French social games publisher Kobojo has announced PyramidVille for mobile devices, starting with an iOS version. Kobojo is co-publishing the app named PyramidVille Adventure with BulkyPix in French, English, Italian, Spanish and German.
Kobojo’s original PyramidVille takes players to ancient Egypt where they build a city and manage its resources. The game comes in 6 languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) and currently has 740,000 monthly active users on Facebook.

The mobile version introduces new features, such as mini-games to accelerate time, that build on the River Nile as a key factor in Egypt’s development.
“Like we said at the LeWeb’11, Kobojo successfully epitomizes SoLoMo, which stands for ‘social, local, mobile’. This mobile version only strengthens our position in France and makes Kobojo a competitor to watch closely in Europe,” commented Franck Tetzlaff, CEO and founder of Kobojo.

Yazino has announced that the iOS version of its most popular social game, Wheel Deal by Yazino, rocketed to the top of the Casino category in the US App Store after a refresh of the game added a host of new features and gameplay updates. Wheel Deal is the first real-time, multiplayer slots game with the added thrill of a game-show style bonus round. In the mobile version – just like the online game – up to 12 players compete against each other to win the jackpot and become the Wheel Deal champion.

Available exclusively for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Wheel Deal lets users play in real-time against friends and other gamers regardless of whether they are playing via Yazino.com, Facebook or mobile, and connecting via 3G or WiFi. The mobile version of Wheel Deal by Yazino includes all the same social features as the web version, and even allows users to invite your friends to play along directly from their phone contacts.

Yazino players are able to compete in real-time with each other. Yazino games feature levels, achievements, leaderboards and tournaments, allowing players to compete and play amongst friends and the rest of Yazino users.

Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile has launched its latest effort Infected for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Infected takes players into a world overrun with virus infected zombies, incubated in the streets of New York City. This virus continues to turn seemingly normal people into insane, violent zombies.

The freemium game requires players to survive the zombie onslaught with the help of cooperative units of fighting NYC cops and muggers, as well as explosive vehicles. Players can join forces with friends on Facebook, Game Center and OpenFeint to spread their own unique viruses throughout the world in multiplayer counter-attack campaigns.

“Infected brings the strategic, tower defense experience to a Social Mobile platform,” said Brian Lowe, Executive Producer at Glu Mobile. “Fans of fast-paced, multiplayer gaming will enjoy connecting with friends to battle in a global effort.”

Founded in 2001, San Francisco-based Glu is focused on bringing the social, freemium mobile gaming experiences to a mass market across platforms.

Diamond Dash, Wooga’s most popular game on Facebook with 11.3 million monthly active users, is now available as a free download in the App Store. The iOS version was introduced today, live on stage at Europe’s largest Internet conference Le Web in Paris.

Diamond Dash challenges players’ reflexes to smash as many same colored gems as possible. Weekly tournaments allow players to compete for the highest score with their friends, and also reward the top 3 players with gold, silver or bronze medals. By linking the iOS version to Facebook and automatically synchronizing, weekly tournaments are now available across multiple platforms.

In Diamond Dash for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, graphics and controls have been optimized for the demands of mobile devices. The game will be available in 120 countries and in nine languages – German, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

DIAMOND DASH GOES MOBILE - Wooga launches popular social game for iOS

·  Berlin-based developer launches hit game worldwide in the App Store
·  iPhone and iPad version of the classic social game introduced today in Paris

Paris, France - December 07, 2011 - Diamond Dash, the most popular arcade game on Facebook, is now available as a free download in the App Store. As of today, Wooga, the world's third largest developer of social games, is offering Diamond Dash for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. This exciting game first launched on Facebook, where it has fascinated over 10 million people per month. Today, the company introduced the new mobile version live on stage at Europe's largest Internet conference, Le Web in Paris.

Diamond Dash, Wooga's exciting 60 second gem rush, challenges players' reflexes to smash as many same colored gems as possible. Weekly tournaments allow players to compete for the highest score with their friends, and also reward the top 3 players with one of the coveted gold, silver or bronze medals. By linking the iOS version to Facebook and automatically synchronizing both, weekly tournaments are now available across multiple platforms.

Since its launch in March of this year, Diamond Dash has delighted over 25 million people and was honored in August 2011 with the European Games Award as best social game. It is currently ranked among the top 10 social games on Facebook.

In Diamond Dash for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the graphics and controls have been optimized for the demands of mobile devices, giving fans the opportunity to enjoy the classic game while on the go.

For high-resolution images, the game trailer and to download the game:
http://www.wooga.com/diamond-dash-mobile/

Features:
·  Automatic comparison of the score and social interaction with friends via Facebook Connect
·  Available in 120 countries and in nine languages (German, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish)
·  Regular updates with new game content

Diamond Dash is now available as a free download for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

About Wooga:
Founded in 2009 in Europe´s technology hub, Berlin, Wooga is the third largest social game developer in the world. Wooga creates high quality games for Facebook and iOS, with a specific focus on emotional character development, usability, and superb localization in seven languages.
Wooga is committed to creating innovative and original game titles for players of all ages, bringing millions of users around the world together through a world of gaming. Wooga´s free-to-play Facebook games are enjoyed by over 34 million active players per month - 70% of which are women. Wooga´s games generate revenue by selling interactive goods: Monster World players, for example, have bought more than twenty-eight million magic wands so far - making wooga the biggest supplier of interactive magic equipment in the world. Wooga is also a world leader in the development of cutting-edge technologies, enabling millions of users to compete with their friends.

WeeWorld is rocking the mobile world: The UK-based social platform for teens and women is seeing some remarkable results – especially on iPhone. We sat down with WeeWorld’s CEO Celia Francis to discuss the company’s mobile approach.

WeeWorld has been around since 2002, it started off as an avatar creating site and later expanded its services to a standalone platform for female and teen audiences, allowing them to style avatars, decorate places, meet people and play mini-games. According to WeeWorld, 50 million avatars -or WeeMees- have been created so far.

Paid apps monetize well, but freemium is here to stay

Since 2010, WeeWorld publishes free as well as paid iPhone apps, the most successful one being the WeeMee Avatar Creator (priced at $0.99), which features additional in-app purchases and was downloaded over 3 million times, according to WeeWorld. The company achieves strong results with in-app purchases – one fifth of users pay for additional virtual items. On Android, however, things are different: With app discovery being a main issue in the Android Market, WeeWorld has published only one (free) Android app that has about 100,000 downloads.  The freemium trend hasn’t gone unnoticed, so more free apps with in-app purchases are to be expected from WeeWorld for both iOS and Android.

Mobile became an effective user acquisition channel

While the opportunities for cross-platform approach are enormous, HTML5 still isn’t quite where it should be. WeeWorld is keeping an eye on HTML5 but focuses on building individual apps for each platform at the moment: “Native apps allow us to take advantage of all the different features of handsets, which is something that we are very keen on,” Celia explained. All of WeeWorld’s mobile apps provide distinctive features, rather than reproduce the whole platform.  “So far, we keep it simple on the mobile side,” said Celia. People tend to use mobile apps in between other activities, that’s why they’re made easy and fun  – rather than overloaded with too many features.

For WeeWorld, mobile apps have become an effective user acquisition channel that allowed the company to tap into new audiences, Celia explained: “Usually, our user base is 20 years our younger, but our mobile apps attract older demographics as well. Especially middle-aged women discover our platform through mobile apps.”

Users share creations rather than achievements

Establishing more connections between their mobile offerings and the core web-based platform, is the main focus for the months to come. Be it on mobile or web-based, WeeWorld is all about self-expression.  “Our audience is younger than the Facebook audience. In Facebook, you use your real persona, we take a different approach by offering personalized entertainment,” said Celia. Especially young people enjoy to express themselves and play different roles, or even become someone else for a day.

There are overlaps with Facebook’s social graph, but most of the users choose not to post WeeWorld updates on Facebook. And interestingly, only around 20% log in with Facebook Connect. “There are a lot of sharing opportunities around achievements. But to share something you have created, is an even greater motivation,” Celia believes. These means of self-expression are not only attractive for teens – the CEO herself is an avid user.

Justin Bieber and other stars stop by regularly

Even though WeeWorld is operating in the UK, their main user base is located in the US. So far, WeeWorld doesn’t localize for European markets. “We utilize network effects to grow our audience and that’s a lot easier in a homogenous market,” explained Celia.  Because of  the attractive user demographics, integrating branded virtual goods has helped to provide another solid revenue stream. Also, WeeWorld frequently integrates celebrity-themed virtual items by stars like Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, and teenage idol Justin Bieber.

Social games developer Nordeus is on a roll: Last week, the company was presented with the best gaming startup trophy at The Europas awards, today, the Belgrade-based developer announced a Top Eleven iOS app. Top Eleven is a football (soccer) manager where users select, train and build their own squad of players to compete against others.

“We aim to provide a seamless gaming experience for our Top Eleven fans no matter what device you’re using,” said Branko Milutinovic, Nordeus CEO. “You can kick off a Top Eleven game on a desktop, and if you have to pop out at half-time you can now continue to follow your game on your iPhone.” The app is free to download, players can use in-app purchases to buy tokens, allowing for faster development and progression through the game.

“Since launching the mobile version of Top Eleven we’ve seen the average daily players of the game increase, as well as an increase in the frequency of check-ins. Players are spending more time within the game to help their team’s progress,” said Branko Milutinovic.

The iOS app follows on from the Android version last month, which has 80,000 downloads from the Android Market, so far. The Top Eleven Facebook app sees
3.3 million monthly active users (MAU).

PapayaMobile is expanding its product line by bringing their social development toolkits to the iOS platform as a beta release. All developers using Papaya’s Social Game Engine can now export both iOS and Android versions of their game from one code base. All developers that have both iOS and Android versions of their game can use Papaya’s Social SDK to connect users on both platforms for in-game features such as player challenges, game invitations and leaderboards.

Fragmented Mobile User Base
The mobile industry to date has struggled to create a social graph that is as large and engaged as those produced in the online space. This is partly due to the fragmentation of the mobile user base, with various platforms creating “pockets” of users, most notably the iOS pocket of users and the Android pocket of users. The expansion of the Papaya product line to iOS aims to connect these pockets to create a larger and more effective social graph.

Access to Chinese Mobile Market
PapayaMobile focuses on helping developers to create, promote and distribute cross-platform social games on Android and iOS.Several third-party titles such as X-City by Aidi Game, Contagion by 2Clams, and Burger Joint by Arctic Empire will be making their iOS debut on the Papaya network within the coming weeks. Furthermore, all developers using Papaya’s social tools will have access to PapayaMobile’s recently launched Gateway to China program; a free solution that localizes, distributes, and promotes western games to the Chinese mobile market.

Edinburgh based analytics firm GamesAnalytics, has announced full support for iOS and Android game publishers using its Predict and Engage analytics platform. GamesAnalytics is a data mining and monetization company serving the online and mobile games industry. The company was founded in 2010 by Chris Wright and Mark Robinson who combined the backgrounds of games publishing and data mining. Adding to its current support for Facebook, PC download and browser based games, GamesAnalytics cross-platform analytics solution now enables mobile game publishers to track and manage the millions of data events that occur in mobile games, identifying key metrics and tracking patterns of player behavior.

In addition, GamesAnalytics’ advanced analytics technology allows mobile publishers to “predict future player behavior and send tailored in-game marketing messages to individual players”. In this way, mobile publishers can optimize the game play experience based on each user’s individual playing style. CEO Chris Wright states: “Our proprietary predictive analytics technology gives mobile games companies the ability to understand complex player data and automatically deliver highly effective, specific in-game marketing messages tailored to individual players. This gives our clients a competitive advantage and allows them to optimize revenue and retention in their mobile games.”