Yahoo, Zynga Joint Venture for Mafia Wars and Fish Ville Social Apps

The most famous Social Networking Apps Development company Zynga joins up with Yahoo! for the development of its most popular games on social networking websites and facebook called Mafia Wars and Fish Ville.

These aren’t the first Zynga games to make it to Yahoo! in the partnership between the two companies, but Mafia Wars is easily the biggest. In August, Zynga counted 45.5 million Facebook subscribers for Mafia Wars, with 6.6 million in September for FishVille.

Zynga continues to surge
Zynga has been growing out of control lately, boosted by the crazy number of subscribers to its Facebook games and the amount of money it pulls down using its “freemium” model that allows players to purchase in-game items and currency, if they choose. Video game site VG247 reports Zynga has bought up six different games studios in as many months, employs 1,300 people at 13 different studios in six countries, and is estimated be worth more than $5.51 billion.

Yahoo! represents an untapped market for Zynga, while also helping to reduce the company’s reliance on Facebook. That’s not to say that Zynga and Facebook aren’t tight -- the two just put together a five-year deal that allows Zynga to integrate the use of Facebook credits into its games -- but the relationship has been strained. And Yahoo! users aren’t necessarily the same ones playing Zynga games on Facebook already, so the company benefits by expanding its player base, as well as opening up additional options for its games.

What's good for Zynga is good for Yahoo!
There are a lot of pros on the Yahoo! side of things as well, specifically for users of Yahoo!’s app platform. Yahoo! carries some great social games, but there are quite a few that could use some help bolstering their community involvement and general number of players. Integrating hugely popular games such as Mafia Wars could have a very beneficial spill-over effect, bringing more players to other Yahoo! apps that could use an increase in their numbers. That means more fun for all us players, and looks to be a smart move by Yahoo!

This isn’t the first time Zynga has started spreading its games around, but it does seem like one of the company’s more significant steps toward putting down roots in other platforms. Several of Zynga’s games are available as Apple (AAPL) iPhone or iPad apps, including Mafia Wars and the ludicrously popular, 65 million-subscriber FarmVille. Zynga’s farming social game also has appeared on MSN (MSFT), though it didn’t last, and TechCrunch has reported that Google (GOOG) is courting Zynga’s games for its network as well.

It’s probably safe to consider Mafia Wars and FishVille as being the advance scouts of a larger Zynga force making its way to Yahoo! It wouldn’t be surprising to see FarmVille show up pretty much any time, provided Mafia Wars and FishVille are successful on the platform. Such success doesn’t seem like much of a stretch -- Zynga Poker, the company’s Texas Hold’em app for Yahoo!, is pretty jumping at just about all hours of the day, and lots of other Yahoo! apps command a respectable following.

Expect more from Zynga and Yahoo! in the near future, especially as both companies start to experience the benefits of the relationship: Zynga for finding a freer platform than Facebook, and Yahoo! for boosting its already popular platform with a big influx of users.

Angry Birds Coming to Facebook Soon

The most popular mobile platform game Angry Birds is coming to Facebook soon. Angry Birds has over 75 million downloads and counting and has popular fan following is taking a flight and soon lands on popular social networking website Facebook pretty soon, it's not exactly surprising to find that the game will be migrating to the largest social network in about a month.

Finnish company Rovio has had huge success with Angry Birds over the last year and couple of months since its debut in the Apple App Store. Since its inception in December of 2009, the game has expanded from just the iPhone to the iPad, Android devices, the PlayStation Portable, and soon Windows Phone 7 devices. It even garnered a deal with Twentieth Century Fox with their latest animated film, Rio. Soon, Rovio plans to take Angry Birds into different genres, like driving. And it appears that user fatigue is not ready to set any time soon.

According to Develop-online.net, Rovio studio boss Mikael Hed said that the Facebook version of the game will have "completely new aspects to it that just haven't been experienced in any other platform," and that "the pigs will have a more prominent role."

Release Date and Pricing of Nintendo 3DS Announced

The Release Date and Pricing of most awaited console Nintendo 3DS has been announced by Nintendo. The company has now announced specific details about the gaming platform. According to Nintendo’s site, the 3DS features a glasses-free 3D screen, a 3D “depth slider” to allow the player to adjust just how three dimensional they want their games to be, and a motion/gyro sensor to detect movement. The system is backwards compatible with the DS (with the exception of Game Boy Advance accessories). There’s also several built-in pieces of software with the 3DS, including a tool to create your Mii, an activity log, a web browser, and more.

The Launch Date of Nintendo 3DS is going to be March 27 and the Pre-Order Price will be $249.99. It will be available in two colors, Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black, and have a lineup of 20 games available at launch. This makes the 3DS the most expensive console that Nintendo offers, since the retail price of the Wii has dropped to $199.99. Compared to other handheld gaming devices, the 3DS seems a bit expensive – you can purchase a PSP for $150 or a DSi XL for $160, but those systems obviously lack the 3D hook. For sake of comparison, the Sony PSP released with the same street price back in 2005.

One interesting hardware feature that is built into the device is a 3D camera. According to the site, it can be used to take pictures that can be displayed in 3D on the device.

Chrome 10 Includes Free HTML5 Games

Google is now experimenting with its new upcoming Chrome Browser Version 10. It seems that Google wants to include every new feature in Chrome 10, According to the sources Google is now integrating free HTML 5 Games in Chrome 10. According to the Google Operating System Blog the Chrome 10 Dev Channel build will include two HTML 5 Games; "Poppit and Entaglement". So If you are running the Dev Channel build, the games will install themselves automatically. If you don't want them you will need to uninstall them manually.

Poppit is a game where your primary objective is to pop groups of like colored balloons. Popping the balloons releases prizes, once you've collected all of the prizes you win the game. Entanglement is a puzzle game that takes place on a hexagon shaped board with hexagon shaped pieces. You have to connect the pieces to create an unbroken line by laying down tiles next to each other without going over the edge.

Many are wondering if the added software is a sign of things to come for Chrome OS, or if it's just a small addition to get people excited about HTML5. The consensus among online users seems to be that Google should ask or suggest software before installing it or including it into the OS.

PlayStation Games & Apps Coming to iPhone & Android

Before we had reported about popular iPhone game "Angry Birds" availability for PS3, Wii and XboX 360. But now it seems that every gaming platform are rotating their way and now you will be soon able to play PlayStation games, apps into iPhone and Android platform. Yes you have heard it correct "Playstation Apps are now coming to iPhone and Android Now".

This news was revealed on Official Playstation Blog in Europe, the aptly named Official PlayStation App will make landfall in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands "very soon" and while no mention was made of a North American launch date, I can't imagine we'll have to wait for the U.S. version too much longer.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to play Super Stardust HD or Echochrome II on the upcoming app, but at least you'll be able to keep tabs on your PS3 trophy count, as well as what your pals are playing and whether they're online.

The PlayStation app will also deliver the scoop on new PlayStation games and hardware, as well as any incoming announcements (such as PS3 or PSP firmware updates or PSN service bulletins) from the official PlayStation blog.

Last but not least, you'll be able to share articles on the PlayStation app with fellow gamers via Facebook and Twitter.

The new PlayStation app will work on any iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 4 or better installed, while the Android version requires Android 1.6 or higher.

The European wing of Sony's PlayStation division adds that it's "already working" on a new version of the app that will add support for more countries and languages, and that we can expect "tons more features" in the months ahead.

The ability to actually play mobile PlayStation games on a phone, however, might end up being relegated to the long-rumored, supposedly Android-powered PlayStation Phone, sightings of which have been popping up on the Web for weeks now.

Unsurprisingly, the PlayStation Blog post had nothing to reveal about the mysterious "Zeus Z1" slider, which is said to have its own PlayStation app specifically for mobile games.

At least we'll have the PlayStation app and our old PSPs to tide us over until the Z1 or whatever it ends up being called finally rears its head.

'Angry Birds' Available for PC Soon

As we mentioned earlier about Angry Birds availability for Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360. Now the creator of Angry Birds "Rovio Mobile" confirmed that they are going to release the PC Version of Angry Birds. Rovio Mobile briefly showcased the PC game in action. The desktop version duplicates the game play of the mobile game, but includes high resolution graphics for the big screen. The official launch date was not announced but Rovio hints that it will be coming soon.

The press release includes a few details about angry birds success story. Rovio released its first version of Angry Birds on December 11, 2009 and the game has exploded on to the scene. Since its launch, Angry Birds has moved from iOS, to Android, and a variety of other platforms including webOS, Symbian, and even the Nintendo DS.

The company has confirmed that its game has been download over 50 million times across these platforms and should reach its 100 million download goal by next summer. Currently, people spend a collective 200 million minutes daily playing Angry Birds and this number is expected to balloon as the game is ported to different gaming platforms. Besides the PC and mobile phones, Angry Birds will be ported to Windows Phone, game consoles, and even the Mac OS X.

'Angry Birds' Available for Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

"Angry Birds," one of the most successful mobile games in history, is taking its bird-slinging game mechanics to a new platform: the traditional game console.

Rovio, the company behind the popular iPhone and Android game franchise, says that it is working on a version of the game for the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3.

CEO Peter Vesterbacka also told the BBC that the games would launch next year, although he wouldn't reveal much more beyond that.

Vesterbacka also revealed a second piece of news: the company is actively working on "Angry Birds 2." The new game isn't a sequel to the original though, but is instead a completely new game featuring the angry birds and the evil pigs.

As for the premise of the game, Vesterbacka told the BBC that, "the pigs will be a lot more active than just being slingshotted at by birds."

He also added that there will be a lot more of the pigs in "Angry Birds 2."