Canadians get to have all the fun: ForestVille testing way up north

Maybe it's consolation for being cold all the time? (Can you tell this writer has never been to Canada?) Inside Mobile Apps reports that Zynga is currently testing the recently-leaked ForestVille iPhone game on Canadian audiences. In fact, you can download the game on the Canadian iTunes App Store right now for absolutely nothing, but only if you have access (i.e. are actually Canadian).

The Facebook page has since been pulled, but we had enough time to catch a glimpse of the game's early promotional artwork. Now, we have a brief idea of what the game will look like, based on a few screen shots. The game looks decidedly more macro than previous 'Ville games on mobile phones, namely CityVille Hometown and Holidaytown. However, players can connect their ForestVille game to the two CityVille games and check pending messages from both while playing this new game.
ForestVille map
The play hooks seem to be all the same: Help a fledgling community (in this case, woodland creatures) build a thriving city, decorate said city, make money from said city, continue growing city, repeat. The visuals in ForestVille look less detailed than their CityVille counterparts, but that might be because the game view is more zoomed out than previous versions.

ForestVille will work on all iOS devices dating back to the iPhone 3GS, and it will feature Facebook Connect, according to the Canadian app page. However, keep in mind that this game is testing, which means it may not even make it elsewhere. (You know, like Kingdoms & Castles?)
ForestVille balloon
[Image Credit: Zynga]

Are you excited about this new 'Ville game? Based on these early images, what do you think of the game's graphics? Play mechanics?

GREE's mobile social games network to be 'borderless', to hit Q2 2012

Gree representative
And still, we know little about just exactly how the Japanese social game publisher's platform will work. GREE has revealed a sliver of information about its upcoming mobile social games network, namely that it will be "borderless". While company says this means that users will enjoy single sign-on into GREE on their iPhone or Android phone, we hope this means cross-platform play.

The company goes on to say that the platform will feature a global payment solution and a series of "robust out-of-network cross promotional opportunities," which sounds to us a lot like in-game advertisements. The OpenFeint-powered platform will provide developers with rich analytics tools, meaning game makers will be able to read and evaluate your actions within the GREE games you play. (That might sound a bit too much like Big Brother, but Facebook game makers do the exact same thing.)

"This new GREE platform continues to show the commitment we have to building a truly global, free-to-play ecosystem for mobile developers," GREE founder and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka said in a release. "Our goal is to offer the best social gaming experience to players around the world. GREE worldwide has the largest cross-platform network and this is a step closer to our goal of reaching one billion users."

GREE's mobile social games network will offer games discovery to players as well as all the latest social features. Of course, leaderboards and achievements will be a staple in GREE's offering. However, the company plans to take the mobile social games world by storm in Q2 2012, or as early as April. With DeNA's Mobage network already out of beta testing on Android and Zynga's Project Z on the horizon, that sounds like a lifetime.

Facebook Pokémon clone MinoMonsters migrates to iOS for $1

You might remember MinoMonsters, game developer Josh Buckley's take on Pokémon for Facebook. Well, that game was either just a test or a flop for the 17-year-old entrepreneur, as his new studio has re-released the game as an iPhone and iPad app. In this new-and-improved MinoMonsters, players must journey across the Kingdom of Zancardi, capturing and battling creatures called Minos for, well, the sake of battling monsters. Come on, it's not as if Pokémon's plot is rock solid either.

The youngin's new studio is called MinoMonsters Inc., so you can tell the guy's dedicated to the concept, which will cost you $.99 on the App Store. Once purchased, you can start trading blows back and forth in turn-based bouts with opponents' monsters either within the game's story or your friends from anywhere in the world. Just like in Pokémon, players' monsters gain new abilities and will become stronger, which helps players find new monsters and defeat tougher opponents.
MinoMonsters in action
The first thing we noticed with these screens of the game in action are the impressive, seemingly hand-drawn graphics. Seriously, this game looks like an episode of Pokémon--look, the comparisons are inevitable at this point--at least when still. MinoMonsters (the company) promises that you can find players to do battle with in under 30 seconds. The game's primary competition on iOS, Monster Galaxy, doesn't seem to have multiplayer just yet. So, now MinoMonsters is the closest you're going to get a Pokémon game on your iPhone.

Watch your back, Nintendo: GREE doesn't want just a piece of your pie

The Japan-based mobile social games company wants all of it. That's essentially what the company's founder and CEO, Yoshikazu Tanaka, told TechCrunch during its Disrupt event in Tokyo recently. The GREE chief told TechCrunch that most of the company's revenue comes from its Japanese audience, but that it hopes to follow Nintendo's example in creating a massive global audience.

But Tanaka isn't happy with just following Nintendo, he looks to displace the veteran games maker. He told the news outlet that he wouldn't surprised to see GREE's revenue in the West jump to four to five times of what it is in Asian within the next five years. "We definitely feel positive, and our goal is to make sure our brand is just as successful, if not better than Nintendo."

Nintendo is infamous for its unwillingness to enter the mobile games market through iOS or Android. While the company does plan to release an iOS version of its eShop (the downloadable games store on the 3DS), it simply refuses to create games for mobile phones. This is despite numerous studies suggesting otherwise and even investors clamoring for Nintendo games on iPhone.

Nintendo did, however, manage to sell more 3DS consoles in its first eight months on the market than the original DS system sold in one year. Perhaps there's still interest in a handheld device dedicated to gaming, but you could also chalk these immense sales up to the devices' price cut over the summer and a terribly strong Black Friday. Regardless, the mobile gaming world is after Nintendo, which leaves us wondering whether its stern strategy can withstand the onslaught.

Could GREE eventually overtake Nintendo through its mobile social games network? Can Nintendo continue to dominate the mobile gaming space with its current strategy?

Poll: Would you pay a subscription fee to boost your Tetris game?

EA seems to have done the impossible: make Tetris, one of the most iconic, beautifully simple games of all time, better. It's true--at least according to some news outlets, like TouchArcade--but could the publisher have just taken two steps back? The brand new Tetris is available now on the App Store, and despite costing players a buck, EA wants to milk Tetris for all it's worth.

Within the game, players will find the option to subscribe to a service known as "T-Club". For either a silly $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, players will earn 15 percent more T-Coins to buy power-ups with when they play and gain access to vague "exclusive discounts and content," according to EA. Of course, players can also buy more T-Coins directly for $.99 to $99.99.

This type of money-making scheme is common in free-to-play iPhone and Android games, but for a game that already costs money to download it's a little more bold rare. TouchArcade seems to have a problem with the mere fact that things like "T-Coins" and "leveling up" exist in this take on the classic game.

While that seems a bit "get off my lawn," it's easy to see the point. Our only question is: How could a game as beautifully simple as Tetris benefit from a subscription service? Would even the most hardcore of Tetris fan benefit from such a thing? Well, tell us what you think:

OpenFeint co-founder leaves, Gree International head becomes CEO

Well, that sure was quick. Just months after Japanese social game network Gree acquired OpenFeint (for a cool $104 million, mind you), the latter's co-founder and CEO has left the company, VentureBeat reports. The Burlingame, Calif.-based mobile social game network's 26-year-old co-founder Jason Citron has moved on to new opportunities, and has been replaced by Gree's head of international operations Naoki Aoyagi (pictured).

"In just over 24 months, OpenFeint has grown to over 120 million users across 7,000 games," Aoyagi said in a release. "I thank Jason for his leadership growing the company and wish him well in his new adventures." But, according to VentureBeat, the old switcheroo might not have been so cut and dry.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi reports hearing rumors that Citron had been fired from the company before contacting OpenFeint and Citron, both of which declined to comment on the news until Aoyagi made the above statement in a release. However, both companies aim to announce their plans for integration between the U.S. operations of both companies in the coming weeks.

In other words, Gree's westward expansion into the U.S. through OpenFeint is imminent, and Gree will likely have even more of a say in how OpenFeint handles things now with a former Gree executive at the reins. Gree hopes to turn U.S. mobile gamers into the apparently wild spenders that Japanese mobile gamers tend to be.

However, direct Japanese competitor DeNA has already launched its Mobage mobile social games platform in the U.S. through recent acquisition ngmoco, and already has support of major U.S. carrier AT&T (though, it is AT&T). It looks like this holiday season will prove whether Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to their new rivals, not to mention existing western competitors like Zynga and EA, both of which have global and mobile ambitions. At any rate, it's going to be a very merry Christmas for mobile gamers.

[Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Do you think Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to DeNA under its new management? What do you hope to see from Citron now that he's freed himself from the company he helped bring up to this point? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment