Activision Blizzard (ATVID) shares are trading lower following the company’s fairly complex June quarter report and 2008 outlook. Complicating the picture is the logistics of the merger of Activision and Blizzard. The company posted stand-alone results for Activision for the quarter, but gave guidance for the combined companies.
Google is the sleeping giant when it comes to advertising in video games. While the company dominates search advertising, it has yet to make a big splash in video games. That could change soon, as the company has been quietly testing its “AdSense for Games” product for months.
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One of the proving grounds for artificial intelligence is games. Classic games have a fixed set of rules, and these make it easier for researchers to develop new techniques and algorithms that enable computers to play (and hopefully win) various games.
Two children are learning to live without their mobile phones after becoming so badly addicted to the technology they were admitted to a mental health clinic. They were brought in after spending an average of six hours a day on their phones, talking, texting or playing games.
There is a new casual gaming network in town that’s got some serious cross-platform chops. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy graphics. Today, Mytopia is simultaneously launching across Facebook, Bebo, MySpace (currently pending approval) and its own Web site with eight games (chess, backgammon, sudoku, dominoes, bingo, spades, hearts and video poker). On Monday, it will release the same games across the major Web and desktop widgets: iGoogle Gadgets, Apple Dashboard Widgets, Yahoo Widgets and Windows Vista Toolbar Widgets.
On a week when Microsoft landed a big deal to put Silverlight on Nokia phones, Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, tells Adobe that there won’t be Flash on the iPhone. This is a real bummer for Adobe and many users and developers, because most of the world’s casual games are written for Flash. Just go over to game site Kongregate. Or, look at the world’s video like that on YouTube (or any other video site like the Qik one that I use on my cellphone). Almost all of it is done in Flash. Now developers at those sites will need to find some other method to get those games and videos onto the iPhone. This is a HUGE opening for Microsoft to take momentum and mind share away from Flash/Flex/AIR with its Silverlight set of technologies (which, based on my Twitter conversations, is winning developers over at a pretty good pace).
If you haven’t heard of Spore, you will. Although it’s not due out before midyear, Spore is already the most eagerly awaited computer game of 2008–the recipient of more than half-a-dozen critics’ awards even before its release. That’s in part because of the oversized reputation of its creator, Will Wright, one of the world’s most famous and successful game designers. Starting in 1989 with his breakthrough computer game SimCity and following with titles that include SimEarth, SimAnt, SimLife, and SimFarm, Wright’s franchise of simulation entertainments has generated more than $2.5 billion in revenue. His biggest hit, the Sims, is the best-selling computer game of all time.
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