We’ve only scratched the surface of cross-platform gaming

PopCap's Giordano Contestabile dares to dream of the possibilities in what will be one of the defining trends of the next few years.

PopCap's Giordano Contestabile dares to dream of the possibilities in what will be one of the defining trends of the next few years.
John Vechey, co-founder of PopCap, has dismissed the naming of parent company Electronic Arts as the worst company in America. In a blog post, Vechey gives his thoughts on why EA beat the likes of Comcast, AT&T and Bank Of America to claim the trophy, awarded every year by US website The Consumerist. More >
Electronic Arts has attempted to put a positive spin on Zynga's acquisition of New York studio OMGPOP, saying the reported $180 million buyout of the Draw Something developer shows what good value EA got when it acquired PopCap last year. More >
1PopCap Games has announced Zuma's Revenge, a sequel to its Zuma puzzler released for PC and Mac in 2009, for Xbox Live Arcade. The original was first released all the way back in 2003, and the enhanced Zuma Deluxe launched on XBLA in 2005. Revenge adds two brand-new modes, including Boss Rush and Weekly Challenge, and its mechanics have been updated too: there are no lives, no checkpoints and no more game over screens. More >

PopCap's Allen Murray on the making of its latest Blitz obsession.
PopCap Games has launched Lucky Gem Casino, a collection of slot machine games based on the company's existing properties, on Facebook. The game, which you can play now at the source link below, features seven slot machines based on Bejeweled, Zuma, Chuzzle, Bookworm and more. More >
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Why, even in the face of national economic collapse, Ireland’s game industry is becoming a powerful player on the global stage.

We play PopCap's new dopamine-fuelled one-minute score challenge.
PopCap has confirmed that developer ZipZapPlay's Facebook game Baking Life - which has 760,000 monthly active users - is to be axed. The game will be taken offline on January 31 and customers have been told to spend their remaining virtual currency ahead of that date as it will not be transferable to other games. This includes real money already spent on in-game items. More >
1Casual gaming king PopCap has released Bejeweled for Google's Chrome browser, with Plants Vs Zombies and Peggle to be available on Android Market later this week. More >
Bejeweled 2 'retired' to make way for releases of a free-to-play version of Bejeweled Blitz and a new paid-for Bejeweled. More >
Zynga had bids knocked back for PopCap as well as Angry Birds developer Rovio, according to reports. The New York Times claims that Zynga bid $950 million for PopCap in July. The Plants Vs Zombies developer accepted a bid of an initial $750 million from Electronic Arts, with the promise of a further $550 million if earnings targets are met. More >
The number of regular social gamers in the US and UK has risen 71 per cent in the past year to 118.5 million. More >

David Bishop calls for a "joined-up" future and shares ten sure-fire ways to fail at mobile game development.
Amazon is promising that "several thousand" apps and games will be available for its Kindle Fire tablet when it launches in the US next week. The company has tested the apps in question on the Kindle Fire, which runs on a modified version of Google's Android operating system. Available through its controversial download service Amazon Appstore, the launch lineup includes games from the likes of EA, PopCap, Gameloft and Zynga. More >

Why does he pop those pills? Plus Jason Kapalka's a pinko commie and playing the ice market in Eve.
1EA has announced the next iOS title to come from Bejeweled and Peggle developer PopCap. Due on iPhone and iPad this winter, Popcorn Dragon is - according to Wired - all about toasting and hoovering up popcorn with, what else, a dragon controlled by your finger. Expect it to be colourful and addictive. More >
Speaking at this week's GDC Online, frequent Edge contributor Giordano Contestabile addressed the transformation of the mobile gaming industry. "One day the iPhone arrived and we became the darlings of the game industry," he said in a talk titled Successful Publishing On Smartphones: iOS vs. Android. More >

Your players are fickle, impatient and your ultimate boss, and you have to keep them happy, says PopCap's Giordano Contestabile.

World-class middleware and customer service have put Ireland's capital on the map.
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