Angry Birds!

Oh, what a game it is! ...and now they have an online version too!
http://chrome.angrybirds.com

Also, it's interesting to see how Rovio (the company that made Angry Birds) is expanding to build a diversified entertainment franchise spanning all media.

Some estimates put its total usage at 200 million minutes per day.

It is this staying power and loyalty that convinced Hed that Angry Birds can become the platform that makes Rovio, based just outside of Helsinki, Finland, into a global entertainment company.

“When we realized we had a big hit on our hands with Angry Birds, we looked at companies that had gone before us, especially in the mobile gaming sector where we were at that time very firmly,” Hed, CEO of Rovio told CNBC.com.

“We saw that most gaming companies had then immediately tried to make another hit game and we realized that had very rarely worked. Rather, we started to look at what we could do around Angry Birds and if there was a way that we could build this into an entertainment franchise,” he added.

Hed has aggressive expansion plans for Rovio, and said that the company will consider making acquisitions in the more traditional media space in order to advance its strategy.

At Wedbush Morgan, analyst Lou Kerner warns investors not to underestimate the value of social gaming, despite those who dismiss the soaring price tags as another dotcom-style bubble.

“Cityville got to 100 million users in seven weeks. That’s not possible in the world of video games. So you’re looking at much larger user bases at a much lower cost. Even though they might monetize at a lower rate they can still be massively valued companies like Zynga,” he added.

Many commentators even said that Facebook was overvalued at $1 billion, simply “because $1 billion is a big number,” Kerner said.

“The opportunity today I think is unparalleled in the history of gaming to build profitable companies of significant scale. That’s what’s under-appreciated broadly. When Zynga was trading at $1 billion, people said it was overvalued. It was overvalued at $2 billion and it was overvalued at $5 billion and overvalued at $8 billion. So why is it overvalued?”

Read more here.

Nitendo Wii becomes top-selling video game

Nintendo Wii became the highest selling game console in USA. Now this is a proof of how innovation has made it so popular. And technologically, the console uses simple motion sensors and group-oriented games!

GTA 4 is the most expensive game: 429 crores!

Rockstar's GTA 4 is the most expensive game made at a whooping cost of 429 crores and by a team of 1000 people. "It's like making a theatre production, a few movies and an album all to fit into one package," said Benzies, Rockstar president.

Ads in Mobile Games get an eye-popping 10.1% CTR -OmMalik

There’s a lot of VC money going into web-based, advertising-driven casual games, so here’s a wake-up call to investors: They may get better ROI with mobile phone-based gaming.

In 2006, mobile game platform Greystripe launched GameJump.com, a distribution site for free, ad-supported cellphone games; since then, consumers have downloaded over 65 million copies of Greystripe’s hundreds of titles. I’m looking at a lot of surprising numbers, but the most striking one to me is how gamers interact with the ads that appear before and after gameplay.

According to Greystripe, 10.1 percent of them click on the ads, a CTR that far outstrips web ads, which average some 1 percent to 2 percent. I strongly suspect at least some of these are accidental, fumble-thumb click-throughs, but even then, from the advertisers’ perspective, that’s not a bug, but a feature. And while mobile games are almost by definition casual, the demographic breakdown is markedly different from the web-based casual space, which is dominated by older women.

Sony Play Station & Web 2.0 -Om Malik

If one console manufacturer is fully on board the social games movement, it appears to be Sony. The company just announced a slew of new features to its PlayStation Home community that aims to be the PS3’s user-generated epicenter. PlayStation Home will attempt to recreate the Second Life experience for PS3 owners, complete with customized avatars and outside advertisers. Sony also disclosed details on their upcoming SingStar game confirming their desire to become the YouTube of karaoke.

These announcements are significant for several reasons. First, the embrace of in-game achievements and customized game avatars by Sony give credibility to what Microsoft and Nintendo have already done on their respective systems. Sony’s mashup of sorts could take the idea further. Second, Sony’s betting big on the social games movement, something that’s in its infancy. If they can execute that strategy, they’ve just significantly diversified their PlayStation revenue model. Lastly, with the world’s largest home console maker backing user-generated content, it’s likely its existence on consoles is here to stay.