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.

We’ve been running the “Who is Who” series for a while now. So we decided to check out some of the developers we profiled in the past to see how they have progressed since we last spoke. Today we look at MegaZebra who we profiled here in 2012 and they informed us of what they’re up to now and what future developments they’re excited about. MegaZebra is a German developer based in Munich with two major titles out on Facebook with their next big hit “Poker Royale” on Facebook now.  We spoke to Co-founder Henning Kosmack and this is what he told us:

Developer Name: MegaZebra GmbH

Where founded and office/s location/s: Champions League City of Munich

Founded by: Mark Gazecki, Christian Meister, Steffen Rusitschka, Hennning Kosmack

Founded in: 2008

Funding: Couple of million

Mahjong Trails Screenshot

Acquisitions: nope

Number of employees: 30

Number of games published: 2 major titles out there, one coming soon

List of games published: Mahjong Trails and Solitaire Castle. Next up is Poker Royale

Describe what you do in one sentence: Not only are both of our games leaders in their respective category on Facebook, they also shaped their genres, which is what we strive to continue doing for those two, but also for the new titles we are working on.

Where games are published: Facebook

Working with publisher: nope

Acting as a publisher: yes, if the games are kick-ass

Publishing games in which languages: EFIGS, plus Turkish and Brazilian Portuguese

Game genre/s: Arcade-Casual titles for now, but got some juicy stuff in the pipeline

Solitaire Castle Screenshot

User demographics: Female

User demographics: Tier 1 countries

Best-selling virtual item: Extra cards in Solitaire Castle

Most expensive virtual item: The magic microwave in up-coming game Suburbia

What do you see as the current most exciting trend in the industry: The most exciting trend is that some people think “social” is dead, while the complete opposite is true. Social Games have changed one gaming category after the other, starting with arcade/casual and simulation games, now it’s casino and mobile, with mid- and hard-core next. This journey is still only 1% finished and we are excited about this road trip.

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

Fantastic Forest is a character driven simulation game that will charm you with its irreverent humor and pop culture references. You enter the game in spectacular fashion, dropping from the sky and into a world filled with anthropomorphic characters and a dire mystery afoot. The Mayor is missing, somewhere out there, in that dank dark forest and who knows when he’ll be back. Or if he’ll come back at all. You’re tasked with assisting a cast of villagers in every aspect of their daily lives; from harvesting crops and trading with the Penguin Mafia, to crafting and fishing.

Innovative cooperative plays a big part in the game, giving you the unique ability to visit your friend’s village and interact with them in real time. You can fish together, hug trees together and decide whether you want to help friend’s or hinder them by stealing that delicious looking goldfish they just pried out of the river.

Stephanie Kaiser, Head of Studio for Fantastic Forest, expressed her excitement at the launch of Wooga’s latest game only just recently, “There is no other game like it on Facebook. This kind of irreverent, dark humor coupled with the innovative cooperative play makes this a really unique experience. Players are going to be surprised and we can’t wait to hear their reactions”.

Fantastic Forest Screenshot

Fantastic Forest is the fourth game Wooga has launched this year, the second on the Facebook web platform, with many more planned to launch on web and mobile before the year comes to an end so be on the look out for even more news, soon.

Kaiser’s first game at Wooga, Monster World launched on Facebook.com in 2010 and is still a top ranking game on the social network. That’s pretty cool, even if we do say so. To celebrate the game’s success and to reiterate Wooga’s dedication to creating long lasting play experiences for our titles, a massive new expansion will begin to be rolled out on May 28th. The expansion includes a completely new underwater garden, hundreds of new plants and many more missions for all those fans to explore.

via: Wooga

This week we profile a developer from Bratislava, PIXEL FEDERATION. This Slovakian company concentrates on the development of social freemium games. You can play their games on the Pixel Portal and on Facebook – the Mobile versions are soon to be released. We spoke to them to find out more:

Developer Name: PIXEL FEDERATION

Where founded and office/s location/s: Bratislava, Slovakia

Founded by: Filip Fischer, Marian Fridrich, Simon Sicko, Lucia Sickova

Diggy's Adventure

Founded in: 2007

Funding: self-funded

Acquisitions: no

Number of employees: 91

Number of games published: 3 games

List of games published: TrainStation, Diggy’s Adventure, Emporea: The Realms of War & Magic

Describe what you do in one sentence: We create social freemium games – from Players to Players

Where games are published: Facebook, Pixel Portal, Mobile versions to be released soon

TrainStation

Working with publisher: no

Acting as a publisher: yes

Publishing games in which languages: English, German, Slovak, French, Turkish, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Romanian, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia

Game genre/s: simulation, strategy, adventure

User demographics (gender): men and women

User demographics (location): North America, Europe

Best-selling virtual item: Locomotive: Blazer ( $1 ) in TrainStation

Most expensive virtual item: Locomotive: CC300 Quad ( $11 ) in TrainStation

What do you see as the current most exciting trend in the industry: Seamless Crossplatform Gaming Experience

This week we profile Sm4rt Games Studios.  This developer is based in Mexico City and currently has three published games. Check out their recent game Castle Tower on Facebook here.  They are currently working on the development on their fourth game, Castle Heroes – to be released soon!

Developer Name: Sm4rt Games Studios

Where founded and office location: Mexico City, Mexico

Founded by: Gustavo Chapela

Founded in: 2010

Funding: 1 Million USD

Acquisitions: No

Number of employees: 14

Number of games published: 3

List of games published: Broken Reality Online, Botball Adventure, Castle Tower and Castle Heroes (currently in development).

Describe what you do in one sentence: We create original online games that emphasize social interactions (competition and/or cooperation)

Where games are published: Facebook and the Web

Working with publisher: No

Acting as a publisher: No

Publishing games in which languages: English

Game genre/s: Strategy, Sports, RPG

User demographics: Male

Caste Tower Screenshot

User demographics: America, UK, Western Europe and Asia

Best-selling virtual item: $9.99 USD Gem Pack for Castle Tower

Most expensive virtual item: $200 USD Jumbo Gem Pack for Castle Tower

What do you see as the current most exciting trend in the industry: The transition of PC and social games to the mobile space (iOS/Android/Win8).

Social Games Observer interviewed Andy Caras-Altas, CEO of Traffic Generation, on the social gambling boom, his view on the industry and how he sees its future development.

SGO: Social gambling is booming, why is this?

Andy: The boom in social gambling is driven by the trust users have in the Facebook platform, the quality of the entertainment being offered and – to a much lesser extent – the popularity amongst consumers who don’t have access to real-money wagering online.  The latter is particularly evident when looking at countries where social gaming is most popular, namely countries that have, or have had, strong restrictions on gambling such as the USA, Australia, Italy and France.  Primarily though, it’s the familiarity of the Facebook platform and the quality of the playing experience that’s so very simple & fun.  Whilst there’s been a huge amount of growth in social gambling, we’re reaching a point where it is beginning to extend into other verticals, particularly into convergence. This is where I believe we will see colossal growth in the next 2 years.

SGO: You talked about Facebook being a trusted platform, how easy is it to regulate social gambling and real-money social gambling, how do you prevent underage users from playing?

Andy: As far as I can see, the ability for under-18s to take part in real-money wagering on Facebook is very hard.  For example, 888 and Jackpot Joy have very good systems to control this so I don’t think there is much of a risk – they are good at controlling who accesses their products & protecting the players that do come in. In terms of social gambling, I don’t think a meaningful discussion has taken place. My opinion is that there is not a huge requirement for onerous regulation, as the mechanisms & fundamental game propositions used in social gambling are very different from those in real-money wagering.

SGO: Can you explain the different mechanisms?

Andy: In real-money gambling there needs to be both the encouragement of responsible play and the delivery of a high-quality entertainment experience based primarily around wins and losses.  In social gambling there are so many ways to provide entertainment; there are loyalty points, achievements, levels, they are socially engaging and they add value to the player’s experience.

SGO: Following on from the entertainment value of social gambling, do you think some games are better suited to the Facebook platform than others?

Andy: You can extend slot machine games beyond their original design.  Slot machines are well defined and when you take them into a social environment, it enables marketers and developers to add more to them.

Andy Caras-Altas of Traffic Generation

Developers who are able to engage with the social, community and sharing aspects of Facebook are the ones who are succeeding. With poker it appears to be harder to build engagement outside of the game itself.

SGO: Do you think, therefore, that monetization rates are higher in some games than others?

Andy: I don’t think you can look at a particular vertical and see it monetizing better than another.  The barriers-to-entry for poker games are colossal because it is all about liquidity and the games are quite homogenous – someone taking on Zynga for poker would be setting themselves a big challenge.  In slots, the monetization can vary enormously from operator to operator and depending on the platform.  There is still room for people to get in there and do innovative things with the area around the slot machine.

SGO: What developments are you excited about in social gambling?

Andy: The extension of products into mobile and the potential increase of social engagement in mobile will be fantastic.  It is quite difficult to engage with customers with marketing on mobile compared to Facebook.  But, I think over the next couple of years opportunities for engagement will increase.  From a technical perspective, I can see the television getting smarter and taking away some of the market-share from tablets.  Smart TVs will allow people to play team-based social games.  This could be a great opportunity for bingo and poker which are two highly social sectors.  The other area which I think will be really exciting is the convergence with land-based gambling – taking the experience from the virtual social environment into real-money wagering in a land-based casino is going to be exciting and enriching for the customers.  You can get rewarded for playing anywhere; the convergence between the two is an area that we, Traffic Generation, are really focused on.

SGO: So, can you tell me more about this and explain the idea behind Traffic Generation?

Andy: Our background is quite unique.  We’ve been in the real-money wagering market since the beginning – about 15 years ago. During that time we’ve been operators and also affiliates driving traffic (so, on both sides).  In the past, we were driving traffic and we realized there wasn’t the opportunity to have a single view across the acquisition, conversion and monetization platforms.  There were individual systems which could show you in great detail what was going on in each particular part but not a single view across all three.  Our systems provide us with a single customer view throughout the initial touch points to the entire life of the player on multiple platforms, including the land-based environment. This has enabled us to do some really interesting things in terms of cross-marketing and multiplatform marketing & player management – whether that be moving them into social gaming or into real-money wagering.

SGO: Finally, if you were to release a new social gambling game, what would it be and what market would you target?

Andy: I think the opportunity presented by convergence is real and highly promising. A social gaming brand that can leverage experiences across multiple platforms has the chance to deliver a market-leading product. It’s not just about taking the games with you, its about engaging with a brand you trust and investing time into that relationship. If I were to launch a new social gambling game I’d partner with a land-based operator, or another in a different vertical and try to deliver product & promotional benefits in both play points. Player values will be higher, customer loyalty higher and – most importantly – player satisfaction greatly increased.

Today we’re looking at Rise Up Labs, mobile application development company located in Dhaka, Bangaldesh.  They were incorporated in 2009 and have since then released a number of successful games. They revealed to Social Games Observer they are also in the process of releasing their first social game on Facebook called Factory Project, you can check out more about the game on www.factoryprojectlive.com.

Developer Name: Rise Up Labs Ltd.

Where founded and office/s location/s: Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Founded by: Ershadul Hoque

Tap Tap Ants Screenshot

Founded in: 2009

Funding: Self-funded

Acquisitions?: No

Number of employees: 50

Number of games published: 50

List of games published: A few mentionable games are:–

Tap Tap Ants

Tap Tap Ants: Battlefield

Fruitito

Shoot The Monkey

iWarehouse

Describe what you do in one sentence: Unite the world through high quality games and applications.

Where games are published: iOS platform

Working with publisher: No

Tap Tap Ants Battlefield Menu Screenshot

Acting as a publisher: No

Publishing games in which languages: English

Game genre/s: Action, Arcade, Adventure, Puzzle

User demographics: All ages and genders

User demographics: Primarily US, Canada, EU, Brazil, China and Singapore.

Best-selling virtual item: Kids Mode in Tap Tap Ants, costs $0.99

Most expensive virtual item: Stockpile of Coins in Tap Tap Ants: Battlefield, costs $4.99

What do you see as the current most exciting trend in the industry: The rise of high end mobile games.

Games is usually our thing, but the advent of Spring seems to be taking its time in Europe so we thought we’d look to the prospect of fairer climes with a lowdown of the top travel apps on Facebook. This category has grown by 65% in the past year and the top 20 applications total 37M monthly active users (MAU). The top five applications we’ll look at in greater detail with the help of analytics service metricsmonk are: TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Gogobot, Couchsurfing and KAYAK.  See the table below for the top 5 according to MAU.

TripAdvisor rakes in the majority of the users with its app alone boasting 35.5M monthly active users.  TripAdvisor used to run a separate “Cities I’ve Visited” app which attracted a large number of users who could pinpoint places they’d visited on their Facebook profiles. This has now been integrated into the TripAdvisor app.  At this time one year ago, TripAdvisor and Cities I’ve Visited held the number one and two spot respectively on the Facebook MAU charts.  Now, TripAdvisor basks in the fruits of its partnership with Facebook – over one third of its reviews come from Facebook-connected users.  TripAdvisor holds a massive lead ahead of second placed app, Airbnb.

Rank	Application	Monthly Active Users (MAU)
1.	TripAdvisor	35,476,051
2.	Airbnb	681,428
3.	Gogobot	601,276
4.	Couchsurfing	353,352
5.	KAYAK	305,704

With Airbnb’s foray into the social network, users can check out places their friends have stayed and view any personal connections they may have to their prospective host.  The app has tripled its monthly active users over the past year and today they total 680,000 MAU.

Gogobot, the travel app that prides itself on also connecting you to your friends for travel tips instead of simply following anonymous sources, comes in at third.  This app has seen a small decline over the past year, losing around 32,000 MAU but has started an increase which keeps it in third spot.

In fourth place is the Couchsurfing app.  Launched in 2004, the Couchsurfing website is a hugely trusted resource for travelers all around the world.  The app on Facebook reaches 350,000 MAU.

Finally, in fifth place is KAYAK. This travel app is designed to search for the best deals for your holiday.  The company launched in 2004 and since its entry onto Facebook, it has notched up just over 300,000 monthly active users.