“Caring” Google about users, the epic Angry Birds, mobile “Games of thrones” - the main mobile news of the week

New epic game from Rovio - Angry Birds Epic

Rovio launched a new game about birds and pigs. And in a rather unexpected for fans of the company genre “turn-based RPG.” The game is called Angry Birds Epic . According to the authors, all the components of the game can be described with the word “Epic”: battles, peace, characters, upgrades, weapons, and even humor! The game, which appeared in the AppStore on March 17, runs a soft launch in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Rovio is still looking for new models and genres. And so far unsuccessfully. After restarting publishing (second or even third), the company tries an unusual niche for itself.
')
Those who do not have accounts in the listed sites and who are too lazy to download the game from the store, we recommend watching the official game trailer above.

Google protects users from accidental purchases in applications

Google did not wait for the direct law on in-app purchase and supplemented the payment system in the applications with a number of innovations to warn the user against unintentional purchases. A pop-up window before buying gold coins in the game allows you to abandon the half-hour interval during which it will be possible to spend money without entering a password. When installing the same application, if it contains the possibility of purchases, this is reported explicitly.


The owner of one of the most popular mobile stores carries out such steps with an eye to possible claims from regulatory authorities. As we reported earlier, the free-to-play genre has recently aroused the interest of the European Commission. We are confident that the “consultations” on the topic have already taken place - because both Google and Apple have “pleased” the developers with the corresponding changes in the work with the built-in purchases.

It remains to believe that these first steps will not bring the industry to collapse, when simple and previously available in-app purchases are transformed for the buyer to “dances with a tambourine” with the introduction of a CVV code from the card with each purchase. Complicating the payment, the stores themselves can lose in income. It is no secret that a high proportion of purchases in games is made “impulsively” - each additional screen confirming this impulse, the desire quenches. Conversion falls curtain. Believe in the best!

Unity swallowed Applifier service

Unity, the developer of a very popular cross-platform engine for gaming applications, announced the purchase of Applifter service. This company is known only “in narrow circles”, although the guys very diligently promoted the Everplay platform for recording and sharing video from mobile games. If at one point, the developer decides that his players simply need a passing recording functionality with the ability to put their steepness on Facebook, or tickle twitter, or they can simply upload replays on their own Everplay website to its services SDK, which assurances of developers, easy to connect and, most importantly, absolutely does not slow down the game when recording video! Applifter themselves can advertise games using the base of the video, as well as show any gameplay “face”. This, according to the creators of the service, attracts all potential players who are interested in the game, but not enough to download the application. Logically, Applifter provides the services of its network in-game promotional video - GameAds.

Why would Unity need such a seemingly non-core acquisition? Expand the range of influence, more mentions of games with your engine? Or an opportunity to cover the in-game video market? And is there any connection with a very fresh statement from the super-popular Twitch.tv platform about the upcoming SDK for mobile devices? At least, one of the predicted trends is confirmed - “auxiliary” services continue to be consolidated.

List of the popularity of alternative Android Stores

We found interesting material about the popularity of Android stores worldwide. We are sure that this information will be interesting to you and, possibly, useful in the future. Conclusions on it can be done very much.



From the data it is clear that the Amazon Store, with 25 million installations per month, occupies only 6th place (not including Google Play). At the same time, more than 76 thousand applications are available in the store. The undisputed leaders are the Chinese. Android Tencent has 300 million installations per month!

The authors of the material say that the output of your application in alternative sites will allow you to increase revenue by more than 200% compared to one Google Play. The logic of this conclusion is clear, but not everything is so simple. When you go to other Android stores, first look at the amount of money in the store and think in advance about the promotion plan. Just the release of the application will not give you anything. In addition, we found in the material a few inaccuracies and data that are significantly outdated. However, as an “educational” publication, it appears very interesting.

Kongregate will publish a mobile game based on the "Games of Thrones" TV game

The Game of Thrones Ascent game was launched on Facebook early last year and gathered an audience of 2 million players. The launch of the game on mobile platforms was the Disruptor Beam studio decided to do with Kongregate. Exit is scheduled for spring 2014.

The use of famous franchises in mobile games is gaining momentum. In 2013, every serious film was accompanied by a cool app or game. Now the turn has come to the TV series.