GameSpasm

There aren't many options out there for the modern-day Napoleon on the go. When your skills revolve around conquering and dominating everything around you, there just aren't many ways to apply your practice while you're commuting to work or standing in line at the coffee shop, waiting for your half-caf double mocha frap. But now that EA has released Risk: The Official Game on the iPhone and iPod Touch, hopefully you can get some relief.

Risk: The Official Game is currently available on the App store for $4.99. The iPhone version features multiplayer -- take on up to six players by sharing one handheld or take on up to four through WiFi or Bluetooth -- and a more simple, streamlined UI and less cartoony presentation than the recent Xbox Live Arcade release, Risk: Factions.

Risk now waging war on the iPhone originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: board-game, Ea, EA-Mobile, Electronic Arts, Hasbro, Mobile, Risk, risk-the-official-game

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It was last November when we first heard that DotEmu was at work porting Irem's classic 1987 arcade shmup R-Type to iPhone. Yesterday, EA Mobile made it official: it'll be publishing the game on the App Store "this summer," but couldn't get more specific due to the unpredictable nature of Apple's app approval process.

We had a chance to get our hands on the game at EA yesterday and we've got to say, the port has turned out great, with three control schemes (touch to move and shoot, tilt to move / touch to shoot or an overlaid d-pad and buttons) plus options such as autofire and the ability to switch between full-screen and the original coin-op aspect ratio. Cleverly, DotEmu has created separate on-screen buttons for charged shots and launching the "Force" pod away from the player's R9 fighter.

Check out the screens below and we'll let you know when the game hits Apple's virtual store shelves.

This looks like R-Type of iPhone shmup originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: dotemu, Ea, EA-Mobile, Electronic, iPhone, irem, Mobile, r-type

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The Tetris Company and EA Mobile have launched an application to allow you to achieve a goal you didn't even know you had: transformation into a component of a Tetrimino, the basic building block of the Tetris landscape. It's also a new kind of social networking in which gathering enough of your friends together causes them all to disappear.

The new Facebook app, the Human Tetris Project, allows you to submit an image, which is then cropped into a square and used to make a Tetris piece that will appear randomly in games played by other Human Tetris Project players worldwide. You needed a new excuse to put pictures up on Facebook, right? Photo submission is open today, with the game itself available Friday.

Become a block in the Human Tetris Project originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Ea, EA-Mobile, facebook, human-tetris-project, puzzle, Tetris, the-human-tetris-project

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If you're anything like us, you've been looking at your iPhone's old, boring, regular version of SimCity, anxiously anticipating a deluxe update with "improved UI" and "4 distinct season" (ooh, and they're "linked to seasonal disasters!"). Thankfully EA has announced just such an update in SimCity Deluxe, heading to the App Store this summer.

As you can see above (and more thoroughly below in the gallery), the game will come with a variety of cultures throughout history and their respective accoutrements (pyramids, for instance). No price has been set, but we'd wager it won't be too far off from the $2.99 asking price for the original game -- and hey, under $10 for pyramids? We're okay with that.

SimCity Deluxe erecting pyramids on iPhone this Summer originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: app-store, Ea, EA-Mobile, q3-2010, release-date, simcity, simcity-deluxe

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In early 2009, Centerscore co-founder Oliver Miao was assigned an extremely daunting task. His studio had recently been acquired by EA Mobile, and his higher-ups had requested an iPhone version of the studio's successful teen-dating sim series, Surviving High School. The difficulty didn't come in developing the title, but rather, in monetizing it.

During his GDC panel titled "Surviving the iPhone: EA's Original Game Bet," Miao recounted the different business models Centerscore proposed to EA Mobile for SHS. The initial idea was to sell the game for 99 cents, and then hand out additional weekly "episodes" for free. While this would help build the brand, EA Mobile didn't anticipate enough return on the investment. It was denied, and Centerscore was sent back to the drawing board.

The second idea was to offer the current episode of the game for free, but charge 99 cents for bundled episodes from previous weeks. This idea was also shot down, and Centerscore's project was threatened with cancellation. Finally, the two parties came up with a solution that's proven to be fairly lucrative: give the current episode for free, charge for previous episodes, and offer the next episode in advance for an additional 99 cents -- quite an innovative business model.

Of course, Centerscore could have easily raked in the cash by simply charging $500 for one of its first mobile titles, Garfield Bowling. We can't think of a price we wouldn't pay for that gem.

GDC: Surviving High School creator talks clever, profitable microtransactions originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: business-models, business-strategy, centerscore, Ea, EA-Mobile, gdc, gdc-2010, Microtransactions, surviving-high-school

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I got a quick look at a pair of EA iPhone games yesterday, one that gave just about the best first impression of EA's spring line-up. That's the Canabalt-ish return of Mirror's Edge.

Signed documents prevent me from sharing the control intricacies of Mirror's Edge or even much of a description of the game, but I will share that this is an iPhone game to watch. It is a re-make of sorts of the first-person free-running console game of the same name. Mirror's Edge on iPhone is a side-scroller that appears to reward players who can propel its heroine's perpetual motion across a beautifully white-washed urban landscape.

The first game I thought of while trying Mirror's Edge on iPhone was Canabalt, the beloved (by us and others) indie side-scroller that features a hero who automatically and urgently runs away from disaster, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, as far as long as the player can keep him alive. Mirror's Edge may be more of a traditional game than that, with levels and enemies, but the very first thing I witnessed in the iPhone game was our hero Faith propelled into — ideally — perpetual, accelerating motion across roof-tops. It didn't seem like a rip-off but more of another entry into what could prove to be an enjoyable new genre of rapid platforming.

We'll have more impressions of Mirror's Edge later this month. The game is scheduled for April release.

Also worth keeping an eye on is EA's Skate-It, a skateboarding iPhone game modified from a DS title of the same name. That one is set for release later in the spring.

Tags: Ea, EA-Mobile, Impressions, iPhone, mirrors-edge, Original, Top

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EA Mobile passes along a set of new screenshots showing off three big titles they're bringing to the iPhone in the coming months - Skate-It, Mirror's Edge, and The Sims 3 World Adventures.

We've seen plenty of MIrror's Edge for the iPhone over the past few months, and The Sims 3 World Adventures was a given, considering the strong sales of the iPhone version of The Sims 3.

That leaves Skate-It, the iPhone version of EA's popular skateboarding game, more popular than ever thanks to the failure of Activision's Tony Hawk Ride. The iPhone version features the fictional city of San Vanelona as well as several real world locations, through which players will use their fingers to pull off moves using the series' signature Flick-it controls. They've even packed in the series' recording option, so you can save your moves and show off to your friends.

EA Mobile has done a fine job of porting EA titles to the iPhone so far. Let's hope they keep it up the trend with these three.

Tags: EA-Mobile, iPhone, ipod touch, mirrors-edge, skate-it, The Sims 3 World Adventures

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Not since The Bushwhackers have we seen such an excellent pairing of two entities. EA and Hasbro's partnership has paid off in dividends, as a recent press release boasts that eight million copies of Hasbro titles have been sold in the US alone at retail last year. The eight million figure applies only to retail releases, not digitally distributed titles across consoles and mobile -- which admittedly have also been successful.

The release has some other interesting tidbits, like how the combined efforts of the two have seen 20 different Hasbro brands released on 18 major digital platforms. EA attributes the success of these games to three things: the rise in popularity of family-friendly video games; a demand for games targeting girls; and the popularity of Hasbro's well-known toys and games.

Any way you slice it, we're glad it's been such a fruitful venture for both companies, because we'll soon get to play Risk on our Xbox 360. It's only about a billion years too late, but, hey, we'll take it! And we'll also take Asia - you'll never stop us now!

EA Hasbro games sold eight million units at retail in 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Ea, EA-Mobile, Hasbro, hasbro-family-game-night, hasbro-family-game-night-2

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Spore Creatures creeps onto iPhone and iPod Touch originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Ea, EA-Mobile, Electronic Arts, Spore, Spore: Creatures

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Electronic Arts today released a free version of popular rhythm game Rock Band for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but the game's Music Store remains outdated.

Rock Band launched in October with 20 songs and a Music Store designed to allow gamers to purchase fresh tracks for their game. And for awhile the tracks dropped on a fairly regular basis.

Two-packs of songs from 30 Seconds, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, The James Gang Rides Again, Social Distortion, Freezepop, Anarchy Club, Bang Camaro and Weezer hit the store for .99 cents a pop and some for free.

But it's been nearly a month since a new song has been added to the iPhone Rock Band store, leading some to wonder if the Apple version of the game was going the way of Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP. Last month, Harmonix said the weekly updates for the PSP music story were going on hiatus.

Contacted this week, EA tells us that the Rock Band iPhone Music Store is still very much alive:

"I can assure you that some new premium tracks will soon be available at a low price on the Music store," the spokesperson said.

Breath is officially bated.

Tags: Ea, EA-Mobile, harmonix, iPhone, Music Store, Original, Rock-Band-iPhone, Top

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