Amazon’s Android App Store is Live!

Today Amazon’s fresh new AppStore has officially been launched. This new platform is aimed to compete with Google’s official Android Market. In the past few months rumors were running like wildfire all over the tech blogs about this “AppStore.” While some details have leaked prior to its release, Amazon has left a few tricks up its sleeve. One of the biggest surprises is the ability to Test Drive’ nearly any Android application in the App Store directly from your browser.

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Nintendo refuses to compete against $1 cellphone games

Hideki Konno , the creator of the Nintendo 3DS , has told gaming publication Gamasutra that they aren’t concerned by cheap priced cellphone games and they have no plans to lower it’s pricing strategy anytime soon.

We’re not going to try to match that,” he insisted, addressing the issue of rock-bottom priced smartphone titles. “We’re just going to continually strive to not just maintain, but increase, the quality of the entertainment that we’re providing, and let it sort itself out. Again, we’re not worried about competing at a price point level. “Now of course as a customer, if somebody said to me, ‘Hey, we’ve got Call of Duty on your portable device and it’s only going to cost you 100 yen,’ yeah, I’d be super stoked, really excited about that.” “And I’d be really excited to see a great game at a really cheap price, but I just don’t think that you could make a game that’s immersive and as big as, let’s say Call of Duty, or any other large title, and sell it at that price point; it’s just not possible. “The only way that you’re going to get a game at that price point is if it’s a limited version with limited levels or something. They’re going to have to reduce it to sell at that price. So that other game – because the content is valuable – it’s still going to be a viable product at a higher price point. “If we went out and created one of our titles – a big title for Nintendo – and we decided to sell it at, like, say 100 yen,” he continued, “how many do we have to sell to get back our investment? That number’s insane. It’s just incredible, right? “As a game developer I’ve put my heart into what I create, and I’m hoping that what I’m putting out there is something that people will be engaged by and entertained by. And as a consumer, I want the same thing. If I go and I see a game that interests me and I think I want to play it, I don’t mind the fact that I have to pay a reasonable price for it.

“I’m not trying to say that I think games on cell phones are a bad thing; I’m not trying to say that they’re worthless, or have no value at all. I’m just saying that they’re just different. -Hideki Konno , Nintendo I agree with him , it’s really makes sense to what he is saying , cellphone games aren’t extreme quality titles , since they don’t have a big budget behind them , sure they can play well and be fun for a while , but won’t keep you coming back for more. But hey , it’s my opinion , leave what you think on the Nintendo vs Cellphone games debate.

Source: Gamersleak.com

Tiny Wings will get an Android Clone

According to an email sent to members of the phandroid forum, Tiny Wings creator Andreas Illiger, is not planning on releasing the smashing hit on Android anytime soon. In the email he clarified that he doesn’t have, “any plans to port tiny wings to android”, but added that the game might arrive “someday in the future when I have time”. With Tiny Wings hogging the number one spot on the App Store. It would be a smart move to replicate the game and release it on Android. This is exactly what one developer is doing. The clone Dillo Hills, will be out this Friday on the android marketplace. The game almost takes every single element of Tiny Wings including th4 layout, controls, island based layout, and even color schemes. With a lot of capy cat like features, the game does try to be unique. In the game you will have the ability to select new characters and “some new inspirations and features.” With the tradition of replicating iOS games and releasing them on the android marketplace, most people find this shady. However, keep in mind that Tiny Wing got it’s inspiration from Wavespark. With this process being completely legal, the Android developers have a chance to replicate success and make almost garaunteed money. This is mostly frouned upon in the developer community. Trainyard’s developer Matt Rix commented on this issue, “anyone who calls games like angry birds and tiny wings “clones” has no respect for execution.” Tiny Wings for iOS Dillo Hills for Android

Bottom Line: Although the Android clone doesn’t look that appealing, at least the game will give you the Tiny Wings like experience. 

Angry Birds Rio will be an Amazon Appstore exclusive for Android

Well this one’s a shocker! Apparently Amazon will carry the new Angry birds movie based game in their new AppStore. Amazon’s has recently announced that they will be launching their very own AppStore. Hoping to establish marketshare, Amazon did a great job of snatching up the launch exclusivity for the new hit tittle Angry Birds Rio. The game is said to be available for Android, but will soon be headed to the Apple App Store as well. We wrote awhile back about the upcoming Angry Bird’s movie and game. Now more information is out, including a trailer!

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Flight Control HD is $.99 for 24 Hours

For only 24 hours, the smashing hit Flight Control HD will be 80% off! In Flight Control you are the air traffic controller! Make sure the planes and helicopters land safely. The game will start to get very challenging later on, as more and more traffic pops up for you to handle. This game does a great job of testing your reaction time. With the game being extremely simple ot pick up and play, no wonder its extremely successful.

Bottom Line: If you haven’t purchased this game for your iPad yet, now the chance!

Rovio Gets $42 Million in Funding

Rovio is all over the news these day, but they deserve it! Because of the successful brand they have built around Angry Birds, Rovio is now considered the Apple of Game Development companies for the iOS. Now according to GigaOM reports, Rovio has managed to receive$42 million in funding round from Accel Partners, Atomico, and Felicis Ventures. Niklas Zennström, who founded Atomico, will be joining the board. With Niklas’s success over at Skype you can bet that the company will continue to juice the franchise. 40 million active users are currently playing Angry Birds daily, and over 2 million plush Angry Birds toys have been sold! Their plan is to move into other platform based markets, and expand their well know brand even more! To do the process correctly they will need more cash. Now thanks to this funding, Rovio will start taking over!

Bottom Line: Rovio will continue to move into other big markets like Facebook, Cartoon series, and other gaming platforms!

iPad 2 Is it REALLY that good?

Oh Apple, are you really going to do this again? Release a product with just some slight features. Ok, so dual-core, 8.8mm thin, front and rear facing camera, iOS 4.3,  and smart cover aren’t just slight features, but I would’ve expected at least a bump in resolution. The competitors’ tablets have higher resolutions and an increase in ppi(pixels per inch) and they were released before the iPad 2. I understand that scaling apps would be a concern, but I’m pretty sure that if you increased the resolution by a mathematical amount, it would work. A 1.5x increase wouldn’t be so bad! It would be awesome! 1536x1152. Doesn’t sound so bad, and I know they can do it. Retina display on the iPhone as an example? So the iPad 2 is more of an……iPad 1.75. My rant is complete. Now to pros and cons. Pros

  • Dual-Core
  • Front Facing Camera
  • Rear Camera that records at 720p 30fps
  • 8.8mm Thin<—————Crazy right?
  • 9x graphics performance
  • Same crazy awesome 10hr battery

Cons

  • Same, low res 1024x768 132ppi screen
  • iOS 4.3<——-It’s apple software, where’s the freedom besides jailbreaking

I’m not saying don’t buy an iPad ever. I’m just saying to realize the market schemes and really think about what you are going to purchase before buying on impulse.

Bottom Line: Great product, but think first.

Source: Gamersleak.com

Everything you need to know about the iPad 2

After Apple’s big announcement today, their iPad 2 is on the way! The iPad 2 will be available on March 11th, 2011. To try and not to bore you, we decided to create bulletpoins of the most important features that the iPad 2 has to offer: Main Features

  • 10 hours of battery life and a month on standby
  • Over 65,000 iPad applications are on the App Store
  • 33% thinner 8.8mm
  • Built in the gyroscope
  • Comes in White and Black for At&t and Verizon
  • Same pricing as the first iPad
  • Launches in 26 countries on March 25th
  • Supports HDMI out while charging at the same time: the cord will cost $39
  • 3G on At&t and Verizon
  • 1024 x 768 resolution
  • Rear facing camera can do 720p video recording at 30fps and 5x digital

New A5 Dual-core processor

  • Up to 2X faster CPU
  • Up to 9X faster graphics
  • Same low power as A4
  • First dual core tablet to ship in volume

Smart Covers

  • magnets grasp and auto-alight it
  • adds minimal weight & thickness
  • Micro-fiber lining cleans screen
  • Wake on open - sleep on close
  • Easy to remove or change
  • Polyurethane or leather cover choices that come in 5 different colors

Updated iOS 4.3

  • Safari Performance
  • iTunes home sharing
  • AirPlay improvements
  • Preference for iPad switch (mute or rotation lock)

New Apple Applications iMovie & GarageBand will cost $4.99 each iMovie

  • Precision editor
  • multitrack audio recording
  • New themes
  • Airplay to Apple TV
  • Share your videos in HD
  • Universal app

GarageBand

  • Touch instruments (Grand piano, organ, guitars, drums, bass)
  • Guitar amps and effects
  • 250+ Loops
  • Email ACC file of your song
  • Compatible with Mac version

Bottom Line: I’m getting this right away on March 11th!

33% of US and UK Adults are Mobile Gamers

A new survey from PoCap, the makers of Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled 3, and Feeding Frenzy, shows an incredible percentage of adults from U.K. and U.S. are strongly into mobile gaming. Due to the recent growth of Android and iOS, over 31% of Americans own a smartphone. In the US research 52% of 2,425 respondents, have stated that they have played a mobile game on their friends or own device. The survey gathered 2,425 respondents, of those 73% were from U.K. and 44% from U.S. The most engaging part of the survey was that 83% of smartphone-owners said they had played at least one mobile game in the past week. Unlike the console market, where the male gamers are dominant over females, there is no much of a gap between mobile female and male gamers. The survey mentions that smartphone users spend $25.57  a year, compared to $15.70 from feature phone owners. Check out the other stats from the press release:

* 84% of all mobile phone gamers, and 97% of avid mobile phone gamers say they play games on their phone at least once a week; 92% of smartphone owners who play mobile games say they play at least once a week, and 45% say they play daily (compared to 35% of all mobile phone gamers). In the 2009 survey, only 13% of mobile phone gamers said they played daily, and 40% said they played weekly or more often. * Among all mobile phone gamers, 50% said that the amount of time they spend playing games on their handset has increased over the past year, and among smartphone owners the figure climbs to 63%; in the 2009 survey, only 20% of mobile gamers indicated their consumption of mobile games had increased. * Among all mobile phone gamers, 78% indicated that playing mobile phone games had become a regular part of their weekly activities, and more than half (59%) indicated that they saw such games as a regular part of their daily activities; for smartphone owners the figures were 84% and 68%, respectively. * When asked which gaming-capable device they play games on most often, 44% of mobile phone gamers chose their phones, catapulting handsets past video game consoles (21%) and computers (30%) to the top of the list. 51% of avid mobile gamers and 55% of those mobile gamers who own smartphones indicated they played games most often on their phones. This compares to just 17% of mobile gamers who chose their handset as their most frequently used gaming device in the 2009 survey. * 43% of all mobile gamers, and 49% of smartphone gamers, said they had upgraded a free trial game to the full (paid) version in the past year; more than a quarter (27%) of all mobile gamers, and a third (34%) of smartphone gamers, said they had paid for additional content for an originally free game in the past year. * Among mobile phone gamers, the average smartphone owner purchased nearly twice as many games as those with other types of phones (5.4 games vs. 2.9 games) in 2010, and spent almost $10 more ($25.57 vs. $15.70) on phone games. * 19% of all mobile phone gamers said they played one or more social networking games via their phone daily, and more than a third (37%) said they play a social networking game via their phone at least once a week. * Among all mobile phone gamers, 23% of all mobile phone device usage time (excluding phone calls) is spent playing games.

Bottom Line: With these encouraging stats, mobile gaming development will be growing rapidly in the next few years. Kind of like gaming consoles, i feel that in the future we will have exclusive games for different mobile software devices. For example, Apple paying Rovio to create Angry Birds for only iOS devices.

Get Used to $.99 iPhone Applications

During Mondays presentation at the GDC Smartphone Summit, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka has said that

“If you look at the top games in the app store, 99 cents is the price. There’s no point in arguing whether it’s good or bad for the industry. One buck is the sweet spot, and what remains is to figure out how to make your mobile game a success at that price.” - Peter Vesterbacka

A different point of view came from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, which stated that 99-cent App Store games were, “destroying the industry.” Vesterbacka said that Rovio adds “insane value” to Angry Birds by creating dozens upon dozens of free levels, 240+, that all buyers get for free after paying their dollar. “That’s a very important part of the whole App Store model,” he said. Rovio’s next title Angry Birds Rio will launch on March 22 for $.99. The game is tied with the upcoming animated movie release from 20th Century Fox. Bottom Line: Consindering the price point a key, this evaluation is very accurate. Just think on it logically, the average consumer would not mind spending a buck on a feature rich application that has great reviews, and functions. Personally I’m a very stingy guy, before I purchase anything I will have to look at what I’m getting for the moneys worth. I know I know its only a dollar, however I have to feel like I’m getting a steal. With Vesterbacka praising Angry Birds success, it’s no surprise that $.99 pricing iPhone Games will be the key to a larger profit margin.

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