2011 April | Engage Digital

Engage Digital Wrap-Up For The Week Of April 23, 2011

By On April 23, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Engage Digital Wrap-Up for the week of April 23, 2011. The Wrap-Up is where Engage Digital spotlights stories that we didn’t get to cover individually, but still make for interesting reading about the business of user engagement. Avatar Reality Appoints Tetris Popularizer Henk Rogers As CEO: Blue Mars Mobile developer Avatar Reality [...]

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MindJolt Acquires SGN, Hallpass

By On April 22, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Social gaming firm MindJolt has acquired mobile social developer SGN and online game portal Hallpass Media, each for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition effectively doubles MindJolt’s headcount to 80, gives it four million new users, and adds over 1500 new games to its network. MindJolt strengthens its mobile presence through SGN, whose apps like MiniTycoon [...]

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GREE Acquires OpenFeint For $104M

By On April 22, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Japanese mobile social network GREE has acquired American smartphone mobile social gaming network OpenFeint for $104 million, as part of a process called a triangular merger. GREE says it is Japan’s leading mobile social network with over 25 million users and a market cap of over $3 billion. OpenFeint likewise says it is the largest [...]

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Hi-Rez Announces Freemium Arena Game, Smite

By On April 21, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Hi-Rez Studios has announced its own freemium arena-style online combat game, SMITE. Players in the game control one of a pantheon of ancient gods in team-based battles against other players and their computer-controlled minions. It’s another game seeking to compete with Riot Games’ successful League of Legends, which successfully transitioned DoTA (Defense of the Ancients) [...]

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Moshi Monsters Magazine Sells Out

By On April 21, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Mind Candy has announced that the inaugural issue of the Moshi Monsters Magazine has sold out its entire initial print run of 80,000 copies. Mind Candy says these sales “dwarf” the circulation of competing magazines and indicate the strength of the Moshi Monsters brand. The Moshi Monsters virtual world serves over 40 million registered users [...]

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Funtactix Announces New Boyz: The WORLD

By On April 21, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Funtactix has announced its next virtual world project, New Boyz: The WORLD, based on the Warner Music Group hip-hop duo New Boyz. The virtual world, built on Funtactix’s The WORLD engine, will include a music-driven online gaming and digital merchandise platform. Funtactix says that New Boyz: The WORLD will be the first music-based virtual world [...]

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Apple Cracking Down On Pay-Per-Install Networks?

By On April 20, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Apple has begun rejecting apps for containing pay-per-install ad offer walls, apparently now considering the tactic of convincing users to download a game in exchange for virtual currency a violation of clause 3.10 of the iOS Developer Agreement. Clause 3.10 states that, “Developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking [...]

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