EA wants to get into hardcore gaming ... on Facebook [Update]

KlickNation Games
Update: Inside Social Games has confirmed that EA has purchased KlickNation. The outlet reports that the studio will be integrated into BioWare's social game development arm, most likely referring to BioWare San Francisco. Check out the full report here.

No, you probably won't see Battlefield 3 on Facebook anytime soon. But EA could make another social gaming buy by the end of the week, according to Inside Social Games's nameless sources. The Playfish and PopCap owner is reportedly looking to pick up Age of Champions creator KlickNation in a bid to enter the emerging hardcore social games scene on Facebook.

The 70 person-strong studio would add to the publisher's stable of social game developers that could bring its traditional game franchises to life on social networks, like EA2D (now BioWare San Francisco) has done with Dragon Age Legends. It's been said that there are nearly 80 million gamers enjoying more "core" game experiences on Facebook, so it's understandable why EA would be bullish on this audience.

However, as it does with your run-of-the-mill social games, EA faces stiff competition in the strategy games space on Facebook. Developers like Kixeye, Kabam and even Digital Chocolate have staked their claim when it comes to hardcore games on the platform. EA will likely test the waters with its upcoming Risk: Factions on Facebook, but that games appears more cartoon-like than most strategy games on the network.

The second place publisher has struck gold with The Sims Social, though it's in decline. Regardless, EA will be better off sticking with its more recognizable franchises if it's to use the KlickNation team to make new games. That said, maybe Battlefield will make it to Facebook after all--and there's always Command & Conquer.

Is it a good idea for EA to buy a developer like KlickNation? Could EA make a dent in the strategy games space on Facebook with properties like Command & Conquer?

Dev calls Zynga games "slightly gamified websites"

Many, maybe too many, conversations about social games lead back to the same topic: Zynga games, they're big, but are they any good?

One of the more measured answers to that question comes from Cerebral Fix CEO Ben Dellaca, who is currently on a Stateside tour to promote his and a few other New Zealand game companies who specialize in social, mobile and augmented reality games. He says Zynga started out creating, well, non-games, but have evolved since then. Here's a snippit of our conversation:

    "I kind of argue that the original Zynga products on Facebook were actually slightly gamified websites. And that was as simple as it was. So the likes of the Mafia Wars products or the 'X' Wars products -- they just ripped themselves off like 20-something ridiculous times, Vampire Wars... Vomit Wars. They introduced a whole RPG (role-playing game) concept to it. It was one click, and then it was like, come back here [to click again].

    Do you think Zynga games are the same now?

    I don't think they're the same at all. This new flight of products coming out from Zynga actually are "games," in my unhumble opinion. I have to tip my hat off to them. Games like Empires & Allies have real fighting elements in them ... I don't think the PvP element is going well at all ... but I think that took their audience to the stage where they're starting, starting, to create some cool little game content. And there's a whole new wave of them... their Indiana Jones rip-offs and their Castle-things are kind of interesting, although that CastleVille does look a little like FrontierVille to me -- so that's a little bit of a worry. But it will be interesting to see where they go in the future because the whole space is maturing. And, if you see a company like Zynga changing... then we're all going to be.

    Is Zynga dominating social games on Facebook so much, that it's, in a way, killing it?

    I go to all of the conferences and I'm forever seeing developers who are actually looking at the likes of Zynga and going, "Let's do that!" Which I think is crazy... Pick something you're really great at, start there and really polish that up. A lot of game companies moving into, and getting their butts kicked, in the social space are better off, in my opinion, doing something that's a little more core. We've just figured this out recently and have a new buzzword called 'Mid-core' gaming.

    What about "core" games on Facebook? Is that really going to draw console games to play a game on a social network?

    A great example of how not to do that is Sony and product that they've put with that dungeony thing [aka, Dungeon Overlord] they've put in there. It was a really great game but it wasn't connected to the audience properly. It was almost as if they made this great little game and wanted to sell it to Zynga customers. It wasn't a product that a 55-year-old US 'home executive' was going to play. So you really have to think it through strategically and have got that wider level of thinking as opposed to getting a little too excited about what we're doing and just going out there and making a product. Which does happen from time to time."


Cerebral Fix recently churned out a Facebook game called Crystal Link, a simple, but compelling gem matching game with power-ups (think Bejeweled Blitz). The company also released a Pokemon-style game called Terrapets for Android in November, which Dellaca says will be scampering onto Facebook in the not-too-distant future.

Wait, so farming's cool again? The Sims Social falls to third place

Whelp, that was fun while it lasted. EA and Playfish's mega hit The Sims Social is now the third most popular game on Facebook, as the game dipped beneath Zynga's FarmVille, according to AppData. The Facebook app tracking service chalks this up to a loss of 500,000 monthly players in December along with 1.8 million daily players gone in the past week alone.

This leaves The Sims Social with 5.9 million daily players and 30.4 million monthly players, while Zynga's farming simulator gained 200,000 daily players within the last week leaving it with 7 million daily players. However, the game is just a hair above the game all about Littlehaven with 30.9 million monthly players. If you ask us, there are two reasons for this unfortunate switcheroo.

For one, the Winter Wonderland expansion just hit FarmVille for those willing to pay up the Farm Cash to get in, hence the 200,000 more daily players. (That sounds like an accurate number for those willing to fork up the $10.) Zynga is taking the holidays seriously this year in FarmVille, as Winter Wonderland is an entirely new farm for fans to play around in. And that's in addition to the torrent of holiday crops, animals and decorations that has already hit the game and will likely continue into Dec. 25 and beyond.

The Sims Social, on the other hand, hasn't seen a major content update on the scale of FarmVille's Winter Wonderland since its release this summer. Sure, the game has been updated with numerous tweaks, themes and contests, but perhaps those aren't enough to keep players' attention. A hefty chunk of The Sims Social players are Zynga fans, after all, and they can be a fickle bunch. If The Sims Social wants to see second place again, it's going to take more than themes and gameplay refinements.

Are you still digging The Sims Social since its launch? Can the game be restored to its former glory, and if so, how?

FarmVille Pic of the Day: Mimidursley's Jingle Bells in Winter Wonderland

FarmVille joke
Shortly after Thanksgiving, fifty FarmVille players discovered that they won early access to the new Winter Wonderland farm through Zynga's Winter Wonderland Escape Caption Contest. Winners are listed here. Out of the 1,469 entries, there were no shortage of spiked eggnog jokes. Despite the fact that the contest rules said to keep things "Rated G", three winners -- GameOnGary, bigdog2847, and Dorisima Brown -- won by cracking quips of the chicken being drunk. Needless to say, many fans were miffed.

For me though, the best entry was one that never made it to the contest page. Mimidursley posted an animated picture of the Winter Wonderland animals (shown above) singing a parody of "Jingle Bells", while on a thread about FarmVille glitches. Mimidursley did enter the caption contest though, and it's another case of caroling critters, but her entry didn't win.

Anyway, aside from being cute, this animation brought a smile to our faces. So laugh, sing-along, and feel free to email it to your FarmVille-loving friends.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Would you like to see more FarmVille Pic of the Day like this one?

FarmVille Discover Card Goals: Everything you need to know

If you're ready to help a bright orange yeti find his credit card in FarmVille (I'm serious), you'll want to check out the new set of Discover Card goals that have launched in FarmVille this afternoon. While these goals have winter as their theme (the yeti has lost his Discover Card in the snow and ice), you can access them even if you haven't purchased access to Winter Wonderland. These Discover Card goals have a two week time limit, so you should have no problem finishing them all off. Plus, they're branded, which makes them inherently easier (after all, Zynga and Discover want as many people to complete them as possible, so our farms will be filled with promotional goodies). Here's how to complete them.

Yeti's Adventure Begins!

    Get 3 Ice Picks
    Harvest 100 Strawberries
    Harvest 2 Sheep


These Ice Picks can be earned by posting a general request to your wall that all friends can click on. As for the Sheep, animals inside storage buildings do count, so feel free to click on a Sheep Pen or Livestock Pen to finish that task off fast. Finally, Strawberries take just four hours to harvest, so make sure to make a special note to come back to them quickly, before they wither. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 100 XP, 5,000 coins and a bright orange and white It Pays to Discover Tree (an orange tree with white garland and a Discover Card topper).

Yeti Goes Sledding into Town!

    Get 3 Husky Treats
    Harvest 1 It Pays to Discover Tree
    Harvest 100 Peppermint


Husky Treats are another item you'll need to ask your friends to send you, while the It Pays to Discover Tree should be placed on one of your farms immediately after completing the first goal, so as to waste as little time as possible waiting for it to be ready to harvest. Sure, it's not as though you'll need a full two weeks to complete these goals anyway, but the quicker you complete them, the quicker you can walk away with your exclusive goodies and start to work on other things. Speaking of, the rewards for this goal are the Discover Restaurant, 100 XP and 5,000 coins.

Great Gifts for Yeti's Friends!

    Get 3 Gift Bags
    Harvest 100 Pumpkins
    Place Discover Restaurant


This goal is fairly self-explanatory: just place the Discover Restaurant onto a farm out of your Gift Box, and ask your friends to send you the Gift Bags. Wait eight hours for the pumpkins to be ready and you'll finish off this third goal, rewarding you with 100 XP, 5,000 coins and a cute "Discover Penguin," wearing an orange scarf.

To be clear, these goals are now officially starting to roll out to farms; however, the Discover Card version of the Winter Wonderland farm is not yet available as of this writing. However, if you visit Discover's page on Facebook, you'll see that we will eventually be given a chance at the Discover Yeti himself, along with a Cashback Bonus Castle as free items in the game. We'll make sure to let you know how to score those items for your own farm just as soon as they're available.

[Goals 2-3 Via FVNation]

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

What do you think of these Discover Card goals? Are you excited to see a lot of orange being added to the traditional green and red Christmas color scheme in FarmVille, even if it does come by way of some branded items?

FarmVille Frock Goals: Everything you need to know

A new set of goals has launched across our farms in FarmVille today, with this one being about the arts: painting, photography, sculpting and the like. You'll have two weeks to finish the 12 goals in this series. According to details discovered by FarmVilleFreak, there are plenty of frozen or "ice-themed" items in this goal series, so I hope you're ready to get cold!

Sculpting Along

    Get 4 Ice Brushes
    Harvest 150 Wheat
    Harvest 50 Fruit



For this Ice Brush task, along with other "get" tasks in this entire goal series, you'll need to ask your friends to send you those particular items (normally through general news posts on your wall). When you finish this goal, you'll receive 100 XP, an Ice Sheep and 2,500 coins.

Whittle Whittle Wow

    Get 6 Whittled Animals
    Harvest 175 Snow Carnations
    Harvest 1 Ice Sheep



The Snow Carnation is a limited edition crop that we brought you a guide to recently. You still have plenty of time to plant it, but you might as well plant some flowers now to finish off this goal fast. Your rewards? 200 XP, a Whittled Tree and 2,500 coins.

Ice Flash

    Get 8 Inspirational Photos
    Harvest 200 Lilac
    Harvest 1 Ice Sheep



Reward: Snowman Photographer, 300 XP, 2,500 coins

Sculpting Lessons

    Get 8 Sculpt by Numbers Kits
    Harvest 225 Peanuts
    Harvest 1 Whittled Tree



Reward: 400 XP, Ice Gnome Sculpture, 2,500 coins

The Sculpting Kid

    Get 8 Chisels
    Harvest 250 Snow Carnations
    Achieve Level 1 Mastery of Ice Sheep



Reward: 400 XP, Ice Scarecrow, 2,500 coins

Sculpt It Out

    Get 8 Blocks of Ice
    Harvest 275 Rice
    Craft Ice Pig Sculpture



The Ice Pig Sculpture is a new crafting recipe we told you about recently. You can create one of these in your Craftshop using Wheat, Lilac and Peanut bushels, and the actual crafting process takes 10 hours to complete by default. When you finish this goal, you'll receive an Ice Pig (animal), 400 XP and 5,000 coins.

Cold Judging

    Get 8 Judge Gavels
    Harvest 300 Pumpkins
    Harvest Ice Pig



Reward: 500 XP, Judge Cow, 5,000 coins

Icy Tides

    Get 8 Podiums
    Harvest 325 Spinach
    Harvest Judge Cow



Reward: 500 XP, Ice Sculpting Duck, 5,000 coins

Snow Down

    Get 8 Score Cards
    Harvest 350 Cotton
    Harvest 1 Ice Sculpting Duck



Reward: 500 XP, Frozen Tree, 5,000 coins

Dicey Ice

    Get 9 Sculpture Plans
    Harvest 375 Cranberries
    Achieve Level 1 Mastery of Ice Pig



Reward: 600 XP, Architect Goat, 5,000 coins

Statuesque

    Get 10 Pieces of Wonder Ice
    Harvest 1 Frozen Tree
    Harvest 1 Architect Goat



Reward: 600 XP, Wonder Ice Gnome, 5,000 coins. The difference between wonder ice and regular ice seems to be an iridescent quality to the former, so this Gnome will look as though it glows in different colors.

Finishing Touch

    Get 12 Smocks and Berets
    Harvest 400 Snow Carnations
    Craft 1 Ice Horse Sculpture


The Ice Horse Sculpture is also crafted inside your Craftshop using Cranberry, Cotton and Spinach bushels. This recipe takes 10 hours to complete by default. For finishing this final goal in the series, you'll receive 1,000 XP, an Ice Horse and 10,000 coins.

Brrr! I told you this goals had a lot of cold items involved - I hope your farm can take the deep freeze! Just remember to finish off these goals within the next two weeks, or they'll melt away (get it?) taking their exclusive prizes right along with them.

What do you think of these Frock goals in FarmVille? Have you already started working on them? How far have you made it into the set?

Hidden Chronicles Cheats and Tips: Have patience and earn plenty of bonus points

In Hidden Chronicles, Zynga's newest Facebook game, you aren't given a time limit during hidden object scenes, other than those Fast Find challenges you can take part in with your friends. You can simply complete a scene, collecting its items at your leisure, and as you find them. You'll earn quest credit for doing so, and will even earn a few points towards earning that next Mastery Trophy for the scene. But what if you want to earn those Mastery Trophies before all of your friends, or simply finish off a scene entirely so you can move onto the next? Luckily, you can do just that, and even save some energy along the way, by exercising patience.

When you enter a scene, you'll be shown a list of six items that you'll need to find (or perhaps a few more if the Super Clue has been shown to you - the Clue that requires you to light a match in the scene or pour a glass of wine, as examples). While you might want to immediately jump in and click on the first item you can find, this would be a mistake! Simply make a mental note of where this item is in the scene and move onto finding the next visually. Only after you've found all six items in the scene, and are confident that you know where they are when scanning back over the image should you actually click on the first item.

When you click, you start the combo meter, allowing you to earn huge amounts of bonus points when clicking on subsequent items before the combo meter can empty. If you've mentally marked the locations of all six items at the beginning of a scene, you'll walk away with huge points because you waited and claimed them all at once. Now, instead of playing a scene three or four times to earn a Mastery Trophy, you may only have to play it once or twice, leaving you all of those energy points to move onto new scenes and new quests in the game. Pretty cool, right?

If you want to make finding items and earning bonus points even easier across scenes, make sure to study our item location guides, so you'll have even more knowledge of item locations before you ever begin!

Check out the rest of our Hidden Chronicles Cheats & Tips right here.

Have you already started using this patience technique to rack up major bonus points in Hidden Chronicles? Do you have any other tips to share with your fellow gamers?

FarmVille: Free Kodiak Cubs and Double Mastery given for New Years

But not everyone will receive them... That's right, in a move that is sure to cause a riot amongst FarmVille players, Zynga has started emailing FarmVille players with links to claim Kodiak Cubs on their farms. This Kodiak Cub has been given away in the past, as it was an item made available in the Holiday Tree in 2010 (you needed 200 Holiday Gifts to redeem for it at the time).

However, it's the other prize that might make you a bit more concerned with whether or not you're one of these special, lucky players: Double Mastery apparently comes with this gift, but the email says nothing of how long the Double Mastery event will last, or what you actually have to do to receive it.

Furthermore, there's no mention in the email as to why we've been given these bonuses, so we're left to speculate. Could it be that Zynga is sending out the emails to less active players as incentive to jump back into the game? Or, is it that veteran players are being rewarded for their loyalty? Whatever the case, you'll want to keep an extra special eye on your inbox this week, as you never know if you'll be the lucky recipient of the Kodiak Cub and Double Mastery in your game!

Did you receive an email offering you a Kodiak Cub and Double Mastery, or are you still waiting for yours?

Hidden Chronicles Orchestra Room: Our guide to finding every item

Making our way deeper into Zynga's Hidden Chronicles on Facebook, we can take a look at the second artifact in the Library chapter - the Italian Violin. This Violin has five scenes, one of which is premium, and the second scene is called Orchestra Room. You'll need eight energy points each time you wish to play it, but you can play the scene an infinite number of times to earn mastery.

We're here with a guide showing you where to find the scene's many items, so if you're working on building up your combo points or just on the scene's individual mastery scale, make sure to check out our images below! Note: The items you'll receive will just be a selection of all of those pictured below.

If you're looking to find a particular item: Hit Ctrl +F (or Command + F if on a Mac) and type in the name of the object you're looking for. This will take you directly to its image.

Super Clue:

    Repair Xylophone (pick up three pieces and drag them to instrument on the wall)

Set 1:

    Record
    Saxophone
    Sun
    Fountain Pen
    Fresh Bouquet
    Maracas

Set 2:

    Bucket
    Trumpet
    Cowbell

Set 3:

    Blue Drum
    Cape
    Stepping Stool
    Wine Bottle
    Drinking Glass
    Clarinet

Set 4:

    Gaslamp
    Moth
    Trophy
    Feather Boa
    Box of Chocolates

Set 5:

    Cane
    Top Hat
    Dog

Set 6:

    Quarter Note
    Cymbals
    Barrel

Set 7:

    Toy Chair
    Smiling Mask
    Ashtray

Set 8:

    Piano Poster
    Sandbag
    Sheet Music
    Tambourine



There are a handful of items not pictured above, as the game generates each set of items randomly. When we come across those missing items, we'll make sure to update this space with how you too can find them. In the meantime, feel free to start decorating your Manor and working on building up your own mastery of this scene or any other in the game!

Check out the rest of our Hidden Chronicles Cheats & Tips right here.

Have you finished every trophy of mastery for this Orchestra Room scene? What do you think of Zynga's take on the hidden object genre thus far?

Pioneer Trail Chocolate Conundrum Timed Goal: Everything you need to know

While the holiday season may be over, there are some final projects to complete in Pioneer Trail before we put away all of the decorations for another year. Harrison, for instance, needs your help to make the holidays perfect by helping him create loads of chocolate. This comes in the form of the Chocolate Conundrum timed goal, which is only just appearing in some users' Homesteads. You'll have until January 31 to accept this new goal in your game (you must be level 15 or higher to receive it) and will have five days to complete it in its entirety to receive your rewards.

Chocolate Conundrum

    Collect 40 Cocoa Milk
    Collect 20 Dark Chocolate
    Collect 20 Cocoa Beans


The Cocoa Milk comes from tending Cocoa Cows in Holiday Hollow, the game's Christmas expansion. The Cocoa Beans, meanwhile, come from individual requests sent out to friends. Finally, the Dark Chocolate also comes from friends, but this one is through general news posts placed on your wall.

When you finish this goal, you'll receive a Big Present (go into your inventory to find and open it), 20 Candy Canes and 500 XP. Just remember, the end of January marks the end of plenty of goals in the game, so you'll want to tackle as many as you can, as soon as you can, to have a chance of completing every one. Good luck!

What do you think of this Chocolate Conundrum timed goal? Have you had this one on your Homestead for a while now, or did you just receive it this week?

Pioneer Trail All Aboard Timed Goal: Everything you need to know

Apparently, the transportation system in Pioneer Trail could use some work, as a character named Murt has dropped into your Homestead to work on the railway, making travel faster and safer in and out of your game. If you'd like to help Murt out, there's a new timed goal for you to complete called "All Aboard!" This timed goal is only available for users Level 15 or higher, and you must start it before it expires at the end of January. Once you begin, you'll have five days to complete the goal in its entirety, or you'll lose your chance at its rewards forever.

All Aboard!

    Collect 20 Gears
    Collect 20 Stocking Coal
    Collect 20 Rail Rivets


The Gears come from completing tasks in Holiday Hollow, and while collecting 20 used to be an absolute pain (not to mention a huge energy waste), Zynga has announced that the drop rate for Gears has been increased, so you shouldn't have as much trouble as you might have before. As for the Rail Rivets and Stocking Coal, these items come by way of requests to your friends (either general news feed posts or individual requests sent out to neighbors).

If you can complete these three tasks within the five day time limit, you'll receive a Big Present (you can open it up from within your inventory), 20 Candy Canes and 500 XP. Good luck finishing this one in time!

Are you tired of seeing so many timed goals in Pioneer Trail, or do you like these smaller goals that you can tackle in small chunks?

Empires & Allies Civil War Re-Enactment: Lead the North or South to victory

While many of Empires & Allies' units may focus on the latest and greats in technology and military advancement, Zynga has decided to take a trip back in time - way back in time - to pay tribute to the American Civil War. You'll be able to choose from units representing both the North and South (Union and Confederate) armies, and some classic military units like submarines and a classic battleship.

Many of these items require you to be at least Level 25, while the individual Union Infantry soldier requires you to be Level 50. Interestingly, the Confederate solider only requires Level 25, but this is likely due to the fact that the Union solider comes with 350 points, while the Confederate option only has 210. Other units include the HL Hunley Submarine with 400 points and a Monitor Battleship with 340 points.

One additional item is the Civil War Infantry Battlefield, which costs 10 Empire Points. All of these items will be available for the next 11 days, so while you're not exactly being rushed to purchase any of these, you won't want to delay very long either. If additional items launch in the Civil War Re-Enactment theme, we'll make sure to let you know.

What do you think of these Civil War Re-Enactment items? Will you splurge on the Infantry Battlefield?

GREE sets up shop in San Francisco with first U.S. game studio

Japanese mobile social game maker GREE really wants to do well in the U.S. against the likes of DeNA, Zynga and even Apple. And what better way to help make that happen than by diving in? The company announced today that it has opened a 41,000 square foot office space in the China Basin district of sunny San Francisco. (Seriously, it's cold here. We're kind of jealous.)

"We know San Francisco is the best place for us to find the significant industry talent we are searching for, to help us bring a top notch social gaming experience to all of our players," GREE CEO Naoki Aoyagi said in a release. "We are thrilled to create this unique and comfortable space to illustrate our commitment to both San Francisco, an international hub of this industry, and our employees."

The San Francisco office is led by GREE SVP of social games Eiji Araki, a six-year veteran of the mobile social games world in Japan. GREE hopes that Araki's extensive experience with the free-to-play business model, combined with top talent from the Bay Area, will mix together and churn out the best mobile social games yet. In fact, two of which are set to launch in March, around the same time GREE proper is expected to land in the states and abroad.

This news follows the announcement that GREE will enlist major technology partners to ensure its mobile game network launches smoothly. With that foundation in place, now GREE looks focused on what matters (to us): the games.

"Our team is hard at work to deliver best-in-class content," Araki said in a release. "Our aim is to constantly change the face of mobile social gaming and we know, without a doubt, that San Francisco is THE city to find the top talent to build unique games from the ground up for the Western Market." (And hey, GREE San Francisco staffers get yoga classes in-house, so that's neat-o.)

Are you more excited about GREE now that it has a foothold in the U.S? Where do you go to socialize in your mobile games right now?

Does Zynga plan to go head-to-head with Angry Birds on mobile?

This is jumping the gun, perhaps, but where else would Zynga aim with expressed interest in that corner of the mobile gaming world? Zynga has made it known that its mission is to enter established game genres and be the best in those categories, and, at this point, Finnish game maker Rovio's Angry Birds is basically its own category in the iPhone and Android gaming spaces.

"We're excited about the physics category," Zynga Mobile SVP Travis Boatman said to Inside Mobile Apps (IMA). "We want to do broad, mass-market social games. There might be games that perform well on the charts, but if they don't have enough reach, we'll forgo them for games that are more mass market."

It's possible that Zynga is working on a physics-based iPhone game with mass market appeal. Where else that leave the developer's target audience than the average Angry Birds player? Despite the recent string of copycat allegations made against Zynga (some of which seem to check out), this does not suggest that might be the case with whatever Zynga might be working on in this category. Boatman shoos away those claims altogether.

"These games are free and our players have the choice to play what they want to play," Boatman said to IMA. "If games were too similar to consumers and there was no clear value add, why would a consumer play it?" Though, Zynga did reportedly try to buy Rovio for a pretty penny and was denied, and NimbleBit tells a similar story.

Are you excited to learn that Zynga might have a physics-based game in the works? How do you think it will do, if Zynga really will go directly against Angry Birds?

Skyfall on Android is filled with spells, social features and strategy

Ngmoco isn't just bringing in some of the top mobile games to fill out the portfolio of games on Mobage. No, it's developing its own, too, one of which is Skyfall for Android phones. And while we were granted a preview of the game during last year's E3, this year ngmoco has much more to show, like the game in action with its turn-based combat system and Mobage-fueled social features.

Players will explore the world of Skyfall in almost real time. Adventurers will be able to interact with their friends while inside villages across the world physically. Player can then view each others' profiles, invite them to help you out with quests. The battle system is turn-based, but offers a bit of interactivity with the chance for critical hits and dodges through touching the screen. Let's just say Android gamers should be very happy. Well, at least the Lord of the Rings fans out there.


Click here to download Skyfall's open beta on Android Now >

[Via PocketGamer]

Are you looking for a social role-playing game on iOS, too? What do you think of Skyfall so far?

BrainJewel moves from Facebook to iPad, but the transition isn't free

TribePlay's BrainJewel launched on Facebook last year, but if you really enjoyed the brain-testing memory and math mini-games therein, and want to take the game with you wherever you go, you can now do just that by downloading the new iPad version of the game.

We had a chance to go hands-on with this iPad version of BrainJewel, and have found that the game is a basic port of the Facebook version. That is, it contains the same power-ups and mini-games, but most of these actually do play better with the touchscreen format. For instance, in one of the first memory games in BrainJewel, you'll be shown a checkered board, with items scattered on random squares. You'll need to remember which individual squares contain items after they disappear, so it's much easier to quickly tap on squares in rapid succession by using your fingers than using a mouse on Facebook.

Gallery: BrainJewel on Facebook


Still, BrainJewel on iPad isn't free, and it will set you back $1.99 as of this writing. It's unusual for a free Facebook game experience to suddenly go pay-to-play, and as the game simply offers the same experience you can find on Facebook for free, it will be interesting to see just how long this pay-to-play model holds up, or if TribePlay will eventually be forced to make the game free.

Download BrainJewel on iPad for $1.99 from iTunes --->

Do you like BrainJewel on Facebook? Would you pay $1.99 to take the game with you on your iPad?

Pioneer Trail Rekindling the Flame: Everything you need to know

With the launch of Pioneer Trail (then FrontierVille) on Facebook, one of the first tasks we were asked to complete was creating a home for our spouse so that they could join us out on the wild frontier. Now, it's time to rekindle the spark between your in-game character and spouse, via a 10-part goal series called Rekindling the Flame.

When this feature launches in your game, you'll receive a letter from Jack that triggers the launch of this event. You'll have access to 10 different goals, each of which are repeatable, with two major prizes being rewarded for finishing these goals in bulk along the way. That is, if you finish goals 1-5, you'll receive a Player Piano item, and if you finish goals 6-10, you'll receive a Romantic Pony. After receiving this letter from Jack, you can then click on your in-game Cabin or Ponderosa Lodge to access these goals from then on in.

Heatin' Things Up!

    Tend 40 Adult sheep on your Homestead
    Sell 20 Adult Chickens
    Clobber 3 Bears


Rewards: 100 XP, 1 Heart, 1 Love Note

Takin' the Weight

    Clear 30 Wildflowers on your Homestead
    Collect 15 Feather Dusters
    Collect 10 Pistol Lubricant


The Feather Dusters drop when tending adult geese. When you complete this goal, you'll receive 200 XP, two Hearts and two Love Notes. These Love Notes are entries into the game's Valentine's Day sweepstakes, which has a grand prize reward of $2,500 US. Other prizes include 5 Valentine's Day Mystery Crates (given to 50 players) and a single Valentine's Day Mystery Crate / 25 Horseshoes for 100 additional players.

Gift from the East

    Tend 30 Young Cows on your Homestead (not babies)
    Collect 25 Red Velvet Cocoa
    Ask for 20 Country Candles


Rewards: 300 XP, 3 Hearts, 3 Love Notes

Frontier Package!

    Collect 40 Goat Cheese
    Harvest 20 Blue Bells
    Craft 3 Granny Gut Punch


Blue Bells are found on the free gifts page, and Goat Cheese comes from tending adult goats. Your rewards here are 400 XP, 4 Hearts and 4 Love Notes.

A Seat for Two!

    Tend 40 Neighbor Crops
    Harvest 40 Pink Roses
    Craft 1 Lovers Swing


The Lovers Swing comes from Aged Wood (chop pine trees), Red Lace Swings (ask friends) and Vine Flowers (ask friends). Your rewards for completing this goal are 500 XP, 5 Hearts and 5 Love Notes.

Gettin' Cuddly!

    Collect 35 Chocolate Cherries
    Tend 30 Adult Mouflon Sheep
    Collect 25 Cozy Blankets


Rewards: 600 XP, 6 Hearts 6 Love Notes

Decoratin' Delight!

    Tend 30 Adult Oxen on your Homestead
    Collect 40 Cotton Puffs
    Craft 3 Berry Trellises


Cotton Puffs drop at random when tending Cotton. You'll craft Berry Trellises using Tough Screws (clear rocks), Planks (ask friends) and Berry Cuttings (ask friends). For finishing this goal, you'll receive 700 XP, 8 Hearts and 8 Love Notes.

Couple Power!

    Collect 50 Country Potpourri
    Collect 3 General Store Daily Bonuses
    Ask for 25 Wheat Bouquets


Country Potpourri drops when harvesting Sunflowers. For finishing this goal, you'll earn 800 XP, 8 Hearts and 8 Love Notes.

Frontier Crafts!

    Harvest 40 Ripe Lemon Trees with your Spouse
    Harvest 25 Bleeding Hearts with your Spouse
    Craft 2 Cookies in the Brick Oven


Rewards: 900 XP, 10 Hearts, 10 Love Notes

Unexpected Present!

    Tend 30 Young Moose on your Homestead (not babies)
    Collect 35 Ice Cream (drops from Blue Bells)
    Craft 2 Molten Cakes


Rewards: 1,000 XP, 12 Hearts, 12 Love Notes

On top of these 10 goals, which (again) are repeatable, there are three other goals to complete during this event.

Help on the Homestead

    Have 20 Love Notes
    Complete the 2nd Rekindling the Flame Goal Twice
    Complete the 3rd Rekindling the Flame Goal Twice


Rewards: 300 XP, 5 Hearts, 5 Love Notes

Showing the Love!

    Have 80 Love Notes
    Complete 5th Rekindling the Flame Goal 3 Times
    Complete 7th Rekindling the Flame Goal 4 Times


Rewards: Kissing Badgers, 10 Hearts, 10 Love Notes

Prettying Up the Homestead!

    Have 150 Love Notes
    Complete 9th Rekindling the Flame Goal 4 Times
    Complete 10 Rekindling the Flame Goal 4 Times
    Craft 2 Molten Cakes in the Brick Oven


Rewards: Loving Cow, 50 Hearts, 25 Love Notes

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day coverage right here.

What do you think of this Rekindling the Flame event in Pioneer Trail?

CityVille welcomes Valentine's Day with warm and cozy items

Love is in the air in CityVille, with a new set of items being released in the game's store in celebration of the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday. There are only seven items available thus far, but there are some available for coins, as well as City Cash, which makes this roundup pretty interesting.

Kiss & Tell Cottage (Home)

    Costs: 90,000 coins
    Population: 300 - 600
    Rent: 250 coins every 4 hours


Sweetheart Shack (Home)

    Costs: 40,000 coins
    Population: 220 - 430
    Rent: 94 coins every hour


Lovebird Abode (Home)

    Costs: 28 City Cash
    Population: 280 - 550
    Rent: 144 coins every 2 hours


Adoration Apartments (Home)

    Costs: 70 City Cash
    Population: 2,100 - 4,100
    Rent: 301 coins every 18 hours


House of Hugs (Home)

    Costs: 40 City Cash
    Population: 560 - 1,100
    Rent: 246 coins every 8 hours


Heart Balloons Vendor (Decorations)

    Costs: 10 City Cash
    Payout Bonus: 10% to surrounding homes and businesses; bonus 10% to Valentine's Day items


Tree of Trust (Decorations)

    Costs: 20,000 coins
    Payout Bonus: 6% to homes and businesses; bonus 6% to Valentine's items


Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day coverage right here.

What do you think of this first wave of Valentine's Day items in CityVille?

FarmVille Tunnel of Love: Everything you need to know

Helping to bring the feelings of love and romance to FarmVille is the new Tunnel of Love, a feature that will have you helping three animal couples on your farm through the Tunnel of Love. The first is the Giraffe Couple, while the Peacock and Bear Couples follow after.

To be specific, you'll have three days to finish with the Giraffe Couple, which requires you to have five friends help out along the way. You'll be able to send out individual requests to your neighbors to have them help you out, or you can just purchase the help with Farm Cash. You'll receive a Giraffe baby for helping them out. The same can be said for the other two couples: you'll need to ask more and more friends for help, and will receive a Peacock baby and a Bear baby when you've helped those final two couples.

This feature is incredibly similar to the Penguin feature back during the Christmas event, so if you participated then, you'll be able to get through this just fine. Good luck earning all of the animals in time!

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day coverage right here.

What do you think of this Tunnel of Love feature in FarmVille?

RockYou partner Peak Games raises $11.5M for social game projects

For those of you (like myself) who are kind of tired of seeing the western world dominate Facebook games, this news should come as breath of fresh air. VentureBeat reports that Istanbul-based company Peak Games has raised $11.5 million and purchased two companies in efforts to become a power player in Facebook games. The developers in question, Umaykut and Erlikhan, were bought in what Peak Games calls "talent acquisitions." Sound familiar?

This move speaks to the rapid growth of Facebook games in regions like Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, Mexico and South America. As we already know, Peak Games will work with growing publisher RockYou to distribute and localize its games in those regions. At the moment, Peak Games is the 18th most popular developer on Facebook, according to AppData, beating out notables like CrowdStar and Digital Chocolate in daily players.

Its most popular internally-created game is Okey, a social puzzle board game. And if you count its fans across all social networks including Facebook, Peak Games welcome 4 million daily players and 16 million monthly players, according to VentureBeat. Peak Games has made a name for itself in localizing social games from national companies for its audience, which is the the fourth largest on Facebook.

"Our goal is to be the dominant provider of games for emerging markets," Peak Games CSO Rina Onur, told VentureBeat. "The growth has been huge in the last six months. These regions are growing super fast and they are very hungry for games."

Facebook gaming is huge in regions other than the U.S.--companies like DeNA and Gree in Japan, Tencent in China and wooga in Europe are testament to that. But what we're more interested in is seeing creators like Peak Games create successful games for a global audience. Perhaps an injection of cash (from Hummingbird Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital and an anonymous strategic investor) and talent will make that happen--Peak Games has an office in San Francisco, after all.

Would you like to see more Facebook games from these regions? Do you think Peak Games has a good chance at climbing up the ladder?

Entertainment Games looks to revive soap operas in Facebook games

FarmVille may have killed the daytime soap opera, but it seems like soaps might have their heyday after all. Langhorne, Penn.-based Entertainment Games announced that it hired Michael Fairman (pictured below), a leading expert on daytime soaps (bet you didn't know such a job existed, eh?) to help the company develop a soap opera game with Heyday Games.

Working toward this announcement, the company has been surprisingly busy. Entertainment Games bought social games maker Heyday Games in late June. Then in August, the company changed the name it's had since 1992. Two weeks ago, the company struck a licensing deal with intellectual rights management firm CMG Worldwide to use pictures of celebrities for some "retro-based social game for Facebook, Google+, mobile devices and the open web."

Aside from admittedly banking on nostalgia, there are a few clues as to what type of game the company looks to make. Entertainment Games wants to harness Fairman's two decades of experience in the industry. The company wants his help to create a game that Entertainment Games's CCO F.J. Lennon says will "deliver a ground-breaking social gaming experience that both the gaming and soap opera industries will take note of."

Michael Fairman soap opera expertSince Facebook games came along, games and daytime soaps had been inadvertently at war over the same audience, namely, 25 to 54-year-old women. Unfortunately for soaps fans, Zynga's "television audience destruction machine" won the battle over All My Children and One Life to Live. But Entertainment Games isn't the only company looking to capitalize on this obvious demographic.

In an effort to generate more revenue, UK soap opera Coronation Street was turned into a Facebook social game called "Corrie Nation". Unfortunately, the game didn't last a year before it was taken down for a complete rehaul, with ATV network looking for a new game developer to take on the job. With soap operas dying and the first (and only) Facebook soap opera game ever made, out of commission, you'd think that no one would bother with another attempt, right? Well, here comes Entertainment Games, Inc. to prove us wrong.

From the sound of things, soap operas can find new life after television as Facebook games. On top of that, they're going to return vying for the same demographic as they once did against Zynga, but this time, they'll be on the same playing field.

Do you think soap opera social games have a chance at being the next big hit?

Bubble Saga maker King.com hires Microsoft exec as marketing head

Can none resist the dollar signs allure of Facebook games? King.com, maker of Facebook game ports like Bubble Saga, announced that it has hired ex-Microsoft exec Alex Dale as its chief marketing officer. Dale joins King.com after overseeing Microsoft's marketing efforts on products including Bing, Internet Explorer and Windows Phone.

"We have made several strategic hires recently in an effort continue this growth and even take it one step further, becoming a clear leader in the space," King.com co-fonder and CEO Riccardo Zacconi said in a release. "We are confident that Alex will be instrumental in helping us further grow our global user- and partnership-base and are thrilled to have him on board."

Dale joins a list of executives that have found themselves in the social games space. Sean Ryan, director of Facebook games partnerships, was at one time the CEO of now-defunct social network LiveJournal. Zynga head of mobile games David Ko comes from Yahoo, and most recently Flickr founder Stewart Butterfield moved on to make his own social game, Glitch.

King.com, which most recently launched Bubble Witch Saga on Facebook, now joins the ranks of companies like Zynga in its willingness to source talent from other industries. And King.com says in the announcement that Dale will be at helm of the companies global expansion. It seems that the company is looking abroad to reach the top five game makers on AppData--it sits pretty at number seven with just over 17 million monthly players.

Do you think King.com, making hires like this, can become an even bigger competitor in Facebook games? What do you think of games like Bubble Witch Saga?

Zynga Mobile Chief: Mobile is a 'new social gaming frontier'

Everyone else is right there with ya, big red. During an interview with The Guardian, Zynga Mobile SVP David Ko said, "We believe that mobile represents a new social gaming frontier. We've always said we want Zynga to be the best content creators in the world, and we are platform agnostic." More and more Zynga fans expect to play its games on their phones and tablets, which wasn't exactly where CEO Mark Pincus's heart was many moons ago.

Regardless of whether Zynga has been creating mobile games since Zynga Poker hit iOS devices in 2008, it was only the advent of Facebook Connect that motivated the company to dig deeper into the platform. From that we got games like FarmVille and CityVille Hometown, neither of which are feature-complete versions of their Facebook counterparts. (The latter of which is a different game entirely.)

Now, The Guardian reports that Zynga is looking to take advantage of mobile devices' key features like cameras and accelerometers in future games. And tablets appear to be a big deal in Zynga HQ--Ko told The Guardian the company was "very bullish" on the idea. And HTML5, the emergent web coding language that's been touted as the proverbial messiah for cross-platform social gaming, is something Ko admits the company is interested in.

"HTML5 is interesting, although I do feel it is early," Ko told The Guardian. "With those acquisitions, you can see into our thinking in this area a little bit." (Ko there is referring to companies like Newtoy and Dextrose.) Zynga already released one game through HTML5: Mafia Wars Atlantic City.

However, HTML5 games have yet to achieve the complexity of, say, Hanging With Friends, which Zynga just released on Android devices. Regardless, all eyes--including Zynga's--are on those 4-inch screens that rarely leave your side. And with companies as unlikely as Capcom making buku bucks on mobile games, you can bet Zynga is a' hustlin'.

Are you waiting for more mobile games from Zynga? What would you like to see the developer do next on smartphones?

Half of all U.S. social gamers own a game console, RockYou study says

As if we already didn't know: Some social gamers are more "hardcore" than we thought. But the next study released that attempts to drive this point home is courtesy of Zoo World creator RockYou and conducted by Interpret, a media research firm. Titled the "Social Gamer Thought Leadership Research Study," it finds that 50 percent of U.S. social gamers own a traditional gaming console.

The study, which polled over 2,00 social game fans living in the U.S. aged 18 and older with a 60-40 women to men split, also found that social gamers are more "sophisticated." To back up the claim, the study reports a quarter of social gamers prefer games with quests, and that 22 percent admit that score-sharing drives their urge to play more. Oh, and these players also spend quite a bit of time with the games.

Of the over 2,000 people polled, RockYou and Interpret found that the average social gamer spends an average of 9.5 hours playing out of the 13 average hours they spend on networks like Facebook. The average social game player, according to the study, has just over 16 real-life frieds playing these games with them and has made 20 new friends through social games. Of course, the study doesn't get into how deep said friendships are, but how could you?

The study also reports that 42 percent of social gamers would play a social game more, if offered real world rewards like coupons or gift cards. (But isn't the idea to get them to pay up?) It was just recently that Raptr discovered that a number of Zynga fans may be Halo and Grand Theft Auto fans, too. And before that, Kabam found in its own study that the hardcore crowd on Facebook is growing.

What should you take away from this influx of studies and reports? Regardless of whether you still dig tending to virtual crops or running a shanty town, many developers--even the "casual" ones--seem all but done with your farms and cities of yore.

What do you think of the numerous reports on the growing hardcore crowd in social games? How do you think this will change the industry in the long run?