path to scale.”
Streetline won the first overall award, in 2010. Recognizing that cars waste immense amounts of energy circling in a search for parking spaces, the company helps cities implement smart parking solutions. Its new Parker app lets drivers find empty spaces in congested city neighborhoods.
In 2011, Profitero — from “Ireland, by way of Ukraine and Belarus” — won for its solution that helps businesses track their competitors’ prices and adjust their own prices either up or down in response. Think of them as natural competitive response by companies to a world in which smart customers are nearly always comparing prices.
This year, IBM SmartCamps are taking place in Miami, New York, Copenhagen, Boston, Munich, Bangalore, Beijing, Paris, Sydney, Istanbul, London, Mexico City, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Dublin, Moscow, Barcelona, Berlin and São Paulo.
Drew Clark explains that the “winners get the opportunity to get plugged into one of our solutions. For example, we took Streetline’s sensor technology and wireless app, and then added analytics to make it enterprise ready.”
IBM liked that Streetline “helps a city organize their scarce parking inventory. It was not just about taking the cost out of collecting parking revenues,” says Clark, “It was about getting better data about parking.”
Stop and think about this for a second. A few years ago, there was no data about parking. None. Zip. This is a whole new market where none existed before.
Bitcarrier, winner of the 2011 Barcelona SmartCamp, “audits the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi public frequencies of mobile devices” to track traffic flows.
Faced with the difficult challenge of how to track cars moving through congested cities, the company came up with an intuitive leap. Instead of trying to track the cars, they could track the mobile devices inside those cars. After all, if a phone is going 40 miles per hour, it’s a pretty good bet that the phone is in a car. The firm is currently running pilot tests in Europe and South America.
The most recent winner, crowned in Paris, is Captain Dash. The firm modestly claims to “give superpowers to marketers,” by collecting all their data in one place, with cool graphics and no software to install. The whole website looks like one big infographic.
By temperament, I’m drawn to entrepreneurs. And I love that IBM is helping many of them gain international attention. But I also want to give credit to IBM for being one of the first — and the clearest — to enunciate what’s happening to our world. IBM says it wants intelligence “to be infused into the systems and processes that make the world work — into things no one would recognize as computers: cars, appliances, roadways, power grids, clothes, even natural systems such as agriculture and waterways.”
Sure, IBM has a vested interest in getting hired to help design and build these massive new projects. But then again, so do you.
Bruce Kasanoff is a speaker, author and innovation strategist who tracks sensor-driven innovation at Sense of the Future. Kasanoff and co-author Michael Hinshaw teamed up to explore more of the opportunities unearthed by disruptive forces in Smart Customers, Stupid Companies.
Microsoft might be a distant third in the mobile race, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of fun, addicting games for the Windows Phone. Check out our roundup of Best Windows Phone games.
It’s not often that one can say Microsoft is an underdog. The company is one of the largest in the world and easily the most notable name in personal computing. But when it comes to the mobile phone market, Microsoft has yet to make a noticeable dent. After some tough attempts at breaking in, they may have finally found a nice niche with the Windows Phone. The operating system still isn’t knocking on iOS or Android’s door, but it has picked up dedicated user base. Keeping fans in the fickle phone market can be tough, but Microsoft have kept their users happy. Perhaps a great selection of games for those on the go have helped. Here’s some of our favorite games for Windows Phones.
What is a list of great mobile games without Angry Birds? While it might be an obvious choice, it’s that way for a reason. Angry Birds is undoubtably one of the most fun and addictive games that you can house on your handset. Load up some flying feathered friends and send them for a ride as you try to topple the fortresses of pigs that have stolen precious eggs. It’s about as much of a classic as one can get in the young world of mobile games, but none of its original appeal has worn off.
Every warrior has to start somewhere — you can’t just go out and start breaking boards and cinderblocks on day one. There’s no better way to work your way up to unleashing your inner kung-fu than with Fruit Ninja. The concept is silly and the construct is simple, but don’t be surprised if you fire up this game at the start of a commute and you go a few extra stops just to keep playing. Fruit of all sorts comes flying across the screen and its your job to chop it up as fast as possible, launching juice in all directions. If only making fruit salad was this fun.
There are few things more determined than a squirrel that wants to protect its stash of nuts. Little Acorns gives you the chance to help out a furry friend by guiding him through 80 levels in attempts to prepare for winter. Little Acorns channels the gameplay of classic platformer mechanics and the undeniable appeal of an adorable squirrel to create a game experience that is tough to put down. How can you not help the little guy get ready for the oncoming cold? Especially when it’s so fun.
Pool is a game that has been around for generations, ever since the cavemen used sticks to hit rocks into holes in the ground. While that information is completely unfounded, here’s something that is true: Pool Pro Online 3 is a blast. It takes the familiar game of pocket billiards and really emphasizes the “pocket” part by putting it on your phone. Then it cranks up the competition with online play against friends or strangers. Work your way up the leader boards to prove you’re a true pool shark.
One occasionally has to wonder just way oil tycoons make so much money for just happening across the strange black liquid. If Feed Me Oil gives any insight into what a oil worker has to deal with on a daily basis, whatever they make isn’t enough. The game presents a weird world where the ground is alive with crazy creatures that crave crude oil. You’ll have to direct the black gold from a broken pipe to the mouths of these odd little characters. Use the tools provided, but mostly use your brain to make it through this quirky puzzler.
Watching extreme sports events can often make one tempted to attempt the action they see on screen. Save yourself the embarrassment of performing a flurry of face plants by getting iStunt 2. The game takes you to the virtual slopes and puts you in control of a snowboarder that is more than capable of pulling off the most insane of in-air moves. With a great physics engine, awesome action, and game bolstering boosts, iStunt 2 has all the excitement of sliding down the slope with none of the dangers of having a piece of plastic strapped to your feet.
Visit any zoo and take a look at the monkeys. They are fascinating creatures for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because how close their actions mirror our own and sometimes it’s because they fling around inappropriate items. The monkeys in Tiki Towers are a little more sophisticated than that. These primates have built some bamboo-based creations to help them navigate some puzzling and tough terrain in hopes of discovering lost treasure. Play through 45 levels across 5 islands as you help the monkeys achieve their ultimate goal.
The idea of a zombie apocalypse has become a bit marginalized by its overuse in pop culture. One can’t take a trip to the movie theater, flip channels, of walk into a trendy t-shirt shop without seeing something referencing zombies. But don’t let the over-saturation fool you, the threat is out there. Nothing makes it more apparent than Zombies!!!, a game that puts you right in the middle of an undead uprising. Fight through infested territories as you try to survive the onslaught of corpses. It’s a blast and great training for the day the inevitable real life infection spreads.
