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PopCap Closes Facebook Game with over 750,000 Users

Sam Naylor — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:31:20 +0000

EA and PopCap have fucked over more than 750,000 users by planning to shut down a game in which real money has been invested.

ZipZapPlay’s Facebook game Baking Life is the target of the cut, which will go offline on January 31st. Customers are being told to spend their remaining virtual currency before then- purchase with real money- as it “will not be redeemable nor transferable to other titles after that date.”

The game currently has 760,000 monthly average users and 100,000 daily active users.

PopCap’s VP of communications Garth Chouteau said:

“The Baking Life player numbers have dropped in such a way that Baking Life is no longer performing well enough to justify continued support. As such, we are reallocating resources to games that we are developing for future release.”

This is an astonishing move by EA and PopCap. It’s robbery. These players have invested real time and money into this game (arguments about their misguided decisions notwithstanding) and now they’re fucked- they can’t get it back. I can’t help but worry about this happening to even bigger games in the future as they stop being profitable.

Via Develop

Nintendo Bringing Game Demos To North American Malls For The Holidays

Justin Berube — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:27:35 +0000

Nintendo is planning to showcase their holiday lineup across all their platforms in North American Malls starting this month! For information on where you can sample the hottest Nintendo games, including select locations that will demo The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword early, be sure to read the official Press Release below!

Want to stay up to date on the latest Nintendo news, information, editorials, and more? Follow me on Twitter @KingNintendoFan or Like Me on Facebook. Be sure to let me know what you think about this Nintendo Mall event!

NINTENDO MALL PROGRAM PUTS SOME ZIP IN FAMILY SHOPPING TRIPS

Nintendo and Cast of Characters to Showcase Great Video Games for the Holidays

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 3, 2011 – Whether your feet are aching from a long day of shopping or you just need some advice about what to buy that video gamer on your holiday list, Nintendo has you covered. Nintendo is visiting malls nationwide to give families hands-on time with great Nintendo games during the busy holiday shopping season, plus a chance to meet some of Nintendo’s favorite characters. Like cookies, presents and visits with relatives, the Nintendo mall program has become something of an annual tradition since 2006. Nintendo estimates that last year more than 850,000 people got some hands-on time with Nintendo games.

Nintendo will be at two dozen malls from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18, prime time for holiday video game sampling. Shoppers will be able to spend time checking out all the coolest games for the Nintendo 3DS™, Wii™ and the Nintendo DS™ family of systems. In advance of the mall program, 10 select malls will also get a special preview of the upcoming epic game for the Wii console, The Legend of Zelda™: Skyward Sword, which will make a 10-day appearance from Nov. 11 to Nov. 20.

“Nintendo has something for everyone on your holiday gift list,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Shoppers can stop by to test-drive games, meet Nintendo characters or just to take a break from their gift hunting and have some fun.”

On weekends visitors also may have a chance to interact with various Nintendo characters like Mario™, Luigi™, Donkey Kong™, Kirby™ and Pikachu™.

Nintendo 3DS games available to play at the mall program include Super Mario 3D Land™, Mario Kart™ 7, The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D, Pokémon™ Rumble Blast, Star Fox 64™ 3D, Tetris® Axis, nintendogs™ + cats, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure™ from Activision Publishing Inc. (also available for Wii) and Super Street Fighter® IV 3D Edition from CAPCOM.

Wii games available to play at the mall program include The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land™, Mario Kart™ Wii, New Super Mario Bros.™ Wii, Super Smash Bros.™ Brawl, Donkey Kong Country™ Returns, Wii Play™: Motion, Wii Sports Resort™, Just Dance® 3 from Ubisoft and Zumba® Fitness 2 from Majesco Entertainment.

Games for the Nintendo DS family of systems available to play at the mall program include Kirby™ Mass Attack, Fossil Fighters: Champions™, Professor Layton and the Last Specter™ and Bejeweled™ 3 from PopCap.

The complete list of malls on the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 program is as follows. Malls marked with an asterisk will also participate in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword preview program Nov. 11-20. The complete list can also be found at http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew.

Annapolis in Annapolis, Md.
Barton Creek Square in Austin, Texas
Castleton Square in Indianapolis
*Chandler Fashion Center in Chandler, Ariz.
Danbury Fair in Danbury, Conn.
*Dolphin Mall in Miami
*Eden Prairie Center in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Fox Valley in Aurora, Ill.
Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J.
Houston Galleria in Houston
King of Prussia in King of Prussia, Pa.
Natick Mall in Natick, Mass.
Perimeter Mall in Atlanta
*San Francisco Centre in San Francisco
*Southcenter in Seattle
*SouthPark in Strongsville, Ohio
*The Parks at Arlington in Arlington, Texas
*Topanga in Canoga Park, Calif.
*Twelve Oaks in Novi, Mich.
Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Valley Fair in Santa Clara, Calif.
Washington Square in Portland, Ore.
Wolfchase Galleria in Memphis, Tenn.
*Woodbridge Center in Woodbridge, N.J.

Remember that Wii and Nintendo 3DS feature parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://wii.com or http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.

PopCap Releases Ridiculous Plants vs. Zombies Hip Hop Video

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:01:27 +0000

Some things are just so ridiculous that you just stop and think, “Why?” Well, “Why the hell not” is obviously what PopCap is saying with this Plants vs Zombies hip hop video.

The “official” comment from PopCap that accompanied the video reads as follows:

You didn’t know Crazy Dave could rap did you? In addition to his love for bacon, tacos and selling random trinkets out of the back of his car, Crazy Dave has always loved music. His dreams came true when Ded Jam Records signed him to their label and helped him record his first music video! We present you with “Wabby Wabbo” by Cray-Z.

Is the video promoting anything? Nothing that we could figure out, but it’s one of those pointless yet entertaining videos that you should watch just because you can… and you clearly have nothing better to do.

EA Buys PopCap for a Gajillion Dollars – Plants vs. Madden Confirmed

Dave Oshry — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:03:16 +0000

Not long ago, we heard that EA was going to buy PopCap for a bazillion dollars. As it turns out, those rumors turned out to be true, and then some.

According to TC – The indie hit maker from Seattle has been bought for a reported $650 mil + $100 mil in stock options and a multi-year earn out that could bring the total sale up to… wait for it… one point three billion dollars.

muhuhuhahahahahaaaaaaa

Anyhow, EA’s CEO John Riccitiello had this to say:

PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels.

Your move Zynga.

PopCap Reportedly Being Bought By EA for Over One Billion Dollars

Dave Oshry — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:00:54 +0000

Reports are coming in that PopCap, the makers of worldwide mega hits such as Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies are in the late stages of being wholly acquired by EA for… wait for it… ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

EA could be looking to bring hits such as these to mobile and social platforms and put a big ol’ EA logo on em. Sounds like a plan, Stan… or John… whatever.

We’ll keep you updated as this story unfolds.

Via: [TechCrunch] <— Super serious big deal reliable source most of the time.

Plants vs Zombies, Need for Speed Series on Sale

Sam Naylor — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:29:44 +0000

Steam is offering Plants vs Zombies and three Need for Speed games at big discounts today (up to 75% off).

You can grab Plants vs Zombies here for 66% off, which for what is probably the pinnacle of tower defence style games is a incredibly low price.

The Need for Speed series is on sale as part of “EA Week” on Steam, and the games available can be found here. Need for Speed Undercover is 75% off, Need for Speed: Shift is 66% off, and the absolutely superb Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit can be bought for 50% off (surely a must-buy for racing fans).

PopCap Apparently Not Indie Enough – Launches Smaller Label To Compensate

Dave Oshry — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:14:34 +0000

PopCap makes awesome games. Although they may be an enormous company now, some would still call their massively successful titles like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies “indie games”

Well apparently, it’s not enough to retain their indie street cred – so PopCap has launched a smaller label focusing on even MORE casual games – 4thandBattery.

I’m just going to go ahead and assume that’s where PopCap HQ is in Seattle. ^__^

Anyhow, the first effort from this new label is an upcoming iOS game called Unpleasant Horse… it looks strange and \m/etal. These are things I approve of:

Here’s what PopCap had to say about their new label:

“4th & Battery is a purely experimental, creative label with none of the typical concerns like schedules, profitability, or even target audience,” said PopCap chief creative officer and co-founder Jason Kapalka. “It’s kind of the video game equivalent of B-sides or short films. Expect weirdness.”

Weirdness expected.

All PopCap Games 50% off Until November 29

Sam Naylor — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:43:13 +0000

PopCap have announced that all games bought from their online store will be discounted to 50% until November 29.

Of course, this means gems like Bejeweled 2 and classics like Bookworm are just $10, with some of the older titles going for much less.

Which titles would you recommend, dear readers? Let us all know in the comments.

Plants Vs. Zombies Coming to Nintendo DS in January 2011

Sam Naylor — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:52:11 +0000

PopCap Games have announced today that Plants Vs Zombies, their excellent tower-defense style puzzler, will be coming to the Nintendo DS in January 2011.

The game will launch at a suggested price point of $19.99, making it somewhat of a budget game (although it’s still expensive compared to the other version of the game). The DS version will contain all of the content from the other platforms, with a slice of extra DS content as well.

If it’s anywhere near as addictive as the DS version of Peggle, be prepared to come out the other side of Winter next year with a crick in your neck from looking at your DS too much!!

Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition Now For Sale on PC

Sam Naylor — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:45:34 +0000

Popcap games and Valve have announced that the Game of the Year edition of Plants Vs Zombies is available now on Steam and on PopCap’s home page.

The GOTY edition feature the full game plus 20 new Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud support, Mac play, and the new Zombatar™ feature, which lets you create zombie avatars (hence the name).

Plants Vs Zombies is a brilliant little tower defence-style puzzler, with so much depth behind it that you’ll be playing for at least another year to come. It comes strongly recommended, especially with the new stuff included.

Dancing Zombie Based on Popular Singer Removed from Plants vs Zombies

Sam Naylor — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:45:47 +0000

If you’ve played Plants vs Zombies, you might remember that the game featured a type of zombies that danced, while wearing a distinctive red outfit. Well, the estate of some old pop star has asked for the zombie to be removed, and PopCap have obliged.

You might be having trouble guessing which pop star the zombie was based on, so let me tell you: it’s Michael Jackson. If you haven’t heard of him, he was a relatively popular artist before his untimely death last year. He made some Thriller record or something.

“The Estate of Michael Jackson objected to our use of the ‘dancing zombie’ in PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES based on its view that the zombie too closely resembled Michael Jackson,” said a PopCap Games representative. “After receiving this objection, PopCap made a business decision to retire the original ‘dancing zombie’ and replace it with a different ‘dancing zombie’ character for future builds of PLANTS vs.ZOMBIES on all platforms. The phase-out and replacement process is underway.”

The character has been removed for the iPhone version of the game and will be removed from other versions.

Plants vs Zombies Coming to XBLA With Co-Op, Versus Modes

Sam Naylor — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:34:54 +0000

Popcap Games today announced that Plants vs Zombies will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade in the “Fall” of 2010. The game will feature two new multiplayer modes: Co-Op and Versus.

“With a ton of new features and content exclusive to the XBLA version, we’ve pulled out all the stops to both expand and optimize this adaptation for a hard core gaming audience,” said Ed Allard, head of worldwide studios at PopCap.

“The two new multiplayer modes allow gamers to work cooperatively to defeat hordes of invading zombies, or go head-to-head in a true ‘plants vs. zombies’ challenge. We’re also featuring a customized ‘house’ for tracking and sharing progress as well as a total of 21 mini-games and 12 achievements, all designed to enthrall Plants vs. Zombies players once again.”

The game will also feature 12 achievements and 21 mini-games, all coming out of your screen in full HD- not just 720p, either: 1920×1080, or 1080p for you console types. This version of the game will be 1200 Microsoft Points ($15.00).

Later in the year Popcap will also be releasing a retail box of the game for PC, Mac and Xbox 360, which includes Zuma and Peggle as well- that will set you back just $19.99.

LOL Of the Day: Publishers Turned Down Bejeweled for $60,000 – Goes on To Sell 50 Million Copies

Bryce Wilson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:23:02 +0000

Back when it launched 10 years ago, Bejeweled was nothing but a tiny tiny blip on the radars of many publishers. A game about connecting colored objects, give me a break they said. Well 10 years later, PopCap has sold over 50 million, yes 50 MILLION copies of it’s insanely addictive and simple casual title. Even now the game sees over 10 million active users sign in every month to play over 200 million games a day.

Some publishers said collecting “collecting giant coins feels unrealistic” which is something I am sure a certain Italian plumber would argue against, and one publisher even asked if the game could involve Monkeys. To put it into context, and make the publishers feel silly and bad, if Bejeweled sold each copy at 20 dollars a pop (the current price of Bejeweled 2), they would’ve made a grand total of one billion dollars. Sucked in.

[Source: MCV]

Will Plants vs. Zombies 2 Be Announced Soon?

Dylan Duarte — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:01:37 +0000

Last year, Plants vs. Zombies shambled its way onto my radar from seemingly out of nowhere, just like a real member of the undead. Except instead of eating my face, it made me love it. Now it looks as if an announcement of Plants vs. Zombies 2 may be right around the corner.

PopCap today released the above image today, which highlights a zombie hand, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and the date of August 2nd. It’s clearly Plants vs. Zombies artwork and it must have something to do with the property, so my guess would be on a sequel, especially since it’s now been over a year since the original, plenty of time to raise another army of the undead.

Keep your decaying peepers glued to Ripten for any news regarding Plants vs. Zombies 2: Golden Gate Ghouls. I just made that name up because I am clever.

Plants vs Zombies Heading to iPhone in Early 2010

Sam Naylor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:02:07 +0000

A post on Popcap’s Facebook page has tipped off us wily games reporters (and now you, our loyal readers) that the iPhone version of Plants vs Zombies will be coming to the platform “late” in January 2010.

In case you like to be a bit less mobile with your gaming, the Steam version of the game is currently on sale. As is everything else on Steam, just about.

Oh, and a quick side note: It looks like our sexy and incredibly intelligent new writers have collectively taken over my job. Since I’m in the UK I can’t get hold of news until I wake up in the morning, and by then they’ve already seen and posted it. You watch out, however. When an elusive piece of news is released by a British company, I’ll be there. Look to the East when the Sun rises orange.

Plants vs. Zombies likely coming to other platforms

Sam Naylor — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:00:52 +0000

In an interview with Kombo, PopCap Games’ PR director Garth Chouteau has noted that the highly acclaimed Plants vs. Zombies will follow its cousin Peggle onto other platforms: XBLA, PSN- even the DS and iPhone. Chouteau is quoted by Kombo on the matter:

…Peggle for XBLA is a good example of a game that we took that was popular on the PC and we spent probably twice as long as anyone else would have figuring how to make that game really good for Xbox and Xbox Live Arcade, and I think you will see that with Plants Vs. Zombies–I don’t know the exact order in which that game will make its way onto other platforms, but it’s certainly been successful enough, quickly enough, that we’re looking at other platforms and deciding where we’ll take that game next…

Since PvZ was such a success, both commercially and critically, it can only be good news that it can come to a bigger audience. I only hope that they make a DS version as good as Peggle DS.

Plants vs. Zombies now available

Sam Naylor — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:34:25 +0000

Plants vs. Zombies, the brand new puzzle/strategy game from Popcap Games, has been released. You can download the game from here or here, at $9.99 and $19.99 respectively. Why you’d pay $10 more for the non-Steam version I have no idea, but if it works for Popcap, good for them.

Popcap, of course, are the creators of both Bejeweled and Peggle, two games that are renowned for their ability to drain away time at an amazing rate. PvZ looks set to do the same thing. You can see for yourself with the demo (which you can get from either of the above links).

Rise From Your Grave: Psychobabble

Chelsea Thompson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:15:39 +0000

Remember the good old days of Popcap Games when they had online multiplayer? Psychobabble, a creative twist on magnetic poetry, was one of these games. Popcap decided a couple years back that the cost of maintaining these online games was simply not feasible anymore. People were pretty upset about Popcap’s actions, even going so far as to start an online petition (no longer active) in protest. To no avail; it was simply too expensive for the company to be monitoring the chats for inappropriate content. The game, along Lucky Penny and Atomic Poker, was taken down in August 2006.

However, it was far from game over for Psychobabble.

If you didn’t get a chance to play it before, here’s the rundown on how the game works:

Round starts in a room of 8-12 people, where you’re given about 30-40 words and a small line to construct a sentence. Use the words available to make the sentence you think is the funniest in about a minute. Second part is where you get to vote on who’s sentence you think is the funniest. Sentences are posted anonymously; most votes gets 3 points, and you will get a point for everyone who votes for you. To encourage people to vote for the funniest, you get a point if the sentence you voted for was the winner. Whoever reaches 30 points first wins. One of my favorite winning sentences that I managed was “Sack the children, we need slaves!” I won by a landslide on that one.

However, as previously mentioned, Popcap was having issues with explicit content getting into the chats and even the game’s sentences (which is bound to happen when ‘sausage’ appears as a usable word). Two years ago, Popcap.com’s Chief Executive David Roberts had this to say to SeattlePi.com:

He called it a “tough decision,” but said it would take a significant investment to move the games on to a new Web platform. Also, he said the six-year-old company was not willing to invest the money that it would take to monitor the online community. If a child were to encounter sexually explicit material, he said the company could be liable.

“We have sort of gotten away with it for a long time, and we have some volunteers who have done a great job helping, but it has always been a drag on resources trying to manage that without a real revenue source,” said Roberts, who then provided examples of 19 sexually explicit account names that members have used in the past.

“If we could find a home for it in the short term, we certainly would do it,” he said.

Well, here’s the good news: You can still play Psychobabble online! I was completely overjoyed when I stumbled upon a forum where someone mentioned that Psychobabble was still alive. Reincarnated at Mutantdog.com as Pseudobabble, the spirit of the game lives on with a shiny new user interface and community pages.

If you haven’t played this game as Psychobabble, I highly recommend grabbing a group of friends and joining a room. I spent many a high school evening Psychobabbling with my friends online, and I personally can’t wait to get back to the game.

PC Review: Peggle Nights

Andrew Podolsky — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:02:01 +0000

Peggle Nights is so addictive, it could be considered mainline gaming at its purest. It’s a game you can replay endlessly to squeeze out a good 20-30 hours of content— not bad for a “budget” title. Even though my preferred method of playing the game is to idly focus on the dozens of challenges while watching TV or listening to music, that doesn’t mean Peggle Nights qualifies as just half a game. It simply means I can’t stop playing it long enough to do anything else.

For the uninitiated, Peggle is a hybrid of Pachinko and Pinball. Wild yet completely accurate ball physics are the crux of the gameplay—after shooting out a bouncy metal ball from the top of the screen, you have to ricochet off of as many pegs as possible on the way down. Like in pinball, the pegs you hit act like bumpers to give you a high score and bonuses, and there’s even a powerup that gives you flippers at the bottom of the screen.

You’ll also find a moving bucket at the bottom of the screen for collecting your errant balls. While at first you’ll only make some lucky catches, later on you can actually time your shots to perfectly land in the bucket. This is just one way that Peggle rewards experience the longer you play—more balls means more chances to clear all the pegs, and you’ll earn a sweet bonus to boot.

This absurdly original gameplay mechanic would be a hit even if it were just in black and white, but Peggle Nights explodes with color. Like in the original Peggle, each level has a theme based on the charming animal creatures who lend you their special powers—Tula the Flower bursts multiple orange (level-clearing) pegs, while Renfield the Jack-O-Lantern gives you a spooky ball that passes through the bottom of the stage and reappears at the top.

You’ll have to play through the adventure mode to unlock all the characters and their powers (which are the same as the original Peggle), but there’s one new character and power at the very end. Her ability is very useful, but I’d love to see even more new cast members and powerups next time around.

Although the fact that there’s only one new character is a bit of a letdown, Peggle Nights takes you further into the minds of the existing characters than you might have cared to go. Each stage portrays a character’s dream state—Tula the Flower, for example, wants to be a world traveler instead of being rooted to the ground, so her stages take you to Peggle versions of the Great Wall of China and Mount Rushmore.

This charm is contagious. You can’t help but feel happy to play and replay these colorful, detailed, and imaginative stages. It certainly doesn’t hurt that you will feel a compelling urge to win a trophy for fulfilling every minor objective. Peggle Nights adds new “ace score” ribbons for earning a certain number of points, which nicely complements the 100% completion awards that stretched out the length of the first game.

Which brings me back to my initial point. I play Peggle Nights constantly now. Since half of the game is spent watching the points roll in while your “balls drop”, Peggle feels casual enough to be put on as background while I partake in other passive forms of entertainment. At the same time, I know that Peggle actually complex beyond reasoning. The first Peggle was nearly perfect, and this sequel just tucks in a little bit more of what was brilliant about it.

Goodbye, Productivity: Peggle Nights Is Out

Keane Ng — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:04:44 +0000

Yeah, yeah, Rock Band 2 whatever. “Dude I was up til 3 last night playing Drum Trainer Mode.” Leave me alone. Peggle Nights, the sequel to my biggest guilty pleasure, Peggle, is out on PopCap (should hit Steam soon), and it’s as big of a timesink as the first game ever was. You don’t need a review to tell you this type of game is addictive as hell: You’re just bouncing a ball, clearing pegs and using power-ups. It’s like Pachinko meet Sgt. Pepper, with excessive slow-mo and copious over-the-top use of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. Somehow it’s just compulsively playable. Try the demo, and get ready to feel the Extreme Fever.