Social game news roundup: Konami's new Facebook plans, Gladiators invade China and Zynga's zombie blood drive

Zynga triggers coastal zombie outbreaks — In honor of Zombie Swipeout launching on iOS, Zynga conducted a zombie "blood drive" by having zombie look-alikes wandering through the streets of New York and San Francisco. 80 zombies wandered through each city, handing out "blood pops" to people. Konami bringing Puzzle Chasers to Facebook — Konami announced that it's working on an original puzzle game, Puzzle Chasers, to launch on Facebook this summer. The game is billed as a family-oriented jigsaw puzzle game where players have to complete pictures before time runs out. Spartacus: The Game comes to China [Launch] — Large Animal Games and Starz Digital Media are breaking into the Chinese social game scene, launching Spartacus: The Game on social network Sina Weibo. Both Spartacus: The Game and its sequel Sparatcus: Vengeance are still active on Facebook under the 6waves banner. Zynga's stock closes week at new low — Zynga's stock still hasn't recovered from the beating it took during Facebook's IPO last week. Although it hasn't dropped so dramatically to halt trading, shares the stock closed down from its opening price four out of five days this week. Shares are currently sitting at $6.61. RocketFrog combines Facebook casino games and real-world prizes [Launch] — Newly-launched Facebook casino game RocketFrog is aiming to redefine social gambling by offering real real prizes (but it isn't breaking any laws by involving actual money). The company, which has MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson on its advisory board, is instead offering prizes like movie tickets, music and gift certificates for food. Grand Cru snags Wooga's former head of marketing — Finnish developer Grand Cru just brought on Thorbjorn Warin as the studio's new marketing and business development director. Thorbjorn was originally Wooga's head of marketing and the company became one of the top three Facebook game developers during his tenure. He will now assist in the development and launch of Grand Cru's debut game The Supernauts. Madagascar 3 coming to Draw Something — Draw Something's about to get an influx of content tied to Dreamworks Animation's upcoming film Madagascar 3. The movie hits theaters in two weeks, and Draw Something will promote the game with special terms and video clips. This is the third time Dreamworks has advertised in a Zynga game; the previous times Zynga promoted Megamind and Kung Fu Panda 2 in its titles. Catharina Mallet joins King.com — Catharina Mallet left EA Playfish last week and sources claimed she already had a new job lined up. The rumors were apparently true, as King.com announced Mallet is now heading up the company's new development studio in London. The new studio is expected to be staffed by over 40 people.

Social Pro Daily

Social game news roundup: Konami's new Facebook plans, Gladiators invade China and Zynga's zombie blood drive

Mike Thompson

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Mike Thompson