Restaurant City goes to the dark side during Midnight Week

Restaurant City Halloween
Restaurant City doesn't ever release new items without going completely overboard (in a good way, of course!) and this theme is no exception. This week has been declared "Midnight Week", and the game is chock full of horror and goth themed items. Given that there are several weeks left until Halloween on October 31st, we're not sure why these decorations will only be around for a week. Perhaps EA has a ton in store for us for this month, and they're just getting started? Either way, it would take us all day to list all of the new items, so we'll just run down our favorites and save the rest for your surprise in the game.

One theme of new decorations are the "Figsaw" items, which are obviously a parody of the long-running Saw series of horror movies. Figsaw is a creepy clown on a tricycle, and you can also buy his matching 'game' which appears to be more of a torture device. For new food, there is the Blood Orange Juice and the Millionaire Shortbread. There are also new clothing options for your avatars, including the Goth Outfit Shirt and Pants, and a Caramella Jacket. Finally, a whole slew of goth nightclub furniture such as the Goth Club Entrance, the Goth Nightclub Roof, the Neon Coffin Table, and the Goth Club Dance Cage.

For the full list, check out the Restaurant City official blog. Happy haunting (and cooking!)

EA free-to-play studio GM leaves to head Ngmoco Sweden studio

Yet another EA executive has left the company for a competitor in the casual/free-to-play games industry. This time, former general manager of EA's free-to-play developer Easy Studios, Ben Cousins (pictured), has left to lead Ngmoco's Sweden studio in the making. According to Gamasutra, Cousins left EA back in March of this year, and just now has announced his association with Ngmoco's upcoming Stockholm studio, which will focus on global free-to-play titles for DeNA's Mobage Network.

The games industry is at an inflection point," Cousins explained to Gamasutra. "These platforms are bringing hundreds of millions of new gamers into the fold, and at the same time existing core gamers are discovering the innovation, immersion and connectivity they bring." This is the third time in just under two months that a former EA executive has left the company and later joined a competing free-to-play games provider.

Even Bing Gordon, former EA CCO and now an investor in Zynga, has shared his personal advice for the giant to survive amidst the rapidly shifting games scene. Times are uncertain for everyone in social games. While EA has enjoyed a distant second to Zynga for some time when it comes to Facebook games (and possibly even in wealth), it stills holds some valuable brands like Monopoly and its EA Sports games. So, all is far from lost. Though, it might be time to consider Bing's business-wise words.

Games.com's 2011 social gaming predictions: Mobile, 3D, MMOs and more

For social gaming, 2010 was a roller coaster ride with stories of ups and downs almost weekly. In the end, it turned out to be a year that witnessed some truly wonderful games, so everyone was a winner, really. But now it's time to look forward to a year that will surely be rife with change. And like any self-respecting journalists and bloggers would, we gaze into the future with wild theories, educated guesses and speculation. We give you Games.com's Predictions for 2011.

facebook game predictions 2011
Social = Mobile
If you thought the slew of social games-gone-mobile like FarmVille for iPhone and Mafia Wars across iOS, Android Blackberry and webOS was a step forward in 2010, just wait for what's to come. While major developers like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom have all started to expand to mobile devices using their existing games like My Empire and Social City, 2011 will see many more original mobile social games--just look at games like Raise the Village. (Bonus prediction: Zynga's recent cross platform strategy using mobile browsers might take off elsewhere.)

Find the rest of our predictions for 2011 after the break.

facebook game predictions 2011
Faster, Prettier Games
It's inevitable, really. With games like Godswar Online and the upcoming EA Sports PGA Tour for Facebook, both of which in full 3D, it's almost certain that there will be more where that came from. The two technologies that will be most responsible for this are HTML5 and the Unity Engine. The former being the next step in how websites are created, HTML5 can do things that Flash can without the need for Flash at all. (Just take a look at what's possible with HTML5.) The Unity Engine, however, is much like Flash in that its software through which developers can create browser games. But in detailed, appealing 3D that can run smoothly in websites without extra downloads (i.e. Facebook). Not to mention that developers are getting much better with Flash (take CityVille, for instance).

facebook game predictions 2011
CityVille Can't Stay on Top Forever
As much as some of us here at The Games.com Blog love CityVille, there's no way it's going to last forever as the top Facebook game. Sure, FarmVille was on top for months, but it too fell from its ivory tower made of Zynga Game Cards. Admittedly, the game isn't doing anything that's seriously groundbreaking, which means a game that does city building better could have a chance at dethroning CityVille. But good luck competing with both the Zynga name and its pool of over 100 million potential players. It's sad to say that, if anything, it will probably be another Zynga game that topples CityVille.

facebook game predictions 2011
Ads, ads, and more ads-Oh, my!
Some social games have more players monthly than most countries have people living in them. As big wigs in the advertising world would say, "That's a lot of eyeballs." With huge companies like McDonalds and Coca-Cola along with big-time rappers such as Dr. Dre getting into the game early, it's only natural that the rest of corporate America is itching to dig its pickax into the social gaming gold mine. That said, advertising in social games could become as second nature as, say, viral marketing has become in the world of YouTube (we've all seen the Old Spice Man).

facebook game predictions 2011
Is Zynga Creating its Own Network?
If eight major purchases in the last eight months and its most recent weren't hint enough, then we'll say it now. More than likely, this is what Zynga is ultimately up to. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus even came forthright in saying that his vision for the future of gaming is a "dog-activated world." Now that we've squashed all doubt, one question remains: What does it mean? Well, it could mean a lot of things, but most importantly is that it could spell independence from Facebook for Zynga.

facebook game predictions 2011
Hey Guys, Check Out Our "Game"
You've seen them already. Out there, just waiting to trick you, thinking what you just clicked on will be a remotely entertaining or enjoyable experience. Advergames. Instead of partnering with major developers, some companies pushing products are saying to themselves, "You know what, screw working with an experienced game developer. I'll make my own game. How hard can it be?" And what we get is a quasi-game, a series of Flash animations and a few clickable buttons designed for one purpose: to show us how cool Product X is and that we should totally buy it immediately.

facebook game predictions 2011
There's an MMO in my Facebook
There are now at least two full blown massively mutliplayer online games (MMO) currently on Facebook, Godswar Online and Milmo. While browser-based MMOs have existed for over a year if not longer, this will be the year when the lines between Facebook game and MMO blur. The two genres are too similar not to. Both are free to play, involve transactions for individual virtual goods or boosts and can now run right within Facebook. However, the Facebook game genre-bending likely won't stop there. With a full 3D golf game (see above) coming to Facebook, who is to say other types of games can't?

facebook game predictions 2011
The Big Will Undoubtedly Get Bigger
Call us pessimistic, but it's just how things work, people. Companies like Zynga are attracting over half of the social gaming market's audience. Numbers like that are tough to crack even for other juggernauts like PopCap who have all but ruled the casual gaming space with Bejeweled, Peggle and Zuma. Even Disney--you know, the guys who thought up Mickey Mouse?--are having trouble competing with them through Playdom. Zynga is likely going to be on top for a long, long time. The question of the day will remain, "Who is number two?" with companies like EA's Playfish, CrowdStar, PopCap and Playdom battling fiercely for second best.

facebook game predictions 2011
Facebook Will Be Our Friend Again
As much as it looked like it was working against us in 2010, Facebook could turn a new leaf this year. In fact, it already has. Just in the second half of 2010, Facebook created an entire games engineering team dedicated to making Facebook better for us social gamers. Not to mention that even more recently the 600-million strong social network hired a social games partnerships director to keep developers like Zynga happy (pictured right). It's too bad that its already looking to grow beyond Facebook. Maybe the two can cut another deal?

Battlefield maker EA DICE loses three to ngmoco's Sweden studio

A new year can often be a bittersweet experience, especially in the world of career moves. In this case, it's been sweet for DeNA-owned mobile game maker ngmoco and rather bitter for EA. DICE, the Swedish division of the veteran games publisher responsible for hit shooter franchise Battlefield and critically-acclaimed Mirror's Edge, has lost three staffers to ngmoco Sweden.

This is the second, third and fourth loss for EA to ngmoco in six months, the first being former EA-ran Easy Studios general manager Ben Cousins, who left in June 2011 to start the Stockholm-based studio. Cousins announced the new hires through his Twitter account, name-dropping senior programmer Torbjørn Lædre, senior artist Wille Wintertidh and senior programmer Malte Hildigsson.

Collectively, the trio have experience with successful hardcore EA games ranging from the brand new Battlefield 3 to Mirror's Edge and Far Cry 2. Ngmoco Sweden has been keen on recruiting talent from traditional game developers, having snagged members of Crytek, German creator of the visually-stunning Crysis series, last year.

Ngmoco, largely responsible for bringing Japanese social game giant DeNA's mobile social games network, Mobage, to the Western world, is likely staffing up its Sweden studio to fill the network up with original games. Whether those games will skew toward shooter fans or folks who dig FarmVille is uncertain, but the lot it's hiring suggests the former.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

Do you think ngmoco and DeNA will find success in the U.S. and abroad? Which mobile social game network do you prefer when playing smartphone games, if one at all?

EA's Peter Moore: Paying players spend an average of $56 on sports Facebook games

That's a lot of Facebook Credits. In a recent conference call, EA Sports President Peter Moore revealed that interesting tidbit, which gives some indication of just how adamant sports fans are about their games, both on and off of Facebook. To be specific, EA / Playfish's Madden NFL Superstars, FIFA Superstars and World Series Superstars Facebook games pull in an average of $56 per paying user over their lifetime experience(s) with the games.

That's not saying that each and every player shells out money, but of those that are willing to open their wallets, the number adds up to a $56 average - almost the price of a full retail sports game on consoles. What's more, this high of an average means that some players are clearly investing far more money into these games to pull the number up, when there are surely other groups of players that may only invest a few dollars.

Moore confirmed that there are far more people (a "majority") playing these three games for free, which "add[s] to the ecosystem of that type of game." EA CEO John Riccitiello adds that they believe the low number of paying players may be attributable to the previous need to enter a credit card for each purchase. Now, with the widespread adoption of Facebook Credits, allowing users to keep a credit balance on their account at all times, he says that it "is a growth engine for us and, if you will, a playfield leveling program for Electronic Arts and social."

With Facebook Credits being a hot topic amongst most Facebook developers, it will be interesting to see if Riccitiello's prediction comes true, resulting in a higher average from paying players down the line. Only time will tell.

[Via the Associated Press]

Do you actively play any of these three EA Sports Facebook games? Have you ever invested money in these games, or any other Facebook game? What would EA / Playfish need to do to make you want to invest in these games with real money of your own?

The Sims Social: Grab your free Plumbob Hoodies while you still can!

While we knew that the Sims Social would be celebrating fans this week with a series of freebies (including Simoleons, collectibles and the like), here's a gift that tops them all - a free Plumbob Hoodie for both girl and boy Sims! For those that don't know, the Plumbob is the name of the Gem that appears over each Sims' head, and lets the owner know of their status based on its color. This particular Hoodie displays a bright green Plumbob, and it's yours for the taking, but only for a limited time.

To be clear, there are two links available to claim this Hoodie, and therefore two Hoodies available for all users: one for male Sims and one for female Sims. Even if you are fairly certain you'll never change the gender of your Sim, why not grab both? They're both absolutely free, after all. Here are the links to claim both (found on the game's Facebook fan page):

Female Sim Plumbob Hoodie
Male Sim Plumbob Hoodie

While you're on the game's fan page, make sure to grab the extra Simoleons and Hope items that are also being given away. Now's a great time to be a fan of the game, with daily giveaways like these, but we'll make sure to let you know when the more noteworthy prizes come along if you don't want to fan the page yourself.

What do you think of these Sims Plumbob Hoodies? Did you claim both, or just the one for your Sim's current gender? Let us know in the comments!