freemium

PopCap Says Making Bejeweled Free Will Lead to a New High Score (Video)

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 23, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

PopCap has set the ambitious goal of getting half a billion people to play Bejeweled, its 11-year-old puzzle game.

Is Nexon’s Lukewarm IPO Reception a Bad Sign for Zynga?

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 14, 2011 at 4:00 am PT

Is Nexon’s experience of raising $1.2 billion on the Tokyo stock exchange this week a sign of what’s to come for Zynga?

Big Fish’s Mystery Case Files Has Been Played by Millions — But It’s Not a Hit

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on November 10, 2011 at 12:10 pm PT

Big Fish, the developer of casual games for PC and mobile, will launch its eighth episode of the franchise Mystery Case Files around Thanksgiving — but the title isn’t one of the company’s big hits.

The Enterprization of Consumer Apps

Nick Mehta, CEO, LiveOffice in Voices on October 31, 2011 at 3:00 pm PT

The classic comedy “Trading Places” explores what happens when people from completely different walks of life switch places. In the technology world, we are witnessing a similar swap.

Disposable Income Means Older People Are Paying More Inside Mobile Games

Tricia Duryee in Mobile on September 9, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

In an ongoing series of blog posts, Flurry, an analytics provider, continues to dissect the freemium mobile games business. Here are the latest findings.

Glu Mobile Acquires Two Developers as Game Consolidation Heats Up

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on August 3, 2011 at 1:05 pm PT

Glu Mobile latches on to Griptonite Games and Blammo Games to double the capacity of its development studios.

Study Says Five Percent of Mobile Gamers Are Willing to Spend More Than $50

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 25, 2011 at 2:26 pm PT

Here’s a fairly compelling argument as to why a developer should continue to give away games for free: if given the option, some consumers are willing to pay much, much more.

Live Gamer Makes Two Acquisitions to Expand From Virtual Goods Platform to Ad Network

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 19, 2011 at 4:30 am PT

Live Gamer has been building a platform to monetize games through virtual goods. Now it has acquired two ad-based companies to expand into freemium-based models.

Mobile Games Generate More Revenue if Given Away for Free

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 7, 2011 at 11:27 am PT

Freemium is one of those made-up terms that might be here to stay.

Nintendo’s Pop Fizzles After It Squashes Multiplatform Talk

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 6, 2011 at 12:23 pm PT

Nintendo’s shares rose as much as 4.9 percent today after investors got their hopes up that the game company had changed its policy regarding developing games for mobile phones. Turns out it wasn’t so, and most of the gains melted away.