iGame Radio

The Razer Blade, Razer’s entrance into the world of hardware systems, was announced last weekend. Not content to produce peripherals, Razer has created what they call the “World’s First True Gaming Laptop”. Measuring at 0.88 inches thick and less than 7 lbs, the Razer Blade is intended to be a light weight machine despite the 17 inch wide screen. And it may just be Apple’s lesson in high-end gaming for laptops. Read more

Today Steve Jobs tendered his resignation at Apple as their CEO. Like so much of Jobs’ communications, his resignation letter was simple, clear, and to the point. We could come up with all kinds of weepy tributes, or farcical puns…but we won’t.

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Mike Markkula started Apple in their garage because they loved what they did. Jobs continued with Apple, and many of the other work he did (founding NeXT, acquiring the graphics division of Lucasfilms and spinning it off as Pixar, etc) because he had a passion for creating things. And though his biggest passion wasn’t gaming, he still created one of the most legendary platforms for casual gaming…the iOS.

We wish Jobs’ the best of luck in everything he does. And we’ll know every time we play a game on our Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, he made it possible.

Thanks, Steve.

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Peter Cohen of The Loop talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, is Freemium really the way to go? Omaha and Peter talk about two studies this week that seem to say just that.
• Diablo 3…more WoW than Diablo 2? Omaha and Peter talk about the newest revelations this week about Blizzard’s latest.
• Apple has more cash than the US treasury! Omaha and Peter chuckle through analyst suggestions of who Apple should purchase.
• Some couple in China didn’t understand why they shouldn’t be allowed to sell their offspring for Internet Cafe game cash. Omaha and Peter have a hard time understanding them…
• The Humble Indie Bundle is here again! Number 3 has arrived, and bundled with more than ever.
• Spiderweb Software is rebooting the first Avernum game. Peter talks about why that is ultra cool.
• Omaha and Peter talk about games that they’ve played in the past week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Tomas Dvorak for featuring music from Machinarium.
• Rich Carlson for featuring music from Dr. Blob.

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Corey talks about his experience updating to Lion, and what impact it had on his gaming.
• Omaha and Corey talk about the Freeverse announcement and their belief that Freeverse is saying goodbye to the Mac gaming community.
• Omaha relates her experience at the Casual Connect game conference last week. Summary, get a bigger room!
• Microsoft is going to open 75 more retail stores to compete with Apple stores. Perhaps they should look a bit different too? Or maybe their going for the China effect?
• Australia finally created an R18+ game rating for adults…complete with a babysitter. Corey replies, “Boobs!”
• Omaha and Corey talk about games that they’ve played in the past week, and Omaha reveals the poll results from last week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• John Gatti for featuring music from El Ballo; pick up the El Ballo soundtrack
• Zach Young for featuring music from The Great Tree.

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Omaha and Corey talk about the recent purchase of PopCap by EA. Omaha has a great wedding gift for PopCap…listen to find out what.
• The freemium freakout of traditional games continues. What games are next, and why are games traditionally sold at retail or with monthly subscriptions suddenly going freemium?
• Mac OSX Lion will break compatibility with older games that haven’t been upgraded to Universal status. Why, and what can you do about it?
• If you are in your 40′s and play games, do you think you’re weird? NBC’s Today Show thinks so. Find out what Corey and Omaha think.
• Whoa! What happened over at EVE Online?? We tease through the debacle to get to the meat of the issue.
• The uDevGames contest is live! Omaha gives a quick update about the contest.
• Omaha and Corey talk about games that they’ve played in the past week, and Omaha reveals the poll results from last week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Michael Hu-wong featured music from Fizzball.
• Tom McLeod featured music from Cooties, available from the iTunes App Store.

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Peter Cohen of The Loop talk about the two big events for Macheads and gamers the past week: E3 and WWDC.
• E3: Omaha and Peter talk about the Wii U, and how Real Racing 2 HD will mimic this Nintendo product when iOS 5 comes out; also Onlive will be coming out with an iPad client. An Assassin’s Creed Revelations trailer was released, and we’re sure to see this game on the Mac someday soon. And what’s this PS Vita thing? A vitamin supplement?
• WWDC: Major Game Center updates were revealed in the WWDC keynote. Steve Jobs also mentioned that the Mac App Store is now the #1 channel for PC software purchases…what does that really mean? Also, the expected announcement of iCloud. What does that mean for gamers and their games? Plus, the announced Apple Design Awards…a significant number go to games.
• Omaha and Peter talk about games that they’ve played in the past week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Rich Carlson featured music from Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space.
• Digital Droo featured music from Neon Tango.

Among the news items from today’s WWDC keynote address, Phil Schiller gave some interesting details regarding the Mac App Store. He announced that since the Mac App Store’s launch six months ago, it has become the number one channel for purchasing PC software, beating out Best Buy, Walmart, and Office Depot.

Schiller didn’t go into details regarding what statistics were used to determine that #1 category…revenue, units sold, etc…so we’re still waiting to hear back. But he did mention several different publishers that had great stories to tell, including Feral Interactive who saw a doubling of overall revenue since bringing their games over to the Mac App Store. Read more

Apple launched their WWDC event today, starting with the popular keynote by the venerable Steve Jobs. This keynote highlighted much more of what 10.7, Lion, will do, as well as features for iOS 5 and the much rumored iCloud.

Apple didn’t leave gamers out in the cold, either, introducing new features for Game Center. Read more

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Omaha reminds everyone that if you haven’t purchased your PAX badge, you’d better start looking in the forums because the badges are sold out.
• Lodsys is still at it. After Apple sent a public letter stating that their license covers 3rd party devs using their platform, Lodsys turned around and started suing folks. Will it ever end?? Why are game devs particularly at risk?
• Macdefender is a trojan meant to steal your credit card info by pretending to protect your Mac from trojans. Only works if you believe your Mac needs to be protected from trojans.
• What does game piracy in Asia really mean to game developers? Does Ballmer’s rant about 95% piracy rate really mean anything?
• Corey drools over the most recent information about Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. And Omaha talks about Gameloft’s World of Warcraft…er Order & Chaos MMORPG game for the iOS platform.
• Are you a dev and wanna make some cash? Transgaming has revealed a contest for GameTree TV with a $50,000 price. Listen in for how to enter.
• Omaha and Corey talk about games that they’ve played in the past week, and Omaha reveals the poll results from last week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Pedro Camacho featured some of his game demo music.
• Rob Howard featured music from The Broken Hourglass, in development by Planewalker Games.

As of today, the number of individual apps approved by Apple for its iOS platform has exceeded the 500,000 mark. Though the number of active apps available in the App Store is roughly 400,000, the number of approved apps is a proven milestone for developers and app seekers alike.

As part of the milestone announcement, 148Apps, the independent mobile app blog, along with Chomp, the leaders in app search technology, and Chillingo, a top app game developer, have released an infographic, celebrating the milestone and highlighting others since the Apple App Store launched on July 10, 2008.

Featured data includes top apps of all time, number of developers contributing to the 500,000 number, a timeline of approved apps, growth projections and more. Some of the more interesting statistics from this infographic include that the most popular category of app is Games (at 58699 active) followed closely behind by books (at 54448 active). Also, while the current average non-game app price is $2.27, the current average game price is only $1.06, bringing the overall app price for the App store down to $2.11. And the most expensive game? A whopping $299.99!

In comparison, the Android Marketplace, the closest competitor to the iOS App Store launched 8 months after the Apple App Store in March 2009, currently contains roughly 294,000 apps and 3 billion app downloads. In fact, recently mobile research specialist Research2Guidance claimed that the Android Marketplace would overtake the Apple App Store in app by August of this year with 425,000 apps. Considering that the App store has already reached the 400,000 active apps number in May, that hardly seems likely now.

The infographic is available via the 500k apps Facebook fan page. For more app data, visit 148Apps. To access Chomp’s monthly proprietary metrics report, go to their App Search Analytics page.