Social Gaming Roundup: Platforms, Offers, Mafias, & More

Mafia Wars Expands into Las Vegas -- Earlier this week, Zynga launched its fifth Mafia Wars expansion, Mafia Wars: Las Vegas. Features include the new "My Casino," which allows players to look inside their casinos and purchase items, tournament-based fighting systems based on one's number of friends, 60 new jobs, 100 new items, new art, and a "choose your path" job system. It also has some real-world promotions running -- something the company has been big on lately. Aviary's Michael Galpert tweeted that a number of New York City car windows had been "smashed in" with a decal resembling something being thrown or shot through the window. The decal reads, "A heist went down in your hood today. See it at MafiaWarsLV.com" On top of this, once the game gets 10 million player visits, Zynga will blow up an armored truck, streaming it on mafiawars.com. They are also giving away $25,000, iPads, and a trip to Vegas as possible prizes just for entering and playing. [image via @msg] Sharing App Ideas with App Incubator -- Here's an interesting iPhone title for anyone out there with a game idea. App Incubator is an application that allows users to submit game ideas to creator MEDL Mobile. Based on originality, functionality, simplicity, revenue opportunity, and fun, ideas will be reviewed, and if applicable, MEDL will pay to make, promote, and market it, with a share of the profits going to the original idea creator. Bigpoint Partners With Heyzap -- Online-game publisher, Bigpoint announced a partnership with social games and MMO platform Heyzap this week. The first title to use the platform will be Farmerama, followed shortly by two other popular titles, DarkOrbit and Seafight with 70 million registered users combined. DeNA Reports $279 Million in Revenue -- Japanese social and mobile games company, DeNA, reported record-high revenue this week for their first fiscal quarter. Operating income was reported at about $138 million while revenue was noted at $279 million, marking a 175% and 282% increase over the numbers from the same quarter last year. Restaurant City Gets Dr. Pepper Brand -- As part of the newest theme for Playfish's Facebook app, Restaurant City -- 50s Drive In -- the social developer has integrated branded items from Dr. Pepper. Items include Dr. Pepper cooking ingredients, an unlockable vending machine, and signs. MyTown Goes Global -- More news from Booyah's MyTown, as the company announced, this week, that the location-based title is going global. Currently, the game is expanding to the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. According to TechCrunch, it is the first location-based app to support global check-ins through "Google's Places via the Google Maps API." In other MyTown news, Booyah has also announced its first scavenger hunt contest where players will trek across their towns and cities in search of their Town's key. Implementing all of the game's features, such as check-ins, virtual items, and stamps, players will have to beat out the competition for an iPad grand prize. Playfish Boosts EA Revenue -- Electronic Arts is reporting high revenue, as VentureBeat covers, for its first fiscal quarter: non-GAAP revenue of $539 million. A good portion of that income is being attributed to its free-to-play and social, Playfish-made, games, however. In fact, it is expected that this digital revenue will grow by 30% to $750 million for this fiscal year. The total expected revenue for EA as a whole, this fiscal year, is between $3.35 and $3.6 billion. Ryzing Raises $1.43 Million -- In funding news, a social game developer, Ryzing LLC, has raised $1.43 million, reports Gamasutra. The total is part of its $1.88 million mixed-securities offering from nine backers, including Kielvest Capital and SeventySix Capital. Trilogy Studios Launches Firefly Partner -- Earlier this week, social game developer Trilogy Studios launched its new Firefly platform that will be used in the development of social and casual online, multiplayer games. Additionally, PlaySpan has also signed on with the project and will provide subscription and virtual goods monetization solutions for any developer that uses the platform. SponsorPay Boosts Smeet Offer Revenue -- Interesting news from across the ocean as one of Europe's top monetization platforms, SponsorPay said it boosted offer revenues for the 3D virtual world, Smeet. Of the numbers reported, offer revenue was improved by 60% through in-game positioning. Moreover, 21% of non-paying players who completed SponsorPay offers became paying ones. Amazon Web Services & Social Gaming Help Each Other Grow -- Earlier this week, Amazon Web Services reported revenues of $500 million for 2010, and at least part of this success is due to social games, with, according to VentureBeat, Amazon hosting six to eight of the top 10 Facebook games at any one time, including titles from Zynga and Playfish, who have used the service since 2007.

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Social Gaming Roundup: Platforms, Offers, Mafias, & More

Christopher Mack

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