Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
I’ve been casually tracking the daily active user numbers for the top 40 Facebook game developers for the past six weeks. Why the top 40? Because that’s the quantity displayed by Appdata.com on the first of 200 pages. Why daily active users? Because monthly active user numbers are widely considered [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
For a couple weeks now, I’ve been getting calls from friends in the industry bemoaning their lack of inclusion in the upcoming Summer of Arcade promotion on XBLA. The tone of the calls has varied, but they’ve all shared one thing in common — frustration with Microsoft. As I’ve thought [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
Lots of people are talking about the iPhone announcements today. Most relevant to game developers: Apple is putting viral invites, matchmaking, achievements, and leaderboards into the OS; adding the ability to gift apps; introducing a slick in-app ad network called iAds; and (finally!) limited multi-tasking if you possess a 3GS [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
When I look at Facebook, I see a games platform that has been thoroughly enjoying the “early glory” phase of maturity. Not too long ago, there was guarded optimism about the potential of Facebook to host profitable games, but few good examples of such games. Less than a blink of [...]

This article was originally published by Gamasutra on 12/22/09, and later on GameSetWatch.
In my experience, one of the problems that most seems to bedevil game developers is the problem of timing; specifically, understanding when is the “right time” to begin developing for a specific platform. To understand why this is such a challenge for developers, [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
I wrote the following brief news analysis for a multi-industry expert network that I joined earlier this year. It’s high-level and not as detailed as I’d like, but I figured some of you might appreciate it.
EA has just acquired social-network games maker Playfish for $275 million, plus an additional $25 [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
It’s been a while since any given news story caused five different people to spontaneously email me. The latest story to do so is the Techcrunch exposé of scam artists who are working through the popular lead generation services (such as Offerpal) that are used by most major social gaming [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
Anyone developing an original IP for XBLA, PSN or Wiiware should take note of LucasArts’ Lucidity. Why should you take note? Because Lucidity is a truly delightful game that unfortunately showcases two of the most common “big mistakes” made by developers and publishers on XBLA. If the leaderboards are any [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
Film Victoria was kind enough to publicly share the video of my keynote at the Digital Distribution Summit in Melbourne. You can find it here.
Quick summary: I focus mainly on what it takes to successfully pitch your XBLA/PSN/Wiiware/Steam game to a publisher or platform-holder. If you haven’t already endured too [...]

Cross-posted from David’s blog, Game Tycoon.
If you are developing an original IP for XBLA or PSN, or hope to develop one someday, this post is for you.
Given the sales estimates being reported by Gamasutra (see these helpful examples), given what I’ve heard from individual developers as of late, and given the relative strength of established [...]