Dead Island has sold a whopping five million copies

Dead Island has managed to sell-through over five million copies worldwide since its release in September 2011, Deep Silver announced today. Despite a lukewarm reception and a few major PR blunders, Dead Island has maintained an "exceptional strong sales rate" in all channels, retail and digital versions included.

"While others focus on ever-increasing development budgets and driving brand messages via ballooning marketing expenditures, Deep Silver stands for hitting the zeitgeist, innovation and fresh gameplay. Dead Island has an incredibly active and enthusiastic community, and we are thrilled to welcome the five millionth player to the world of Banoi. This once again proves that venturing into new waters in terms of games publishing does matter for success and that even at the end of a console cycle new IPs can be created and nurtured into lasting franchises," says Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media.

Looking ahead, the franchise is set to receive its next installment with Dead Island Riptide. Its story is a continuation of the incidents taking place in the original game and adds many new features, some of which were previewed in the latest developer walkthrough. Like its predecessor, Dead Island Riptide has also been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

View the original article here

Zynga to set sail for Pirate Island ... or Rogues & Royals [Rumor]

by Joe Osborne, Posted Apr 12th 2012 5:50PM

Big time social game maker Zynga looks to be on a tear with new projects. This time, CEGamers has found promotional art and text within one of Zynga's infamous surveys for a game known as either Pirate Island or Rogues & Royals. The survey asks players for their impressions of both names associated with these images, and what they think a game with ether name would play like. Then, however, Zynga provides the following teaser:

Set sail for your own Caribbean paradise in a world of intrigue, pirates, and romance. Your island will become home to a cast of exotic characters who need your help in their quests for adventure, glory, and affairs of the heart. Team up with your friends as Crewmates and uncover the island's many mysteries. The choice is yours: will you build your island into a stately tropical paradise? Or a rough-and-tumble pirates' haven?

Other than that, little to nothing is known about this game that Zynga is testing the waters with. (Perhaps Zynga has learned a thing or two from The Sims Social?) The artwork in the image looks strikingly similar to CastleVille, as CEGamers points out. That said, it's possible that Zynga Dallas is the studio that will handle Pirate Island/Rogues & Royals should it survive these surveys.

Would you play a Zynga game like this, regardless of title? Why would Zynga want to revisit the pirate genre? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Bookmark this site!

Tags: Facebook games, new zynga game, pirate island, pirate island facebook, pirate island survey, rogues royals, rogues royals facebook, rogues royals survey, rogues and royals, rogues and royals facebook, rogues and royals survey, social games, zynga

View the original article here

Meteor Games makes Island Paradise an island terror for Halloween

For about 350 days of the year, Island Paradise is a game about kicking back and running the most chillax resort possible. But Meteor Games likes to put that idea on its head for about two weeks every year in time for Halloween. This year, however, the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based developer has more in store for hapless Island Paradise players than just a few items.

A spook-filled (for now) new mini game has launched in Island Paradise, Slots of Fun. From now through Nov. 3, players can jump in and try to win unique, Halloween-themed prizes, namely materials to make costumes for their avatars. In order to receive the most materials, you'll have to try and match three rows of slots featuring characters dressed in Halloween garb like a "Cat Burglar, Space Monkey, Swan Ballerina, Mad Koala Scientist and more," according to Meteor Games.
Of course, there will be a number of cutesy Halloween goodies to grab in the in-game shop like a Sleepy Hollow Tree, a Bone Fence and a Flamingo Skeleton to name a few. Meteor Games will also hold a special event on Oct. 26, National Howl at the Moon Night, offering the game's Crescent Island expansion and Brown Wolf animal at a discount. Now, we wonder if Turkish folk celebrate a similarly awesome holiday.

Check out the rest of our Halloween coverage right here >

Are you planning on celebrating Halloween in Island Paradise? What are your big plans for the joyously terrifying fall holiday? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Bookmark this site!

View the original article here

Knights: Spiral Island Gets Kickstarter Page

I’m really liking what Kickstarter is doing for PC gaming. It’s incredible. We’ve got renowned Interactive Fiction authors quitting their day jobs to make IF full time, indie devs making adventure games flooded with Americana and magical realism and jetpack dinosaur multiplayer extravaganzas, and even a fund for continued development of an indie game arcade in NYC. Beautiful stuff. And here’s another one. An indie studio made of up industry veterans wants your money to make Knights: Spiral Island, an online FPS boasting crab warriors, star vikings and potentially even “haunted bicycles” and “psychic space bees”. Interested? Of course you’re interested.

The gist of Knights found on the Kickstarter page is as follows: you play a mighty space knight on quest to defeat pretty much anything the developers can think of, in whatever style the devs can think of (“from single player narratives to multiplayer arenas, co-operative gameplay, and everything in between”, “cutting edge graphics or 8 bit”), with the game being expanded with new levels as fast as the developers can churn them out. The end result, they say, will be like “a music playlist that goes on and on in endless variety”.

The eight hour FPS re-imagined as the fifteen minute FPS, then? That’s something I’d play. Though something that jumps out at me as more than a little stingy is that on the lift of project backer rewards it appears that you only get access to the finished game by pledging $50 or more. This is for a game they’re planning to sell for $5 to $10. $30 gets you beta access, and $10 gets you a unique community rank, a unique game rank and a signed note of thanks from the developers. Hmm. I always thought the smartest option for Kickstarter funding was to simply let people fund the game by pre-ordering it. Then again, what do I know? I have the business sense of a bag of hams. Here’s a video of the Playground State guys talking us through their dream.

View the original article here