Showing posts with label bejeweled blitz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bejeweled blitz. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2011

March Madness Facebook Game Showdown: FINALS

Click here to see the winner!

In the finale of our March Madness Facebook Game Showdown, we have what can only be described as shocking turn of events. We have a finals match-up between two games that no one would have thought would have made it to the last round -- Pet Society by PlayFish and Bejeweled Blitz by Pop Cap.
playfish popcap march madness facebook game showdownClick the image to see the bracket!

Pet Society was an underrated competitor, which was able to tap into its popularity and vanquish newer games with more current players. Pet Society defeated Zynga's Treasure Isle fairly easily 60% to 40%.

The HUGE upset in our tournament has been Bejeweled Blitz's gutsy victory over the behemoth of CityVille. To give you perspective on the magnitude of this upset you need only one piece of information: CityVille has 19 million daily players while Bejeweled Blitz has a modest 3 million plus. Amazing! Bejeweled Blitz won by the slimmest of margins, 52% to 48%.

If we would have told you at the beginning of our tournament that no game made by Zynga would have made the finals you would have laughed at us. Zynga games made up half the field and nearly all the higher seeded games. To say that this finals match-up is a Cinderella story is an understatement. Or, as Dicky V of ESPN would say "It's TOTALLY AWESOME, BABY!"

So -- now is the time to pick which Facebook will win our Showdown this year. Vote early (and often) in the poll below.

Sorry, this poll is now closed. Final results will be posted soon. Thanks for visiting Games.com - The Blog!

Click here to see the winner!

PopCap launches 4th & Battery games label for Facebook, iPhone, & PC games

While PopCap may be known as the developer behind some of the most polished (and popular) PC, mobile, and Facebook games released to date (just take a look at Bejeweled Blitz for one example, which is in the finals of our March Madness Facebook game showdown), all of that time spent fine-tuning just a few games leaves the company's employees with a need to blow off some creative steam.

In come Ed Allard, Executive Vice President of Studios at PopCap to announce 4th & Battery, the company's new small games label that will be creating games for all manner of platforms, including PC, iPhone, and even Facebook games. The label's first announced game is Unpleasant Horse, and while it might be a mobile game, it does give us an idea of just how much "weirdness" (that's a quote) we can expect from this new division. Unpleasant Horse follows, you guessed it, a very unpleasant horse that has wings and destroys small birds or lands on other horses, sending them into the ground into a meat grinder. Doing this will reward you with extra points and "special bonuses." Obviously, the game will be meant for mature audiences, but it will be released for free later this month on the Apple App Store for all who are interested.

Jason Kapalka, CCO at PopCap, gives more of an explanation as to what to expect from 4th & Battery, via a company press release.

    "4th & Battery is a purely experimental, creative label with none of the typical concerns like schedules, profitability, or even target audience. It's kind of the video game equivalent of B-sides or short films. Expect weirdness."

While no announcements have been made as to when an "experimental" new game will be coming to Facebook, we'll make sure to stay on top of things and let you know when that changes.

What do you think of the concept of the 4th & Battery games label? Are you looking forward to seeing what outlandish, creative titles these normally reserved developers can come up with?