ngmoco hopes lightning strikes twice with Legend Cards on Android

After ngmoco's mobile card-battling game Rage of Bahamut became, well, all the rage on the Google Play store for Android (and then on iOS), the social games tycoon has partnered with gloops International to do it again with the launch of Legend Cards on Android. Legend Cards is already a huge success overseas, having a user base of over 1.5 million players in Japan alone. Now, you'll be able to construct another powerful army within Legend Cards, all for free.

Legend Cards sees you traveling across uncharted lands recruiting different kinds of creatures / entities into your army. You'll interact with "humanoids," machines, monsters and more, all set in the world of shonen manga. Gameplay is fleshed out with the ability to evolve different cards to make your deck stronger, and of course, you can use your ever-expanding card collection to take to battle against other players worldwide.

"We are always looking to expand our lineup with premium titles that have universal appeal," said Neil Young, CEO, ngmoco and Director, DeNA, via a company press release. "Trading card games are a huge phenomenon in Japan, and we are leading the charge in bringing top hits like Legend Cards to players worldwide."

Legend Cards is now available to download for free on the Google Play store for Android, and the game will be released on the Apple App Store "soon." Stay tuned for more on the game's iOS release.

Click here to download Legend Cards on Android --->

Have you tried Legend Cards on your Android device, or are you too busy playing Rage of Bahamut to take a break for anything else? Sound off in the comments!

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EA's COO hopes The Sims Social could be even more social some day

Playfish's hit Facebook game The Sims Social, taken literally, isn't the most social game ever. And not many Facebook games are, really. Peter Moore, COO of Playfish owner and veteran games publisher EA, knows this, and said as much to Gamasutra in an interview during the company's recent showcase event in New York City.

"Right now, it's mostly asynchronous gameplay... I can't visit you in real-time in The Sims Social, you don't know all the silly things we do, it's mostly a one-way experience. I'd love to leave you a note; all I can do is leave you that 'Peter visited' type thing. There's nothing I can do that is personal," Moore said to Gamasutra. "But how cool would it be if I'm 'there' and you say, 'there's a TV show on'... and we watch TV together? That's my vision of when you think how social network games need to evolve. I think eventually someone's going to get there, and hopefully it's us."

Moore envisions the near future of Facebook gaming as a "Facebook gaming 2.0," with lots of big changes headed the genre's way over the next six to 12 months. EA made two massive gambles to break into the social games space. That's not to say anything of ill will toward either purchase, but spending hundreds of millions (or possibly even $1 billion) is a gamble no matter how you slice it.

According to the COO, both were worthy investments, with The Sims Social being "a tremendous success for the company." The numerous branding opportunities alone for the game has EA seeing dollar signs. Now all EA needs is for those dollar signs to turn Moore's vision into reality.

Are you satisfied with The Sims Social as it is right now? What do you think the future of social games will look like? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Katy Perry hopes to blow up The Sims 3 Showtime like a Firework

Katy Perry partied a little too hard Last Friday Night, and ended up in The Sims 3 Showtime. (We'll stop now.) EA announced that the pop star signed an "extensive and exclusive" deal with the company that will feature Perry in numerous iterations of The Sims. Starting with the upcoming The Sims 3 Showtime--launching in March 2012--"Katy Perry themed in-game content and virtual goods" will invade one EA's iconic franchise, according to the company.

Perry will be found in advertising and marketing campaigns for The Sims, starting with The Sims 3 Showtime. "I love how you're able to play out different stories through your Sims characters - giving them different careers and watching them succeed," Perry said in a statement. "It's cool to see the Sims' stage performances in The Sims 3 Showtime decked out just like my California Dreams Tour--even my cotton candy video screens are in there! I always like to think of myself as a cartoon, and now I'm a Sim!"

This is one deep collaboration Perry has signed up for: According to EA, she'll work closely with The Sims team to create accessories, clothing, hairstyles, furniture and props inspired by her crazy performances and videos. Sims and Katy Perry fans alike can pre-order The Sims 3 Showtime Katy Perry Collector's Edition, complete with an Ultimate Stage bonus venue, Katy Perry-themed in-game items and a free poster--how cute.

Zynga might have Lady Gaga (and former EA EVP of business development Barry Cottle), but EA might have just found its rival's foil. Considering this deal will span several The Sims games, we wouldn't be surprised to see Katy Perry pay Little Haven a visit in The Sims Social.

Are you psyched to hear that Katy Perry will hit next iteration of The Sims? What do you think of Perry possibly paying The Sims Social a visit? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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New hardcore social games studio hopes to 'shake up the status quo'

In other words, the brand new Seismic Games wants to create social games for the unicorn of the social gaming world: "hardcore" gamers. Los Angeles, Calif.-based Seismic Games was founded in 2011 by industry veterans like CEO Greg Borrud (who founded and sold Pandemic Games to EA), Eric Gewirtz, CCO and known for work on the Star Wars: Battlefront series and president Chris Miller of Vivendi Universal fame.

After raising $2 million in funding from over a dozen investors, Seismic Games looks to spin the idea of social games on its head. The studio's first game, set to launch in the first quarter of 2012 on Facebook and elsewhere, will focus heavily on a sophisticated narrative, character development and "deeper engagement." The game will also feature both user-generated and real-time content as well as opportunities for branding. In short, we know next to nothing about this game.

"Seismic is focused on bringing the next wave of social games to consumers who are getting tired of 'me too' products," Seismic Games CEO and co-founder Greg Borrud said in a release. "In blending the best of the analytics-based game model with the quality of entertainment in traditional video games, we're developing an entirely new social games experience with a goal of taking this market to the next level."

Seismic Games is far from the only company that looks to blow away hardcore game enthusiasts with robust, compelling social games. Rumble Games looks to do exactly that, also complaining of fatigue from the current crop of games on Facebook. So to do start-up studios like Row Sham Bow and U4iA. Let's hope 2012 is as interesting as these folks make it out to be.

Are you excited at all by the promises of new studios like Seismic Games? Are "hardcore" gamers even looking for this type of experience on Facebook? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Waku Waku Blitz Hopes To Break Into The Match-3 Genre With Highly Customizable Gameplay

Waku Waku Blitz is a simple but highly customizable game that fits our definition of the match-3 arcade game genre. Most match-3 games on Facebook that aren’t Bejeweled Blitz or Diamond Dash struggle to retain an audience, but Waku Waku developer Pix Builders hopes to meet the challenge with highly customizable gameplay options. So far, 20 days after launch, the game sits at just 631 monthly active users and 106 daily active users, according to our data service tracking application AppData.

Pix Builders’ Yvan Taurines describes Waku Waku Blitz as a “puzzle/match 3 game like Bejeweled Blitz,” but in practice it’s more like “whack-a-mole.” Square, triangular and circular shapes of varying colors pop out of holes on the screen and it’s the player’s job to smack as many as possible with a hammer in one minute. Score multipliers are given every time the player achieves a “combo” of three identical shapes, colors or both, and as the multiplier increases the player has to work faster to maintain their high-scoring potential.

Taurines claims the game is “one of the simplest games ever,” but explains that a lot of the depth to gameplay comes from “meta gameplay” in the form of experience points, player levels, and unlockable content. As the player progresses through the experience levels, new sets of shapes become available from the in-game marketplace, and completing a set offers the player specific bonuses that will help them climb the leaderboards.

“We have a lot to add to Waku Waku Blitz over the coming months,” says Taurines. “We can’t reveal all the upcoming features, but for example, we would like to add localization, an updated leaderboard that will keep track of one’s highest score ever, and some cool gameplay additions. And of course, we will add new shapes, new weapons and new backgrounds! Actually, cool effects for weapons will be added very soon — if not today, tomorrow.”

The game only monetizes through the sale of its standard virtual currency, which can be spent on new shapes, weapons and backgrounds from the in-game shop to customize the play experience. More buying options are unlocked as the player proceeds through the experience levels, and each successfully completed game also rewards the player with coins, so there is no obligation for them to spend real money, but Taurines says that “paying a small quantity of real money will save [the player] a huge load of time, and will help him to collect all of his missing items.” Taurines is keen to ensure that monetization of the game is “not intrusive to the player” and emphasizes that Waku Waku Blitz is primarily a “free to play game.”

The game currently uses Social Gold to take payments, but this will not be supported for much longer, according to Taurines. The game will be changing over to Facebook Credits in accordance with Facebook’s policy by July, and Taurines believes that Facebook’s system is “a good one — even if [it is] pricey.”

Waku Waku Blitz launched on April 8. Both its MAU and DAU numbers are currently very low, but it’s early days for the game, yet.  The next few months will be critical to determine whether it succeeds or fails based on what Pix Builders can do to support the game with new features — and whether Taurines and his team pursues future plans on Facebook or elsewhere.

You can follow Waku Waku Blitz’s progress on Facebook with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

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