iGame Radio

The little elves over at Electronic Arts, who have been busy porting over some of their more popular iPad games to the big screen, just announced two more Mac games for their App Store lineup. Real Racing 2 and The Game of Life join the growing list of iOS to Mac ports on the Mac App Store.
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FIFA Soccer 12 is a happy game this week. Not only has GameTree Mac released a Mac version, but EA has released a version for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.

Chosen Best Sports Game by E3 Game Critics, FIFA Soccer 12 brings to the pitch the new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. The game includes Precision Dribbling to create a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for better control in tight spaces, more time to make decisions on attack, and more control over the pace of the game. Other gameplay mechanisms include Tactical Defending which places equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling, and higher AI on NPC opponents.

The system requirements for the Mac version include:

• Mac OSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or higher processor
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 4 GB RAM or more
• ATI HD2600 or NVIDIA GeForce 9400M or greater with 256 MB of Video RAM. (This game will not run on the Intel GMA 950 or X3100 class of video cards.)
• 6.8GB in size

The iOS version includes Manager Mode which allows you to make trades, upgrade staff, and scout for talent. The game features over 22 officially licensed leagues, 500 licensed teams and more than 15,000 players, including Kaka, Wayne Rooney, Gerard Piqué, Karim Benzema and more. You can develop your players and choose the best tactics for them with 360 degree player movement and gesture-driven skill moves.

You can pick up the iPhone/iPod Touch version for $4.99, and the iPad version for $9.99.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• 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.

EA has confirmed the rumors that PopCap has joined the Collective. Citing studio talent and strong IP, PopCap was purchased by EA for $750 million. The transaction is expected to close in August, 2011.

According to this Gamasutra report, EA will pay approximately $650 million in cash and $100 million in EA common stock to be issued to PopCap shareholders, the company said. In addition, the company may pay additional funds of up to $550 million based on performance milestones through 2013.

Earlier this year, PopCap was leaning towards an IPO. Out of the blue, it seemed, this purchase venture came about. But was it in actuality foreseen? Over the past several years PopCap has been moving into a more global environment, especially China. A clue to why PopCap chose a purchase rather than an IPO can be seen in this statement by PopCap CEO David Roberts:

“We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games. By working with EA, we’ll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience.”

We suspect that PopCap determined that working with a company that already had a strong global infrastructure, especially in Asia, rather than trying to create their own, was a better idea.

The big question on many minds now is how much independence as a studio PopCap will have under EA’s wing? Will EA appreciate PopCap’s development methods and longer cycles? PopCap takes a methodology similar to Blizzard…the game is done when it is done. This is certainly not EA’s view. Only time will tell what kind of an impact on development this will have for PopCap.

But certainly the financial impact is most positive, and being felt now.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg goes it alone to talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Omaha talks about the rumored PopCap Games purchase, and whether it makes sense for EA Games to be the buyer.
• Paragon Studios announced that City of Heroes is going to a hybrid payment model called City of Heroes Freedom that includes a free to play membership. She’ll talk about the different memberships and what this means for City of Heroes.
• Tim Langdell, the trademark troll, got soundly sued in the UK court. Omaha talks about the depth of his fraud and why corporations have a responsibility to not enable this behavior.
• LEGO Universe also announced a hybrid membership model with a F2P membership, but this one’s a bit different from CoH. Omaha talks about what this means for LEBO Universe.
• Omaha briefly details EVE Online’s Incarna release.
• Phil Harrison thinks Apple will BE the game industry in the future. Omaha gives a brief view of what that might look like.
• Omaha mentions her sponsorship of this year’s uDevGames Contest and reveals the poll results from last week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Matt Jarvis for featuring music from Osmos.
• Bobby “Glorian” Slavov and Victor Stoyanov for featuring music from Eschalon: Book 1.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Peter Cohen of The Loop talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. The opening act covers the ESRB announcement to rate games using a computer program. Omaha and Peter talk about the potential ramifications of this move, and why the world won’t end.
• EA has gone shopping again, this time purchasing Firemint. Why is Firemint just fine with this? Is EA no longer the bad guy of the industry?
• An SEC filing shows an investment firm has dropped $4.7 million on top of the Humble Bundle folks. That’s a whole lot o’ bundles!
• Two MMOG games celebrated long b-days this week: EVE Online at 8 years, and CoH at 7. Why do gamers come back again and again to play certain games?
• Omaha and Peter talk about games that they’ve played in the past week.
• Do you think iGame Radio should get a new theme song, or stick with the one its got? This is the last week to weigh in on the poll, or send in your thoughts to be part of the decision.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Digital Droo featured music from Active Lancer; pick up the Active Lancer soundtrack
• John Gatti for featuring music from El Ballo; pick up the El Ballo soundtrack

 

XMG Studio’s Patti Mikula chatted with us at Macworld 2011, showing off their games themed around customization and user generated content. We talked about their recent games Inspector Gadget, a running game around the 80′s television show, and Cows vs. Aliens, a multi-touch game that will be coming out very shortly involving herding cows and keeping the aliens out. We also investigate future games that XMG Studio is looking to bring to the iPhone and iPad platform. Plus, just what is XMG’s opinion regarding EA’s pricing on the App Store over Christmas, and Apple’s involvement?

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas of MacGamer talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. The Mac App Store launched with over 1000 apps, the majority of them games. Omaha and Corey talk about the launch and the store itself, and what they like and don’t like about the store. Also, does Microsoft really think that the phrase “App Store” is in the common domain?
• Doodlegate is come and gone…or is it. Omaha and Corey talk about the trademark dispute between Lima Sky and Acceleroto over the word “Doodle”, what it means for iOS game developers, and the response from the community. Also, Omaha talks a little about the basics on trademarks based on her own experience with them.
• EA and Gameloft have been trading barbs regarding EA’s $0.99 holiday sale on the iTunes Store. But does it really mean that EA “stifles innovation” as Gameloft claims?
• Omaha summarizes the IGF finalists this year.
• Omaha talks about the iGame Radio poll, and Omaha and Corey talk about games they’ve played and games that have been released.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Digital Droo featured music from Active Lancer; pick up the Active Lancer soundtrack
• John Gatti for featuring music from El Ballo; pick up the El Ballo soundtrack

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas of MacGamer talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. InstantAction is closing its doors, and looking for a buyer for Torque. What does that mean for developers using the Torque engine, and gamers alike? Omaha and Corey discuss the issue in detail.
• iPad iOS 4.2 is *still* not out…oops, time for Corey to rant. What, you mean December is the end of Fall???
• A bunch of great games have been released or announced this week! Feral Interactive announced Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition. Majesty 2 by Virtual Programming was released (but no Kingmaker as originally announced). The GTA Trilogy was released for the Mac by Transgaming. And id Software released their Rage game for the iPhone.
• EA’s purchase of Chillingo has had some interesting fallout, including comments by developer Secret Exit about publisher branding of a game leaving out the developer. What does this mean about game choices? Should developers choose publishers based on what gamers like about them?
• Omaha talks about the iGame Radio poll, and Omaha and Corey talk about games they’ve played.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Matt Jarvis for featuring music from Osmos.
• Bobby “Glorian” Slavov and Victor Stoyanov for featuring music from Eschalon: Book 1.

Since learning about Mass Effect 2 for the Mac, there’s been no further information leaking out. Nonetheless, many have wondered how EA could release Mass Effect 2 for the Mac without having already released Mass Effect for the same platform, considering the adherence ME2 has for the story in ME.

Possibly in the same manner that they have decided with the PS3. The PS3 is currently going through the same exact situation, BioWare Edmonton (the group that made Mass Effect 2) has teamed up with the folks at Dark Horse Comics to create an interactive backstory for the game. Now, this particular interactive comic is going to be exclusive to the PS3, but the content would already exist to export it into a Mac environment when ME2 for the Mac is released as well.

BTW, if you want real humor, read the 16 pages worth of whining by the PC/Xbox 360 folks about how the PS3 folks are receiving a few exclusive things. I feel sooooooo sympathetic right now.