PS4 Gets One of Vita's Best Games in September for $40

Tearaway Unfolded, the PlayStation 4 version of PlayStation Vita game Tearaway, will be out on September 8 in North America for $40.

Unfolded was announced last year, but today's announcement is the first we've heard of a release date, and it confirms that it won't be priced any higher than the original Vita version. This is an expanded and improved version of that game; it still features the novel construction-paper world of the game, and adds in new areas and some fairly extensive uses for the PS4's DualShock 4.

Those who preorder will be entitled to the Crafted Edition of the game, essentially a Day One version that includes a variety of bonus goodies. These include God of War and Journey costumes, custom decorations themed around various games (God of War, Infamous, The Last of Us, Killzone, The Order: 1886, No Man's Sky, Gravity Rush, and Lemmings), and a soundtrack.

Tearaway may not be the only acclaimed Vita game coming to PS4--Gravity Rush is also rumored to be on the way.

Walking Dead Game Dev, Next Games, Lands $6M Series A From IDG & Early Supercell Investor Jari Ovaskainen

Games making hub Finland — land of Rovio and Supercell, to name a couple of the higher profile games studios tucked up near the Arctic circle — has attracted another tranche of outside investment.

Next Games, a free-to-play Helsinki-based startup founded last year by former employees of Rovio, Supercell and Disney, has secured a $6 million Series A funding round — with most of the money winging in to Finland from the U.S. and Asia.

The round was co-led by IDG Ventures and the company’s original investor, Jari Ovaskainen – also an early investor in Supercell. Lowercase Capital also participated in the round. Other investors include Asia based IDG Capital, AMC Networks Ventures, and York Ventures — a recently established early-stage VC firm backed the by the Gores brothers, Alec, Tom and Sam, and managed by digital media entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Next Games is developing a mobile games based on AMC’s The Walking Dead zombie TV drama franchise — hence AMC Networks Ventures involvement in the funding round. The game is due to launch in concert with season 5 of The Walking Dead TV series, and will have a global release. The studio is also working on a second unnamed mobile title which is also presumably being factored into this funding round by its investors.

“Our funding was made possible by the pioneering work by established Scandinavian game development studios,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games, in a statement flagging up the Finnish games hub angle. ”It is a testament to the talent in the Nordic region where many of the most successful games in recent years have been created.”

“The majority of our private investment is rooted in the United States and Asia, the world’s leading mobile app markets. I’m confident this diversity will lead to compelling games with broad global appeal and unique opportunities for partnerships, such as the one we currently have with AMC,” added Huuhtanen.

Commenting on the funding round in a supporting statement, investor Jari Ovaskainen added: “I’m thrilled to see a Finnish game studio with such talent and vision hit the runway with this dynamic range of global investors.”

View the original article here

Google’s Acquisition Of Green Throttle Games Could Signal Better Native Android Gaming

Google has acquired Green Throttle Games – or at least what was left of the company after it essentially shut down late last year, according to a new report by PandoDaily. The startup followed Ouya, GameStick and others in providing an Android-based gaming experience designed for the living room, but it also had considerable talent thanks to founder Charles Huang, who created Guitar Hero, and differentiated itself through its Atlas controller, which is still available to buy online.

The Atlas is a Bluetooth controller that worked with the company’s Arena software to provide support for multiple controller input on the same device, meaning you could connect up to four players locally on a single Android smartphone or tablet connected to a TV, which isn’t normally possible. Plus, Arena provides a TV- and controller-input friendly interface for living room gaming. One last point that Green Throttle Games thought would be a differentiator: They offered an SDK to help developers build experiences specifically for the Atlas and living room play, instead of just converting mobile games with minor tweaks.

Overall the idea didn’t fare all that well, likely due to the amount of buy-in and effort required by developers, who had to offer multi-controller support in each app they created, since it’s a protocol that isn’t standard on Android. Which might be part of the reason Google was interested in acquiring them.

The Atlas is still available on Amazon, but the Arena died late last year, so it’s effectively just another Bluetooth gaming controller at this point. Google acquiring their assets and talent provide some hardware smarts to the search giant, and Pando suggests that Google could be gearing up to release a set-top box as previously rumored, possibly for release early this year. Green Throttle could definitely help with the gaming side of such an endeavor, but the underlying Bluetooth protocol has broader application possibilities, and there’s the Chromecast to consider, too.

Google already has an in-road to consumer TVs, and that’s a prime opportunity to introduce two-screen gaming features. Apple already encourages this on Apple TV with its Airplay streaming tech for iOS devices, and Google’s Chromecast SDK opens up more similar opportunities for Android software. But adding four-player local support natively to Android’s Bluetooth protocols would be a considerable gaming advantage, especially as mobile continues to challenge consoles for gaming supremacy. And were it built-in at system level to Android software, it wouldn’t require new hardware to make its way out to the user community.

Android home gaming may still be largely a case of square peg, round hole (as demonstrated by the GamePop I reviewed yesterday, as well as the failure of Ouya and others), but Google adding more system level support and taking the best part of multiple approaches could change that for the better.

View the original article here

Google’s Acquisition Of Green Throttle Games Could Signal Better Native Android Gaming

Google has acquired Green Throttle Games – or at least what was left of the company after it essentially shut down late last year, according to a new report by PandoDaily. The startup followed Ouya, GameStick and others in providing an Android-based gaming experience designed for the living room, but it also had considerable talent thanks to founder Charles Huang, who created Guitar Hero, and differentiated itself through its Atlas controller, which is still available to buy online.

The Atlas is a Bluetooth controller that worked with the company’s Arena software to provide support for multiple controller input on the same device, meaning you could connect up to four players locally on a single Android smartphone or tablet connected to a TV, which isn’t normally possible. Plus, Arena provides a TV- and controller-input friendly interface for living room gaming. One last point that Green Throttle Games thought would be a differentiator: They offered an SDK to help developers build experiences specifically for the Atlas and living room play, instead of just converting mobile games with minor tweaks.

Overall the idea didn’t fare all that well, likely due to the amount of buy-in and effort required by developers, who had to offer multi-controller support in each app they created, since it’s a protocol that isn’t standard on Android. Which might be part of the reason Google was interested in acquiring them.

The Atlas is still available on Amazon, but the Arena died late last year, so it’s effectively just another Bluetooth gaming controller at this point. Google acquiring their assets and talent provide some hardware smarts to the search giant, and Pando suggests that Google could be gearing up to release a set-top box as previously rumored, possibly for release early this year. Green Throttle could definitely help with the gaming side of such an endeavor, but the underlying Bluetooth protocol has broader application possibilities, and there’s the Chromecast to consider, too.

Google already has an in-road to consumer TVs, and that’s a prime opportunity to introduce two-screen gaming features. Apple already encourages this on Apple TV with its Airplay streaming tech for iOS devices, and Google’s Chromecast SDK opens up more similar opportunities for Android software. But adding four-player local support natively to Android’s Bluetooth protocols would be a considerable gaming advantage, especially as mobile continues to challenge consoles for gaming supremacy. And were it built-in at system level to Android software, it wouldn’t require new hardware to make its way out to the user community.

Android home gaming may still be largely a case of square peg, round hole (as demonstrated by the GamePop I reviewed yesterday, as well as the failure of Ouya and others), but Google adding more system level support and taking the best part of multiple approaches could change that for the better.

View the original article here

Walking Dead Game Dev, Next Games, Lands $6M Series A From IDG & Early Supercell Investor Jari Ovaskainen

Games making hub Finland — land of Rovio and Supercell, to name a couple of the higher profile games studios tucked up near the Arctic circle — has attracted another tranche of outside investment.

Next Games, a free-to-play Helsinki-based startup founded last year by former employees of Rovio, Supercell and Disney, has secured a $6 million Series A funding round — with most of the money winging in to Finland from the U.S. and Asia.

The round was co-led by IDG Ventures and the company’s original investor, Jari Ovaskainen – also an early investor in Supercell. Lowercase Capital also participated in the round. Other investors include Asia based IDG Capital, AMC Networks Ventures, and York Ventures — a recently established early-stage VC firm backed the by the Gores brothers, Alec, Tom and Sam, and managed by digital media entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Next Games is developing a mobile games based on AMC’s The Walking Dead zombie TV drama franchise — hence AMC Networks Ventures involvement in the funding round. The game is due to launch in concert with season 5 of The Walking Dead TV series, and will have a global release. The studio is also working on a second unnamed mobile title which is also presumably being factored into this funding round by its investors.

“Our funding was made possible by the pioneering work by established Scandinavian game development studios,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games, in a statement flagging up the Finnish games hub angle. ”It is a testament to the talent in the Nordic region where many of the most successful games in recent years have been created.”

“The majority of our private investment is rooted in the United States and Asia, the world’s leading mobile app markets. I’m confident this diversity will lead to compelling games with broad global appeal and unique opportunities for partnerships, such as the one we currently have with AMC,” added Huuhtanen.

Commenting on the funding round in a supporting statement, investor Jari Ovaskainen added: “I’m thrilled to see a Finnish game studio with such talent and vision hit the runway with this dynamic range of global investors.”

View the original article here

Free-To-Play Games Company Kabam Buys Phoenix Age As It Pushes For $650M In 2014 Sales

Kabam, the free-to-play gaming company that has raised some $125 million in venture funding and looks to be among those weighing up an IPO, has acquired Phoenix Age, a games studio based in San Francisco. The deal was done for diversification: it will give Kabam some strong franchises, and games developing talent, specifically in the area of role-playing games.

“Phoenix Age’s hit games and world-class talent further solidify Kabam’s leadership role in the free-to-play games space while expanding Kabam into new genres,” said Kent Wakeford, COO for Kabam, in a statement.

Phoenix Age, which was founded in 2009, is the developer behind the mobile games Underworld Empire and Castle Age, with the first out on Facebook and iOS and the latter on iOS. It also has a third game still in development. It has 44 employees, who will continue to work out of its existing offices.

For Phoenix Age, consolidation with a bigger company is an obvious route to helping it scale (it appears to have been bootstrapped up to now): “We couldn’t be more excited about joining Kabam,” said Edwin Shew, co-founder of Phoenix Age, in a statement. “Becoming part of their team instantly gives us the expertise, experience and infrastructure to scale our games to a global level we couldn’t achieve independently.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but we’re trying to find out.

Kabam describes the deal as its “first acquisition in 2014,” which in a way seems to imply that we will be seeing more. The company last year went through a secondary stock sale that valued the company at $700 million and it says that four of its games — led by Kingdoms of Camelot — grossed more than $100 million by the end of 2013, with $360 million in revenues for the year. It estimates that 2014 sales will be between $550 million and $650 million.

Although CEO Kevin Chou has not ruled out an IPO, it’s worth wondering if Kabam will follow the route of the likes of Zynga and look to the public markets for future growth, or whether it will stay private, or find a middle ground and go the way of new exchanges like the NASDAQ Private Market.

To date Kabam has made seven acquisitions including Phoenix Age. The others are Exploding Barrel Games, WonderHill, Fearless Studios, Gravity Bear, Wild Shadow Studios and Balanced Worlds.

View the original article here

Walking Dead Game Dev, Next Games, Lands $6M Series A From IDG & Early Supercell Investor Jari Ovaskainen

Games making hub Finland — land of Rovio and Supercell, to name a couple of the higher profile games studios tucked up near the Arctic circle — has attracted another tranche of outside investment.

Next Games, a free-to-play Helsinki-based startup founded last year by former employees of Rovio, Supercell and Disney, has secured a $6 million Series A funding round — with most of the money winging in to Finland from the U.S. and Asia.

The round was co-led by IDG Ventures and the company’s original investor, Jari Ovaskainen – also an early investor in Supercell. Lowercase Capital also participated in the round. Other investors include Asia based IDG Capital, AMC Networks Ventures, and York Ventures — a recently established early-stage VC firm backed the by the Gores brothers, Alec, Tom and Sam, and managed by digital media entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Next Games is developing a mobile games based on AMC’s The Walking Dead zombie TV drama franchise — hence AMC Networks Ventures involvement in the funding round. The game is due to launch in concert with season 5 of The Walking Dead TV series, and will have a global release. The studio is also working on a second unnamed mobile title which is also presumably being factored into this funding round by its investors.

“Our funding was made possible by the pioneering work by established Scandinavian game development studios,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games, in a statement flagging up the Finnish games hub angle. ”It is a testament to the talent in the Nordic region where many of the most successful games in recent years have been created.”

“The majority of our private investment is rooted in the United States and Asia, the world’s leading mobile app markets. I’m confident this diversity will lead to compelling games with broad global appeal and unique opportunities for partnerships, such as the one we currently have with AMC,” added Huuhtanen.

Commenting on the funding round in a supporting statement, investor Jari Ovaskainen added: “I’m thrilled to see a Finnish game studio with such talent and vision hit the runway with this dynamic range of global investors.”

View the original article here

Walking Dead Game Dev, Next Games, Lands $6M Series A From IDG & Early Supercell Investor Jari Ovaskainen

Games making hub Finland — land of Rovio and Supercell, to name a couple of the higher profile games studios tucked up near the Arctic circle — has attracted another tranche of outside investment.

Next Games, a free-to-play Helsinki-based startup founded last year by former employees of Rovio, Supercell and Disney, has secured a $6 million Series A funding round — with most of the money winging in to Finland from the U.S. and Asia.

The round was co-led by IDG Ventures and the company’s original investor, Jari Ovaskainen – also an early investor in Supercell. Lowercase Capital also participated in the round. Other investors include Asia based IDG Capital, AMC Networks Ventures, and York Ventures — a recently established early-stage VC firm backed the by the Gores brothers, Alec, Tom and Sam, and managed by digital media entrepreneur Peter Levin.

Next Games is developing a mobile games based on AMC’s The Walking Dead zombie TV drama franchise — hence AMC Networks Ventures involvement in the funding round. The game is due to launch in concert with season 5 of The Walking Dead TV series, and will have a global release. The studio is also working on a second unnamed mobile title which is also presumably being factored into this funding round by its investors.

“Our funding was made possible by the pioneering work by established Scandinavian game development studios,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games, in a statement flagging up the Finnish games hub angle. ”It is a testament to the talent in the Nordic region where many of the most successful games in recent years have been created.”

“The majority of our private investment is rooted in the United States and Asia, the world’s leading mobile app markets. I’m confident this diversity will lead to compelling games with broad global appeal and unique opportunities for partnerships, such as the one we currently have with AMC,” added Huuhtanen.

Commenting on the funding round in a supporting statement, investor Jari Ovaskainen added: “I’m thrilled to see a Finnish game studio with such talent and vision hit the runway with this dynamic range of global investors.”

View the original article here