Plarium, one of the world’s fastest growing developers of social and mobile games, announced a new iteration of its hard core massively multiplayer online strategy game –Total Domination: Reborn – is now available for free to iOS users worldwide. This is the first time the popular franchise has been extended to the mobile format, now for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Following its 2011 launch on major social networks, including Facebook, Total Domination has already garnered more than 30 million online users worldwide, placing Plarium among the top two hardcore game developers for Facebook.Total Domination: Reborn leverages the trademark theme of war-as-world-order to provide players an open storyline from which to strategically forge alliances, develop colonies and build empires. The new mobile version of the game is standalone, completely independent from the online version, is developed specifically for iOS and can be downloaded in the iTunes App store here.

Founded only three years ago, Plarium has seen revenues double year over year. With a staff of more than 300 and more than 84 million users online, including 3 million daily active users, the company is expanding globally to new platforms.  Total Domination: Reborn features the key engaging gameplay people have come to expect of the franchise, but designed specifically for mobile with a user interface (UI) optimized for a smaller touch screen and game balance ideal for the format.   Plarium has also invested a level of community management, never before seen in mobile gaming, with an entire staff dedicated to working with those who play Total Domination: Reborn.  Moreover, Plarium is committed to evolving and growing the game the same way it has done with the online version of the franchise.

“We have created something special at Plarium – the ability to take everything people love about our games on Facebook and social media and optimize it for mobile,” said Avi Shalel, Plarium’s Chief Executive Officer. “Plarium is committed to bringing rich and engaging original content, as seen with Total Domination, and now hardcore gamers can get a deep, robust mobile experience like never before.”

Total Domination: Reborn for mobile provides gamers a real-time strategic interface, allowing them to construct empires from the ashes of fallen civilizations. By discovering lost knowledge and researching new technologies, players can lead armies, protect their people, and wage war for control of the world’s resources. Key game features include:

• Building Forces – Study technologies, stockpile weapons, and unlock powerful colonies, while building forces from over 30 Infantry, Armor Corps, Artillery, and Air Force units.  Strengthen your troops and protect your sectors from invasions.
• Developing Strategy and Teamwork – A flexible and strategy-based format allows users to play according to their style – gamers can go it alone, or form alliances and clans with other sectors. Extra resources are earned by raiding other communities or by trading with other players.
• Immersive Storylines – A classic interface is familiar to long-time gamers, plus global in-game storyline developments introduce non-player opponents and new ways to work with or betray fellow commanders.
• Continually Enhanced Experience – Frequent updates ensure the game stays fresh by offering new units, buildings, technologies, and defensive improvements for players.

Total Domination: Reborn is available now worldwide and translated into English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Turkish, and can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App store here.

King, the world’s leading cross-platform, bite-sized games company, today announces that its popular, top 10 Facebook game, Pet Rescue Saga, is now available on Mobile. The game, which has over 5 million daily players, is available on iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and on Google Play for Android devices.

“Pet Rescue Saga is one of King’s most-played games. It has strong puzzle challenge and a great story where players work to save cuddly dogs, cats and birds from dangerous scenarios,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO and co-founder of King. “Just like with our popular cross-platform game Candy Crush Saga, players will now be able to play Pet Rescue Saga anywhere, anytime and ensure their leaderboards, scores and progress is synchronized, regardless of device.”

Pet Rescue Saga Screenshot

Pet Rescue Saga launches on mobile with over 72 levels featuring more than 10 cute, animated pets in dire need of help from all kinds of threats across a fantastic Saga land that includes both fairytale and urban landscapes. Boosters allow gamers to clear columns or individual blocks in various ways to save enough pets and advance through each episode, which includes 5-10 different types of puzzle levels.

Pet Rescue Saga’s mobile features include:

• Synced with Facebook: Players can continue their progress, unlock new levels and access leaderboards in both the Facebook and mobile versions
• Ability to unlock helpful charms and boosters to benefit players’ journey through the Saga
• 72 exciting levels and several modes for players to test their pet-saving skills against time limits, a limited number of moves and any threats
• Sharp, vivid retina display and 3-D visuals
• Built-in online connectivity to see friends who are also playing

Pet Rescue Saga for iOS and Google Play is free and available now. To play, please click here for iOS or for Android go here.

There’s not long left until the largest European mobile gaming conference on development and marketing of mobile games. The White Nights: Mobile Games Conference will take place on June 27-28, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Make sure to register by June 17, because the prices will go up.

The White Nights program has been finalized and includes three sets of lectures and master classes all running in parallel. The conference will feature more than 40 speakers from companies like Rovio, Supercell, Chillingo, Facebook, Wooga, Big Fish, FishLabs, G5, FDG, Gamevil, InMobi, Flurry and more. There will also be master classes and presentations from ALL of the leading mobile platforms.

The conference includes three incredible, casual, networking parties: a badge pick-up pre-party sponsored by MoPub, a boat cruise on the 26th of June and the main all night party organized by Nevosoft and Supercell after the first conference day. Not to mention a unique attendee list that includes representatives from over 400 companies.

“I can easily say the WNMG is one of the best events ever. It was extremely well organized, content-wise straight to the point with an excellent line-up of speakers and great attendees to network with in a fabulous location”, – Michael Schade, CEO, FishLabs.

The WNConf has 15 sponsors, including industry-leading companies such as Samsung, the event’s main partner, as well as platinum sponsors Big Fish and i-Free. The conference an ongoing project organized by game publisher and developer Nevosoft.

Register now, because prices will go up on June 17th!

If you have any questions, please, contact wnconf@nevosoft.com

We spoke to Webzen of Seoul, South Korea about their gaming company. Whilst their focus isn’t on social gaming, they develop many online and mobile games and are excited about the growth of the mobile gaming industry. Social Games Observer wrote to them to find out more about their company and the kind of games they’re developing.

Developer Name: WEBZEN Inc.

Where founded and office/s location/s: Seoul, South Korea

Founded by: Byoung gwan Kim

Founded in: 2000

Funding: N/A

Acquisitions: Ymir Entertainment and Gala-Net

Number of employees: 495 (December, 2012)

Number of games published: 6 online games, many other upcoming online/mobile games

List of games published: MU online, Soul of the Ultimate Nation, Reign of Revolution (R2), Archlord, Continent of the Ninth Seal (C9), Arctic Combat (aka BATTERY)

Arctic Combat

List of upcoming games: MMORPGs ‘Archlord 2’, ‘MU 2’ and mobile game ‘MU The Genesis’

Describe what you do in one sentence: Developer & Publisher of Online/Mobile Games

Where games are published: Korea, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, North/South America, and Europe etc. (190 countries)

Working with publisher: Tencent, Gameon etc.

Acting as a publisher: gPotato.com / gPotato.eu / webzen.com

Publishing games in which languages: Korean, English, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish etc.

Game genre/s: MMORPG, MOFPS, Action RPG and Mobile Game

What do you see as the current most exciting trend in the industry? Mobile game business is rapidly growing in the global market.

Game Insight, a world leader in free-to-play mobile and social games, has announced a partnership with GAMEVIL for distribution of Game Insight titles in Korea. The distribution deal kicks off this week with the chart-topping hit game Airport City, now available to download for free on Android devices in the T store.

In the course of the last two years, Game Insight has put major focus on bringing original, exciting titles to new markets around the globe. In this latest partnership, the company is delivering more of its signature titles to a new Korean audience through powerhouse publishing partner GAMEVIL.

“GAMEVIL is excited to welcome Game Insight and its titles into our network, bringing fresh, exciting, and engaging free-to-play titles to our audience,” said Brian Oh, Business Development Director at GAMEVIL. “This is a great opportunity for both companies to expand their portfolios and audiences in the Korean Android market.”

The first title released in this partnership is Airport City, offering an exciting two-tiered take on classic city-building strategy. Players will need to keep a close watch as they manage a fledgling airport striving for greatness, all the while building a city full of support staff for the airport itself. As such, players are tasked with building terminals, landing strips, and hangars to house seven different classes of passenger planes that earn cold, hard cash from passenger airfare. Turning their attention to the neighboring city, players will have access to more than 50 types of housing, shopping, and utility buildings to offer amenities to hungry and tired travelers.

“Airport City is one of the most recognized Game Insight brands on the market today,” said Darya Trushkina, Sr. VP of Business Development at Game Insight. “Working with a world-renowned publisher and superstar partner like GAMEVIL means big things for our brand and our titles, and helps us continue to grow our games worldwide by sharing them with even more new players in new markets. We’re thrilled to bring our best and brightest free-to-play titles to Korea with GAMEVIL.”

Game Insight currently boasts more than 30 successful mobile and social titles available on all major platforms, already available in more than 100 countries worldwide. These titles span internally developed original IPs, born of 15 development studios within Game Insight’s network, as well as several third-party developed titles published under the Game Insight banner. As the company continues to grow globally, key partnerships and distribution deals are critical to its strategy for this year and beyond. As part of its “think global, act local” stance on international distribution, Game Insight fully localizes all titles in new regions. Extended localization includes, but isn’t limited to, full language translations, special culturally themed content and, in some cases, even a complete re-design of the game.

This week we profile Miniclip, a game developer with over 100 million game plays per month. The company develops online, mobile and social games and you can play them across many platforms. Social Games Observer contacted them to learn a little more about them:

Developer Name: Miniclip

Where founded and office/s location/s: Founded in London, headquartered in Switzerland. Offices in London, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy and the US.

Founded by: Robert Small and Tihan Presbie

Funding: Self-funded

Number of employees: 146 (as of April 29^th)

Number of games published: Over 1000

Describe what you do in one sentence: Provide great games for anyone, anytime, anywhere

Where games are published: Miniclip.com, Mobile, Facebook

Game genre/s: Action/Sports/Social/MMO/Multiplayer/Arcade/Puzzle/Racing

8 Ball Pool

User demographics: Male and Female

User demographics: Worldwide, with big presence in US, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia

Best-selling virtual item: Pool Coins in 8 Ball Pool by Miniclip

Most expensive virtual item: Platinum Cue in 8 Ball Pool by Miniclip

What do you see as the current most exciting trend in the industry: cross platform game experiences

DeNA is working with Wizards of the Coast to bring a new role-playing game based on Dungeons & Dragons to iOS and Android.

Dungeons & Dragons: Arena of War is a battle RPG that has players picking their legendary characters to take on quests solo or online with other gamers. It uses the Forgotten Realms setting as a backdrop, and it should look familiar to D&D fans. Developer DeNA Santiago is combining the classic Dungeons & Dragons rule set with modern mechanics like massive in-game events and multiplayer competitions.

Fans can sign up now to pre-register for the games Android and iOS release at DNDArenaofwar.com, which will get players access to a rare power in the free-to-play title. DeNA expects to release the game this summer.

“Arena of War is a free-to-play, turn-based battle RPG,” DeNA Santiago head developer Tiburcio De la Carcova told GamesBeat. “It has a very strong social component. You can play and interact with your friends.”

De la Carcova explained that the team is making every effort to optimize the playing experience for mobile devices. This is a fully 3D adventure game, so DeNA wants it to appeal to real gamers. At the same time, it doesn’t want to frustrate players with difficult or unfriendly controls.

“We didn’t try to replicate the PC experience,” said De la Carcova. “We made it a unique experience for mobile devices, and we think we came up with a real novel way to play.”

That means a lot of taping, swiping, and other finger gestures to control the on-screen action.

Despite the new controls, De la Carcova wants to bring the classic feeling of D&D to mobile. He is designing the game to lower the barrier of entry to the beloved series.

“I don’t think there is a D&D game in the mobile arena that captures the classic elements,” he said. “And this one isn’t just about the classic D&D rules — it is also about adapting those elements for mobile.”

This is a free-to-play game, but that doesn’t necessarily mean players will start with under-powered characters. Gamers can choose from 16 classes, but DeNA plans to expand that in the future.

After that, it’s all about doing quests with a party of other characters. The A.I. can control those roles, or players can team up with their friends online.

via: GamesBeat

Jawfish Games has launched what some very big rivals haven’t been able to do. The Seattle startup is announcing today it has released two of its own real-time multiplayer tournament games on multiple platforms.

The new social-mobile games Jawfish Poker and Jawfish Words allow players to compete against each other in real time for virtual currency and bragging rights. The games are built on a proprietary technology that enables players to chat and play 15 or 20 hands a minute with real friends. Since the poker title launched a week ago, players have already played a million hands.

Jawfish previously launched the technology in the market in a partnership with Big Fish Games. Those companies released an iOS game called Match-Up! by Big Fish. It enables up to 16 friends to compete against each other in live tournaments within the app’s Word, Match-3, or Mahjong minigames. Now Jawfish, headed by former poker star Phil Gordon, is launching games under its own brand name.

Gordon said that players will be able to compete against each other across platforms, including iOS, Android, and the web. Jawfish Poker, available now on Apple’s iTunes App Store, focuses on the most important decision at a poker table: “all-in or fold?” It rapidly cycles players through hundreds of opponents in a fast-action game that is meant to look like a game on television.

Gordon led the design of the game. He is known worldwide as one of the best professional poker players. His team includes the engineers who built the hit title Full Tilt Poker, which was a hugely popular online poker game until the federal government shut it down in a regulatory battle in April 2011. A big legal battle ensued, and eventually the government changed its attitude about real-money online gambling. The app finally reopened last November, after rival PokerStars bought Full Tilt Poker. The team, however, moved on.

Jawfish Words is a real-time word-search game. Players compete in three objectives per round, such as High Score, Corners, Longest Word, or Diagonals. The game launched on the Amazon Kindle in May, and it has generated nearly 500,000 tournament entries since its debut. In June, Jawfish Words will debut on iOS, Android, and Facebook. All players will be able to compete in the same field of play.

That’s important so that the game can reach “critical mass,” Gordon said.

“If there are no players, it’s not fun,” he said. “By going cross-platform, it opens it up more and makes critical mass easier to achieve.”

The poker game is a virtual-goods game, where players can purchase extra chips with real money but can’t cash their winnings out.

Via: GamesBeat

DeNA and 22cans announced a partnership to publish GODUS, the highly anticipated game from 22cans that is a reinvention of the god game genre pioneered by legendary game designer Peter Molyneux.

22cans, a game studio founded by Molyneux, chose to partner with DeNA to distribute and market its game GODUS when the mobile game is released for Android, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices. The game will also utilize DeNA’s Mobage mobile social games platform in Western territories, Japan and Korea.

“We have huge respect for DeNA’s successes in mobile gaming. By fusing their expertise and experience with our passion and dedication, we are going to make GODUS a truly groundbreaking reinvention of the god game genre,” said Peter Molyneux, founder of 22cans. “As a global leader in developing and publishing mobile games, DeNA is the ideal partner for us to collaborate with on the launch of GODUS. Their breadth of expertise working with second and third-party game developers is invaluable as we prepare for the release of GODUS on mobile devices.”

GODUS is a new type of game for mobile devices. In it you are a god, able to wield divine powers over your devoted followers. As you advance your civilization to ever-greater power, your people will grant you belief. With this belief you can sculpt entire lands, beautifying them with your touch. However, there are other worlds and rival gods to face and to challenge. Additionally, you have the power to wreak earthquakes, volcanoes or tornados upon these foes, as well as send armies of your devoted followers into the battle for ultimate control. You and your people will clash with other gods and followers in the most intense and exciting multiplayer battles for supremacy.

“One of my first jobs in the video game industry was working on the quality assurance team for Peter’s Populous 2. That title and its predecessor set the tone for a whole new generation of games,” said Clive Downie, CEO of DeNA West. “Fast forward to 2013, and it’s an honor to have the opportunity to work with Peter again on the launch of GODUS. Our team is looking forward to working with 22cans on a game that we know will set a new standard for the mobile generation.”

King announces it now has more than 70 million daily players across all platforms and three top 10 Facebook games

King, the world’s leading cross-platform, bite-sized games company, today announces that it is releasing its popular, top 10 Facebook game, Pet Rescue Saga, on mobile early this summer. The game, which is the third largest overall game on Facebook with more than 6 million daily players (DAU), will be available on iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and on Google Play for Android devices. Pet Rescue Saga becomes King’s third Saga game to be released on mobile and will further position the company as a leader in mobile games alongside their hit mobile title, Candy Crush Saga, which is one of the most popular titles across Android and iOS in many major markets seeing over 500 million gameplays a day on mobile alone.

Social Games Observer spoke to King’s US VP of Business Development, Jong Woo, who told us that the company has more than 70 million daily players and 130 million monthly players across all platforms. This surpasses Zynga’s 52 million daily players. The company currently has three top 10 Facebook games with Candy Crush Saga (15.5M DAU), Pet Rescue Saga (6M DAU) and Farm Heroes Saga (4.8M DAU). King’s games have taken the number one application and game slot on Facebook and top grossing app positions on iOS and Android, clocking over 21 billion gameplays per month across mobile, social and online. Of the different platforms, Woo told us that both iOS and Android see similar levels of engagement and retention although with monetization, the iOS seems to monetize better than Android.

“We are completely humbled to have three of our games among the top 10 on Facebook and seeing that our games are attracting over 70 million daily players and 21 billion gameplays a month across all platforms,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO and co-founder of King. “Pet Rescue Saga’s fun puzzle challenges have proven to be extremely popular since its release in October. The game quickly became one of the most prevalent games on Facebook and is one we are confident will translate well to mobile.”

Indeed, King’s Candy Crush Saga was a huge hit on both mobile and Facebook. Jong Woo explained that the release of the game on mobile definitely boosted its popularity. Cross platform synchronization means that users can now play anywhere and still have their gameplay updated on each platform. Woo also put the success of Candy Crush Saga down to its playability factor – it is a “bitesized” game, meaning you can pick it up at any time and play for one or two minutes from anywhere you are.

Pet Rescue Saga will launch on mobile with over 72 levels, providing a seamless gameplay experience across mobile and Facebook. Players will be able to play the game anywhere, anytime – ensuring their leaderboards, scores and progress are fully synchronized regardless of device.

As King looks towards its future, Woo told Social Games Observer that they would continue to adopt the strategy of first prototyping the games on King.com before moving the games across to Facebook and then to mobile – the same route taken by Pet Rescue Saga.  The future certainly looks bright for King – having overtaken Zynga with the largest number of daily active users and a robust pipeline of games, King looks set to dominate its stance as the largest game developer and leading mobile gaming company out there.